The first day of School

The girls both had a GREAT! first day of school.

 

Sophia was so proud and excited to be a Kindergartner

 

and Amelia was SUPER! excited to be in miss Maria's Class with her big sister.

 

I was fine right up until we got out of the car at school then emotion took over and I got all weepy. I could hardly believe that my sweet little girls were both making such a big step today. It was hard holding back the tears but it was wonderful to see how excited they were and how they went into the room together holding hands. Sophia was so sweet showing Amelia just where to go and what to do. I could see the pride in her face and the anxiety in Amelia's (for only a brief second or two). We love them so much and want the very best for them. We know we are giving them the best start possible and hope that it will carry them far into a great exciting future.

the possibilities are endless and only limited to their dreams. 

School is in

Sophie started school on Monday and things are going pretty well. She is adjusting to the American way of high school pretty easily. She says it is a lot different then in China in many ways
1.  Kids in China stay in one room and the teachers rotate to them.
2.  Kids talk a lot in class here in China classrooms are silent.
3.  In China they go to school at 7:30am and then leave at 2pm go home have lunch and a nap then come back to school at 2:00pm they go to school until 6:00pm
4. They go to school 6 days a week in China and their parents want them to go 7 days so many kids go to school on Sunday as well.
5. Math here is apparently very easy

She loves Math and science and said all Chinese people love math and science.  :)
Her schedule had a class missing and we are still trying to deal with that. She has made some friends and is finding her way. Overall I would say success for week one!

  

Now the littles  of the house start school next week . Amelia starts her first year in the Primary room and  Sophia starts Kindergarten.  WOW time flies I can hardly believe she is old enough to start Kindergarten. My sweet smart girl has grown up to quickly for sure. She has been in school for three
years and LOVES going to school, all summer she has asked me when can she go back to school. She is very excited to be a KINDERGARTNER this year and being one of the older "helper" kids in the
Primary room. I am so proud of both Sophia and Amelia and can't wait to see what this year brings
for them and for our whole family.

Chinese Food part one **update**

or in Sophie's words

"Food"

We have had Hamburgers,Hot Dogs,Pizza, Tacos, Italian food, Fish, Chicken and BBQ with Sophie among other things. She is a great eater and has complained about nothing although I am not sure she liked the Lentil Soup I made last night for dinner. She ate it but did not go back for seconds like she usually does. I asked her what she would like to have more of and she said Fruits and Vegetables. I suck as a Host mother LOL... No really we do eat a lot of fruit and veggies in our house but I don't think I am hitting the right things so tonight we are going out for good old American Chinese food to see what she thinks. We did go to PF Chang's and she liked that pretty well. This will be our favorite takeout Chinese place so we will see how it measures up. I told her to ask for something more authentic if she likes that they would be Happy to accommodate her. We told our friends there that she was coming to stay with us for the year and they were very excited to meet her.

so we will see

to be continued....

So that went GREAT!
we all had a great meal and Sophie liked it even though she said Chinese food here is sweet.. She says that about almost everything she eats. I am Beginning to think Americans are addicted to sugar.

anyway she had a great time watching the girls interact with the people who work at the restaurant.They LOVE our girls as you can see from the pictures. Paul,Vicky and Mandy love them and spoil them every time we go in there.  Sophie took pictures with her phone of everything, the food,the girls, the workers and QQed (Chinese Facebook) them to all of her friends in China.
I would say success...

 I am sure the lady in the back would not be to happy to have this picture all over the internet ..ha!

Criminal Minds

Sophie LOVES Criminal Minds..so do we...

We are not so different

She prefers season one and two with Gideon...so do we...

We are not so different

Sophie loves a mystery or a detective story..so do we..

We are not so different.

Sophie likes Hip Hop..

We are different...

Phone trouble

Sophie's life line right now is her phone. She like every red blooded American teenager is connected to it like an umbilical cord. When she is awake it is never far from her hands. She can also watch Chinese TV on her phone so it does bring her something familiar to her. Well last night she came downstairs for dinner and I asked her how her day was. She first said good but en said well not really good. That made me stop and ask why. She said well my phone is not working, it won't come on at all. S we tried taking out the battery, charging it but nothing worked. So like every good dad Riz trotted off to the Verzion store with Sophie. They were great but could not get her phone to work so they replaced it no questions asked. I highly recommend Verzion to anyone looking for a great cell phone carrier.

On a side note bed was made this morning :)

Facebook

Sophie is on Facebook now!

In China they don't have access to Facebook but they do have a Social media called QQ that is similar. Sophie is on QQ A LOT! with her friends back home and other exchange students here in the states. We thought it might be good for her to get on Facebook so that once she starts school she can connect with new friends as well. She was super excited to get her account going but when I asked her about posting a picture to her profile she said they don't do that on QQ. Sophie is a bit shy and I think she does not like to have her picture taken to much so I did not push her. I told her she could post anything she likes to her Profile so she said she would soon. Anyway her name on Facebook is

Sophie W Zhou if you want to friend here feel free she would love to get to know other kids here in the US. 

Sweet

So I forgot the camera and did not get to Sunday's post because of a family birthday party but I do have to say something about Sophie

She is very sweet.

Our Nephew's Birthday Party was Sunday. I can hardly believe he is turning four years old on Tuesday WOW! time flies.

Saturday we were out shopping and picked up a birthday present for Christopher and as we were talking about it Sophie interrupted and said "Pardon me should I get Christopher a present?" "I hate to go empty handed" I thought this was so sweet of her but told her it was not necessary and that we would put our WHOLE (and that included her) families name on the gift. She insisted on getting a card to bring to him.

Sweet!

on another "sweet" note Sophie says everything is sweet here in the US

Chinese food "very sweet"

Cake "very sweet"

Raisin Toast "very sweet"

you get the idea 

:)