He's Still a Boy!

Joseph Parker was born 7:00 PM on May 31st.
He weighed in at 6 lb. 14 oz., 20 in. tall and is cuter than a [blank] on a [blank]. Feel free to fill in the blanks.

Everybody is doing fine. Pictures will come someday.

Keepin' cool...the only way he knows how!

Ike ventured off to the pool again. It was a GREAT day for it! Yesterday it was in the upper 90's and the heat index said it felt like 105F. Yikes! He spent 2+hours at the pool. Our friend said he went down the water slide 50 or 60 times! It looks like he wasn't the only one trying to stay cool!

Isaak turns 3

Isaak turned 3 today. He had a very full day that began with calls from Grandpas and Grandmas, and ended with a bath. Around noon he got to go swimming in the "big pool" (versus our little pool at home). After a well needed nap, we went to his favorite restaurant for his favorite meal and birthday dessert ...cheeseburgers and sundaes for him and Elle (he doesn't like cake). Then he played ball with Dad. By the time they were done, he was too tired to open gifts from our family at home, so his birthday will be continued tomorrow! Happy Birthday Ike!! We love you!

Bad Hair Day

No baby yet!

No baby yet, but we are still hoping for him to arrive before the weekend! Ike and Elle were both a couple days early, so I'm hoping Little Joey will follow suit!

A barista at age 3?

I know I've already mentioned that Ike helps make coffee everyday, but he now does much of it on his own. We made lattes the other day. I was apparently too slow, so he ground the coffee without waiting for me (and even did it for the right amount of time). Today he turns 3, and I have high hopes that in just a couple months he will do it all on his own. What do you think???

On a sidenote, did you notice how all of his cars are lined up on my counter? Lining things up must definitely run in the Larsen genes!

Thanks!!

Tuesday we went to the post office and found that we had 4 packages waiting for us. We wanted to say "Thank-you" to all of the family and friends (and sometimes even people we have never met) who send us fun gifts from home! We appreciate it SO MUCH!!!!

Here are a couple pics of Isaak playing with some of these gifts. My friend, Kim, sent sidewalk chalk and Ike absolutely loves it. He even uses it on paper. Andy helped him write their names on the "sidewalk" outside our house. The other is of Ike playing with his new CAT from Uncle G (a birthday present). You can't see the CAT because he uses our bay window as a road and our end table as a chair, but we thought it was a pretty funny picture. We gave it to him a day early when he found the stash of birthday presents sent from America. He loves it, thanks Uncle G!

Baoshan

Yesterday was our day off so we ventured off to Baoshan II Reservoir. It has been raining here off and on for a few days, so we thought we'd take advantage of the clearing and get the kids outside to run around. Good thing we did, as it has been raining ever since! Anyways, it was a fun little trip, and the weather was nice and cool (compared to the 90F+ that we saw a couple days ago)!

On a side note...the last time we went here we had a very funny thing happen. We were waiting at an intersection when a car stopped to ask directions. You should have seen the "I can't believe what bad luck I have" look on the drivers face when Andy rolled down the window and the other driver saw that it was a foreigner. The look got even worse when we asked in Hakka if he was okay...he obviously didn't speak Hakka either. The poor guy used as little English as he could to ask if the freeway was the in direction he was going. Luckily we knew enough Mandarin to say "yes". Just one of those funny stories that comes with living in another part of the world.

Do you think he's tired????

This is what happens at 1pm when Isaak wakes up at 6:30am.

Just enjoying the morning

We were having our language lesson the other day when Isaak decided to take his juice outside. We thought he was going to ride his bike, but when Andy looked outside this is what he saw. Isaak was just sitting outside enjoying the morning....a precious sight!

Grandma, this one's for you!

I put Noelle's hair in a "whale spout" just for Grandma K. Don't worry though Grandma, it only stayed in for a couple minutes and then I couldn't stand looking at it!

Just floating around!

Thanks to our friend and neighbor, Isaak got to spend Sunday afternoon swimming with a friend. We didn't go with, but from the looks of it, they had a good time! Thanks Mr. Yeh!

A New Toy

Today is HOT! Well, not as hot as it will be, but it sure feels hot! Ike decided to go for a swim and a neighbor gave him his first squirt gun. Boy did he have fun with that! Little does he know that in a couple weeks he is getting a super soaker of sorts from a certain uncle of his.......

Up, up, and Away

Noelle has mastered the art of stair climbing, going both up and down. I suppose we should be happy since we have 4 flights of them in this house, but....well, we just can't keep her off of them!