Noelle turns 3

On Monday we celebrated Noelle's 3rd birthday. It's hard to believe how quickly that came! We started the celebration on Sunday night with dinner at TGIFriday's where she got her free sundae...yummy! After Friday's we headed to the hospital (yes, the hospital) to have strawberry shortcake for Ellie and Hannah's birthday's (Hannah's was on Sunday). Great Uncle Mike was already checked in for the foot surgery he was having on Monday, but could eat until midnight, so the three mission families had a birthday celebration at Mackay Hospital...a first for us, I think. Then Monday afternoon she got to dig into her Dora cake along with a group from a church that we work with (Andy had been on an outing with them that day and invited them to come have birthday cake with us. It was lots of fun having them into our home). Thanks to everyone who sent gifts and cards, and for the skype calls from her grandmas and grandpas. You made her day extra special!

Digging into her sundae (which she didn't really eat much of, but the rest of us enjoyed)
We all had hats on at one point, but only the boys left their hats on!
The birthday girls
How many people can you fit on a hospital bed?
The Dora cake she WAITED for
The guests

Bedtime or Playtime???

Lately this is what bedtime looks like for the Larsen kids. It looks more like playtime. There was a time I would'nt let my kids have toys in bed...what happened to that time? Honestly, though, they really do go to sleep despite their beds being full of books or toys.

Honestly, where does she sleep? Usually this is also loaded with all of her purses in addition to books and Dora!

Ike loves reading his books while he's falling asleep. They kind of blend in, but there is a stack of blue books next to him.

Every night Joey searches for "Grandma and Grandpa". It's a little photo book from when he was a baby and in it is a picture of him with both Grandpas, both Grandmas, and Great Grandma. It's also the first thing he finds in the morning, quickly followed by the cars that are hidden in his blankets (the hat was a first and didn't stay on that long)!

Elle's had a fun week!

Elle was very lucky this week! She got to go to the horse farm two times this week! She has made great strides, too. Before we went to the US she was too scared to go close to the horses. Now she will even get on them. Thank you A Ba for taking her. She had a blast!

Thank you Patience!!!!

This week we had to say good-bye to our new friend, Patience. After spending a month with us, mostly watching our kids while we had meetings and I had class, she headed back home to her family. The kids miss her a lot and so do I. She did so much for us....watched our kids, folded laundry, cooked, made carmels....such a hard worker and so fun to talk with. She was also very brave...she ate a fish eyeball, stinky tofu, and do-hua (like a tofu jelly). Thank you so much, P. We can't wait until we can spend time with you again!!!

Dr. Seuss Day

A couple of years ago, my sister got me started "celebrating" Dr. Seuss Day. Ok, so we don't really celebrate, but we make a fun day of it and try to read LOTS of books, mostly Dr. Seuss books. Last year we made a Green Eggs and Ham cake on our reading day. This year we made Cat's Mac-n-cheese (from the Cat's Quizzer), Nook Hook Cook Book Dogs (from One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish), and cupcakes stacked to look like the Cat in the Hat's hat (or attempted to make them look like that). It was a fun day, and we loved reading our Dr. Seuss books!