Chinese School

After going to Winchester's Chinese School on Sunday, I now have misgivings about signing up Abigail.

First, it was SO Chinese. Not just a get to know Chinese but a "you-must-already-speak-Chinese" class. It was freezing and I didn't like the teacher. What was so amazing was that the kids were able to recognize Chinese characters! I was personally at a loss.

Second, the stories they told were kind of disturbing. Death or killing was in both of them and I thought the morals were a little too advanced for preschoolers.

There is the Lexington Chinese School and that might be more our speed, but we are in the middle of the semester. I am seriously thinking that I will start Abigail next year. But that this year, Wong Auntie can work with her with books etc.

Going to a Sunday class would mean yet another activity on the weekend that I would have to bring Abigail to and I am kind of thinking that just spending time doing activities or going to puppet shows might be more enjoyable for her and myself.

Before I Forget

There is story that Harold told me about Abigail a few weeks ago. They had gone to the market together on a Sunday. Harold was worried about dealing with Abigail and sticking to the list of items that I put down. He picked up a pear and asked her what it was and she didn't know so he told her it was a pear. Harold then continued purchasing fruit and Abigail picked up a fig and asked him what it was. He didn't answer right away and Abigail said, "baby pear"; Harold was so struck by it that he told me when they returned. It is a great story and I didn't want to forget about it.

I think I am getting sick AGAIN. Abigail has conjunctivitis.

Halloween Post

2008 Reflections
I wanted to get down my impressions of this year's Halloween before I forgot.

As a backdrop:
1. Missing owls--no where to be found in the basement, MIA or potentially thrown away in the summer basement cleaning. The possibility is killing me.
2. No fog machine--had to time to figure out whether just the cheap styrofoam cooler would work and am just plain frustrated that chilling fog is so challenging.
3. No bat mobiles this year--everyone seems to hit their head with them

Existing decorations:
1. Crows/ravens--3 in total and most starting to lose their feathers
2. Flicker lights--love my pottery barn kids purchase to this day
3. Big spider web--looks great

Modifications
1. Plastic pumpkins were not hanging on the front tree but I wired them to the front fence and put in tea candles. I had fears of melting but my approach seemed to work.
2. Pumpkins--we went with a super cool cyclops with a glass ramekin as an eye with a cookie as its iris, looked neat and was easy from a carving stand point.
3. Fake carve able pumpkin--super cheap in the last minute sales at Michael's (I so prefer AC Moore) but unless I use a non-candle type of light, doesn't give the lighting effects I would like.
4. Feather wreath with googly eyes--I made it and loved it but it is kind of small.

Candy
1. Same Costco full size bars and one kid said we had the best candy
2. Bones in a coffin but they looked tiny!
3. Some non-candy give aways but they looked so cheap. The ducks were ridiculously tiny. Abigail loved them though.

I have to say that I didn't have quite the enthusiasm this year. I don't know if it was because I am sick with the final remnants of a cold or what. Also, though it was warm, the night chilled quite a bit and the trick-a-treaters stopped coming around 7:30. Rita observed that we didn't have as many last year as in past years and I would say that I would echo her observations for this year.

Abigail made it to only one house and the Erskines made their house so scary that she refused to go to any other houses, though both HKB and I gave it more than a few tries. We will have to see if it gets better next year.