Various images and moments

In the last few weeks, we haven't had too many outings. Maceo has soccer games on Saturdays, and those take up the mornings. We still have Friday dinners with Mamy and Maurice pretty regularly, and Sundays, now, the boys are getting interested in watching football games.

Cassius did not want to be in the NFL viewing party picture, but he's under there somewhere.

With no outings recently, I'll just present to you some fun moments from recent weekends.

Mamy's sister Helen and brother Paul were in town, and so I invited them all over to our house for dinner. Mom roasted a chicken and I did, too, and we all know Maceo loves him a roasted chicken. Cassius was entranced by Uncle Paul, whom he had never met, and wanted to show him his new book on cool cars. Maceo just wanted to eat some chicken.

Here, Uncle Paul is showing Cassius how far away
Oregon really is on our states map placemat.

You can see in the back the car discussion continuing unabated.
Maceo just wanted to eat some cake.

A few weeks ago, Cassius brought home a Chinese book, and neither boy could read it. I got a little worried, so I thought I'd make an appointment to come in and talk to both boys teachers and see how the boys are doing and what I could do to help them. It turns out that the teachers all think the boys are pretty great. Cassius apparently is friends with everyone, thinks math is easy, and likes to build forts at play time. Maceo writes in great volume his various stories, isn't roughhousing (which has always been a concern with his big frame), and has amazingly neat Chinese handwriting (as opposed to his super messy English handwriting).

Now that's some Chinese! (Or so I've been told. I don't speak Chinese. So I have no real idea.)

The boys have been way into riddles lately, and Cassius told me this one. "I was walking down the street, and I closed my eyes. When I opened them, I was in jail. What happened?" "I don't know, what?" "Who knows!" 

I don't get it.

Finally, the boys went over for a dinner party with Grandpa and Grandma Sue, who have been traveling a lot recently and haven't seen the boys. When I went to pick them up, game night was in full swing, and I got immediate updates on who had been winning and what the scores were.

Maceo and Grandma Sue played dominoes.
Cassius and Grandpa played Big Boggle.

Cassius did ask if he could have dessert at home because they'd had jello and "I don't like jello." Grandpa swung around. ""You can't say you don't like something if you don't try it!" he exclaimed. Someday that logic will sink in to Cassius's little tousled head.

Capture the Flag/Camping/BONFIRE!!!!!

One of Maceo's classmates, Seri, invited us out to her family's farm in Virginia, along with a ton of other Yu Ying families. This time, the invitation was for a rousing game of Capture the Flag. We arrived just as the game was starting. Cassius opted not to play and instead wandered the farm with his friend Lloyd,

Carefully, carefully feeding the pony.

but Maceo took part and had a rollicking time!

Meanwhile, I set up our tent, thus preparing to "rough it."

Our domicile is in the foreground, in case you were unable to guess.

After the game, the kids came back and played "football" for about two (2!) hours. I put football in quotes because it was "Throw the ball in the air, someone catches it, and then tackle that person." Which, technically, isn't football, but actually is more like rugby.

Cassius proved to be quite the adept tackler!

Once we'd eaten dinner and played more football, it was time for the bonfire and smores. Out there in the boonies, they go all out!

Football continued by the light of the fire, of course.

At 8:30, we all went right to sleep. It was cool, and I had been worried we might be cold, but everyone slept well and stayed warm, and we woke up at 7. One of us felt a bit sore from sleeping on the ground. Two of us went out to play football.

For breakfast, we had hot chocolate, hot cider, and hot coffee as well as homemade English muffins and serrano ham and various cheeses. The boys ran around, fed apples to the horses, went wading in the creek, and just absolutely enjoyed themselves. Once home, we had dinner, took a long bath, and checked for ticks! All clear! Yay!