Week 177 and Week 89.5 - School and Twinkle Twinkle and Imee's birthday and Video catch up

We cannot seem to get our stuff together when it comes to picking Charlotte up from school.  It is reason enough for me to stay at home - it is really difficult with the demands of work.  We were super late picking Char up at least 2 of the days (and I went to school two of the other days) and the teachers are not happy with Team Drake and our pick up situation.  Within this week we also transitioned Char to her international school which requires her to wear gym shorts and sneakers everyday.  We realized on the first day of school (Wednesday) that we don't have any sneakers that fit her anymore.  This whole school thing here in Macau... we are totally behind the curve.  Someone please help us get ahead of it.  As a side note, I realize how spoiled we were in Singapore - we could drop Charlotte off basically anytime before 9AM (even 7) and pick her up well after 1 (pick up time was noon).  Macau has not adopted this flexibility one iota.  Oh well.  Blacklist, here we come.

I also cannot seem to get this blog off on time - I think I am going to have to move to a weekend publishing date.  Sophia was born on a Sunday after all :).

Sophia is singing Twinkle Twinkle a lot these days - in Chinese and then her ABC's (a pretty good rendition I must say - she probably says 30% of the letters).  She sings or hums it all day long while she remembers to.

Janice and Jason came over last Saturday and we went to Singing Bean Cafe - our new favorite pizza joint at the "Long Tower House" as Charlotte calls Macau Tower.  I love their vegetarian pizza - they marinate the peppers and it is amazing.

Charlotte likes to wear necklaces and an old Mickey Mouse watch of mine.  She continues to be a hungry monkey and Matt and I were starving at the end of our dim sum lunch on Sunday. 

Yaya's birthday was on Thursday - so we took everyone to the Hard Rock Cafe.  The girls loved it!  There was a best bartender contest so there was a lot of loud music - the girls loved dancing on the banquettes.  Sophia showed us her trance like dancing - even busting out some Vogue moves!  I was unable to get them on video and unfortunately we have had a hard time trying to get her to do them again.  We need to play more '70's rock in the house apparently...

Char says she likes Hard Rock better than the pizza joint.  Maybe it is because she can show off her moves better there.

The world for Charlotte's height:

Blow dryer fun:

Who is this big girl?  

Chinese Celebrities at Madame Toussaud's - family pics:

Kye noses come in handy for spoon parlor tricks at Singing Bean:

Everyone is busy:

Auntie Janice and Char:

Cakes are yummy!

Bath time!

Charlotte wears her new school backpack to dim sum.  She filled it with Mrs. Potato Head's appendages:

Naturally Sophia got into the backpack routine:

Charlotte got angry that Sophia took her backpack without asking.  She is expressing her anger here:

The girls love the fountain at Sands Cotai Central:

Sophia likes these tennies from Zara:

First day of Pre-Kindergarten.  There are 3 years of kindergarten here!

Play is serious work:

Happy birthday Yaya!

Here we are trying to stretch Charlotte's uniform shorts:

And the videos:

I love this video of Charlotte dancing:

The girls at the SCC fountain - screamy and funny:

The girls lift weights with Mommy:

Char likes those auntie exercise machines in the park:

Dancing at Hard Rock for Yaya's birthday: