Thursday, July 31, 2014

Updates on Olivia and Isabelle


Update on Olivia

Olivia will be 22 months old and I can’t believe it. I’ve been looking at pictures of her and she’s just grown heaps and bounds… Being a working mom with three kiddies, I haven’t been the best at documenting who this little lady is becoming… Since Google is blocked in China, I’ve been unable to post on my blog, even with a VPN. This summer, I’m getting caught-up!

Here are some highlights and thoughts:

  • Livvy is starting pre-school at the school both Isabelle and Gabriella attended, called CIBA (Children’s-International-Bilingual-Academy). She’s only going two days a week for half-a-day but will eventually go full-time once she gets a bit older. I think she’ll enjoy the socialization and it will also give Chen some time to clean the house.

  •  This past week, she sleeps with “baby” and takes her around everywhere. I’m not exactly sure how that happened… She just asked for her when I put her down to sleep and it made her happy, now she must have baby.
  • She is speaking more and more. I can’t keep up with all the words… There are more and more each day. Her first word was daddy or dada and shortly after that, mama, and xie-xie.

  •  She loves Dora and Frozen… She says “Elsa, back-pack, Dora, Swiper.” She looks at their picture and points to them. Anyone that has a mean look, she points at them and makes a scared faced. So funny!

  • She LOVES the song “Let it Go” and tries to sing it.

  • LOVES books. I catch her sitting there by herself looking at all the pictures. So far, she seems more into them then the other girls but maybe that’s just my memory.

-          This girl has a serious temper and can get really upset. Yet another strong-willed daughter! What can I say? It must be in the genes.

Update on Isabelle

My happy and friendly middle daughter... Smack dab in the middle, a little too small for Gabby and her friends (although she tries super hard and it sometimes works and they’ll include her) and too old for Livvy’s “baby friends,” as she puts it. In fact, Livvy had a play-date before we left and Chen said Isabelle wouldn’t play with them and went into her room. I was actually a bit surprised by that, as Isabelle’s personality seems pretty easy-going to me. I think she’s learning some things from her big sister??? In August, she’ll start PreK-3 at ISB and will be there for a full day. I think she’s going to love it and I’m looking forward to having her in the same school as Gabby and maybe seeing her in the hallways!!

Here are some highlights and thoughts:

  •  Isabelle was asked to model some clothes for the owner of CIBA (her pre-school). Apparently, the owner (or one of her friends) owns a clothes factory? I’m not completely clear on that, but anyway, she got to keep two of the outfits. I’ll need to ask if I can see the pictures! What a fun keepsake that’d be.

  •  Isabelle runs and jumps in my arms and gives me such sweet kisses and the best hugs ever! She’s extremely affectionate.

  • Loves dolls, jewelry, high-heeled shoes, and notices people’s make-up and likes to compliment people on this. In fact, she told Dorothy Ghylin that she likes her make-up.

-          She’s intrinsically helpful. She just seems to know when and how to help. When Aunt Debbie was leaving the house she knew to help her find her shoe. Last night, she went downstairs while we were getting ready for bed and got Livvy’s “baby” because she knew she would want to sleep with her. These are just some examples of the little things…

Friday, July 4, 2014

4th of July 2014

The Tebo girls wish you a Happy 4th of July!

Stella and Isabelle


Uncle Travis and Cousin Henry

Gabby and Sophie

Loves lollipops!

Waiting for Candy!

Selfie

My lil' angel


We had an awesome time at the Bainbridge Island 4th of July fair! Perfect weather and loads of candy made it a good time. We crashed the Kasky party, and we're thankful they were cool with that. The other Tebo family was there, so you know it's always a blast getting the cousins together. :)

Friday, June 27, 2014

Gabriella is 7 years-old!


Gabby and Emily-- Reunited!


Fancy cake!



Spider girl was fearless!






Party Bags

Sewing Kit

Never Girls Books


It was a "Sofia the First" themed birthday party for my 7 year-old baby girl… We had the party at Island Rock Gym on Bainbridge Island for some good ole' rock-climbing. What made it extra special was having our Aussie friends share with us in the fun… It was a fun party (if I do say so myself) and I would definitely go back there! 

Monday, April 21, 2014

Gabby's CASTA Performance





CASTA (Celebrating art for one week) performances are always noticeable with the tie-dye shirts. Gabby played the xylophone and had did a great job.

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Easter 2014










We love Easter… candy, toys, egg hunts. The Easter bunny didn't disappoint this year and we had such a great time watching the girls find their basket. That morning, the Armstrong family had a Chef Song brunch, which was super yummy and there was also an egg hunt. Anke was super thoughtful and made sure there was GF candy. What a fun day we had!

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Gabby's Chinese Presentation




One of the reasons we live overseas is so that our kids learn Chinese… I rarely hear Gabby speak Chinese but she rocked it during her Chinese presentation. So confident and loud. I'm a proud mama!

Saturday, April 5, 2014

Saturday, March 29, 2014

HK Disneyland Trip

Tebo sisters

Lion King show


Ran into Ella!

Pure joy!


Free Mickey Mouse hats!

We're the Grand Marshalls! Waiting for the parade...

Here we are and our fancy ride.
 Livvy is a wiggle-worm but they all did great!

This is the guy that picked us. 






Painful trying to get this picture!

Milk and Cookies with Mickey Mouse


Mommy and her girls

Dumbo! Even in China this is super popular

Toy Story Land

There's nothing like a family trip to Disneyland for a spring break holiday! We splurged a little and stayed at the Disneyland hotel for two nights and also spent time at Discovery Bay, which is a lovely expat area where there are no cars (just golf carts) and buses. It's super cute. Every night we took the girls (or one) down to the waterfront to watch the Disneyland fireworks across the bay. It was a our second family vacation with all 5 of us and it's getting better and better as the girls get older, but holy cow we were busy!!!

A huge highlight for us was being asked to be the grand marshals at the parade. Some guy just picked us out of the crowd (because we have cute kids, can't deny that one) and we were treated like royalty. We got Mickey Mouse ear hats, coloring books, and pens. We waved at everyone and had a blast. What a fun memory for us! Gabby LOVES Space Mountain and I think we rode that thing a million times! Isabelle's favorite was the teacup ride. I think Livvy really liked Small World the best.