Heidi the dancer

I never took dance lessons in my whole life. I cannot dance. I wish I learned it when I was little though. Heidi started ballet lessons when she was 3. It was a daycare program. She moved to a new daycare when she was 4, and had another year’s ballet lessons there. I never went observe her dance class. She didn’t dance at home either. The only time we saw her dance was her recital. They were sunflowers, so cute. But she didn’t like dance the way I expected. So when she was 5, she wanted to try cheerleading instead. She did cheerleading at the afterschool program when she was a kindergartener. She liked it better than dancing. We went to their end-of-year performance and it was good.


This year, Heidi is taking ballet and tap at a dance studio. This is my decision. I want her to try dance for one more year, hoping she will enjoy it. So far she still doesn’t like it enough and sometimes she complains about it. But there are also times she said she likes it. Her class is from 5-6pm. She is usually pretty worn out even before she goes. She may enjoy it more if it was at an earlier time. But with our scheduling, this is the best we can do.

I observed her class in Oct. I was very impressed by the little girls. They are so pink and cute! Heidi was doing really well. So far so good. She likes tap more than ballet, partly because she likes the tap shoes, and partly because she thinks ballet is too slow.

We will see how it goes this year and if she will enjoy dancing more eventually.

Okra Strut

We are making this a family tradition since we moved to Irmo. This was our 3rd year watching the Okra Strut parade. Heidi’s dance studio was in the parade. She didn’t want to join so I didn’t buy her the outfit. But when she saw them lining up before the parade, she said she wanted to go. Too late girl! Hope she will go next year!


The girls had fun getting all kinds of treats and flyers from the parade. Iris was busy eating candies. We saw many of our friends in the parade, including the girls’ little friends. So when the parade people were calling Heidi and Iris’s names, I was trying to figure out who was calling whose name and I was busy taking pictures of our friends. Fun!

SC State Fair

Fun Fun Fun! We just focused on kids stuff this year. Iris was not high enough to ride most of the kids ride. But she had fun with the train and the car rides. Heidi picked the rides and games she liked and was pretty happy about them. Her favorite are the dinosaur ride and the fairy’s wheel.


The four of us didn’t finish 1/2 of the turkey leg. Too big! We all liked the fries there. Iris and I liked the fried mushrooms.

The farm animals were a hit. We were feeding the goats and llamas for a while. Heidi even rode on the elephant. We had her choose among pony, camel, and elephant, and she chose the elephant.

Riverbank Zoo

This is our ideal Saturday morning place to go when the weather is nice. The girls like it. Heidi never really got into watching animals. She likes everything else: pony ride, rock climbing, train ride, feeding the animals. She didn’t try rock climbing until this fall. I kept asking if she wanted to try. Finally she gave it a try and she enjoyed it. She climbed to the top on her 4th try.

Iris likes the carousel the best. She rides 2 or 3 times each time we are there. Heidi never liked the carousel. The train ride is another must-do for Iris. She really wants to ride the pony, but still not tall enough. She should be fine next year.

Edventure Museum

We try to go to Edventure once a month since we have the year pass. It turned out we didn’t go that often. But each time we go, we have a great time. 

Heidi runs from room to room. She’s like that since she was a toddler. As she’s older, she is losing interest in some of her old favorites, like the little supermarket and the little kitchen. Her favorites now are the craft room and the baby room. We are not supposed to take her to the baby room since she is too big. But Iris is going there each time, and it’s hard to not let Heidi go with her. Heidi found herself a secret hiding spot in that room. It’s a dark corner under the “trees”, and has nothing in there. She likes to sit there for a while, then goes onto the slide, and does it all over.

Iris enjoys almost everything. She plays in the same station for like 20-30 minutes. Usually I can just sit down and watch her play.

Folly Beach trip - Labor Day weekend

OK, I am finally catching up with the blog.  We've been pretty busy with all kinds of fun stuff lately.

We went to Folly beach on Labor Day weekend. I always think we must go to beach at least one day each year, because both the kids and I love the beach. This year with my dissertation and everything else, the beach trip got postponed. Finally we made it. It was a one day trip but a good one.


We got to the beach around noon. We packed some sandwich and ate there so we can have more time playing. The girls were so excited! Iris was a little scared of the waves at the beginning, but she started to love it after a short while. Then we had to force her to hold our hands all the time since all she wanted was going deeper and deeper. Heidi was busy picking seashells and carrying water in her bucket from the sea to the shore. She dig a big hole then poured water in it. Iris joined her. They both played non-stop for a long time.

When Iris got tired, we tried to put her to rest. Of course no luck! She kept playing though she was sleepy. This hit of the day was the starfish. We found some starfish on the shore. They were all missing one or more arms. Heidi and Iris picked a few. They were excited. Heidi wanted to bring them home. But after I told her they can’t live in tap water, she agreed we should put them back into the ocean. She and me put them back to the ocean and wished them good luck.

Picking blueberries

We are blueberry fans. In fact, just me. I like blueberries with cream especially.  We went blueberry picking the first day the farm opened for season this year. This is Iris's first time. Heidi enjoyed both the eating and the picking part. Iris... Iris just picked the green berries and put them in her mouth. Sour? You can tell from your facial expressions. This little girl picked only green strawberries when we went strawberry picking. I guess she has enough vitamin C intake?

Playing dress up

This is one of the girls' favorite things to do these days. Heidi likes to dress up Iris, and Iris enjoys being a little princess for like 5 minutes every day. Heidi brushes Iris's hair, put on shoes and dress for her. And the tiara too. Heidi herself prefers to be a cow girl rather than a princess. I think she is completely grew out of the princess phase. It's good that we always have some princess in the house.

Family zoo fun

 The girls and LB go to the zoo about once a month. I hadn't been to the zoo forever because of my crazy schedules. This time finally the four of us went together and of course we had a lot of fun. Heidi is at a phase that she asks me to take a lot of pictures of her. She poses for pictures. Actually she likes to take pictures herself. I may give her my camera when she's a little older. Iris started to make 'fake' smiles and poses in front of the camera. I can't remember when Heidi started doing this, but definitely when she was older.

LB and Heidi tried this (I can't remember the name) the first time. Heidi was excited and always wanted to try, but they couldn't make it because LB needed to watch Iris. This time they finally went. It turned out Heidi was a little scared. They didn't go to the upper levels. But it was a good try!

Iris is two years old

I can't believe this little girl is 2 already. She's been in daycare for almost 4 months. I can't remember how many times she was sick. Too many times, at least 2-3 times a month, and even on her birthday. Despite the sickness, she's been picking up so much English words and sentences.

She can say: what's this? I can't do that. Let me see. It's broken. Ha-Bi-You (for Happy Bithday Day to you), I don't know. It's mine, etc. etc. She surprises us everyday with her new vocabulary. 

She moved to the 2 years old class the week after her birthday. She bit a boy in her class. This girl is a biter since she was a baby. Hope we won't get another incident report.



Heidi's cheerleading recital

Heidi has been learning cheerleading since last fall. She does it at her school so I never got to see her progress or anything until this big day.  She is the only kindergartener in her team but she did great. I am so proud of her. She is asking to continue her cheerleading practice next year:)

Strawberry time

There are certain things we must do no matter how busy we are.  These are family traditions that we've been doing year after year since Heidi was a baby. Bin told me that the money we spend on gas is probably the same as the bucket of strawberries. I know it's true. But we still do this every year so the most of the family have some fun:)

Iris was so funny that she just picked the green ones. Heidi loved it. She loves it every year we go.