MOON FESTIVAL

Now is the time for the Moon Festival in China. In China everyone celebrates by giving each other "Moon Cakes" which is basically a pastry made with a big hunk of red bean (Azuki) paste in the middle. The pumpkin cookie is our version of the "Moon Cake" plus Mimi likes the cookie much better than the real Moon Cake itself.

Come this Saturday we will go with Elsie, Emma and Rhonda up to Issaquah for the Moon Festival Celebration. Not sure what to expect as this will be our first time but I am sure we will have a blast. We always have a blast wherever we Putney's go.

WHAT'S OLD IS NEW AGAIN

Mimi loves watching my old Kimba cartoons. While grocery shopping today I found these dvd's and had to buy them too as today really is our "family day" when we received the most precious gift of our lives. Next Wednesday will be our 14th wedding anniversary and that is when we usually celebrate our "family day" cause even though Mimi came to us on the 29th, we were still in China on our anniversary.

A COUPLE OF COOL LOOKING CHICKS

Last Sunday was spent as a girls day out with lunch and a movie. We all went to South Center Mall and had lunch at Panda Express. As usual Mimi not only ate her usual Ivar's clam chowder but ate my Panda lunch too.

We did have a bit of an incident where these two girls are so darn cute. Halliwelll brought $20.00 with her for spending money. She first purchased her movie ticket and since we missed the first showing we decided to eat lunch. She then saw the stuffed Panda and decided that she wanted the Panda along with her lunch. That left her with $1.50 to spend on candy (plus the PE people gave her a cookie free of charge). We then proceeded up to the candy counter at the movie after eating a delicious lunch. I knew that Halliwell did not have enough money for candy and told her so when she asked me. The girl did not believe me so I said to both Mimi and Halliwell that they both could go over to talk with the guy at the registar. They did and I think that the two's of them must have put their magical spell on him. He said that another customer left a candy coupon at the counter and the girls could get some Twizzlers for ......... you guessed it $1.50.

MIMI AND SARA

Mimi and Sara definitely made up for lost time. They really worked up a sweat that night. Althhough we had just ate dinner a couple of hours prior to this picture, Mimi is eating again. This time it is Sara's favorite - egg salad sandwich. Me thinks that Mimi has hollow legs.

Sara has finally started school. She was part of that whole Kent District fiasco. Basically all the teachers wanted was a smaller class size with a cap on it. Mimi's school has between 20-22 students per class. Some of the Kent schools have approximately 39 students in their class and there is not enough desks to go around.

The good part of this whole ordeal is that Sara was able to spend her time off school (while the teachers were on strike) with her big sis Tasha before she headed off to Cornish University in downtown Seattle and also spend a lot of quality mother/daughter time with her mom Daphne.

BRAIN FREEZE

After the fair and before going over to Sara's house for our SGI meeting, we stopped at Red Robin's near Sara's for dinner. I figured that if we were to have dinner before the meeting and would be paying about the same amount of money as if we ate at the fair, I would rather have a nice sit down dinner with alcohol and be waited on. If you are wondering why we always to go RR's, it's because there is nothing else around unless we go into Bellevue or downtown Seattle. Blake has got Mimi drinking the Groovy Smoothie. "Mom, I wanna brain freeze" the girl says. My favorite is the Mango Margarita along with the Macho Nacho's.

PUYALLUP STATE FAIR

It's a HUGE event up here in the northwest. Twice a year the fair is a big deal. Moreso in the Fall. The school kids get a free admission ticket and if you buy your tickets at Safeway or Fred Meyers plus a couple of other places, you can get a discount. Just about like anywhere else that there is a fair, one has to purchase ride tickets separately. You can easily plop down a bundle of $$$$ at these places. Mostly it was Mimi and dad who went on the rides, I prefered to go into the barn where they had goodies to buy. Mimi loved the fact that she is now tall enough to go on some of the "big kid" rides such as the swings. Still not tall enough for the roller coasters though. Sticking out her tongue is a habit that she learned from one of her cousins. Is it Joe or is it Mari??? Hmmm, I'll never tell.

Also what most people don't know is that Puyallup fairgrounds at one time was a "holding" area for all people of Japanese ancestry to stay until it was time to send them to various interment camps.

NAIL POLISHING

A while back one of our neighbors asked if I was worry that Mimi is not a Princess kind of girl. I said "No, I just take what I can get and when you think of it, our Mimi is not the cutesy Disney kind of Princess even though she loves Disney movies and Disneyland. However she is the very feminine in other ways. She loves 'real' dressing up in dresses and Nordstrom at that too. She also loves getting her nail done at the salon.

Last Friday was early release day at school and so Mimi hosted a nail polishing party at the house. We/they also had some deep discussions too. I was downstairs when I heard Halli come down with Erin saying "let's ask Dottie" I was thinking to myself "oh lord, what now?" Halli says to me: "Dottie, is Mt. Rainier a volcano or not?" I answered her honestly "Yes it is but it is an inactive volcano" "See!" says Halliwell to Erin, "That's what my dad says and he knows because he is an engineer! Dottie, will you go tell those girls upstairs because they don't believe me." If only our world problems were this simple. *sigh*