Rachel went to a friend's birthday party last night. It was a tumbling party. She practiced her jumps on their trampoline and into the pit. Her toe touch looks pretty good. 
This is a herkie. It's my favorite jump. 
Rachel is in the EXCEL program at school, and every year the fifth grade EXCEL students have a Trade Fair. They have to create a "business" -- whether it's a game, a product or a service -- and try to make a profit at the Trade Fair. Rachel created a "Wishful Wheel." It is basically a spinning wheel game for prizes. She had three different prizes: 76ers beads, friendship bracelets and super balls. They can purchase various forms of advertising, such as hanging posters, making a commercial during morning announcements, etc. Any money they spend they have to keep track of and pay back out of their profits. So they were supposed to try to make prizes or use things from around the house and not use food as a prize.
Rachel's competition this weekend was at Villanova University. Her team took first place out of three! They looked so good, too. The middle of the pyramid that ends their routine collapsed, but aside from that it was a great performance. 
It was a long day. We thought we'd be home by 2:00, but we didn't get out of the gym until 2:00 or so. After stopping for lunch, we didn't get home until 5:00. It was a fun day, though. There was a parent team that performed, and they did surprisingly well. In fact, I think they inspired our organization to start one. Should be interesting!!!
Okay. Technically, this is a scene from the overnight train we took from Beijing to Xian. I like the mountains in this one. This was taken probably about an hour before we arrived in Xian. The best part of the train ride was when the sun came up and we could see the scenery going by. It helped me forget how dirty and gross I felt from the day/night before. 
We saw a lot of pool floaties being sold along the street in Xian, and for the life of me I couldn't figure out where they would be used. China's not like the U.S. where every other house has a pool in the backyard. The only pools I saw while we were in China were the ones in our hotels. 
A woman doing wash outside a shop.
Wires. Lots and lots of wires. Can you imagine working for the cable company or phone company and having to replace a downed wire!?!?!?!
Employees participating in team-building exercises before their workday.
Day laborers waiting to be hired. The little signs say what type of work they do. 
Old folks in a park doing their morning exercises. We saw this happening everywhere we went. Sometimes it would be just one or two people; other times it would be large groups. 
Traffic. Sorry; I'm not sure why the picture is so crooked.
Punch Buggy!
This was a pretty cool building. If you click on the picture, you can see it bigger to see all the detail.
I have pictures of this theme park in my scrapbook from our first trip to China ten years ago. It was abandoned then, and it still sits empty. 
It was interesting to see all the different modes of transportation and the many configurations of bicycles. 
There seemed to be no limit to the amount of stuff piled on bicycles.
Scene ON the bus.
.....simply fascinating.
Rachel graduated from the D.A.R.E. program today, along with the rest of the fifth grade class. Over the past several months, they were taught drug prevention, how to avoid peer pressure and how to get themselves out of sticky situations. They each prepared a poster and an essay and awards were given out. Rachel's friend, Bianca, won the essay contest for the entire fifth grade, and she read her essay during the graduation. She did a great job. 
Our Mayor was there, along with our State Assemblyman and the Superintendent of Schools. They are public officials, so I don't have a problem putting their faces on the Internet!
Tonight we went to the Philadelphia 76's game. It was not exactly a sell-out. And it was boring. Basketball is definitely not our sport. But it was interesting to come to once.
I spent most of the game reading the manual for my new camera. I might have learned a few things. I was so frustrated after the D.A.R.E. graduation, because I got very few good pictures. Even closeups were blurry. The two pictures I posted here were from the old camera. One thing I did learn is that I need to get a telephoto lens. We left the game after half-time.
"No! Please! Not a bath!!!"
Tomorrow will be a long day. Rachel has her D.A.R.E. graduation at school at 9:30. Then I have a 2:00 job in the city, after which I'll come home, pick up Rachel and then head back to Philly for the Sixers game. Hopefully I'll get a little work done in there, too.
This is how Rachel's team lines up to begin their routine. They did so good. I'm so proud of Rachel and all the girls. The looked great!
Rachel and Emily having some post-performance Dippin Dots.
This is all the teams from the morning session on the mat for awards. It was fun, but I'm exhausted. I am not a morning person, and when I have to get up earlier than usual, it just knocks me out. 
Rachel has a cheerleading competition tomorrow, her first one with this organization. I am SO excited to be able to go and just be a spectator/parent and have nothing to do with coaching! I can just sit and watch and cheer the girls on. Our van windows are now painted red, white and blue and have Rachel's and Emily's names on them. Emily and her mom will ride with us to all our competitions. And tomorrow we'll have an old friend with us, too. 
Fred made us baked Italian hoagies for dinner tonight. If they look like they're missing something, it's because none of us eat tomatoes. They were yummy, though. 
Rachel's pueblo project turned out pretty good, I think. She's happy with it. I drove her to school this morning so she wouldn't have to worry about it getting bumped into on the bus.
This is how the day started out. More snow, and Ferris wasn't liking it. When I first opened the door for him to go out, he took two steps and turned around and tried to come back in. Then he tried to go under the table on the deck. Finally he realized he had go thru the snow go potty.
This year we played some Rock Band. Fred was playing guitar, and so was Mike. Or one of them might have been doing bass. I don't know for sure. Kevin was playing drums and Dave was singing. Brian was watching. We did get him to sing once. Dave's wife Frani and I were the only women who played Rock Band. But there's no pictures to prove it. You'll have to take my word for it. Frani played drums on a couple songs. I played drums, then sang, then played guitar. I'm definitely best at guitar. 
Look out, Brian!
The kids played some games, too. Here they're playing Apples to Apples.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
