Stroll through August

Summer in Boston is short. When it came to August, not only it means the end of summer, it also means the end of warm weather. Luckily, in this year, we still felt warm in August. 

Sometimes, Mama took me to a tennis court.

Practice to be ball girl

Sometimes, Mama and I took a walk in our favorite park, Cushing park.

Mama, here is a flower for you.

Sometimes, Mama and I strolled on Newbury street, Boston's most enchanted street. 

 

I am ready to order. 

This can be my fashion hat.

Let's have a picture with Mama.

Mama and I also crashed parties. No, we didn't. We were of course invited.

 What's so funny?

依琳 Meimei's (妹妹, younger sister) family held a barbecue party.  Guoguo's family was invited too. Mamas and Dadas made lots of Yummy food, 凉拌爽口小菜，烤羊肉串，烤龙虾，etc. However, I liked the swing flavor.

 Super Swing fun

and also the watermelon too.

They came all the way from Changsha (长沙）

I never thought the first time I saw Shu Yeye (叔爷爷, Grand Uncle), Shu Nainai （叔奶奶, Grand Auntie), Zhigang Shushu ( 叔叔, Uncle), Pengbin Ayi (阿姨, Auntie) and Binyu Jiejie (姐姐, Sister) was in Boston. Nor I thought that the first time I tried authentic Hunan dish was in my house despite that Mama is from Hunan. Mama cooks nice authentic home Chinese food but not typical Hunan dish. Shu nainai is the one who knows how to do it even with all American resources. Her secret was Old Dry Mom (老干妈).

After Mama picked them up at Logan airport, she suggested to go to a restaurant to have a lunch. Both Shu Nainai and Pengbin Ayi protested it immediately. "Let's cook at home because we have been longing for home-made food for a long time". Yes, indeed, this was already the second week they were in USA. Boston was their last stop of a two weeks "穷游" (traveling overseas by themselves) . They had been to New York, Washington DC, Philadelphia and Niagara fall, 走马观花 (look at the flowers while passing on horseback) which they summarized the tour. While they were enjoying their tour, they missed Huhan dishes very badly. Their only Hunan touch, a home-made hot pepper source was two bites away from being empty. Later, Mama told me that their home-made hot pepper source is the spiciest thing she ever tasted even back in Hunan, China.

Now, let's get start. Shu Nainai was the head chef and Pengbin Ayi was the Sous-chef who helped to get the ingredients ready, including washing and cutting. Where was Mama in this picture? Mama was the one who was responsible for 360-degree instructions, telling them where to find salts, soy sauce, plates, etc. She was also the one who was in charge of transferring a finished dish on a plate, because the wok was too heavy for both Nainai and Ayi. Mama is the one who got muscles.

Here you go! Flavorful spicy Hunan home-made dishes in our house, Framingham, MA, USA.

Hmm, the most yummy food we ever had in America.

Binyu Jiejie liked our toy room. She went with Mama to pick me and Lex Gege up from school every day when they stayed with us. Then we would play together in the toy room after authentic Hunan dinners (Actually, the last dinner was made by Baba, no Hunan dish, but they enjoyed eating it). Shushu and Ayi were impressed with me quietly eating my food in a different room on a high chair. They did not know that it was a show I put together for them. Hahaha!

Kiddie Academy & Canobie Lake Park

 

Lex and I had landed in the same school, Kiddie Academy in Framingham. Mama has been through lots of thinking and finally decided to withdraw Lex from his current school, FACE children center. It was a hard decision for her since we all liked FACE. I started my two days program in Kiddie Academy, while Popo took care of me for the rest of the three days. The first day there seemed easy for me. I did not even remember to cry like a new kid. The school director knew that I was coming, but she couldn't figure out who the new girl was in the playground.

Kiddie Academy is a brand new school, and she is even younger than me. We went to her one month birthday party. This lady juggler taught us a magic word "Abracadabra".

 

Everyone was waiting for the bubbles patiently.

It comes, it comes.

There was an enormous one coming. Could you see it?!

Let me introduce you my new classmate and an old friend, Tori. Our birthdays are only 3 days apart.

I hit the ball!

After celebrating Kiddie Academy's birthday on Saturday, we went to Canobie Lake Park with Tori's family the next day. We met at Tuscan Kitchen for lunch before heading to the park. There was a big crowd in the parking lot in front of the restaurant.  Guess what! Our fun started right from here, a classic racing car exhibition. Race car is one of Lex's passions.

From a real race car to an electric toy car, he did not loss any enthusiasm.

Look these two cool racing car girls! They are Tori's twin sisters, Christina and Olivia. 

Lex Gege and I had a small fight on taking control of the weapon in the front of the tank.

Of course, Lex won.

It was nice to relax on a horse carrier after intensive battle on a tank.

You wouldn't believe that we just came back from Disney World. We totally forgot about Disney' sophistication and excitement. We were just kids in the end. Throwing us to any place, we can always laugh and run.