Halloween Time

Beverly enjoyed going to see the younger kids line up and march in the Halloween Parade ... and she got to see a couple of her friends there, enjoy a hot dog and cider, and even some Halloween treats!

Trip to St. Louis!

Beverly is off to St. Louis, Missouri this weekend with a group of exchange students from the agency!

We lived in St. Louis for ten years, so we know she is going to enjoy the city and see lots of fun things! They are going to an amusement park, Six Flags Over Mid-America, that has great rollercoasters and will be all decorated for the Halloween season. They are also going to downtown St. Louis to make a stop at Union Station, an old train depot that has been renovated and converted into a shopping center. They will visit the St. Louis Zoo, the Arch, and eat at Hard Rock Cafe. Lots of fun things planned, and it will be fun for her to spend some time with the other teens in the U.S. for their exchange program!

Homecoming Dance Tonight!

After a day of nervous preparation, I introduce to you the lovely Beverly. The pictures speak for themselves and I know her family is anxious to see them, so this post is all about pictures and not about words!

(Click on any picture to see a full size view)

Homecoming Parade!

This afternoon was the big Homecoming Parade! In the parade you will find the high school band, cheerleaders, dance team, football players, homecoming court ... and look who else was in the parade, riding in the back of a convertible like a queen!

(click picture for larger view)

We knew that Beverly was offered the chance to ride in the parade as an honored guest in the school, but I wanted to save it as a surprise for her family! This is one really nice thing about small communities and small schools ... the teachers and students have really treated her like a rock star since the day she arrived!

I did take some pictures of her before the parade started, and also of the freshman class float that she helped work on during the past week. With the "Haunted Homecoming" theme it was a natural for the floats to include things like a haunted house, and the freshman one was very nicely done. We thought the freshman float was the best of the four classes and I'm sure is in the running for the first place award! Beverly is at the homecoming game with Mitch and TJ right now, but Abby and I opted to stay home because it is pretty chilly tonight! But Beverly did want to go and spend some time with her friends, and we made sure she dressed warmly.

School Spirit Day!

Today is school spirit day, which means wearing school colors (maroon and white) and getting excited for this afternoon's Homecoming parade and football game! Beverly really did not have much clothing that was maroon, but last weekend when I was at Carthage College I saw a Carthage shirt that I thought he would like, and it just happened to be in maroon! Which is not their school color, so I thought it was meant just for Beverly to wear here in Tremont! ha ha

TJ has a wide range of clothes in Tremont colors ... Abby does have her Tremont shirt on, but it's in her standard color of PINK!

Last night at the pep rally Beverly had her camera there and did take some pictures with her friends. I'll get those from her and post them soon.

After school today, the parade takes place and I will have more pictures. Tonight is the football game and tomorrow is the dance ... so a busy couple of days!

Homecoming Student Game Day!

Today the school does a special competition between the four grade levels of students (9, 10, 11 & 12) in an "Olympics" style competition to name one class the winner of the Homecoming Games. Getting dressed was much easier for Beverly this morning as she had to wear her "freshman" shirt to take part in the games. All of the kids have white shirts with a design on the back (drawn by a school art student) that goes along with the Haunted Homecoming theme, and shows which class they are in, and create a little class spirit. Abby was happy to lend her a black and orange hair bow to match her shirt!

I know Beverly signed up for a football throwing competition, because she and TJ have been out in the yard practicing her throw in recent days. I'm not sure what other types of events she is doing, but I'm sure she will have a good time.

Tonight is the "Community Pep Rally" where many people turn out to show support for the football team and the homecoming event. It's also where the Homecoming king and queen are crowned. Not sure if I will have any pictures of tonight's event to post since it is always hard to get good pictures outside in the stadium at night, since it's dark and the glare of the stadium lights is so bright.

I will have more pictures tomorrow for sure ... it is "School Spirit Day" so that is another easy day for her to dress, just wearing school colors ... but it is also the Homecoming Parade and game. We'll have a pretty day to get some nice pictures!

Costume Day!

Since the theme is "A Haunted Homecoming" that gives the kids a chance to be a little extra crazy and wear something Halloween oriented.

Beverly put together this outfit with her clothes, a jacket she bought and a cape that we already had from previous Halloween years. I told her that her parents and grandparents were going to think she has lost her mind when they see her going to school like this! ha ha ha

Last night she stayed after school to practice with her speech team partner, then helped Student Council do decorating for the dance on Saturday. She has been jumping right in and getting involved in planning with Student Council, and I'm so glad she decided to take part in that. Tonight she will stay at school again and do more decorating with the dance committee.

"Change Your Generation" Day!

Since "Homecoming" may not be a familiar thing in China, I'll first explain that in most U.S. high schools and colleges, it is a special time for the current students to rally their school spirit and celebrate their time at school, and for those who have previously graduated, it is a time to come "home" to their former school and enjoy some school time memories. For Homecoming week, the kids have a special dress up theme each day, and today is "Change Your Generation" day ... which basically means make yourself look much younger or much older than you really are! We decided that it was a lot easier to make Beverly look like a "little" girl than it was to make her look like an "old" lady ... so off to school she went in her pig tails, pajamas, and clutching one of Abby's blanket bears!

Yesterday was a school holiday so she did not have to go to classes ... but she spent her day with classmates working on the freshman class float for the Homecoming parade! This year's Homecoming theme is, "A Haunted Homecoming" and their float will have a mini haunted house, along with other Halloween type decorations.

The Seasons are Changing!

We did have a nice warm weekend, but over the past week Beverly has been getting her first taste of fall weather here ... which means cooler temperatures ... and she has been a bit cold! We have told her that the temperatures so far have just been "cool" and that "cold" gets a whole lot worse! ha ha She was very relieved to see her warmer clothes show up last week in the two boxes she sent from China in August.

In the top picture, she was with us at our neighbor's home for her first "wiener roast" which included "Smores" that she is about to enjoy in the picture. For those in China who might not know what this tasty treat is ... it is graham cracker with marshmallow that has been toasted over the fire, and a bit of chocolate candy bar. She thought they were very good!


This picture is of one of our two cats, Calvin. He and Beverly are pretty good buddies and she finds him sleeping in her room on a pretty regular basis. He's a pretty hefty boy at 15 pounds and she enjoys hauling him around in her arms. Our other cat is much lighter and also a good friend to Beverly. I'll have to get a picture of them together sometime soon.

This is homecoming week so we are going to have lots of fun pictures to share as the week goes on. Each day is a special "theme" day where the high school kids dress up in come crazy way, and we have a community pep rally, parade, football game and dance to get accomplished in the next 5 days! Stay tuned for more pictures this week and the best one of all, of the lovely Miss Beverly in her beautiful homecoming dress on Saturday!

Soccer Time!

The kids have all been doing a soccer unit in gym class recently, so there have been quite a few soccer games going on in our yard.

Yesterday the kids got dad involved in a soccer game with them, which was lots of fun and pretty humorous. It started out just dad and the girls, and then TJ and a friend migrated into the game ... I'll just let the pictures speak for the good time!

Writing her first check!

Beverly was very excited tonight to write out her very first check from her bank account! She needed to pay for air time on her cell phone, and writing a check was a big, new adventure!

She wanted me to take a close up picture of the check, but it's a little fuzzy! :-)


Tonight after dinner Abby was sitting next to Beverly and kept saying "We look like twins! We have the same hair! We both have glasses! We have the same earrings!" It's funny to see that she is noticing their similarities!

Beautiful Weekend

The weather has been nice and we have enjoyed some outdoor time! Yesterday Beverly and TJ had a chance to spend some time on the tennis court, and I think they enjoyed it!

Friday night we did a little dress shopping for homecoming. Beverly is very excited about the dance, which will be on October 18. It's exciting to share her first high school dance experience with her!

She is staying busy with homework and doing some extra things, like being part of the high school speech team. They are practicing now for their speech meets, which will start in November.

Beverly and Mikaela

This picture is a couple weeks old, but I wanted to share a picture of Beverly with her friend, Mikaela. They really enjoy spending time together at school and it is a neat connection for them since Mikaela has traveled to China, and has a sister adopted from Guangxi.

A Big Day for Beverly!

Today was full of many firsts for Beverly!

She spent most of the afternoon at the high school working as a student council representative during the dedication of our new High School building. They served as greeters and hostesses to the community coming through the building, and joined in on the dedication ceremony to honor the community for providing our children with this wonderful new school facility.

After I picked her up ... she had special permission from her parents, so we were off to Pekin to get her ears pierced! She ended up choosing the very same earrings that Abby chose when she had hers pierced last September. After hearing about the process and carefully studying the two marks on her ear lobes to be sure the earrings would be even and in line with each other, it was time to start. The first earring went in without even a flinch, the second one brought a tiny "ouch". But then she was ready to look in the mirror and admire her new jewels!

As soon as we returned, TJ and our neighbors were waiting for her to take her fishing on the lake in our subdivision. They caught a big bucket of fish ... mostly bluegill and a bass or two. Beverly caught the most, with at least 15 fish on her scorecard. She is holding one of the fish she caught in that picture. She came in jumping up and down saying, "I love fishing so much!" Now our neighbor is preparing some of the fish for the kids to sample tonight. Should be fun!


Back to school tomorrow for another big week!

Orientation Picnic - more pictures!

Thanks to Shannon (our ISE area rep!) for these pictures that show Beverly at the orientation picnic yesterday!

Exchange Student Picnic

(click on the picture to see a larger version)


Yesterday we went to a picnic organized by the exchange student agency ... and Beverly had fun meeting 33 other students from all around the world!

Hopefully we will have some better pictures shared with us by a couple other host families that were there ... we dashed out for the picnic late, and in that process, neither Beverly or I remembered to take our cameras! So this picture was taken with my cell phone, and for some strange reason it looks like we were in a fog! ha ha But it was actually a nice day.

The kids introduced themselves, telling the country they are from and where they are attending high school here in the US. It was a fun day! And the students will be back together for a few special trips to St. Louis, Springfield and Chicago throughout the year. Beverly really enjoyed getting to know some of the girls from Korea, Thailand and Vietnam. There was a boy there from Hong Kong whose host sister told Beverly to speak to in Cantonese ... and when Beverly said something to him in Cantonese, he kept answering her in English. ha ha

Today is a dedication for our new school building and Beverly has her first official duty as a member of the high school student council in being a student host of the event. She has been very interested in student council and is also on the dance committee for homecoming. Drew was part of student council and I think it is such a worthwhile activity for the kids.

Tremont High School Football!

Bevery attended her first high school football game tonight with us! I think she enjoyed the crowd and activity ... and especially the band and seeing the cheerleaders! She met up with some friends and got to see the crowd gather up to support our school team. Unfortunately Tremont lost the game, but we had a good time anyway!

Tomorrow we have a picnic for exchange students to attend in the afternoon, so I'm sure we will have some new pictures then too!

Settling in!

Beverly is doing really well adjusting to life here in the U.S. I often wonder if I would do half as well if I were trying to live with a family in China right now and change my lifestyle!

We had a big weekend moving Drew off to college, so Beverly got to take a car trip (a 4 hour drive) to Kenosha, Wisconsin. When we crossed the state line ... she commented that it looked just like Illinois. ha ha

These pictures are from helping Drew set up his dorm room, and also looking out at beautiful Lake Michigan during our visit to campus. Kenosha is about 50 miles North of Chicago, and the college is right on the shores of Lake Michigan.

Today it was back in the school routine. She's really doing well making friends and getting to know the kids and teachers. We hear lots of fun stories about the happenings of school each day, so I think she likes it there most of the time!

After dinner, Beverly and TJ took a quick bike ride, and then she and Abby played outside for a bit just before it was getting dark. Almost time for bed and another school day!

Meeting Grandma and Grandpa

Beverly had a chance tonight to meet Grandma and Grandpa Scott when they came to our house for dinner. We had a nice visit and then after dinner, Grandma and Grandpa got to sample some of the Mooncakes that Beverly brought to us from China. They really liked the pineapple flavored one, but the green tea flavored one was a very different taste!

A Great First Day!

One more "back to school" picture this morning since Abby was joining the crew as she starts kindergarten today ... and I promised Beverly that we don't take pictures of the kids EVERY morning as they leave for school! ha ha

Beverly is headed off for her second day of school now, but I just wanted to share what a great first day she had!

She was very excited last night to update us on her classes, teachers and the kids at school. She's really doing great in remembering teacher and student names, which I know is tough when you meet a lot of different people at one time. She was very happy to make some friends and I think she feels very good about the school.

Last night for dinner we had spaghetti, which she really liked. And Beverly brought a box of mooncakes to share with us ... a traditional food in China for the Moon Festival. So we sampled them and decided which were our favorite flavors, and that was really fun. Since she has an American Government class and is getting a crash course in how the November election will work, we have watched part of the Democratic convention with her and tried to answer questions about the process. We'll do the same with the Republican convention and try to give her a better picture of U.S. politics, which I think will be helpful for her in the class.

Today for gym class they are swimming, so she was off with her swim suit and towel, as well as a very full backpack of school books and binders. The high school teachers ask the kids to have a separate binder for each class, so Drew shared some of his with her last night and helped her get them ready for class. I'm glad he has been here for the start of her week so that he can give her some guidance on what is needed for high school.

I hope this all translates well for her family and friends following the blog. I just want you to know that she is such a bright and confident young woman, and she is adjusting very well. We are proud to have her in our home this year!