First Haircut (in America)...

It's been almost three months since Xiao Yu has been with us and it was really time for a haircut.  When he came to us, his hair was really short.  But now, it was spilling over his years and long in the back.  So off to Great Clips we went...

He obviously has had his hair buzzed in the passed, but still Elvin didn't know how he would react to this.  When the lady tried putting the hair cutting apron thing on him, he said "no!" and it went downhill from there.

Xiao Yu also did not appreciate having his hair sprayed with water...

After trying to get away and Elvin having to pin him, the hair cutting lady tried bribing Xiao Yu with a lollipop.

This didn't work.  He would not be subdued.  Elvin had to pin his head down.  This was not fun for anyone.

 It was probably only 5 minutes...

But felt like 5 hours.  Kudos to the lady who kept her cool and didn't poke him with the scissors despite his thrashing around like a caged animal.

In the end, we got a ok, but jagged-in-places haircut.  And a t-shirt absolutely covered in hair.

And only once in the car seat, Xiao Yu was calm enough to enjoy his lollipop.  He was also trying comfort himself by putting his hand on his belly.

So our plan going forward is to buy a set of clippers and try to do future haircuts at home.  Maybe there are YouTube videos that will show us how to cut boys' hair?

New U.S. Citizen!

It's official!  We got Christopher Xiao-Yu Yuen's certificate of U.S. citizenship in the mail today!  Well technically, he became a citizen when his packet of paperwork got processed in the Seattle Airport back in January on our way back from China, but it's nice having the certificate in our hands. It feels more real.

Little Xiao Yu doesn't quite understand the importance of this yet.  On the certificate, he was impressed with the shiny gold seal of the eagle at the top of the certificate.

Happy Easter!

Hope that everyone had a good Easter!

Our Easter week started the week before on Palm Sunday.  At our church, they hand out palm fronds to the kids and let them parade around the room waving the branches.  The girls remembered from last year and were talking about it all week.

During the week, the kids got to dye Easter eggs.  

They drew on the eggs first using crayons.

And Gabriel got to participate this year for the first time!  And what color did he choose?  Green, of course!

Notice that Xiao Yu is conspicuously absent from this activity.  Emily wisely chose to do this during his nap.

On the Saturday before Easter, we went to our church for an Easter egg hunt.  They put this on every year and it's open to the public.  People from all over the neighborhood show up for this.  As you can see in the picture, there are LOTS of kids, usually hundreds of kids.  Because of this, the church prepared about 4,500 eggs this year!  And luckily, the rain held off.

The kids are all lined up, like race horses at the starting gate!

The boys also have to wait.  They, however, get to do the egg hunt in a sectioned-off area designated for kids three and under.  Less competition for them.

And it started!  Xiao Yu needed encouragement but saw and egg and picked it up.  And...this happened to be the first and last egg he got, unfortunately.  Gabriel was also only able to get one.  Emily said that the parents in that area didn't let their kids do the hunting but picked up the eggs themselves.  

Meanwhile, the girls were off!  They stayed together with their friends like a pack.

Karina got quite a few...

Here she is comparing her booty with her sister.

And here are the kids enjoying the spoils of their hunt.  Even though Xiao Yu and Gabe only got one egg each, their sisters are generous souls and shared their eggs with the boys.

That evening, Mommy and Daddy stayed up late putting together their Easter baskets and also stuffing eggs for our personal Yuen egg hunt that happens every Easter Sunday morning.

 Xiao Yu woke up first and Elvin had a little bit of a hard time keeping him away from all the eggs around him.  To keep him distracted, we put out a new toy, where you stack pieces together to form different kinds of flowers.

 Then Gabriel woke up and found the new toy as well.

And he stacked all the flowers sorted by color.  He has been sorting by color a lot lately.  All this toys or legos or cars he now sorts by color.

And then what did he do with the flowers?  Well, put them into pots and pans to cook, of course!  To make flower soup.

And then we opened the Easter baskets.  The girls got candy as well as a little pot and seeds to grow plants.  Elvin bought Karina a pack of Starbursts--her favorite.

The boys got a flashlight.  Gabriel's is green, of course!

In addition to the flashlight, Xiao Yu got a set of Sesame Street characters among other things.  He also wanted to eat the Reese's peanut butter cups in his basket.  So he successfully took off the foil wrapper but popped everything else, include the paper cup, into his mouth.  Xiao Yu refused to spit that out and Elvin had to pry his jaws open to extract a saliva-ey, half chewed peanut butter cup and wrapper.  Xiao Yu was quite upset at having his candy taken away but stopped crying when we gave him another one sans wrapper.

And then started the egg hunt!

 This time, Gabriel was able to get a whole lot more than just one!

 We hid some of the eggs in obvious places and others not so much.

Eliana is so good with the little kids.  Instead of snatching the eggs herself, she unselfishly will point eggs out to the boys so they can participate.  Xiao Yu learned very quickly how to open the eggs and eat the mini marshmallow inside.

Then we headed off to church for Easter service.

Afterwards, we hosted Easter dinner at our house.  The kids enjoyed seeing their cousins, who brought over toys and goodies!

While dinner was being prepared, cousin Abby stayed busy cutting grapes in half for Gabriel.  She even seeded them for him!

And finally the food was ready!

 After a big dinner, it was time for dessert.  Gabey opted for a cupcake.

 And afterwards, the kids played around...

And Xiao Yu had an especially fun time with cousin Millie.  This was his first Easter with us and it seems like he enjoyed it a lot!