Anna won 1st place in her swim meet!

Way to go Anna! She took the first place for her 25 yard free style on her swim meet today. She also set her new personal record for this event - 21.09 seconds. This time makes her qualified for division A swim also. What a girl!
We have been home for nearly a week. Everything went very well. Jenny is doing great in her school. Anna has been a big helper to Jenny. They start get along well. They enjoy each other's company a lot. Jenny loves to play all the toys. She tries everything. Her favorite ones are dolls and stuffed animals. Anna still loves her Legos. It seems to us that Anna is more a Tom Girl, while Jenny is a Shirley Girl. Jenny loves everything pink, sparkling or shiny. She loves to dress up while Anna loves blue jeans and t-shirt. It is great this way because they seem don't fight over for the same clothes or toys. We will see how long this will last.
The boys get to their normal selves now. It took them three days to change their biological clocks to USA time. For three days, they went to bed earlier and got up earlier. Now they start to stay up late and have hard time to get up in the morning again.
Jenny has done very well in school. Everyone love her there. Her teachers thing she is very smart and lovely lady. She is very capable of many things. We started to discuss if pre-1st is a right grade for her. Besides language skills, she really fits her normal grade - 1st grade. There will be more discussions next week on this because we would hate to delay her for the future.

Line 7 is Anna!! Way ahead of everyone else!

Her personal new record - 21.09 seconds

Two ribbons - one for first place event winner and one for set her personal new record

Life back to normal again!

It is Monday, day after we are back from China. We send all the kids to school today including Jenny! Toby and Joshua got up very early in the morning. They had time to make breakfast and plowed the drive way. We had a lot snow last night.
It is Jenny's first day of school. Sue went to school with her this morning. She was a little nervous, but also excited about going to school. She was placed in pre-first grade. At lunch time, she went back to check on her again. She was doing fine. She is going to the same school as Anna, Van Raalte Public School. We are so luck to have the full support of the school. They made special arrangement so Jenny and Anna could have lunch together. Principal Mrs. Clawson also were talking about hiring a Hope College student who speaks Chinese to help Jenny.
Toby had a long day today. After school, he went to work for two hours then he went to Robotics. He did not get home until 9 pm. As soon as he walked in the house, his first words were "Mom, I have tons of homework to do". Then he disappeared in his room. Poor kid!
Joshua was tired after school and went to sleep. I think he will sleep through the night or maybe not.
Anna and Jenny are the energetic ones. After school, they both went to the Boys and Girls Club for after school activities. Sue met them there just to make sure Jenny knows what is going on. We then picked them up at 6 pm. We had a small dinner then took them to Anna's swimming practice. She swam for more than an hour non-stop. After her practice, they played in the splash zone for another 45 minutes. We finally got home by 9 pm. They both fell asleep on the way home. What a day!
Sue and Bert took a day off. While Sue was running around with the girls, Bert unpacked all the luggages and did most of the laundry. Yes, we just realized that now we have to cook, do laundries and clean up. Life back to normal again! - no pictures.

We are home! 2/3/2008

Arrived home two hours ago. The trip home was uneventful. Thanks Joanne and Gregory Szalai for picking us up from Detroit airport with our car. It saved us a lot of time! It was nice to see Amy, Sarah and John again.
We stopped by Arby's for lunch on our way home.
We are glad to be home now. Anna misses her American TV. Jenny loves all the stuff animals. Toby and Joshua are watching Supperbowl. Normal life begins:)
Thanks the Timmermann's for the food and taking care of the house. We are so delighted to see the balloons and banner of welcome. Thanks the Windermuller's for taking care of the cats, fish and plants. Cats are happy to see us home. And thanks the DeVries for clearing the driveway. We are glad the weather was good for our driving home from Detroit. From Sue's friend, we know the weather in Guangzhou starts to warm up too today.
Sue and Berthold

Banner made by the Timmermann's

Yes, the christmas tree is still up....

Anna enjoys being back home and watching TV.
Jenny loves all the toys, especially the stuffed animals.