August 13

The ever present skateboard and
tubing at the lake (thanks Craig & Brenda)

We're gearing up for school. Julia started on August 4, so she's already in the swing of things. We have to finish up the school supply shopping for the other three. Jack is looking forward to 8th grade, but is kind of bummed that he won't be in the same section as his Russian speaking friends. I think the registrar may have done that intentionally to keep him from relying too heavily on them as translators. We only go as far out of our comfort zone as we're forced to, and I think they want to make sure he get this on his own. He's had his friends over a few times this summer, and we have to remind them to try to operate in English as much as possible and only use Russian to clear up what they don't understand. Overall, they have both really improved their English in the past few weeks. We're getting into the stage where usage really takes off.

Julia's 6th grade class is enrolling a girl who just came over from China and speaks no English, so hopefully Julia can help her out a little and make a friend who uniquely understands her language challenges.
Julia really likes jigsaw puzzles, and luckily, found that you can do tons of puzzles on the internet.
Jack spends most of his internet time either shopping for skateboard stuff or going frame-by-frame through skateboard video so he can figure out "How they do that".