Last reunion hurrah

So after preschool on Thursday Cindy, Caroline, Kylie and I loaded back into the Highlander and headed up the highway to Raleigh again. We were a bit later than we had expected due to some traffic on 540 just outside of Raleigh, but Lottie, her mommy, and brothers were waiting for us at their house with smiles and a huge amount of yummy Chinese food from a great restaurant called Pei Wei (I've gotta check and see if we have those around here!).

"This is really yummy Ms. Shannon. Thanks for having dinner for us!"
In case you are wondering, I didn't put the chopsticks in her hand ~ she held them and did a great job of getting a piece of ginger beef into her mouth! Maybe some things are just instinct...

Shortly after dinner WWIII began to break out between Lottie and Caroline. Noah quickly stepped in to prevent an attack from either side.
(Kylie has no "comfort item" like a teddy or blanket that she carries around. I don't know whether to be relieved that we don't always have to have something, or worried that she isn't that attached to anything.)

Caroline, Shannon, Lottie
The conflict ended quickly when we realized that both girls have VERY similar pink blankies...

Noah, Battle, Graham, Lottie, Shannon
After dinner and catching most of Survivor, we headed back down to their family room to chat. Cindy requested that Lottie's family gather together for a photo and at that point we were all going to head for bed, but conversations got started again and before we knew it we lost track of time.

The girls started breaking out Noah and Graham's helmets which provided for many laughs ~ sometimes they even managed to get them on forward...

Then we looked at the clock again and it was well past midnight. Cindy and Jon had to leave for the airport by 7:15, Battle had to leave for his high school at about the same time, Shannon had to work, and I had a 2 1/2 hour drive to look forward to. Sure we would have all been smarter to go to bed earlier, but you gotta take advantage of the time you get together when you can... I was flat wiped out by the time we got home Friday afternoon, but spending time with new, yet very dear friends was totally worth it! Bring on the Lianjiang girl reunions!!!

Despite the fact that they were both extremely tired, Lottie and Kylie played together well on Friday morning before Kylie and I headed home!