Zippidy-Do-Dah!

Zippy is EIGHT! He's had a blast of a day at the US Open in Stratton, VT. He watched in person the riders that he reads about in magazines and whose posters he puts up on his walls. He met some of them. He should be home soon and I cannot wait to hear all about it and give him his gifts and share what's left of the peanut butter pie from last night's bday celebration. (Shhhhh...it has 75g of fat per serving!)

And the female contingent of our household had a lovely lunch with good friends and then finally made it to the revamped Chinese mentor group that we've attended on and off the past few years at a semi-local prep school. The girls all had a blast! It helped for The Spark that her BFF made the 1.5 trip to be there today too. And I'm very excited that I finally lined up an hour of tutoring in Mandarin every Wednesday for The Spark. The student running the mentor group is very sweet and outgoing and bright and The Spark took to her easily, so it should be a good experience for her. She is thrilled since she's only been asking at least once a week for about two years to have Chinese lessons. Needlesstosay our area is not crawling with qualified Mandarin instructors. So finally, in her own words, she can get some "Chinese to come out of her Chinese face."

Here are the pics J sent from the US Open today:

Zippy with pro-rider (and former contestant on Dancing with the Stars) Louie Vito:

The boys with Olympic gold (2002) and bronze (2010) medalist Kelly Clark who won the women's half pipe comp today:

And with Olympic gold medalist (2006) Hannah Teter:

Checking out the top of the half pipe: