monkeying around

The kids love monkey bars and quite good at it.

I love this picture of W. This kind of moving circles are tricky. We haven't figured out what the trick is.

making french toast

The kids love french toast so daddy made some for us over the weekend. It was so delicious that J asked daddy for his 'secret' recipe. After writing it down and watching daddy make it over the weekend, J declared early this morning she will make it herself! (that got daddy off the bed in a hurry so he can supervise. :))



I want more, Prime says and sis graciously shared some of hers and off to make some more.

Fun with pumpkin

A couple days ago, the kids drew on the pumpkin. J put hair on her pumpkin too.

It's pretty obvious to know who drew which face. :)

Then over the weekend they started carving or rather cutting. :) First, the kids were not excited over the prospect of carving the pumpkin mostly I think because they were scared to to use the knife but once they got started, daddy says they "couldn't stop". On the very first one, they even tried to drill but I don't think that worked well. Yesterday, I watched them carve this 2nd pumpkin (from our garden, hence the color) and they were both fierce carvers. The 2nd one had lot less scratches compared to the first one.



This is the first one they carved.

weekend (apple,pumpkin,and fuse beads)

apples, apples, and more apples.... We picked: gala, cortland, mutsu ("the best apple" says by a self-claimed "appleholic"), jonagolds and northern spy. I'm hoping to pick Fuji apple next but supposedly the next batch ready to be picked won't be end of November. Brrr!




I just had to post some silly pictures of Prime and his friend. While these two burned energy, J and the little one did fuse beads. The kids liked doing fuse beads so much they requested a bucket of their own and are doing it as I type. :)



Finished product from the weekend: J's and Prime's.

art museum, and moon cake making all in one day

The kids are at AWANA and I finally have a little time to myself and can have some peace and quite and catch up on some housework and some blogging.

Anyway, we took the kids to see the art museum since it has recently re-opened after a major renovation. This past weekend was its free day of the year so yippee! This is the kids' first time there. We didn't get to see everything as it was huge. J said she liked it but I think she'll like and appreciate it even more when she is little older.


The painted ceiling, we saw using a glass which reflected the painting. We also watched a lady demonstrate musical instruments from all over the world which was really neat. But Prime was more interested in drawing. He has grown to loving to draw, but only what he wants to draw.

This is J's favorite piece of art at the museum: "Nut gatherer" ,a popular piece so we brought her a post card size for keepsake.

Later in the same day, we had a nice gathering with friends. My friend gathered all the children there and had them each try making the moon cake.

The dough is from ready made pastries, but the filling (red bean and lotus) she made entirely from scratch.

They were delicious. J and Prime both opted for the more traditional moon cake mold while some of the other children made different ones like fish, panda, etc. I'll have to try this myself as it was really delicious. J noted it tastes different from the store brought one. :)

Pioneer day and fall

Hard to believe this is from last weekend. I was already feeling the fall weather but looking at the kids, it seems like to them it was still summer though Prime did ask to wear my sweatshirt.

J's favorite event of the day was butter making. She kept at it while Prime and I was ready to move on and in the end, did get butter. She also loved tug of war and would go and help whichever team seems to be in danger of losing.

Prime's favorite event was the choo-choo train even if it were bumpy. This event would be better when the kids are actually learning about the pioneering day. But since this is an annual free event, we will be back.

Right now, they are studying the ancients as far as history is concerned. The kids are loving the Usborne Young Reading biography books and specifically Cleopatra and Alexander the Great. They also both loved the book The 12 labors of Hercules. J also loved watching The Royal Diaries (of Cleopatra VII, Isabel and Elizabeth I).

There were lots more activities at Pioneer day but for some reason, I haven't been feeling up to taking many photos and prefers to just soak in everything.

For fall, we had Chinese "moon cakes". This is suppose to be in celebration of the Chinese Mid Autumn festival as usual but I think for us, we just enjoy eating the moon cakes. This year we tried few new different favors. We are also making some of them with friends this weekend. Of course, we have already drank couple gallons of raw apple cider and many donuts.

The kids also picked leaves for their dear friends in Florida this year because their mother said the color of the leaves there just go from green to ugly. ;-) J even included a whole bunch of leaves from our garden to send as well as sweet little note while Prime did as well.

Finally, the kids are hoping to pick apples again. J has requested we spend more time at picking apples than at blueberries. :) Our favorite apples is Fuji apples...perfect for our green lemonade and of course perfect for just eating as well. I am planning to try to make apple sauce this year as a friend said it is super easy and would be something new for us. Anyway, happy fall or October to you all!