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!

fun in the garden

running in the garden is the best
you just got to try wading in the water
checking out nature's music
helping to turn the compost bin is really fun
"best" friends

Digging dirt

Who knew kids love to dig dirt so much? We were invited by another homeschooling family to come and dig dirt in their back yard. And boy, did J and Prime dig! I was thinking they will dig for like 10-15 minutes but they dug for a good hour and more before the call of donuts/cider lured them to the deck.


Digging and more digging.................
Getting a ride in the tractor. They actually like it considering they are not fan of hay rides.
There was also a horse available to ride but neither of the kids were up for that.

In other news, we have been busy as homeschool is in full swing, but today we really took it easy with the outing, and relaxed.

Prime's favorite new hobby is riding his bike now that he can take off by himself. Now if he'll just master the braking and we'll be able to "all ride our bikes together and get ice cream". (Guess maybe ice cream is the real motivating factor.)

Not back to school

Since we are homeschooling family, we went to the "Not Back to School" picnic yesterday. I haven't really been taking too many pictures lately so here are the few I took.



But our first day of homeschooling for 2009-2010 started Tuesday with the start of Classical Conversation class. The kids has been very attentive. I was surprised Prime was able to sit for 2+ hours. He was with the big kids (7- 9years) so I think he felt good but next week, I will see if he likes the younger class better. The material is the same but is presented in a different manner and will give him more breaks.

This year, most of our school will be done in afternoons as the year long classes are all in the morning. So our rhythms has been breakfast, class, lunch, play, school, (then play if we are lucky but often dinner), night adventure. One thing we have been enjoying is taking walks in the the dark using our lanterns and observing moon at night.

That it for now. My computer often freezes up so I haven't been able to be on it for long stretch of time... maybe that is God trying to tell me something. Until next time.... God bless.

visiting friends

We had a lovely visit to our missionary friend's place. J and Prime enjoyed exploring the place and meeting new animal friends.


Inside their tree house... there is another in the back with couple entrances.


Inside the barn and checking our other big wheels. J inside a revamped school bus which can sleep 10. Our friends drive from their home/ bus down to Guatemala every year and stay there for 5 months out of the year. Talk about learning on wheels.

J and Prime befriends their youngest son.
It turns out the Prime really likes the cat an the cat likes him too.

Their "house trained" rabbit... the very center of all the attention. Even I had fun feeding the bunny warm milk. :)


Eating fruits fresh off the tree was another highlight. The yellow plum and the tomatoes were delicious.

more summer highlights (+lost tooth)

We haven't been out and about this summer as much as I would like to have (due to a freak accident) so we are still on summer vacation status and plan on starting back after Labor Day.

But the kids have really been troopers and grown closer to each other like never before. They have been loving their free play time indoors though we are slowly getting back to our normal rhythm and trying to spend more time out doors than we have been during the day. Share a few (okay maybe more than a few) of their recent summer highlights.

Prime lost his first tooth (we think he swallowed it) while we were eating at restaurant so no visit from the tooth fairy.

Prime loves to find Waldo and knows how to ask for help. Even though he doesn't always find it, he keeps on coming back to try again.


scenes from summer fun night: waiting for the marshmallow to drop from the sky

Putting math skills to work: counting up marshmallows
Getting the "swing": Prime is so happy that he figured out how to swing himself (direct benefit of big sister)


Prime caught the chicken in the "chicken race" despite not really wanting to but the prize of candy bar was so tempting.

Prime loves to feed the animals and fed them for a long time while his friends all ran off . He is also getting protective about who can take his pictures, apparently only mommy and daddy has that special privilege.


We saw a green stink bug on our morning walk and Prime took him home. But alas, he got peed/pooped by it twice. He was not happy about that. ;-) This bugs' flying skill really surprised us.