celebrating another year of life

We recently were invited by some of josh's deaf friend to celebrate his birthday.  We were excited (read with thick sarcasm) to try out the new "western" restaurant they had chosen, but really were excited that he wanted to spend his birthday with us.  The custom here is that the birthday boy or girl is responsible for whatever costs are incurred during the celebration...so our acceptance to his party meant that we had stomach him paying for us at this fairly expensive buffet.  

Ok, bv - this guy on the left totally reminds me of you!  I mean, not in a bad way, just his general sense makes me think of you!  So we hope you are well, bv!  You can figure out which one is the birthday boy...compliments of the bday crown we gave him! haha

Josh taught us all how to say "happy birthday" in sign language...
...and Emma wanted to try, too!  I can tell it bothers her that she can't communicate with them, which is sweet.  She wants to be a part of the group and welcome them too.  
Emma and Mantha colored while we waited for a few stragglers to arrive.
The dude that reminds me of bv also happens to be a graphic designer, so he and samantha tried to collaborate on a few little projects...
We found out a bit later that the restaurant charges for kids over 1 meter.  We had emma measured because 1) she eats like a bird, and 2) she's under or just right at 1 meter, and 3) we weren't paying.  Plus, she was probably going to eat enough birthday cake that she wouldn't want any of the er, um...interesting looking food on the buffet.  She passed the 1-meter test.  

I love this picture - no matter how old you are, who doesn't feel happy on their birthday when they are surrounded by people who love them?  Plus, he recently has received new Life and it truly bubbles within him.  What a great way to start this next year of his life!
Emma was just happy to see the candles finally blown out so she could eat some of that cake!  The girl who cut the cake obviously does not have children...emma's peice was about as big as her head!
Here's the group picture - do you see my Asia-fied daughter flashing the ubiquitous v-sign?  I cracked up when I looked through the pictures.  The even funnier part is that for some reason, she's the only one doing it!  haha!

the house that the kit built

Ok, I've got nothing against people who make homemade gingerbread houses.  I even did it myself, as I'm sure you all remember.   But I also had a back-up plan:  a boxed Gingerbread House kit.  My mother in law was kind enough to mail me a big huge one, and when I got the box, I was amazed at how organized and compartmented it was.  Here's your icing, here's your sprinkles, here's your house walls, etc.  You get the idea.  That's my kind of gingerbread house.  

The house sustained a bit of damage in transit, but I just repaired it a bit a few hours before we started decorating.  I've even included pictures of me in this post, because I've pretty much quit caring about what I look like.  Lucky you.  

Since there was some past experience to go off of, the girls were pumped up for house #2.  We again got to sit on the table, which is a big hit with em and mantha.  You can see that even though repairs were made, we think that Santa misjudged his landing while delivering presents to this particular house.  This part of the roof was unrepairable and kept falling in.  

We started out with icing that worked much better than what I used last time...
...and mantha, notorious for sneaking tastes of everything, all the time decided this icing tasted better than last time too.  
We made a cross hatch pattern on the roof, and Emma and mantha were able to put on their own decorations with a variety of candies provided by said kit.  



Here's a picture of us with the finished product.
We were proud of our work, and I thought it looked better than last time.  


(he better love me! =)

end of the season

Do you feel a twinge of sadness when it's time to take down Christmas decorations?

I do.  

I miss the soft light of garland and christmas trees, the jolly smiles of snowmen, and the sparkle of wrapped presents under the tree.  I miss cinnamonny candles and wreaths and wall hangings declaring that a Savior has been born.  The pretty ribbons come down, wicker stars and christmas trees come off my walls, the nativity gets packed away.  

And I miss it.  

Plus, I also hate rearranging all the stuff in my one teeny little closet that holds all my random stuff.  But that's beside the point.  

This year, the girls really helped me decorate a lot, and were excited about all the things we put up, so even though I took down a lot of it myself while they were napping, I asked them to help me take the decorations off the tree.  

There were some serious questions, mostly centered around the unfairness of taking down the decorations.  I agreed, but told them that new year's was over and we needed to get our house ready for the baby.  (In college, josh and I took down our tree every year during spring break...that would never fly anymore!)

They worked on their sorting skills by helping me separate kinds of christmas ornaments, and they did a good job, even if they were a little sad.  You can see they are still wearing their necklaces made during our pop-beads party the day before...

It's true...in less than two weeks, we leave for thailand to wait for the baby.  But still, I was sad to pack the holiday away.  Next year, next year...

play time!

I love new presents, because it provides all sorts of hours of entertainment for my kids!  (My parents also sent my girls a Leapster2 for Christmas - and it rocks!  Talk about keeping your kids entertained!)

One thing josh and I got the girls was these pop bead things.  It took samantha a while to figure out exactly what they were for.  She thought they were just regular blocks, so she decided to make a little train with them....

Pregnant people should not get this low to the floor, even in pursuit of good pictures!
After complimenting her on her well-planned and executed train, we had a a little lesson about what the beads were for.  They were enthralled with the infinite possibilities of rings, bracelets, necklaces and crowns.  It was heaven for little princesses...




Emma in particular had specific requirements for colors and lengths and styles.  She loaded herself up with as much bling as possible.  

Nope, no trains or dump trucks in this house.  It's jewelry and dress up all the way!

Happy New Year, from the eggrolls!

Although our New Year's Eve party wasn't as festive as we'd hoped (josh was still fighting off the junk, so we left a bit before midnight - actually, I was in the elevator with my friend Brad at midnight...I made sure he kissed his wife first! =) )  our New Year's celebrations still went on as planned.  

The girls had been looking forward to New Year's Day for several weeks, and were ready to open all their presents under the tree.  I probably should have insisted that we brush hair, at the very least, before opening presents, but they were so excited to get started that I felt like, "What the heck, we'll just get started!"  So we busted out the video camera to sit in the corner (in true Whit fashion!) and they got to work.  

I love the look on Emma's face as Mantha gets to open the first present of the morning -- isn't it great? 

When it was a My Little Pony movie, there was cause for great delight! 
Emma had several "big girl" toys...like this lite brite, which she didn't quite understand at first.  Once we did a picture together and then lit it up, she thought it was pretty cool.  
Em also got some pop beads that fit together to make jewelry.  Another gift that was a bit advanced for her, but she totally loved it.  She's a true girly girl, as you will see in a future post!
And My Little Pony refill Lite Brite set...
Of course, the big box under the tree was perhaps the most anticpated of all.  
Mantha made quick work of the paper...
It was a little tikes market/cash register thing from josh's parents.  You scan the foods and they teach you all about food groups.  My kids now walk around the house saying, "Eggs are a protein.  Milk is a good source of calcium.  Broccoli is a vegetable."  It's way fun and they love playing "payer/seller" with it.  
We finished all the present festivities with stockings loaded up with American snacks - Hot Tamales, Fig Newtons, Butterfingers, Baby Ruths and spicy peanuts for Daddy; sour skittles, laffy taffy, blow pops, and chocolates for the girls; and for me, just the sheer enjoyment of watching everyone be surprised and happy with their gift (one of my favorite things!)

And in case there wasn't enough good stuff, we had double chocolate chip muffins and bacon and eggs for breakfast - no new year's resolutions concerning weight loss in this house! (At least not yet, anyway!)

We lounged around the house the entire day, with nothing to do.   It was bliss.  

Happy New Year!

crunchies: because life is too short

My dad, who's pretty much good at everything he's ever done, had quite a few tricks up his sleeve in the meal department while we were growing up.  One of my favorite family foods was his version of Chex-mix - a caramely, sweet crunchy creation made even better with the addition of chocolate chips.  It takes normal salty chexmix and shows its sweeter side.  These crunchies, as they came to be known, are one of my favorite memories of being in my parents home.  

Last year, when my parents came to visit us in Asia, my dad brought two very important things needed in the Crunchies process - a roasting pan and a big Tupperware thing.  I'm sure other things can be used in their place, but because my dad used them every single time he made crunchies, they came to be just about as necessary in my book as the butter.  He packed those bulky items in his suitcase, and now I am the blessed recipient of almost all the ingredients needed for the most-favored snack.  

Except Chex. Chex...it's a crazy thing.  It's really hard to find over here, and the one time I saw it, it was $10 a box. I really love crunchies, but I can't justify $10 a box.  But, one of our trunks on the way home from our Fall trip to America contained two boxes of Chex - one corn, and one rice.  (My dad uses wheat instead of rice chex.) and I've been saving it for a special occasion.

How much more special can you get than a New Year's Eve party?  Crunchies are the perfect party food, perfectly addicting and nicely satisfying.  I busted it out, following my dad's exact instructions a couple of days ago.  

The result was as good as I could have hoped.  It was so good, in fact, that I took pictures and am going to share the recipe here.  It's so totally fab, and packs such great memories for me.  It's the ultimate in family food.  

Crunchies, courtesy of RandyW:

Preheat oven to 250.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt:

1 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. (1 stick) butter

1/2 c. karo syrup (or light corn syrup)

Stir constantly until mixture comes to a boil.  Boil mixture about 5 minutes.  Do not stir.
In a lightly greased, large roasting pan, combine:

9 cups chex cereal (corn, rice, wheat, or any combination.  I used half and half of corn and rice.)

1 c. slivered almonds

After 5 minutes, remove butter/brown sugar mixture from head and add:

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 t. baking soda

Stir. 

Pour mixture over Chex cereal and mix thoroughly.
Bake for one hour, removing from oven to stir thoroughly every 15 minutes.  (Make sure when you stir, that you get all that yummy coating over all the parts of the cereal!)
After one hour, remove from oven and stir constantly until mixture begins to harden.  Do not let mixture form clumps.  

Pour into airtight container, being careful not to let mixture harden together.

Allow mix to col completely, then add:

1 cup chocolate chips
Happy New Year!

christmas fun with 30 kids

Christmas morning did not provide the relaxed, leisurely breakfast we usually think of (and have!), nor did it leave us walking around the house in slippered feet sipping hot chocolate or cider.  No, Christmas morning this year was hurrying our kids to scarf down some cereal so we could hop in a taxi to make it to Emma's school by 8:50am.  Oh my.  8:50am on Christmas morning....

But anyway, we were all excited so it was ok.  We started this quasi-tradition last year when we visited a preschool and talked about the Christmas story and did a little craft and passed out Christmas "gifts".  It was really fun, though last year we didn't do it at Emma's school (she wasn't yet in school at that time) and it didn't really lead to as many relationships as we had hoped.  

This year, we were looking forward to doing it at Emma's school, and even though we had heard that no parents were coming, I was excited about meeting more of Emma's friends.  

We actually made it to school by 8:50 and I started unpacking my things.  I started out by telling a version of the Christmas story that can be 1)understood by four-year-olds who have not ever heard a shred of the Christmas story before and 2) can be said by me, in Asianese.  =)  You can tell they are all listening with rapt attention. Why don't my kids do that?  hee hee

In case you missed it, I'm the one in the front with the big fat red sweater on...

We brought out the visual aids next -  a manger scene where every child (yes, every one of the 35 children) got to contribute and add something to it.  I had done some serious cutting in the last few days!)
Here's our completed manger scene - hey, the Book says the sky was full of angels, right?  This is the most angels I've ever seen in ANY rendition of a manger scene.  I do have a knack for biblical accuracy....  hahahahaha  There also happen to be lots of shepherds who look amazingly alike, as well as lots of fluffy sheep.  But hey, that's how it goes when you've gotta give something to 35 kids.  
The visual aid was great - it gave them a much better sense of what I was talking about.  Our next activity was to make angels from wooden spoons.  This is an interesting activity for Asianese people because you are using a wooden spoon for nothing other than a craft.  I have one friend who liked the idea so much, she made the same craft with kids at a birthday party...except several of the moms took the spoons home to use to serve rice with instead of letting their kids make the craft!  (aim, it was yl!! hahaha!)  So there was a bit of surprise that I had bought 35 wooden spoons just for the kids to color on, but whatever.  It was fun and it cost like, ten bucks.  All the kids lined up at their little tables and started coloring the wings and angel dress.
Then we needed some serious tape to attach wings, halos and clothing.  Here is the tape station, manned by red-sweater-lady and several other helpful moms.  (I had not expected any parents, but seven or eight moms showed up - it was the perfect number for me!  Just enough people to get acquainted with and make friends with!)
Paper plates cut in half made the wings...
pipe cleaners were the halos, and with the clothing taped on, this is the finished product:
This is Emma's best friend (they sit next to each other at table #3):
The kids were SO proud of their angels!
Ok, now everyone!  Show us your angels!
Then all the angels got laid down because the school had provided a big fat honkin cake...
...isn't it interesting?  all lime green with some kind of brown house-structure on top?  That's how it goes at the bakery here, I tell ya...
But what kid at 10am is going to refuse cake?  They had a great time eating and playing and smearing icing all over their faces and getting to do things that were out of the normal routine. 

Here's Emma and Mantha with the three teachers in her class.  She was not thrilled about those puffy white things in her hair (some mom gave them to her as a gift and forced her to wear them; I think emma thought they looked weird.  I agreed.)
All in all, it was a great chaotic morning.  Everyone had a good time, I've already met up with several of the moms that were there, and almost all the adults commented to me - "It was so great to hear the real meaning of Christmas. We've never really known why christmas was celebrated!"  I'll take that over a leisurely christmas breakfast any day!