Birthday Party for Ellie

Saturday we invited some friends over to have cake and ice cream with Ellie for her birthday. What a fun time!!!

Ellie with her princess cake
Time to blow out the candles!
And a shot of all the kids at the party! Together they represented 3 different countries!

Happy 6th Birthday Noelle!!!

Happy Birthday to our spunky 6 year old!! We love you!

Elle started her day off with a phone call from Grandma and Grandpa K who sang "Happy Birthday" to her (carrying on the tradition started by my Grandma Bestemor every year on her grandchildren's birthdays)!
She was so excited to get a watch from Grandma and Grandpa L!!
Off to McDonalds for her birthday dinner (her choice).
I love this picture of her with her first real tea set! She can't wait to make some tea for Daddy tomorrow!!

Playing in the Mud

Ok, so he didn't quite play in the mud, but Ike spent the morning planting rice with his classmates in the muddy fields! He had lots of fun, but despite the smile on his face he couldn't get his brother and sister to join him! Maybe next year!

All the students did a little dance before the planting.
Then they took a picture with the mayor of Hsinchu County who had come to speak to the school.

Time to get to work. They had to go barefoot because the mud would pull any shoes or boots right off.

When he was done it looked like he was wearing boots! This was definitely a great opportunity for him to see how hard the farmers around here work!

Dr. Seuss' Birthday Party

We celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday today (a week late, I know)! The kids had a blast eating foods with fun names taken from Dr. Seuss' books, reading Dr. Seuss books, watching "Green Eggs and Ham" and other Dr. Seuss book videos, and of course eating birthday cake!

Our Dr. Seuss feast!
This year we had "Yertle the Turtle" birthday cake! White turtles really do look freaky!

Too Funny (or at least we think so)

Our puppy has to wear the "collar of shame" for a week and is not too happy about it! He was terrified of the thing at first. Thankfully that's changed and now it's just this annoying thing around his neck. We sure think he looks funny, though (funnier than normal, that is)!

A few days away!

Last week I was able to go south for a few days...without kids!! It was a wonderful time away with friends, learning about how faithfulness wins the showdown (from the life of Elijah) from author and speaker Cindy Sigler Dagnan! Here are a couple views of the beautiful Pacific from the southern part of Taiwan!