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!

Family Fun Weekend

Last weekend marked the end of the kid's New Year's vacation, so we decided to do some "fun" stuff with them before getting back into the school routine!

We took a ride on the local train to downtown Hsinchu

Ate some yummy frozen yogurt!

Andy patiently played tennis with all the kids (the first time for Elle and Joe)

It was a beautifully sunny weekend! Warm even!!!

And a great big brother even took time to help Elle with her swing!!

Lantern Festival

The last official day of Chinese New Year is Lantern Festival. This year our neighbor gave our kids fun paper lanterns to light up for the holiday and did they ever have fun with them!

A girl and her pup!

Andy's Birthday!!

Happy Birthday to a wonderful dad and husband!!!  We love you!!!

Chinese New Year

We had a VERY FUN and full Chinese New Year's Eve and Day! What a fun time here!

We started the Lunar New Year's Eve day off at Victory Church where Andy had the privilege of baptizing Little H.

Spent the afternoon with our good friends and neighbors, the Zhaps!  The kids had a BLAST playing games with their kids (who are always so patient and good to them), and we of course had good food and good coffee!

Lots of fun with fireworks thanks to A-Ba!  Don't worry, the kids are watched very closely!

In the evening we went to the home of one of Andy's language helpers and had so much fun with her family (who we met for the first time)!  Here's a picture of the kids lining up to get red envelopes from her.  The kids catch on fast here!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Year's Day we had a "quiet" dinner at home (it was loud outside from all the fireworks, but quiet inside). 

Green onion pancakes...yummy!

And Chinese dumplings...also yummy!

This is just a fun picture!  Ike loves his sparklers!

Merry Christmas Y'all!

Kid's Christmas Choir

Some of the kids at church have been working VERY hard for the past few months to get ready for Christmas services at church. Our kids were part of the choir and had so much fun preparing for it! All the kid's did a GREAT job of sharing the message of Jesus coming as a child to save us through the songs they sang and danced to!

Mini-Gingerbread Houses

The other week we bought some "gingerbread" house kits and the kids had fun putting them together (they were really some sort of tasteless cracker according to the kids)! Believe it or not I actually let them do it all and only helped when they asked (this is unusual because I HATE messes)!

A Wedding Celebration!

This past Sunday our neighbors son was married. Ellie and Isaak had the privilege of being part of the days festivities! It was so fun to watch this couple and their families celebrate!

The beautiful couple
The kids after getting ready for the wedding feast
Ike and Elle looking all snazzy
Grandpa and Ike at the feast
Grandma and Elle checking out her rose petals
The kids with our neighbor (A-Ba)

2 weeks with Grandma and Grandpa K!!

We just spent 2 GREAT weeks with Grandma and Grandpa! We wish it could have been longer, but we'll take what we can get! The kids had so much fun with them (and so did Andy and I) and can't wait until our next visitors arrive (though we don't know when that will be)! Here's a little review of the past 2 weeks.....

There was Christmas baking with Grandma
There were games to play and puzzles to make with Grandpa
We took a day trip up to Yeliou where we saw some cool rock formations "carved" by the wind and the waves
We took Father/Daughter pics with the North China Sea in the background
We took a picture of the 3 generations of girls also with the North China Sea in the background (or Pacific Ocean if you like that better)
We went to the Ocean Park where Ike and Grandpa got up close and personal with the dolphins
Ferb got LOTS of attention from G & G (probably because they were missing Kramer)
We went to a wedding feast where Grandpa got his first taste of sashimi (and liked it)...
And Grandma got to figure out how to eat these massive prawns
But most of all we just enjoyed spending time together as a family!

Grandma and Grandpa K are here!!!

We are currently enjoying having G & G with us for a couple of weeks! The kids are soaking in the time with them (so is Ferb)! More pics to come.....