10-20-08 Xander's birthday 傑升的生日

Can I have one more? 我可以再吃一個嗎

My friends love my cake. 我同學都很喜歡我的蛋糕吔.

Isn't this cake look so cute? 很有萬聖節氣氛的蛋糕

The finished products. 做好的蛋糕.

Xander's birthday is really close to Halloween and we always find cute Halloween cup cake ideas from Better Home magazine every year. This year Xander picked the bat cup cakes -- becasuse the rest of them are too hard and take too much time to make them. Both kids were having fun decorating the cakes for about 10 minutes and ran away to play something else. Sean came to make sure if that's o.k. that they didn't help me with the cakes and I responed it was much faster if they don't help me.

Khai and I went to Xander's school in the afternoon and helped passing out the cup cakes to his classmates. The class sang him happy birthday song and everyone gave him a birthday hug and wish. It was so sweet.

We decided to stay home and celebrate his birthday since it's school night. Xander chose macaroni cheese for dinner, easy enought that I can make it at home. Xander loved his presents, especially the DS games and the helicopter from grand parents. Khai was being very nice watcing his big brother opening all presents and didn't whine why he didn't get any.

Happy Birthday Xander.

傑升的生日離萬聖節很近. 每年當月的雜誌都會有一些做蛋糕的點子給萬聖節用, 所以我們常常可以做不同的蛋糕給傑升拿到學校分同學吃. 今年傑升選了蝙蝠, 因為其它的太難了, 媽媽不會也沒有時間做. 小朋友們很高興的幫忙做蛋糕, 可是小孩子的專注力還是有限, 過了一會兒他們就跑上樓找爸爸玩了. 爸爸問我說還需不需要小朋友們幫忙做蛋糕, 我小聲的跟爸爸講: "其實沒有他們的幫忙我反而比較快", 不想講太大聲以傷他們的自尊心.

隔天我和煒勳拿蛋糕到哥哥的學校去請同學吃, 在他們班上大家會圍一個圓圈, 先唱生日快樂歌, 然後每個人給壽星一個抱抱及祝福. 傑升有點害羞的讓大家輪流抱抱, 最後美麗的老師也抱了他一下. 然後傑升問他同學們要那種蛋糕他再分給大家, 煒勳坐在哥哥的桌子旁很高興的吃著蛋糕.

因為隔天還要上課, 所以我們沒有出去外面慶祝, 傑升選擇要吃起司麵, 還好這個我會做. 晚上早早的吃完了晚餐, 傑升很高興的拆他的禮物. 他很喜歡玩樂高積木, 所以煒勳及爺爺奶奶送他積木遊戲. 爸爸媽媽送他電子遊樂器的遊戲. 他玩的很高興, 而最難得的是煒勳整晚很乖的看哥哥拆禮物, 一點都沒有嫉妒他自己都沒有禮物. 嗯, 下次煒勳生日時也要對他特別好.

Harvest pumpkins 採收南瓜

Khai is a very strong helper. 我一次可以拉3顆南瓜.

總共有14顆南瓜吔

Dry corn from our garden. 這些乾乾的玉米是我們種的.

The weather forcast predictes that there will be frost in the next few days, so I thought I'll harvest the pumpkins since their veins already brown and dead anyways. Cut the stem and put them on Khai's baby wagon, drag all of them to the front porch. Wow, we had 14 big and small pumpkins. We started with 8 seeds, thin 4 of them, just water them daily and didn't do much and see how many we got out of them. We really enjoy our pumpkin patch this year because their veins are everywhere and so long. Didn't want to hurt the pumpkins, so we don't mow these areas. Being lazy persons, we decided to expand our garden and plant more pumpkins--you probably already firgure out the real reason why we expand the garden. ^_*

We also planted some corns and only ate two big and sweet corns. That was it, we forgot to harvest them and now they are too old to eat. We'll save them until them turn brown, and we can use that as our Halloween decoration.

氣象預告估計這幾天會結霜. 我怕我們的南瓜會被凍壞又想它們的莖及葉子都已經變黃變枯了, 應該是可以採收了吧. 好, 叫煒勳跟我一起去採收南瓜. 割了蒂把南瓜放在小推車裡, 煒勳幫我把它們推到前門去. 我們數了數, 哇, 總共有14顆南瓜呢. 本來只種了8顆種子, 其中拔到了4顆要不然會彼此競爭而長不大..也就只有澆澆水, 拔些草而已, 竟然可以長這麼多. 種南瓜最大的好處就是它的莖很會長也有很多葉子, 所以有莖的地方我們割草時都會繞過..這樣子就讓我想到那我們明年就要把花園再擴大再種南瓜, 讓它的莖到處長這樣就不用割草了..聰明吧.

今年也種了玉米, 有吃到2顆又大又甜的玉米, 可是後來忘記採收等到要採時都已經太老了. 想說就先留著, 等到它們變黃變乾時還可以採下來當萬聖節的裝飾.

10/10/08 Khai's field trip 煒勳的戶外教學

Hurry mom, I only have 5 seconds standing here. 媽媽快點啦,只有5秒鐘可以站這裡吶.
Explain how fire truck works 消防員解說設備.
Boy, this pants is so big..好大的褲子哦.
Firefighter's full gear 消防員的全副武裝.

This week is Khai's turn to go to fire station for his field trip. Fire fighter Larry explained what fire fighters do and how they use their station and fire truck. He opens most of the cabinets and shows us what tools inside and when to use them. Kids get to go inside the station and see where fire fighters eat, sleep, shower, and exercise. They keep their station very clean, they even wash their fire trucks every day. Kids also get to go inside the fire truck and have a seat on the chair--for 5 seconds. At the end they need a volunteer to put on fire fighter's full gear. I rais my hand immediately because I would like to know how heavy they are to put on the whole gears.

After adding pants, boots, jackets, helmet, and finally air tank, it's getting heavy. Fire fighter Larry even asked me to crow on the floor and shake kids' hands. This way kids would know that fire fighters are there to save them. I manage myself to get up w/o any help. The whole gears are so heavy and no wonder fire fighters need to be in their best shape. It was very fun to visit fire station, for kids and myself.

今天換煒勳要去消防局做戶外教學. 消防局離學校只有1分鐘車程.到了消防局,消防員為小朋友們解釋防火安全,發生火災/災變時要在那裡和家人碰面,及介紹消防車的各種設備. 我們後來進去觀看消防員們吃飯,睡覺,洗澡及運動的地方. 整個消防局好乾淨哦, 因為他們沒去救災時就待在局裡清理裡面. 他們甚至每天都洗消防車呢. 我懷疑他們的家裡是不是也都很乾淨--職業病. 後來消防員徵求一個志願者穿上全副消防衣, 我馬上伸手因為我很想體驗穿消防制服. 慢慢的穿上褲子,外套, 手套,面具及氧氣桶,哇,好重吔.要當一個消防員體能一定要在最好的狀態, 要不然你根本就走不了幾步就累了. 小朋友最後可以在消防車上坐一下並照張相, 要快哦, 只有5秒鐘的時間.

10/3/08 Xander's field trip. 傑升的戶外教學

觀看果園如何挑選蘋果.
Hmmm..Yummy fresh donuts and cider.好香的甜甜圈跟新鮮蘋果汁.
Xander picked a good apple from the tree. 傑升也採了一顆大蘋果.
Fresh apple right from the tree. 煒勳從蘋果樹上現採的新鮮蘋果


This is Xander's first field trip in the first grade. The class is going to visit the orchard. We arrived the orchard and sat on the wagon to see the whole orchard. The lady explained how apple trees grow and invited us to pick an apple from the tree. It was fun to pick a fresh juicy apple right from the tree. It smells very sweet. We then went inside to see how they sort the apples and make apple cider. The pretty looking one can sell for very good price, the ugly ones and small ones will be used for making cider. Everyone had a chance to taste the fresh made donuts and cider. So yummy. It was a fun day. 2 friends of mine and myself just bought 8 bushels of apples and we made a bunch of apple sauce, few apple ciders and lots of apple butter. I'llshow you the pictures later.

今天是傑升一年級的第一次戶外教學. 我們到了果園後坐上推車,聽解說園介紹整個蘋果園.下車後解說園跟小朋友們介紹蘋果是怎麼來的並邀請我們去採一顆蘋果. 剛從樹上摘下的蘋果好香好甜哦.煒勳等不及了馬上就開始大啃大吃. 接著我們進去工廠看他們怎麼分蘋果.外表漂亮光滑的就可以賣較好的價錢,有黑點的或是太小的就賣便宜點或是做蘋果汁. 我們到戶外時, 他們端出了現做的甜甜圈及蘋果汁. 很好吃呢. 我前幾天才跟2位朋友買了好幾大袋的蘋果, 做了許多蘋果泥跟幾罐蘋果汁.做蘋果汁擠剩的果肉還可拿來做果醬.改天再拍照給大家看.