Who's your good friend? 誰是你的好朋友?

Last week at Chinese school we talked about good friends. I had the class come to the front and I asked if they have any good friends and what their friends names are. Most of the kids answered my questions, and talked about their friends. Khai was tired, so he sat on the chair in the back alone. I asked the class again who has a good friend, Khai raised his hand and I asked who's his good friend, and he pointed at me. The moms in that class all said "oh......", my eyes were watery and I said thank you then hurried and moved on to the next subject before my tears came. He was so sweet and made me so proud of having him as my son. It was my highlight that evening.

上禮拜五在中文學校主題是"好朋友". 我請小朋友到前面來並問他們有沒有好朋友, 叫什麼名字, 都跟好朋友玩什麼? 有些小朋友就乖乖的回答我的問題. 煒勳那時很累所以他自己坐在後面的座位上, 我再問一次還有沒有人有好朋友. 煒勳舉起了他的手, 我問他的好朋友是誰, 他什麼都沒說就指著我..頓時全班的媽媽們都說"喔....." 我眼眶一熱趕緊趁淚水流下來前跟他說聲謝謝並轉移話題. 那時候我覺得好溫暖好貼心, 覺得有個貼心孩子的我真是幸福. 整個晚上都覺得很快樂. 做媽媽的只要小朋友做任何小小一件好事都會很感動, 是不是越老就越容易動情呢?

1st wet snow in winter 08 今年第一場雪

Snow man and woman. 2 個雪人

Kids' snow castle. 小朋友的雪堡.

Snowman-Xander 傑升雪人

Snowman Khai 煒勳雪人

This weekend had been cold and we got about 4 inches of snow (kind of early to have snow for MI this year) . The snow was wet and good for building snowman. Kids and I all bundled up and went out to play snow. We used whatever craft we had in the garage and porch to built these 2 snow man and woman. We had a really good time of building the snowmen and playing snow outside.

這個週末下了很多雪, 是今年冬天的第一場. 尤於這次的雪較溼很適合做雪人, 我們等到哥哥下課後回到家就迫不及待的全副武裝準備到外面去玩雪. 先堆起雪人再叫小朋友躲到雪人後面來拍張雪人照再完成我們的雪人. 在冰箱裡找到2 個柳丁就當雪人的大眼而袋子就當帽子囉, ...吔, 萬聖節還有剩下的南瓜就拿來當另一個雪人的頭好了..嗯, 看了看我們的雪人還真可愛..

小朋友們在旁邊很興奮的堆雪堡要跟我玩打雪球, 可是已經太晚了我的腳都快結冰了就約他們下次再玩. 小朋友們在外面玩的很高興, 晚上早早的就去睡覺了. 有沒有人要來我們家玩雪呀?

Happy Thanksgiving 2008 感恩節

Stuffing.

This year I presented a turkey project for my class before the Thanksgiving, kids loved it very much and had so much fun. A parent, whose husband just came to the State to study, asked me how to cook turkey. Sean and I thought it would be fun to invite them over for Thanksgiving since they don't know how to cook turkey nor celebriated the holiday before. We were surprised this family accepted our invitation because it was an hour drive for them.

Sean and I went over our menus and made sure that we have every ingredients that we needed. We started our annuel turkey recipe that required to put the turkey in the brine over night. After a good night sleep, we woke up happily and started cooking while kids watching the Macy's parade.

Turkey on a plate, good job Sean. 肖恩把切好的火雞漂亮的放在盤子上.

Our guests arrived at 12:30 pm and were very excited about the feast. They even took pictures of pretending they were cooking all the meals. They were so cute. Everyone was starving so we said a prayer and started the feast. Sean and I served turkey, stuffing, mashed potato and gravy, baked sweet potato and our guests brought salad. Everything tasted so yummy (especially the turkey, so tender and moist) and we were so full. We were pretty sure that our guests love our meal because they filled their plates at least twice.

Cute pictures. 朋友的立可拍相機拍的相片

This family had a very cool / cute camera that the pictures will come out immediately with cute design papers. She took our family pictures and kids' group pictures and gave us as a gift. It was very fun to have them over.

Kids and us were so tired after eating the turkey, we all had a really nice nap. It's fun to celebrate Thanksgiving with friends.

我想要在感恩節前在中文學校在一個勞作, 請教了煒勳的幼稚園老師有沒有什麼簡單的勞作, 她建議我做火雞, 就只要買馬鈴薯,羽毛, 牙籤跟糖果就好了. 小朋友們果然都做的很開心. 有一個媽媽他們全家8 月份時剛從台灣搬到密西根州, 老公在唸研究所, 問我怎麼煮火雞. 我給了她食譜, 可是後來想想應該邀請他們全家來我們家吃火雞應該他們根本就不知道怎麼煮火雞又沒過過感恩節.. 肖恩建議我邀請他們, 而他們也很興奮的答應了我們的邀請, 雖然他們要開一個小時來我們家.

感恩節的前一天我們就開始確定有所有需要的材料並開始用各種香料及雞湯替火雞泡澡, 這樣火雞肉烤起來才會多汁又嫩. 我也先把南瓜泒做好, 這樣隔天才不會太忙.

感恩節當天我們睡懶覺, 八點多才起床, 我們開始準備做火雞大餐並開電視讓小朋友看遊行. 到了12點半, 我們的客人準時到達. 他們已經很迫不及待的想要吃火雞大餐了. 還剩下幾樣菜沒有做好, 他們看到了就說要幫忙並開始照相假裝所有的食物都是他們煮的以滿足自己的幻想. 今年我們煮了火雞, 烤蕃薯, 馬鈴薯泥及醬汁還有沙拉, 所有的東西都好好吃尤其是火雞又嫩又多汁. 我們的客人也很喜歡, 我怎麼知道呢? 因為他們至少吃了2盤.

飯後客人就拿出了她的立可拍相機..一按相機, 相片就馬上跑出來可是最可愛的是它的相紙每張都不一樣, 都很可愛...說是日本製的..她幫我們拍了好幾張以留做紀念. 客人走了後我們的肚子好飽也累垮了(小朋友們是玩的太瘋了), 睡了一個好甜的午覺. 嗯, 感恩節還是要有朋友來比較好玩.

Grandparents Feast 2008 阿公阿嬤特別日

Silly boys. 2 個小儍瓜

I love doing projects with my family.

跟爸媽一起做勞作最好玩了.

I'm going to start, o.k.? 我要開始吃囉.










Yummy...好好吃哦.






Khai's school holds a Grandparents Feast a few days before Thanksgiving. At the feast grandsparents will do 3 craft projects with their grandchild, then have a light lunch. School also holds a bake sale on the side of the lunch room to earn extra money. Parents are encouraged to bring goodies for the bake sale. Since both sets of kids' grandparents live so far away, Sean and I usually are the special guests that day. Sean decided to take Wednesday off for the feast.

This is our 4th year in the row to attend the feast, Sean and I already have a plan. Drop off our goodies and Khai in the morning, head to stores to buy some Christmas presents, come back to school 15 minutes early to look at the goodies.
We finished our lunch very quick (because we ate quickly, not because we were there the first) and decided to help vacume the classroom, after people were done with their lunch then we helped cleaning the lunch room. We had a really nice feast and picked up a bucket of buck eye candy + fudge at the bake sale for our treats.

傑升跟煒勳的學前班學校在感恩節的前幾天都會舉辦一個"阿公阿嬤/外公外婆特別日". 在這天小朋友會跟他/她的阿公阿嬤外公外婆們做3個勞作然後去吃一個簡單的午餐. 學校也會要求家長們捐獻一些小點心來賣, 這樣可以幫學校募款. 由於小朋友兩邊的阿公阿嬤都住的很遠, 所以每年都是肖恩跟我做代表去參加這個特別日. 今年肖恩決定今天(禮拜三)不上班, 要偷懶一天. 明天是感恩節而公司禮拜五不上班, 所以他可以有5天連續假日.

這已經是我們連續第四年參加阿公阿嬤特別日, 所以我們很清楚流程甚至準備好了計劃表: 早上先帶煒勳去上課及交給學校我們做的餅乾, 然後剩空檔時間趕快去幾家店買些聖誕節禮物. 15分鐘提早到達學校才可以看看販賣的點心裡有什麼好吃的東西. 接著趕快去做最少人在那的那個勞作....我們跟煒勳都很快地就把勞作做好了, 其他的阿公阿嬤們因為很珍惜跟小孫子相處的時間都慢慢細心的完成他們的勞作. 他們也比較老所以都慢慢來..結果我們家是第一個去吃午餐的.

吃完了午餐發現大部份的人都還在吃飯, 就先去幫老師吸教室的地然後再回來把椅子放好..挑了幾樣小點心回家吃並準備清理家裡以迎接明天的火雞大餐.

Halloween 08

I'm ready to get more candies. 準備去要糖菓囉.

Hay Ride. 哥哥班上可以坐在稻草堆的車上.

My handsome boys.

Trick-or-Treat. Anybody home? 有人在家嗎? 我們來要糖菓囉.

This year we were planning on dressing Xander as an Indiana Jones, so Pei-I went to second hand stores and tried to find an old brown leather jacket. No luck, changed plan, I hurried and went to the store and found Xander a cowboy outfit. Khai wanted to be a fire fighter, so he got to wear Xander's costume from last year.

Khai was the busiest person on the Halloween at our family this year. He had a trick-or-treat party at his preschool, then we had to hurry and go to Xander's school for Xander's party, later on we had the official trick-or-treating at our neighborhood.

khai's classmates had many cute costumes, such as astronaut with a monster big helmet, handmade scarecrow outfit, hand-draw skelton outfit...They circled around the building and got some goodies from people in the church, had their snacks then headed for the games. Khai's teacher set up many stations with games and prizes next to it. Kids were having fun playing games and collecting goodies.

Khai and Pei-I headed to their car immediately after the party (finished around 12:00 pm), grabbed a sandwitch and drove 30 minutes to Xander's party because the trunk-or-treat started at 1:00pm. It felt like Khai and I were modern Cinderellas, needing to hurry and go somewhere else right after the party. We made it to Xander's school in time, kids were getting changed into their costumes and ready to go out. This year school had lots of cars parked on the parking lot to hand out candies. Kids were doing so good asking for candies and remembering their manners. Their buckets were so full that I had to help them carry. We played more games in the classroom and ready to go home for a nap.

This year we had a really nice warm weather for Halloween and it's Friday night, so we anticapte lots of kids will show up for trick-or-treating. We headed out at 6:00 pm and started with our neighbors first. This 2 old couples who live 2 houses next to us, always gave big candies to the kids that they know and we always make sure that we stopped by their house first. kids were having lots of fun asking for candies. We brought our backpack and emptyed kids' buckets when they got too heavy, this way they can walk farther. Sean and Pei-I were having so much fun trick-or-treating with Xander and Khai every year, they knew that not much longer kids will want to go out with their friends instead of hanging around with their parents.

When we got really close to our house, Pei-I hurried went home and turned on lights waiting for people to come. Sean would check all the candies that kids got tonight and dump the candies that we don't like into our candy tray. We had some leftover candies from the trunk-or-treat at church + the candies that we didn't like from tonight and wasn't sure if we need to open the second big bag of candies. Strangly, not many people showed up. it was only 7:40 pm and it's Friday night + nice weather, we only got about 40 people that night. Didn't even need to open second big bag, I guess I'll return it to the store then.

We had lots of fun at Halloween and can't wait for next time.

今年本來打算在萬聖節讓傑升當印地安娜瓊斯, 所以要去2手店找舊的黃色皮外套..找不到, 那算了, 趕快去店裡買衣服吧...傑升挑了一件牛仔裝, 很可愛還有牛仔帽. 煒勳說他要當消防員, 所以他就接哥哥去年的衣服穿.

今年萬聖節煒勳是最忙的人, 他要連趕2 場派對再加上晚上還要出去要糖菓. 當天在學校裡煒勳的學校有辦派對. 小朋友先一個一個到前面跟大家講他/她是裝扮成什麼, 大家來個大合照再在學校繞一週, 教會裡的人會發給他們小東西. 吃完了點心後再去旁邊玩遊戲. 老師分了10幾個區, 每區都有一個遊戲及禮品. 小朋友們玩的很高興.

我們2個人等到遊戲玩完後就馬上衝出學校準備開到哥哥的學校續第二攤. 哥哥班上1點就到出去要糖菓了, 幸好我們趕上了. 今年學校有很多家長把車子開到草坪上來樂捐糖菓(叫做 trunk-or-treat), 這樣小朋友在很短的距離內就可以要到很多糖菓. 大家很有秩序的排隊要糖菓而天氣也很晴朗. 繞了一圈下來, 兄弟倆的盒子都沈甸甸的, 好有成就感.. 好吧, 下課了趕快回家去補個眠, 晚上好玩的才要登場呢....

傍晚吃完飯, 6 點就準時出門. 我們隔壁有一對老夫婦, 他們會特別準備較大的糖菓給他們認識的小孩, 所以我們每年都會先去他們家要糖. 爸爸跟媽媽也揹了背包及帶水, 如果小朋友的盒子變的太重了就可以將糖菓倒進我們的背包, 這樣他們就可以走比較遠一點而不用提很重的盒子. 小朋友長大了所以今年可以走遠一點, 記得3 年前他們只走了一點點就喊累...

在快接近到我們家時, 我都會先跑回家去開燈, 這樣人家才知道你在家而來要糖菓. 上個禮拜在教會也有給糖菓還剩一些, 就先用這些吧...肖恩到家後都會先檢查糖菓, 看有沒有被打開過或是看起來很可疑的糖菓, 他把不喜歡的糖菓放進給別人的盒子裡....想說今天天氣這麼好又是禮拜五, 應該會有很多人來要糖吧....很奇怪哦, 大約只有40幾個人來要糖, 我連第二包新的糖菓都沒有拆呢...我在想也許是因為我們回到家時已經7點40分了, 所以大部分的人都已經路過我們家了...也好啦, 那就把第二包糖菓拿去退吧....

好玩的萬聖節, 弟弟一直在問什麼時候才又會有萬聖節...

My next door neighbors who are very nice to us. 隔壁的鄰居, 對我們很好.


I can't get it into the loop. 我一直投不進吔.