Play time

Thanksgiving 2013

We really enjoyed Thanksgiving this year.  Part of it was that I made a lot of the food ahead of time, so there was no pressure day of.  Part of it was that the kids were in school during the day, so we peacefully prepared things at our leisure.  Part of it was that the recipes all turned out super yummy (J's best pumpkin pie ever).  But, most of it was that we just feel so blessed.  Life is good.

Jiu Fen

Another outing with church friends to an old mining town that has been restored as a tourist destination with winding streets, shops and tea houses.  It was too rainy to see the ocean, but the food was good.

Halloween 2013

We had multiple Halloween events (I guess this is typical these days).  Back-to-back church and work parties, the actual night of trick-or-treating, and various events at the schools. The dress-up box really got some mileage this year.  And, the candy bags--whoa!  The kids sold us some of the candy, some they have since lost for bad behavior and the rest we've tried to dole out reasonably.  Although I have to say I've found plenty of wrappers under the girls' beds.

 Since we live in a neighborhood that has been "American" since the 60's, there is quite the tradition of trick-or-treating.  Despite the rain, I think we got over 300 trick-or-treaters (for a 25-house neighborhood).  I just sat outside in the carport and handed out candy to a steady stream of kids (about half local, half foreign).

Temple in Taipei

Yilan

We went on a group tour to Yilan with friends from church, and one of them put together this little photo collage of the kids.  It is a nice coastal town with parks and lakes.  It was a rainy day, but the kids didn't mind.  Four blonde kids draw a lot of attention.  Even Sylvie and I are considered blonde in Asia.

 

 

Robots

Some of you may remember the robot party we had for Joel's first birthday.  Well, I still had a few old formula cans left and an afternoon to kill with the kids, so we invited neighbors over for arts and crafts and made "recycled robots."  Kind of a Mr. Potato Head concept using trash.