Merry Christmas 2011

On Christmas eve, our church had a Christmas program. Heidi and her Sunday school classes had their performance, too. It was hilarious. I barely heard anybody sing. They laughed all the way through the two songs.

Christams morning Heidi was excited to open the presents Santa brought her.

When Iris woke up, we were in the middle of the present opening madness. She fit right in the mess.

Mixiao got some toys.

Back to Christmas eve, Heidi and I decorated Christmas cookies.

Christmas dinner: rosted ham, yum!

Family Christmas pictures

I decided to take Christmas pictures mid December this year. So glad I did. Heidi had an accident the next day at school and broke her eyebrow. It was really bad. She had a black eye for a week. Anyway, pretty good pictures they turned out.

Thanksgiving 2011

Heidi gets to stay at home for 5 days for Thanksgiving. No more alarms at 6:50 am. She gets up around 7am still:) At school they made American Indian outfit out of a pillowcase. It looks good on her. She said she did get to wear it at school because she was one of the pilgrims.

The girls before we went to C4 for the Thanksgiving program.

They played hide and seek at the dinning table; such good entertainers.

Our Thanksgiving dinner

Heidi's letter to Santa. She wants homework. Really? Let's wait till next year when she will really get some.

Our Christmas tree is up

I know it's not even Thanksgiving yet:) We went out for dinner and happened to see that one house in our neighborhood is decorated with Christmas lights. So exciting! We put up the tree today. Heidi helped decorate the tree and did a great job.

Christmas shoe box

It's the time of the year... the five year old is excited and has been talking about the presents she is expecting from Santa. I can imagine the happiness when looking at the kids open the presents Christmas morning, when decorating cookies with Heidi, when enjoying the feast at the dinner table. It's so close and real. But, I can't help thinking about those families that are in need of food, those kids who don't have a single present. There are a lot, a lot of families and kids like that. We are not rich, but we have a house, we have more than enough to eat. The girls have 10 bins of new toys they have not yet opened because their playroom is running out of space...

It's not easy to teach a five year old about the not so pleasant side of the world, and about giving to others. She jokes around while I am actually serious. I showed her pictures of the kids who will receive the shoe boxes. She ran around the house happily singing 'I am poor people!' She will get it some day.

Saturday morning, Heidi and I spent one and half hours working on the shoe box. I did most of the work, but she helped fill in the box. She was interested in this about 10 minutes. But she made a card for the 5 year old girl, which is sweet.
We didn't pun the lotion in; it's not allowed. We added two card sets instead.

Our church is not collecting the shoe boxes this year. I searched the drop off location, and there's one just 3 miles from us. Cool! We dropped it off and Heidi got a sticker. She never talked about it ever since. I know we will be doing this every year. She will remember it and finally understand the whole idea when she's a little older. Iris will join us when she is 3 years old.

Duck pond

Iris enjoys animal companions. She shared her crib with our cat when she was a baby. Well she does step on our poor cat or pull his tail occasionally. But the point I am trying to make here is, she likes animals. We went to the duck ponds and she followed the ducks and geese whenever she got a chance. She tried to feed them fall leaves and happy about it.

I really hope some group or organization is feeding the ducks regually. They are always hungry. Life is harsh when it gets colder. Sigh. We are not allowed to feed them, but someone or some organization should do. I always feel sorry for them when we go there. They follow us, expecting some food; but I cannot give them since it is forbidden. Iris fed them leaves and they thought it was food and were so excited. Anyway, I enjoy the pond a lot... if the ducks have enough food I probably will go visit every week. Now I am really reluctant to go. Can't look into their eyes. Sigh.

A table full of little kids

All right these kids are from 2-7. If you think that's all of them... no no no. Those that older than 7 or younger than 2 didn't sit at the table; there were 5 or 6 of them. So you count how many kids were in our friends' house that day.

Halloween 2011

It is our family tradition that we go to the trunk or Treat at First Baptist Church in W.Columbia every year. It doesn't matter if we live five minutes from there or 30 minutes from there. They see us and they say "Welcome back!"

Heidi wants to be a witch this year. after 4 years princess and barbie, she finally decided she wanted something else. lol. Iris is a bunny. She has a cute bunny head hat, but it's kinda hard to see from the pictures.

The witch and her bunny friend went from car to car seeking for candy and treats.

The witch got to dig out some treats from the sand box.

The bunny is 17 months old, but she knows candy and chocolate in different shapes. She also likes to show off.

The witch had a hayride without hay with other witches and characters.

The bunny wandering around holding her bucket.

The witch is thinking about how she can use her wand to make more candy.

We were ready to go home when it started to get dark. On our way home, we happened to see another carnival just a few blocks from this one. Of course we stopped by. The witch played games and won candies and tickets. Then whe used the tickets to exchange for a lot of treats.

When bird feeding becomes crazy

We like to feed the lorikeets. We are their old friends. They were very excited to meet the girls' grandparents.

At first, everything was just fine.
Then things went a little crazy when three or four of them stayed on grandma's hand at the same time.

Even more crazy when more showed up.

Two second later, this is what we saw.

Finally we got some help from the zoo staff and grandma's head was bird free.

Iris is such a rider. This is definitely her favorite thing to do in the zoo.

State fair

OK finally we went to the state fair the day before the last day. I feel embarressed to say this is the first time Heidi and me to be there. If you know a little about my girl, you will know she is always shy and easily scared. No other kids I know can compete with her on this.

Well, I was a little shocked that she did really well today at the fair. She played 2/3 of the kids rides, and enjoyed almost everything. I have to admit I screamed more than she did on one of the kids ride. Like always, she doesn't laugh much on the rides, but then when you ask her if she likes it, she nods her head a little bit. That means she enjoys it.

DFES fall festival 2011

The fall festival at Heidi's school was so much fun! We had hot dog for dinner. There were haunted house, crafts, games, pumpkin carving competition, costume show, hayride, book fair, local vendor booths, etc. To be honest, it was beyond my expectation. We will definitely participate each year.

I am so glad to have a girl who allows hat on her head! BTW she is a bunny.