April In Pictures

We had a great month of April filled with fun, learning, and reflection. First of all, it's the Easter month. We got to get together with Dawn, Austin and Dillon to play at the neighborhood park. Then we had an egg-hunt in our backyard. The kids had lots of fun and Emily wanted to invite them over again to play more.

Emily had another egg hunt at her school also.

On Easter morning, the kids followed the marshmellow peeps from their doors all the way to the dining table to get their Easter gifts. Then we hunted the Resurrection Eggs at home. Emily really enjoyed opening the eggs to find different things that put the meaning of Easter together.

(In this picture, she is showing us the Crown that Jesus wore on the cross.)

Emily helped me to make the Resurrection rolls this year. Not only it was meaningful, but also they were so yummy. David said he wished everyday is Easter.

She dipped Jesus' body (pure white as snow marshmellows) in the melted butter (annointed oil), rolled them in the cinnamon and sugar mix (spices), put them in the crossant rolls (the cloth), and baked them for 12 minutes in the oven (the tomb).

Viola! The tomb was empty: Jesus is alive!

These resurrection rolls and the empty eggs that the kids hunted left such a deep impression on them. They played with the empty eggs long after Easter had passed. Every time they opened an empty egg, they would say, "Look, it's empty! Jesus is RISEN!!!"

Emily was showing me the bird nest that she made with the eggs that we dyed together.

I was thinking to have seder meal at home on Good Friday. It so happened that Robert and Gail invited us to attend the Seder meal at Highland Oaks COC. So I went to a seder meal for the first time. I really liked it a lot. The ceremony master (their worship leader) did a great job explaining the meaning of each food item and guiding us through all the activities and ceremony. Because David had to attend our good friend Darren's surprise engagement party and Andy was sick (so he couldn't go to the child care), this plate was the only picture I took. I was in and out alot. Hopefully next year we'll fully participate and grasp more details.

We also attended the New Life Behavior (the ministry that I am helping with to put their courses on the web for the Chinese people) benefit dinner. We got this beautiful flower pot from the dinner just in time for Easter and for our house guest Darren. Congratulations again Darren on your engagement!!

Dawn took this Easter picture of us on Sunday. Thank you Dawn for your thoughtfulness!

During the Easter weekend, we took the kids to the Dallas Arboretum to see the blooms. Unfortunately most of the flowers were gone because of the tornado a week before that. The workers there were busy putting new flowers in. Because of the special events during the Easter weekend, we had to take the bus to the arboretum. Emily was so excited to sit in the bus.

This year they had the pioneer exhibition there. Emily and Andy got in the Teepee,  sat on the wagon and tried to pump the water out of a well.

We had a picnic lunch there. The kids enjoyed running around and watching other kids.

Since Andy's birthday was coming up, we took the kids to the Aquarium (Did I tell you that Andy loves fish?!!) on Saturday, April 29th. We thoroughly enjoyed everything. You can tell from these pictures:

Andy didn't realize a big crab was right next to him.

That night we went to Cathy and Richard's new house to celebrate Robert's birthday. We enjoyed a delicious dinner and good fellowship with everyone.

 Well, I can't close our summary of April without mentioning how proud we are of our baby boy Andy! Guess what? He is potty trained!!! It was so much easier than I had anticipated because he was ready. He was accident free one week after we started. He had accidents when we were at Robert's party because all the kids were upstairs when all the adults were downstairs visiting with each other. Poor Andy, I totally forgot about him. He did great at church and other public places. We are so proud of him!


 Day one: practicing potty. Emily was a big support. She just sat with Andy until Andy finished.

 Potty Progress chart (sad faces represent accidents): On day five, he only had a little accident at church because he couldn't hold long enough for David to take him to the bathroom. Other than that, he did great the whole day. He even woke up from nap and in the middle of the night wanting to go potty.

Our big boy:

To celebrate Andy's potty training success, we had icecreams at Brums with Brian.

Now, we are proudly presenting our big girl and big boy!!

 Emily continues enjoying her school. She had donuts with Daddy at school. During breakfast, she was interviewed and I found this in her backpack that day: She knows her daddy more than I thought :-)

Here is a picture of Emily's class

Below are some random pictures of the month:

The tree in our front yard was in full blooming in April. It attracted hundreds of butterflies and bees. The flower pollen was flying around in the air. It was so beautiful and fragrant.

One day we found Emily's toes looked like this. After being questions, she admitted that she colored them with orange crayons

Emily played drum while Daddy played piano

Bubbles

(P.S. As I am typing up this post, David is still in Tulsa with his Dad. Our Dad had a heart attack last Sunday which damaged at least one third of his heart. He is going to have more procedure done next week. Your prayers on his behalf are highly appreciated!!! I'll write more about it in next post.)

Beautiful March

We really had a beautiful weather in March! We were able to open the doors and the windows most of the time. If not, we were outside somewhere enjoying God's wonderful creation! Spring is the time for the new life. The kids squealed with joy whenever they saw a wild flower, a new bug, a squirrel, a bird, a rabbit, or a clear moon. Emily wanted to plant some flowers and vegetable. So we bought some seeds and started the container garden. Before long the new life was everywhere on our counter top. Have you tried to put the cut green onions or the cut celery in the water and just watch them grow? That's the most organic vegetable we've had since the green onions and celeries we bought were also organic. Here are a couple of pictures that I took a month ago:


During Emily's Spring break, we went to the In-synch Exotics in Wylie with Gayla and Mary Ellen to see the rescued animals. I was so surprised to see the large lions, white tigers, cheetahs, bob cats they had. We really had a good close look at each of them. Since it was close to the lunch time, we saw the workers feeding the tigers (meat, of course) right from their hands. Emily was scared when the lions roared to each other. It was my first time to hear the lions roaring right in front of me. The workers told us these lions were used to perform in front of people so they just put up a show whenever they saw people around them. Each animal there has their own story and had come a long way. We spent an hour over there. It was an unique experience.

We also went to the Herds museum in McKinney with Dawn, Austin and Dillon. It seemed that it took us forever to be able to get together since we each had the second kids. We had a wonderful time there. The kids looked at the animals in the exhibition. We then hiked a bit before we had a picnic lunch. Andy didn't feel good that day. You can tell from this picture:

David and Emily spent the St. Patrick's weekend in Austin while I stayed at home with Andy since he was sick. Emily had a great time at the fair. As you can tell from the pictures, Emily's new hair is coming out. So she has a lot of hair that is just an inch or two long. It pushes her longer hair in all directions. Her new hair seems to be more straight than the old one.


During the last couple of weeks of March, the blue bonnets just popped up everywhere. We drove by JCPenny's campus after dinner and took a few pictures. The kids had lots of fun there. A couple asked us to take a picture for them. As a return, they took a picture for us also. Here are some pictures:






A lady bug landed on Andy's neck. The kids were so excited. This lady bug crawled from Andy's arm to David's hand, and to Emily's hand. Thank you ladybug for playing with us!

Emily's school had a umbrella parade. Emily was so happy to get her new umbrella.

Although Emily didn't share her new umbrella with her brother, Andy was still in good cheer:

Here are several pictures of the kids playing together:

Helping Daddy to make cinnamon rolls

For my birthday, I got flowers, books, cards, scarf, organizer, craft supplies, check, cake, yummy food, and lots of "Happy birthday"s and hugs. I was spoiled! Thank you family and friends for thinking of me and blessing me!