Happy Moon Festival

Tilly made moon cakes this week at school to celebrate the Chinese holiday, Mid Autumn or Moon Festival.

Moon cakes are a traditional custom and in Taiwan it's known mostly for the BBQ's everyone has. BBQ being a little wire grate over a patch of coals, usually out on the street (as where else are you going to have it in this concrete jungle). The festival is characterised by the smells of burning meat. And then there is the predictable turn in the weather where the oppressive summer heat is not so oppressive, just slightly miserable....

Tilly's moon cake has an egg yolk in it and sweet red bean paste. I LOVE moon cakes. Another speciality is pineapple cakes. My sister in law is a master at these and we got three boxes this year.

While big sister's away.......

.......Evie still plays. I was wondering how Evie would be on her own without her big sister in the mornings to accompany her. She's very much like Tilly was at this age. Content in her own company and happy to play by herself. Although it must be said that as soon as she sees me with the camera the spell is immediately broken.

First day of school

On her way to Kindi at the local elementary school, and loving it......

Cheering her big sis along... learning learning all the while. How so much easier it is for a younger sibling, they get exposed to all these new adventures before they even need to undertake them themselves. And I would know being the youngest of four. I clearly remember my first day of school. Jumped out of the car and ran, waving goodbye to mum and not even looking at her! So excited I was. Another thing I remember was what I consider my real first day of school, the day I no longer had big brothers there to protect me. I cried on the swings, knowing that from then on it was just me..... I got over it quickly.

Daddy was with us every step of the way.

Outside the school, getting ready to go in. She's all sweaty from riding her bike. We park it in Daddy's storage which is right next door to the school. In her bag are all her supplies and a little purse with NT$35 ready to go to 7-11 (also next door, everything in Taiwan is just next door) to get a treat after school.

Her teacher Miss Gao on the end in the red. Her other teacher is the Yuan Zhang which means Principle. I love this little set up of tables and places numbered so the student knows where to go and the blocks ready to distract. Tills is somewhat used to this as this is the same set up in her Chinese Sunday school which is held in a classroom much like this one.

Something extra.....

See the little girl sitting by Tilly? She was there before Tilly. They have numbers and have to sit in those places for the rest of the semester. I looked at that little girl, so shy and quiet, not game to take something to play with. And I thought, these two are going to get along just fine. Tilly is fairly fluent in Chinese, conversationally, but not enough to be as at ease as the rest of the kids and many things in fact she won't understand. So this shy sweet girl beside her is just the right combination. She kept looking at Tilly and Tilly was confident and started sharing things with her. When I went back to pick her up at 12 the two were playing chasey around the tables. So sweet.

Pictures

Party

But while we don't have Kristie's photos to share, I'll share some of my own, less professional shots....

This event was so low key I didn't even have the decency to put the folded washing away..... Not the best shot of Tills as she was dancing and talking and I asked her to hold still while I took the shot. There is little birthday girl. Just before we ate cake. To be fair to myself, we did just get in the door from Tilly's ballet lesson as guests arrived.

The cake I made this morning before ballet. So sweet I thought. The girls helped Paula decorate it. Can you see little fingers getting ready to help?

More photos to come of Evie enjoying her birthday song and candle.

Evelyn turns 1 ~ !!

Our little Evelyn is the big number one. What a year. It's been a wonderful year and I feel truly blessed with these two little girls. Evie is a delight. Though perhaps she could sleep better at night......

I thought it fitting as Daddy rolled in the bike for Tilly's fourth, that he roll in the walker slash shopping cart for Evie. Nan and Pop got in on the action. Can you see the Ipod? We were on Skype. One hand on camera, one on Ipod makes for very bad photo.

And here she is checking it out. This is 6am and Daddy's just rolled out of bed to do the honours. Crazy early risers these two girls.

Showing her how to operate the new toy.

And let the disinterest in new present begin! I guess she will get into it more when she is more steady on her feet.

We had a very small gathering this afternoon. It is my intention to always keep the girls birthday parties (for as long as they think they need to celebrate it) as simple as possible. Not that I don't want them to celebrate and have fun, but that the focus be on celebrating with loved ones and giving thanks, not getting as many presents as they can and being entertained to the eyeballs. But really, I just don't have the ability to carry off a big shabang. Thankfully my friend Kristie has taken some beautiful photos and I will share these soon.

Shopping

One thing a man and his wife needn't do too often together.... shopping.

This morning I had the bright idea to go shopping as a family to look for a gift for Evie's impending first birthday. Can't believe my little love is one year old. And on that line of thought I remembered some cool soft foam blocks that a friend of mine has for her kids and remembered that they were sold at B&Q. This is a hardware store. One should have just stopped there and really thought it through and considered that taking ones handyman husband to a handyman's store was probably not a good idea. You know they say men are from mars and women are from venus. Well, in my opinion women are from "denying oneself" and men are from "are my needs being immediately met?"

Several reasons why it's best to not go shopping together, at least to a place like this:

1. You invariably have to wait while said husband wanders the aisles totally oblivious to his surroundings and the needs of his troupe, in search of one particular item. However the problem in these stores is that that one particular item has many different brands and options. The only thing there was one of were the foam blocks, which weren't the same and weren't as good and maddeningly expensive. So I had finished shopping the instant we had arrived..... But, each time we turned a corner, there was another grinder from another brand just begging to be looked at and tried out....

2. We spent so long looking there, there was time to sit quietly on a display in the carpet and flooring aisle and feed Evie so long that she eventually fell asleep.

3. All that shopping gets man to thinking a bathroom break is required. This is after already holding sleeping Evie for half an hour, while arm is aching and I'm dying to just sit somewhere.

4. All that shopping and bathroom breaking gets everyone hungry. Still have a sleeping baby, so needing a one arm option, which ended up to be MacDonalds..... yuck. Daddy however enjoyed a nice Teppanyaki meal across the way from us, which takes a long time to cook and eat, and inevitably needs two free arms to eat while sitting on a barstool. Even if she had been awake it's a completely impractical option for dining with a baby. Tilly kept stealing looks at Daddy eating his lovely cooked meal and looking at her cruddy fries that she doesn't like to eat anyway. She ended up with him and even got a free fried egg and rice from one of the chefs. Do you know Teppanyaki? It's the one where you sit at a bar type setting with all the chef's standing in front of you cooking the food you order.

Ironically all the discomfort of holding a sleeping one year old for an hour could have been avoided had I remembered to bring the pram. This really is something I should have thought of. She would have gone to sleep easily in the pram and I could have left the store with the kids all together and gone somewhere else, instead of hovering around places that had somewhere to sit on and rest. She's getting kind of heavy now....

And had we gone to say, an actual Toy Store, then the tables would have been turned and Daddy would have been the one waiting while I wandered aimlessly around to my hearts content. However, Daddy would have been far more patient and gracious than I was....... But on reflection I don't really believe I would wander around to my hearts content, what mother does when she's out shopping with the kids? 

So tomorrow we are going to go to an actual book and toy store and buy a proper gift for Evie. I actually had the foam blocks in mind for Tills. I haven't the time or the inclination to plan a big party for Evie's first. Something small and easy will do. I'm sure you don't remember these things anyway.