Happy Autumn Moon

The Autumn Moon Festival begins Monday with the full moon, the eighth lunar moon of the year.

I think I have posted about this important Chinese holiday before so I am not going to describe it in this post. I am preparing to go away for a week on business and the weekend was bit more hectic than I prefer preparing for this trip.

Between craziness at work and the hulabalu from the Hurricane the week before this year's Autumn Moon really snuck up on me!

But, we did manage to get some fun activities in for the holiday all weekend long.

Friday-night the girls stayed up a bit later than usualy and we went for

a nightly stroll to gaze at the nearly full moon.

Saturday the girls and I went to a local Dragon Boat Fesitval and Taiwanese Festival.

It started off with a shuttle bus ride on a school bus-- which may not sound like \

much to you, but when you are 3 and nearly 5, getting ride in a real

big kid school bus is all the RAGE!

There were a few performances including a really

booming drum corp.

The girls wanted their picture taken with the drums after the show.

A famous Taiwanese Band, Wu Shu, played several beautiful songs.

Josie was a little disappointed that we didn't get to see any dancers perform at this event,

but she really liked the music.

We wandered to the river-side and watched a few of the dragon boat races.

The seating for these races aren't as nice as the dragon boat races we

watched last month, but you are able to get closer to the boats.

Josie and Clara Rose both say they want to race in a dragon boat

when they are big enough.

Each dragon boat team had at least one member compete in a dumpling eating contest.

It was a fun event to watch.

The winner ate 19 dumplings in 2 minutes.

Before we left four of the dragon boats floated out in the river next to each other and all the riders and many people on the banks threw a pink carnation into the river

in memory or support of someone fighting breast cancer.

It was a nice ceremony and lovely to watch.

That afternoon I made some yummy dishes, following to the best of my ability,

recipes from my Chinese cookbook.

Dumplings (of course!).

Tea Eggs

Pineapple fried rice with Shrimp, served in a pineapple shell.

Call me crazy, but I think this might be more of a Hawaiian dish than Chinese- but it was a fun dish to eat.

Today we did a little bit of shopping and then hung

out in the yard.

The days are sunny, but a bit cooler.

Fall is in the air.

 

Squirrly Bike Rides

Labor Day me and the girls spent the morning going for a nice bike ride.

Josie was a little nervous to start, it's been a while since she spent time on her bike.

We headed off on the 2-mile bike path and I pretty

much figured we'd need to shorten it a bit.

Josie started off in the lead and maintained that position for the entire ride.

They both did super good riding their bikes!

I did hold onto the back of Josie's bike and the front

of Clara Rose's when we went down hills.

Josie worked on using her brakes, but still wanted me to slow her down on the hills.

Clara Rose rode her bike with Baby Jaguar in the baby seat.

There was only one spot on one hill that Josie need an extra little push to get up, and only a few hills that Clara Rose needed some help peddaling.

I was/am really amazed at how well they did!

We passed 1/2 mile marker; 1-mile marker and they still wanted to keep going!

Then we passed 1-1/2 mile marker and I figured we were getting close to the parking lot.

Then we arrived at the 2-mile marker-- still in the woods.

Uh-oh!

The trail I thought was 2-miles was actually 3-miles!!!

The girls peddaled on!

Until finally, we made it to the end!

Clara Rose was pretty tired from the long ride and Josie gave her a big hug to calm her tears of joy--

to be back at the blue car!

Now it was time for a relaxing picnic at the playground by the sea.

What a great spot!

But wait, we are not alone!

Look!

Up there . . .

Do you see her?

She is peeking at us!

There she is-- see her peeking at us around the trunk?

The girls were soooo excited!

Especially Clara Rose!

She LOVES baby squirrels!

Her favorite shirt has a baby squirrel on it!

We threw some crust and a few grapes on the ground and

made a new little friend.

Quite the big day!

A 3-mile bike ride followed by

lunch with a squirrel!

This was the best Labor Day EVER!

We hope yours was just as great!

One More Time . . .

To hit the beach this season.

Say it isn't sooo!!! Summer is coming to an end and with Hurricane Irene, it sure did go out with a big BANG!

We decided to hit the beach one more time-- not the sunniest of days,

but we had a great time!  The beach wasn't very crowded at all and the waves were rolling in-- very lovely.

Speaking of lovely . .. . . .

We were  a bit surprised at how warm the water was!

There was quite a  rock line in the inter-tidal zone--- left overs from Irene, I am sure. 

A little hard on the feet!

The waves were a bit too big for Clara Rose-- Josie went running into the surf for Daddy and Clara Rose came running back to the shore toward Mommy.

We decided to stroll the beach and along the way came across

this guy who was making, what appeared to be an underground beach city.

Oh wow, did he have all kinds of tools to work with!

At the end of the walkable beach we came across some ruins.

Heading back with the ruins in the background.

Jie Jie showing the girls how to really jump the waves!!

Back at our sand spot, Josie decided to take a snooze.

Clara Rose only pretended to nap!

We hope you enjoyed the last of your summer fun as much as we did!!

E is for Electricity!!!!

And we finally got it back!!!

At about 2:37 AM Saturday morning, our power came back on and with it nearly everything in our house! The girls didn't really believe that we could be without power and had turned everything on- we forgot to turn everything back off.

We managed to weather the storm without any real damage. We rented a water pump for our basement and then was able to borrow a generator about 1/2-way through the week.

The girls did really well and hardly missed a beat with anything throughout it all. Everything was one big adventure after another in their eyes.

Here are some pictures from our adventures during and after Hurrican Irene.

Our power was wiped out around 7:15 AM on Sunday, which resulted in chocolate doughnuts for breakfast!

The girls kept busy playing with many activities and crafts that they haven't played with much during the summer-- first off, moon sand muffins and cakes!

We also painted several pictures and put together a few puzzles.

After their afternoon nap, the girls watched a couple cartoons on the

portable DVD player.

The girls had fun with a sticky scrunchi-paper craft featuring tinerkerbell and friends.

There are colorful pictures with sticky parts to them and sparkly paper to scrunch up and then stick to the picture-- to give it a textured 3-D effect.

The final product!

Next up, making animal foam paper puppets.

Whoa! What is daddy doing outside during the Hurricane!??

After a long day of sitting around crafting-- the girls burned off some energy singing and dancing to their own beat-- what fun that was!

Me cooking soup on our make-shift sterno stove.

Ya just know things are 'really bad' when the teens come in and start

playing playdough with the little girls.

Doesn't Xavier look thrilled?

Finally, we ended the night watching a few more cartoons on the DVD player in the van-- which is the REAL reason to make sure your tank is full when a big storm is coming!

We were without power all week-- which was a PITA but not the end of the world.

The girl's daycare was closed only on Monday due to not having power.

This gave me time to run a few errands and get some equipment to deal with our basement yadda yadda.

AND . . . .. . to answer a big question that many have asked--

on Monday afternoon, amid several tears . . . . .

We released the 'Little Grasshopper. Little Grasshopper."

I don't want him to leave!!! I am making him a nest right here!

The girls made it to swimming class and we were able to shower at the YMCA.

Everyone tended to hit the hay early-- and the girls were really excited to get to eat McDonalds for dinner  (what is IT about McDonalds?)

Thanks for taking us to the big M place with the french fries!  They make the bestest food EVER!

The big kids missed the entire first week of school-- they start on Tuesday now.

Some of the school districts are cancelling February vacation week-- I think that sounds like a good idea-- A whole week missed and Winter hasn't even hit yet!!!