The following week I went to Houston to get my passport changed for the upcoming China trip. I had my passport photo taken at home. After Andy saw David taking my photo against the white wall, he wanted to take his photo against the wall too. I left home for Houston at 3:40am on Wednesday. Right after I left, I felt an urge to double-check my document that I put together the previous night. I stopped at the neighbor's driveway. I was shocked to find out all the document was gone except an empty pre-paid envelope! I hurried back home and saw all the document including the passport scattered on the floor all the way from the office to the door. They had slipped out of the folder in the darkness when I left the house! The procedure itself in the consulate was very fast since I got everything they asked for. I was in and out in fifteen minutes. When I got back home at 1:20pm, the kids had just begun their naps.
We were so glad that Grandpa and Linda got to visit us during Spring Break. After the Spring Break, we invited our FriendSpeak readers and workers to our house for a cookout party. We were so glad that Dawn and Jarrod were able to join us too. The kids played the parachute and did an egg hunt. The students loved the bean bags and the food. The weather was just perfect. Hopefully we will have more fellowship like this in the future.
Emily's school had a science fair. We had several ideas. But Emily decided to tackle it with an experiment of Baking soda and Vinegar. She was thrilled to learn that the gas that produced by the reaction can blow up a big balloon; and it was even lighter than the air! Here is her final project board:
At a backyard lacking of the playground equipment, parachute and bean bags have been regular exercise aids for Emily and Andy. Here is a picture of them taking turns to jump to reach the bean bags.
Setting up the tent was also the kids' favorite fun activity
On my birthday, Emily and Andy both got up before I did. While David was making the pancakes, they helped to decorate the house with birthday banners. As soon as I got up, they all ran to my room and sang Happy Birthday. After the song, Emily said, "Mama, let me show you something!" She couldn't wait to show me all the decorations. She is such a perfectionist. She lined up her toy food on the coffee table later on and had a birthday picnic with Andy and her pink rabbit.
For Easter weekend, we went to the Arboretum as we did for the past four years. The purpose was to expose the kids to God's creativity in plant and discover the beauty of life. The kids soaked in everything: the sight, the smell, the sound, ... They enjoyed it so much that when Andy realized we were heading toward our car back home, he started crying!
In this picture, Andy tried to unbutton his shirt after he got his clothes wet. He worked on it for over fifteen minutes. He was so determined to do it by himself!
We made these hot cross buns on Good Friday (Emily called it Happy Friday). They were so good. Those twelve big buns didn't last for one day at our house. By the end of the day, Andy was so disappointed that they were all gone. We'll have to make it again next year.
We had an Easter sunrise service at our church. The kids were waken up early by the thunders and found their baskets before we left for church.
After church, we read the books from the basket, did an egg-hunt with the twelve resurrection eggs, colored the boiled eggs, and made the resurrection rolls.
Emily and Andy cashed out their coins (over sixty dollars) and bought the grocery for the food pantry at our church several days ago. They delivered them to church before FriendSpeak on Easter.
We hope you had a very Happy Easter （filled with hope, joy, power, and victory that only Jesus Christ can provide) !!!
Below are a few more pictures from this month.
