Fishing and Birthday

Many things worth jotting down during the past month. We had a play date with Will and David at our house for Jean Ann and Bill's anniversary. The kids had so much fun playing together. Laughters filled the house the whole time (well, there were some tears at drop-off; but it was so short-lived). Emily and Andy always loved having other kids or guests at our house. We'll do that more often in the future.

 

Amy and Nathan came to visit. The horses came by to say hi too.

 

We took the kids to the Plano Live Green and compost fair. We all had a great time there. After that, we started the food waste compost at home for our garden. I'm sure the vegetable will love it!

 

Emily and David's reader Lian read books together. Lian and some girls at FriendSpeak just genuinely love Emily and Andy. They always tried to find some ways to interact with the kids after FriendSpeak. Hey, their clothes matched!

 

Our previous FriendSpeak reader Meilin came to Dallas to visit us for her vacation. She graduated from UTD in 2006 and became an outstanding professor in Dayton, Ohio. We were so happy to hear that she was baptized and became a sister-in-Christ last year. It was great to catch up with her.

 

We had a birthday party for Robert at our house. Richard and Cathy came over too (Robert studied FriendSpeak with Richard and baptized him. Richard baptized his wife Cathy years later). So here is the picture of Robert and Gail with their adopted grandchildren. 

 

Gene and Cathy invited us to visit their house on a 37 acre property and go fishing at their pond. We absolutely had a wonderful time. Andy told David on the way home many times, "Daddy, that was really nice!!! I enjoyed it a lot!" Emily said, "Me too!"

 

Guess who caught the first fish? Emily did! Who caught the second fish? Emily again! She was so excited the whole time.

Andy caught one too! But the biggest fish was caught by Cathy. It was the biggest pirch we've seen.

After the fishing, Cathy fixed a whole table of delicious food. Emily went out to ring the dinner bell to tell Gene and David to come in the house for dinner.

After dinner, we sat on the truck and toured around the land. Then we sat in the front porch to watch the sunset.

Andy just turned three! It's hard to believe our baby boy is three already! We had the strawberry shortcake pancakes for breakfast.

 

Then we celebrated his birthday with Gayla and Mary Ellen at Amazing Jakes Adventure. We all liked the pizza there. I made a (beans and chocolate) deep dish cookie pie and an avocado chocolate mousse. Andy loved it! And so did the rest of us. It was the first time for Emily and Andy to play some games and ride the cars at a place like this. To my surprise, they liked everything. Andy smiled everywhere he went and Emily asked to go back to Amazing Jakes again sometimes in the future.

 

 

 

 

Andy even enjoyed riding the race car with Mary Ellen. I guess our little boy did grow up! He is the sweetest little boy. He made his Sunday school teacher tear up. He made everyone in Emily's school say "Awww!!". Every time when we picked up Emily, he would run to her and give her a big hug. Emily's teacher commented that "he is such a gentleman that he carries backpack for his sister every day; but he is just a baby!!!" He give hugs and smiles to every one without any reservation. He took initiatives to share things that he loves so dearly with others. Even on his birthday, when David and Emily rushed into his room to sing Happy Birthday when he woke up, he wanted to sing Happy Birthday to Aunt Amy first. He got some water balloons that he wouldn't let go. He held a purple one on the way to Emily's school (purple is his favorite color). Emily told him her classmate Kenzie likes purple color too. Andy said, "I want to give this purple balloon to Kenzie." But Kenzie wasn't there yet when we got there. So when he gave that purple balloon to Kenzie in the afternoon, Emily's teacher asked Kenzie to give Andy a hug. Andy opened his arms and walked to Kenzie and gave her a hug. Kenzie hugged back. On the way out, Andy told me," Mama, that girl is so sweet to give me a hug!" We are so proud of him! We pray that God continues to grow him into the person that He wants him to be.

Emily's teacher Mrs. Brown has the same birth date as Andy. She hugs Andy all the time.

 

The weather this month has been so unusual. We've never seen a cold weather like this in May. There were several 50s in the past month plus near frosting days. Our vegetable just didn't have a chance to survive. Well, we tried. That adds our appreciation to the farmers who make a living under the mercy of the weather. We did enjoy the beautiful daffodils for several weeks.

 

Amy and Kendall are moving back to Dallas! We are looking forward to celebrating her birthday and Dad's birthday soon.