Dad came down from Tulsa for Easter. Since Sophia, Andy, Amy, and Dad's birthdays are all around this time, we had a combined birthday during the Easter weekend. We went to the Dallas Aquarium for an outing. Everyone had a great time!
Loved the look on Andy. He sticks out his tongue whenever he is a little shy ...
We bumped into Mary Ellen. She was in the middle of the Leadership Training for Christ conference. We look forward to the time when Emily and Andy can participate that in a couple of years.
After we came back from the aquarium, we had the birthday celebration with cakes and gifts.
The kids had the egg race
We colored eggs at Amy's house. Dad gave each kid a basket of goodies.
Ten days before Easter, Emily and Andy each made an Easter garden. We were hoping the grass would grow out of the seeds on the hills. But the storm and the hail destroyed most of the seeds before Easter.
This was Emily's version of the garden:
This was Andy's version:
Each day of the Easter week, the kids read about what happened on that day
On Easter, the kids did egg hunt and found eggs with different pictures related to Easter
Then Andy put the pictures in the order of the events happened
Then Andy opened a treasure box that had all the things that symbolize something about Easter. Here he found a curtain that was ripped open from top to the bottom. He also found spice bottle, rock, coins, nails, whip, white cloth, purple cloth, thorn crown, cross, donkey, lamb, spear, dice, etc. He really enjoyed doing it.
We had an Easter party at FriendSpeak. We let the readers make the resurrection rolls. We also watched a movie clip on resurrection and played a game with the resurrection eggs after we had the dinner.
Andy had an egg hunt at school. He was the first in line. He payed close attention to following the rabbit footprints.
Thanks to the practice at home, Andy quickly gathered a full basket of eggs. He stopped before everyone else did and shared some of eggs with his classmates. He was so sweet doing that!
The tulips and daffodils bloomed beautifully
Gayla had a fish themed birthday party at her house for Andy. Andy was so excited about it!
The day after Andy's birthday, we took the light rail train to the Dallas Zoo for an outing.
We had a treat watching the elephants enjoying the water
Because it was so hot and Emily didn't feel well, we went back home after a few stops.
We had fruity cream cheese on the top of sourdough bread for breakfast. It was absolutely yummy!
Here are more sourdough pancakes that we ate throughout the week
The spinach and the bokchoy are ready to harvest. We've been enjoying them for a while. Yummy!
We are preparing more field for the sweet potatoes. Emily and Andy were so happy to find many worms down there
I noticed that Andy had been a mouth-breather for a while. He snored, startled and woke up in the middle of night because of it. The doctor recommended a surgery which I didn't want to do. So I found a little medical device that's invented in Japan and sold in Singapore. I had Andy try it. He enjoyed reading books while putting his lip trainer on. His sleeping was greatly improved after about ten days. He sleeps peacefully and so quiet now. Hopefully he will stop breathing through his mouth during the day time pretty soon.
Emily and Andy enjoyed playing balls with our neighbors over the fence
Our missionary friends Andrew and Jaime (Lucia and Zeph) visited us after they returned to the States. Then David preached at a small church that Sunday.
I can't believe our baby boy is four years old now! He is gentle, sweet, sensitive, smart, happy and loving. His teacher commented that he doesn't talk much. But once he does, people listens because his words have substance. He is such a joy to be around. He always can find even the smallest flowers to bring to me. Often times I found wild withered flowers he found at recess and saved in his cubby when I picked him up. He loves making his sister laugh and he is a great encourager to everyone. He likes to ask "What can I do, Mommy, to help?" He says "You are right?" that cracks me up every time. He demands people's full attention when he talks. If I was looking somewhere else when he talked, he would put his hands around my face and push my face towards him. It's so cute to watch him stretch out his arm and open and close his hands saying "Come!". He is always thankful for little things. He thanks me for making delicious meals all the time. He can count to 100 in English and 30 in Chinese. He can read most three-letter words. He is very sensitive to people's feelings. He is a perfect little boy in many ways. We are more than proud to be his parents. We pray that he will continue to grow in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man! We love you, Andy!
