Proud Moments and Fall Activities

Fall is officially here. I was sad that summer was gone; the vegetable withered; the leaves fell; the grass turned yellow; the birds flew south; and the day light was shorter ... But there are so many beautiful things that make fall a great season to be in: the air is crispier; the foliage is like a painting; it's more pleasant to be outside; the fruit has more varieties; ... And we still have lots of fun!

Emily and Andy formally joined their troops this month. Andy became a proud Traillife boy and Emily became a wonderful American Heritage Girl. They worked hard to memorize the oath and the creed. We are so proud of them!

I was Emily's assistant unit leader and I handed the joining award badge to her on the stage. So I didn't have pictures of her joining ceremony. But here are some group pictures of Emily's troop after the ceremony. That is a group of wonderful girls! I'm so excited for her to be part of it and to grow together with other girls in Christ!

AHG and Traillife had a combined camping trip on October 9th at a private property "Sunflower Ranch". The weather was beautiful and so were the scenery and activities! We had camp fire on Friday night. We started Saturday morning with devotionals around the fire. After that, we had breakfast. Then the Traillife guys taught the kids how to respond to emergencies, make a first-aid kit, set up tent, and practice boating terminology. After lunch, it was free play. The kids rode the canoes, went fishing, played catch with the dog, caught the bugs, climbed the swing set, ... We had to leave before dinner so we would be ready for our busy Sunday. Other families stayed for another day until Sunday afternoon. Before we left, we joined the others to do the water slides at the water park. On the way home, Emily asked whether we could come back later. It was a camp trip that we will remember for a long time!

Canoes that were waiting for us

Making the first-aid kit

Lined up to practice the boat terminology

Relaxing together

Canoeing

Water slides

Camp fire

Fishing

Catching bugs

Our new friend

Learning to set up tents

Morning readings

Bye-bye Sunflower Ranch

By the way, the jacket and dress that Andy and Emily wore were gifts from our FriendSpeak readers Berry and Tia. They were so kind to give us such thoughtful gifts. We used them immediately!

Making a Human Knot at one of Andy's Traillife meetings

We set up a trunk at our church for the "Trunk or Treat" Halloween activity. The theme of our trunk was "Fisher of Men". So David and I dressed as fishermen. Emily dressed up as Mary and Andy dressed up as Joseph. David stayed at the trunk so I could take the kids to visit the other trunks. Andy won a big prize of carved pumpkin! Go Andy!

Grandpa and Grandma were here. So we had a little pumpkin party after the dinner with the cousins.

Emily and Andy got more Halloween loot from David's co-workers.

We got a brand new telescope from David's work for his ten-year anniversary at Raytheon. It was just in time for the Mid-autumn Festival and the blood moon. The kids really enjoyed it (for several days ...).

 

Emily and Andy's school had a bike safety event on Friday. All the kids brought their bikes or scooters to school to practice the safety rules. We picked up their bikes and scooters after school. Emily still wanted to ride more at our neighborhood. Saturday morning when she went out the door, she realized her bike was stolen because she left it out in the front yard. She was so sad! David drove around with Emily in our community to see whether there was any chance finding it. That afternoon, Emily put several flies in our neighbors' mailboxes. She prayed hard that she could find her bike! David and I prayed for her too. Sunday morning when she woke up from sleep, she saw her bike in our drive way. She was so excited!!! David had got up early to take a walk. It was still dark outside. He walked way past his normal routes toward a different direction. Suddenly he bumped into something - it was Emily's bike at the corner of an intersection! We all thanked God for answering out prayers. To be honest, I didn't expect to get that bike back after searching for it all Saturday ... Thank you God for caring about us with even little things like this! Emily was beaming all day Sunday telling people that her lost bike was found.

 I'm thankful each day for what great helpers Emily and Andy are becoming to our family! They have such a sweet spirit when they do their chores. I couldn't help taking pictures of Andy when he took a whole load of clothes down to the laundry room with a happy song before he went to school. Emily was cleaning the toy room upstairs. She asked "what about me?" I said I already had one of her helping me to save the Okra seeds. She is a natural helper!

 

 

I found these two paper on the table one day. Right before I threw them into the trash can, I realized what it was. It was a note from Andy to David and Emily. He listed all the reasons why he loved Daddy and Emily (D is for Daddy; E is for Emily). He was always quick to give others encouragement and hugs. What a sweet boy!

 Yesterday morning, after breakfast, Emily and David went in to the bedrooms to get ready for school and work. Andy stayed around since he still had some time. He saw a Bible on the dining table. He moved over to the Bible, picked it up and started reading aloud. It was from Genesis about God's promises to Abraham. He read for over five minutes before he put it down. After he put it down, he saw that my phone was pointing at him from the kitchen. He said "Ah! I didn't know you were recording. Did you record me or take a picture of me?" I told him that I didn't want to forget that moment so I recorded him. What a great reminder for me to read God's word before I go about my day!

This is another proud moment: Emily and Andy participated the All American Festival hosted by the Piano Teachers Association. Emily won the highest prize in her age group (Superior +) and Andy won the second highest prize in his group (Superior). Their effort paid off!

Read the encouraging words from the performance judges.

We really love their Piano teacher Mrs. Harman. Although she moved to Melissa 25 minutes away, we still think the driving worth it!

For this month's colt roundup at school, Andy got the "Musician of the Month" award.

Andy's art also was displayed at the online gallery. He told me he used sponges for the leaves and used the credit cards to make the tree trunks. Really?!

As we enter the season of thanksgiving, we have a lot to be thankful for. If you are struggling with things to be thankful for. This story may get you on a right start: At the end of the year, Eddie was expecting a big bonus from his boss. After all, he sacrificed lots of time with his family to be at work and he did his best. But on the bonus day, he was furious to find out he only got $200! His head was exploding and he had a really bad day. Taking bus home, one passenger in the bus announced "I'll pay for everyone in this bus. Happy New Year to you!" This small incidence changed his mood immediately - he was suddenly full of thankfulness and happiness. He was happy not because of the $200 bonus, but because of the $1 free ticket. Why? He thought that he earned or deserved $200 while the $1 ticket was a gift. What about us? What if we realize that everything we have is a gift from God instead of something that we deserve? Now start counting our blessings ...

 

 

First Month of School

Can't believe one month was gone since school started! We are in an exciting stage. In Andy's words "Now every day is my favorite day: Monday through Friday are my favorite days because they are school days; Saturday is my favorite day because I got to play soccer; and Sunday we go to church and eat dumplings! Yay!" For Emily, her favorite day is Sunday because "we go to church in the morning, eat lunch, take a short nap, go to FriendSpeak and small group. It goes by so fast!" I agree with them. When the days go so fast, we are having fun!

This school year we had extra activities for the kids. Emily joined American Heritage Girl in McKinney. I am the Unit leader assistant for her group (Tenderheart). We meets every other Tuesdays. She already learned so much. Here is the lap folder we made to prepare for her joining award.

She attended the National service Day project "Free To Be A Blessing". I was in the lady's retreat at church that weekend. So David had to take her and Andy to the conference. They made birthday kits for the food pantry.

 

Andy joined the TrailLife. It meets every Tuesday at our church. He really enjoyed all the learning and activities. 

 Andy also started playing soccer. He was scared before his first game. But after he cried out his fear, he hopped out of the car and got in his team. He was dancing and jumping all through the game. And he made one score! He was so proud of himself!

 (See him dancing? He is number 10)

 We also went to the Upward Basketball sportsmanship training at our church. It was free for our church members and NTCA students. Both kids enjoyed it very much. They got to play with some of their old friends too! I was impressed by what they did over there.

 

As far as school, Andy and Emily loved it! Andy's teacher told me every time how happy she was to have Andy in her class. She told me many times that Andy was a leader in class. So by the end of September at the school-wide Colt Roundup meeting, Andy got Rising Star award from his class. We sat at the wrong side of the auditorium so we didn't get a picture of him receiving the award. We are so proud of him!

  

 Andy was so serious about his homework. Even when he was sick at home, he made sure his homework was done correctly and completely.

 September 27th is the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival. This year I made the mooncakes from the scratch (with organic flour, organic red beans, organic date sugar, organic shredded coconut, and black sesame powder). It is probably the healthiest mooncakes ever. And they tasted so good! I made around 35 pieces (100 g each). They are almost all gone.

 We shared them with our FriendSpeak readers. They all loved it!

 On the same day, Andy had his area all-boys piano recital. He was the youngest of the 33 kids in his age group at his time slot. And he did great. He was so excited to get a ribbon for it.

 Andy was so independent at school that he didn't want me to have lunch with him. He never wanted us to drop him off at his classroom either. We either stop at the entrance to the Kindergarten Hall or go ahead to drop off Emily. But Emily loves to have me to eat lunch with her or take her to her classroom. Hmm, wonder why.

 Emily is such a wonderful helper in the kitchen. She has helped me to prepare several meals and she made the breakfast for Andy when Andy was sick. I know she will be a great cook in the future!

 One day when I was reading a Bible story to the kids while they were finishing up their dinner, Emily interrupted me, "Excuse me, Mama! Kai said there is no God and I told him there IS a God and God created everything. He didn't believe me. I asked him who made everything. He said he didn't know. I said it was God. I think he doesn't go to church and didn't know God's love yet!" I was interested in hearing more. So I asked "How did you get to that topic and talk about God?" She said "One of my classmates said something like 'we don't want to do bad things because God will not like it'. Then Kai said 'there is no God'. I overheard it and walked over to Kai and told him about God." I was impressed by our quiet girl boldly telling others about God.

Andy was sick one Friday night. When he woke up in the morning, his nose started bleeding. He freaked out and started screaming. David ran to the bathroom to get the tissues for his nose. Andy cried out, "Daddy, hurry!!! P-R-A-Y-!!!" That boy put a smile on my face.