Here are some highlights of the first half of the school year: School started in late August. Both kids were super excited about their school. They were eager to tell their teachers what they did during the summer.
Emily's class asked each student to set up a personal museum to display three things that tells about him or her. Here is the name mat she designed.
Here are the three things as well as the narrators she displayed: her favorite chapter books "The Cul-De-Sac Kids"; the paper cutting portrait of her in Shanghai; and the Treble clef that is comprised of the comments from her piano recital. She was well-represented!
We've used these sticky notes Bible verses a lot. Here are the verses Emily assigned to each person in our house for September:
This is for Emily and Andy
This is for David and me
We also have a whole mirror display of the verses in my bathroom.
In mid-September, Emily had a service project with AHG. They designed cards and made blankets; donated and packed items for the underprivileged children.
I really liked Emily's drawing: kids holding hands on the earth
In the end of September, Emily and Andy's school had their first monthly meeting. Andy got the "Principal Award" and the Musician of the month award; Emily got the Rising Colt award. We were very proud of them!
In November Emily's class had the spelling bee contest. She won the 1st place.
Here are a couple of more pictures from her class:
After Thanksgiving, Emily's teacher invited me to talk about the Chinese culture. I had a great time! A couple of days later, I got a thank-you note from each student in her class. That was so sweet!
This is Emily's crazy hair day.
Andy played the baseball in the fall. He did amazingly great! I'm afraid we will continue keeping him in the baseball track.
Emily and Andy practicing baseball in the backyard
Our garden wasn't as good as last year (mainly because of our trip to China). But these Goji berries exceeded our expectation. Normally they don't bear fruit the first year. But we harvested a lot of them.
Here are some tomatoes and the garlic bulbs from the garden.
The biggest harvest was purple sweet potato. Look at these big tubes. David chopped off many big ones by accident:
We harvested over 60 lbs. Andy's interest was in the worms.
We sponsor a boy named Alexis in El-Salvador for school. Periodically we receive his letters and report cards from the mail. Andy and David tried to read the letters in Spanish.
Andy was very good at math and Emily was very good at reading. They often help each other and check each others' homework.
During the cold days, the kids would feed the horses some carrots.
This is a picture of Emily at the arts night at school. She got to visit her old first grade teacher Mrs. Saporito at her table.
Emily and Andy played duet "Stormy Sea" at North Texas Music Teacher Association family music festival.
Hot air balloon outside our backyard
For Emily's birthday, the weather was perfect. We had a backyard game and camping themed birthday. The kids made crafts in the tent and played games afterwards. They had so much fun that some kids wanted to stay when their parents picked them up.
We had the annual FriendSpeak Thanksgiving dinner. Emily and Andy helped to setup and decorate. They also performed the magic tricks together for the group. It was well-received by everyone.
This is our new favorite: almond meal chocolate chip cookies
The purple sweet potatoes had a wonderful harvest this year. We got around 60 lb of huge purple sweet potatoes.
David's FriendSpeak reader James was baptized before he returned to China. We had a joyful celebration with him.
This year, Emily and Andy did all the setup for the lights and nativity set outside. Our neighbors commented how hard they worked. Here is a picture that I took from inside the house.
We revisited the Gift Of Christmas performance at Prestonwood Baptist. It was spectacular show! Put us right into the spirit of Christmas.
Emily and Andy went with AHG group to visit the nursing homes. They sang Christmas carols and handed out the hand-made cards to the residents there.
Emily was "Mary" in the nativity scene at the McKinney Christmas Parade this year. It was cold that night. But everyone was in a warm spirit spreading the holiday joy.
Emily, Andy and Sunny planted some new bulbs. Hopefully the tulips will be beautiful in a couple of months.
Pictures with Mr. and Mrs. Santa at the Angel Tree event
Children's Christmas program at church
Having going-away lunch with James and other friends
Christmas party at school
"Wreath Across America" - honor the soldiers
Cutting snowflakes
Our thanksgiving turkey
Pictures with cousins and grandpa
Candle-light service on Christmas Eve
On Christmas day, we searched for baby Jesus. Finally guided by the star and the shepherds we found him at our back porch
For our New Year's day, I made a traditional Chinese meal with lamb: stuffed lamb buns. It was delicious. Then we had the Chinese hotpot with our Chinese neighbors. Looking forward to a brand new year ahead!
