Apparently, this is the make-up post ... I finally got to put the pictures together to show bits of our life for the past six months. Luckily, it is not just me. Both kids commented how fast this year had gone by. So I don't feel too guilty about not catching up on the blog :)
We rang the New Year in with our traditional hot-pot. I made these hand-pulled noodles. It was a hit for all of us.
The kids started the year by giving our bay window a new coat of paint.
Emily earned several new badges and service stars at AHG.
Emily and Andy performed the duet "Stormy Sea" at the school talent show.
Emily participated in the PTA Reflections and got award for her musical composition at the district level.
We held our annual Friendspeak Chinese New Year's party.
At the culture day at school, Emily tried her hands on the traditional Chinese music instrument "Gu Zhen". The girl who owned it happened to be from my hometown! She tried to sell her instrument to us because she thought Emily had a gift in that. We told her she was already working on the piano.
Andy finished his baseball season. He came right back to chess. He often played with himself and beat David most of time. So I decided to look for a chess club or instructor for him. We were so fortunate to have found Imagine Chess Club that is five minutes away from our house. Andy started the Chess Club on the Valentine's Day and private lessons a month later. He showed great improvement and lots of potential in chess.
At the end of February, Andy participated his very first chess tournament "Hop Into Spring" held by Lovejoy ISD. He got the fourth place in his section.
In early March, Andy jumped in his second tournament, which was a state-level three-day tournament. Each year about two thousand players from all over the state came to play. Andy was a little nervous and lacking of experience against so many strong players. It was physically exhausting too. We were so proud that he got the 13th place in his section.
The is the "Fun Master" Mike from chesskid.com
Andy played against a Grand Master during the break.
We never reminded Andy to practice his chess. He was always on top of his chess homework.
Andy got the third place at the "April Fool" fund-raising tournament at Imagine.
Andy got 2nd place at the Frisco Saint Patrick's Day classic chess tournament.
He also got 1st place at the Plano Spring chess tournament in May. After school finished, we enrolled him in the UTD chess camp. We heard they had an excellent program. Andy finished the camp by getting a 1st place plaque in the camp tournament (against all levels).
While Andy was having the summer camp, I found a swimming lesson for Emily. Emily learned so much in that week. She mastered floating and swimming across the pool as well as the cannon ball diving. After the lesson we go to a pool nearby to wait for Andy. It worked out perfectly.
For Valentine's Day, I made these grain-free little treats.
Emily and Andy decorated the dining table and windows.
We went to the "Feed My Starving Children" event held at Stonebriar Community church in Frisco. We packed the food for the Ghana kids. We really enjoyed working together in this.
AHG organized a group to see a basketball game in Frisco. It happened to be the weekend of Chloe's birthday. So we all went there with Amy's family and Grandparents.
The girls had fun riding the animal scooters in the mall the next day.
Early March, AHG had a spring camporee working on the badges. We always enjoyed spending time with other girls at the camp learning new skills.
This is the deer feeder Emily made. She then walked to the field and hang it on a bush.
During the spring break, we had several mini activities. One day, the kids just spent some time together out in the back yard.
The next day, we went to "Adventure Landing" to play mini golf, bumper boat, race car, etc.
Another day, we went to the Dallas Museum of Arts and had picnic in the park. Our friend Darren came to say hi since his office was right across the street from where we ate.
We also took the kids to shoot bows and arrows. We were surprised to see how much they enjoyed it!
We had a baby girl shower for Friendspeak reader June. Emily was one of the helpers too!
David and Emily started preparing the garden for planting.
The tulips and daffodils in the front bloomed beautifully.
Our friend Jason decided to be baptized. His wife Lilian noticed huge changes in him. We were so excited for Jason's new life in Christ!
Here is Emily preparing the table for the passover meal.
Andy's class had a field trip in Frisco at the discovery center. He had so much fun!
We had two big hail storms in April. They were the biggest hails I've seen in my life. Unfortunately our cars were parked outside in the driveway. Both cars had lots of dents. Our insurance offered to buy our cars. We decided to say good-by to the Honda hybrid. In exchange, we bought a Kia with the 3rd row seats.
Here are what I saw at the breakfast table ... Nobody seemed to be any hurry.
We had a back yard Olympic game birthday for Andy. Half of the attendants were neighbors and the other half were from his school.
Emily and Andy had a field day at school. Look at her ... it made me shiver.
Emily's field trip was late in May. But the weather was surprisingly beautiful that day. She had the best school day ever!
Emily and Andy's piano recital was in May. They both did a great job!
This is the sequence music game that the kids made (with mommy's help :))
They handed the programs at the door.
Emily's drawing was on the program cover
They also collected over $200 for the Samaritan Inn charity.
Andy helped to move the trash cans (his normal job) after the recital
Emily earned more badges and star for the fall award ceremony.
Emily got the Principal's award at the year-end meeting in school.
We invited some Friendspeak readers and works to our house for the Memorial Weekend party. It was a good turn-out.
Emily and Andy passed the National Guild audition with flying colors. They both got the highest scores. They also both got perfect scores (gold medals) in the Texas Music Theory tests. After all the tests and auditions, they went to a nursing home in Allen to perform for the nursing home residents. I could tell how happy those people were to listen to some familiar music from little kids!
Emily and Andy participated in the Texas Music Teachers Association music ensemble. It was always fun to see so many kids playing together.
My BSF study ended in May too. Several of us went out for lunch after the last class. We look forward to getting back to it when school starts.
Summer vacation was here. One of Emily's favorite activities was to assemble these Tinker crates. She had amazing ability to read the manuals and make them. She finished building them in a couple of days!
Emily even picked up some chess.
Oh, our neighbor friends! They could always find something fun to do.
We also worked on some puzzles. Emily picked two (each 500 pieces). We finished in one week!!
Emily and David had a date at an art studio in downtown McKinney. They each painted a butterfly based on the samples.
The garden started producing. We have been eating from garden every day since then.
We were so glad to see grandpa and grandma three weekends in a row in June!!!
Emily has been a great helper in cooking. She made breakfast several times and helped with other meal preparations too.
Andy enjoyed sitting with David in the back yard chitchatting.
Guess what Emily was doing??? (She was playing the Simon says game on Andy's shoe!)
This is the Halloween contest at Emily's orthodontist's office. They also had a contest on guessing the jelly beans in the jar. Emily won the contest and got $50 gift card!
This picture reminded me of an incident happened at Emily's school. Both Emily and Andy brought their lunch for school everyday. I made sweet potato fries and peas for them one day. I was surprised that Emily didn't eat her lunch. Upon questioning, Emily said one of her classmates (who happened to be the classroom parent's daughter) smashed her food when she told her to stop. She didn't like her food being smashed. So she didn't eat. I took a picture of it and emailed to her teacher. Her teacher responded immediately:"It's absolutely unacceptable! I wish Emily had let me know so I could have taken care of it right away. I'll talk to the girls tomorrow." Emily told me the next day that the girl who smashed her food wrote her dozens of notes to apologize for what she did - she was truly sorry about it! Later on, I heard that her mom grounded her for it. The teacher told me the girls were so sweet to each other. They hugged and apologized/forgave. They played together like nothing had happened. I was impressed with how things went and what a great example that girl was. The principles and teachers make huge differences in our kids' lives! We are thankful for having wonderful teachers and principles at Minshew! We are already looking forward to the new school year!
