First Trophy

Well soccer has come to an end. Just when Samantha was starting to get into it. Well last week she was playing goalie and pretty much got her head stuck in the net playing around. But besides that she was doing good. Nonetheless all the kids had fun and best of all...they got trophies at the end of the season party. Samantha just loves hers. A few pics from the party. Samantha and her coach, Chris. Her good friend Karan and her friend Annabel. Both in her class and also on her team.

Chinese Wedding

Saturday night Kyle and I attended our first Chinese wedding reception. Eu Jin, works for Kyle and graciously invited us to be part of the celebration. Evidently the wedding activities go on for well over a week. Last weekend the bride's family hosted a party for her side and this weekend was hosted by his family. It was at a local hotel ballroom and probably had 250+ people in attendance. The invitation stated there was a cocktail reception starting at 6:30 and dinner at 7:00 SHARP. We arrived a few minutes after 7:00 because our GPS gave us a few wrong turns. We were running in so we would not be late. Yeah right. They invited us to our seats in the ballroom at 7:15 and it was not until 8:00 that most other people rolled in. They started a slide show presentation with all their engagement photos around 8:15 and the bride and groom were announced at 8:30 or so. So much for "sharp".

The main event is the food. They serve a 8-10 course meal (see menu) and between some of the courses were some toasts from the groom's parents, another slide show and champagne toast in Chinese. Then the bride and groom, plus family, travel to each table to toast with guests. It is traditional to toast "Yom Seng". Which is like cheers. We sat with some of Kyle's other collogues so it was nice.

By the time the food came I was starving. I first had some chicken with cashews. Pretty safe. Then I took a BIG bite of "noodles". It looked like a clear,rice fettucini noodle with a chili sauce. Not exactly. Once in my mouth I knew I was in big trouble. The crunchy, yet jelly consistency was bad enough but the overpowering fish taste was enough to make we gag on the spot. So bite number two politely went into the cloth napkin. Thai Style Jellyfish. Yuck, yuck, yuck.

Considering I only indulged in maybe three of the courses I would have done ANYTHING to stop at Taco Cabana on the way home!

Overall a great experience. Eu Jin and his wife are such a lovely couple and it was fun to experience something so different than a typical American wedding.

Kyle's Birthday

After all the fanfare with the splash party, Kyle's birthday was pretty low key. The girls made him a card and I baked a pumpkin cheesecake (by request). We opened presents and ate chili. Some hoopla huh? He is going out with the guys tomorrow night and then next weekend we have a nice couples dinner to celebrate a few other birthdays as well.

Now that Emily is at a bigger school she gets lots of practice singing Happy Birthday and is so cute doing it. I couldn't get the video to load so a picture will have to do.

Emily's Birthday Party

Here are a few pictures from Emily's 2nd Birthday party. We could not have picked a better theme for her...Splish, Splash! She LOVES playing in the water and her friends did too. We sent out beach ball invites, had a sprinkler, two water tables, a baby pool, and a beach ball cake. It was perfect for this age too. No games, just playing.

Our camera died right at cake time so these are just pictures of the outside party. I will post cake cutting and candles later.

I can't believe she is two!

Birthday Walk Times Two

Today we celebrated Emily's second birthday at school. How can she already be two?? The preschool here does such a good job with birthdays. The parents answer a few questions from the school and they turn it into a birthday walk. They light a candle and put it in the middle of a circle and then the birthday girl/boy walks one lap for every year. So the first lap they talk about when and where they were born and other details of when they were a baby. The second lap is all about being one and their favorite toys, foods, etc. Emily didn't "walk" too well but she loved the attention nonetheless. Then we sang, ate cupcakes and looked at her picture board. The other children loved the photos, especially the one with Emily and the kangaroo.

Friday (her real birthday) is a public holiday for deepavali so Kyle has the day off too. Hope to do something fun as a family. Then Saturday we are having a splash party at our house. Emily loves nothing more than playing in the water. So we are setting up a baby pool, two water tables and a sprinkler. I invited her baby play group and two other friends. EVERYONE said yes so with mommies, daddies, and siblings it will be 30+ people. Yikes. Wish us luck!

She is Coming Around

Believe it or not, Samantha is coming around and enjoying soccer now. Here are some action shots.