Just two weeks slip by and already had so many activities that makes this post to be pretty big! First Clayton had his solo violin recital playing Suzuki book 2 - Hunters Forest. What makes him unique this time from other times is that for some odd reason, when he got up on stage he was grinning the whole time! We didn't do anything to him nor did his teacher. At the end when he came back down, we asked him why and he answered "I don't know" as he shrugged his shoulders.
So as the boys are growing, their hair grows even faster. I've cutting their hair since they were born but then again if I keep doing it, they'll never learn. So I starting to train Brennan to cut his own hair and he was willing to do it. It is actually pretty good for the first time!
The picture before with the Mango Mousse cake is something that is impressive for Abbey's accomplishment. She's been studying day and night the last month to prepare herself for a tax exam to be Tax Enrolled Agent. EAs are the only federally licensed tax practitioners who specialize in taxation and also have unlimited rights to represent taxpayers before the IRS. Even though our dinners weren't quite as good but she pass all THREE exams in the month to this well deserved cake! Kudos!
This was from a 4H activity that the kids were can use different beans/legumes and fill it to a turkey shape. I was expecting her and other girls to just fill it carelessly but I was amazed that FF spent over an hour to meticulously fill out each section and coordinate the patterns to make it a masterpiece!
Brennan's been busy too! Not only will he play a big part which consists of many pages of dialogue in the Nativity scene but he'll also sing a few songs too! And on top of that he's going to play a sax piece with another person to 'jam' out some Christmas songs!
Our annual Thanksgiving Tree under our stairs. We write what we're thankful for and the kids wrote their hearts out!
We start Thanksgiving morning with a hearty breakfast and then the kids are to clean a bathroom each while Abbey starts her preparation for the turkey! This is the first time FF had to clean a toilet so I gave her gloves and showed her how to clean it.
This is the first time we had Thanksgiving that my brother. It was a success!
The next morning, Friday morning, we do our usual migration to NYC (Brooklyn) to see our old friends up there. Seems like this time, the kids our age had school and other commitments and since it was a really nice day so we ventured out! We went to Coney Island and the kids kept insisting they want to walk on the sand! We finally gave in and they were in like in heaven! Abbey carried their shoes while I helped them find clam shells.
Saturday morning, again the kids had Saturday Chinese so we went to 8th Ave for breakfast, then onto Brooklyn Bridge we went!
FF really wanted to take a photo of the police officer with his cool Go-4 Interceptor Scooter. As we passed the officer the first time, I told her to ask otherwise she won't get to take a photo with the police officer. She missed the opportunity. Then as we were returning to leave the bridge she wanted to ask and I told her to ask and she really really really didn't want to and she begged me. So I gave in and asked for her and viola!
We had lunch in Chinatown where Abbey wanted to eat at one of her old favorite stops for Malaysian Curry. It was really yummy and expensive. Next we went to Times Square because the boys want to see where they drop the New Year ball in person since they see it so many times on Youtube. They said it looked really small and I told them it's really really big but it looks small b/c it's so far high up.
At night we visited our old landlord as we do every year. She didn't change one bit. Although this time she's tearing up as she was telling us how happy she is to see us as we visit her every year. She was also saying how her health is deteriorating and she won't last much longer. It was a little sad to hear her say that.
Then we headed over to Diane kai ma's house for this special occasion that her husband would cook a great feast for us to eat!
As we stayed that the Jeremy and Kristy Yau's home, they so graciously
hosted us for a couple nights, they kids had a wonderful time playing
with each other and giggled all night long. The boys play their things
while the girls do their things..it was loud and noisy but it was a lot
of catching up and having a great time.
