The Zhao Family

Another fun year has past and it was really cool! Our cousins and friends were able to join us this year to go around our neighborhood to collect their candy.






Group from baby to Preschool...


Group for K - 2


We found Waldo!




















Apparently the most popular candy this year is the ring pop! All the kids had ring pops eating and having fun! Showing off their rings and then their tongues too!

It's not even Halloween yet and there's plenty of snow on the ground. We can not resist but to go out and have fun!! Actually even before FF's brother come back from Chinese school, she wants to dress her Halloween costume so we can get a couple shots before she goes outside.


fake cheese smile before going out..


guess who really want to go out...


I WANT TO GO OUT!!!


first the admiration of going out in the snow...



then the real FF comes out...





And when her brothers come back..we have an all out fun! And guess who's their favorite target? (And I am embarrassed to say that I didn't think I needed snow shoes so I wore my sneakers. While the kids were chasing me around, I slipped and fell on the muddy slushy ground trying to save my camera and end up having the camera bash my nose which brought out a tear or two)








Great photo of the kids in the snow with all the foliage behind them. (2011-10-29)

It was a perfect day to carve pumpkin.

This morning we woke up to have large flakes of snow coming down! It was really beautiful to see the snow falling on the color saturated autumn leaves. Since we have lots of windows in our bedroom facing the woods and don’t have blinds (on purpose), it’s just majestic with the snow landing on greenish, orangey, reddish, brownish tree leaves. I jumped to see the sight and woke up all the kids as well. No sooner, my sister came over with her kids for breakfast which is our Saturday routine. Since now Abbey’s in Yoga class instructed by a sister at our branch chapel, her, my sister and about a dozen other sisters participate in Yoga from 8am until 9:30. So my sister drops her kids here and I make pancakes from scratch for everyone.

Normally my sister's family would leave when she gets back from Yoga class but they stayed today to carve pumpkins. Brennan was supposed to sell popcorn for his cub scouts but it got canceled due to the cold weather and snow. The cub scout leader emailed this, which I find it hilarious, “The weather is terrible so people will not be in the charitable mood” So we decided to carve pumpkins. Our pumpkins were actually outside in the wet snow, so I took them in, wash the snow off by rinsing them, and then Abbey used a hair dryer to dry them! Each kid has a pumpkin to carve but of the five there was only two that was easy to carve, one Brennan helped himself, and two were totally impenetrable. We tried carving knives, regular knives, and even box cutting blades to no avail so I decided they are a lost cause. Since the pumpkins were so old and hardened so much, I just scraped the orange skin out of them and made the shapes of a flower for my niece and spider web with a spider for Clayton. Afterward, we had hot chocolate to complete the whole activity. They had a great time and it was really fun!

And yes FF did lick that scraper with the innerts right after she took it out from the pumpkin.











That is our backyard view while we were carving pumpkins. It was really beautiful!

Ahhh Autumn is the season to get as much done as one can possibly do before the year wraps up. And we're certainly doing that. Brennan recently joined the local cubs scouts, after school piano and still in Karate. Clayton is still in T-ball and absolutely love to draw. Cayleigh is now in music and ballet classes which she loves to do. This is on top of Chinese school and regular school. I tell you with running around town to their activities and meetings, it's quite tiring but hey it's all for the kids progress and part growing up.

Maybe it's in the genes, maybe it's the time of the year, maybe we just don't know what or why we are doing this kind of things this time of the year; but we're experimenting!







Brennan and David went to a 4H event to make a windmill. They learned about alternative energy and how they are stored.




Clayton loves his doodle board. He was devilishly smiling and laughing as he was hiding his drawing away from me until he was done. Then this is what he drew of me.



FF is all about helping me make pancakes every weekend Sunday morning. She loves sitting on the counter ledge watching the pancakes bubble and help me flip the pancakes.






This may get me hired or fired. Fortunately Abbey's bold enough to let me cut her hair at 11:30PM! Of course the lesson learned from last time, this time Abbey prepped me by making me watch a video on youtube on how to layer hair. I learned as much as I can in the 10 mins and viola!! after 20 minutes of chopping', cutting Abbey's hair at a steep angles, and trimming I was semi successful. Then she took over and 'managed' the rest herself.