Fiona's third birthday

Fiona turned 3 years old on November 3rd. My how the time flies. For her special day we invited some little friends over for a party. We made some crafts, played games, had snacks and cake, plus opened several presents. Thanks to Mackenzie, Anna and Maya (and their mamas!) for coming over to enjoy the special day with us. Vivian also worked very hard making the food, plus special Princess costumes for everyone, to go along with the Princess party theme. Gareth decorated the house with baloons and streamers (Fiona is really into pink these days).
Modelling her Princess dress -- handmade by Mama
Trying on princess shoes
Happy day!
Four little princesses: our party guests Mackenzie, Anna and Maya
Sitting down for some snacks
Birthday cake from Cinderella
Enjoying a sweet treat
Group photo. Thanks everyone for coming to our party!


Here's a little video of party highlights. Includes music from Fiona's new personalized CD!

The following day we had more guests: Nai Nai and Ye Ye (Fiona's grandma and grandpa, a.k.a. Gareth's parents), plus Vivian's college friend Heidy and her family: Felipe, Philip and Dylan. Another enjoyable party, with more presents!
Vivian cooked up a bounty of dishes
Fun times with Dylan and Philip

"Two" 兩歲

(其實四個月前就該刊這一篇的，我實在太會拖了。不過，有總比沒有好吧！)
孟田兩歲了。我教她練習聽懂並回答「我兩歲。」用英文和中文。中文很快就學會了，英文卻一直跟著我重複「How old are you?」
我台灣的家人竟然買了一個蛋糕，在電腦前用視訊幫孟田唱生日快樂歌。還在電腦前吃了起來，讓孟田直吞口水。
因為還不知道在這裡如何幫小朋友辦生日派對，我只有簡單的請了爺爺奶奶和姑姑以及我的好朋友Heidy一家人來孟田的生日晚餐。爺爺和奶奶買了一個超大的企鵝，(還有其他的禮物)孟田愛死了。睡覺前還要跟企鵝親吻晚安。
(I should've posted this 4 months ago. Well, it's better than nothing.)
Fiona is two years old now. I've tried to teach her how to answer the question: "How old are you?" in English and Chinese. She picked up the Chinese answer pretty quickly, but it took her a while to understand that she doesn't have to repeat the question.
My dear family from Taiwan bought a cake and sang the happy birthday song in front of the computer for Fiona. Oh, I miss them so much.
We had a small party for Fiona. Grandma, grandpa and auntie Jane all came to the party. I also invited my friends Heidy and Filipe and their two boys. We have met some little friends here from the church and the mother's group I go to every Monday. But I'm not ready to throw a kid's birthday party yet. Hopefully I'll be ready next year for Fiona's 3-year-old birthday.
Grandma and grandpa bought a big penguin for Fiona, and some other nice things. She loves it so much. She even kisses the penguin good night.
孟田的生日蛋糕(看到了嗎？企鵝就躺在沙發上)
Fiona's got an ice cream birthday cake. The penguin is lying on the couch.

孟田愛死了她的冰淇淋生日蛋糕
Fiona loves her ice cream cake.

More photos from November十一月的照片

發現自己好懶，好久沒有放照片了。孟楷放了這些十一月份的照片，我來中文補充一下。
Here are some random photos from November:

孟田喜歡自己刷牙，更喜歡吃牙膏。(那是兒童牙膏，可以吃)當然我還是要幫她補刷一下，免得跟媽媽一樣滿口爛牙！
Fiona learns to brush her own teeth

零下20度還可以烤肉嗎？當然可以，孟楷全副武裝烤給你看。
Who says you can't BBQ in -20c?

孟田在家門前玩雪
Fiona in her snowsuit in front of our house, enjoying a tasty bite of snow

冬天到戶外實在太冷，現在比較常帶她到購物中心裡的兒童遊樂區玩
Enjoying the kiddie play area at the mall

準備吃早餐
Getting ready for another breakfast
11月3日，孟田兩歲。爺爺奶奶Heidy阿姨一家人，連姑姑也來了。
On November 3 Fiona turned two years old! Lots of people came over to celebrate, including Auntie Jane

11月18日，孟楷過生日。奶奶爺爺請客全家去吃日本鐵板燒。這裡吃鐵板燒可真不便宜啊！Then on November 18 it was Gareth's birthday. The whole family went to the Japanese Village for some teppanyaki.

好喜歡我公婆新家的廚房，雖然不很大，但是有一個大島(island)，很多的儲藏空間。
Vivian really likes the kitchen in Mum and Dad's new condo

Slideshow: pictures from July and August 2007

Here's a random sampling of what we've been up to this summer: Beach parties, weddings, road trips, making music, family visits, dinner gatherings, night market outings and more. A nice way to spend this last season of ours in Taiwan :-)

Rally 'n' Retreat

Last Saturday Studio Classroom celebrated our 45th anniversary. We held a big rally at Taipei's World Trade Center Auditorium, and invited a few thousand people. It was a fun show. Jamaican/American piano genius Huntley Brown hammers out a calypso tuneHazel and Larry perform a magic trick Angus and Zorina deliver another song Song "Oh Happy Day" -- some of the Studio Classroom teachers came out to do the backup vocals, and also a little rap. That's me, second from the right

...and the crowd goes wild ;-)
The following week we had our annual ORTV retreat, out at Green Bay on the northeast coast of Taiwan. A nice time of rest and reflection. Here Heavenly Melody serenade

Doris and the rest of the audience listen to another speaker It was fun being in the band and make music for the introduction of each session. My treat to play alongside Angus and Solomon and Steve. Thanks also to Bob for lending me his red Stratocaster while mine was getting a tune-up! Hanging out with Dale Wine. Dale has family living in Calgary, of all places. Maybe our next meeting place will be there

Vivian's birthday weekend

We started the weekend with a Saturday trip to the gardens next to the National Palace Museum. These gardens are arranged in the classical Chinese style. Fiona was excited to see the large goldfish, plus the swans and ducks :-) Then on Sunday we went over to Vivian's parents' house for a meal and some good times.

Fiona loves playing with the fridge magnets

Getting ready to blow out the candles and cut the cake

Goodbye Thalmans

We said goodbye to our friends the Thalmans, who are returning back to America after many years serving in Taiwan. We will miss you!

Some pics from last year... at our retreat in the MRT training center in Beitou




Kirt sent us this pic after they arrived back in Ohio :-)

Ringing in the new year新年快樂

To usher in the new year, we went to Chris Jordan's office on Heping East Road. He's on the 11th floor, and his building enjoys a good vantage point of the Taipei 101 buildingHere's what we saw out the windowNighttime traffic below. The streets were buzzing with excitement that night
Wei Wei and Sunshine came along to see the fireworks. They met a little doggy friend that night The countdown crowd. Happy New Year!

I knew someone was going to do a much better job of recording the fireworks show than I would, so I've taken the liberty of pinching their video from YouTube.