Snapshots during Thanksgiving Holidays

On Thanksgiving day, Angela helped out to decorated the front door. Since the weather was so nice, Daddy took a family picture in front of the house.  Angela was wearing her hand-made indian head wreath and showed a big smile on her face.
This year, Angela's third birthday was one day after Thanksgiving Holiday.  Mommy and Daddy prepared traditional Chinese birthday cuisine -- thin noodles (Misua) with pig's trotters (port hocks) and red eggs expressing the hope for longevity and symbolizing future health and peace for celebrating Angela's birthday.  Angela also picked a very big birthday cake decorated to look like a snowman for herself.  Look! The birthday girl quite enjoyed her meal and cake.

Angela got Lego from Daddy and two books from Mommy for her birthday gifts.

May Angela continues to grow healthily and joyfully. Happy Birthday!

Texas Renaissance Festival 德州文藝復節

每年的11月美國德州會舉辦文藝復興活動，據說;與國內其他各州的文藝復興主題活動比較，是屬於比較有看頭的大型主題娛樂活動。今年2011 Texas Renaissance Festival舉辦的地點離休士頓還算近，加上Daddy剛好有4張招待券，所以Angela 連著兩個週日都去參觀。

Angela 看到很多人裝扮得像中古世紀的人，以及不同的音樂、舞蹈及戲劇表演覺得相當新奇。

不過，最讓小恩恩興奮的還是--玩旋轉馬的遊樂活動，因為這是她第一次騎真正的馬！瞧，小恩恩騎馬的姿態還頗有模有樣的，一點也不害怕！

在整個活動區域內，除了騎旋馬以外，也設置不少的遊樂器具供遊客娛樂，包括高空彈跳、海盜船、射擊、攀岩、打沙包、擊重等等。其中，Angela 與Daddy一起搭坐旋轉杯，這旋轉杯雖然是人工配合機械發動旋轉的，可是轉起來還是相當快速刺激，小恩恩轉到後來都有點害怕，雙手緊緊地抱著Daddy。

另外，小恩恩還玩了一個爬牢籠的遊戲，牢籠有三層，小朋友要到最上層，必須要用手臂的力量往上撐才行。Angela看到比較大的小朋友的爬行動作很快就到了頂層。結束後，還很興奮地與Daddy留影。

Angela's Advance Birthday Celebration at Montessori！生日到了

Angela is turning 3 years old this coming Thanksgiving holiday! Mommy and Daddy prepared for cupcakes and birthday favors for Angela's advance third birthday celebration at her class this Friday. The past year, Angela has grown a lot and kept rapid progress in every aspects. While moving to a new environment, little Angela has not been hestitate to get to know her classmates in the daycare school.  Angela looked at the cupcakes as Daddy brought home and couldn't wait to share them with her friends.

The celebration was quite simple and efficient. During snack time, children happily sat on their seats in the dining room and waited for their cakes. Beofre starting to enjoy their cake, all the kids sang Angela happy birthday song.

  

Angela was pleased and satified when she knew that she was allowed to pick her favorite cupcake.

Later, Angela passed her birthday favors--little notebooks for each classmate and candies and thank you notes for class instructors.

 

At the end, children lined up and returned to classroom for next class session.

Meanwhile, Angela got her goody bag from school.

Pumpkin Carving 南瓜雕刻

As Halloween approached, Angela learned about pumpkin carving and Helloween dressup in class. Angela has been looking forward to working with Mommy on pumpkin carving.

To let Angela experience how to carve a pumpkin, the family got two big pumpkins and carving kits home the other day.
Few steps for carving a pumpkin-clean the surface of the pumpkin, cut opening pumpkin, scoop out the seeds and scrape pulp from carving area, draw a pattern for the face, and follow the pattern and saw and cut.





After Angela pushed the cut-out feature gently from inside of the pumpkin, her carving work was done. Finally, nice work!









By the way, here are the byproducts after pumpkin carving -- pumpkin seeds and pulp, which can be roasted and cooked, see recipes for roast pumpkin seeds and pumpkin rice.

First-week report from daycare school 托兒所的報告

Angela started her daycare center at Montessori School of Downtown last Monday. Daddy drove her to school in the morning and Mommy picked up her in the afternoon. Angela has been excited about attending the class and making friends. Mommy and Daddy are happy to see Angela's high willingness to go to daycare center and hope that little Angela will have a lot of fun to play and learn.
While the teachers were pleased with Angela's self-adjustment in the past week, there still are things we need to work on. E.g. Angela needs to improve her table manner and stop running around or standing while eating meals. She also has to control her tantrums and reduces the frequency of wetting her pants, etc. The teachers introduce class rules and hopefully, in the following weeks, Angela will get used to the class instructions, be willing to obey the rules and still keep high spirit going to class.

School Farewell Party 學校惜別會

Angela left for the US with Mommy and Daddy on Oct. 1. Before the journey, Mommy requested preschool teachers, Ms. Yen and Ms. Chen, for a farewell party for Angela.

On Angela's last day of school this month, the family brought mini cakes for the class and attended the farewell party. During the party, Ms. Yen also celebrated Angela's birthday in advance. All classmates clapped and sang happy brithday song. Thereafter, Angela made a wish and blowed out the candle.

Angela and each classmate embraced warmly and said miss you.

In the end, the kids danced and sang merrily together with the teachers.

Back to school 開學了

今天是新的一學年開學日，Angela 起了個大早，很高興又可以到學校玩耍，更期待下課後可以到操場跑跑跳跳。

開學第一天，Mommy和外婆一同陪Angela去上學， 看到Angela背起新書包，還真是有長大的樣子，個頭不大，但比上一學期看起來更懂事了。

到了學校，同學紛紛向Angela 打招呼，不過Angela似乎不太習慣同學的熱情，過了一會兒，才參與同學溜滑梯的玩耍活動。
Mommy 希望Angela 可以繼續保持愛上學的態度，在學校老師的指導下有更多的進步。

Puppet Animaion-Peter and Wolf 偶動畫-彼得與狼

Angela went to see a puppet animation of Peter and Wolf this Thursday evening. The animation was played in a resturant and Angela was very excited about this new experience.

Angela has heard this musical fairy tale story since she was one year old. While never seeing such a puppet animation, Angela was quite familiar with the characters of the story, including Peter, Peter's grandpa, the Duck, the Bird, the Cat, the Wolf and the Hunters.

She likes the sound of the music instruments and melody as well. When the wolf show up in the screen, Angela became nervous and couldn't help wave her little fist toward the wolf. Before long, Angela showed happy face and smiled when Peter finally caught the wolf.

Mommy was glad to see little Angela concentract her attention on the animation until the play ended.