Fairy Garden

We made our own fairy garden. We started with a beautiful terrarium (that we conveniently had in the garage). We filled it with bark shavings and moss. We added some perfect miniature plants, a pebble path, a chair, and a bird's nest.

We cleaned off the debris so our new residents would feel welcome.

And the fairies arrived!



Let the playing begin!

Fashion, Fairies and Chocolate

Fashion, fairies and chocolate are a few of the items that have interested the girls lately. They have been designing dresses for their dolls:

We also went to the Arboretum which had exhibits on chocolate and fairy gardens! For the chocolate one, the girls made chocolate cookies:

We learned how chocolate is made, and got to taste it in its various forms, including cacao nibs!

Onto milk chocolate...better!

The girls played a game where they had to figure out the process of how chocolate chip cookies are made (wheat to flour, cows for butter, etc.). We also visited the children's touch and smell garden where they did a scavenger hunt for a cacao tree and helped maintain the plants:

The Tiny Treasures fairy exhibit was a huge hit. The girls brought their own fairies along.




At the end, we were inspired to create our own fairy garden! (Post to come!)

A Mardi Gras Sleepover

The girls had their first sleepover with their neighbor friend, Katarina. She spent last Saturday night at our place. Given the timing, we thought it would be fun to have a Mardi Gras theme. We created masks:

Watched The Princess and the Frog:

And made King Cake! (That frosting is actually dark purple, not chocolate. Oh well. At least it tasted great!)

Willa got the baby this time. You can see its little bottom sticking out of her piece. She was excited!

The girls can't wait to do another sleepover. (We likely will as they all actually slept!)

Love is in the Air

I need to share some of the stuff Jia has been saying lately.

Story #1:

Jia came home from school and the following exchange occurred:
"Mama, I have something to tell you. I think I'm falling in love with a boy."
"Really? Who?"
"Emerson. I really like him a lot. Promise you won't tell his mom."

I don't know if we're ready for this! I'm very happy, however, that she confided in me.

Story #2:

Joe was driving Jia to school one morning and saw a muffler in the middle of the road. He stopped and moved it to the gutter so no other cars would run into it. When he returned to the car, Jia said, "Oh, Baba! You're just like a Daisy! [Her Girl Scout troop.] You're kind and considerate, caring and responsible!"

Then, a few days later, she said the same thing to me when I was cleaning up other people's trash.

Nice to see that she's been soaking up the messages at her Daisy meetings!

Story #3

For her 100-day celebration at school, Jia had to write an essay entitled, "When I'm 100."
Here is what she wrote:
"When I'm 100, I will have memories of my great teacher Heidi. Heidi is the best teacher ever! Three cheers for Heidi! I love Heidi! I am still living with my parents."

That's fine with us.

Happy Valentine's Day!

We enjoy this holiday quite a bit. The girls love choosing valentines for their classmates. They love dressing up for the day.

We love making the day special for them. We had a yummy dinner with lots of red: chunky tomato soup and grilled goat cheese sandwiches packed with sauteed red pepper, red onion and spinach. For dessert - chocolate fondue! The dippers were pineapple, banana, apples, strawberries, marshmallows, bread and pretzels. Joe and Jia's fave dipper was the pretzel. Willa's and mine - pineapple!


Willa asked if we could do it every year. Then at bedtime, she said, "Mama, I want to always remember this Valentine's Day. Will you help me not forgot?" We're glad the girls enjoyed the day so much!

Chinese Sticky Rice Cake

This is our final Lunar New Year post.

We made Chinese Sticky Rice Cake for dessert one night and shared it with some neighbors. So delicious!


Willa is adding the red bean paste.


It is like a custard and was very good fresh out of the oven. (Afterward, not so good.) We will definitely make this again next year!

New Year Class Festivities

The girls were excited to share their knowledge of Lunar New Year with their classes. They gave their classmates these pretty red envelopes containing pretend coins:

I also did a presentation to Willa's class, and instructed the kids in making some dragon puppets. They have ribbon in the middle and we love how they turned out.

Willa's teachers then had a little class parade! Very fun!

FCA New Year Celebration

We attended a New Year celebration put on by our Families with Children from Asia group. The girls received red envelopes when they entered:

The biggest hit of the day was the performance by Circus Manduhai which involved performers doing acrobatics, juggling and the twirling many hula hoops. They also loved that they got to spend a lot of time in the bounce house:


They tried juggling sticks.


Yes, we bought some. They're quite fun.

They also did some crafts:

Jia had this nice man do calligraphy for hers:

We had fun catching up with old friends. Here's Jia and Jia.

Happy New Year!

New Year Dance

We have had a lot of fun celebrating Lunar New Year. We bought the girls some new dresses. They tried on many, and settled on matching ones:


They felt so fancy! Our first event was a New Year-themed dance at Jia's school. When they entered, they instinctively held hands. Love that.

Then they found their friends and spent the entire evening dancing and running around.



What a great time.