Moon Festival at Jason Lin's Garden - Part 2

 They had a little sideshow going on all night.  The ladies of the family made mooncakes.  I had never seen them made before.  It was quite interesting to watch.

 

I missed the first step but basically there was an egg mixture that was rolled into a ball.  Next that egg ball was covered with sweetened red bean paste.

 It was an exact science for them.  They weighed at every step.
The third step was the form the dough into a ball.  From there they rolled it out into a tongue shape.
From there they rolled it together like a cinnamon bun is rolled.  From that they flattened it again and rolled it into a circular shape.  This covered the red bean ball.  It also explains why mooncakes are so flaky.  It creates layers upon layers within the dough, similar to puff pastry.

 

  There's the eggy first step below.

 And the finished product.  I have to say, there were much more delicious than the ones that we get in the store.  There's just something about home baked products that is so much more appealing.

 This was the outdoor oven they used for the mooncakes.

Moon Festival at Jason Lin's Garden - Part 1

 Jason Lin invited us to his family's garden for Moon Festival.  We had gone to the garden in early summer and had a great time so we gladly accepted the invitation.

The whole garden had a night market atmosphere.  They had games set up such as the fish game.  At the night market you fish with a circular fan shaped thing... only it isn't a fan.  The filler is similar to interfacing.  It disintegrates in water leaving only a limited amount of time to catch the fish.  There are cups and you just toss the flip-floppy creatures into the cup and take them home.  Well, here we don't take them home; just play, play, play... and play again.

 Josie stopped using the fan thing and started using her hands.  Oh that just grossed me out in ways I cannot describe.  She was not squeamish about it at all. She just kept picking them up.

 Jason brought his football along.  Since we had been here before, we had some idea of the area we could play in.  Jason taught them how to throw the ball.  There were some hits and some misses, but overall they got the hang of it.  Jevin got clobbered once or twice as he walked into the path, but fared well.

 I made my 7 Layer Dip.  It was a similar reaction to what the parents at Perimeter had when I made it years ago.  They were hesitant... new food and all...  One got brave and tried it... and then all of them tried it.  There were no leftovers.  I was very flattered. 
They were unsure if it should be cooked or not.  I guess it does sort of look like pizza. LOL.

 Jason's cousin, Anson, took care of Jevin all night long.  Anson is in grade nine at our school.  Jason just graduated from our school and is going to senior high in Kaohsiung in a high school-college combination program.

 It was so nice not having to watch Jevin.  He stayed with Anson the whole night.  And Anson was so accommodating.  If Jevin wanted to be carried, Anson complied.  If Jevin wanted to eat, Anson fed him.  If Jevin wanted to play, Anson was there with the toys.

 The fireworks were quite special.  They had bought a box with them inside.  Lighting just one fuse set them all off.  This box was a happy face... See it?  Blue eyes, red smile, white circle...

 Jason, Jason and Jevin.

 Anson taking a Jevin-break...

 This is a barbeque - night market style.  They had all sorts of things you might find at a night market.

 Jason is barbequing with Jason, Jason Lin's cousin, looking on.  Yes, there were three Jason's at the barbeque.

 I took a picture of this because they just had everything there and I was not sure people would believe me.  This is something we would find in our 7-elevens.  It had snack foods that have been boiled in water.  For those of you who saw Flat Stanley's pictures, you may remember him having his picture taken with the 7-eleven guy next to these kinds of snacks.

 Here are the leftovers from dinner.  There was just so much food...

Incidentally, all the furniture here was brought to the garden by Jason Lin's uncle.  He had gone to Bali Island to buy it all.  There were tables, chairs, lawn chairs, huts, lights and so much  more.  It was just so beautiful and very fitting for such a large space.

Jevin's New Hair

And this is what happened when Daddy took Jevin for a haircut.  Jevin came back bald.

WOW Grade 7 kids!

I was just floored last week when my one grade 7 classes stood up immediately after I said good afternoon.  Suddenly in unison they all said, "Good afternoon teacher," and bowed.
The homeroom teacher for this class has asked them to do this at the beginning of every class for every teacher.  

I had them do it over again today so I could record it.

Hospitals

On Monday evening Josie started feeling yucky.  We canceled her field trip in anticipation.  We also went to the doctor to get some meds hoping to minimize the sickness.  Sadly it did not work.  Tuesday she woke up throwing up.  We calmed the stomach and kept her close all day.  By the late afternoon her temp was around 39.  We got the medicine in her and it still didn't go down.  We had to put the dreaded super strong fever meds in her.  It worked after a while.  But around 1:30 am she was throwing up again.  I packed her up and took her to the Peds ER.  We stayed all night and finally left this afternoon.  She had to be rehydrated and get her fever in check.  It's still hanging around, but at least it is easier to be sick at home.  Hopefully we don't need to make another trip in tonight.

 I said, "Josie, why are you frowning?"  She said, "Mommy, I'm in the hospital.  I have to look sad."

And the rabbit look...

Oh, mom... You'll be interested to know that she has a new phrase now... One from my childhood.... "BARF BUCKET"

Josie's Birthday Party

In the early morning, little Miss Josie opened up all her gifts.

 Jevin gave Josie toy food - healthy and junk food.

 HA!  Disaster averted... Caught all the hearts before they fell on the floor!  Oh, beware your next card... Beware...

After dinner we went walking through the mall.  We had assumed that the birthday dinner was enough.  We always go to Chilis.  We went.  We ate.  We got the crazy song and the delicious dessert... but apparently because it was just us four, Josie assumed there was more coming.  "So when am I having my birthday party?"  I guess in hind sight we usually invite others to dinner with us so she must have just assumed that the others were still in the picture.  Well, not wanting to disappoint her, we sent out some last minute texts and made a few quick calls and pulled off a birthday party in less than 18 hours.

 Jeanne and Nick above...  

(Nick was Jevin's teacher last year in Baby class... When I sing "Jump down, turn around...." Jevin will freak out and say, "That's my Nick's song. You don't sing it!") 
To the left is the cake that Jason had specially made in like 30 minutes.... no extra charge.
And to the right, Jeanne and Chad, who will become the next additions to the Changhua parent scene in December.

 Carey and kids below with Chris in the jungle gym thingie... James in the blue shirt and Jeremy in the yellow shirt below.

 Death of the yellow cake:  Jevin was first to stick his finger in which led to the other kids poking so I got in there right away and cut it up. 

 And of course the gifts...  With only 18 hours or less to plan, she got an awful lot of gifts.  We have such understanding friends.  And they totally know what she likes!

 Thanks guys for making her birthday (in her words) 

THE BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Josie's Birthday Dinner Part 2

Here are some of Jason's photos...

 (See that little red nose?  Her summer school took the kids to Mala Bay Water Park last Tuesday.  She used super strong sun screen, but apparently the sun was our full force that day.  She came back super red... with her nose blistering.)

 Fun I-phone pictures.

 She bought herself a nice water bottle with Auntie Tammi's money, but still had 70nt left over, so she bought herself some candy.