Christmas Pajamas!!!

This year I finally got out some material I had purchased 2 years ago to make the family Christmas pajamas.  I bought red t-shirts and did the ornament design to make my life easier.  Hooray for Christmas jammies!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a nice Thanksgiving this year, celebrating with just us.  Our church group organized a bigger gathering the weekend before.  Leading up to Thanksgiving, I put together a "count down" that hung in our living room (the envelops).  We picked one each day and recognized something we were grateful for and did an activity.  My favorite was reading the book Stone Soup and then making "stone soup" for dinner without the stone.  We learned that live is more fun when we share with others.  We enjoyed doing the "thankful" tree too, using the trees I made for Halloween.  

Happy Thanksgiving!

There are so many things to be grateful for -- we hope to remain thankful year-round! 

Happy Halloween to Ye!

Rather than be too wordy, I'll just share some pictures of our Halloween celebrations!

Pirate fairy Jane and pirate mate Harry!  I enjoyed making these costumes (all except for the white shirt and tights).

Enjoying the party at the embassy!  Everyone did a great job and I especially thank friends (like Shennie and Tina) who helped keep an eye on Jane and Harry while I handed out candy and helped with face painting.   

We hosted a Children's Halloween Party again this year.  Activities included the Spider's Lair (upgraded to the guest room) and a Forbidden Forest filled with flying witches!  I plan on keeping the trees up on the walls throughout the holidays, decorating them for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Waste not!

Family Picture time!

We try to be good about taking the occasional family picture, taking advantage of nice weather and good backgrounds.  Here's what we came up with this year.  Enjoy!

For additional pictures -- click here!

Witch's Brew!

Last year I started a tradition of having the "witches" leave something behind for the kids to get them excited for Halloween -- a Halloween book, an activity, candy, etc.   Jane tries to see the witches flying around or hopes to catch them when they come to leave the surprise.  So far, I haven't been caught!

For one of the activities (by far the most elaborate), I gave the kids some ingredients to make their own witch's brew.  I used edible, less-frequently-used items from the kitchen and pantry.  At the end I kinda hoped that we could drink it, but as you look through the pictures, you'll see why that didn't work out.

What the witches left behind for the kids to find.

The kids enjoying putting the ingredients together.  It was fun to hear them say, "I need more Vampire Tears!" or "Can you pass the Bone Powder?"

And then, what we all expected... It all just started to get mixed into a big, huge, mess.  Luckily, I was ready and just dumped it all into the sink before it ended up on the floor.   It didn't taste good anyway. 

I was glad I used ingredients I didn't care about so when it came time to throw it all in the sink, I didn't feel bad.  Next time I think I'll plan it out better so we can actually enjoy drinking it in the end. Still, the kids had a great time mixing things up and making a yucky brew!

Parent Exercise Program

My Parent Exercise Program:

Arm and neck muscles  

Back and legs

Stomach muscles

Mind and emotions

And that's why I don't have a regular exercise program right now.

July 7th - Astana Days

Astana City Day is July 7th.  Here they do a lot to make the celebration fun and interesting.  We didn't see everything that went on throughout the city, but we did get to enjoy a few things.  The celebration lasted the whole weekend (July 5-7th).  Here are a few pictures of our adventures.

Harry at the playground.

He's definitely having fun!

Jane climbed to the top of this climbing structure.   I love her facial expression!

Riding a ride in Happlylon.

Kazakh shields on spears look pretty cool. 

What's a festival without arts and crafts??

Love these costumes.  Very traditional Kazakh.

Inside the National Museum "riding" a cart.  I know, it's totally blurry, but it's the best one of four.

Inside the tunnel of lights in the National Museum.  

Inside the National Museum.

Jane, watching Nils play bumper football.

Nils makes the kick and SCORES!  Okay, not really, but you should have seen how that guy ran into him and Nils seriously sent him flying!  Too bad I didn't get a picture of that!

The fountain outside the National Museum and looking over the other monuments and mosque.

New Pages!

One thing about being a mom is you need a constant flow of fresh ideas.  That sometimes includes a new look at some old ones.  As I've been gathering ideas, I feel like I need a place to share them with you guys.  So, I'm using the "page" feature on blogger to store and update things I gather.  I'll do my best to keep them organized and easy to copy.

You can view the pages available at the top of this blog, just above the post.  Each page is represented as a tab.  Feel free to comment on each page if there are ways I can make them more accessible.

Enjoy!

Nicer Weather and Fun!

Now that we have nicer weather, we've been able to get out and do things!  Of course, we still have fun inside on the rainy days, or the cold windy days.  Here are a few things we've been enjoying lately:

Visiting Borovoye, a beautiful national park not far from Astana.  We were lucky to be joined by a friend to show us around the park.

Here we are working on a local friend's garden.  The missionaries joined us and we had a lot of fun creating furrows and planting potatoes.  Harry really wanted to get involved in the gardening work and would walk around stealing people's tools.  We waited a minute before stealing them back...

Our friend is so talented with children.  She brought along these toys and pillow so that Jane and Harry had a place to play while we worked. 

We just received this scarf Grandmama made for us and the kids absolutely love it!  Jane put this ensemble together this morning.  I love that it has the "boa" look without the feathers!

Harry has been growing so much, talking and getting involved in everything.  Here he is with his lunch box, on his way to "work".  "Bye, Mommy!  I go to work!"  

One last little treat.  I made some easy dancing "ribbon" with streamers and a straw.  The kids enjoyed putting on a show for me.

Mermaid Costume

Jane wanted a Little Mermaid costume and I just happened to have all the necessary items to make it happen.  *sigh.... I love the fact kids don't have to have extremely detailed or authentic costumes in order to be happy! Thanks to cousin Gigi (and Aunty Sharole!) for passing down a beautiful body suit, we already had a purple top.  Then I had some material left over from when I was in high school that was a good shade of green and had the right shimmer.

  Rather than spend hours making it look just right, with scales, proper tail, etc., I took advantage of the awesome fabric and just did a quick version - half a seam down the back and some velcro to make it tighter or looser as needed.  The results were good enough for Jane and, let's be honest, kids look cute in anything.

Easter dresses

Just wanted to show off these Easter dresses I made for this year.  I even got to do some fabric painting!  

East Asia Trip

We just got back from an incredible trip to parts of Eastern Asia.  We started in Beijing, took a train to Shanghai, flew to Hong Kong, flew to Manila, drove to Tagatay and the Taal Volcano, drove to Batangas, back to Manila, flew to Osaka, took a train to Hiroshima, Kyoto, and Tokyo, flew to Busan, flew to Seoul, flew back to Beijing and arrived home yesterday morning.  Whew!

I've uploaded a selection of our pictures and tried to organize them by location.  I plan on writing more about each place and what we saw and did.  For now, you can look through the pictures and see for yourself just how incredible these places of the world are.

Beijing

Shanghai

Hong Kong

Philippines

Hiroshima

Kyoto

Tokyo

Korea