March Happiness

 Hometown Specialty!

 After the Chinese New Year, our friend Xiao Li returned with bags full of goodies from her hometown.

 These were fun for all of us to watch. Their texture was hard as a rock until submerged in a pan of boiling oil. The final product was a mix between cotton candy and toasty marshmallow. 

 Our good friends the Streams visited this month from out of town! 

 We always enjoy their company.

 Josh's Chinese teacher and his wife stopped by for a visit. They really enjoyed the kids! I'm not sure the feeling was mutual :-/ We did have a nice visit though!

 Our house church was on our way to a park on a mountain for a special outdoor service and picnic. 

 Once we got there, this little guy followed August around everywhere!

 Gus didn't seem to mind ;). 

 The park was SO packed. The blossoms were beautiful! One of my Chinese friends told me I needed to look at a lot of the blossoms so my baby would be pretty. I replied that I will probably have a really pretty boy then because the blossoms were numerous and beautiful. She said, "Oh! It's a boy! Maybe you should go look at some big cars or something!" Ha! 

 Fruit Salad. Yummy, yummy.

 Our new friends (who we met through selling some furniture to) Mariam, who is from Norway and her Chinese boyfriend joined us on our picnic. They are lots of fun.

 Dass Dass

 The Vivster

 Evangelina hanging on a branch

 the clean up crew arrived

 peek-aboo or camera shy

 Our attempted family picture (Viv was in the middle of a fit)- ha! Now where did Lil & Cade go? 

 Birthdays are the pits! 

Poor Brody :(. He felt terrible on his second birthday. So we gave him some tylenol and took him and the 3 other littles to the Ball Pit while Lil and Cade attended a Home School Week program. 

We ended up having a really nice time.

 This is what kids do when you get rid of everything in your house. Draw on the floor with dry erase markers! 

 After our ball pit trip, we stopped at the bakery for a cake and came home with popsicles instead. They were a hit!

 No cake or shirts on this hot day :).

 Here's the babes I think around end of 7/ beginning of 8 months. Today I feel double in size. And tiredness :). However, the Lord has been our strength!!!

 Our friend Eva went back to her hometown over the holiday and now has returned! We had a happy reunion! 

 Yesterday was our last Sunday hosting our house church. It was a very special time with Joey leading music and Josh teaching. We will miss everyone!!!

Cade & Crackers!!

 Happy 9th Birthday to Caedmon!! We took off of school on his actual birthday this year and had a fun family day. The real fun was a week later for his sleepover/ party! 

 The weather is warming up and we have been outside everyday! 

 Kids are throwing the noisemaking firecrackers on the ground. 

 None of the kids have minded the 2 weeks of constant firecrackers too bad... 

 except August has been a little apprehensive ;O.

 On Chinese New Year's Eve, it would be impossible to try to sleep before 10 or even before 1am... 

So if you can't beat em', join em'! 

The kids were up really late on the porch enjoying the great view

And lighting some sparklers of their own :).

 

Me and babes around 5/6 months. This pregnancy has been wonderful. I have loved carrying this baby, though I am starting to get more and more tired! 

 Some yummy homemade calzones for the big party! 

 A few days before the big sleepover, Josh and I went on a really fun date. We walked to one of our favorite restaurants Tepanyaki and found some tulips (still with bulbs!) on the way home (my favorite!!)

Getting ready for the water balloon fight. I have a feeling Caedmon won't be able to do this in the future for his birthday parties (!!!) (February in Wisconsin...)

 Getting lots of help.

 As the 7 boys arrived, we began by playing charades. It was lots of fun.

 A great game for all ages!!

 The entire evening was so peaceful. I had been praying for our time- especially having so many boys all together for a long period of time. Lil was thankful to sleep over at her friend Corrie's house. It was a wonderful time- and didn't get too rowdy until the indoor nerf gun wars the next day! 

We had some great guessers! 

 

 After all arrived, we headed outside for Water Balloon Capture the Flag.

 Our neighbors were so sweet. And apparently had never seen a water balloon fight before. They asked, "Auntie, can we just go and touch the balloons?" 

 explaining the rules of the game

 taking a little peek

 The boys did awesome! The water balloons lasted for quite a while doing a surprisingly civilized game! 

 All the boys were fans... until they got soaked!! Glad it was over 70 degrees out!

 A hesitant game of catch.

 tough guys

 on to attack

 still trying to figure this thing out ;)

 Ha! It didn't break!

 Ready for action!

 After playing in the courtyard, we came up for a lively relay race on our porch.

 The boys did awesome!

 And though some already changed into dry clothes... this was another chance to get wet! 

 Wehew! Dinner time!

 These ninjas were made by none other than Cade himself to decorate his cake!

 Cade blew out all the candles in one breath!!

Christopher, Cade, Austin, Stephen

 Time to open presents!!

(We will miss all our friends when we are back in the U.S.!!)

 Cade & Timothy Du

 Isaac & Cade

 Christopher, Cade & Stephen

Thanks for all the fun presents!! 

We enjoyed a mummy wrap game, a few other fun, prize winning games, watched a movie, had pancakes for breakfast, ordered noodles for lunch, and then I had an awesome nap!!!