Don't Play With Your Food

My sister Natalie is a funny, funny girl. Not a coincidence then that she gives funny gifts. She is the responsible party behind the Handerpants, and she hit it out of the park this Christmas with my kids. Remember Wooly Willie from back in the day where you would put magnetic hair shavings on his face and head?

Well he has inspired the Fred Food Face Plates.

 Nathan made us this delicious Sunday Roast Dinner (that's right ladies, I said Nathan) and it was the perfect meal to pull out the Fred plates.

 They took so much time creating their plates I was a little concerned about what they'd actually eat. Instead, they would announce, I'm eating his hair now! I'm eating his carrot ears! or, He needs more beard! They thought it was hilarious. Nathan and I got a kick out of them too.

 Aly... well, she got stuck. She insisted she only wanted Fred to have mashed potatoes and proceeded to spend 15 minutes carefully patting down gobs of them on Fred's head. I didn't complain because she pretty much ate them all.

 The plate probably helped but the meal was pretty delicious on it's own. This is a gesture Kohen does when he is eating food and it is just sooo good. He bounces his hand up and down while doing it and it reminds me of something very Italian. Maybe it's that 1/16th Italian in his blood showing through. Makes you feel pretty good though when you made a meal and he does this. It's the ultimate thank you.

Of course what is a Sunday Dinner without Brown Sugar Muffins? Which is exactly what I am holding next to the camera that elicited a dimpled response from Ander. He's a fan.

Bend It Like Beckham

You know, I did try. I tried to find something that Kohen could do after school that he would enjoy. Unfortunately even with all of the after school options at TAS, I was trying to coordinate with what Kennedy wanted to do so that I would only have to drive back extra, one day a week. 

I put Kohen in gymnastics.

 Now before you manly men shake your heads in embarrassment, let me just say that there are lot's of boys in the class and it is plenty rough and tumble. 

But over the last month or so Kohen has made it clear he is no longer enjoying himself. So I now look forward to the weekly complaints. They should last through, oh, about the rest of the school year. 

Due to some of the struggles Kohen has had this year, we were strongly encouraged to make sure he had something that he enjoys and excels at outside of school. I believe it's important too but I have to admit I have selfish thoughts about how to accomplish this, it's just more $ out of pocket and more muddying up MY schedule and MY responsibilities. Bad I know, but I'm being honest. 

So when Nathan suggested soccer -which started in November, has an involved sign up process, and I knew was already full- I kind of said, Good luck with that babe. And left it to his persistent Nathan ways. 

Two days later Kohen had special permission from the coach to join the team.

(Kohen yuckin it up with his friends on the field)

 Nathan, being proud of his mad Dad skills, made a grave mistake in telling Kohen on Wednesday that he was going to get to play soccer on Saturday. Kohen enjoys anticipation about as much as constipation, and we got to listen to him nag, whine, and complain that Saturday was taking too long to get here! every hour of each day. How can you even nag and complain about something you are totally excited to do? It's a special talent.
Finally Saturday arrived and by the grace of God- truly- soccer wasn't rained out. I could not have been held responsible for what I might have done to my husband and/or son if it had been canceled.
Do I even need to write how much Kohen loves soccer? How much he loved the game? How excited he is to be playing SOCCER!!!

He's not too shabby either.

Not Your Mother's...

...Lemonade stand. Why? Well, for starters, I'm pretty sure your mom didn't live in Taiwan. Kohen and the girls have been nagging us for months to let them do a "lemonade stand" out front. We live on a ginormous hill and people walk the hill all day long for exercise, especially on mornings and weekends. Lot's of pedestrian traffic. So after me pushing it off on "Dad", I was surprised to come down stairs on Saturday morning to find the operation in full swing. 

 There were a few hiccups initially, like Nathan trying to 'keep an eye on them' from inside whilst his eyes were actually on his laptop. I look out the window to see Aly and Kohen holding the product in their hands, running up to innocent passerby's, essentially begging them to buy their wares. I was mortified. So Nathan was heavily encouraged to go out there and at least give them a few tips of the trade.

There was also the language barrier. But they got by. When Kohen came inside proudly holding someone's 100NT bill, Kennedy was outside realizing she needed to give the guy change. So they managed and figured things out.
 I am pretty sure we were running an illegal operation anyway. I am not positive what the rules are but I do know my kids don't have say, work visas, so I hoped that the 3 root beers they sold over 3 hours wouldn't be grounds for imprisonment.
They had a little luck out of the gate but then things slowed down as the morning wore on (they kinda had a late start) and what do ya know, one of the cans fell so many times on the ground it sprung a leak, so they did what any good sales person would do, and they shared that spraying, leaking can of soda.

I think we will try again soon with a little more preparation. Perhaps I will actually brush their hair, they may even wear clean clothes. And maybe we can find something better than soda to offer people after their arduous walk up our hill. Though rootbeer is a rare treat here. I fear part of the problem is that few people bring money with them. But we shall see.
In the end we don't even know if "Lemonade Stands" are something children do here. More likely they just work at their parents vegetable stand for real all day. So we are trying to figure out the market. And no matter how much Asians would like it, we are not offering the gross tea drinks with big floating jelly globs in them. Sorry to disappoint.

My Little Song Bird

Aly is my little song bird. She is forever energetic, happy, silly, chatting and singing in her adorable little voice. So when Tara caught this totally candid moment (as in, this is really what she was wearing/doing) where you see a very rare side of my little lark, I fell in love.

2010 had a few rough patches for Aly and I worried. I worried she might lose her little song bird song. But she is a resilient one. She is still our same spunky Alyroo. And amazingly, even this little ball of moxie has moments where she just...sits. But they are rare. Which makes this picture as special as a Rembrandt to me.