Wednesday, October 31, 2007

OUR FALL HARVEST

Shaun recommended the title in jest with his best sensitive-man voice, so there it is. It's Halloween night and we're all treated out--seriously, we just binged on candy and I'm sick! Sophie and Lucas attended 3 Halloween parties over the past week, so tonight instead of braving traffic, rain, and scary masks (Sophie's deathly afraid of them) to trick-or-treat, we put the kids to bed with spanks and ate a good amount of their candy :)

We're not all bad. The kids had an afternoon filled with halloween crafts, dancing to spooky music, and a pizza party in front of a Winnie-the-Pooh Halloween special. Eating their candy was more of an intervention on our part to prevent sugar highs followed by melt-downs. Besides, we must retaliate in some way when Sophie wakes us up at 6 a.m. on Saturday morning demanding hot dogs and hot chocolate, or when Lucas repeatedly flushes the toilet while I'm trying to shower.

As we enjoy our hot sunny weather here in Taipei, we've been reminiscing about the crisp fall air back home, smelling of old leaves and bonfires. We wish we could carve pumpkins and take the kids through neighborhoods at dusk to trick-or-treat. It's a nostalgic time for us and it makes us appreciate all there is to enjoy in the states. However, we are starting to enjoy our surroundings here. Lucas charms the locals and Sophie is finally starting to speak Chinese again (mainly to talk back to Shaun.) Sophie had her first debut as a singer last weekend when her preschool class sang at the American School's fall fair. We just loved watching her up on stage singing, she did such a good job! We got the whole thing on video, even the little Chinese boy next to her who took his opportunity at the microphone to shout "pee pee poo poo."

Sophie's performance and our ward's Halloween party coincided with Shaun's birthday, the big 36!, so we spent the weekend off and on trying to pay homage to Shaun although it was very busy. Dooby loved walking around the apartment hugging balloons and singing "happy, happy, happy." (That's the only word of the song he can say.) Sophie loved frosting the cake. Shaun loved watching the excitement of the kids during the celebration.

One last little juicy tidbit--We were amused a few weeks ago when we saw a Chinese man in drag. We NEVER saw anything like this in Beijing. His big body was squeezed into a little form-fitting number and he was looking through dresses in a nice department store, trying his best to look pretty and feminine. Good luck buddy.

So, that's the news from Taiwan. Obviously our daily schedules have taken over as it's been so long in writing an update. We hope to hear from all our loved ones and will enjoy seeing Halloween pictures of all our cute little neices and nephews!

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