Pumpkin Carving

Carving pumpkins and watching A Charlie Brown Halloween...what more can I say? Snapdragon's pumpkin is on the left (a white ghost). Buttercup's pumpkin is on the right. She designed and carved it all by herself this year. Too cute! The pumpkin in the middle was done at my religious education class last Sunday as a lesson on letting the light of Jesus shine inside of you. A good thing to think of when looking at a jack 'o lantern. Nothing is brighter in our lives than the love of God.

Halloween is Almost Here

We went to the Zoo Boo at the Memphis Zoo this past weekend. It was really fun. We went on a hay ride and on the haunted train ride. The girls were dressed in their costumes. Buttercup is a zombie rocker this year. She didn't wear her make-up to the zoo. Snapdragon is NiHao Kialan. Tomorrow night....we carve pumpkins!

New Zoo Exhibit

Snapdragon and I spent the day at the zoo today until we had to pick Buttercup up from school. I subbed two days this week. (Not bad because this was only a 4 day week for the Catholic schools.)

We explored the new zoo exhibit, Teton Trek, for a member's preview day. It is a beautiful exhibit. It is modeled after the lodge in Yellowstone Park and it even has a model of Old Faithful. The grizzly bear cubs were adorable to watch. It was hard to get close photos of them. Snapdragon loved watching one of the cubs swim in the river. The river is stocked with fish for the bears to catch and eat. The timber wolves were very active today. I was able to get a video clip of them playing.

Buttercup has a busy weekend ahead filled with learning choreography at the dance studio, a volleyball tournament on Saturday and she is fitting in her first slumber party at a friend's house since the move.

Autumn Moon Festival

We celebrated the Chinese Harvest Moon Festival this weekend as a family. The Moon Festival is similar to our Thanksgiving. In China, it is a day for giving thanks for family. It is celebrated by having a meal with family and gazing at the full moon. The children usually are given paper lanterns.

Buttercup and I found a great Chinese market in midtown and had fun adventures shopping there. It brought back many memories from China. They had tanks full of creatures you could take home for dinner. We loaded our basket with items to cook our own Chinese feast at home and we even bought traditional Chinese mooncakes. The mooncakes are round to symolize the moon and the love of family that is like a circle and never ends. They are molded with symbols for prosperity and family on the top.

Our meal was wonderful, but it was a little spicy. I didn't read the label for the stir fry sauce very well! We enjoyed everything except for the mooncakes. I bought cakes made with lotus seed paste which are supposed to be the best. We didn't care for them too much. We decided that next year we would stick with American Moonpies. We had those for dessert last year because I couldn't get traditional mooncakes.

After dinner, the girls had a great time looking for glow sticks that were hidden all over the house. This is our version of paper lanterns. In a few weeks, we are going to a Moon Festival celebration with the Families with Children from China group here in Memphis.

Fall Fun

The girls have been having fun getting ready for fall and Halloween. They made a Halloween Haunted House together a couple of weekends ago and last weekend we went to a local pumpkin patch and made scarecrows. It actually feels like fall here! A big change from desert living. We miss the sun a little though. It rained two weeks agos non-stop, but last week was beautiful. It's raining again this week.