Simpsons in Seattle

 Halfway through February already and it's been a busy few weeks! Last weekend we celebrated Chinese New Year. We experimented with making loh bak go and savory tong yuen and I have to say this is one time that our cooking efforts did not result in lip-smacking goodness. We likened the tong yuen to eating phlegm - it wasn't the chewy mochi consistency that it should be. And the loh bak go, while tasty, didn't set to the right firmness either. It was unfortunate because I have such fond memories of both dishes as a kid. My grandmother used to make vats and vats of loh bak go and it was so good freshly steamed and drizzled with soy sauce. And the tong yuen that she (and now my Uncle Albert) makes is a filling, yummy, warming bowl of soup each winter. Oh well, we'll try again next time!  Yesterday was Valentine's day and the girls have been hard at work on making their valentine's for their friends! Like last year , we decided to do home made valentine's again....

The cats love snuggling with Nora. Penny, especially, loves Nora. In fact, if she doesn't sleep with Nora, she's usually waiting at the door in the morning so that I can let her in and she can jump up and give some morning cuddles. It's very cute!  Both the cats are on Nora! Penny does a lot of kneading on Nora.   Here's one of many videos that I have of Penny going in to wake up Nora in the mornings:

We bought a set of Wooble animal crochet kits many moons ago and I finally set aside some time to do them. The package says it's for beginners and can be finished in a few hours. Uhhhhh..... my first one took way more than a few hours. Granted, I was trying to watch tv at the same time so may have been distracted but it took me a while to get a hang of it. Here's the finished project!  Meet Kiki! Her beak looks more like a rose and she's a bit lopsided but we love her quirkiness. The second went MUCH faster. I did this over a few days but in all probably took about 2 or 3 hours.  This is JoJo the rabbit. She looks a bit like an easter egg with ears, no? My little buddy knitting next to me was Nora. She finally finished her hat that she made from a loom kit she got for Christmas. Cute, eh?  

Evie got some new fancy mouth jewelry this week! This lucky girl got braces. She will need to have them for about 18 months. It's been about 3 days now and so far, so good. She has said they don't hurt but take some getting used to. She's been very cautious about what to eat though and the poor thing has basically been eating only soft foods like soup and smoothies for the past few days. If anyone has tips or recipe recommendations, send them over our way!   

Baby, it's been coooold outside!  We had a cold front come through last week and the temps dropped into the teens in our neck of the woods. But guess what? We didn't stay in our woods and instead hopped across the border to Whistler again (we have a ski pass this season) where it was even colder. Easily, it was the coldest temperatures I've ever been in. How cold? When we arrived Friday night, our car showed 0 degrees fahrenheit. On Saturday, it was 4 degrees when Nora and I walked around the village at 11am, so was way colder when we went cross country later in the day and likely way colder up on the slopes where Scott and Evie were! Good thing it was sunny the whole time or it would have been miserable. Sunday was a bit better because the temps rose up in the teens.  The weather has followed us back to Seattle where our roads have been staying so icy that school was canceled yesterday and had delayed start today. Very little snow on the ground but enough slush that it fre...

Wow, it's been a minute since we last posted!! So much to share, so we'll just do a quick overview of our December shenanigans.... First, we had a couple of school events. Nora is part of the school choir (Sunset Singers) and they had a holiday concert one evening. She also got elected/selected to be part of Student Council, and the kids did an amazing job organizing a food drive for a local shelter. After they were done collecting, they loaded up three vans with all the food. It was heartwarming to watch the kids being so kind and helpful with each other. Lastly, we signed Nora up for a free intro lesson to fencing. She looked so cute out on the floor, but I'm not sure how much she liked it.  For Christmas break, we did our usual and headed down to good ole LaLa land! We had lots of fun planned out:  Dinner at the Mission Inn in Riverside a Hawaiian Christmas concert horseback riding lessons Disneyland Making cookies with Grammy Christmas Eve dinner Christmas dinner Hotpot...