Category Archives: Connecting4

Just the four kids.

As of Late…

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Thought I would share a bit about what’s happening in my life this week…

– Celebrating Jessie’s “sweet 16th”  Birthday was spactacular  (view the post about it here!)

– Deciding what to do about my habit of watching TV/a movie every night… uh oh

– Just started “stumbling” on Stumble Upon – its an awesome way to discover new blogs like this, this, and this one!

– No school on Friday! I’m planning on spending my day making smoothies, taking walks, and chatting with friends.

– Inspired by this video.

– Can’t stop thinking about our trip home (to America) this summer to visit friends and family! The first thing I want to eat when I get there is Chili’s Buffalo Wings (YUM!)

– Thankful that my relatives send packages full of Easter goodies every year! I love you guys <3

– Random Question: Right now would you rather be on a beach sun bathing or in a mall shopping?

Happy Birthday Jessie!

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Did you know that Jessie and Maddie are born exactly one week apart (with 2 years in between)?! The month of April is crazy with Birthday frill, delicious cakes, lovely packaged presents and rainbow colored balloons. We celebrated Jessie’s Birthday on Saturday (although her Birthday is really the 13th of April) and I enjoyed a day (of much needed rest) spending time with my adorable Birthday sisters. Suffice it to say, I satisfied my baking crave by baking every single thing possible within a span of two days.

I fried cake donuts (sweet) while Maddie cooked egg boats (savory) for Jessie Saturday morning. My advice to you, “save donut boxes!” — reuse them when you feel creative enough to make your own sweet-dough desserts!



Guess where we got the ingredients to make this delicious (literally to die for) dessert? My cousins sent them all the way from AMERICA!  Of course they do not sell chex cereal, chocolate chips, OR powdered sugar in a typical Chinese super market so this was an especially delectable (and rare!) treat for Jessie.

Smoothies for an afternoon refreshment (YUM!), nothing more to be said.

Blog Meeting

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Today was a big day for the blog. Since I am currently in China, we are right now having some regroup chats and making strategies for the future. Our goal is to really stay true to our main purpose of staying connected.

This means chatting, talking, living, and thinking with the view of our siblings and staying in-touch. I want to keep going over ideas with each other and making sure that this is not in an individualistic approach. Below are some instagram photos from today… inspiration for the future.




Birthday Breakfast | Crepes

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Happy Birthday Maddie! This morning I got up early – well, as early as I could pull myself out of bed – to start preparations for Maddie’s Birthday breakfast. We made her favorite, crêpes! These French pancakes are delicious, especially when served with whipped cream, jam, or lemon. I scrambled around, touching up the table settings and decorations, every minute expecting Maddie to wake up and catch us unprepared. I should’ve known that Maddie never wakes up on her own accord, though. In the end the breakfast was delicious. It is suffice to say that I wasn’t able to eat another bite until two in the afternoon!

To my lovely sister: I hope you had an amazing birthday today! You daily make me smile with your cheerful attitude; today I hope that I could give you at least a piece of the surprises and fun that I enjoy when I am with you! It is a blessing to have you as my sister! <3 Jessie

Happiness…

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Here’s a new motto to those of you who were hoping to squeeze in some extra hours of sleep this weekend – “Happiness is loving SLEEP”. I have been trying to get in some late mornings myself this week as we are on Spring Break. Our recent move to our new apartment, however, has interfered with my plan a bit. So please, tonight get some sleep for me!

Source: Back Picture

Geometric Collection | Audrey Hepburn

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My latest addition to the Geometric Collection is well known style icon, Audrey Hepburn. The vintage fashion of her outfit and the general cool attitude expressed through this photograph really captures my attention, even at first glance. Her sophisticated elegance must be the reason why this shot is so well known. I hope you enjoy this piece as much as I did making it!

Cake Challenge: March

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Vanilla cake, swiss meringue butter cream, whipped cream and strawberries were the building materials for this cake. I “almost” slacked on my goal this month because I was SUPER busy finishing school work before spring break while at the same time getting ready for (guess what?!) a trip to Hong Kong! YES, I am visiting Michael in Hong Kong over the vacation! I’ve been looking forward to this for weeks, and finally I’m here (arrived this afternoon). I will be posting pictures of our adventures this week as Michael gives me a glimpse of his life here at HKU.

Anyway, back to the cake. It was Megan’s Birthday yesterday and I really wanted to make something special for her. That, and the goal that I made for myself this year was persuasion enough for me to stay up until 2:30 am Thursday night baking this cake. I was exhausted Friday and although I don’t know how that affected my performance on the 3 exams I had that day, in the end I felt quite “accomplished.” You can find the recipe for both the cake and icing at sweetapolita, an amazing cake baker’s blog (I substituted the white chocolate icing for swiss meringue buttercream but you can find recipes for both on this blog).

I experimented with photoshop for a while, toying with these photos, so don’t be surprised if there are different styles of editing below!

<Cake Challenge Series: is a collection of posts which document the cakes I bake each month. More specifically, I have a goal this year to bake at least one (hopefully spectacular) layer cake each month, and photograph/post them here. I hope you enjoy this collection as much as I enjoy baking these delicious desserts!>

Check out January and February’s cakes too!


Spring Break is Finally HERE!

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Over on this side of the planet Spring Break is finally here! I was planning to relax, but we’re moving, yes I said we’re moving. It was very short notice but the lease for our apartment is up and in a matter of a month we had to find a new apartment (not as easy as it sounds). This week will probably consist of more packing and less relaxing, but hey, at least the new, bigger apartment is worth it!  To add to this craziness, this Friday is my BIRTHDAY (yay!).  I love the date of my birthday because it always falls on some sort of holiday: spring break, easter weekend, teacher work days; it’s definitely nice to have a vacation on my special day.

 

Today Rachel leaves to visit Michael in Hong Kong, and even though I’m sad I couldn’t join her the fact that they are both coming back to TianJin on Thursday definitely makes up for it!   The best part of it all is that Michael will be here for my Birthday (Looking forward to those HK presents!)!

All that said I think this week will be a complete mess, but somehow I’ll find a way to have fun in the process :] Have an awesome weekend!

 

Spring Break Playlist

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With Spring Break arriving soon I decided to make myself a playlist that I can listen to during my week of relaxation. I’ve found that it is so nice to have a few songs ready to listen to when you’re doing work or just to break the silence! These songs may not have much correlation – they are just a few different tunes that I have come to enjoy recently.

P.S. This Playlist will need a Flash Player to be played so if you have any problems just go here.
Spring Break Playlist by Connecting Four on Grooveshark