Birthday Breakfast | Crepes

Posted on April 8, 2012 by Jessie

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

Passover

Posted on April 7, 2012 by Susan

After a long week of work setting up our new apartment, we celebrated Passover…it was actually the first full meal I cooked in my new kitchen, which made it more meaningful. Michael was able to join us from Hong Kong, since he had a long weekend for the Easter holiday. In the kitchen

Tables set in the cozy loft room and chocolate-covered Matzos.

Sean reads to Megan from a children’s Haggadah.

Happiness…

Posted on April 7, 2012 by Maddie

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

Moving Day

Posted on April 5, 2012 by Susan

Thank you for your prayers over the last month. Our recent move was the easiest ever, physically, since we had movers to pack, load and unload trucks. Our organization provided this benefit and it was a big blessing to us. They showed up at 8 AM and began to dismantle our home; by 5 pm that day, we were moved in, with bunk beds set up, and furniture in place. Of course we still had lots of shifting and organizing to do.

Here’s some photos of packing and moving…kitchen, girls room and mine and Sean’s room

These guys did a fantastic job. We are so grateful to have had movers.

In the new apartment…Sean’s work begins with hanging our favorite chandelier that has traveled with us from Virginia, to Kansas and now to China.

Geometric Collection | Audrey Hepburn

Posted on April 2, 2012 by Jessie

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

Posted on March 31, 2012 by Rae

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!

Check out January and February’s cakes too!

Spring Break is Finally HERE!

Posted on March 31, 2012 by Maddie

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!

Last Day at the Bus Stop

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Susan

And here is the reason we wanted to move a little closer to our new campus!

What I’ve Been Up To

Posted on March 28, 2012 by Maddie

Hi everyone! Sorry It’s been so long since I last updated you on what’s going on. 8th grade has been going great (a little tough, but bearable) and so far the school year has gone very smoothly. I decided I would write this blog to highlight some main things that have happened during my 8th grade year.

The school year started out great with the Middle School Fall Camp. My Team (The Peace Warriors) won second place. We played games, competed, and had alot of fun!

During the Second quarter of school we had the Middle School Science Fair, my project was about bacteria growth (gross, yet interesting). I placed second overall in the Middle School.

My (long) winter break was awesome (having Michael home was so great)! Christmas went great and our extended break for the Chinese New Year was full of relaxation and family time. We got to take a small trip to the beach which was a very nice get away from the freezing Tianjin (burrrr).

In the second Semester we moved into our newcampus (yay!) and the dynamics of school definitly changed. It has for sure been nice to have a bigger school building so that we can all spread out more and we finally have a really gym (huge praise)!

Next up is my birthday which is coincidentally during Spring Break (woohoo). Before I start getting excited I have to get through the whole moving stuff. After that I will definitly be relaxed and ready to party! See you next time, bye!

Spring Break Playlist

Posted on March 28, 2012 by Maddie

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.