Mexico Beach trip Sep 27th -Sep 30th

We went to Mexico Beach House from Sep 27 to Sep 30th. Mom, dad, Aunt Anne, Aunt Jeanne, Uncle John and Sam's cousin Anne were all there when we went. We had a short but wonderful time together.  Missed all our siblings on that trip, definitely felt grateful that we could go.

Here are some pictures from the trip:

Enoch's first performance at Chinese Cultural Center

Enoch and his classmates had their first chinese performance at Chinese Cultural Center today. They did a great job! Grandma Jayne and Aunt Anne came to support Enoch. 

They had their Chinese names written by somebody at the event. 

Michael's 4th Dinosaur Birthday Party

Remember when I said it would be a month long celebration of Michael? Well, Michael turned 4 on Aug 12th, the celebration indeed had lasted until yesterday Sep the 5th, when we had his birthday party! Lucky Michael!

Originally, Michael wanted an Angry Birds party (Enoch had one for his 5th party), we made invitations and started making our pinata, we had talked about what kind of cake and pinata he wanted, and we even started giving out some of the invitations. Well, a 4 year old can change his mind pretty quickly. A few days later, he decided that he wanted a Dinosaur Party instead. And that was the final decision. So, we remade invitations, talked about what kind of cake and pinata he wanted. I am glad though, I am pretty flexible with plans so we ended up just fine. 

I usually care less about the decorations but more about activities, but this time I gave in into making this cute Dino Banner. I got a hot glue gun and I was excited to use it. What can I say? We had tons of Dinosaurs in the house, so I didn't really have to spend much on decorations. We also had some Dino books and puzzles, adding on the awesome kids friendly Dino TV show, it was a nice set up inside the house.

Food

Dino play dough station. Those are homemade play dough, with lots of flour, salt, cream of tartar. If you ask me, I think with how much dough I came out with, it's still cheaper than buying from the store. It was not hard to make if you figure out how.

Draw a Dinosaur Station--- Those were packing papers came with our shipments from amazon and target. Glad I saved them and put them to use. 

Water Balloons. 

Water balloons on the trampoline. They were attacking Sam.

Triceratops Dinosaur Pinata- It was made of two balloons over the course of weeks. The last layer of paper was cut from white printer paper, So it was done in pure white. In the end, I painted everything. 

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Candy!

Michael and his Dinosaur cake. He was really proud of how well it's "tail" turned out. I melted chocolate and shortening to make those triangles and feet. 

Love my family!

I loved preparing for Michael's birthday party because I feel like I am making up for the fun I missed  during my childhood. Maybe that's why I tend to go overboard on birthday parties ;) I hope the feeling of being special and appreciated will stay with them as they grow up. (Sharon)