Maggie took drawing and painting this year and three pieces she submitted were displayed as part of the end of the year HS Art Exhibition - well done!

Maggie’s birthday started with a service trip organized by the school collecting coins for charity.

After that, and lunch, Maggie and friends came back home to make cookies and play wii.

From Maggie's birthday 2011

Later, we went to have appetizers of bubble tea and cold noodles.

From Maggie's birthday 2011

Then sat down for a yummy dinner at a place serving Italian and Japanese food - two favorite cuisines.

From Maggie's birthday 2011

Finally, we had cake in the park with everyone running off energy and excess calories playing tag and climbing the rocks... Whew – a long, but enjoyable day for Maggie!

From Maggie's birthday 2011

Alex has become a better soccer player this year after becoming involved with the HK Youth Football program and enjoys pick-up games with his friends and even secondary-schoolers from local schools when they all go to the public pitch on a Friday eve. Here are some photos from a recent tourney with teams from all over the territory. Shatin Team A took home the trophy - well done guys!

Alex got honorable mention for his science project this year! According to his teacher there was some stiff competition - congratulations!

From Taipei - Spring Break 2011

Maggie and Alex meet Hana

From Taipei - Spring Break 2011

Some spring blossoms in the city

From Taipei - Spring Break 2011

Some Taiwanese specialties - lu rou fan, rou gung, won ton soup, two kinds of noodles, shark, braised tofu - we also managed to eat at two favorite beef stew noodle places (see post by clicking here for past eats)

From Taipei - Spring Break 2011

Our king size bed at Aquabella – Beitou Hotsprings Area. The kids had futons around the corner near the bathroom

From Taipei - Spring Break 2011

with a tub big enough for all of us! The "white sulfur" hotspring water piped in was over 40C! Had to cool it with some cold tap water...

From Taipei - Spring Break 2011

More Taiwanese specialties!

From Taipei - Spring Break 2011

Click a photo to see more photos from our trip - all link to albums on Picasaweb

Ocean Park has been undergoing a lot of renovations and I think soon there will be a hotel on site making it a vacation destination instead of just another site to see. We haven't been there in quite some time so decided to go during spring break. We checked out the new aquarium, giant pandas and red pandas among others, saw the dolphin show and rode some rides, too! Maggie and friends were there, but avoided us all day - teenagers, sheesh!

Alex wanted to help with dinner tonight... We pounded and cut up pork loin into bite size pieces, prepared a marinade of soy sauce, sugar, pepper, minced garlic, and corn starch, then squished the pork around until mixed well. After that we tossed it in some flour to coat before shallow frying until golden brown.

On the other burner, fresh spinach was sauteed with minced garlic and a pinch of salt in a splash of oil.

Dinner was served with rice with blueberries for dessert. (Not pictured: fresh squeezed-lemondade.) Delicious and on the table in about 40 minutes, half that being the prep time.

From 5A skit

5A performed a skit during chapel "At the Pearly Gates on Judgement Day" (Click on the photo for more photos of the skit - Alex was an arrogant businessman, Montana was a guard at the gate, Aidan was St. Peter...there were many other characters waiting their turn - great job everyone!)