Engineering

The other day while driving across this bridge, Keanu asked "Mommy, what are those white things?"

"Hmmm, let's go home and find out."

So we built 2 bridges out of building bricks and paper. One had tall posts and the other one didn't. We tried to see how strong they were by putting a brick on each one and decided they were both pretty weak.
Then we made the tall one stronger by taping strips of paper between the uprights and the bridge deck. When we were tired of taping, we tested the strenght again. We found that it could now hold one brick, but when we put the second one on it, the upright crashed into the water.
We found out that those white things make the bridge stronger. We also found out that the uprights look like the number one. After we were done building bridges, we made more ones and other kinds of bridges out of just bricks, not paper.

Mid-Autmn Festival

Today is the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, so that means there's a full moon and our last holiday scheduled until Chinese New Year! [Double 10 and New Year's Day fall on weekends this year, so they don't count :( ] I don't really understand why this particular full moon is important every year, but we certainly appreciate the holiday. Typically people celebrate by having a BBQ, giving moon cakes (think fruitcake at Christmas), eating pomellos, and admiring the moon.

You might be wondering, "what are pomellos?" Have no fear because I'll tell ya!

Think of a grapefruit that's about the size of a toddler's head. It's got really thick skin and a mild citrus flavor. They're in season now and that's why they're so popular at this festival. In the days before toys were plentiful, adults cut the pomello skin like a flower and then placed them on their kid's heads as hats and play-things. We've got plenty of toys, but the tradition continues. Here are a couple of pictures from last weekend so you can see what I'm talking about.Kate didn't really like this idea, so she pulled hers off pretty quickly. I did get one quick shot, though.

Later today we're going to meet some friends who are barbecuing, and we'll certainly be able to see the moon since the typhoon over the weekend cleared away all the clouds.

Mini Muffins on Monday Morning

Having Monday mornings off, Kate and I get to spend a bit of extra Mommy-daughter time.

Last week we made birthday brownies and this week we made muffins. While looking for the mixing bowl, I came across some mini silicone baking cups that I'd picked up at the Japanese dollar store a while back. We decided to try them out and had pretty good luck. We each took a measuring spoon to ladel the batter into the mini cups and had a great time getting sticky. --Sorry no photos as we were too sticky to grab a camera of this process -- We made 5 circles and 7 hearts. Then we used the leftover batter to make regular-sized ones. The kids both love the mini ones since they're about 2 or 3 kid-sized bites. Aren't they cute?
As I was wiping off the counter, Kate grabbed the camera to take a picture of her new Dora shoes, too. I guess she wanted you to see how cute they are, too.

Wordless Wednesday

How does your garden grow, final installment

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Our tomatoes were growing so well.

Even the green peppers were thriving in spite of the intense heat, but I have to admit that they were a bit stunted because of it.

By the last week in July, the tomato plants each had a couple of blossoms.

And then the reason for the use of the past tense. Sorry there are no pictures since I wasn't there to witness the catastrophe, but something went terribly wrong.

One morning early in August Ah-ma went up to the porch to check on her plants and was greeted by some crawly critters. I didn't get the whole story since my Chinese isn't very good in terms of bugs or worms or fungi or whatever she was trying to describe. She took them all outside - planters, soil, and all - and packaged them up for the garbage truck. When Keanu and I got home from school, she told us the story but we didn't have the heart (i.e. stomach) to check the bags to see the crawlies for ourselves.

So our garden failed. Perhaps it was the heat and/or too much water. Perhaps something else. Who knows. We're resigning ourselves to buying tomatoes and peppers in the supermarket, at least for a while.

Hope you've got better luck!