Et Cetera

Joseph took the big kids on a 6 mile hike around McRitchie reserve. It was a long hike but they sure felt proud when they finished.

Maggie in her "Read-to-Feed" school assembly. She is beginning a program where she gets sponsored for every hour she reads. In 2 weeks, her 3rd grade class will put all their money together and decide on which animals to buy for families in developing countries. Maggie has a big heart and is very philanthropic. As a consequence, she is very serious about this whole thing and I am sure to be out of quite a bit of cash when this is all over. That's okay. It is for a really good cause.

Abigail took this cute picture of Juliet with her new camera. Juliet is a very calm, patient and sweet girl and a complete joy to have in our family.
I like this picture because it reminds me of my baby pictures. I think out of all my kids, Juliet has the most of me.

Abigail is a beautiful girl but she is always so camera shy.

And her daddy's girl through and through, Ella takes more from Joseph than his deep set blue eyes, curls and round face. She is energetic and very strong willed. Her new passion is drawing. I recently showed her how to draw stick figures and now our house is littered with stick figures on white papers representing mostly Ella, but Joseph and myself too.

Chinese New Year and Xander's Field Trip

We recently celebrated Chinese New Year here in Singapore. It is the biggest holiday of the year here, mostly because the bulk of the population is of Chinese heritage. Joseph went to Chinatown with Xander's kindergarten class during the festivities and took some fun pictures that represent what we see all around us during the holiday. I thought I would post them because someday when we move away it will be fun to reminisce about the things that were so familiar to us at one time of our life.

Xander with his school buddies. He sure has a fun time at school and enjoys just about everything about it. The other day he was sick and was missing his first day of school this year. He was pretty distraught because he thought he would miss something fun.

We see a lot of dried meat stalls around CNY. I recently learned that it is because the Chinese do not want to use knives (bad luck) after the start of the new year so they buy dried meat to steam with rice.

Xander took this picture of Joseph. (That was pretty brave of Joseph to hand over his huge camera.) Joseph is standing next to a stand of pomelos--a sweet citrus fruit popular during CNY.

Burning sticks for ancestors--the smoke goes up to heaven and reaches them.

Chinese lanterns hang everywhere.

Cherry blossoms bring to mind springtime and new life. In China I think they bloom around CNY. I love this picture because of what Xander is wearing. He was so excited about the field trip and carefully picked these clothes the night before to wear (normally he wears a uniform to school but it was free dress for the field trip.) Plaid on plaid and just perfect.

Read and gold are the colors we see around us everywhere--they symbolize weath and prosperity.

A CNY delicacy. I used to know what it was made out of but I forgot.

I just love my happy, optimistic boy.
Shop houses in Chinatown.

Birthdays Galore

We celebrate quite a few birthdays in the Gordhamer household in the first two months of the year, beginning with Abigail on January 18. She turned 11 years old and got her own camera this year. In fact, I borrowed it to take this picture of her opening another present. She is sure growing up fast these days.


Not to far behind, on February 8 came Maggie, celebrating her 9th birthday. After her sister's birthday, she was very eager for her own. These two girls do a lot together and pretty much celebrate their birthdays together. Maggie really wanted an amethyst necklace and that is what she got this year. A girl after my own heart.



Joseph is just a week after Maggie, almost a Valentine's baby, on February 15. He is getting up there at 36 years. I asked him the day before his birthday what kind of cake he wanted. I must admit, I was hoping for something really simple (like brownies--just what he wanted last year.) Sadly for him, by the time his birthday rolls around I have had enough baking cakes and sweets. He wanted German Chocolate Cake. I have never made that before but I gave it a try. 9 eggs and 3 hours of my afternoon produced the masterpiece you see below: German Chocolate cake with coconut frosting all made from scratch. It really was delicious and a big hit with all the kids. They all had fun decorating the wrapping paper too.