Hong Kong Krazies #5

Mooncakes and Lanterns (Mid-Autumn Festival)

This holiday is a special one in Chinese culture. In current time it is a day to be with family, make/buy lanterns and eat special foods (mooncakes). It started as an Autumn holiday to celebrate the harvest and give thanks to the moon. It has evolved into an official national holiday that we get to enjoy with beautiful decorations and a day off!

First let's start with the Moon Cake aspect...ummm can I say "not good!" 

the traditional one is made of a mix of bean/lotus paste with a egg yolk baked into the middle.

Source: google.com via Emily on Pinterest

Source: google.com via Emily on Pinterest

They come in beautiful tins, I like that part...

Source: google.com via Emily on

Source: google.com via Emily on

I can however, get into the idea of some "non-traditional" moon cakes.

Source: google.com via Emily on Pinterest

Snowy Mooncakes with sweet fruit filling.

Source: google.com via Emily on Pinterest

Starbucks Coffee flavored Mooncake.

Source: google.com via Emily on Pinterest

Ice Cream Mooncakes. (last year we were given this set, yum!)

Source: flickr.com via Emily on Pinterest

Source: google.com via Emily on Pinteres

 Lanterns! In the Shatin Park...

Hong Kong Krazies #4

Garlic on the train?

I wish I had more pictures of the strange things we see while traveling on public transport, but I always feel a bit self-conscious taking pictures of other people :o) I was able to snap this photo though of these ladies and their bag of garlic... and they did have a lot of it! They were snoozing away, so I snapped away... 

 

Speaking of taking public transport, we live in our various size strollers. Here's pretty much my view for a few hours each day :o)

 

 

Max Movies

Here are a few recent videos of Max taking his first steps and moving around the house.

Hong Kong Krazies #3

Drinks with "stuff" inside!

people here love a good drink with all kinds of things inside! Starbucks right now has jelly iced coffees... which means at the bottom of your drink there is some snot like substance :o)I have not tried this..

I do love the bubble teas though! Its a milk tea with sugar and ice and tapioca pearls. You can get the large or small (I always get the small pearls ) the large ones make me gag. A great summer time treat and very affordable! 

Jack also likes things in his drinks :o) Here he is drinking a mango juice with clear tapioca and Pomelo Pulp in it! 

Jack turns three!

It was so fun this year to celebrate his Birthday! Jack actually knew what was going on when we said his birthday was coming, and there was a lot of excitement and anticipation. He was SO excited when he woke up Sunday morning. You can see the super happy smile on this first picture. We had a nice breakfast together before Bryan headed to his conference and the kids and I to church.

 He got to open a few gifts in the morning...

 In the afternoon we had his friend Malcolm (and family) over to swim and have pizza and fruit pizza. It was a really fun evening.

 

Max was in love with his party hat!

 He got to open a few more gifts...

 Nice Birthday smile, terrible birthday flash!

 My healthy(ish) version of fruit pizza...

 He keeps asking if he is still three...so cute!

the boys...

 Boys snack time in the kitchen

 The blue string that kept them both happy for a rainy afternoon.

 Jack showing off his "tats", " like Uncle Will", he says... oh boy!

 I was doing a photo shoot with one of my crafts and Jack wanted a photo shoot with his car bag :o)

Hong Kong Krazies #2

Don't walk on the Grass!

There is very little grass here (the soil is like clay and it just dies). Where there is grass, there are clear signs telling you to stay off. BUT... despite this fact Hong Kong is a VERY green city. We love all the tress, bushes and plants that we see every day. This morning when we walked over to the store to get milk we snapped a few photos. These pictures were take right out in front of our estate, and I also threw in a picture of our apartment tower (there are three total in our estate). 

As Jack says, "we live high in the sky!" :o) (we are on floor 12 of 28)