What were your 2008 Favorites?

When we were in Taiwan, Caleb and Abbie's world opened up! They developed new interests and food faves! Here are a few of their favorite things! ^_^ As you can see, most of these hobbies center around FOOD!

Abbie LOVES these black jade grapes! They are soooo sweet! And those Pineapple buns are the size of Abbie's face!

Caleb's favorites were the $8 tea-boiled eggs from 7-Eleven! That's 25 cents! He misses eating these eggs so much, so we are (well, hubby is) going to try to make them at home this weekend. He also loves the sweet tofu flower dessert with boba and peanuts! In Taiwan, it is only $30 N.T., or about $1!

Mark's Uncle took us to Yang-Ming Mountain to try out the Hot Springs! It was fun (and smells funny too!) and the kids had a blast!
We discovered the joy of hiking up to our residence from the bus stop. What a trip! Caleb bought a 1000-piece Japanese cartoon called "One-Piece", which means "Pirate Ship"!

A girl in the After-school tutorial developed a special liking for Caleb, and decided to teach him how to read 2nd grade textbook in chinese. I call her "Caleb's Little Girlfriend". Whenever I tease Caleb about her, he'd get very !@#*&(&(&!!!# (^_^)

The kids enjoys sightseeing on the mountain tops. You can see behind them several highrise buildings, one of which we lived in during our missions. The harbor on your right is only 0.5 miles from our home! The anti-humidifier sucked out 1.5 gallons of water (humidity) from my room nightly!

When we went to Ying-Guh town to buy teapots, we saw a store which had Ocarina, a special flute made of refined clay. All of us got one (except daddy), and Caleb was a natural! He played this song a few days later for Uncle Daniel's birthday!


The kids got an eye-opening tour of the traditional market, which opens at 6am daily. Here they sell fresh meats, veggies, eggs, everything! Above are fishes, squids, and chickens, all lined up to be purchased! Daddy was helping out with the health screening next door while we took our shopping trip! This sure doesn't look anything like "Pavillions" or "Target"!

Above are two of my favorite childhood games! I remember playing them when I was 7 years old! Caleb and I won four ceramic dolls by throwing hoops, and we get to keep the ones we 'catch'! The other favorite of mine was 'scoop the fish' using paper nets. Nowadays little kids get to use 'hot pot wire scoops', which never breaks! In the 'olden days', I would scoop so hard and the paper would break and the game was over! Take a look!

I look back at these pictures and I thank the Lord for a 'second chance'. When I (and hubby too!)left Taiwan, I was (we were) 7 years old. Now we all return when Caleb is 7 too! I'm as unfamiliar with Taiwan as he is, and I'm thankful we can continue exploring my beloved homeland through our children's eyes!