update

2014 new year party blogged, finally! click here!.
July 2013 Kaius's birthday celebration, here!

a keepsake from school

Today, Ming Ming brought home the coolest artwork from school. A scroll containing pictures and words describing the Purim story.  

do you know the story? here it goes... 

a keepsake!

I made this tunic/dress back in September last year. After six months, Ming Ming finally agreed to wear it. She complained that it was too wide, too short, too stiff, and not colorful enough (okay, she does not like tunic). Still, whatever I made, she has to wear. That is the rule if she wants more dresses from me (dictator mom)!

Winter days

We have a brutal winter this year, and it has not ended yet. For almost four months, we have continuous freezing and snowy days. we are now only ten inches short of all time snow record, and February's bitterly cold temperatures help rank this winter as Chicago's third coldest since record-keeping began more than 140 yrs ago. We had many under zero (in F, i.e. more than -15C) days, which, after counting windchill, can go as low as -40C. And twice, all schools were closed for two consecutive days (arghhh!) as the bitterly cold temperature endangered kids waiting for school bus.

I have no pics of the extremely cold days. It was simply too cold. For the first time I felt that leather gloves did not help, my hands still froze. We spent most of our outdoor times in the car, except when we were digging the car out (which Ming Ming loves). Our car broke down twice because of the extreme cold, which led to a total sum of $1300 at the repair shop.   

and here is one rare day (Jan 2nd) when the wind stops blowing and the brave kids played outside in the snow.

the snow is fine, dry, and hard... see the tunnel/slide they built..

another warmer day (Feb 18)... this pile of snow did not melt for the whole winter. 

then miraculously (March 10, monday), as spring approaches and we changed to day light saving time, it is warm for one day and everyone is out in the courtyard.

Kids play in the snow pile and water puddle

then, it started snowing again the next day, and on Wednesday morning (march 12) we wake up to this. 

the snow is considerably wetter and the wind is not so bad, thus creating a scenic winter picture.

I took these on my way to the university.

the view form the Regenstein library