Jin Family

The rest of what we did in Chicago! Mostly, eat. Some of the best fried chicken I've ever had.Other than museums in Chicago, we did a lot of eating and... that was about it. In our current life stage, we felt like one big thing per day was about

Our first event in an epic month was a trip to Chicago! It was definitely our 'revenge travel.' The Bean. Closed off because COVID. I guess people would crowd around to take pictures.So basically within just a few hours of getting our first dose of the COVID vaccine,

At least this time it wasn't such a surprise to be here for Easter. Easter basket!Well, we were more ready for Easter this year anyway. I'm always looking for ways to decrease the sheer quantities of sugar on Easter morning and I did find a decent recipe for some

We finished up our nature study unit on bodies of water by going to the beach! Picnic on the beach! See how muggy it is?Well, as I've mentioned before, I really don't love the beach. It's just so sandy. And sticky. And hot. But we've been studying bodies of

You know how babies are so sleepy and nonresponsive for the first three months? And then somehow right around the third month, they suddenly "wake up" and it's like they see the world for the first time? It happened! Smiling at one of his three favorite peopleI don't

Our little G isn't so little anymore. Well, we sure didn't expect to have THIS birthday here. But it is much easier to plan birthday parties in the States! I just organized a curbside pickup at Party City and just like that we had a pinata and stuff to fill

We had a snowstorm during what turned out to be an epic week of celebrations and hanging out. Snow on the bayou!Well, we were a bit surprised to find ourselves in a real winter event in the States. We all busted out our one outfit that we had flown

We took a week off from home school and did nothing! Playing outside with the cousin.I had decided last year that we needed more time off during the winter break from our school overseas. We had always planned to do more English home school during the school break, but

M got a Redwall Cookbook for Christmas and we have been making a lot of stuff from there! Loamhedge Legacy Nutbread. It's a biscuit with nuts in it. Really good.Well, M is long gone in the Redwall universe. It's all she talks about. She quotes it randomly throughout the

When K was a few weeks old, his one cousin came down to meet him! This is definitely the best way to meet your cousin.My sister and brother-in-law made the drive down a few weeks after K was born to meet him. I was just coming out of my

H had a birthday less than a month after we had a baby and we managed to celebrate! Look at me cooking!It's been a rough few years of birthdays for H. I usually do a "birthday week" of cooking for him where he chooses an entire week

We have always run our home school years from January to December, so we've just started a new one! Big change for this year is that G is in his first year of "light" home school: reading one book and spending about ten minutes on handwriting every day. We also

Last post about 2020! K had his first Christmas when he was only ten days old. He had a frown most of the time. There's the frown.On Christmas morning, both grandparents were here since K had just been born, but we had a little celebration just by ourselves before

Catching up on the rest of last year pre-baby, I had a birthday and G finished learning how to read! He totally rocked learning to read.I don't know what on earth caused it, but seriously, G was the easiest to teach how to read out of the three kids

Part 7 Summary: Last one in the series! Poverty Point: a little... underwhelming. But I'm really into history. Here's the wikipedia page if you want to see that. The main mound complex.We finally visited Poverty Point! It's a prehistoric monument made of earth (which means it's hills made of

Part 6 Summary: Civil Rights Museum was about 100 times better than we expected, Memphis barbecue is not as good as Texas barbecue. Trying Memphis barbecue. We were so happy to be able to eat at the restaurant! We were the only ones on the patio!After Mammoth Cave (and

After leaving the Smoky Mountains, we headed to Mammoth Cave National Park, which I had never heard of before. Part 5 Summary: Only some of us think caves are cool, stargazing is awesome. At the entrance to the cave. Since it's an enclosed space we had to wear masks.We

Last post about the Smoky Mountains part of our trip! Part 4 Summary: Slow vacations are the best. Overall, we LOVED this part of the trip. It was so restful to stay somewhere for so many days and being able to cook and eat dinner in our place was actually

Part 3 Summary: The fall is definitely a better time to see the crowded parts of the Smokies; seeing early pioneer buildings makes history much more interesting. Kids (and adults) apparently love watching water mills.Well, one of the most popular things to do in the Smokies is this 12

Summary of Part 2: We love waterfalls! M is a serious hiker. At Laurel Falls (my favorite hike)We spent our second day in the Smokies doing waterfall hikes, which we all thoroughly enjoyed. The first hike was to Laurel Falls and it was our "big" hike for

Summary of Part 1: Clingman's Dome is not worth doing; I've never really seen a forest in the fall. At the top of Clingman's DomeWell, after an adjustment to G's meds in October brought him a lot closer to being potty trained (but not all the way, which is why

Well, I have done a terrible job of keeping up with blog posts in 2020, and it seems like the further we got in the year, the worse I got. Art night to teach the concept of overlapping. It was really easy!So, before I tell you about the last

The kids had their first Halloween in the States that they can remember, and let's just say that they're fans. The kids in their costumes. Can you tell who they are before you read it in the next paragraph?We dress up and go to a harvest festival thing at

I mean, I've lived almost my whole life on the Gulf Coast, so I know what "fall" is like here. But after having lived in a place with four seasons for a few years, it really feels like I'm getting ripped off here. Coloring while listening to Redwall

You know, back in the day I decided I didn't want to be a full-time home school mom. And now that I am one involuntarily, it turns out that I definitely don't want to be one! Watercolors!I mean, okay I'm not miserable or anything. And I don't think the