Our Modeling Girls

Since coming to Taiwan, we've discovered that a lot of Caucasian families have their kids model kid clothes.  The Taiwanese love the white skin, blue eyes, and blond hair combo, and so the kids make some decent money modeling.  Heather had thought about entering our kids into photo contests once or twice in the States, so she thought it would be fun for our kids to do some modeling here.  We thought that since locals take pics of our kids no matter where we go anyways, we might as well get paid for it.  And so far, it's gone well.  Sienna and Elli have both done it once.  The sessions take about 2 hours and the girls earn $100 US.  As a bonus, we can get copies of their pics, so we get professional grade pics of our girls, too.

Sienna had her session first.  Sienna had a great time playing on the set, but Elli was frustrated that she didn't get to play, too.  Here are a few pics of Sienna as well as some pics that Heather took, too.

Because Sienna still has short hair, they also modeled her in boy clothes.  As a model, her talent set is very versatile.

Elli's session went really well.  She was thrilled to go through makeup.  They curled Elli's hair and put light makeup on her face; Heather said she never imagined that Elli could sit so still.  Elli kept saying "Look Mom, I'm princess" the whole time.  She was adorable, and her pics turned out really well.  People thought she was a natural.  She must get her modeling talent from her uncle.  

So if you're in Asia and happen to walk by a children's clothing store, keep an eye out for our girls.  You might see them!

Misc Weekend Outings

One of Heather's requirements for living abroad is that we often explore the area we live in. As she says, "There is no point of living so far from family, if we live like we are in a little America."  Since coming to Taiwan, we've gotten out at least two weekends a month to explore Taipei.  Here are the adventures we had in October and November.

1. Lin Antai Ancient House, Garden Maze, Shilin Night Market

On the outskirts of downtown Taipei is a really well preserved house that was built by a wealthy man in the late Qing dynasty (late 1800s, early 1900s).  Not only is the house fascinating, but the grounds are beautiful.  The grounds have several features that were must haves among imperial Chinese well-to-do families.  Here are some pics of them below.

Traditional Chinese houses often have garden created out of concrete formed into coral rock, with winding paths, overlooks, and grottoes throughout.

A moon-reflecting pool is a must have.

 This house was unique in featuring windows and doors in symbolic shapes.  These shapes included bats (the Chinese word is a homophone with blessings), vases (which is a homophone for peace), and peaches (which is symbolically the food of the gods).

Here is a typical room in the house, which the raised bed on the back wall, chest of drawers on the left, and desk on the right.

Across the street from the Lin Antai house is a huge park, in the middle of which is a maze made of high hedges.  Elliana had a great time playing in it.

The Taiwanese love their night life.  They are regularly out till 11-12 at night on weekdays, even sometimes with their young kids.  One of their favorite things to do is go to night markets.  Taipei has several good night markets, but probably the most famous of them all is the Shilin night market, famous for its size, variety of items, and its mango shaved ice (which is super yummy!).  Although it was a bit crowded for us with our big stroller and two little kids, we still had a good time.

2.  Chiang Kai-shek Memorial

In the heart of Taipei is a huge memorial for the founding father of Taiwan, General Chiang Kai-shek.  It's a beautiful park with a temple-like memorial in the middle and the National Theater and National Concert Hall at the west end.  Inside the memorial is a huge statue of CKS after the likeness of Lincoln memorial.  It's a great place and an iconic image of Taipei.

3. Bihu Temple

There are lots of hikes near our house.  One of the hikes with the best view of the city is around Bihu Temple, which is at the top of one of the hills ringing the city.  Here are some pics of our hike.

4.  Taipei 101

Another iconic image of Taipei is the Taipei 101 building, named for the number of stories it has.  It is one of the tallest buildings in the world.  We had a great time taking a look at the city from the top.

Halloween and Thanksgiving

Typically we wouldn't group these two holidays together, but since Heather and I are playing catchup, we're posting outside of the box.  So here's a quick overview of our holiday fun.

Halloween

Heather has been looking forward to Halloween for a while.  Before we left the US, she had ordered a themed costume for the whole family, which was smart since costumes were a lot more difficult to find here.  For this year, we dressed up as the characters from Little Red Riding Hood.  Here's how it turned out:

In case you can't tell, our little Sienna, the woodcutter, is eating her pretend saw.  Elli liked her costume until she saw all the princesses at the party, and then she just wanted to be a princess too. Oh well. 

AIT organized a party for Halloween, which turned out great.  Everyone brought a scary dish.  We made monster deviled eggs and decorated them as vampire, ghoul, and dragon eyes.  They turned out very fun.

One of the biggest drawbacks about living abroad is that we miss out on fully enjoying American holidays.  For Halloween, we were sad about missing out on taking our kids trick or treating.  Thankfully, there is one neighborhood where many American families live and they welcome trick or treaters every year.  So we took Elli and Sienna trick or treating, and they loved it!  Elli was especially adorable, and was thrilled to be getting so much candy.  One family even made a mini haunted house in front of their house and it was actually pretty scary!  Here is a pic of Elli with her friend Evelyn, who was also a Little Red Riding Hood.  (If you look closely, you can see the compromise Heather made with Elliana: "You can wear your pink princess dress up if you still wear your red riding hood cape.")

Thanksgiving

Even though we lacked a Turkey Bowl or any other football, for the matter, we still enjoyed the most important aspects of Thanksgiving ... food.  Oh yeah, and good friends to spend it with, too.  Several families from our apartment building and other nearby buildings got together and enjoyed a great Thanksgiving feast.  It was very low key, which was perfect.  We had a great time.

So even though we missed our family and friends a lot, we still had a great time celebrating two great American holidays.

 Heather made homemade rolls for the first time, and they were delicious.  Elli helped Heather make pumpkin chocolate chip cake, too.  She was an excellent taster.  And Sienna watched on with her big smile.