Scavenger Hunt Sunday...no Tuesday

So I knew I'd have to give up some most of my blog time after our daughter comes home, but I am afraid some of it is already gone.  Not because I'm actually accomplishing things, but because each new step is more paperwork, more stress, and I waste hours and hours of time calculating estimates to travel.  The range never changes...sometime between late March and early May...but I spend too many hours trying to narrow that range down which is NOT something I can actually do until we get our Travel Invitation to China.  All that to say, I cannot believe it has been over a week since I last posted here.  I miss my on-line friends when I don't visit or have visitors, but I don't know where all the time goes.  At some point I will probably have to back off from Scavenger Hunt Sunday...my photos are certainly more snapshots than art as it is...but while it may be my most time consuming photo challenge, it is as always my favorite.  I love playing games and the scavenger hunt is one of the best games to play.  In fact, while I didn't get to work on my pictures until today, I actually could post two complete sets since I hunted twice :)

Once on our trip to the Science Museum on Friday (took one child out of school and went away for a 4 day weekend with lots of fun, family, and fotos), but since I've used that location more than once for a hunt, I'm going with my first hunt...breakfast Friday morning.

SnapDragon was DUPLICATED in...

...the griddle in the middle of our table at the restaurant.

Many restaurants seem to be TRENDING towards...

...the fad of the customers cooking their own food.  I must admit the kids thought it was fantastic and my chef-made non-pancake meal was pretty good, too.

You can pick from several different types of batter that come in PLASTIC bottles.

We had a peanut butter batter, sweet potato batter, and two buttermilk pancake batter bottles.

The boys loved creating their own pancakes in different shapes with many different topping choices.

Including this tree which is the source of all PAPER that SnapDragon created.  We had apples, blueberries, sausage, bacon, cheddar cheese, white chocolate chips, and bananas as our toppings.  I personally really loved the peanut butter with apple slices pancake that Oak made me to try.

But overall we just LOVED the experience in general...

...especially since it was time together and with Aunt H whom we all LOVE.  Uncle B had to work on Friday; too bad, because he missed out on some great fun. 

Scavenger Hunt Sunday

Saturday we went as a family to the local Annual Asia Pacific New Year’s Celebration.  There are several different booths to visit and several different performances representing many different Asian countries.  This time we planned our arrival and eating around the Chinese performances, though many of the other dances were also quite fun to watch as time permitted.  My goal was to capture all my hunt photos at the celebration.  I should have checked my list one last time before leaving...well, you'll see.

Facial Feature:

Sunflower's eye peeking out from one of the pieces to the flower lanterns the kids made at one of the craft booths.  This year they still had plenty of colors of paper petals left, so our three little lanterns aren't only green and white like last year.

And here's a gratuitous photo of Huckleberry with his finished lantern so you can see what they made.

Spicy:

My husband's Kim-chi was spicy, but I didn't get a chance to take a picture before he ate it all (because I was busy eating my own food) so here is the drink we had to wash down the spice.  Ummm, I prefer Coke.

Gold:

The children from the Chinese Academy looked really cute dancing in their gold tops with sparkly gold crowns.  (I blurred their faces on purpose.  I hope it doesn't make it too creepy.  Trust me they were adorable.)

Fabric:

There were many beautiful fabrics and outfits all through the center...

And since I forgot to even look for shadows I'll give you a few more fabric photos.

I love the intricate embroidery.  Reminds me of some of the needlework my mother used to do.

One last photo of the dances.  I thought the fabric of their outfits and the red fabric they were waving around made for a beautiful dance.

We are looking forward to next year's event.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday Snapshot -- Gingerbread Edition

Today we had the joy of going to my sister-in-law's house so the kids could decorate gingerbread houses.


This gave me three hours to play with my camera.

It was a real JOY to take pictures of my sister-in-law's beautiful decorations.

Sunflower put HALF of her gumdrops on her gingerbread people instead of her house.

Aunt J decorated the house...leaving Sunflower free to eat candy and play.

She did take a moment to SLEEP, well for pretend, under the tree for me.

Cousin L's house was the most carefully decorated.

Though I love the WINDOWS on Sunflower/Aunt J's house and on the boys' house.

I'm sure every one will be happy to know that Sunflower is fully recovered from her head staples...if you cannot tell from her photos.

The boys are happy she is all better, too.

Oh, I had to get one last Scavenger Hunt prompt before we headed home, so I pulled a present from under my sister-in-law's tree...assuming it would quite nicely fit the "WHAT IS IT?" theme.

Though it turns out if you look closely you might see what it is.

I hope you have a fantastic week!

Scavenger Hunt Sunday Snapshot -- Pumpkin Edition

Today we went to Auntie J's to carve pumpkins.

At first, Sunflower was a little skeptical at the request to touch the gunky stuff...Mommy wasn't doing it.

But then she decided it might be a little fun, though Daddy did end up doing most of it.

So since they were all busy playing safely with knives, I decided it was a great time to do my Scavenger Hunt.  In a quest to find balance and to organize my photos better, I had ignored it all week, hoping I'd have the will power to just skip a week.  But since I had nothing else to do...

Macro/Close-Up:

Found Texture:

Certainly if you take away the texture on the pumpkin, it would still be round.  These were very juicy pumpkins.

 Tree:

This is the Kent Weakley tree...at night.   Okay...maybe not. 

Finally, the pumpkins were finished.

They chose creations that didn't take much skill at pumpkin carving.  Frankenstein and His Bride.

Huckleberry chose a castle and a catapult.  He did a fine job on his pumpkin all by himself and no one lost any blood.

Cover:

Sunflower had trouble putting the cover back on the pumpkin, but no worries, it'll be there for Monday.

Home:

We are so thankful Auntie J and Uncle M opened their lovely home for pumpkin carving.  We are also very glad to have relatives so close to our own home, because family is what makes a house a home.  Now if we'd been there a few weeks before, I would have had a more creative "seeing faces in strange places" to share that week:

As we left, I found one more...not so pumpkin related...macro.

Ladybug, Ladybug, fly away home.  That is what we did.

I hope you have a fantastic Sunday.  Check out the other Sunday Snapshots and Hunt Photos!