We decided it was time for some new pictures, so we asked one of our friends, who is also a photographer, to help us out. Unfortunately, it was super hot so we were sweating like crazy. Also, I was just having kind of an "off" day-- my hair, my heart, everything, so I'm not super thrilled with them all, but her photography was really good and we have a few keepers. (I also threw in one of the cheesy Chinese shots with the two hands making a heart.) Thought I'd share a few in this slide show:

Half birthdays are a young Sirles family tradition. This year, for Austin's 24 1/2 birthday, two of his friends came over for homemade hot pockets and cake. Now theme cakes are most certainly a Lowe family tradition. Following in my mother's footsteps, I decided to get to work. This year I made a dinosaur theme cake. So fun, and altogether pretty easy!

First, I made two round chocolate cakes. The recipe will appear shortly on the "Cooking & Eating" page.

I frosted the first cake with some green cream cheese icing that was a total experiment with some cream cheese we'd been randomly given from another town. I covered the top of the cake and let the frosting hang down around the outside edges.

Then I chopped up the second round cake to get four small cirles, each one slightly smaller than the last. This was for the volcano.

I stacked those four circles and cut around them to even them out. The volcano look was a good thing and allowed me not to worry about any rough or uneven places.

Now I went into a number of toy stores looking for dinosaur figurines and could find none. The conversation usually went something like this (in Chinese, of course):

Shop worker: Miss, what age child are you shopping for?

Me: (Thinking to myself: There's no way I'm going to answer that question.) Um, I'm just looking for some small dinosaurs.

Shop worker: We don't have any.  [Kind of looks at me like I'm crazy.]

So I settled for these paper dinosaurs I had at home. Yes, I just happen to keep a collection of paper dinosaurs. I laminated their feet with scotch tape so they'd be re-usable, then I dug them in. I also placed some candy rocks from the local supermarket around the cake.

The last thing to do was to add some lava to that volcano. I made some vanilla pudding and dyed it red, then poured it down the side of the volcano.

And that was that. We had a great time. Austin loved it.

Whoever decided that once you move beyond the age of 12, you should no longer have a daily recess time to run around and play on the playground is crazy! Playgrounds are a-mazing!

For teachers in America, a new year of school means another round of school pictures. For foreigners living in China, it means it's time to head to the photo store again to have an official mugshot taken, the picture that will be used for residence permits, health certificates, applications, and all such forms for the next year. Our pictures this year were better than last year at least.

And, as an added bonus, when we went to pick up the pictures, they told us we look very in love* and they'd like to take some more photos of us just for fun this weekend if we have free time.

*The idea of us being "in love" may have come from the way we were laughing hysterically together as Austin waved a mannequin head around behind the photographer as he was shooting my picture. (They keep mannequin heads around in photo shops to practice hairdressing and makeup, all part of the deal when you go for a photo shoot.)

My students recently studied all there was to know about holidays. Among the knowledge they acquired was that, "The two main symbols of Easter are Easter eggs and a bunny."

Inspired, I ran to the local supermarket to pick up some Easter eggs for an egg hunt. Shockingly enough, there either were none to begin with or they were already sold out, so I had to settle for hard-boiled eggs for this year's A.B. Sirles Family Egg Hunt.

I hid 15 hard-boiled eggs around the house, mostly inside, but I did manage to balance one on the ledge of our 4th floor apartment. Austin had a great time searching. Here's a slide show with several pictures of the hunt:

After Austin had found all of the eggs, we dyed the eggs. We used some oil pastels to draw designs before adding color with dye. Though I was not surprised, Austin's artistic ability did impress me quite a lot!

The happy egg-coloring couple:

Our basket of eggs:

Here's a little slide show with the eggs we made, including what they're each supposed to be and who created them:

Austin bought me a bike for Valentine's Day/ my half-birthday. It's blue and it has a basket. (It used to have a bell but it broke. Now I make my own bell noises with my mouth when I want to pass somebody on the street.)

The bike was super great and useful, but with just one bike, we weren't getting to use it when we wanted to go places as a couple, which is pretty much all the time. (One time I did sit on the back metal rack while Aus rode, and while many people here do this, I thought it was terrifying.)

SO... A few weeks ago, one of our friends was moving out of town and I bought his bike from him. I didn't try out the bike before agreeing to buy it. I paid about $6 for the bike. It's probably worth $1 or $2. Total. Piece. of. Junk. When Austin rides it, it shakes and rattles, but it also rolls just fine.

Here are our wheels:

We like to call the blue one the Prius. It's fast, efficient, and perfect for a girl on the go!

The red one, on the other hand, is the Ferrari. It's racer-red, a classic edition, and oh, so dangerous!

April has been a great teaching month so far.

April 2-3: Weekend
April 4-6: Grave-Sweeping Festival: No School
April 9-10: Weekend
April 11-13: Student Testing, which means the foreigners are off the hook

The weather has been beautiful which has made it easier to get up, get some breakfast, do some reading and studying, grab a late lunch, and have the afternoon to play! So yesterday we went for a fantastic little bike ride on some small roads we'd not explored before, and today after lunch, we headed outside for a little Frisbee golf. We just made up our own ridiculous courses and had a great time. (And, on the last hole, I even scored one below par!)

Ah, Vitamin D, I do love you!

On Friday, we were looking behind the backboard of our bed in the secret compartment and ran across a coupon I'd given Aus for some holiday months and months ago. The coupon was made out for the "Sirles Spa," an at-home spa event just for Austin. In ways, Austin enjoys pampering (back rubs, foot massages, the works) more than many girls I know. So he didn't waste any time cashing in the coupon last night. We had a really fun and relaxing time, especially Austin.

First, he soaked his feet for about 15 minutes while eating some french bread pizza we made together.

Foot soak recipe:
14 cups of hot water
3 cups of milk

After his feet were soaked, I dried them off and exfoliated them with the following mixture.

Foot exfoliation recipe:
1/2 cup white sugar
2 Tablespoons lotion

I exfoliated for about 5 minutes and then rinsed his feet in clear, cool water.

I also made this body scrub which he used on his chest and back.

Body scrub recipe:
1 cup oats
1 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup oil (The oil would have been best as olive oil, but that's way too expensive here, so we used some good old sunflower oil, high in vitamin E.)

This is sticky, so it needs to be rinsed off really well after exfoliating!

The picture featured above is Austin enjoying a seaweed paste mask, a "green melon the nose membrane," and a "rose hip anti-wrinkle and moisturizing eye mask pack."

We did it. We cut his hair. And we cut it with style.

First, we separated it into 3 sections.

Then, I started chopping. Of course, we took time to lament the loss of hair.

We chopped off the sides, then the middle of the middle, until only an ugly patch in front and a rat tail in back were left.

And when all was said and done, I saw a look I hadn't seen since before we were dating.

As we walked to dinner tonight, I said, "Wow, Austin, you're getting all kinds of second takes from the girls."
Austin just smiled and said, "Well, that's nothing new." What a stud.

For Austin's birthday this year, I decided to go the cupcake route. We had just received cupcake tins with paper cups so it was easy. Of course, decorating them, making icing, etc. is sometimes more tricky. Here are some cook-out themed cupcakes I made for Austin. The chocolate cakes sunk in terribly (I haven't found a healthy from-scratch recipe I really like yet), so I opted to use some sugar-free chocolate pudding to heap on top as a healthy icing option. Then I sprinkled red and orange sugar crystals on top as embers, and decorated the cupcakes with kabobs, "hotdogs", and "steaks". They weren't gorgeous, but fortunately Austin is easily pleased and not that interested in aesthetics when there's chocolate cake to be eaten.

We also went out to dinner with one of our friends for Austin's birthday, so I made these Oreo-icing cupcakes: