Erin's Housing Ad

So Erin had another commercial shoot today. It went well...mostly :-) It was for a housing development. The storyline involved a very happy young couple, their young daughter (Erin) and a dog so happy with life. Unfortunately the director had hoped to have footage of Erin snuggling with and frolicking with the dog. Oops - he didn't know that Erin was deathly afraid of dogs! Luckily, the director was a really nice and reasonable guy and he took the dog out for the shots with Erin, keeping him in only for the shots with her Polish model "parents". And thankfully, while it does take some time, Erin does tend to settle down and become more relaxed around dogs - which she did. By lunchtime, she was willing to have the dog run around her - as long as he didn't get too close! :-) In the end, the director was happy with the shoot. Phew.

Now we look forward to seeing the cut version. :-)

Easter 2010

This morning, Maddie crept into our room and whispered:"Mommy, is today Easter?" No - I laughed. "Why?" "Because there are eggs hidden everywhere!" "Really?" - I asked. "Yah! Come look."

The Easter bunny, somehow knowing Mommy's love for holidays, had decided to come a week early as Mom would be on a Woman's retreat next weekend.

The girls looked around frames, under furniture, and behind pillows. The Easter bunny had done a great job of hiding the eggs. It took awhile to find them all - especially Maddie's eggs which seemed to be hidden in especially tricky spots! The treats inside the egg included jellybeans and jellied eggs but not the usual chocolate mini eggs. There weren't any chocolate eggs to be found in Taiwan this year, but we heard that Renea Freeman hooked the Easter Bunny up with some candied jelly bean eggs, chocolate bunnies and Easter Jello moulds from the American commisary in Tokyo! So cool! And we're so grateful! Thank you.

When the hunt was over, we made yummy French Toast and talked about why we celebrate Easter. Happy Spring everyone!

Easter Hunt is On




Easter Loot - YUM!



Making French Toast with Daddy

Flying Cow Ranch

Our other totally kid-centered day this week was Thursday. We had already planned a sleepover with Analise and Lauren that night and then Rod invited all of us to join him, Jaya and Asha on an outing to the Flying Cow Ranch... we eagerly said yes.

The day started out miserably. The temperatures had plummeted to the low teens overnight and the rain clouds had moved in. Traffic made the normally 2 hour drive into a 3 hour plus one! Not to mention that even with two GPS gadgets, we still got lost - TWICE! Rod's GPS took us up onto a mountainous dead end so we decided to use Peter's system - which led us literally right into a rice paddy! We almost gave up and turned back a few times but each time said - let's just try a little longer...

Eventually (and using the old fashioned system of following road signs and not the GPS) we made it to the ranch. The rain fortunately stopped just as we arrived and although it was cold enough to turn us into human popsicles - at least we stayed dry! Once there, we bundled up and looked around the ranch. Although there were no flying cows to be seen, we did see ducks, fed sheep and rabbits, held butterflies in our palms, drank fresh farm milk and made ice cream. The girls loved the rabbits and shrieked with glee at the butterflies stuck on their legs, arms and hair! The girls also all talked the brave talk about milking cows but in the end, when it came to looking at the sheer size of the living, breathing animal, it was Asha, Maddie and Analise who were actually brave enough to try it! Although their attempt was over-in-the-blink-of-an-eye, they still earn bragging rights for actually trying! :-)

Another cool Taiwan find that we can't wait to try again - when it's warmer that is!

Girl's Day at Flying Cow Ranch

Feeding the Sheep

Maddie tries milking a cow

Butterfly Whisperers

Feeding the Bunnies

Enjoying the ice cream we made

Baby Boss City

This week marks Spring Break for us. Poor kids. Mom and Dad are snowed under with grading, house cleaning, errands, course work and a WASC report. It's not a lot of fun. Well - actually, we've arranged a play dates everyday for the kids and we've set two days aside that are entirely kid focussed so it's not all that bad for the kids ... but Mom is lamenting the fact that we aren't on the Boracay beach :-)

Monday was the first kid day. We took Maddie and Erin and two of their friends (Analise and Lauren) to Baby Boss City. It was a hoot! The indoor theme park involves little rooms dedicated to learning "jobs". The kids put on uniforms, learn different occupations and "earn" babybucks that can then be spent on food, manicures, treats or saved in the bank. Mom and Dads have to wait outside and look through the glass window. Still, it's pretty priceless! :-)

Although the activities all take place in Mandarin, we were fortunate that at each station there was someone who spoke just enough English that they were able to let the kids know what they should do. The kids did six stations in all - They really loved the Astronaut station (going to the moon), the Dunkin Donut shop (donut decorating) and the baby nursery the best. With the Dairy farm and the airline flight attendants following close behind. The only one that was a bit of a bust was the Quality Control Officer at a soda plant. Although they earned a free Grape soda for their efforts, they didn't actually do anything so it wasn't as thrilling as the other stops. But in all, the day was a blast!

Although on the expensive side, we did promise the girls a trip back in the summer because we never made it to surgery, the archeology site, the Beauty salon for hairdressing and manicures, pizza making, or the myriad of other fun sites that called out to the girls. Another great day in Taiwan!

(PS) Maddie had a hair cut and style the day before - hence the pretty (but straight) 'doo.

Flight Attendants

Nursery Caregivers

Astronauts collecting rocks on the moon

Gotta love the free samples when working at Dunkin Donuts!

Erin's pick was the Dairy barn - she desperately wanted to milk a cow!

Ending the day with Subway and decorated donuts that just couldn't be saved any longer!

Ten year anniversary

Alright I know when I've done too much shopping. This morning while snuggling with Erin, I thought I'd romanticise with her about the fact it was Peter and my 10th year anniversary. So smiling down at her, I asked her if she could guess what Mommy was doing 10 years ago today? She bit her lip in concentration, thought about it and then grinned brightly, and confidently exclaimed: "Shopping???" LOL - Um no.... but based on history, it wasn't a bad guess!

Erin's commercial

Erin was runner up to filming a commercial this week and then halfway through the filming day, the production company called her because the first actress had turned out to not be very cooperative. We went bounding down there excited for the opportunity and a little nervous - what if Erin wouldn't cooperate either? She siad she wanted to do this but when push came to shove - well, 95% of the time she's great but - gulp- the other five percent of time, she has some pretty strong opinions and may or may not like what she's being asked to do...

Luckily, acting turned out to be something Erin loved doing and was quite good at! She laughed, she danced, she acted coy (perfect role for her apparently). It was super. At first, she was nervous and they asked her to look bored and uninterested at the boy trying to get her attention. Erin couldn't quite do it. She kept laughing nervously, trying but just couldn't stop her smile from smirking through. I remembered a few days earlier from the playground when she was mad at me and gave me the shoulder. Mentionned it to her and sure enough - she could pull off that face! In the next shot, when the boy came up to her, she straightened her lips, furrowed her brow, yanked her head to the right over her shoulder, stuck her nose in the air and said "hmmmf". The director burst out laughing and yelled to the camera man - did you get it? did you get it? And little Public Actress Erin was born...The rest of the shoot went magically well.

Maddie played her part by taking care of the little boy playing opposite Erin. He was shy and looked very stiff on set but in between takes, Maddie played cars with him and then kicked a soccer ball back and forth and he totally loosened up so much so that he found a flower and gave it to Maddie! He also took a liking to Erin and on set, started laughing, hugging and kissing her! At one point, he (on his own) grabbed her in a bear hug, lifted her up (he's four). Erin laughed, throwing her head back and then leaned forward and kissed his cheek! Another time, they were supposed to be talking while sitting side by side on a swing. But Ethan (the boy) grinned, reached over and tickled her nose, she giggled and then leaned in and nestled her head onto his shoulder!!!! It was all bizarrely cute and bizarrely mature. The director loved it. Erin's agent grinned and told us we'd better watch Erin with the boys! No kidding!

At the end of the night (we shot until 10:30 pm!!!!), everyone on set clapped at the end of the filming but Erin closed her eyes, put up on mischievous smile, held her palm out, shook her head and said: no no no no! The director practically jumped and insisted we shoot her doing that too! It was hilarious!

Problem is -the client really wants an Asian actress and insisted the director use shots from the earlier girl (who was Asian) and who hadn't really worked out for them. The director protested but has to do as the client says. He siad he was going to cut two commercials - one with Erin and one with the Asian girl and the client would choose. He thought Erin was better but...we don't know...we saw the Asian girl, she was beautiful and seemed pretty coy looking out from under beautiful long dark lashes in the few shots we saw... And if the client wanted Asian, he'd probably go with her. (Why he picked Erin as his second choice though we'll never know!) So we're crossing our fingers hard but not really holding our breath that Erin's commercial will ever actually see airtime...

Heart of the Ocean

Last night, Titanic was on TV after the girls had gone to bed. It was near the end, when older Rose was about to throw the necklace into the ocean and she held it in her open palm. Erin came bounding in to tell me something of utmost importance (how cool a bicycle she saw was) but in mid-sentence she saw the necklace. Stopped, turned and literally mesmerized, eyes popping she walked right to the tv, reached out and said -- wowwww!

With that type of wish list - she better get do a few more commercials. heeheeeheee