Author: Tim Pau

The youth from our church minister at senior home (assisted living) place on some Sunday afternoons each month. This Sunday afternoon, they had a Christmas program.

Jeffrey, Lizzie, Victoria, and Joanna sing some Christmas carols. Although they didn’t practice much before today, they still sounded delightful.

 

Jeffrey played bass guitar while two Stevens brothers (Philip and Tim) played guitar and banjo.

 

The youth ensemble consisted of Christeen Oautu (flute), Lizzie Pau (piano), Joshua Oautu (violin), Philip Stevens (guitar), Tim Stevens (banjo), and Jeffrey Pau (bass guitar).

 

Then they switched up instruments. Christeen Oautu (flute/piano), Lizzie Pau (piano/vocal), Joshua Oautu (guitar), Philip Stevens (violin), Tim Stevens (bass guitar), and Jeffrey Pau (banjo) play some Christmas carols on Sunday, December 2, 2018, at Carmel Village in Fountain Valley, California.

We started the day with a Thanksgiving day service at church. Our pastor always encourages people to share what they are thankful for. Then we came home and continued working on food preparations.

Early afternoon, we had our Thanksgiving dinner with the entire family. We prepared a small turkey breast for the meat eaters and a Tofurky roast and ham for the vegetarians. Plus we had real mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, pumpkin and apple pies. Yum! Actually we were full so the pies are for later in the day.

Here are Sarah, Victoria, Josiah, Lizzie, and Tim before the meal. Joanna and Jeri are finishing preparations.

Lizzie, Josiah, and Jeffrey next to the (messy) counter.

Lizzie, Josiah, Nicole, and Jason before the meal. Victoria is seated at the table behind.

Jeri and Tim in the kitchen.

Here are the four brothers (plus Victoria): Jeffrey, Justin, Jason, and Josiah.

Joanna and Sarah working in the kitchen.

Here is the entire family around the table: Josiah, Nicole, Jeffrey, Victoria, Justin, Jeri, Jason, Joanna, Sarah, Lizzie, and Tim.

Lizzie took a selfie while Jeffrey and Jason work on dishes.

Another selfie by Lizzie with Victoria, Jeffrey, Jason, Joanna, and Josiah after the meal.

Here is a montage of the photos.

A few photos from the concert.

One of the highlights of the concert was a piece by Craig Courtney called “A Musicological Journey Through the Twelve Days of Christmas.” Each of the twelve days was represented by a different time period/composer. Eliza (the choir director) assigned individuals to the various groups.

Three French Hens from 16th-Century Italy (in the sytle of Palestrina).

Six Geese from 18th-Century Austria (in the sytle of Mozart).

Eight Maids from 19th-Century Germany (in the style of Wagner).

Eleven Lords from 19th-Century Russia (in the style of Tchaikovsky).

After singing the Twelve Drummers from 20th-Century America (in the style of John Philip Sousa).

Here we are after the concert. Jeffrey was there but is missing from the picture. (Sorry Jeffrey.)

Sarah, Joanna, and Victoria sang with the OCC Chamber Singers at the Orange Coast College Fall Choral-Vocal Showcase. Here is a compilation of the pictures that we took.

Joanna and Sarah were invited to a costume party for Halloween.

Joanna went as Mary Poppins (even to work).

Sarah was Audrey Hepburn. Professional photography by Lizzie Pau.

Here they are together.

Joanna made “mummy” cupcakes.

Lizzie taking a picture.

For fun, here are pictures of the real Mary Poppins and Audrey Hepburn.

Here’s a daily digest.

Sunday afternoon, a number of us enjoyed hearing the Pacific Symphony perform Dvorak’s New World Symphony.

Here are Josiah, Jeri, Tim, and Justin before the concert.

Here are Nicole, Victoria, and Lizzie before the concert.

We didn’t get a picture of Jeffrey who was sitting in front of us with some friends from church.

Although the date (October 20th) said “late fall”, the weather said “summer” with a sunny day and temps in the 80’s (Farenheit, of course). Jeri, Tim, Justin, Nicole, Jeffrey, Lizzie, along with two friends from church, Kendra and Christeen, enjoyed a day at the beach to see the airshow.

We were able to put our new folding chairs to go use. Tim picked up two that had a built-in canopy. As in years past, Justin rented a nice telephoto lens for the weekend.

There were lots of demonstrations like the Port of Long Beach Fire Department boat.

The Coast Guard helicopter did a simulated rescue.

Some ventured down to the water’s edge.

Here are Christeen, Kendra, Lizzie, Jeffrey, and Nicole.

Although the timing wasn’t the best, Tim managed to take a selfie with the Virgin America Airlines 747 flying past in the background (behind Tim’s head).

Several acrobatic planes were featured. They performed some amazing feats.

The crowd on the beach was estimated to be around one million people. Because the beach is long, it didn’t seem too crowded.

The Thunderbirds were the featured finale to the airshow.

Justin took some really nice pictures including this one of a Thunderbird as it flew nearly overhead.

Here’s a group photo after the show.

Here’s a montage of the day in video:

Normally one or more musicians will play a musical instrument starting about 10 minutes before the Sunday morning service. Most often it is the piano.

This past Sunday, all five girls (Nicole, Sarah, Joanna, Victoria, and Lizzie) along with Jason and Jeffrey sang three hymns for preludes. From left to right, they are Joanna, Sarah, Victoria, Nicole, Jason, Lizzie, and Jeffrey.

Here they sing “Are You Washed in the Blood?”

Here they sing “And Can It Be” followed by “How Firm a Foundation.”

On Friday, September 14, 2018, Tim, Jeri, Lizzie, and Josiah visited the LA County Fair as part of the fair’s school program. We saw a few shows, ate some food, and tried to stay cool on a very hot day.

In the past, Tim has been able to drive to and from the LA County Fair without any problems. It’s about 40 miles away from Fountain Valley. This time the front, right tire of our car hit something really hard while driving in the carpool lane. It was so hard that Tim thought for sure that we popped the tire. So we navigated off the next exit and inspected the tire. Since all of the tires looked fine, we continue driving. However because (unknowingly) Tim missed getting out of the carpool lane in order to change freeways, we started heading the wrong way. Eventually we get to the fair a bit later than expected.

We arrive at the fair and park. By now we’re starving so our first goal is to find food. Last year at the fair, we really enjoyed eating (both lunch and supper) at a vegan food truck. We were hoping (expecting) to find it again but, alas, we were extremely disappointed. Only after touring the fairgrounds in sunny, 90+ F degree weather did we realize that we needed to find food elsewhere.

One manufacturer of cauliflower-crust pizza was giving away free samples. We were so hungry that we gobbled them right up! The good news is that they were delicious! The bad news is that the samples were extremely small.

Note the size of the “slice.”

We decided to get one personal-size, cheese pizza and a basket of fries for lunch. The pizza and fries were each $12. So we ended up spending $6 a person for each of us to get one slice of pizza and a good amount of fries. We didn’t complain since we knew that fair food is always pricey.

Lizzie the Princess.

Josiah the Knight.

Josiah loves sword fighting. Here he battles Tim.

Josiah received training in how to be a valiant knight.

The two knight put on a fight as well as a class for the kids. Here’s Josiah afterwards.

We saw the Peking Acrobats again this year. Each year they change up their routines. The guy on the right just scooted through the tube, feet first, while bent over at the waist.

The lady in the middle first balances a small tray on a rod on the bridge of her nose. Then they add four cups. Then they add another tray. They repeat this twice more until finally they add one last glass on top. But that’s not all. Now she climbs up onto a rocking platform and then walks up two ladders attached to each side (seen in the video at the bottom).

We saw an outdoor acrobat show where girls performed rope routines as well as swung from a trapeze. The guy did some magic tricks including one where we had six members of the audience each pick a number from 1 to 50. After writing all of the numbers down on a large sheet of paper. He pulls out a “Pick Six” lottery ticket that he purchased earlier. He has a member of the audience come up and read the date and the price of the ticket. Then he reads the six numbers…which, of course, exactly match the six numbers chosen by the audience!

Tim and Josiah saw the “Flea” Circus. The guy was pretty funny.

After the sun went down, we enjoyed not being in the burning sun.

For supper, we considered getting some veggie dogs. But instead, we decided to drive back and eat at a Thai restaurant near our house. The food was delicious (as expected)!

Here’s a digest of the day.

On Wednesday, Tim took the day off from work to go to the Home School Day at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. Unfortunately Lizzie was sick so she didn’t go. Jeri, Tim, and Josiah joined up with two other families from church. Because Jeri had to work in the afternoon, Tim and Jeri left after a few hours. But Josiah was able to stay longer and hang out with one of the other families from church.

We started by watching the sea otter show. They were interesting and cute as well. Here’s a picture while watching.

Here Josiah is pointing out a Giant Japanese Spider Crab. They are large with long legs!

These three boys are good buddies. They play together a lot after church as well as on “play day” at our house a few times a month. Nerf gun wars are a favorite activity.

The aquarium had numerous “petting” areas where one can touch a shark, manta ray, jellyfish, starfish, sponges, and more!

Of course, there were plenty of places to spend money. Although we didn’t buy anything (except for Josiah’s lunch), Josiah checked out some of the stuff.

Here is a composite video of the day.

Today after church, we took a photo of the students in the Warner Avenue Christian Academy. Josiah and Lizzie are on the far left.

All of the girls sans Lizzie.

Selfie time.

Jeffrey took a picture of a friend taking a picture of Jason taking a picture.

Here’s the photo.

Watch the photo digest.