Halloween Blur

Usually, I have costumes done about a week before Halloween. This year I started about four days before Halloween.

I blame the strep throat. That put me out for about a week.

Somehow, I managed. I may have not gotten as much sleep as I would have liked, but Pikachu, Ash and Snow White managed to go trick-or-treating together.



Some other highlights from the past 7 days:

We went to a Halloween event at our church…they had a life size Candyland game as well as other fun games...



The kids had their walk-a-thon for school. They each walked about 40 laps.



We visited a pumpkin farm where they had a play area full of corn kernels.



Chipmunk went on a field trip with his class to a different pumpkin farm. I must say, herding around 3 classes of kindergarteners is tough.



The kids had a parade at school…



Lots of October fun...

The Right Reaction

Just before Christmas I remember telling the kids about showing proper appreciation for the gifts that they receive.

"It's important to be grateful for everything..."

I grilled them endlessly about how to express their thanks properly.

Then Chipmunk received a birthday present.



Looking at this picture made me realize that perhaps the kids are doing fine in expressing their thanks without my help.

What a ham.

Holidays 2010

January has just begin, and December already feels like a blur. Before they blur from my memory, I thought I'd recapitulate the holiday festivities.

Christmas Eve


My sister's lemon tart


The annual gift exchange

Christmas Day


Christmas dinner...

5th Birthday


Bear's 5th birthday

Other Adventures...


A trip to the local park


A visit to the Exploratorium


A tour of a printing-publishing house

To see more pictures of our adventures during the holiday, click here.

Hope you all had wonderful holidays as well.

Merry Christmas 2010

Merry Christmas! Hoping your day is blessed and full of love.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope you're all counting your blessings today. I know I am.





Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Where We've Been

Christmas Eve. Chipmunk all dressed up to party.



Christmas Day. Bear running around outside of her grandparents house, excited about the prospect of opening presents.



Day after Christmas. Celebrating Bear's 4th birthday.



Day after Bear's Birthday. Getting ready to see the Nutcracker Ballet with her grandma. (She loved it!)



Two days before New Years. Visited the Train Museum. Chipmunk went hoarse yelling "Train!" for two hours.



New Years Eve. Visited the Jelly Belly Factory. Both kids were in jelly bean bliss...



Also visited the Nut Tree and rode the Carousel and Train.



Left when it was evident that a nap was needed...



New Years Day. Bear decorated cupcakes with her Ying-Ying (grandma). "Are you going to decorate them all?"...Bear: "Yes, they're my birthday cupcakes."



Day after New Years. Took a walk outdoors. Burned off all the cupcake frosting they ate.

Two days after New Years. Rest.

Today. Home Sweet Home.

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you all the best!

Costumes 2009

Well, the costumes are finally finished...



Bear decided she wanted to be a pirate this year. She kept saying, "when I grow up, I want to be a pirate!" I kept telling her that piracy wasn't a very well looked upon profession until I realized one day she was talking about her Halloween costume, and not future occupations.



Chipmunk on the other hand we dressed up in something more suitable for his personality...Godzilla. Rawr.

If you'd like to see more of what the kids have been up to lately (Halloween costumes and all), feel free to peruse here.

Hope you're all having a wonderful end of October.

It's a first!

First birthday, that is.

Our little Bubba (er...Chipmunk) is turning one this week...So of course, being that he's half-Korean, he got his very own celebration of life.



Here he is all decked out in Korean garb taking part in his dohl jabi. He picked up a pencil and proceeded to stir the rice with it. Apparently that means something really good...(Remember what Bear picked up?)





Besides the cute kids in Korean clothes, I think this was one of the highlights...



Yum! Gotta love that cheesecake.

One already. Wow.

Paint, Squish, Glue, Smile

Art.

That's what Bear told me she wanted to do for her birthday party. So a little research led us to the Art Zone. After a brief visit to see what they had to offer, we were hooked. Plus, we couldn't get Bear to leave the place...so it was decided...

Seriously, clay, some goopy stuff, easels stocked with paint, projects with glue and beads, a play area with dress up clothes, paint that you can spray on fake windows and then squeegee, and a mud and water room for...yup, playing with mud and water. It's one of those places you walk in and think, "man, I wish I was a kid again."

Add some pizza, spam musubi and a chocolate cake, invite some friends from play group, and you've got a party!





She was so tired afterwards, she passed out on our couch...hopefully dreaming about fun, art-y things.

Now on to plan Chipmunk's dohl.

The rest...

So our trip wasn't all bad. There were some good memorable moments...



...celebrating the fact that it was Chipmunk's first Christmas.







...visiting the Snoopy store and ice rink in Santa Rosa, CA.



...Bear learning the word "zamboni."



...celebrating a birthday.



...spending time with loved ones.

Hope you all had a wonderful...virus-free...holiday.

3 years

I can't believe our little girl is three years old today.



I still remember that night three years ago...coming home from a family Christmas, feeling like I ate one too many scoops of super cheesy mashed potatoes...Matt felt it, too (indigestion...ugh). We couldn't sleep that night and little did we know that we wouldn't sleep that night. I remember it was 3 am when I decided that I just couldn't sleep so I propped my pregnant self up with pillows to read a book. About 5 minutes into my reading I felt really weird and decided to get out of bed. As soon as I stepped into the bathroom my water broke, surprise hit my face and with a weak voice I managed to yell out to Matt who responded, "what! are you serious?!"

Calmly, yet quickly...we were out the door, into the car, driving quietly into the night to the unloading zone at the hospital...I remember a security guard wheeling me into labor and delivery...getting settled into a room and then the constant questions, check ups, contractions, ivs, whirlwind of procedures...

And then it all stopped...at least that's what it felt like to me. It was as if time slowed down as my little girl was being placed into my arms...my tiny baby girl with her chubby cheeks and soft mound of black hair. It was surreal.

And today, she's three years old. She's no longer my baby, but rather my child. She's roasting bears, drawing monsters and calling firemen on the phone. With her constant conversation and her insatiable curiosity (why? why? why?) and her beaming personality, I'm still as amazed now as I was back then.

3 years old. Wow.

Happy Birthday, Little Bear!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all of you!

From 2008

Thanksgiving Recap 2008

Busy weekends have a way of sneaking by in a mad rush. Thanksgiving weekend was almost "thankless" mostly because we didn't have enough opportunity to give thanks through all the busy-ness. So better late than never...here are our thanks:

Wednesday: We're thankful for arriving safely, despite the rain, traffic and 10 hours stuck on the road. We're thankful for a warm place to sleep and seeing Matt's family again.

Thursday: We're thankful for family gatherings. We're thankful for great-grandmas and aunts and cousins and dim sum. We're thankful for smoked turkeys and full tummies and ample relatives to watch over our happy children. We're also thankful for home-baked apple pie and ice cream.

Friday: We're thankful that Berkeley is only a hop-skip-and-a-jump from Sacramento. We're thankful for seeing my family healthy and well. We're thankful for fondue and artichoke and purple yams. We're thankful for B the dog, who put up with Bear and kept her company most of the day. (We're also thankful for Black Friday sales at the Apple store...hee hee)

Saturday: We're thankful for the newly renovated Science museum at Golden Gate Park which had Bear and Chipmunk exclaiming "wow!" from the moment we arrived. We're thankful for R and her forethought in getting tickets online weeks ago because otherwise we wouldn't have been let in. (By the way, I highly recommend it...super-cool exhibits for nerds like me).

Sunday: We're thankful for Sunday mornings, catching up with friends and celebrating soon-to-be parents. We're thankful for long afternoon naps and chances to bake with grandmas.

Monday: We're thankful for being able to come home safely, settle in and rest up from a long, fun weekend.

And some pics...

October Is In Full Swing!

I actually got an early start on costume-making this year. I figured that with two costumes to put together (and my shotty tailoring skills), I better not procrastinate.



Matt finally got his little jedi. I vetoed his "St@r Wars" votes the last two years for Bear, but this year he got his wish for Chipmunk.



This was the first year we let Bear choose her own costume. Even before we could come up with some suitable choices she decided she would be a "pink PIN-cess!"



She picked out her own fabric, too. Pink and shiny.

Oh, and we can't forget the little friends...

From 2008

From 2008

Looks like October is in full swing!