Laguna Beach Getaway

My long awaited getaway had finally arrived! Cora, my sister-in-law, flew into LAX Thursday afternoon and we hit Third Street Promenade for some window shopping. After dinner, we went back to actually shop, but realized that I had looked at the hours for the weekend, so all the store were closed. We enjoyed a crepe and alcoholic beverages instead.

Thursday morning we drove to Laguna Beach and enjoyed the Flavors of Laguna tour. Our guide had called earlier to try and cancel due to rain, but we couldn't reschedule, so we went anyway. Cora and I were the only ones, but we still enjoyed exploring Laguna and filling up on delicious food AND it turned out to be a gorgeous day! After the tour, we shopped at South Coast Plaza and found purses and a dress for Cora to wear to my brother's wedding. We ate a light dinner at Nordstrom's Cafe to save room for shaved ice at Mochilato. We totally crashed when we reached Mike's house!

The end of the tour at Wyland's gallery

Shaved ice goodness


Bright and early the next morning, we met future sister-in-law Minji at Beachcomber Cafe for breakfast. So this is how it feels like to have TWO sisters...so much fun! :) Then off to Spa Montage, a five star hotel in Laguna Beach to meet Cora's cousin, Jean. I enjoyed a clay wrap and a facial and just not having any worries for the day. After the treatments, Cora and I took a mini hike to the beach and then took our first ever yoga class. Then a simple dinner of soups and appetizers and we were already home from our getaway. It sure was fun while it lasted!

With the sisters at Beachcomber Cafe

The Montage

Spa buddies

Mini hike

Cora and the rock

Point Dume

The day was overcast and not "beach" weather, so we decided to have brunch and check out Malibu. Trung drove us to "Point Dume" where we hiked to the top with the kids and enjoyed some nice views.

Happy Hour at Hara Sushi

Lydia's classmates' mommies and I had our first happy hour at Hara Sushi and had a grand old time. We have gotten to know each other quite well over the last few months during our Thursday Joslyn Park playdate, but it was nice to actually sit down and talk without having to keep a constant eye on a kid or be interrupted. I'm already thinking about where to go next!


me, Dawn (Coral's mom), Jo Ann (Ava's mom), Marianne (Tuesday's mom), and Virginia (Verena's mom)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We ran across some leprechauns on the way to the post office, so of course, I had get a picture. Sophie was fascinated with the green while Lydia didn't care to take the picture. Oh well, it was amusing to me at least.

Preschool pandemonium

In the past, I have limited playdates to about 4 kids, but today I decided to try seeing how many kids I could manage at our place. All but one female classmate came over after school today, so I had eight preschoolers and an almost three year old Sophie. The girls watched some Disney Princess as I prepared chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, and veggie sticks. Then we painted fingernails, snacked on popcorn, and played in the girls' room. It was crazy at times, but lots of fun!

Tuesday, Coral, Isabelle, Lydia, Amani, Josie, Natasha, and Ava

Lunchtime

Party on the Pier

Lydia and I attended her first birthday party at the Santa Monica Pier today. Though the party was from 11-12:30, the wristbands were valid for the entire day, so we literally spent the entire day there. Exhausting, but so much fun!

Lydia and Josie having oh so much fun!

Bumper cars, where many tears were shed for the right color car

Sophie and Trung joined the fun later in the day

The Scrambler, a nauseating ride that Lydia loved


After eight fun hours, we finally headed home

Tuesday at Tuesday's

Marianne and her daughter Tuesday are the newest additions to our playdate group. I had the girls over on Monday and Marianne got the girls on Tuesday. Lydia got her fill of sugar at their place (chocolate covered popcorn, cupcakes, and cookies) and got to burn off the calories and energy at the park across the street. The girls in Lydia's class have a playdate 2-3 times a week and are thoroughly enjoying it; the mommies enjoy the break too! :)

Chocolate and cupcake, two of Lydia's favorite things

Ava, Coral, Tuesday, and Lydia

Moved in

After a busy weekend of packing and keeping the kids busy, I picked Trung up from the airport on Tuesday afternoon to find that he had bruised his right shoulder during his ski trip. *sigh* Fortunately, we had arranged for movers (two scrawny Russian guys) to transport the big furniture, but he could not do any heavy lifting. I ended up dolly-ing around eight van loads of stuff and callousing up my hands, but at least I got a good work-out for the week. Thank goodness four our new Cali friends and for the fact that we started doing playdates for Lydia with her classmates; the mommies really helped us out and kept the kids out of our hair to buy us some moving/unpacking time.

Thursday was a day of relief. In the morning, I took another tour of Lydia's elementary school, Roosevelt, and picked up her enrollment packet. It was a great feeling to finally have it in my hands because it made all the hardships of moving well worth it. I am very excited for Lydia as Roosevelt is a very good "rich" school and she will get to benefit from that...I'm talking about "smart" computers in every classroom, no more chalkboards! My kid will be 8 blocks from the Pacific and have mountain views during her recess time, and will never realize how lucky she is. Oh well. After many hours of moving miscellaneous items and cleaning, we finally moved out of our Playa Vista apartment at 11:15 PM. Everyone has been sleeping late, especially the kids, and been feeling disoriented all week, so it was definitely a relief. We enjoyed our time in Playa Vista and it helped with our transition from Texas, but we are psyched about living in Santa Monica now.