Halloween on the 16th

It's funny how Sophie's school doesn't allow costumes (to accommodate less fortunate families who can't afford costumes), while Lydia's school holds a school-wide costume parade.  Both were dressed in regular clothes going to school though, so it didn't really make a difference.  After dropping Sophie off at school at noon, I rushed over to Roosevelt Elementary for the annual parade.  Though the mornings and evenings get pretty chilly, it was quite sunny and hot during the procession.  Afterwards, the class had a small party and then I hurried home to take care of whatever else I could in preparation for the rest of this crazy day.  

After the usual Lydia pick-up, then Sophie pick-up, we actually went to swim class.  The kids really did want to go because it was the last class of the year and they get their lollipops.  Plus, Lydia has a little crush on her teacher...then again, all the moms do too!  :P  I dressed the girls in their costumes after their showers and we headed home for a quick bite to eat before getting lost in the masses on Montana Avenue, where the majority of the shops and restaurants were handing out candy.  We made it to 16th Street right around 6, when the Montana event ended, and made our way north.  This street is famous!  I heard that Steven Spielberg was trick-or-treating here earlier, model and actress Amber Valletta lives on this street, and the famous haunted house is here too.  The line for the haunted house was too long by the time we reached it, so we decided to forgo the full-sized stuffed animal "treat".  Maybe next year.  Happy Halloween!

Psy meets Obama

Principal and vice-principal as Tweedledee and Tweedledum

My fairy

Lydia and her current bestie, Mia

Kicking it

A sky proposal?

Lydia says her teacher has "a nice face"

Palmetto, a shop on Montana

The houses on Montana go all out

The girls are pros at trick-or-treaking

Mommy says to always stick together

The famous haunted house

Trung channeling "The Bodyguard"

Amber Valletta personally handing out candy

Snow's Night Out

Today we celebrated Snow's birthday with all the ladies. The nine of us met at Tar & Roses for dinner, where we enjoyed awesome fusion food and even better company.  We continued the festivities (minus two lovely ladies) at Sweet Lady Jane, where we successfully overstuffed ourselves.  What a fun night!

Our appetizer...deep fried whole snapper

Weiru and I shared a seafood pot and trumpet mushrooms

Desserts and tea

The Tavern

Today is Snow's birthday, so we went to a nice restaurant in Brentwood called The Tavern to celebrate.  While there, we saw local celebrity and actress Jennifer Gardner, who I've been waiting to see for quite some time now.  Santa Monica people tell me all the time that they see her out and about, and finally after a year and a half of living here, I got to see her for myself.  We sat with our backs against each other, so I couldn't get a view, and Snow only saw her back for most of the meal, but with all the mirrors in the room, we would catch glimpses of her.  When not staring at the lovable actress, Snow and I caught up on what we did over the weekend and enjoyed a delicious meal.

Jennifer is the one in blue with her chin her hands.

See her reflection in the mirror?

The real star of the show.  Happy birthday, Snow!

Where Jennifer goes, paparazzi follows

Sophie and James, her school and swim mate, chatting it up

Sophie swims just fine in the deep pool with a life jacket

But without the jacket and sinking right out of the gate, she is more timid

Teacher Josh pushes her and she braves up

Sophie has grown "leaps" and bounds during this session, hope she doesn't forget it all over the winter.

San Diego Zoo

 After a quick breakfast, we drove down to the world famous San Diego Zoo to meet up an Austin friend Allen, who just moved to California a couple months ago, and his reason for moving...his girlfriend, Grace.  After making one round in the Lost Forest to see monkeys and bears, we had a simple sandwich lunch.  Then off to the Urban Jungle and Panda Canyon, where Lydia saw her favorite animal.  After seeing the pandas, we parted ways with Allen & Grace and continued onward to see the cats and then one last stop at the playground before we called it a day.
 

 Up close and personal with a hippo

 A poser monkey

 The alpha gorilla watching Trung taking a picture of him

 This goofy monkey rolled the entire time we were at the exhibit

 The kids were more interested in the fake animals

 Two little monkeys

 Apparently, giraffes are really funny.

 The panda exhibit

 Trung, the girls, Grace & Allen

 So cute

 SMOOCH!

A fun day at the zoo!

Halloween Spooktacular

 The entire month of October, several places in San Diego are free for kids.  We decided to take advantage of this promotion this last weekend of October, visiting both Seaworld (even though we already have annual passes) because they have special Halloween-themed shows, and the San Diego Zoo.  We woke up early Saturday morning and headed straight for Seaworld, but not before stopping at Sabrina's house to pick up our passes and a nearby park to have a picnic lunch.  When we finally arrived at Seaworld, we hit the ground running, going on rides that we had never been on before and seeing exhibits that we had never seen before.  We went to all the special Halloween shows, stood in every "trick-or-treat" we could find, and left the park around 8 PM...not too shabby.

 All strapped in!

 Lunch at Mission Bay Park.  We've noticed that the parks in San Diego are so spacious!

 Sesame Street's "Countdown to Halloween" show

 Hiding my head in the back row, while Lydia is having a blast!

 Feeding beluga whales at the Wild Arctic

 Belugas just want to have fun

 What a walrus!

 Getting ready to find treasure

 Arrrrr!

Still one of my favorite shows

 "Thrilling" sea lions

Still smiling at the end of the day

Mini Minnow

Even though Sophie's Minnow A swim teacher isn't the nicest person, he gets the job done.  Even as Sophie is screaming "no", he pulls her into the middle of the pool, where she's forced to swim.  He knows she can swim and just needs to be pushed a little.  It's not how I would have done it, but whatever works.

Kicking, but going nowhere.  At least she's staying on the board.  :P

She's swimming, breathing, and everything!

Gangnam Style

If you haven't heard about the Gangnam Style craze, than you are definitely out of the loop.  Not only have I heard Korean singer Psy's hilarious song at the LA County Fair, but it was the chosen song for a group dance on Dancing with the Stars!  Today as I was walking back to Sophie's school after roller-blading with Snow and Karen, I came across a easel outside an Indian boutique.  Too funny! 

Pretty good drawing of Psy "riding a horse"

The other side

Waiting around

 We have been communicating with Kaz Talent, a talent agency geared specifically for Asians, since they don't do extras work.  Well, they told us that the casting director of a commercial asked that Lydia come in to audition after seeing her headshot, so we figured that we'd give it another go.  After waiting around an hour and doing the audition, I again feel that it's not worth the time and effort to get a "principle" part even if it does pay more (almost triple) than an "extra".  Plus, I think Kaz was just saying that the casting director asked for Lydia just to get more kids to come in to audition.  At least Trung got to "experience" what I've been doing the last couple of weeks and we got to eat some yummy Korean barbeque afterwards.

 Waiting around for Lydia's turn to audition is exhausting

AYCE Korean barbeque made the wait a bit more bearable.

2nd Annual French Toast & Pumpkin Outing

 Though I had a full day of events scheduled and it was a bit muggy outside, we decided to visit a pumpkin patch since this would be the only time that we could go.  Halloween wouldn't be complete without a trip to a pumpkin patch, right?  So we headed to Blu Jam Cafe first for some yummy breakfast for lunch.  I had Crunchy French Toast while the kids had pancakes; Trung was boring and got a sandwich.  :P  After lunch, we went to Mr. Bones Pumpkin Patch, where the celebrities take their kids.  When we pulled up, there was paparazzi everywhere, but apparently, no celebrities were there, they were just waiting around.  Oh well, no celebrities, but plenty of pumpkins to choose from.

 Rocking a giant horse

 Sophie-hontas and her tepee

 My pumpkin eater

 Showing their acting skills

 Searching for the perfect pumpkins

 Found!

 Trung and his girls

 Three Ly girls

 Lydia taking pictures of signs

 Sophie taking pictures of strange pumpkins and trying not to get distracted

See you next year!