Back in the water

The girls started swim class this week and thankfully, the weather warmed up just in time.  Lydia is in Fish and seems to be more advanced than at least half of her classmates; Sophie is in Minnow A and though she is much smaller than everyone else, she will now kick off from the wall without hesitation.  Looking forward to seeing the girls progress this year!

Lydia passed the swim test by swimming free style without stopping for the whole length of the pool!  Now she can play in the pool without adult supervision (indicated by the green wristband).

Forward kicking

Backward kicking

Swimming like a fish

Twi-hard fan

Ever since I watched the first Twilight movie, I have been a huge fan.  Yes, I have read all the books (twice!) and yes, I sighed when Robert Pattison first appears on the screen in each Twilight movie.  So, when Kellan Lutz aka Emmett, walked by me at Target today, I was especially excited.  Even when I wasn't 100% sure it was him, Weiru assured me that his arms were money makers; no guy works out like that without getting paid for it, so it had to be him.  :P

 

Kellan was in the check-out line behind me

Still trying to take a decent picture of him

Lydia on Disney

Lydia's very first "job" on Disney's "Dog with a Blog".  She is on the right of the main red-headed little girl.

Lydia's second "job" on another Disney show, "Crash and Bernstein", for yet another six year old's birthday party.  She's in the front row on the far left, and I remember being driven nuts over her non-stop sucking of the prop necklace.  Anyhow, Lydia was picture-picked for this job, meaning that she was picked based on her picture in the casting agency's database.  Not that she gets that many jobs (we haven't accepted any since the beginning of the year because one required her to be able to catch a football and the other was on the same day as her first play date with her BFF), but I've decided to accept only jobs that she's picture picked or jobs on shows that I watch.  I have to draw the line somewhere, though Sophie can take any job that she can get because her school is not as strict about attendance and roles for her age are rare.

Birthday party in the park

We attended Sophie's classmate Pierre's fifth birthday party today at Memorial Park.  It was quite a windy, cool day, but the kids had fun at the play structure and didn't have much to complain about.  The food was simple (pizza, hot dogs, and macaroni and cheese), but the sides were so good; I felt like I was eating the entire time.

 Sophie was once again the only female classmate that was invited to the party.

 The birthday boy

 

Enjoying Ninjago cupcakes in a tent

Bloody finger...not for the faint

Tuesday night, as I was cutting sweet potatoes for some fries, my santoku knife slipped and sliced off a nice chunk of my left ring finger.  I don't get injured that often; the only times I've been at the hospital was to delivery my kids, so this was pretty traumatic for me.  The bleeding wouldn't stop, so eventually I just wrapped a large bandage around the wound along with a kleenex to catch anything that seeped through.

During the day, I would hold my hand above my heart as much as possible, and every night I poured hydrogen peroxide over the cut and put a neosporin-ed bandage on.  It seemed to be slowly healing, so it never dawned on me to seek any medical help.  A friend suggested that I at least mention it to my doctor, who wasn't really sure what to say since most incidents like this are seen in the ER.  As long as it wasn't infected though, I should be fine. 

 

 A small missing part of me

Adventures in driving on the 1

We left San Jose around 11 after a late breakfast with Bert.  The girls both fell asleep on the drive to Monterey from waking up so early to watch a Barbie movie, so the drive down was nice and quiet.  We grabbed some sandwiches to go at a highly rated deli and found a scenic spot to eat.  The deli owner recommended "Lover's Point" and warned us to eat inside because the seagulls would attack.  Trung decided he needed some air and left the car with his sandwich, but quickly rushed back when the seagulls started coming.  :P  Then down the Pacific Coast Highway we drove for what seemed like hours!  Well, probably because it was hours before we finally stopped in Santa Barbara around 7:15 PM for dinner.  Even though we had a great trip and saw many friends, arriving home after a long trip is the best.

Thank you to Bert and Judy for letting us stay at your place!  Too bad Aunt Judy was on a business to NYC and we didn't get to say "bye".

 

 Lover's Point Park

The girls climbed all the way to the top on their own

Queens of the world

 Mommy's favorite "hug your sister" pose

The most important people in my live

Don't know where Sophie got that wee little flower

Little statue boy with his sailboat and girlfriends

Somewhere between Monterey and Hearst Castle

A little island...

with it's own little community

Such beauty in God's creation

Hearst Castle (far right) from a distance

The Wharf with the Zou's

Today we spent the day re-exploring San Francisco, basically doing all the touristy things.  Trung's best friend, Thomas, and his family joined us as we ate at Fisherman's Wharf, had dessert at Ghiradelli Cafe, and walked around Pier 39.  Parking was atrocious...$40 for 5 hours or more, but the garage was packed, so I guess everyone was paying the price.

Picking our crab, which was oh so good!

Lunching on crab, oysters, and clam chowder

Had to get a picture with THE sign  :)

The Golden Gate Bridge from a distance

Ghiradelli Square

The girls making their own hot chocolate.  We ordered a steamed milk and they added Ghiradelli chocolate squares....a messy, but cool concept.

All sweetened up!

The beach made Sophie "crack" open

Petting an iguana on the sidewalk.  Funny how Kirsten, Thomas' daughter, wouldn't talk to any of us, but was all over the iguana.

Enjoying the 7D experience outside of the theatre

We ended the evening stuffing ourselves at a Mongolian hot pot place.  I had never eaten hot pot outside someone's home before and it was so good!  The broth was amazing!

Take a number

Today we had a jam-packed day planned, jumping from friend to friend, but spending good quality time with all our Bay Area people.  We arrived around midnight last night and chatted a little with Bert and Judy before hitting the sack.  This morning, we slept in and had a late breakfast before meeting my cousin and her family at a Chinese restaurant for lunch.  We had never met her son, Matthew, who spent most of the meal staring at the girls.  So bummed that I forgot to take a picture!  

After grabbing some boba drinks, we met Trung's old college friend Huy and his kids at his son's school playground.  The kids just played, while the adults caught up on the last 2.5 years.

It took over an hour, but Aiden finally warmed up to the girls

Soon, Ava joined in

Truly Daddy's little girls

Group pic

My former neighbor Sarah, who lived across the street from us in Austin happened to be in town this weekend, so we met her and her two older kids for a bit.  I finally got to meet her friend Shu too, though we practically know each other from Facebook.  The girls played together, while Shu's son and Sarah's daughter Amy played, but at least Sarah and I got to chat before we were both off to dinner.  

 Former neighbors, forever friends

So sad that Sophie and Amy no longer remember each other, they used to be BFFs

We had dinner with Bert and Judy at a Greek restaurant in a really nice area in Los Gatos.  Then we had dessert at a gelato place...Sophie really seemed to take to Bert and Judy.  The kids passed out quickly after such a busy, but fun day.

Crafty Valentines

 As always, Trung and I don't pour ourselves over the whole "marketing scam" of Valentine's Day, so we don't go out to a fancy restaurant or buy each other gifts.  Instead, we just met for lunch at a simple place, grabbed "buy one, get one free" drinks and Coffee Bean, and later made a nice dinner.  I purchased a couple sweets too, of course, because any day is an occasion for that!  :)

 After school, I took the girls and a couple of Sophie's classmates to the library for some crafts

 These connecting sticks were popular

 Lydia's creation

 Pointy parasol?

 Maybe not the best hula hoop, but it's the thought that counts

 Recycling the hoop for something better

 Um, not sure what this is, but Sophie was proud of it.

 Trung taking pictures of our dinner...ribeye, asparagus, and lobster (homemade bruschetta on a multi-grain baguette as an appetizer)

My turn  :P

Me versus 18 preschoolers

 Since I volunteered to talk about Chinese New Years two years ago to Lydia's preschool class and we are the only 100% Asian family in Sophie's class this year, I was asked to do it again this year.  Having been sick over a month (off and on three times), I didn't really think much about it until over the past weekend.  I had it all planned out...I would read about some Chinese New Years traditions, then the kids would make almond cookies, and then they would do a craft (make a snake out of a paper plate).  Of course, not everything went as planned, but the kids and teacher all seemed happy.  

 

 Making slinky snakes

 Me and mini me

Snacking on tangerines, almond cookies, homemade nian gao (sticky rice cake), and white rice.  Love that Sophie is using the wrong end of her chopsticks!

Skating into the new year

 In the spirit of Chinese New Years, Trung and I thoroughly cleaned our place "in order to sweep away any ill-fortune and to make way for good incoming luck".  No, not really, our place just needed a good cleaning, so what better time than on the new year?  We took a little break after lunch and went to Roosevelt Elementary to teach the girls how to skate.  They both received roller skates for Christmas and we haven't had the opportunity to try them out yet.  Sophie picked up skating quite quickly, but Lydia started getting the hang out of it after a while.  Maybe they will actually be ice skating next winter instead of clinging on to the rink sides for dear life. 

Trung and the roller girls

 What happens when you try to cross your legs with roller skates on

 Skating along, minding her own business

A natural