Swim test

After many times of watching Lydia get to go into the swimming pool by herself without an adult, Sophie decided today that she wanted to go in too.  So, she attempted the swim test, which requires the child to swim freestyle the full length of the pool without stopping.  Sophie started off really well and I was surprised how far she was going, however, just a little past halfway, she started slowing down.  There was a swimming class in session in the lane that she was swimming in, so that instructor was telling her that she was in the wrong lane.  (I only know this because Lydia was following alongside her sister in the community pool.)  Well, just as all this was happening, a lifeguard suddenly blows his whistle and jumps into the water to "save" Sophie.  Apparently, with her little arms flapping around, he thought that she was drowning!  

I wasn't sure if I was slightly annoyed that the instructor and lifeguard interrupted Sophie's swim test or appreciative that the lifeguard saved Sophie, though I don't believe she needed to be saved.  She knows how to bounce off the bottom of the pool quite well and she hadn't even stopped swimming yet.  Needless to say, Sophie didn't pass the test and the facility had to write up an incident report.  Sophie did tell me later that she was tired, but who knows if she would have made it the last 15 yards or not.  I was really proud of her though and after watching her play during swim classes all the time, I felt that she actually learned something.

Biking

Trung had the idea of biking down to Manhattan Beach this morning on the beach path.  With our late start and neither Trung or I eating breakfast, we made it to Venice for brunch at Fig tree cafe and figured that that was good enough.  We stopped by a new playground on the way back, so that the kids could play and stopped every now and then to enjoy all the activities going on.

Trung's got a fig tree growing out of his head

The crazy face pancake that the kids ordered

My pancake souffle

Even though we already biked all morning, Lydia rode a tandem bike with Trung and still needed the exposure of riding a bike without training wheels.  So Trung unscrewed her training wheels and taught his daughter how to ride her bike.

Starting off slow

Full support

Letting go...

The hardest part is building your own momentum...oh, and sometimes stopping.

Just another day

Sophia and Sophie in the pink leotards during a trial class at Westside Ballet School

Banh mi, deconstructed, for the kids since they take all sandwiches apart anyways

Trung was being kind and spooned out fresh coconut pieces for me

Just another afternoon scooting around Downtown Santa Monica after getting free Jamba Juices

Making the cut at Legoland

 With our entire summer booked with school, VBSs, and swim classes; I decided to break away from the daily grind and take the girls to Legoland for the day.  I remember that Sophie used to be too short for several rides, but now she would be tall enough so that we would be able to try new rides.  We left right after VBS Wednesday night, spent the entire day at Legoland on Thursday, and hung out with Sabrina and her kids until noon on Friday before heading to Garden Grove and then home.  With heavy traffic going into Santa Monica, we barely made it in time to drop off my Asian groceries and take the kids to VBS.

 Three princesses

 Oh, if only it was warm enough in Cali to play in the freezing water

 Lydia just barely made the 48" cut to ride on her own on many of the rides.  She is quite good at steering and Sophie, not so much.

 Sophie trying to help pedal, but of course, I did all the work

Obligatory picture with the lego people out front

VBS in the Evening

Now that Summer Adventure has ended, the girls and I got a little taste of summer this week since we got to sleep in and sleep late.  The only scheduled activites were swim classes at 4 PM and a VBS from 5:30-8:30, the first of three I have planned.  I took advantage of this evening VBS by going to Happy Hour with Trung the first night, Dine LA with girlfriends Tuesday night, double date on Wednesday night, Thursday the girls and I went to Legoland, and then Friday, Trung and I watched Pacific Rim.  I wish there were more evening VBSs around, but alas, the next two will be in the morning.

 

 First night of VBS at Westside Christian Fellowship

 The girls had a great first night and wouldn't stop talking about it.

 The view from our table at Casa Del Mar Hotel Tuesday night as I enjoyed the DineLA menu at Catch Restaurant

 Trung's salmon and my scallops, just one of a four course meal at Seasons 52!

Too many choices for dessert!

A Day of Desserts

After a quick lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant on Sawtelle, which wasn't too bad for West LA, but definitely not as good as Brodard, we met Guro, Trond, and their kids at Churros Caliente for dessert and to catch up.  The restaurant was only a couple blocks away from where they live, so they have been many times before, but it was our first time and most certainly not our last!  The churros are smaller than the ones at Costco, but light, crispy, and very dangerous because you cannot stop eating them.

 Churros with Dulce de Leche and Strawberry

 

 All the kids loved dipping the churros in Mexican hot chocolage

After a quick breather at home, we went to Sophie's classmate Dominic's birthday party.  His older sister, Meri-Xenia, was Lydia's former kindergarten classmate, so Lydia came along too.  The girls pretty much sat in front of the television watching Sophia the First and Backyardigans, but at least they ate enough so that I didn't need to make dinner afterwards.

Dominic and his amazing spaceship birthday cake

Scooters and Sushi

We are trying to encourage Lydia to bike without her training wheels and are making it a point to take time every weekend for her to practice.  The girl is going into second grade, so it's high time that she takes those wheels off.  It's mainly my fault that she doesn't get enough practice time since I don't feel safe letting both girls bike with just me around; our neighborhood streets are just too busy.  We promised her a new bike for her birthday once she can bike on her own, so hopefully it will be any day now!

I borrowed a scooter from a friend, but now both girls want to scooter instead.  Somehow we convinced Lydia that the scooter was for Sophie.  Not bad for her first time on a scooter, huh?

The family's first time at an all you can eat sushi place and the girls loved it!  All stocked up on salmon and smelt eggs, though they found later that they didn't care for the salmon ones too much.

 Here comes all the food!  Yum!

Sophie trying to photo bomb Lydia enjoying her smelt eggs

Cinema on the Street

Every summer the City of Santa Monica hosts a 3D movie showing on the Promenade.  Last year we saw "Rio" and had a great time, so we decided to go back again this year to watch "Despicable Me".  Either the movie itself or the 3D glasses were messed up because the movie was blurry and they started the movie an hour later than scheduled, so people could do a survey on the City of Santa Monica website.  There was supposedly going to be a raffle for everyone that did the survey, but that didn't end up happening, which was really lame.  Overall, not as fun of an experience as last year, but the kids didn't really complain, which is the important thing.

Our seats weren't great, but we still had a good view of the screen

Sophie feel asleep 3/4 of the way through

Apparently, a picture of us from last year made it into a "outdoor LA movie screenings" website

Buster Ballon

The always entertaining Buster Balloon ended our week of presentations with gusto.  With creative scenarios and awesome balloon twisting, the only thing the girls had to complain about was that they didn't get picked and get to take home a balloon creation.

Now that's a big balloon!

I had a clip of Buster actually going into the balloon, but it was too long and wouldn't upload.  But he did indeed find the right card from the deck.

Science talks

After having missed two days of library presentations, the first time because it was sold out and the second time because the library closed due to a plumbing issue, I made it a point to be at today's presentation.  The talk about dinosaurs was pretty informative for maybe junior high aged kids or older, but not for the little kids, which made up the majority of the audience.  The kids started getting bored and talking aloud, so it certainly wasn't one of the better shows that we have seen.

 The props were pretty impressive, though the presentation wasn't really

Dinosaur talk

On a better note, Sophie can now dive!

Babalu

Dine LA is this and next week, so I figured the ladies and I could go try a three course meals at a couple of local restaurants that we would probably never go into.  Tonight we tried Babalu, a Caribbean style restaurant, and only a 15 minute walk from me.  It was tasty and very filling, and the homemade desserts were to die for!  

  My filet mignon dinner

Lisa, Diane, me, Danielle, and Lorri

Mini Austin Reunion

An old gamer friend of Trung's, Arthur, informed us a couple weeks ago that he and his family would be in town for a few days and wanted to see if we could me up.  Fortunately, our schedule was completely cleared for today and we got to meet them, his brother's family from the Bay Area, and another gamer friend Allen (who moved from Austin about two years ago) and his wife Grace from San Diego.  We had lunch Real Food Daily, which isn't your typically vegetarian restaurant, it's actually good!  :P  Then we walked the Promenade for a bit, hitting places like the Apple Store and Yogurtland before everyone dispersed.  

It seems that every time we get out of state visitors, someone sites a celebrity.  This time, Allen saw Tobey McGuire and his family entering Real Food Daily just after everyone else had left.  Then, we happened to be at the kids' store Marbles and saw Rosalind Chao from The Joy Luck Club, so everyone won today, though I personally would have liked to see Tobey since I've seen "Rose" three times already.  :P

Texans in Cali

Sophie drew a picture of her and Jacob, and here I thought it was just a school year romance!

Truecar Summer Party

For the first time in almost three years, we got to attend Trung's work's summer party.  The last two summers we had already planned family reunions out of state, but this year, we aren't going until August.  Truecar took up a section of the Santa Monica Pier and employees got wristbands, play money, and a lunch buffet.  Lydia and I didn't arrive from her extras job until 1:45, barely in time for lunch, but we got to spend the next four hours enjoying the pier.  We also ran into one of the kid actresses from the Disney show that Lydia had just worked at Happy Hour afterwards...small world.

The grand prize!  We didn't win, but at least Trung said a deserving co-worker did.

Sophie insisted on winning the minion and then decided that she didn't want it AFTER we played three rounds to get it for her.  :/

I'd never experience the pressure winning kids prizes before because we never spend the money to play games, but since Trung's company gave us $125 worth in play money, we got to play to our heart's content.

Reminds me of the old Chuckee Cheese commercials

Sophie made sure Elephanty was strapped in too for the parachute ride

The kids love the Scrambler, but I never get on if I have a choice.

Crash and Burn

Lydia was an extra on a Disney show back in November and got to go back on the show again for the show's season 2 premiere.  There was only four girls this time plus the main girl, which was the perfect number for the girls to play together and not have any disagreements.  We were on set at 9 AM and didn't leave until 4:30!  And with food always readily available, Lydia and I were constantly eating, which is one good/bad thing about being on set.  Sophie had school in the morning, a play date, and then hung out with Trung, who was home sick, for a couple of hours until Lydia and I got home.  Though a couple of the moms mentioned working a second day, I wasn't told that when I accepted the job and was a bit annoyed when we were asked to come back because Trung's company party was the next day.  Normally it wouldn't have been a big deal, but it's not every day you get exclusive access to the Santa Monica Pier!

 The girls uniting over "Minion Run"

 A quick pic while we wait for someone to fetch us

Ready to rock!

Swimming update

Lydia was discouraged last swim session because she went from being the fastest swimmer in the last level, Flying Fish, to being one of the slowest swimmers in this new level, Tiger Shark.  She gained more confidence this session though, maybe because wasn't the slowest anymore or because her friend was in this class.  Hopefully, she will continue to build her skills and endurance and will be interested in during swim team in the fall still.  It does go from swimming twice a week for thirty minutes to three times a week for 1.5 hours, so it will be quite an adjustment.

 

 Lydia swimming side by side with her friend Hanna, my friend Lorri's daughter

Coming up for a air

 Lydia does the butterfly better than me!

 Sophie can swim past the first set of flags, which means she can FINALLY be promoted to the next level!

Wildlife Learning Center

Even though the girls aren't that into animals, hence zoos, they managed to sit through an animal presentation at the library.  They only really like the cute, furry animals, but the other animals were pretty interesting too.

Forgot the name of this animal, but it is in the raccoon family

An apparently very smart

 "Chiquita"

 "Sweet Cheeks"

A baby alligator

An Overcast Beach Day

We live only a fifteen minute walk away, so it's probably surprising that we don't go to the beach as often as we could.  I always used to enjoy the beach in the past, but I guess the freezing ocean water makes it less enjoyable for me.  Fortunately, I will go along with the hubby when he decides that it's time for a beach day and I'll even pack a nice lunch for everyone to enjoy.  As long as no one expects me to get into the water, I am content watching the family play in the sand and taking pictures.

As soon as we arrived at the beach, Trung and the girls went straight to work on building things.

Trung made a sand chair

Utter delight running from the waves

Carefree Lydia...and to think, she said that she wasn't going to go into the water!

Uh-oh, looks like someone has been sitting in Trung's chair

Lydia's eyes are very sensitive to the sun and she can barely keep them open long enough to take this picture of herself covered in sand.

We had a surprise visit from Lydia's old BFF in preschool, who she hadn't seen in over two years!