Trick or Treating on Grey's Anatomy

 Ironic that Lydia didn't want to be a princess in her school parade and she was a princess on tonight's episode of Grey's Anatomy.  Maybe she would have liked it better if I had curled her hair too!

  All made up and ready for her close up

Half the time the girls are on TV, you can't tell that it is even them.  This time, I had a good feeling that Lydia's face would be shown because the other girl is an executive producer's daughter.

Halloween 2013

Beware, this post has lots of pictures and I'm going to let them do most of the talking.

The principal (L) and new assistant principal (R) in the annual school Halloween parade for K - 2

Sophie kept telling everyone that she was a "poodle" instead of a "poodle girl"

 Lydia covering up her princess dress with her hoodie because she didn't want people laughing at her.  Apparently, to her, it is no longer cool to dress up like a princess anymore.

Asking for the hoodie

Sophie didn't wear her glasses and jacket during the parade, which helped "make" the outfit.

After school, we drove around picking up free goodies.  Our first stop was at Susie's Cupcakes, where I picked up a dozen free cupcakes for dressing up like an employee.  I simply tossed on a white apron over a brown tee, pulled on a pair of jeans, and topped my head off with a bandana.

Our next stop was at Krispy Kreme, where anyone dressed up received a free doughnut of your choice.  Lydia decided to dress up like a samba girl after school.

Our final stop and the end of our afternoon sugar rush was Jamba Juice, where kids received a free kid's smoothie. 

Trick or treating up and down Montana

Lydia wanted to be Jasmine for Halloween, but she was Jasmine in last year's school parade, so I told she could be Jasmine only during the trick or treating.

Frankie, Lydia's classmate who we ran into on Montana, Lydia, and Sophie

me, Diane, Danielle, Lalaine, and Catherine at Danielle's party

The whole gang heading out to go trick or treating

A cool robot that slid candy down its' arms into Halloween buckets

Lydia's organized candies

CleoSophie

All the kids were turned by the end of the day.

Red Cross Prepare Santa Monica

 Trung's company Truecar co-sponsored an event today called the Red Cross Prepare Santa Monica, preparing people in an event of a earthquake.  We ran, well, walked the one mile "fun run" on the beach and crossed the finish line last, but it's the thought that counts.  :)  After dumping about a pound of sand out of our shoes, we enjoyed the event, which consisted of a SHAKEY QUAKEY earthquake simulator, CPR training, face painting, etc.  It was a cute little event and the girls enjoyed getting free stuff at the stands.

 The event was hosted by Carson Daly

 Getting ready to run

 Here we go...

 The stragglers

 Lydia learning CPR

 No hesitation in asking Carson for a picture here though I've already seen him twice dining at M Street Kitchen.

Our family was the only Truecar family that ran...talk about representing.  :)

A Scare

Weiru and I were on the way back to my place from our weekly trips to Sprouts and Costco when I received a phone call from the nurse at Roosevelt saying that Sophie had fallen from a bench and hit her head.  Her pupils looked fine and after 20 minutes of icing her head, she felt better and went back to class.  I didn't think much of it since kids bump their heads all the time.  When I went to pick Sophie up, she was sad and teary-eyed and didn't feel like scooting home, which is practically unheard of because she loves it so much.  Also, as I was waiting for her at the classroom door, I told another mom, Erica, about the fall and she informed me that her daughter had had a concussion, and she only knew it because she vomited.  After that, she immediately took her to the emergency room.

Sophie and I walked home slowly and she took a solid hour nap before she got changed for swim class and we went back to school to pick up Lydia.  Since we were running a little late, I dropped Lydia off first at the pool entrance for swim team and then went to park at the parking garage.  As Sophie and I walked towards the stairs, she vomited.  I was slightly panicked, remembering what Erica had said and suddenly thinking about actress Natasha Richardson, who had died from bumping her head while skiing.  After cleaning up the mess as best as I could with napkins and wet wipes from my car, I called Cora, a physician, Lalaine, a pediatric nurse, Erica, Trung, and the KP (our health care provider) on call nurse.  During this time, Sophie went to the back seat of the minivan and took another nap.  Some people told me to go to the hospital, but others told me to wait it out.  Trung and I decided to wait until after dinner and see how Sophie was acting before heading to the hospital.  She was still sad and said her head hurt a little, but she was talking normal and even laughed a couple of times.  We decided to stay home and keep an eye on her, and thankfully, she was back to her usual self by morning.  

I believe that Sophie had had a minor concussion, enough to make her vomit once, but nothing major. Just so you know, I did want to cover all my bases and take her to the hospital just to make sure she was okay, but after listening to her story later, I'm glad I didn't rush into that decision.  Sophie said that she leaned too far back on a school bench during lunch and bumped her head when she fell.  Then she rolled and then got back up and went back to the bench, where she started crying and the teacher's aid discovered that she was hurt.  Sophie said that she didn't see "black" and still saw the blue sky after she fell, so I knew that she didn't black-out.  After she told Trung and I all this new information, we decided that it was would be safe to keep her at home.  If she had vomited again though, we would have gone straight to the hospital.

     

Pumpkin time

I always try to visit a pumpkin patch each year, so that the girls can pick their own pumpkins to put outside our door.  I didn't want to go too close to Halloween, so I settled on today even though the girls had soccer in the morning and we were dropping by a birthday gathering in the afternoon.  Trung had a conference call in the morning, so I took the girls to soccer.  Afterwards, rather than hang out at the playground too long, we headed to Hollywood and had brunch at Blu Jam cafe, which we did last year as well.  Then off to Mr. Bones Pumpkin Patch, which is a nice patch, but sadly, the main reason I chose this particular one is to hopefully spot a celebrity or two.  There is always paparazzi at the entrance, but alas, we did not see anyone.  It may seem a little lame that we go, pick out pumpkins, and then leave without spending money on the hay maze or pony rides, but I have the Disneyland annual passholder complex...we can get all those types of things for free and then some at Disney.  Plus, we already paid for it, so even better!  My poor kids, no wonder they don't want to leave the house on the weekends.  :P

Deep down there is some cowgirl in there

And of course, one with just Sophie

Our three pumpkins were small, but the girls still insisted on getting a wagon.

Trung decided that he didn't need a pumpkin this year

And you wonder who Sophie gets her posing from...

My little pumpkins with their pumpkins

When we got home, the girls and I walked over to our neighbor's place and celebrated her birthday with her.  Allison's daughter, Katie, is in the same class with Lydia this year.

Katie and her enormous cat

Hot Pot Done Right

 Tonight for dinner, we met Weiru and a bunch of her friends at Hai Di Lao Hot Pot in Arcadia.  Apparently, this restaurant is the first one in the US and is quite popular in China.  I did find the food to be of excellent quality and the spicy broth was very flavorful.  It was quite pricey, as hot pot usually is, and pretty far away, but it was definitely a cool experience.  Price-wise, Little Sheep was a little cheaper, but quality-wise, Hai Di Lao was better.

 The famed Hai Di Lao

 Here come all the ingredients

 Just waiting for my pot to boil

 Sophie enjoying her fish ball on a chopstick

 The noodle dance

After dinner activities

In Foley's Honor

 Today I found out through Facebook that an old childhood church friend of mine died from a sudden heart attack...he was 34.  Kevin Foley was a sweet, goofy guy and I only have good memories of him.  Even after so many years of being out of touch, I ran into him at my childhood church, Tallowood Baptist, one Sunday and we were equally happy to see each other.  Hopefully that will still be the case when we meet in heaven one day.  You will be greatly missed, my friend.

 High school mission trip to Hungary; Kevin is the one posing on the far right.  He was always "cool" like that.

Kevin and his best church friends let me tag along on their road trip back home to Houston, Texas from Memphis, TN, where the One Day convention was being held.  I was originally supposed to return with another group of friends, but I was having relationship problems at the time and wanted to hurry home to hopefully resolve the issues with my then-boyfriend.  The relationship ended soon after, but my friendship with Kevin continued on.

Party after party

We spent the night at Mike's house and the girls kept waking Trung and I up...Lydia complaining that Sophie was kicking her and Sophie for some other reason (I didn't wake up that time, only Trung did).  Needless to say, we didn't sleep too well and slept in until Mike and Minji got tired of watching our kids, who had woken up earlier.  We relaxed for awhile before heading to my cousin Ben's house to celebrate his girls' birthdays.  We had Korean barbeque again, but with different cuts of meat, so it was a totally different kind of meal and still very tasty.  It was nice seeing Ben and his family; I can't even remember the last time we saw them.  Plus, his wife is expecting their third child in a couple of weeks and we hadn't seen them since we found out that they were pregnant!

 

Mike said this was the first time Alexis had ever fallen asleep on him.  She has been having a hard time napping lately because of teething.

Zoey, Sophie, Audrey, Lydia, and Isabelle...only little girls were in attendance at this party, not that boys were invited, everyone just has girls!

We had to leave early to head back home for Lydia's classmate's birthday party.  We realized about halfway home that we had left our one suitcase at Mike's house (apparently the girls played with it and moved it from where I put it next to the door), but we were already late, so we couldn't turn back.  Fortunately, I found out through Facebook that my friend Guro was in Orange County and she was able to pick it up for me.  Gotta love Facebook!

Meri-Xenia, Joanna, Katherine, Katie, and Lydia with the fairy houses that they made

The Cancino's

Smiley, chocolatey faces

Park to the Grill

 A couple of weeks ago, we were invited to a birthday party of a fellow kindergartener's little sister.  The mom Nadia and I have several mutual friends, but it was a bit strange because I didn't know either kids' names or really anything about them.  We didn't have plans for the afternoon of the birthday party, so I figured it would be nice to meet some new people and have lunch.  Even if my kids didn't know anyone, they could always play in the playground.

It turned out to be a pretty fun party and we knew two other families.  Most of the kids were in costume and the Thai food was good, so everyone was happy.  We even got to take home organic pomegranates, grapes, and almonds from Nadia's in-law's farm!  So good!

 Costume birthday party at the park

 Isabelle the pirate, Lydia as Jasmine, and Sophie as Tinkerbell

 

We left the party a little early at 2, did a few chores at home, and then drove to Garden Grove to have dinner with Mike and his family.  We tried a new Korean restaurant called Morangak, which had the best marbled short ribs!

 Alexis munching on her nom nom cracker as everyone else enjoyed the barbeque

Mike, the master griller

Come on Down

I got tickets to The Price is Right a couple of months ago and had a couple of friends who were interested in going.  I thought more people would be interested, but I guess the thought of waiting around for a few hours wasn't all that appealing.  The arrival time was changed from 8:30 to 7:30, which I was worried would change my friends' minds, but to my relief, it didn't.

So, I woke up at 5:45 this morning, picked up Dani and Guro, parked the car, and made it to the studio by 7:30.  We waited in three separate areas, the first area where we got our name tags, the second area where we waited for our "interviews", and the third area where we waited to enter the studio.  I thought I was real clever with my interview, saying I was "made in Taiwan", but currently lived in Santa Monica.  That my job was "CEO of the Ly Corporation", basically that I was a stay at home mom.  Maybe it was a little overboard or maybe I was under consideration, but somehow they found out that I was in another game show less than a year ago, which would disqualify me.  Whatever the reason, my friends and I were not picked as contestants, but we were able to witness the six that were all win!  Maybe I'll try again next time and hopefully get to "come on down"!

I'm sure our real reactions would have been better.  :P

Though I may not have won anything at the show, I happened to receive my new phone today, which I won from another contest.

I would have preferred black, but beggars can't be choosers.

Our winning entry of why we "hate 2 wait" two years to upgrade our cell phones.  "Waiting two years is like riding a kid's bike".  Maybe a bit cheesy, but considering that the video was shot right after Lydia took off her training wheels and completely unplanned, it was not too shabby.

My entry was totally staged, but showed a Gymboree bag in the background and was disqualified.