What kids do in Vegas

Yesterday, after shopping on the Promenade for Black Friday deals for a few hours, the family hit the road for Las Vegas! Trung had heard a few weeks back that Thanksgiving was the best time to go because the hotels are inexpensive; he booked us a room at Treasure Island for 1/3 of the usual going price.  The drive wasn't too bad, about five hours not including a 45 minute dinner break.

Today we had a late breakfast at a restaurant in the hotel and then drove over to Circus Circus.  I have been to Las Vegas twice and had never been to the hotel, which truly is a child's dream come true.  They have circus acts going every half hour, arcade games, an amusement park, and more!  We had a Mexican lunch at the hotel before heading back to the main part of the strip, where we showed the girls around the Bellagio and where they experienced their first Vegas buffet.

Impressive acrobats

The girls weren't that impressed though

The girls thought we would win skeeball easily like we did on the pier, but that certainly wasn't the case here.

An angled air hockey; Sophie would jump every time she hit the puck

The Batman laser challenge

Don't hit the laser!

The always beautifully decorated Bellagio

With a cornucopia of pumpkins

This is how Sophie looks every morning now, always complaining about something.  I hope it is a stage she will grow out of real fast.

Watching the famous Bellagio dancing fountains.  The girls still thought World of Color at Disneyland was better.  :P

The Ly's in Las Vegas

Dancing in Vegas

We waited 2.5 hours for the Caesar's Palace buffet and it was quite good, though not worth the wait (and $160).  We ate at 8:30 and quite literally stuffed ourselves silly.

This is what a tummy ache looks like.

Ten courses of Thanksgiving

 With no family in town this year for Thanksgiving (we usually go back to Texas), we celebrated with Weiru's family.  This year, her husband Dave decided to go all out and planned an elaborate ten course meal.  Just reading the menu made me hungry!  What a memorable Thanksgiving!  I wonder how they are going to top it next year!

 Trung accidentally left a burner on on the stove, where my nice Pampered Chef deep dish pie plate was, so the heat broke it right in two. Guess I know what I will be getting for Christmas.

 

 Dave and Thomas plating all the dishes

 First course - escargot, fresh berries, and deviled quail eggs

 Second course - butternut squash puree

 Third course - tuna tartar atop wonton chips

 Fourth course - marinated artichoke and mushrooms, olives, proscuitto wrapped cheese, and a breadstick

 Fifth course - mushroom ravioli with pesto atop sauteed zucchini

 Sixth course - lemon sorbet (palate cleanser)

 The kids only joined us for the main "typical Thankgiving" course

 The seventh course and menu selection card

 Four kinds of cranberry sauce!

 The gracious hosts

Eighth course - fresh fruit or salad

 Ninth course - pumpkin or apple pie, flan, and homemade vanilla ice cream.  I don't think the tenth course even happened because we were so stuffed.

The kids watched movies during our three hour eating experience, except for the thirty minutes when they stopped to eat.

Thank goodness for play dates

Ever since the girls started doing extras work, I feel like I can never plan a play date until the day before because that is when we find out about the job.  And when a kid gets booked, I have to ask a friend to pick up the other child for a play date.  So, whenever I can, I have play dates to stock up on my "I owe you's" for whenever I need one of my kids to have a play date.  I don't know if that all makes sense, but it is how I roll.

I usually take 2-4 extra little girls at a time per play date.  It's madness, but fun.

Kicking off the holidays at Disney

With finally a free Sunday, we hit Disneyland, but didn't arrive early enough to get a "before 5:30 PM" fastpass for Radiator Racers.  That's okay though because we found plenty of other things to do.  I was a little nervous that having gone to Disney so much, the kids would eventually get bored, but that wasn't the case...at least not this time.  And, to top it off, my friend Lisa and her family met us and we spent a good few hours together.

Pretty in purple

I love how they decorate "It's a Small World" for the holidays.

Just the kids and I on the Roger Rabbit ride.

And to think, the girls used to be so scared of this ride the first time they rode it three years ago.  Now, just look at them!

I waited an hour for supposedly the best seats in the house

Nothing says "Christmas" like riding on "It's a Small World" and witnesses its lights at night.

Celebrations!

Today we had much to celebrate.  Lydia completed her first session at swim team today, well, the last day of actual swimming was on Wednesday, but today was officially the last day.  She had trouble a couple weeks into the session when she got too tired by Friday's class (class was every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) and did not have the energy to swim the entire time.  Fortunately, water polo games were held the next three weeks in a row on Wednesdays and took up the swim team's swimming lanes, so Lydia got a little break.  So, when the regular schedule resumed, she was good to go!  Also, since Sophie's swim classes ended a couple of weeks before Lydia's, I began dropping Lydia off and having her get ready by herself after class.  She would get to free swim for about thirty minutes after class and head to the showers where I would meet her.  My little girl is growing up so fast!

More importantly, today we celebrated Trung's birthday!  After picking Lydia up from her swim team potluck, we went to Ushuaia Steakhouse and enjoyed an Argentinian happy hour.  We were completely stuffed and then some.  Happy birthday to my dear husband!

Posed or photojournalistic?

We recently had a photo shoot session at JCPenney's for our family portraits.  I am not a fan of posed pictures, but the groupon deal was for only $25 and we received all the prints and high resolution pictures that we needed to get the job done, which was to have a decent family picture for our Christmas card.  I was fine with the results, but the very next day, my friend offered a complimentary outdoor session at a park in Manhattan Beach.  I couldn't refuse!  So, now we have to choose between the studio pictures and the outdoors one.  Guess you'll see which one we choose when you receive our Christmas card!  :)

 We got a 10 x 13 print of this one

 I wish Trung was smiling a little more

 We got prints of this shot for the grandparents.

 A more casual look

 Probably should have switched Sophie and Lydia to alternate colors a little

 Close-up

 From a different angle

 Fall fun!

Our engagement picture was of me on Trung's back.  Now we each have our own passengers.

Happy Thanksgiving from the Ly family!

Blogging, it's a learning process

 So, I'm wondering if I have to go to all the events that I post on my blog.  I know it's not physically possible if events are held at the same time, but I think I should make a conscious effort.  After all, I would only post the events if I would go to them, right?  Oh, and I find out the hard way that it does no good to post an event and go on the wrong day.  :P

 Trailer for the new Sofia the First movie; the kids received a free sticker pad and paper necklace.

Free Dylan's candy at LeSportsac

Do You Know Grace?

My friend Diane has been telling me for months that I should create a blog, posting all the deals and events that I come across.  Apparently, I have a reputation with my friends of finding great, and usually free stuff.  I really didn't intend on creating a blog, but this past weekend so many stores were having their Friends and Family sale and I had a feeling that so many people didn't know about them, so I just had to get the word out.  Unfortunately, I was informed by Trung that a website doesn't just appear overnight, so I wasn't able to post about the sales.  Within the week, however, we were able to decide on a domain name and get my blog up and running.  Introducing...Do You Know Grace?  I hope that you find it useful, even if you don't live locally.

Going curly

 Since no one wanted to watch Thor last night on my usual mom's night out, I went out tonight to a Red Tricycle and Microsoft sponsored event at a Drybar just blocks away from home.  The idea was to get moms to check out the new Microsoft Surface computer while getting a complimentary blow out, or for me, a curling session.  A couple of my friends went too and we all enjoyed champagne, organic vegetables with dips, and tasty hors d'oeuvres.

 Fish lip selfies

Champagne makes us smile

The Nut Job

My friend told me about a free screening of the movie The Nut Job for today and tomorrow.  We chose to go today since the showing was later, but I still had to wait about an hour in line while Trung took the girls to Barnes and Noble and Chipotle to grab some lunch.  Even though they are free, we don't go to screenings that often because they are usually on weekdays, we have to drive, and they are on a first come first serve basis, so you have to go super early.  Fortunately, this one was at the Promenade and I didn't mind so much waiting since Trung took the girls.  :)  The movie was 3-D and we got pretty good seats near the front, so it was a fun afternoon.

We were at the front of the outside line; there were about 30 people already inside.