Siona & Sophie

We had a short, but fun play date at Sophie's friend, Siona's house today.  They live two blocks away from school and have a swimming pool in the back.  Must be nice to live north of Montana.  :)

Siona, Lily, and Sophie

The "Coolest" party

 My friend April threw yet another successful and fun birthday party for her daughter Emme.  This year was "Frozen" themed, complete with "finish each other's" sandwiches and "do you want to build a snowman?" marshmallow station.  I hadn't seen some of her guests and mutual friends in awhile, so I socialized like crazy while the kids played on the playground and ate snacks the entire time.

The snowman building station

Princess Elsa (Emme)

So tiny, yet so powerful.  The pinata broke before it got to Lydia's turn, which were based by age.  Emme turned six, so there were tons of kids that age and younger.

Every child got five swings, but Sophie was fine with just two

 My snow princesses

Life near the beach

In honor of Earth Day on the 22nd, Santa Monica hosted a mass beach clean up today, along with a sand castle contest.  Our family didn't make it in time for the clean up since it takes us forever to walk the mile out to the pier, but we caught the tail end of the contest.  It was so windy on the beach though, that we quickly made our way to a warmer, less breezy place.  Our friends Diane and Joanna met us and we spent the rest of the afternoon at the Aquarium and slowly making our way back home.

Lego sand castle

Touching sea life

Analyzing sand

Trivia pursuit

You can see the outline of the California halibut and its blue eyes on the right.

It's crazy how motionless the halibut is with sharks swimming right above it.

Be Crood

We haven't invited the girls' friends for an evening movie night in awhile, but tonight, Lydia's former classmate Sydney and her sister Ava came over.  The girls watched "The Croods" and paired up playing games afterwards.  Iit turned out really well; maybe we could do a trade-off with Sydney's parents in the future, so we can actually get a date night..  :)

Kids will be kids

The "wheelbarrow"

I guess they should time the "drop" a little better

St. George's Day

The other day, I had invited my British friend Lorri and her family to join us today at Ye Olde King's Head for dinner after swim class.  The restaurant was celebrating its 40% birthday and St. George's Day, and select items on the menu were 40% off.  I had never been before and I love fish and chips, so I figured it could be fun.  Lorri agreed to come, even though it was going to be "insane".  My friend Magdalena's kids also have swim class, so I invited her too.  It was a bit crazy with 8 kids, but the food was good and the company was even better.

4 adults and 8 kids

This guy was quoting Shakespeare quite awfully.

The kids found the dance floor and took over; notice the pile of shoes on the right.

Too bad it was a school night or we would have stayed longer; the kids were having so much fun!

Annual brunch at Alpine Village

Every Easter, Tom sends out an invitation to all his friends (and then some) to have brunch at Alpine Village, a German restaurant in Torrance.  We have attended every year since we've moved to California and it is always fun catching with up with old friends while making new ones.

The entire brunch party

Me and the host

The girls and Tai

Happy Easter!

Babies and bubbles

We took a drive to Orange County today to meet my new nephew Caleb.  He was born the evening before our Florida flight, so we weren't able to visit him at the hospital, but this was better because Trung could join us.  Caleb is super cute and remembers me of Sophie when she as a newborn.

Trung didn't want to get too close with his cough

Caleb is thrilled to meet his Aunt.  :P

Caleb is seriously outnumbered

After our visit, we took the girls to the Discovery Center for their Bubblefest event.  One of their favorite activities was floating on the water inside of a bubble.

Sophie looks like a little mouse.

Making big bubbles

Sophie needs to work on her technique

We watched a laser bubble show and though the girls had front row floor seats, they kept getting bubbles in their eyes.

The twist is cool!

After a few hours in the heat, we made our way to the actual center.  We checked out the grossology section where we tried to determine "who poo-ed it".

The girls loved this interactive grocery store

Savvy shoppers

The girls getting blown away in a hurricane simulator; it was so windy that Sophie came out with a bloody nose!

Grace the Great

Longest day ever!

After a week of fun-filled days, it was nice to do absolutely nothing today.  We simply packed up all our belongings, hung out with the remaining Ly family members during the afternoon, and then headed to the airport.  Our flight wasn't too bad, but landing at 10:30 PM and getting home at 12:30 AM with a three hour time difference really upset Sophie.  We did try Uber for the first time and it worked out really well.  It's good to be home, and I'm glad we have a few days to adjust before school starts again.

Packed and ready to leave Toan's house where we stayed the last half of our trip.

Abby, the youngest Ly, cozying up to Sophie.

We got dropped off in the red terminal, while the brother in law's family got dropped off in the blue terminal, only to find out that our check ins were right next to each other. Yay, one final farewell!

Lydia messing with a jetBlue computer

Lazy, rainy day

Three other families went to amusements parks today and one family flew back home.  Since we are amusement park-ed out with out Disney annual passes, we stayed local, watched Rio 2, and had lunch with Ma, who was alone for the day.  Then we picked up some afternoon desserts and rested a little before having dinner.  We got to see the "Legoland" families since that park closed pretty early, and say our goodbyes as everyone was leaving the next day.

Lydia shared a strawberry milkshake with me and Sophie shared an entire banana split with Trung

Ma kneading some dough for the sweet rice cakes that Lydia requested.

The crab that De caught was livid when we finally took him home.  Why bother bringing home just one crab?  We did have two, but our bucket was too small and it got away, and because we love crab.

Beach Day (Take Two)

There honestly isn't much to do in Tampa, so we went to St. Pete's again...to the exact same beach.  This time we found a spot in the shade, which was nice at first, but then the mosquitoes came out in the late afternoon and I got eaten alive.  Trung forgot to reapply his sunscreen and got burned, but at least the girls were perfectly fine and happy.

De caught a crab with his bare hands in the little creek behind where we were sitting.

 Enjoying the warm gulf water

As we were walking back to the car, we saw a raccoon sneaking around the garbage.  Once it saw us, it scrambled up this palm tree and found a little hiding spot right in the middle of the branches.

Why we gather

Trung's family tries to meet annually, but this year the reunion had to be around a specific time...on a "good" day according to the Buddhists to have Ba's ceremony at least one year after his passing.  Fortunately, the CA, MD, and NY kids all had Spring Break on the same week, so we were able to make it happen.  After the ceremony and lunch, we headed to Ba's grave to pay our respects.  To lighten the mood a little, we had a simple Easter egg hunt at Ma's house, which was over in a matter of minutes.  We finished this family-oriented day at Toan's house where he hosted yet another awesome barbecue.  It certainly is a fun experience having the Ly clan together.

Ba's remembrance ceremony at the Buddhist temple

The younger Ly grandkids sitting quietly for a little while, though electronic devices were busted out soon after

The monks make the best food

Trung burning the white headband that we wore at Ba's funeral last year

My turn

Trung asking Ma how she was feeling after the ceremony

The three youngest Ly grandkids paying their respects to Ba

Mayhem in Ma's backyard

The Ly boys comparing pictures

Meal preparation is a group effort during our reunions

Thrown together Saturday

With the initial plan of going to Lowry Zoo out the window, we decided to spend the afternoon at the mall.  The kids were entertained in the play area for a little while, while the mommies shopped at Gymboree right across the way.  After lunch, we did a little more shopping, then headed over to Parkesdale Farm for dessert.  For dinner, Toan hosted a barbecue at his house, where once again, the dads and kids found themselves in the water.

Our large group at CPK, and to think, this is less than half of the Ly clan!

Since we only had two cars between three families, Trung went home from the mall with the girls first, so I got to enjoy this (entire) strawberry shortcake in peace.

The grilling master, Toan, showing off his new toy and feeding the masses

Aunt Teresa threw Lydia and Sophie a bubble bath after eating dinner and swimming