Open House

I only drop the girls off on Wednesdays now since Trung goes for a jog after dropping them off the other days of the week.  We are rarely early, so Sophie doesn't usually get to play on the playground before school starts, but for some reason, today we had a bit of extra time to spare.  She impressed me with her monkey bar skills...she may be small, but she knows how to swing.

 My little monkey

Tonight was also Open House, where the parents basically got to see everything their child did during the school year.  The girls both had a wonderful year with great teachers and I couldn't be happier.

Mrs. Scholder and Sophie

Mrs. Lynch and Lydia

This is the End

Tomorrow our Disneyland annual passes expire, so even though we already went on Friday, I couldn't help but get the family to go this one last time.  Trung doesn't want annual passes EVER again, but I'm willing to wait a few years before getting them again.  I think that should be enough time for him and the girls to miss it, at least a little bit.  The park opened at 8 and we got there around 8:45, and got to hit almost all of our favorite rides.  We left at 2:30 feeling confident that we accomplished what we set out to do...just have fun.  We'll miss not having annual passes, but at least now we'll be willing to go to other amusement parks.

Selfie on the Golden Zephyr

It's crazy how long the line always is for the Dole pineapple yogurt

We caught a ride back to the entrance of Disneyland on the trolley and had prime view when the horse had to take care of some business.

Yeah, our family is the one with the hands in the air.  :P

The flying tires ride only had a 15 minute wait; it must not be as popular anymore.  I don't know why though, I still love it!

The car parked next to us had lips, so the girls "kissed" it.

After Disney, we dropped by Mike's house to see how much Caleb has grown.  He supposedly doubled his weight, but he's still oh so tiny to me.

Rock your Disney Side

As an annual pass holder, I recently received an e-mail that Disneyland would be holding a 24 hour event and be open from 6 AM this Friday until 6 AM Saturday.  I asked a few of my girlfriends if they were interested, but most already had plans for the Memorial Day weekend and some replied that they were just plain too old.  So, rather than see this fun event just pass me by, I dragged along my loving family.

After picking Lydia up from swim team at 5:45 PM, we drove down to Garden Grove for a Korean barbecue dinner.  Then after grabbing a few Beard Papa cream puffs, we were on our way to Disney.  Every Disney ticket holder must have that the event was cool too or just though the park would be empty because it was crazy busy, probably the busiest that I have ever seen it.  This was probably a once in a lifetime thing, so I'm still glad we went.

Ready for the "Maleficient" sneak preview

Picture taken at 2:15 AM; the girls lasted pretty long and would have stayed longer if we had let them.

Life Cycles

Lydia's class had their Life Cycles performance tonight.  It went really smoothly and was very entertaining...great job!

Lydia's group of monarch butterflies was the first to perform

Lydia's first grade class

This was the only performance where the students on stage sung by themselves

Lydia did a wonderful job!

Too cute!

Diane, Meri-Xenia, Lydia, and Mia

Staying in

We had an almost completely free weekend, except for soccer on Sunday, so we took advantage of the time for the girls to fully heal up.  We only left home once each day; Saturday to grab lunch and walk around the Promenade for a couple of hours and Sunday to practice soccer.  We did a thorough cleaning of the girls' room, which was much needed and will be less work later when we have visitors this summer.

Lunch at 800 degrees...tasty, but very soggy.

Domino Effect

Saturday at Franki's birthday party, Sophie climbed onto my lap and fell asleep.  I wasn't sure what was going on with her, but she did feel a little warm.  After the party, Sophie played Spore with Lydia and seemed fine the rest of the evening.  Sunday morning, she woke up in good spirits, so we took a chance and still went to Disneyland as planned.  Probably not such a good idea since Sophie woke up with a fever the next morning and had to stay home from school.  She went to school on Tuesday, but took a nap every day after school for the entire week.

Lydia was fine for the first half of the week, but woke up on Thursday with a mild fever.  Even though it would have been fine for her to go to school, she was so upset and tired that I didn't see the point.  So, Lydia stayed home from school and rested.  There was a heat wave this week and the bloody noses didn't help our cause, but with plenty of rest, the girls are finally on the mend.  

While their classmates are at the beach, my kids are battling fevers

Mother's Day 2014

Starting the morning off right

Spent the afternoon with these cuties

Party to party

This Saturday was also pretty busy, with two parties to attend, but at least the start time was later.  We hung out with the Smith's during lunchtime to celebrate Hannah's first communion.  Hannah's younger brother James was in preschool with Sophie last year, so that's how we initially met, but now Lydia is in swim team with Hannah.  Swim team has been more bearable now that Lydia has a real friend in the class and someone to hang out with afterwards. 

Lydia with Hannah in her beautiful First Communion outfit

We left Hannah's party early to attend Franki's birthday party at Rustic Canyon park, where we had only been once before.  Lydia mainly played with her classmate Violeta and Sophie wasn't feeling too well and fell asleep in my arms, but I was still able to chat with a few mommy friends.

Franki (aka Alice in Wonderland) turns 8!

9 hours of Mom and Dad

My parents flew in yesterday to visit my new nephew in Orange County and drove up to Santa Monica for the day to hang out with us.  They arrived just before lunch time and stayed until after dinner; as you can see, our schedules are based around meals.  :P

Trung met us for lunch at Benihana

Picking up Sophie from school; Dad wanted to take the picture in front of the tour bus.

Back to school again to pick up Lydia and go straight to Sophie's dance class

Back at home, Mom takes the kitchen by storm

Dad shows Sophie Christian music videos, while she inhales fresh homemade egg rolls, truly the best to get a kid to eat vegetables!

Dinner arrangements

Since we were already in the area last Tuesday for an audition, I asked the girls if they still wanted to go to Kidspace today.  Apparently they still enjoy going, so we made our way out to Pasadena after school and spent the afternoon at the museum.  Then afterwards, we went to La Grande Orange Cafe again...the sea salt sprinkled chocolate chip cookies never get old!  Since Mondays and Tuesdays are buy one entree, get another for $5, I've figured out how to maximize our meals and make everyone happy.  I order my meal and the "fish of the day" entree (mainly for Sophie) and one kid's meal for $3.  I find it silly ordering a kid's meal when I can order a nice entree for only $2 more, but the kids like the mac and cheese, so this arrangement makes everyone happy.  Plus, the kids get their protein and vegetables; and I usually have leftovers, so Trung is happy too.

How bugs order lunch

Partied Out

The girls started off the day playing soccer.  Maybe the month long break in April did them some good because last week they both fully participated and each scored a goal, and this week they still did really well.  After soccer, Sophie changed into her Anna costume and we scooter-ed over to Roxy's birthday party.  We barely knew anyone there, but got to meet some nice new people and enjoyed a Cinco De Mayo lunch of tacos.  The girls learned to play "Spore" in the afternoon, and then we found a new all-you-can-eat sushi place for dinner.  Finally, the end to a busy weekend!

Arts and crafts in the patio

Sophie as a hula butterfly

Action shot

Sophie nailed the pinata every time except on her last swing

Roxy's mom Shirin made a lovely teapot cake

The majority of the kids at the "tea party"; Sophie only knew three of them.

All you can eat sushi.  Thank goodness Trung has a huge appetite and we actually finished everything.

Cakes and Cookies

Even though it was a busy day, we got to spend quality time at each of our three main events.  First was Lulu's birthday party at her home in Venice where we socialized briefly and had a small lunch.  Then off to the Main branch library where we had a cookie decorating competition.  Finally, we attended Ryan's birthday party at Virginia Park where the girls played in the splash sprouts and we had a small dinner.  The birthday parties already overlapped in time, but I had to squeeze the "Cookie Wars" in because I knew the girls would love it, and they did.

Refreshments

We look like a happy family, but we are really fierce competitors

Submission of the "best" decorated cookie of the three

Trung and Lydia's submission, created for the "creature" theme

Sophie and my submission..Hawaiian pizza created for the "pizza" theme

The judges reviewing the submissions

Birthday boy Ryan and his look alike cake topper

Artwork by Sophie

Every Spring, the kindergartners exhibit their artwork that they made throughout the school year.  After school today, we dropped by the auditorium to find Sophie's pieces.

  

Self portrait

I bet this piece is named after the cherry blossoms that we saw at Lake Balboa.

Our family

We probably need to work on her spelling a little more.  :P