Karate, then a cocktail

We've been continuing with the karate classes and Lydia seems to enjoy it.  Sophie still asks to stop about half way through, but I make her stick it out.  Lydia's friend Sofie has been joining us too!

Sophie taking out her anger on the punching bag

"Hee-ya!"

The Tuesday class is huge!  Guess that's what happens with free classes.

Happy Hour at Michael's!

Blood donation

I have been donating blood for almost a year now and it's done wonders for my ferritin level!  Since today's drive was running behind schedule, I had Sophie dropped off as I finished up.  I think she enjoyed the snacks more than me!

I do the donating, but Sophie does the eating

Bigger and better

After taking off the winter swim session to play basketball, Lydia is back for the spring session and she is better than ever!  After getting bumped up to the more advanced group and being separated from her buddy who was a huge distraction, she has shown great improvement.  At the meet today, she placed first in all of her individual events!  Way to go, Lydia!

Ready to swim

On your mark, get set, go....

Lydia's freestyle has improved

The breast stroke  is still her best stroke

Today happened to be National Pretzel Day, so free pretzels for everyone!

Family yoga

I recently discovered free programs through the Police Activities League and have been trying them out all week.  Today, the family tried a yoga class.  I'm not very found of yoga, but it did the kids some good.  I think that Trung especially enjoyed it.

A family that does yoga together, stays together

Karate kids

I recently discovered a free program through the city in which the kids learn karate.  Lydia and Sophie had a trial class somewhere else two years back and really didn't like it, but I thought I'd try again.  We were late to class and the girls didn't have uniforms yet, so it took a lot of persuading to get the girls to even participate, but once they did, I think they actually enjoyed themselves.  We had a short 30 minute class this time because Sophie had dance, but I'm interested in seeing how they do at Tuesday's hour long class.

In position

Apparently, karate involves lots of yelling

Dog readings

I signed the girls up again to read to the dogs and they got to read to two new dogs this time.  They both wanted to read to fluffy little Kabuki, so they switched half way.

Kabuki

Gracie

Such a nice, mellow dog, though I think she got too much love from the girls.

Party weekend

Sophie had another birthday party with yet another pinata, but this time, all the kids were the same age, so it was even playing ground.

The line-up

Sophie only got a couple turns since she kept lingering at the back of the line and I didn't get a better picture of her.  The breaking of the SpongeBob pinata was quite exciting though.

Diving for candy in the dust

Lala Loopsy Fun

Every year for her daughter's birthday, my friend April throws the best party at Stewart Park.  This year was a Lala Loopsy theme and she did not disappoint with face paintings, a planting station, and more!

 The line to hit the pinata

Sophie may be small, but she's strong

Thar she blows

Lydia barely got a turn because the line was based on age, but she got in!

It's funny how crazy the kids get about candy

The Kremer Family

Getting jiggy with it

Lydia's teacher invited us to watch the class dance performance this morning.  Lydia didn't want Trung or I to watch, but we did anyways and I know she's glad we did.  Nothing professional or anything, but cute.

Waiting for the song to start

Getting jiggy with it

I was a second too late on this shot

Trung got to watch the performance since it was in the morning and because he was working from home until his 1:30 dental appointment to have his wisdom teeth removed.  One tooth grew sideways, but was not interfering with the other teeth, so he had three teeth removed.  When he woke up, he was a bit giddy and so talkative, considering his mouth was stuffed with gauze.

Trung's teeth, you can see the fourth wisdom tooth on the bottom right

My Gym

Since I knew the girls wouldn't be exercising during Spring Break since all their extra-curricular activities take a break as well, I purchased a My Gym membership for them a couple months ago.  It was probably one of the best purchases ever because they loved it and the workers are really nice, not to mention they have an awesome play list.  We went at least twice a week, once for a class, which was actually pretty hard, and once for free play.  Though today was our last class, I would definitely consider doing it again.

Arm bends

After the second class (we had a make-up class to do), we went to Ben and Jerry's for our free ice cream cone. Yum!

Callback

We had our first family callback today, which I had a gut feeling that we might.  Our first audition on Thursday went well...casting asked me to ask the girls what they wanted to do today and Sophie's response of "go to Benihana" and maybe my genuine surprise are what I think got us the callback. Trung doesn't go to the first audition, but I made him come to the callback.  Sadly, we found out that we are definitely not actors, but at least the girls had fun trying.  Next time...

Waiting and goofying around

Crabby

'Tis the season for crawfish but alas, the crawfish in Santa Monica is non-existent, well, you can place an order and it will arrive in three days, but it's $8.99/pound!  So, instead, we went to The Boiling Crab!  I was thrilled to find out a new location opened in West LA in February, so I can get my fix more often and much quicker.  People probably don't know about this location just yet because the wait was only 20 minutes when it's usually a couple of hours.  I love me some Boiling Crab!

 Lydia really loves crab now, especially snow crab

Sophie mainly stuck with the chicken tenders, but she took whatever crab anyone offered

Pier Day

Lydia won a free day pass to Pacific Park at the pier back in December, and there was a Groupon deal, so I got Sophie and myself tickets as well.  After two busy weeks, we finally got to go the final day of Spring Break.  We didn't make it out to the pier until after 2, but we stayed until 6 and definitely got our money's worth.  It was a great end to a fun break!

Bumper cars...Sophie recently made the height minimum

In my opinion, a pretty boring ride, but the girls kept going on it.  Diane and Ione joined us after a hour.

Hot air balloon ride

Ferris wheel time though it was awfully windy up top

Ione doesn't like the crazier rides, so I just went with my girls to Scrambler

The froggy ride is always very popular

Thrift Store

My friend Simona had a great idea of having her girls create a thrift store to get rid of toys that they no longer play with or want.  They gave my girls monopoly money to buy anything that was on the table, and my girls went to town and bought all but three items.  Lydia and Sophie had so much fun that now they want to have a thrift store too, which just might be the perfect way for us to get rid of excess toys.

Sophie, Julia, Rachel, and Lydia getting thrifty

Serendipity

We had a easy morning...I took the girls with me to zumba and then after lunch, we made a quick run to Santa Monica Place.  Lydia then got sealants on her four adult molars.  We headed to Burbank for Sophie's audition right after to beat the traffic, but still ended up hitting some.  We visited a local park to kill some time and a few minuted before we were about to leave, we were informed that a ice cream truck was giving out free ice cream.  Apparently, a local church was giving back to the community.  How funny that I was thinking about buying ice cream at Sprouts right before the park too, but decided against it.  

Off to the audition we go, and right when I get out of the car, I see an old high school friend walking by on the sidewalk.  I hadn't seen her in over a decade and to suddenly run into her after living in LA for almost 5 years!  What are the odds!  And to top that off, I met someone from Sugar Land at the audition and we saw Lydia's teacher jogging with a friend on our drive home.  What an interesting day!

Lydia asked me take a picture of her sealants

Free ice cream

Old old friends

Kidspace with friends

I always look forward to going to Kidspace during Spring Break because it allows us extra time to have lunch at Porto's and for the girls to play at the playground.  Since we got home late last night, however, I ended up spending the morning getting situated and we ate lunch at home, so we didn't head out until after 1.  We did drop by Porto's for some desserts, though, and stopped by Glendale Galleria before going to Kidspace.  April's family and Deborah's family joined us at the museum and we all went to dinner afterwards, overall, a fun time, despite the rain.

Making wiki art

Ready to eat!

Deborah, April, and I

Mammoth

Right after Caleb's birthday party, we took a five hour drive to Mammoth to spend a couple days skiing.  Trung and the girls already had their lift tickets paid for with their Mountain Collective passes and we borrowed ski equipment for the girls, so we only had to pay for lodging, food, and my lift tickets.  Mammoth had a really mellow run, Sesame Street, that was perfect for teaching the kids; they were skiing by themselves by the end of the trip.  We all had a great time and are all looking forward to our next ski trip!

Our first family ski trip riding up the ski lift together

We ran into Wooly on the way to the slopes

Proud Daddy

Fun times with Daddy before he snowboards down from the summit

Riding up the Panorama Gondola

On top of the Sierra

"Hope you make it down alive" kiss

Our last run for the trip and Wooly followed us up

Not all mascots can snowboard

So proud of my girls that they learned to ski, and with the mascot!  The perfect way to end our trip!

A year gone by

We celebrated my nephew's first birthday in Orange County today.  Time sure does fly!  The "Where the Wild Things Are" themed birthday party was super sweet and the food was delicious.  Happy first birthday, big boy Caleb!

Soho Taco catered the party

 Mike's little family

I guess I'm the boring aunt

Alexis was having so much fun with this marbled balloon that Sophie reluctantly let her have