Buck the Tooth pull (Take 1)

Meet "Buck", Sophie's first buck tooth.  He has been with us longer than we want to remember and loves our family so much that he never wants to leave.  Some may even say Buck might have cost us the cruise job, but we will never know.  Sophie likes to keep him around because she fears the physically pain of losing him, but the time near.

Sophie's buddy, Buck

The struggle is real...

...

Okay, we'll try again later.

Laser Tag

Lydia's classmate, Natasha, had her birthday party at a laser tag place and this time Trung and I decided to join in the fun.  It's a little sad how much delight I had in shooting little children, but it was oh so fun!

Waiting around

Lunch time

Natasha and her family

The birthday girl gets her own special laser gun

Chanting for their team to win

Basketball potuck

At the end of every sports season, the coaches host a potluck pizza party and hand out trophies to each player.  Coach Rondell gives hints about each player and everyone goes nuts trying to figure out who it is.

Guess Who?

It's Sophie!

Accompanied by her big sister, who was mainly there for the free food

Lydia's turn

4th-5th grade boys and girls basketball teams

Funny pic

My turn to have fun with the ladies!

Sophie's last basketball game

Sophie enjoyed basketball practices, but during the games she seemed too afraid of the ball.  I can't remember how Lydia was at that age, but I'm not sure we will continue basketball with Sophie next season.

No baskets made this season, but she did get a couple assists

Mid-air run across court

Froggy jump

THE Popcorn dress

Never have a posted about an article of clothing, but I thought this one deserved some recognition.  We saw Lydia's friend Julia wear an adorable popcorn dress one day and both Lydia and I agreed that it was super cute. I asked Julia's mom Magda where she got it and fortunately, they still had the girls' sizes.  The girls wear it all the time and another friend Natasha has even gotten it.  They all coordinated and wore it to our movie night.  Too funny!

Pretend parents

Just before we left for our Mammoth trip, I received an e-mail from our agent about a Chinese family needed for a major cruise line, but grandparents were wanted.  I wondered if my parents would do it, but deep down I kind of knew that they wouldn't.  Sure enough, when I called them on our way to Mammoth, they said that they weren't interested and it might even conflict with my dad's job.  So, back to the drawing board...I also asked a friend's landlady who also happened to be in the same age range and Chinese, but she too was not interested.  Getting desperate, I texted my friend Chantalynn since she knows a lot of people and she said that her parents would do it!  So, we borrowed her parents TWICE since we got a callback (second audition), but alas, we did not book the job.  It was fun having pretend parents and grandparents for the kids though, and we gained new friends too.

 Me and the "parents"

We could totally be related

Mammoth Moments

Two families joined us at Mammoth, which brought the total number of kids to 7.  The girls had a blast skiing with their friends, and we had a nice cozy place to go home to every night.  We'll all definitely be back next year!

Me versus 4 kids ages 7-9

We met Wooly again

 Zoom zoom

Lydia had enough of skiing, so Trung took her back to the village while I took the two littles Sophie and Amelia down one last trail.  They have gotten so good and showed no fear despite the wind and lower visibility levels.

All happy from a fun trip

Ranting

I am warning you ahead of time that this post is a complaint against Time Warner.  Our internet went out yesterday around 3 PM and after asking around, I found out that someone in the building had gotten service done right around that time.  After talking to her and going up to the roof to look at the cable box together, we discovered that her Time Warner rep took my cable out to hooks her up and just left my cable disconnected.  Trung informed me that the cable guys are contracted out by Time Warner and that basically, the guy didn't have the special tool to take out a filter, so just took my cable out and put hers in to get the job done and to get paid.  Needless to say, I was not happy, so I called Time Warner and told them the situation and they were happy to refund for the days with no service.  Beware of incompetent cable guys!

The chaos that is our cable box

Best of Benihana

Every year we go to Benihana to celebrate my birthday, but mainly to use my $30 birthday voucher.  Even though the performance is always pretty much the same, the girls still love it.  This time, however, we got a really cool young chef and we were thoroughly entertained.  So much so that I actually tipped him and that says a lot!

Volcano, of course

Our cool, young chef

Rock climbing

A couple of Trung's co-workers go rock-climbing twice a week and have been asking him to join them.  Also, Lydia had so much fun climbing at a community event a few months back, so we decided to make it a family thing.  Both girls got a chance to try some real rock climbing, but unfortunately it didn't take.  Lydia claimed that she was too hungry to climb and Sophie said her arms weren't strong enough to pull her up.  Oh well, at least Trung and I had a good time; it sure was a work-out.

Getting hooked up, literally

Trung's co-workers belayed the girls

Daddy's turn

Cute car I happened to walk by tonight

Master Temple Day

Even though today was my birthday, I was too busy with basketball games and honoring another to celebrate...PLUS, Trung was out at a work event.  Between the girls' games, we made a Costco run to pick up cake and water for Master Temple's event.  Then after Lydia's game, we headed out to Burbank to the Martial Arts History Museum where they were honoring Master Temple, the girls' karate instructor.  I was inspired watching what he has accomplished and all the lives he has touched.  We are truly lucky to have such a great man in our lives.  :)

Lydia's first basket this season and the best birthday present

A humble and great man

Signature pose, apparently my right hand was not placed correctly

Birthday Fun

I hadn't planned on doing anything for my birthday this year, but then my friend Simona sent out a mass e-mail about a happy hour on a day and time that I wasn't available.  Some people responded to her e-mail, so I decided to have a gathering after all, but on another night when I would actually be there.

Filmed by the former mayor of LA

Fun times!

The former mayor shared a glass of his $160/bottle of wine

Mammoth bound...almost

While Trung was away on a business trip in the Bay Area the last couple of days, I got the cable all sorted out and packed for our Mammoth trip.  As soon as he got home, we loaded the car up, picked the kids up from school, and were off...to an audition.  Somehow, I got suckered into accepting an audition for Sophie because as always, I think she has a good chance.  Oddly enough, her buddy Amelia (whose family was joining us at Mammoth) also got the audition, so Magda and I ran into each other at casting before our long trek to Mammoth.

Slightly annoyed, but still smiling