Cinco de Mayo 2008

I think this was the busiest Cinco de Mayo celebration that I have seen at our local park. It was packed to the edges. There were rides and slides and lots of food, classic cars and folklorico dancers. It was a great diversion for a Saturday afternoon and a nice walk to the park and back home.

Dancing Girl

I guess this is the lull before the storm. We haven't been blogging much these past couple of months, but we do have a lot of fun activities planned in the upcoming weeks. It's time to get out the camera and start documenting our girls.

Last week I took Pearl to her future school to be evaluated for Kindergarten. I had no idea there was a test to get in. They quizzed her on her numbers, shapes and colors. Then they asked her to write her name. Finally, they turned the paper over and asked her to draw a picture of herself. She was really doing a nice job (five year old style) and when she appeared to be finished, she paused and asked the lady if she could draw her sister too. Well, that seemed to impress the ladies observing and Pearl proceeded to draw a second figure. After the two figures were complete, Pearl started drawing more oval shapes and the lady asked her if she was drawing her whole family. Pearl looked at her with a slightly exasperated expression and said "I am not drawing my family. I am drawing balloons." She continued to draw two balloons for herself and two balloons for her sister. Each balloon had a different design. One had a smiley face, one had a bunny rabbit and one was decorated with polka dots. Not knowing how long Pearl was going to continue, I almost interrupted. Then Pearl matter-of-factly handed over the drawing and exclaimed "I'm done!" It really was a cute moment and I wished that I had brought the camera.

Tonight we are just hanging out in the living room. For Pearl's birthday, her Aunt Lahatha sent a CD player for Pearl and a second one for Chloe. Now Chloe likes to turn on the music and dance to it. She really likes to pretend she's a ballerina. It was so cute that I had to take a couple of pictures. Sorry I didn't get Pearl in these. She was studying flash cards at the time and is getting ready to read. Not really a great photo op.

Pearl Turns 5

We celebrated Pearl's 5th birthday on Sunday April 13th, 2008. We went to a place called Pump It Up. It has multiple bounce houses in several large rooms. After about an hour and half of bouncing and sliding and jousting, everyone went into a party room to enjoy pizza and birthday cake. It was a very fun day and Mom and Dad didn't have to clean anything up.

Chloe's Many Faces

We have been laying low and Mom has not been posting much lately, even though we have been having a lot of fun. Last week, was our 3 year anniversary of having Chloe in our lives as our daughter. We celebrated by taking her out to her favorite restaurant, "The Peanut Place" also know as "Roadhouse Grill". Chloe calls it the peanut place because they serve you peanuts in the shell and you can throw the shells on the floor. Peanuts are one of the few food items that Chloe loves, so we know she won't go hungry. Later, we gave her flowers and balloons and watched the video of her joining her family. She was such a sweet little baby.

We can hardly believe it's been three years. Chloe is still Momma's little baby. We remember the trip so well when became a family. What a great moment!

These pictures are from this morning as Chloe was getting ready for dance class. Chloe poses now when she sees the camera, just like her big sister Pearl. She tries to look demure and bashful. What a sweetheart she is!

Stay tuned for pictures from Pearl's 5th birthday party celebration. She turned 5 last week, but we will be celebrating tomorrow at a party place.

Signing off for now,

One very happy Mamma

Egg Hunt

Since we were on vacation for Easter, we missed out on some of the more traditional activities, so we decided to let the girls experience their Easter Egg Hunt on Monday after we all returned home from a day of work.

The girls had a blast collecting both the eggs that they colored earlier in the week and the plastic eggs that Daddy filled with candy. Pearl is such a sweet sister. If she finds more eggs than Chloe, she stops and helps Chloe to find more or she shares her eggs with her. They truly are great sisters to each other.

Spring Break

We decided to take a couple of days off from work to take Chris and the girls to San Francisco for a weekend of fun. Chris invited another local exchange student from Japan, Kuriko. We rented a mini-van and ventured off to Monterey for the first evening with a fun dinner at Bubba Gumps. The next morning we traveled to Felton to ride a steam train into the woods at Roaring Camp Railroad. Then we headed over the hill into San Jose to visit cousins Bruce and Lorene and a delicious dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.

Finally, Friday morning we left for our main destination, San Francisco. We toured the city and also took a boat tour of the Bay. We had a great time at Pier 39, Fisherman's Wharf and shopping in Union Square. Chloe and Pearl did so well everywhere we went. Chloe actually walked most places and didn't ask us to carry her all the time. They really are great travelers and have fun no matter where we are.

Spring is Here

We have been having great weather here in our small town. As much as I hate what Daylight Savings Time does to my body, I really do love the long evenings and coming home to play with my girls outside. Sorry, no pictures of the little ones here. You will have to see the next post.

We have a Pear tree in our backyard. I have had more than one tree expert mention that it is the largest Pear tree they have ever seen (at least in our county). Due to its size, it takes a bit longer to flower out, but when it does, it is quite spectacular. The whole yard "hums" with the sound of bees. In fact, the tree is so large, that we cannot fit the whole thing into one picture, so you will just have to see it in parts. The tree sits very close to our living room, so occasionally during storms, large branches drop onto our roof. So far, no damage has occurred.

We have all been doing well. I have been too lazy to post, but we are just as busy as ever.

Mom's Birthday or "Is Something Burning?"

We celebrated my birthday just the way I like it, small and at home. I am not sure why there are two cakes. My first guess is that my husband was disappointed with my choice of flavor, so he got a second one in a flavor he preferred. My second guess is that maybe it is too hard to fit 43 candles on one cake. But, perhaps the main reason is so that each of my girls will have their own cake to blow out Mom's candles.

Pearl seemed to think it was her birthday. She was obsessed with it all, the candles and the presents. Even though we split the girls on either side of me and placed a cake in front of each of them, so they could have candles to blow, Pearl still managed to climb over her cake and then blew out the candles on Chloe's cake. As a result, her hair dangled over the burning candles on her cake and it caught on fire, but quickly burned out. She wasn't even phased. PLEASE REFER TO PHOTO below for the visual. Darn! There goes my nomination for Mother of the Year.

Disney Playouse Live

Today we had front-row tickets for Disney Playhouse Live. It was during the Superbowl, so Dad went to his parent's house and Mom took Chris and the girls to the show. It was fun, but I think they enjoyed the Wiggles a lot more. With both girls being 4 years old, I think they were about the oldest kids in the audience. While there were some slow moments, both girls really enjoyed the show. Afterwards, Chloe wanted to do something "more fun".

It was pouring rain outside and we saw two rainbows on the way home. The sky and clouds were really beautiful and if I weren't driving, I would have taken a picture. As it turned out, we still managed to get home by halftime. It was a very short show.

Marty

Marty is our cat. We got him as a baby kitten while we were waiting for our referral for Chloe. We originally named him Mimi, thinking he was a "she". We didn't learn otherwise until we took him to the vet to be spade. They laughed at us and then performed a different operation.

He has been a wonderful cat, although he chose to be an outdoor cat rather than an indoor cat. I guess our forest-like yard is just way too tempting for a king like him. He has beautiful markings and adores people. He will even walk four blocks with Pete and the girls all the way to the corner market and then walk with them back home.

Winter Play

This weekend, in pursuit of snow, we traveled to our cabin in the mountains. Sadly, there was no snow, but rather, lots of windy rainy weather. Even so, we managed to have a lot of fun watching movie after movie after movie. The girls got a little stir crazy, so Daddy ventured outside and took them to the park by the lake near our house. They played in the sand until the rain became too much and then they came back inside. Chloe and Pearl managed to have a fun time playing jigsaw puzzles and imagination games with quilts and blankets and pillows.

Now that we are back home, I look to the mountains and I can see snow all the way to the base, almost surely at our cabin. Perhaps we will get another opportunity this season to let Chloe and Pearl experience snow for the first time.

Playing Around

These pictures are from a couple of weeks ago. We were just playing around on a typical evening at home. Chris and the girls were really having a fun time together, so we captured a couple of cute pictures. It really is nice having her stay with us as a part of our family.

Everyone is healthy for now and we are really enjoying our evenings together around the fireplace.

Chloe's 4th Birthday Party

Even though it is mid-January in California's Central Valley, we managed to have a very beautiful day for a birthday party, mostly outside. We had a few less guests than anticipated, but it turned out just perfect and a good time was had by all. I think Chloe will be talking about this day for a very long time to come.

Tomorrow Chloe turns 4

Yet another long break between posts. I have been busy planning for Chloe's 4th birthday. I have a lot more pictures from our Winter break, but I don't know if or when I will get them up.

Tomorrow Chloe turns 4. We were just going to have a small little party here at home, a scaled-down version of last year's big event. We only invited a few locals. Then Chloe said she wanted to be Snow White. Pearl said she wanted to be Belle. Then it turned into a costume party with all guests invited to attend as their favorite Disney character. Add a bounce house and a petting zoo and pony rides, and I think we will be exceeding even last year's extravaganza.

Here are some pictures of Chloe trying on her outfit for tomorrow. Enjoy.

New Years Day

We spent New Years Day morning at the Santa Cruz beach boardwalk. It was sunny and 70 degrees, with almost no people. The girls got on the rides with NO lines and had a real fun time. Afterward, we went to Roaring Camp to ride the train, but we missed it by 1.5 hours, so we just headed to San Jose to visit with Cousins Bruce and Lorene. Michelle had to go home a couple of days ago, so we missed her.

Cousin Bruce keeps a box full of toys just in case younger visitors stop by. Chloe and Pearl dumped all of the toys out of the box and then proceeded to play with the box itself. They played magic disappearing games and Jack in The Box among many others.