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.

Vacation Part 1 continued

On our last day in Southern California, we visited Olvera Street and the Walt Disney Concert hall. The concert hall had an audio tour and it was wonderful. I have a feeling, we will be coming back to view a performance next time.

Vacation Part 1

CHRISTMAS EVE AND CHRISTMAS MORNING

A TRIP TO THE GETTY MUSEUM

DISNEYLAND

TRAIN RIDE AT FASHION ISLAND AND A PIRATE DINNER


We left for the Los Angeles area the day after Christmas as a group of six, Mom, Dad, Chloe and Pearl, Chris and her friend Michelle. Michelle is also a Chinese Exchange student; however, her host family is in Virginia. She and Chris became good friends through the exchange program and the internet, so we invited her to join us for Christmas break. Michelle enjoyed Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with our family and then it was off to Southern California for adventure and fun. Sadly, she had to return to Virginia on December 30th, so she missed out on the second half of our vacation.

First, we went to the Getty Museum, then shopping at South Coast Plaza. The next day was Disneyland and dinner at Medieval Times. The next day we went to Newport Beach and shopped at Fashion Island, touring the University of California at Irvine (for Chris) followed by another dinner show, Pirate Dinner. Finally, we went to Olvera Street in downtown Los Angeles and then toured the Walt Disney Concert Hall, designed by Frank Gehry. We then spent one night at our cabin in the Tehachapi mountains before returning home (for a day).

Portraits

We had these pictures taken a few weeks ago. I think they came out really great. These will definitely be framed and posted around our home.

Visit with Santa

After their dance performance Saturday morning, the girls had a chance to tell Santa what they wanted. Chloe asked for a Princess Guitar. It has been sitting under the Christmas tree for a few weeks now, so I think we are good to go.

Christmas Home Tour

Please forgive this break from the regular subject matter of Chloe and Pearl. This past Saturday, December 15th, our home was invited to participate in a Christmas Home Tour fundraiser for the local Women's Club. There were four homes on the tour, two older homes, including ours, and two new homes. Saturday morning was our girl's dance performance (no good pictures), so we left our home in the hands of the hostesses and we watched our daughter's perform (or freeze, in the case of Chloe). Pearl did a very good job following all of the steps and moves. I think she was the best dancer in her group. Chloe usually does so well in her class, where we watch her on a monitor, but she became frightened on stage and just froze, poor thing. We encouraged her and two nights later at the pre-school Christmas program, she was once again scared, but she did manage to sing along for a couple of songs. Pearl was a little wound-up and over-animated, but she did just fine. The little girl who was supposed to be Mary, also had a melt-down and cried on stage until she was escorted off.

After the dance program, we returned to town and toured the other homes on the Christmas tour. They were all so nice and fancy. I felt a little humbled at my decorating taste, but our home is definitely the most unusual, so I knew that alone was worth something. The photos above are of our home. I will probably post a couple more later, especially the girl's bathroom with the tropical fish ornaments hanging from a pine bough. While this is the most amazing piece, it just doesn't look its best in a photograph.

We decorated the dining room in red and gold with a Chinese theme. Chris brought ornaments from China that we used on the Christmas tree and I found some Chinese candles with the character for "Peace" that I used for a table centerpiece. Then, I just added some Chinese place settings (with chopsticks and dragon placemats) and some red lanterns, and we were all set! Perhaps, I can leave this up through Chinese New Year, except for the Christmas tree.

Now our home is clean and decorated and we can just relax and enjoy it through the holiday season. What a nice feeling!

Busy, Busy, Busy

I have taken on a monumental project that has reduce my blogging time to almost nothing. Our very unique home has been for sale for several months now and we anticipate that it could take a very long time to sell it in the current market. I hadn't planned on doing any interior improvements, but that was before the invitation...........We were invited to have our home on display for the annual local Women's Club Christmas Home tour.

I don't even decorate much beyond putting up a tree. Now I had about a month to not only decorate, but to get the house in shape so that I could decorate. Today's project is the installation of a new kitchen floor. So far, we have removed ALL of the wallpaper throughout the house. We have painted all of those walls in a variety of colors. I have purchased furniture, pictures, plants and many other things just to make the house look like someone actually lives there. This weekend will be the big push to decorate. Hopefully, there will be many pictures to follow.

In the mean time, we really needed to have a family portrait taken. Especially now, since we have Chris and Pearl with us. I am not too keen on how this picture turned out, but it is all we have. Some of you may be seeing this again in your Christmas cards, if I ever get those out.

Breakfast on Saturday

On Saturday, we went back up to our cabin and met up with Mom's parents and sister in town for breakfast. Chloe rarely has the patience to sit through an entire meal, so Dad agreed to take her outside while everyone else finished up and visited. Pearl joined her on a wagon wheel bench and Dad shot this picture.