Mom's Birthday

I just came across these pictures and decided to post them, even though my birthday was on February 21st. It was a quiet celebration at home with my family, just the way I like it!

Elephant Seal Watching

Chloe delights in meeting a squirrel.


Also on President's Day, we decided to go see the Elephant Seal colony (mostly as a birthday present for Mom). Elephant seals were hunted to near extinction in the early 1900s and now their numbers have almost returned to their pre-hunt numbers. At one point, the only Elephant Seals in the world were located on a small island off the coast of Baja California. Now they have several beach locations along the coast of California with the most famous location being just north of San Simeon.

Despite the cold biting wind, the place was packed with onlookers and the girls really enjoyed watching the seals and the babies. As soon as we arrived at the first lookout point, two large males began fighting over the females. It was quite spectacular to watch. Their backs were scarred with remnants of many previous conflicts.

President's Day

After a wonderful time spent with other families with children from China, we decided to spend the night in Avila Beach. It is newly re-built with a cute little beach and a very nice playground, all just steps from our hotel door.

Year of the Pig

Happy Chinese New Year 4705! We attended our first celebration this year on February 18th in Atascadero with lots of other families who have children from China. We had more families than there was room for in the restaurant as they could only accommodate 160 people. The girls had a lot of fun and really enjoyed receiving the traditional red envelopes filled with chocolate coins and other gifts. Afterwards, the Cal Poly Lion dancers performed and our girls had to follow the "dragon" all around the restaurant.

Valentine Decorations Downtown

As is typical, our City has decorated for the next upcoming holiday, Valentine's Day. It was so cute with the big hearts and the teddy bears and of course, we could not drive by without the girls begging to stop each time. Finally, we had a moment on Saturday morning, so we stopped by and let the girls run wild. These are the pictures that resulted. Chloe and Pearl even had time to help the city with its weed control as they promptly picked all the dandelions and blew their heads off!

Later in the day, we drove them to a brand new gymnasium just 15 minutes from our home. This place looked unfinished on the outside, but inside it was PACKED! There were kids doing gymnastics and tumbling and dancing and swimming. We immediately signed both girls up for swimming lessons on Tuesday afternoons. Maybe when they are done with that, we can sign them up for beginner pre-k gymnastics. They are still taking their Monday morning dance classes at another building almost next door.

Silliness

OK, so I was going over some of my pictures from the past few weeks and I made an amazing discovery. My girl Chloe looks just like a movie star. Yes, to me she looks like "Boo" from the movie "Monsters, Inc." Here are two photos for your comparison. I was trying to get a rare picture of Chloe with her hair in pigtails, but she would only make funny faces at me, which is why you haven't seen them until now. This was purely accidental, as I was not trying to make Chloe look like "Boo".

Chloe's 3rd Birthday

The party was a big hit. We had nearly 50 friends and family members in our home, one third were children and it was wild, but not out of control. We rented a large bouncer with a climbing wall and slide. The bigger kids helped the little kids get up the wall and they all seemed to have a great time. Mom was so busy that she forgot to take any pictures, so we will have to rely on those supplied by our friends.

Chloe and Pearl both enjoyed every minute playing with their friends and bouncing around. Instead of a birthday cake, Mom made a "cupcake tree". Too bad I didn't get a picture of it or of Chloe blowing out her candle. Actually, she refused to blow, but her friends helped her and she dived right into eating. The cupcakes disappeared in no time at all and Pearl was the only one there who insisted on using a fork to eat hers. She is such a neat girl. We had 46 cupcakes and there was only one left over after the party. Half were chocolate and half were strawberry. All had red frosting and an Elmo candy face or Elmo ring.

Tomorrow Chloe turns 3

Stay tuned for some updates and posts. We are planning a big birthday bash for Chloe's #3. Last year, Chloe became very sick on her birthday and we had to cancel at the last minute. This year Chloe is sick again, but we have two more days until her party and we are optimistic.

For New Year's weekend, we returned to Carmel and had a glorious time shopping and playing on the beach. Here is a picture of Chloe in the sand with both barrels loaded.

Pearl in the Christmas Play

Also on December 18th, Pearl played an angel in the preschool Christmas play. She was so tiny, we couldn't see her from the audience. Also pictured with Pearl is her friend Patty who goes to daycare with her as well as preschool. Patty is a year ahead of Pearl and played a Christmas tree.

More pics from 12/18/06

We had a difficult time trying to get clear photos of the girls on stage in their first dance performance; however, there were a couple clear enough to post.

December Downtown Pictures

Busy Busy Busy

Chloe and Pearl are doing great. We have all had a couple of colds already and seem to be in recovery mode for the time being. Lori's work is especially busy right now and in addition to some quick-looming deadlines, she also had to move offices. City Hall is overcrowded and they had to bring in a temporary trailer for office space. Mom is now working out of a trailer.

Thanksgiving was very nice although many family members were sick and it turned out to be a small group. December has brought lots of activities, performances, shows and parties to attend. The girls did fine with their first babysitting experience so that Mom and Dad could attend the city Christmas party.

Thursday December 14th, the whole family went to the Melodrama to see "Twas the Night Before Christmas". The girls ignored the show and spent the first act munching on massive quantities of popcorn and running circles around our table. Chloe and Pearl's friend, Gary, was also there and asked to sit with us so that he could be with Pearl. Gary's mom says that Gary wants to marry Pearl someday. Wow! It's starting already. We had fun, but Mom and Dad became exhausted trying to keep a handle on Chloe, so we left during intermission.

Monday December 18th was our big crunch day. Pearl and Chloe had their first stage performance in their dance class. They performed at the Melodrama and it was so cute to see all the little girls in their dance outfits parading around on stage. Both Pearl and Chloe did their best to stay on cue and go through the motions. Afterward, they had the opportunity to visit with Santa. While Chloe is very excited about Santa coming to her house, she wanted nothing to do with Santa in person. Pearl was more than happy to sit in Santa's lap.

Monday evening brought a second performance for Pearl. Her pre-school had a Christmas production and Pearl was an angel. We dressed her up in her prettiest red dress and Chloe pitched a fit until she could also wear her red dress too! During the entire performance, Chloe kept asking her father and mother if it was her turn yet. She wanted to go up on stage and sing Christmas songs too. Afterward, one of the other moms declared that Pearl was her granddaughter Shelby's best friend. She said that Shelby talks about Pearl every day. Funny, Pearl never mentioned Shelby. Wow! A marriage proposal and best friend after only 4 months in the US. I guess she is more popular than we anticipated. And here we thought Chloe was the social butterfly.

Happy Feet

This year we just didn't get around to arranging any professional photos of the girls to make a nice Christmas card. Finally, after receiving a wonderful card from Chloe's friend Skylar in New York, we got the urge to do something. However, it was 7:30 PM on December 17th and we were out of time, so we just decided to take some pictures of the girls in their PJs with their santa hats. Hopefully, some of these cards will actually make it to a few people before Christmas. Here is one of the pictures that didn't make the card.

More Carmel Pictures

Fun on the beach!

Short weekend in Carmel

Every year, Mom and Dad travel to Carmel around Christmas time. It is probably one of the slowest times of the year for tourists and it is beautiful. This year Chloe and Pearl joined in on the fun and we had a quick two-day roadtrip. Here are some beach scenes for your enjoyment! And yes, it was quite cold, about 52 degrees.