Visiting the Grandparents

We took Chloe and Pearl and Chris to visit with Mom's parents in Pahrump Nevada. It was a nice relaxing visit.

Memorial Day

It's been a very long time since we have posted anything. I hope to change that here shortly as I have lots of pictures and lots of adventures to share. For now, I am starting with a few oldies from last month that never were posted. We took Chloe and Pearl and Chris to Pahrump to visit the grandparents. This collage is of the trip home as we passed through Red Rock Canyon and decided we needed to get out of the car.

Today was the beginning of the third week of Chloe and Pearl's swim class. They are improving rapidly and having so much fun that it is hard to get them out of the pool afterward. I took several pictures of Pearl also, but she kept closing her eyes, so for now, we will just have to look at Chloe.

Mother's Day Weekend

I've had this weekend planned since January. My best choice for a Mother's Day is quality time spent with my family in a beautiful place. Therefore, we went to the Sequoia National Park. Even though there was snow on the ground, it was warm, beautiful and not overcrowded. We stayed two nights at the lodge and enjoyed the trails and big trees. Chloe and Pearl delighted in every twig, pinecone, lizard, chipmunk and rock. It was so much fun watching the girls run and play.

Sunday morning we headed back home so that we could spend Mother's Day with Pete's Mom and family. It was a wonderful weekend and enough great memories to last a lifetime.

A Cute Shot

I couldn't resist posting these pictures I took of Chloe today. She followed me outdoors while I was trying to take some good pictures of our home to make a slideshow. We are hoping to sell the house and find one that requires less maintenance. I caught Chloe standing by the jasmine and I thought she looked too cute!

If you're interested in the house go here.

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.