Malibu to Santa Monica

I already knew that today was going to be a busy day, but then add on Lydia getting into a kayak class last minute and I was really thrown off.  Fortunately, my friend Magdalena took Lydia to the kayaking class and Trung helped me make the watermelon baby carriage and picked up the balloons for Guro's baby shower.  I was supposed to help set up and ended up being 45 minutes late since traffic up to Malibu was much worse than I expected.  After a couple hours at the shower, socializing and eating, we headed back to Santa Monica and met up a few families at the beach to catch a few waves.  The water was nice and warm and it was my first time in the water here.  The waves came quickly and were rough, but we managed to get a few rides in on the boogie boards.

Finally arriving to the superhero themed baby shower at the Malibu Golf Club

Norah and Sophie nibbling on Wonder Woman sugar cookies

Guro and her "super" diaper cake

All the little heroes

It was a blistering hot day, but the scenery was nice

Flower power

The hundreds of flags on the front lawn of Pepperdine University was certainly a sight to see

Down the ocean a little ways in Marina del Rey was my little kayaker

That's a big kayak for such a little girl

Julia, Lydia and Violeta...Roosevelt buddies

More fun in the water at Santa Monica beach

Beach days are the best!

Orange County Birthday Celebrations

A month ago, Lydia said that she wanted a birthday party this year since we usually go to Disneyland instead.  When we got to talking about who she would invite, however, she kept reducing the guest list because some of her friends had better friends that were on the list and she wanted all the attention.  So, I asked Lydia if wanted to invite just a couple of friends and take them for the entire day to wherever she wanted.  She liked that idea much better and actually only wanted her best friend Mia to join us to Discovery Center museum in Orange County.

We spent a good five hours at the museum and the girls found their favorite exhibits and kept revisiting them.  By 4, everyone was ready for a change of scenery and we drove over to Buena Park for my little surprise...Pirates Dinner Adventure.  The girls loved Medieval Times, so I figured that they would be excited about this dinner show as well.

Busy making designs

Personalizing by Trung

Sophie is stronger than she looks

And Trung, not so much.  :P

Cliffhanging...I made it 33 seconds

One of the girls' favorite exhibits...separating out recyclables.

Kayaking adventure

Lydia's absolute favorite exhibit is the grocery store.  The computerized shopping carts are so much fun!

BFFs

At the dinner show, Lydia got to hold our yellow pirate's flag

Group pic

The view from our seats was a little obstructed, but not horrible.

Here comes the dragon

The girls LOVED the show!

Doughnuts for the birthday girl

I thought it would be nice to surprise Lydia with doughnuts for her birthday this morning.  I woke up 30 minutes early in hopes that the line would be much shorter than down the block.  I was lucky it was pretty short, but I still had to call home to get Trung to make sure the girls were awake and ready for school by the time I finally got back home with breakfast.

The wait this morning was not half as bad as it has been all week, but I still waited a good 45 minutes.

So close, yet so far

That smile made it worth the wait.

Sharks - Take 3

Lydia's swim team started today and as usual, the first day was just for time placement.  Fortunately, this session her friend Julia is also on the team, so she won't hate it as much.  :/

 Smiles before and surprisingly afterwards too

Tiger moms watching from up above...photo taken by Sophie

Dunkin' Donuts

The first Dunkin Donuts in So Cal opened at 5 AM this morning.  The first person in line got coffee every day for an entire year and the next 99 got swag bags.  I was tempted to wake up in the wee hours of the morning to stand in line just to be a part of the spectacle, but I'm glad I didn't because there was reportedly 200 people when the doors opened.  I honestly don't know what the fuss is all about, but maybe I'll go one day when the crowds die down.

4 PM in the afternoon and the line is still down the street

Happy is the hour

Though I plan happy hours twice a month, sometimes it's tough getting out the door.  But once the kids start complaining, I remember instantly why I need a mom's night out and am happy that I am away even if it is just for a couple of hours.

Kisses to everyone that couldn't make it

Cheers

Pampered

Every month to 1.5 months, I treat myself to a mani/pedi for $20 (+$5 for my French pedicure).  I've been going to Lynn's for over two years now and almost every time I go now, I have friends that join me.  Everyone deserves a little pampering, even if you are two!

Deborah, her daughter Emily, Danielle, and I showing off our nails

Lemonade Stand

The girls have been asking to do a lemonade stand for weeks and since today was the citywide yard sale and more people would be out and about, I thought it would be the perfect time for them to do one.  We had a late start with set-up and I spent a good hour in the morning baking homemade cookies, but the girls had a steady stream of customers and ended up making over $100!

The adorable lemonade stand we borrowed from a friend

The girls earned a easy $20 for helping actor Troy Fromin (son of the owner of the restaurant Fromin's) make a funny youtube video.  Don't worry, he replaced the "vodka" with water.

Too many leftovers

After baking all a dozen dozen cookies, I figured I deserved a break

First Day of School 2014

The first half of the summer went by rather slowly with the kids attending "summer school" and taking swim class.  After Hawaii and back to back family visits, school is upon us again.  We are looking forward to a wonderful year!

Sophie got Lydia's old teacher, Mrs. Lynch

Lydia got a new teacher to Roosevelt, Mrs. Israel, and she loves her!

My first and third graders

Chinese Schoolgirls

The girls were picture picked over a week ago to do an internet commercial for ABCMouse.com.  Then on Friday, I was informed that the job was canceled for Sophie because she didn't look Chinese enough...what?!?!  So, I sent a couple more pictures to the agency and soon received a phone call that she was perfectly fine.  That's what I thought!  The girls didn't have school on Monday, so that's why I let them take the job, but after finding out that there would be 48 other "Chinese" kids and that the pay was less than the norm, I wish I hadn't.  Plus, Sophie wasn't cooperating and wasn't even in the commercial at all and all she needed to do was sing her ABC's!  *sigh*  At least the job ended at 12:30 PM and we could continue on with our day.

Waiting for Lydia and the rest of the kids shooting the commercial

Lydia hadn't had a job in awhile and really wanted to do this one...probably so she could make some money.