Care Free Contest

Lydia's school had a contest to encourage students to walk or bike to school more, so every student was asked to keep a daily log of how they went to school and the total distance.  Lydia logged in 16.5 miles and won for the furthest distance walked by a first grader.  Way to go, Lydia!

 

Lydia and the walker winners was presented with T-shirts, while the biker winners got bike bells

All the winners for the month of April, posing with the principal of the school and the mayor of Santa Monica

Sophie & Sophia

 Lydia had a play date with Juliet, so I asked Sophie if she wanted her friend Sophia to come over after school.  I think it was Sophia's first play date ever as she is very attached to her mom, and she did very well.  When I told the girls it was time to leave, Sophie exclaimed that they hadn't played yet!  Granted, it was a very short play date, just over an hour, but we were helping Sophia slowly adjust.  Hopefully the next one will be longer.

Sweet Sophs

Sister Acts

The kids have been asking for weeks to bike to Roosevelt and skate, but something always comes up.  This time we dedicated the afternoon to skating and they showed much improvement.  Lately, I've noticed that Sophie has good balance (and is a bit of a daredevil) and that Lydia excels at swimming.  I may enroll Sophie in ice skating this winter and I am definitely enrolling Lydia in swim team in the Fall.  It is exciting to figure what sports the kids are good at and helping them get better at them, but also stressful too because you don't want to miss anything either!

Uh-oh, Daddy's got a little thief!

I always love when they act sisterly

She's such a daredevil!

They could do this for hours.

Alien versus Hot pot

We went over to Weiru's house for dinner to help finish leftover hot pot ingredients and to start an "Alien" marathon.  I have never seen any of the "Alien" movies, Trung hasn't seen the first movie, and Weiru & Dave, well, they are always up for anything.  The atmosphere was perfect for watching the scary flick, with the fog just rolling in over the ocean!

If you look closely, Sophie actually put lipstick on only her lips as opposed to all around her mouth like a clown.  I was so impressed that I had to take a picture.

Probably our last hot pot for the season, though the cool weather keeps on wanting to come back every few days.

Sweet beginnings

I was trying to think of a way to convince Lydia to join the Roosevelt Roadrunners, an after school program to teach kids to be better runners, and it just so happened that we were walking home from school the other day and she was telling me how her friend Mia, who used to run slower than her, now runs faster than her.  So, I suggested that she attend the "class" to learn to run faster, so that maybe she can run faster than Mia.  "Sure!" she says!  Yay, I'm brillant!  :P  

I asked Lydia just to attend the first class and if she didn't like it, than she wouldn't have to go back again.  Plus, as an incentive, I'd take her to Menchies for yogurt afterwards if she goes.  Fortunately, she enjoyed the class, especially the raffle at the end where each ticket received was from each lap ran.  Maybe she'll even end up running the 1K after all four classes are over!

Sweet beginning to the weekend

Carpooling

I am a huge fan of carpooling, wherever and whenever I can, I always try to do it.  Granted, I am usually the one driving since my minivan can seat seven people, but I don't mind that much since it is still saving gas somewhere.  Eight months into the school, I've compiled a pretty impressive list of friends who I can ask to get rides, have play dates, or watch a kid if the other kid has an extras job.  This list came in handy today when I had to take my car into the shop since it wouldn't stop shaking and felt like the engine would die at every red light or stop sign.  The girls and I managed to get to every place that we needed to be and we didn't inconvenience my friends that much.  Too bad our back-up car doesn't start because we don't use it enough and the engine just dies on us.  What's the point of a second car if you can't use it? 

Lorri took us to swim class and we had dinner at our favorite place M Street Kitchen afterwards.  Fun times!

Going, going, gone!

Lydia decided that today was the day to pull out her tooth.  I was finishing up watching a couple dance on Dancing with the Stars and was then going to video her pulling her tooth out, but she jumped the gun and twisted her tooth out during the show.  At least it was pretty painless and the bleeding stopped rather quickly.  I'm make sure to video the next one!  :)

 

We call her "toothless"

Ice cream, crab, and chaos

We finally had a weekend when we only had one event planned the entire weekend.  We took advantage of this lazy weekend and slept in.  The kids rode their bikes to Beachy Cream, an ice cream parlor about 10 blocks away, and then we stopped by the park on the way home.  I put together a veggie platter and fruit salad when we got home and then we were off to the Chambers house for a crab potluck.  The girls love our somewhat monthly potlucks though I'm not sure exactly why...maybe because it's just pure chaos.  Yeah, probably.

Enjoying organic ice cream on pretzel cones.  Cool concept, by the pretzel was too salty with ice cream for my taste.

The kids having their meal of macaroni and cheese first

Now it's time for the adults to have some of Jessica's famous spicy crab!

Lydia's loose tooth

This whole week, Lydia has been complaining that her front bottom tooth has been hurting.  Slowly, it has been loosening up and even has a little tooth growing right behind it.  Looks like our six year (almost) 8 month old daughter is finally about to lose her first tooth!  Now, to figure out if we are going the "tooth fairy" route.  We may just have to now that the girls have seen "Rise of the Guardians".  :/ 

Lydia's perfect set of teeth in her first grade class picture

Girlfriend's got "shark teeth".

Boxed in

 I hoard.  I don't mean to, but I just do.  Today I decided to go through my coveted collection of cardboard shipping boxes.  Not necessarily to throw any away, just to fit them inside each other to take up less space.  Why do I have to have so many boxes in different shapes and sizes?  Because you never know when you need a good box AND one with the correct dimensions.  As an eBay seller, I try to make the most profit possible from each item I sell and there is no way that I would pay for a box.  So, there you have it...a tale of a hoarder.

 Before

After.  Trung still thought we had too many boxes, but then I pointed out that at least I tried to reduce, even if it was just by a little.  :P