Lalaine's Restaurant

 I heard that a friend Lalaine had a milestone birthday over the summer, so we gathered tonight to celebrate.  We went to El Cholo, the same restaurant as her baby shower; most of us hadn't been since her shower either!  Many margaritas were drunk and stories were told, especially since all of us have kindergarteners.  So glad that we can still get together even though all our kids go to different schools.   

 

Catherine, Danielle, Diane, Lalaine, me, April

Everyone go a taste of Lalaine's birthday flan.

San Diegans meet Santa Monicans

We met Sabrina and her family, the people we swapped houses with for the weekend, in Irvine for lunch this afternoon.  Funny how we see each other pretty often, but don't get to really hang out because one family is always going to an amusement park while in the other family's city.  Everyone gets along so well and we always have plenty to talk about.  Maybe we'll make the house swap and meeting for lunch in the middle an annual thing.  :)

The Hsueh's and the Ly's

Balboa Park

With so many places to choose from, we settled on Balboa Park to spend the day because it probably had the most options for my easily-bored kids.  Located next to San Diego Zoo, the park is enormous!  We spent most of our time walking around, but discovered a couple places, like International Cottages and Zoro Garden, where the kids had so much fun.  It was a hot day (we always seem to visit San Diego during heat waves), but we managed to stay cool for the most part.   

Watching the kids play and planes flying by

Sophie posing with her plumerias that we got at the plumeria festival in front of the Botanical Building and Lily Pond

The girls went into cottages of various nations to get an ethnic goodie.  Our first cottage was "China" and the kids were happy with their fortune cookies, but then other nations had homemade cookies, crepes, strudles, etc, which made China look bad.

We briefly watched a performance at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion, which has one of the world's largest outdoor pipe organs.

 

We didn't want to pay admission to the Japanese garden, so here's a view overlooking the garden

 

The girls cooled off at the Bea Evenson Fountain

The Casa del Prado Theatre

Waiting for butterflies to land on their fingers at Zoro Garden

Hunting butterflies

It's the simple things that bring the most happiness

House Swap

Weeks ago, Sabrina and I had talked about swapping places over Labor Day weekend.  We haven't really explored San Diego before since we are always going to the zoo, Seaworld, or Legoland; so we didn't plan anything big.  We left around noon and stopped by our favorite Garden Grove places for lunch and dessert.  On the way out, we grabbed a few Lee's sandwiches so that we wouldn't have to worry about dinner and enjoy our time at Mission Bay Park.

 

 The playground is very spread out.

 Trung taking a panoramic picture as the sun sets

 Lydia giving Sophie a lift since she got a little cut on her foot and didn't want to get sand in it

 Trung and I took so many pictures of the gorgeous sky, it was just a beautiful evening

 See-sawing is a group effort

 Let's go, Sophie!

Back to the Basics

Almost every Wednesday last school year, Weiru and I would go grocery shopping and run various other errands (car wash, Target, Costco).  I had to take Sophie at school at noon, so it was difficult getting everything done, especially since Lydia didn't go to school until 10 on Wednesdays.  Well, this year, both kids attend the same school and I don't have to pick Sophie up until 1:40, so it gives me plenty of time to run all my errands.  It was nice meeting up with Weiru again since I literally haven't seen her since the last day of school.

 

 A delicious "all things fish" lunch at Yamato after grocery shopping at Sprouts

Both kids had their back-to-school nights tonight.  Their teachers basically reviewed the daily class schedule and their expectations of the students.  I already know Sophie's teacher since Lydia had her too, but I didn't know anything about Lydia's second grade teacher.  After her presentation, I could tell that she's funny and easy-going, and better yet, she is a studio teacher, so she teaches on set sometimes.  Hopefully this will make her more understanding when Lydia has an extras job.

It's not even her birthday yet and she's already writing about it.  :)

Stalker-mode

 Lydia has been out of practice in riding her bike since we have been on vacation, so we decided to get some time in at her school.  We invited Katie, our neighbor and Lydia's new classmate, and her mother to join us since I noticed that her training wheels were off her bike too.  Then we met Justin and his two girls since it would be the last time that we would see them in awhile because they are moving back to Wisconsin on Tuesday.  The kids all had fun scooting and biking around the big yard while the adults chatted.  Tobey Maguire and his family showed up later too, which distracted me a bit.  I missed seeing him at RFD a couple months ago and was glad to finally catch him now.

 The picture that proves that I am indeed a stalker.  :P

 We were inches away from Tobey several times as he walked by us to get around the play structure to reach his kids, but I couldn't bring myself to take a picture of him that close.

We will miss Vienna (L) and Sabrina (R); the girls all got along so well.

Bangs

I took Lydia to my hairstylist Sri, which I have never done before because she's not cheap, to get bangs to help cover her stitches.  It's not that I didn't trust a cheapy place in Chinatown nor Trung, who normally cuts the girls' hair, to do a good job; I wasn't how the bangs should look.  Sri gave Lydia side bangs because the hair on the side of her head is pretty thin.  I think she did a good job, well at least Lydia wasn't complaining about it.

August 23, 2013

Almost five years ago to the day...August 22, 2008.  My, how they grow!

Fighting back tears

With two kids to get ready for school in the morning instead of one now, I set my alarm 15 minutes earlier that I did last school year.  I needed every second of it too because putting their lunches together took longer that I expected.  Fortunately, the teachers anticipated a crazy first day of school and didn't mind us strolling in a little late.  We even got to stay in Sophie's classroom for 20 minutes to help her settle in.  Her teacher practically had to kick us out though because I couldn't bear to leave.  Even though Sophie already knew six kids in her class before school started, she sat alone on the morning rug.  I almost broke out in tears seeing my baby sitting there all by herself.  Then suddenly she got up, walked over to Trung and I, and hugged us.  *sniff sniff*  She's all grown up now!

Walking the four blocks to school with Trung pushing a stroller full of school supplies

Lydia meets her second grade teacher, Mrs. Lynch

Mrs. Scholder, Lydia's former kindergarten teacher, greets Sophie at the back door

One last activity before our baby starts her schooling career.

Farewell to MD

We had such a great time here in Maryland and were sad to go home, but alas, all good things must come to an end.  Our flight was delayed thirty minutes, so we got to spend just a little more time with An and his family.  Jacob and Matthew are the cousins that are the closest in age to Lydia and Sophie, so it was nice that they all got some quality time together.  See you next year!

Matthew (4), Jacob (6), Sophie (5), Lydia, (6.5)

Steelers vs. Redskins

Before we left for Maryland, Trung discovered that the Washington Redskins would be playing his favorite team, the Pittsburgh Steelers in Washington during our visit.  An wanted to join us and Angie agreed to watch the girls for the night, so the three of us hopped onto the metro and went to see the game at FedEx Field, the largest venue in the NFL.  We arrived towards the end of the first quarter, but were able to witness some pretty cool plays.  Too bad it was just a preseason game though, because all the good players sat out for most or the entire duration of the game.  To avoid the crowds and to make it to the red line before the metro closed at midnight, we left a few minutes before the end of the game.  We arrived at the red line at 12:20, but so many people were stuck there that a subway was turned back on to take us back home.

 Brothers #2 and #4 (there are five of them) at FedEx Field

 The girl was just going to kiss the guy on the check, but he turned at the last minute and got her on the mouth.  I didn't see it, but Trung did and he said she was a real good sport about it.

 Getting a better view from our nose bleed seats

 I think we were the eighth row from the very top.  It got a little chilly later into the night.

 Score!  But not enough as the Redskins won 24 to 13.

There were almost as many Steelers fans as there were Redskins fans.