Kitchen Kid

Since all after school activities are over this last week before school lets out for winter break, I took advantage of the local librarys' offerings.  The Montana branch had an event called "Kitchen Kid" where kids get to make something tasty to eat.  My kids attended this same event at the Main library a month ago and made pumpkin pie; they liked is to much that I registered them for this one too, where they made cheesecake instead.  Afterwards, they cut out snowflakes and painted them.

 Lydia sneaking a taste of the graham cracker crust

 Sophie trying not to let the blender take control

Sophie's turn to sneak a taste when our friends Jessica, Ryan, and Isabelle aren't looking

 The finished product...chocolate chip cheesecake

Making snowflakes

The Ly girls as the Hu girls

Sophie was picture picked to be the "little Hu" girl who pulls Santa's beard off on Raising Hope.  Casting wanted her to have a big sister, so Lydia got to be in it too!  The set was at Golden Oak Ranch, which is owned by Disney and not open to the public; it is like its own little town, but without all the people.  Super cool!

Sophie's most prominent role yet!

The girls with their pretend Mom and Dad, and Cloris Leachman!

Sophie on Glee

Look for Sophie in the purple in the front row of kids in this "Glee" episode.

Sophie's First Dance Recital

Sophie had her first ever dance recital today.  She has taken several dance classes in the past, but there was never a recital until this class.  Even then, it was very casual and the kids basically just did routine moves that they do in class.  It was cute, nonetheless, and most importantly, Sophie had a good time (though she got bored watching all the other kids who danced after her).

 Our little ballerina

 Dance positions

 Love the curtsy at the end!

I think the bouquet of flowers were bigger than Sophie.

A Truecar Christmas

Trung's company, Truecar, held it's second annual Holi-play party at the Annenberg Beach House.  We enjoyed a tasty lunch, rode go carts, played Pac-man, and played ping pong.  We had six hours to kill and somehow, we still didn't have enough time towards the end.  I guess not having to watch the kids really makes the time fly.

The go cart course, it seemed to the same set up as last year.

The food this year was way better than last year

Getting ready to race.

Trung trying to pass his friend, but running into him instead

My turn...I made it out with no crashes.

I thought this was the funnest party of the party...Pac-Man Battle Royale!

Sunset with my sweetie.

Santa's Goodie Booth

Downtown Santa Monica had a booth on the Promenade where you get 12 seconds to grab as much "money" as possible.  The fake bills with green dots have a prize matched to it, but with the money moving so fast, you're lucky to grab anything at all.  Just another thing I love about Santa Monica...always giving away free stuff.

 

All the kids watching Kumi try to win it big, and she did!  A $25 gift card to The Lobster, a nice local seafood restaurant and much more!  I didn't do too bad either, I got three $10 gift cards and a few free dessert coupons.

I dragged Trung out of work to do the booth, but he didn't win anything that good, just a bunch of coupons.  I think all of the better gift card type prizes were pretty much gone by the time he did the booth.

Ancestor Night

The entire second grade at Roosevelt Elementary celebrated their ancestors tonight with music and food.  Lydia interviewed my Mom and made a puppet resembling her, well, I told her to make it look like Mulan, but close enough.  Lydia got to learn more about her background and our culture, which makes me feel happy.  :)

Lydia's second grade class

Too cute!

This song brought tears to my eyes.

I suppose my Mom is a Texan since she has lived there for over 30 years.

Meet me under the Fig Tree

We attended a free event this afternoon at a super nice local hotel called the Fairmont Miramar.  As we were arriving about 45 minutes after the event started, we ran into Lydia's classmate Mila and her father and brother.  They were just leaving since the "snow" wasn't going to be made for another couple of hours, but since we showed up, they decided to stay a little longer.  We enjoyed gourmet soups, pulled pork sandwiches, and tasty desserts; though the kids only really cared about the bounce house. Most of our friends came and left within an hour, but we decided to stick around and see if we would win any raffles.  It's a good thing we lingered because Trung and I ended up winning one of the grand prizes, a night's stay at the Fairmont hotel, and a dinner for two at Seasons 52 Restaurant.  Some friends gave us their raffle tickets when they left and you had to be present to win, so that helped, but Trung and I have been pretty lucky lately.  :)

Ronin, Mila, Sophie, and Lydia

So excited about the fake snow

Check out the teeny snow machine behind Sophie

Too good to eat

Making a mess decorating cookies and then later eating every last crumb.

Bowling with Katie

We celebrated our neighbor and Lydia's classmate Katie's birthday today at the bowling alley, which seems to be quite a popular venue this year.  The kids bowled, ate hot dogs and pizza, and wished Katie a very happy seventh birthday.  

Sophie got a little help from a pink dinosaur

Sophie really was more interested in watching the cartoon playing than bowling

Katie (aka Katherine at school) and Lydia

Blow, baby, blow!

Chinese star

Montana Holiday Walk

It was pretty cold tonight, so I thought Korean tofu soup would be nice to warm everyone up.  So, I picked Trung up from work and then we headed to Sawtelle for dinner.  Afterwards, we dropped by Montana's Holiday Walk to see what the fuss was about.  I have missed it the last two years due to being out of state or Christmas parties, so this was the first year that Sophie and I got to go.  It was cute, basically the boutiques down Montana Avenue handed out free desserts and/or drinks for a few hours.

The girls were fascinated by the live model in the display.