Annual Benihana birthday dinner

 Benihana offers a $30 voucher for your birthday when you subscribe to their e-mailing list, so I always feel obligated to go and use it.  Plus, every year when my birthday rolls around, the kids automatically ask when we are going to go.  At lease this time, we got a Japanese chef and Sophie thought he was cute.  :P

"Heart with an arrow" chicken fried rice

OOooo, this is new

Strobbing flower

A birthday wouldn't be a birthday without a meal at Benihana!

Super bowl Sunday

After waking up extremely early the day before, we decided to sleep in today.  I made customized pancakes for everyone, where they got to pick their ingredients, and then we headed to the school for some basketball practice.  None of Lydia's classmates were able to join us, but her former classmate Milan was there, so we played two on two with him and Lydia seemed to have a lot of fun with it.

Banana Macadamia nut pancake with a sprinkle of coconut - Trung's pancake

Sophie decided to take up basketball after watching Lydia play so much.  I always though she would be the daintly one, more into dance and artsy stuff, but she may have some athletic ability as well.

Sophie didn't want to be the honorary fifth person on our 2 on 2 game, so she took videos of everything.

In the afternoon, I spent a couple hours at Ada's house to watch the first half of the Super Bowl.  It was an adults only party, so Trung stayed home with the kids, but I brought him home a plate of Ada's delicious food.

Second Basketball game

We woke up earlier for Lydia's 8 AM basketball than for school and was hoping for a win, but alas, it was not meant to be.  The girls trailed their opponent by 20 points, but did manage to double their points from last week.  Slowly, but surely, they are coming together as a team.

 We are teaching Lydia (#8) to be more a part of the action.

Scarlett, who didn't play last week, was the top scorer this week with 6 points.

The wolves in formation.

To award her hard work, I finally made the mud pies Lydia has been wanting for weeks.

Volunteering Benefits

Yesterday while volunteering in Lydia's class, I took a snapshot of her class picture.  I no longer purchase school pictures because we usually take annual family pictures and I purchase the yearbook instead.

Lydia's second grade class

Lydia was delighted to have her and her friend Mia's name as the example problem

Today Sophie's class celebrated 100 days of school.  I volunteered for a couple hours and got to know her classmates a little better since in-class volunteering for her class only began this semester.

Sophie's kindergarten class

Sophie and Luna counting her 100 grains of brown rice.

Library and School time

Learning about Chinese New Year at the library

Making horses to represent the year of the horse

After scootering back home, the kids popped into the shower as I made a simple dinner.  Sophie and I scarfed down our food and headed back to school for pajama night, while Trung stayed home with Lydia.  Three teachers read books for the kids and then everyone had cookies afterwards.  The kids seemed to enjoy it, but the 6 PM start time really isn't the greatest being right at dinnertime.

Mrs. Scholder reading a book at pajama night

Representin'

I have always known that Sophie can be a ham, but it wasn't until last season that I noticed that Sophie was being picture picked more often than usual.  That's when I realized that I wasn't the only one who thought that she was "cute", so I decided that I would get her an agent.  (Plus, she can be a diva sometimes and it would nice to get paid to have to deal with it).  After weeks of getting back into the swing of things after the holidays, I finally mailed three and e-mailed one submission to various talent agencies that represented my friends' kids or that were recommended by actor friends.  I heard back almost immediately from the e-mailed submission and scheduled an interview with them for the following week.  Two days later, I received an e-mail with an attached contract from a smaller, privately-owned talent agency.  Needless to say, I was ecstatic about the opportunities that Sophie had to get into the entertainment industry.  

Finally, the day of the interview, I dressed Sophie in one of her nicer dresses and we headed to West LA to meet the agent.  After being asked some questions (most of which she answered "I don't know), Sophie recited a memorized line, read a few lines to show off her reading skills, and even sang "Do you want to build a snowman" from the movie "Frozen".  I personally thought the interview went alright, but apparently the agent saw some potential and basically said that she would represent Sophie if I decided to go with their agency.  SCORE!  :)

After the interview and still at the agency's office building

Tonight for my night out, I meant my friend Lara at a new restaurant called Taberna Arros y Vi, which Trung had seen before and has always wanted to go.  We took advantage of Happy Hour and the Dine LA menu and were completely stuffed by the end of the meal.  

My sweet, yet succulent appetizer

Lara's bread pudding and my flan

Jess' Birthday Lunch

I've been asking Jessica for weeks about taking her out to lunch for her birthday, but she has been sick with the flu.  Finally, today, Jessica, Ryan, Weiru, and I got to celebrate at a nice restaurant called Water Grill.  Too bad we all stuffed ourselves with the fresh bread at the beginning, but we all still managed to finish our meals.

Jess, Ryan, me, and Ru

I had the tuna nicoise salad

I had the cutest view

A Wendy Weekend

My old friend Wendy flew up to LA from Austin on Thursday and I (and sometimes the family) spent the last four days hanging out with her and eating the best Asian cuisine that LA has to offer.  She had some special requests like Taiwanese dumplings at Din Tai Fung, shabu shabu, and AYCE Korean BBQ, which she hit and then some.  We had a great time catching up and shopping our hearts out.

Wendy asked for cake, so I took her to Sweet Lady Jane

January 2014

2003?  (over a decade of friendship)

Lydia's first basketball game

Lydia has been taking basketball after school twice a week for the last couple of weeks.  Her team had their first basketball game today and it was quite entertaining.  The Roosevelt Wolves lost by almost 20 points, but the other team had played a game the week before and were more experienced.

Receiving instruction from one of the best players on the team

 Team huddle

We have a lot to work on still, but not bad for Lydia's first game ever!

Slime!

The Montana branch library was hosting a "do it yourself" program to make slime.  I thought the kids might like making "a mess", but started doubting myself since Lydia complained that she would like it all the way to the library.  She quickly changed her mind as we made the goo and we all, especially me, had a fun time.

Who knew a box of cornstarch and a cup of water could bring an hour of fun