Family, Friendship, Food, Fun and Everything in Between!
Finally kids are interested in roller skating. I’d like to think my childhood story helped. So we went to the skating place this weekend. From scared to walk to doesn’t want help, both kids went a long way! So proud! Nothing beats the feeling watching your kids grow!
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My baby girl turned 6! We went bowling, one of her new favs, with her besties! I couldn’t resist but getting her a fancy unicorn cake, which matches her fancy unicorn cup my dear super gifted friend Steph made her (my son got an amazing batman one too)
Bowling wise, kids team did amazing, adults, not so much.. go figure..
Cake time as usual, one of the most exciting time.
J has been crazy over these hatchamal thingie, she was hoping tooth fairy would get her some and wanted the giant egg for her birthday. I couldn’t say no to that.
Happy kids, happy parents!
So many festivals lately, holiday atmosphere in the air!!
We went to the Rice Festival. Kids had a blast, so did the adults!
Unfortunately I only had pictures of one activity taken, since mom had her hands full the whole entire time. But we had so much fun! Live music, food stands, merchants, carnival… Kids loved carnival the most of course, from crazy spinning things, to ferris wheel, to police officer dunking, to ping-pong ball throwing to win bunnies, to baseball throwing… I still can’t stop smiling just thinking about how much fun we had today.
Wish they keep that smile on their faces their entire lives, genuinely happy and worry free.
Tooth Fairy came by and visited my little girl, who lost 3 teeth yesterday morning.
She must have been super good girl, because she got something she really really really wanted -Hatchimals.. She was up around 5 am, super excited about finding 3 eggs under her pillow.
After waiting for an hour, she decided it is taking way too long for everyone to wake up, since she doesn’t want anyone to miss her cracking the eggs, she woke everyone up. The egg cracking ceremony starts.
There they are, her new favorite cutie pies. And she wants to lose 100 more teeth.. (eye rolling…)
Tooth Fairy did an awesome job, now today, she needs sleep… :p
That was super fun for the kids.
Big Z is pretty good, big J really got her celebration dance down :p
Priceless to see the big smile on their faces!
This is the first attempt, for all 3 of us. Major lessons learnt.
Saturday morning, down pour rain. We are stuck in the house for now. Kids have been asking for tie-dye, well mainly my daughter. My son could care less about tie-dye, haha. I got 2 kids t-shirts, light color as a canvas for our tie-dye project, one light yellow, one baby blue.
I got the tie-dye primary color set from Amazon.com, rolled up our sleeves, got kids equipped with gloves, craft paper on the floor, we got on it.
I helped them bundle the t-shirts up in a roll, sectioned them into 6 wedges using rubber bands. As expected, I did my homework, watched many how-to videos. In theory, I am a pro.
The end results? They are more like Halloween costume, crime scene shirts…
Lessons learned, I bought the spray on type, I should get the squirt on liquid, so the shirts will soak up more dye than just the surfaces of the folds. And don’t go stingy, just keep spraying, when in doubt, keep spraying, the entire shirt needs to be literally soaked. I will get more shirts and get squirt dye and make it right :p
Kids don’t need to be over loaded with material, they crave our time and attention. I have to admit that before I went completely broke, I never truly understood that. I always wanted to get my kids more, get them better stuff, and I would feel bad if I couldn’t find that one thing they briefly mentioned one day to see their surprised face.
I have discovered the simple joy with kids, they are happy with anything. They are perfectly happy with a much smaller house, much more crammed room, less toys, as long as they have your attention and time. They are super happy to do arts and crafts with me, read books with me, learning spelling and doing math with me, taking a walk with the dogs, acting silly..
We went to a park, teased the ducks and turtles with feathers, and pretended to be little Indians, happy faces, happy day!
Yep, that’s big sister’s hair, pretending to be his mustache..
First week of school is major success, for both kids! I am so proud of them!
First off, kids couldn’t wait to get on the big yellow school bus, and swipe their badges! Bus driver is a super nice older gentleman, made sure the younger kids have proper seats and close to him so he could take care of any needs.
Kids couldn’t stop talking about the fun stuff at school and what they did, new friends they made, lunch items they got.. My daughter is learning carefully planning and spending money, so proud of her!
After school care is amazing too, kids don’t even want to leave when I pick them up! Every morning, I don’t need to drag them out of bed, they are up early and excited, because they don’t want to miss the school bus ride! These little cutie pies are so grown and independent now, makes me one proud and happy mama!
Yep, we even had a mini concert in the front yard while waiting for the school bus!
Can’t thank my amazing friend Steph enough. She has been such great support and inspiration! I am in the midst of craziness of moving, cleaning, fixing house, enrolling kids, doctor appointments for everyone, and feeling bad not able to do everything I’d love to for the kids for their first day of school, real non-daycare school, Steph surprised me with an amazing custom-made shirt for my baby girl and super fun photo shoot session for the kids!
The results? Stunning! People come and go in life, some shine bright light of joy, some takes away, amazing friendship is priceless!
I gotta say, I may be just as excited as the kids! This is a huge milestone for them! I came across a few types of back-to-school mom funny videos, I am not quite as bad as first time back-to-school mom, but pretty darn close! Both my kids are able to get enrolled, one kindergarten, one pre-k. I guess I’d better get use to this.
According to school’s instruction, I got their back packs ready – full of NOTHING!
I came from China, I am not used to this.. when I was in elementary (I’m pretty sure it is still the case in China), we went to school and got enrolled. We were handed a list of text books and schedule of classes. We had to go to the school bookstore and buy all the books and make hand written copies of schedules to keep at home and in our own pencil box. Then we wrap up all the textbooks nicely and put our names on the book covers. Everyday, we check our schedule for the following day, and pack our backpacks accordingly, with pencil box, textbooks required, scratch papers, note books… our backpacks were 15 lb easy, every day.
Instead of packing these, I sent their school supplies to school while meeting the teachers, all the heavy lifting was done by my mom and me. If you read my previous blogs, you know both of us are recovering from surgery. Luckily, her left side of the body is good, my right hand is normal. 2 ladies carried the heavy box of 2 classroom school supplies to school, kinda funny but we made it.
Kids nowadays have it easy. I know my parents told me the same thing when I was growing up. Even though we all say it, I am not quite sure which path majority of us are sending our kids down to with our actions. Most kids nowadays are too soft, too whinny, too fragile, too entitled, mine are probably one of these right now. Working progress. I know most of my friends who have kids are same as me in terms of what to teach our kids, and they need to grow up honest people, work for things they want in life, polite and kind. At the end of the day, when the kids go to pre-k and kindergarten, being the youngest kids in the school, who is there to protect them and comfort them, if all they know is to whine and cry when other kids don’t give them what they want all the time, and when things are not fair? Are they going to have a security blanket when they are 15, or are they expecting someone to carry their pencil for them when they are 12?
Honesty, kindness go a long way, never claim nothing that’s not theirs, and grow up to be a person that never feel the need of hiding what they have done, because they will never do anything that they will need to be ashamed of. That’s a mom’s wish, and that’s what I will do my best for.
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Welcome to my blog!
I am an American Chinese, mother of 3 wonderful children, senior engineer, but passionate about cooking, arts and crafts, travel, gardening, sewing…
I value honesty, sincerity, simple happiness in family and friendship. Life has its surprises all the time, the only thing we could do, is to keep a positive attitude, welcome every spin with a smile and make the best out of any situation.
Feel free to look around my site and leave me a comment or send me a message if you find something interesting.
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