Happy Holidays!

 
Happy holidays everyone!

Happy 4th Little G!

Tuesday was Griffin's 4th birthday. Irene brought the boys over for cake, and Griffin was pretty excited to have company over on a weekday. He was also pleased that he had "2 birthdays" since he'd also had a party at school. And after he got his new Mack, he told me, "I'm very very VERY lucky!" Yes you are, and so are we. Happy Birthday little guy!

Girls and Cars

Alicia was a princess (again), and Griffin was his faaaaavorite character -- Lightening McQueen. They had a blast trick-or-treating with Auntie Thao's kids and their cousins, and Ally has a new found addiction to Snickers bars. I'm so not looking forward to her next dentist appointment!

More Halloween pics here.

 
 
 
 

the kidz

here's a rare picture of the 5 cousins goofing around.
















this past weekend, we went to the peninsula creamery for lunch with mark, irene, and the boys. we had to split into 2 booths because there were just so many of us. here they are, just hanging out and enjoying their independence. looking at this pic, i can just imagine what they'll be like as teenagers!

Don't Stop Believin'

Here's A+G's take on the Glee cast version of Don't Stop Believin'. They get into it, then they get a little distracted, but ultimately they do their thing. Check it out.

Pumpkin Field

 
We went pumpkin shopping this weekend. But this time, instead of going to the usual parking lot pumpkin patch, we went to Webb Ranch in Portola Valley. The kids were pretty amazed to see this huge field with pumpkins everywhere, and they had a great time trying to pick out the perfect pumpkin. Griffin was much less picky -- he just wanted a pumpkin that was smallish. He found his in about 2 minutes and was off to the jumpy-house. Ali (new spelling, story for another blog) was much more meticulous, searching for the right size (big enough to hug), the right shape (very round), the right color (bright orange), and the right surface (few blemishes).

Anyway, we've booked Julianne (Preschool teacher by day, Pumpkin carving artiste by night) to come over next weekend to carve these puppies up. Edward and I have never carved pumpkins ourselves, plus we aren't particularly artistic (unlike our kids). But more importantly, we don't want to touch the goop, so we outsource. :)

Cars and Princesses

We survived our first trip to Disneyland! Mark and Irene had already planned to go the last week before school started, so we decided to tag along.

For the kids, it was a dream come true. Ally got to meet all her favorite princesses, and she really got into the whole autograph and picture thing. Griffin was a bit wary at first, but by the 3rd day was pretty excited to meet the princesses. It was pretty funny, because he would just hold each princess' hand and just stare at them with a silly grin on his face.

Griffin has been pretty obsessed with the Pixar Cars movie for the past 7 months, so he was absolutely thrilled to see McQueen and Mater. He even got to see them driving in the Pixar parade (which was actually a pretty cool parade for us adults too)!

Ally was tall enough to ride some rides, and she very much enjoyed the Jumping Jellyfish (super tame) and the Grizzly River Run (very very wet with a couple big drops).
Griffin was pretty scared of everything, but had a good time at the "A Bug's Land" section, which had some cute kiddie rides. Mark, Irene, and the boys hit all the major rides, and Anton and Peyton just went on and on about how scary and cool the rides were. I even got to go on the Hollywood Tower of Terror with M, A, and P, and it was a lot of fun (especially hearing the boys whimpering in anticipation seconds before each drop).

We all stayed at the Grand Californian, which turned out to be extremely convenient. The rooms were fine, but we were certainly paying a premium for the location. And, I have to say, it was well worth it with 2 small kids.

All in all, it was a pretty fun (but tiring) 3.5 days at Disneyland. But I'm going to wait until we can ride some real rides before going back. No more Jumping Jellyfish for me!

A Mousing We Will Go

the other day, edward was looking at a chocolate bar that was tucked in a basket on our counter and noticed that the corner was missing. naturally, he assumed that i was being lazy and had just broken it off without wrapping it back up properly. but when he pulled out the candy bar, he was surprised to find another corner missing from the bottom. upon closer examination, it was pretty clear that some small creature (not me) had been helping itself to the candy.

edward put the candy bar in a plastic bag, set it back on the counter, and went to bed. the next morning, the bag was on the floor sticking out halfway from under the dishwasher. when he pulled it out, he discovered that the plastic bag had been chewed through, along with another half of the candy bar.

at this point, we knew it was a rodent. edward insisted that it must be mouse, because it could wedge itself into the basket to eat the bottom of the candy bar. i felt it was a rat. anyway, we set up this trap and taped it. unfortunately, the glue traps were too small because it was a RAT (not a mouse), and it was able to chew itself free. still, a pretty interesting video.

chicken and waffles

we just had a pretty awesome dinner tonight. we flew down to burbank this afternoon, checked into our hotel (or ho-tay-yole, as griffin calls it), and then headed over to roscoe's house of chicken and waffles for dinner. we'd never been, but i had read about it online and most recently had our food friend, peisun, give it a ringing endorsement. man oh man, was that a fantastic meal of fried chicken, waffles, fried giblets, biscuits & gravy, grits, and sweet tea! it was amazing. the chicken was juicy and flavorful, the skin was crispy and tasty, and the waffles were just delish! the kids loved it too. i mean, how cool a meal is it for kids -- chicken and waffles for dinner!

ok, enough raving about the dinner. after dinner, we went to universal citywalk, where they were playing mamma mia on a big screen. ally was thrilled, and so we sat under the stars (and neon) and watched half of the movie. then we met this really nice balloon guy who made these cool bumblebees and flowers.

the robot and the cupcake

Ever since Griffin noticed the giant robot and cupcake outside the Android team's office, he and Ally always look for it when we are driving around the Google campus. So Edward took them to check it out, and they were pretty fascinated by them. The top picture totally looks like a Hansel and Gretel moment!

(Our 1st) European Vacation

A couple months ago, I learned that I had to go to Europe for work in mid-April. Then when we realized that it overlapped with Ally's spring break and my parents' Taiwan visit, we decided that it might be a good opportunity (and excuse) for us to travel to Europe together.

Edward and I were both pretty nervous about the flight, but it turns out that that went pretty well overall (other than a little crying and kicking in the middle of the night). In fact, when we were deplaning, the mom in the row in front of us turned around to compliment us on how well-behaved they were. That was pretty cool.

Jet-lag, on the other hand, was a bit more of a pain. The first night, we were able to get them in bed by 10pm. But then around 2am, Griffin woke up asking, "Is it wake-up time?" "Uh, no. It's 2am. Go back to bed." "But I'm hungry!" Then Ally woke up. A full breakfast and 2 hours later, I gave up and went back to bed. Edward then stomped over to them, ordered them back to bed, and somehow it actually worked! We all proceeded to sleep until 10am or so. The next day they got up 4-ish, the following day 6-ish, and then they were normal.

It really helped that we were staying in a house and not a hotel. Our friends Helen and Ruud had recently moved to Belgium, so we were able to stay at their places in London and Belgium. And since they have little ones, it was a perfect set up for us -- the London place was stocked with kid-friendly food, 2 kiddie beds, and lots of recorded kid TV shows ("In the Night Garden" became a big hit)!

But the absolute best perk was Tess, their old nanny. She came and watched the kids a few nights so that we could walk around London and have some nice meals. She was really amazing with the kids, and they really took to her immediately. That was pretty awesome.

The kids really loved riding the Tube and train (esp Eurostar to Brussels). They seemed especially delighted that there were no seat belts, which meant they could roll all around the seats and floors if/as they so desired.

Another highlight was seeing Edward's cousin Jack, his wife, Sining, and their kids, Livy and Lucas. Jack and family moved to London this past summer, and it was really great to spend some time with them and see their cool little London pad. They hosted a nice brunch on Saturday and also invited Edward's Auntie Linda and Uncle Tom, who were visiting from Zurich. So that was a lovely little family reunion.

A couple friends asked what the kids thought of Europe. The funny thing is, I don't think they really even noticed that they were in a different county. People with different accents -- standard in Bay Area. Different architecture -- not something you notice as a kid. Eating lots of bread, cold cuts, and cheese -- cool, but not that different. What they really noticed was the trains, walking everywhere all the time (this got old real quick with Ally), and hanging out with us 24/7. In fact, they had the most fun playing with Livy and Lucas, Kaitlyn and Alex (Helen's girls), and just chillin' with us. But Mama and Daddy had a great time being on a real European vacation, and that's A Good Thing.

More Europe pics here.

Hanging out with Helen

We spent a lovely vacation in Europe, and we got to spend several days in
Belgium with my close friend Helen, her husband Ruud, and their 2 beautiful little girls. It was the first time our kids got to meet, and they had a great time together.

At one point, Ally said to me, "Mama, I'm not so lucky. Alex [Helen's older daughter] is so lucky. But not me." "Why's that?" I asked. "Because Alex has a 'park' in her backyard. She has swings and a slide. But not me."
To which I retorted, "But ... but ... well, we have a dog!" Not such a great comeback, I know, but it was the best I could come up with. I mean, Alex and Kaitlyn (the little one) are two lucky kids. Look at that house! Look at that play structure!

Anyway, we spent one lazy afternoon just lounging, chatting, eating cold cuts and chocolate (not together), and watching the kids play. It was just like old times when we would hang out and do basically nothing. Talking about what we could do with the day ... and then discovering that the day had gone by. Haha. At least no flights were missed this time ... but that's a whole other story for another blog entry.

Ally is 6!

We just survived our first birthday party with all of Ally's classmates. First of all, due to my very poor planning, I gave everyone a week's notice, so we got about 50% turnout. Still, there were a lot of kids going nutso in this little gym place. Ally had a blast, and her friends seemed to enjoy it too. Their parents enjoyed it even more, since we told them to go enjoy their kid-free hour+!

Happy birthday Ally!

smooshed family pics

here's us goofing off in one of those silly photo booths. the kids really got into it, but the last pic shows just what posers they are!

it's snow fun

here are some (2 month old) pics from our 2nd annual northstar ski trip with mark, irene, and the boys. ally had a great time skiing, and she and griffin had a blast playing in the snow and crafting this lovely snowman.