Kai and Sora "dabbing" on our visit to Happy Hollow this week :)

Hmart Korean Dogs

Our first foray into Korean sweet corn dog at Hart.. Sugar on a corn dog?!? Kids said, "yes please!"

Jad and the White Sauce

Jad isn't a great eater and is actually quite opinionated.  When he doesn't get exactly what he wants, he has a tendency of just saying "no, no, no.." then swatting everything away, even what he originally asked for.  He does love milk though and the other day, when we had Rubio's fish tacos, I think he mistook the white sauce for milk so he asked for it.. and got it.. and loved it!  Yes, third child syndrome but at least he's getting lots of calories :) 

The beginnings of a fun-filled summer

So we're only a week into summer vacation and we've already been to Villasport twice, we swam in our neighbor's pool, and we had a church swim party this afternoon. That's a lot of swimming, but the weather was up to the 100's last week. Kai was initially a little nervous about getting back into swimming, but going four times this week seems to have done the trick.

Good times when it's a 100 degrees out and your neighbor has a pool..

.. but Villasport works too :)

We also went to Sweet Tomatoes for the first time in a while.. we weren't able to go during the school year because we always had to hustle the kids off to bed, but now that it's summer vacation, we can be a little more lenient with bedtime.

Jad approves of Sweet Tomatoes

I took the kids to Happy Hollow on Friday since our annual pass expires at the end of the month. We spent 4 1/2 hours at the park and I wish I had pictures to prove it, but I forgot my phone at home. It was actually kind of refreshing to not have my phone on me. It kept me focused on the kids and the kids weren't able to pester me to look at my phone. They kept forgetting that I didn't have my phone on me and would ask me to take pictures. :P I may try to go out without my phone again but I'll plan to bring a digital camera with me next time.. I still like to have pictures.

Happy Hollow was good. Sora rode the roller coaster for the first time and Kai rode the roller coaster without a grown up sitting next to him for the first time (both were only a little bit nervous). For some reason, Sora has never liked the rides where they measure her height with a measuring stick (doesn't make sense to me either), but she finally seems to have gotten over that. Kai and Sora both touched a Madagascar hissing cockroach during an animal meet and greet. The kids are starting to get a little more out of Happy Hollow, so I'm a little sad that our annual membership is expiring soon, but I'm sure we can find other ways to amuse ourselves.

Today was the culmination of Sora's dance class, we went to her dance recital which was just held in the dance studio. Sora seemed a little nervous when she first walked out, but she eventually warmed up and did a great job (the crying in the background of the video was a cranky, too-tired Jad). She enjoyed wearing her fancy dance costume and didn't want to take it off afterwards.

With teachers Miss Meiling and Miss Tony

We're low to the ground because Kai insisted on posing like this -_-

First ballgame!

Yesterday, I took the kids out to their first baseball game. It was a minor league game, San Jose Giants versus the Visalia Rawhide. The Giants lost, but the kids had a great time learning about the game and eating ballpark snacks. I thought it was pretty awesome, it was fun and low-key and the stadium is only 15 minutes away from our house. We got free tickets from the supermarket, though the expensive concessions really added up ($6 for a lemonade?!). Nik watched Jad at home while I took the kids since it was an evening game and we didn't think Jad would get much out of the experience. We'll probably try to go to at least one more game before the summer's over.. the kids really want to go with their Daddy next time. :)

Right behind home plate.. for free!

The kids loved Gigante

Churros were da bomb!

Reader of the Year

Kai's been working on this all year, so I just wanted to say that it's official: Kai won Reader of the Year! Basically it means he read the most pages our of all the kids in his class. There was some page inflation (I'm lookin' at you, Mo Willems), but there were a few chapter books on his lists including "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory."

I was surprised by this determination to win, he set it out as a goal after he won Reader of the Month in October and he persisted through the school year. Many trips were made to the library to constantly get new books, since Nik and I would only count each book once on the list per month.

Proud of our reader. Hopefully this fosters a lifelong love for reading.

An action-packed Saturday

This past Saturday was packed full of events. We started off the morning with the Popsicle Fun Run. It was only a mile, but the kids ran most of the way with Nik accompanying them. The kids ended up outpacing Nik by the end!

My little runners! Mama's so proud <3

After the race, we immediately headed out for Kai's end of season pizza party with his soccer team. It was a great time, and Kai enjoyed running around with his soccer buddies. The kids even played a spontaneous soccer game in the mid-day sun (although Kai and Anthony relaxed in the shade.. smart or just lazy?). I was hot just watching them. :P I'm hopeful that some of his soccer friends will register for the next fall or spring season so they can be on the same team again.

Kai's favorite teammate is Anthony. Couple of goofballs...

Then we headed home so I could get Sora ready for her dance picture day. I'm a complete novice at doing dance hair, but thank goodness for Youtube.

It's silly vanity, but I think my daughter is totes adorbs <3

And then it was time for Nik and me to get ready. The Mo's couldn't use their tickets for Hamilton(!!), so they graciously sold them to us. Of course we had to find a babysitter so we could go and fortunately for us, the Ng's stepped up to help us out. We don't have a consistent babysitter, so this was the first evening date that we've had since Joanna and Peter's wedding(!!). We owe Tim and Dali big time. We had a great evening out. It was fun to get out without the kids, though we did spend a lot of time talking about the kids. Difficult to completely turn off parent-mode. :P

So grateful for our friends

The musical was great. A little frenetic and difficult to keep up with the politicking going on since the lyrics were so jam-packed with information. But the wordplay was really clever and music was full of energy. After the musical (and a somewhat sketchy walk through the Tenderloin to the parking garage), we decided to grab a late-night snack at In-n-Out. It was kind of awesome to not have to share our fries with littles. :P

Woo hoo! Out and about with just the two of us! :D