The busy season continues! It's been a couple weeks but here's what happened with us recently..
Church always does a program called Hearty Harvest, where families will get a bag of groceries and gift card to donate to those in need. We've been doing it for a couple of years now and we joined again this year. I lean into it pretty hard about how we are lucky to have more and should give when we can. The kids did like finding and choosing which groceries to buy. I tried to give them lessons about how to choose not the cheapest option but close when possible :)
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| That Sora's always posing .. |
With Jad and Sora's birthdays so close together, we usually have a couple of joint birthday parties to celebrate. Our first involved the neighbors and school friends and we had a bunch of people over at our house. It's been a long while since we've had such a big party (maybe 3 years) and it was a bit chaotic but the kids had a great time. We got a bounce house in the backyard and pizzas from Costco!
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| Inside the chaos.. glad no one got hurt |
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Amy set up a craft table where the kids
decorated their own Christmas ornaments |
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| There was some video game time too |
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| Parents got to chat a bit as well |
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| The kids liked pulling down the bounce house |
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That's a lot kids! Donut cakes and loose donuts
were very popular |
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The party went late in the evening with
our neighbors closing it out |
All in all, an excellent party and hopefully signs of things to come. I think COVID really did a number on us as a society and it's going to take years for the effects to reverberate and fade away. We'll take it one step at a time, I suppose.
One silly bit, at work one day we had a trivia contest instead of our usual staff meeting. I took first place, thank you very much though it wasn't til the very end that I pulled it up. 2nd place went to Derek Ng who is a friend from church :) Sweet!
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| Brings back the quiz bowl days |
The week after was Amy's birthday. Because it fell on a Thursday and the kids were off school both Thursday and Friday, we decided to take a 2-day trip up to SF to celebrate. We started with a pancake breakfast for Amy.
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| Sora was the architect of the penguin pancake |
After some gaming time, we went up to SF, stopped at In-n-Out on the way for early lunch and then met up with Dali and her family at the California Academy of Sciences. Not only is it a spectacular museum but also we both bought the annual pass and we have to go at least twice to make it worth it!
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Plantarium show.. It was cool but I think I fell
asleep in the warm darkness |
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| Jad and Sophie in an aquarium window |
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They had a photos exhibit and one was of a white weasel
jumping up.. I love this picture of Kai |
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We also made it for penguin feeding time
which was very cool |
After that we parted ways with Dali then drove over to Union Square to check in at the Westin. I had used some points to get a room there and we got a free upgrade (I think the clerk felt sorry for us when he saw that we had three kids running around :) to a room with a view of the square.
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| pretty swank :p |
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We had a ramen dinner at Hinodeya. Pretty good
with a lighter soy broth but not amazing |
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| We had dessert at One65.. Jad is photo bombing here |
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We walked around a bit til it got cold and then
went back to relax in the hotel |
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In the morning, Amy woke up early and went out on a run
around the streets of SF as per her usual habit |
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We packed up and headed out to lunch at the
Sears Deli. Some cool history memorabilia on the walls! |
Amy then took Sora ice skating which she really enjoyed. The boys less so and they just walked around with me and helped to check out of the hotel.
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| A couple of cuties here |
We then went back across town to meet Kristin and Rich and their kids. It was fun to catch up and to see the kids playing together :) We really don't see each other enough for living just an hour away
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| Height order! |
That concluded our 2-day trip and celebration for Amy's birthday. It was really nice and I'll see if I can continue in the coming years. On the way we did make a stop at Uncle Wilson's grave site as it was Veteran's day when Amy usually goes by. It was nice to see all the little flags up.
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| Thank you for your service |
This past Sunday, we had the second celebration for Sora and Jad. This time with the church friends after church with five of the other families. The kids had a lot of fun playing together and the adults had fun catching up. Cake from Clover Bakery was spectacular as usual.
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| Besties church crew |
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The kids didn't want us taking pictures of them so this
was the best one we got |
And just a couple days ago, Kai finally got his cast off. He wore it for about 5 weeks and got so used to using his left hand that sometimes he forgets to use his right hand now. It'll probably take some getting used to again and will need some strengthening. It's still not fully healed though and our biggest worry is that he'll forget and fall down on it again but what can you do. The plate might not actually have to come out according to his orthopedist so we'll see in a repeat xray in a couple months.
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| Gnarly scar, dude! |
Lastly, we have been having some cat drama. The background is that one of our neighbor's cats had kittens a while back and the whole family was roaming the neighborhood. Some people asked said neighbor to neuter the cats and I don't think they took that very well but one day, most of the cats were gone. We're not sure but we suspect that they were dumped somewhere but who knows. There was one cat that was somehow missed, named Sesame, and lately it's been hanging out at our house. I think because there's no dog at our house and there's plenty of places to poop (yuck!) But it's been getting really cold outside lately, so we felt bad for him and put out a little box and blanket for him to stay wam. He did sleep in the cardboard box and then this led to us getting some cat food for him from the Connicks and water. The kids love feeding him and petting him and he's mostly quite friendly so now we have become "those people" who feed stray cats (or one cat anyway). We are all basically allergic to cats though so we can't really adopt him fully. We have been careful to only feed him and avoid other cats or any raccoons. Silly cat! Though he is very cute when he's purring.
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We eventually decided to construct a more sturdy and
insulated box for him but he hasn't quite taken to it yet
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| Semi-pet |
That's it for now. Til next time!
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