Our posting has become sporadic, mainly due to my lack of energy these days. That doesn’t mean we don’t have anything going on!

Last Tuesday my parents took k to the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific. It was “seniors day” so they got in free. Baba bought k a turtle stuffed animal, and now it is the only animal that k will allow in her crib at night.

September is birthday month in our household since both D and I have September birthdays. D turned 32 on Friday. We went to Red Robin to redeem his free hamburger (just sign up for their e-club!) I told the waitress it was D’s birthday so D was serenaded with a birthday song and received a sundae and balloons. Somehow, having k with us made celebrating D’s birthday at Red Robin acceptable.

Saturday we went to a pirate-themed party for a three-year old. When we arrived she was wearing a pirate shirt, but by the time the party actually started, she had changed into a princess shirt–haha.

That night we had a joint family birthday celebration for D and me with my family. D received a heart rate monitor watch that he was very excited about. I received some sewing/cooking supplies…now I just need to get the energy to use them! k was excited to be able to spend time with her aunts and uncle. I think she likes having “new”, but familiar people to play with.

k enjoyed her corn.

Yesterday morning we went to the Celebrity Food Show at the Anaheim Hilton. This was our first time, so I was not sure what to expect. We weren’t too impressed. The non-VIP tickets were $10 each, so I didn’t feel too bad. It was basically a bunch of food companies giving out samples. There were way too many hot sauces/salsas and cookies; nothing very substantial. We still had to eat lunch afterward. We tried this one African sauce in medium, and that set my mouth on fire. Good thing that Lipton tea was giving out full size bottles. We also received some boxes of kosher salt. Um, ok. I personally liked my little taste of sour cream ice cream, while D liked his mango flavor. There were also some really good fleur de sel caramel covered chocolates that you were supposed to eat “salt side down.” Also, it wasn’t too easy manuevering k’s stroller among the crowds. I don’t want to think about how many people’s feet I accidentally ran into. Oops.

I guess the VIP tickets may have been worth it if you were really interested in the featured celebrity chef. This year it was the guy from “Ace of Cakes”, which I’ve never actually seen. There was also a cake decorating contest, but since it lasted all weekend, and we were there Saturday morning, none of the teams had progressed too far.

That evening we went to my second cousins’ father’s 80th Mexican-themed birthday party. They always throw nicely put together parties, but they really went all out this time. Their backyard is perfect for entertaining.

Lovely table settings.

k’s third cousin.

They had “Enrique the taco guy” cooking chicken, carne asada, and pork tacos outside.

Muy delicioso! k over-indulged in the guacamole.

There was even live music!

k was really getting into it. This is her dancing. One of the band members joked she must be from East L.A.–haha!

We had to leave early since it was way past k’s bedtime. They sent us home with prettily wrapped pan dulce and a humongous piece of tres leches cake and flan. What a nice celebration!

On Saturday we went to a birthday party in the morning and hosted a birthday party for my mom at night. The first party was for S, who turned 3! It was a Ratatouille-theme: menu board signs, herb centerpieces, and a lot of good food. The kids made tortillas since the birthday boy really enjoys the tortilla factory at CA Adventure.

D helped k with hers.

There was a waffle station. Plus eggs, tortillas, muffins, scones, and fruit. We didn’t eat again until dinner.

The kids played outside. k didn’t want to get off of the swing.

My sister made an ice cream cake for my mom. We had Chinese food in honor of the Beijing Olympics.

We celebrated my sister’s birthday at my other sister’s house on Sunday. The birthday girl was waffling between Japanese food and Mexican food and then settled on chow fun, so Chinese it was! We did take-out from S.W. (not Sam Woo) and it was quite tasty. We even had some dim sum–yum.

D loaded his plate up with food. I guess I shouldn’t talk since I ate a lot too! I’ve also noticed that I’m usually the last one to finish eating when I’m in a group these days since half of the time I am feeding k off my plate too. She is a slow, but steady eater!

Cake Batter Coldstone Cake

k’s newest trick is lying down on command. She has also taken to spontaneously lying down in inopportune places, such as restaurants.

Today I hosted a wedding shower for R. Actually, I didn’t really feel like I did much since it was held at a tea place called High Tea Cottage in Woodland Hills, and I had someone else plan the games! All I did was the invitations, prizes and favors…all things I enjoy doing 🙂 We left the house an hour and a half before it started, but it took about two hours and fifteen minutes to get there. That’s right…we were about 45 minutes late! I felt so bad, especially since I was supposed to be the “hostess”, but it seemed that everyone was just talking and eating, so it wasn’t too awkward. I didn’t think traffic would be THAT bad on a Saturday morning, but I also didn’t think that someone would decide to tow a HOUSE on the 101! Apparently it was too tall and hit the underpass, had to pull over and ended up blocking half of the freeway lanes. When we were coming home five hours later, it was still there, so I snapped a picture:

Kids, this is not a good idea.

Anyway, the food at the tea cottage was quite tasty. We had lavendar lemonade, fruit tea or English tea, mini quiches, sandwiches (cucumber, curry egg, chicken salad, cheese/fruit jam), ginger lemon scones, cranberry scones, and “delicate sweet morsels” (as stated on the menu).

Tasty, dainty sandwiches

Me and the Bride-to-Be

Thank you to D for taking k to a nearby mall and looking after her during the tea!

On Sunday we went to a Japanese-themed half-birthday party for two brothers at church. There were a lot of kids running around! I commented to D that this is what the vast majority of the birthday parties we go to will be like from now on. The girls received cute Japanese-y barrettes. I was amazed that k’s stayed in her not-so-plentiful hair!

I’ll let D fill you in on the rest of the weekend’s events.

We had a busy Saturday. After the engagement party we went to a birthday party for my second cousin’s dad. My second cousin is such a good party planner! She always has nice decor, good food and fun games. There was also a slide show, but we missed it since we had to go home early (it was past k’s bedtime). This was a Hawaiian themed party, so she had the backyard set up with tiki torches and Hawaiian music. Here’s the lovely centerpiece:

There was food from King’s Hawaiian, as well as wontons, spam musubi and teriyaki meatballs. There was even Hawaiian soda. Yes, we ate very well that day.

k met some more of her third cousins. Here’s a nice family shot:

Mother’s Day took on a new meaning for me this year. Being a mother makes me appreciate my mother all the more.

On Sat. we had everyone over for a combined Mother’s Day/Dad’s birthday celebration lunch. We have a lot of celebrations between May and July so we tend to combine them. My sister and bro-in-law did the majority of the cooking, so all D & I had to do was clean up our place!

On Sun. we went to the WPC Mother’s Day breakfast before service. We had scrambled eggs, sausages, pancakes, fruit and jook (for the Chinese contingent). D and I were so full we didn’t eat lunch until around 3 p.m.!

On Sunday night D and I went to licoreen’s birthday party. For those of you who don’t know, licoreen, my former college roommate, is an artist. She had a lot of her old artwork sitting around and had the great idea of holding a silent auction at her party. (Some of her art is seen here, on the bottom row). The proceeds went to two charities, World Team and International Justice Mission. D and I got in a mini bidding “war” over one painting, which we ended up buying! I’m still trying to figure out where it looks best, but I’m thinking over our fireplace, for now. We’ve moved up from posters! I was in charge of the food, although I felt like I didn’t really help too much.

I made waaay too much orange cream cheese dip for the strawberries.

Reni made these cute cupcakes.