pier 1

I saw this at Pier 1 and would LOVE LOVE LOVE it in my master bedroom!

Nov 15: Brian's birthday!

On Nov 15th, we celebrated Brian's birthday with a free dinner from Caffe Gelato.

Next year, he gets to have his birthday at Mi Cocina.  And we're going to celebrate BOTH of our birthdays there because we love it there!

Anyways, the next night, on the 16th, Brian received his birthday Minions from Despiccable Me:

He thought they were pretty clever!  *patting myself on my back*

Bet you like my open cabinet door back there.  Awww yea...

I don't know what I'm going to do if someone doesn't buy out Hostess Twinkies!  For those of you who do not know, Despiccable Me is one of our favorite movies!

Brian is laughing in this picture because Michael is singing Happy Birthday to You with "cha cha cha" in the middle of the verses and ends with "cha cha cha ooh la la sosemthing soeitn aribus!"

His Kindergarten class sings it this way and it's HILARIOUS.  They all sing it this way for everyone, even if they are not in their class.  So it's too cute.  They did it at his bouncy house party too and our friends who weren't in his class were looking around with quite a bit of uncertainty.

Brian blows out his four candles:

Like my action shot?

And we called it another year!  :)

Nov 9 - 11: Team ABC London and His Mountainous Visit PA!

As soon as we could meet our newest little nephew, Carson, we did!  Team ABC (AK/Bill/Carson - as named by the family) came to spend a weekend with us in PA and we loved every second of it!

Michael showed Carson a little bit about Pokemon:

Carson was a VERY good sport and an eager listener:

The first night, Team ABC came and immediately used our American sized laundry facilities!  We understand exactly how they felt and were happy to be able to share our home with them!

After dinner, we played some pinochle and played with cute little Carson!

The next morning, we went to the Longwood Gardens and took a LOT of pictures.  This was my favorite and I need to do a post of just the images from Longwood:

I am going to put the blog post in the queue but won't publish it until later.  So you'll want to come back here to look!

Then on Saturday, his Mountainous made his debut into PA:

Brian was especially skeptical:

Good thing we have our blog locked down from the public now!!

Brent was great fun and we all enjoyed hanging out together to watch Texas A&M BTHO #1 ranked ALABAMA!!!!  It was AWESOME being able to watch that game with family and fellow Aggies.  We were so thankful for Bill and AK being here!

We had a great dinner afterwards because Brian insisted we have Blanquette de Veau, which meant I spent much of the Aggie game in the kitchen.

After Michael went to bed, AK and Bill were introduced to much swearing from Brent as we played Speed Scrabble, and Bill dominated us once again.  I had the table cracking up at my midnight spelling of "Fart" and "Wand" in order to rack up a whoppin' 30-40 points in extra letters.  But it was worth it to see that all I had the mental capacity to spell at that time was Fart Wand.

The next day, we just relaxed around the house, hiked in the wood, and did more laundry!  Oh yes, and we ate.  SOME MORE. :)

Thankfully, we got a great picture of the family on the deck.  Brian blinked:

Then, Brian opened his eyes, but now for some reason, all the cousins have their shirts halfway up their bellies:

And then after this, I made Carson upset somehow, and we were done!  :)

We saw Brent off in his rented minivan:

We told him how much we missed seeing Tracy, his beautiful new wife and made promises to see them in the Bay Area soon.

We spent the rest of the day hanging out with Team ABC and made sure they had nothing but clean clothes to bring back!  It was a very relaxing weekend and we loved being able to spend it with them!

Stay tuned for the Longwood pics.  I need to edit a few and then they are up.  :)  MANY more blog posts to come...

I have not been blogging, but it's not for lack of material!  :)
P

Michael, Age 6

This post is long overdue (2 months!), but very necessary!

Our Michael, age 6, is so funny to know!  

He started Kindergarten this year, and we feel as if he has come home a completely different child.  In a good way!  Most of the time, Michael has very nice manners.  He says "please" and "thank you" most of the time without being prompted.  We attribute that to his school!  :)  Mrs. DeColli keeps those little kids in line!  What I have been trying 5 years to stress, Mrs. DeColli could do in a month.  

He has a very fun imagination and is always making up little stories to go with his creations.  Whether it's boats and airplanes blowing up land targets or flying noises with anything he can find, I am always amused at the noises he is making during play!

Michael loves to play baseball.  It is his favorite sport!  Brian does such a good job having practice with him outside and the neighborhood kids always seem to join in on the fun.  Michael can hit the ball pretty well without using a tee so we do not use it!

Soccer this year was a bit overwhelming for Michael.  In previous years, he would get in on the herdball that normally happened, steal the ball, and dribble to the goal because he was usually the fastest.    This year, he was a bit scared of the scrum.  He would kind of run around everyone like a sheep dog, wait for the ball to escape the herd of children, dribble it, and somehow lose it.  It has been a struggle watching him try to get in there!  However after talking to his coach, she said that what Michael is doing will be fine when he's older, and there is not so much herd ball as there is actual positions and distribution across a field!  He definitely has blossoming soccer skills though - when he actually gets in there!  It will be interesting to see what he chooses next fall because he wants to run cross country for the school, and it is the same day/time as soccer.

Michael is really into this Wii Skylanders game.  It's a game that allows you to play as different characters!  You change these different characters out using figurines that you place on a portal.  It is actually pretty cool!  All the characters have different powers, which makes the game more interesting!

Michael also still loves to play with legos, with Star Wars and Harry Potter legos being his favorites.

He still loves cars.  Racing them, rolling them, whatever!  I had to put away his train set this year and couldn't believe how quickly he has grown!

We are listening to Harry Potter on CD in the car.  He is loving that!

School is great fun for him!  He loves to learn, and I am starting to see such progress in both his reading and his handwriting!

Speaking of school, Michael definitely leans towards math (no shock there).  Michael can definitely add and subtract (even with double digits plus single digits).  We are starting to do fractions at home and 2 columned addition/subtraction.  Michael is definitely multiplying lower numbers and can count by 2's, 3's, 4's, 5's, 6's up quite a ways.  I don't think he has quite realized that he is actually multiplying the 3's, 4's, 5's, and 6's yet - but I am thrilled he can count by those intervals in addition to the easy ones (10's, 20's, 50's, 100's).

Reading has always been something in which Michael has had to put forth a bit more effort.  However, he has definitely progressed with his sight words and can sound things out pretty well.  He definitely needs a little help, but I think he is making great progress.

His handwriting is coming along well and has improved since his 1st day of school!

Today, I am especially proud of Michael because he started making a book.  He asked for several sheets of white paper for his book and started with his title page: "The humongous tree and the humongous grass."  He has also illustrated it!  He wrote his first page in the book today.  I can't wait to take pictures of it!!  He needed help spelling humongous, but the rest he wrote on his own.  I am so impressed with his cute little mind.

I always love and cherish Michael because he is my one and only.  I rarely take him for granted because I can't have as many children as I want.  Every day is a blessing to see, and I hope to see so many more to come.  Michael has become a bigger joy for us every single day.

And the best thing about Michael?  He TOTALLY knows how to behave in front of the camera!

I took about 20 pictures of him for his "Six Year Old" portraits and I kept about 10.  LOVE our lil' guy!

Every year, I wonder how he can top the previous year's portrait.  Every year, he does:

Then, I made him and Brian practice some reflector work under the shade of a tree:

Then, I made him practice with a reflector in open light.   I got this face:

But only after he gave me this squinty one.  We are Asian after all:

 It's too bad his eyes are closed here!

Love our "baby cat" and am so thankful for him everyday!