JK and Kindergarten had a musical titled "A Typical Day in Music Class." It was very cute. I only recorded Kael's class (about 16 minutes) out of the hour long program.
FYI - I was not drunk when I recorded the program. Taede was with me and he was a little monkey, climbing all over me. I finally got him set-up with a movie on the iPhone and all was well.
The video is in QuickTime format so you'll need the FREE QuickTime player. If you don't have QuickTime installed, you probably want to do so as most of our movies will now be created on the MacBook, which needs QuickTime to play.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Malia
Malia is still enjoying dance with her BFFEE (that's Best Friend Forever and Ever and Ever) Audrey. Taede loves dance too as he's constantly running out onto the dance floor whenever he sees the gate open. He likes to copy the girls with their dance moves and loves to twirl with the ribbons. My poor baby. He needs his own Taede class.
Anyway, here are a couple of pictures of Malia in dance.
And Little Man Taede with his big big eyes.
Anyway, here are a couple of pictures of Malia in dance.
And Little Man Taede with his big big eyes.
Lost in translation
My parents made a surprise visit last week and stayed for a few days. The kids were beyond excited and had a great time with their grandparents, even though I doubt my parents understood a word the kids said.
I had to run a couple of errands on Saturday and my mom wanted to tag along. So there we were in the car, driving to the store. My mom is chatting about nothing in particular. It's almost like I'm driving with one of the kids: whatever catches her eye, is what she talks about. We happened to be behind a sedan, filled with 4 people. In the backseat sat 2 men, one is bald and the other balding. We were at a red light so there was plenty of time to notice the occupants in the car in front of us. My mom made a comment about how different white people (as in Caucasians) look from us.
I peer at her from the side of my eye, thinking: what the hell is she talking about? Of course we look different; we're different ethnicities!
Then she said something like "Look at the bald man. Look at his skin. It's so bare."
Again, I give her another look, checking... for what I'm not sure. But I was just making sure she was OK.
"His skin is so... red. Everywhere. His head, his neck... It's red. Not like us. We're brown, yellow, even. But he's red."
Pause. I wasn't sure if this required a response, so I did the standard response I do with the kids: I said nothing.
And then I hear her muttering "Redneck. Redneck." Like Oh! that's what that means.
I started laughing. And couldn't stop. She of course wanted to know what was so funny but I couldn't tell her. I wanted to tell her because I didn't want her to use "redneck" out of context but I really couldn't tell her. I don't have a strong enough grasp of the Vietnamese language to explain what redneck really means. And clearly, I don't have enough mastery of the English language either to explain it in a way that she would understand.
I toyed with the idea of telling her not say that word but having experience with my children, I worried that it would just open a can of why's. So instead I told her I didn't think Baldy looked that red. He looked more tan. And remember Mom, he's white, so he wouldn't tan like us. Because he's different.
Ugh.
Thank goodness the kids weren't in the car.
I had to run a couple of errands on Saturday and my mom wanted to tag along. So there we were in the car, driving to the store. My mom is chatting about nothing in particular. It's almost like I'm driving with one of the kids: whatever catches her eye, is what she talks about. We happened to be behind a sedan, filled with 4 people. In the backseat sat 2 men, one is bald and the other balding. We were at a red light so there was plenty of time to notice the occupants in the car in front of us. My mom made a comment about how different white people (as in Caucasians) look from us.
I peer at her from the side of my eye, thinking: what the hell is she talking about? Of course we look different; we're different ethnicities!
Then she said something like "Look at the bald man. Look at his skin. It's so bare."
Again, I give her another look, checking... for what I'm not sure. But I was just making sure she was OK.
"His skin is so... red. Everywhere. His head, his neck... It's red. Not like us. We're brown, yellow, even. But he's red."
Pause. I wasn't sure if this required a response, so I did the standard response I do with the kids: I said nothing.
And then I hear her muttering "Redneck. Redneck." Like Oh! that's what that means.
I started laughing. And couldn't stop. She of course wanted to know what was so funny but I couldn't tell her. I wanted to tell her because I didn't want her to use "redneck" out of context but I really couldn't tell her. I don't have a strong enough grasp of the Vietnamese language to explain what redneck really means. And clearly, I don't have enough mastery of the English language either to explain it in a way that she would understand.
I toyed with the idea of telling her not say that word but having experience with my children, I worried that it would just open a can of why's. So instead I told her I didn't think Baldy looked that red. He looked more tan. And remember Mom, he's white, so he wouldn't tan like us. Because he's different.
Ugh.
Thank goodness the kids weren't in the car.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
They are here.
It's that time of year again. The time when Kael anxiously awaits the arrival of his special package from Uncle Thien. He doesn't know what he gets, but he knows it's going to be something cool. The real unknown is: how many legs? I've already established the Golden Rule of NO WINGS. If it flies, it dies. Tragically, an accident, could be by a shoe, or maybe a rolled up newspaper. However the accident happens, it will fly no more. I don't care where it came from, I don't care if it flew a million miles to land on Thien's desk and he sent it to Kael. If it flies, it dies. That is the rule.
Kael opening his long awaited package.
In the past Thien has sent us the silkworms in a box. A box. He plops them in, packs it with leaves and sends them on their way. They eat and eat, and by the time Kael gets them (2 days later) they have grown enough to literally burst out of the box when it's opened. This time Thien got fancy and put them in a container, which baffled Kael.
Prepping their new home.
Transferring the silkworms. Taede is so fascinated. Thanks to Kael, he loves bugs. In fact, "bug" was one of his first words.
Close-up. Why can't my kid be interested in something like.... grass? Or food? Or... or.... or even rocks. Why bugs?!
"What the heck is that?! Is it moving?!!"
Kael and worm, reunited.
All you squeamish people out there, this one's for you.
Taede was trying to grab the silkworms and Truong blocked him. We didn't want squishy worms. That would be very very bad.
But Taede was so insistent on touching one...
Miss Malia holding a silkworm, which I was a little surprised at since she's never wanted to hold them in the past. She's coming along, our little Princess. She let the ginormous Australian Leaf Insect crawl all over her and now she's holding a silkworm. Great -- all 3 kids are comfortable with bugs. Just freaking great.
Taede finally gets to hold one solo. His first time. He's being so careful.
"I told you you can trust me."
I can just see the battle to hold the worms each time we change out the leaves. It's going to be hard keeping him out of the box.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Corona Del Mar
Wednesday we took my sister and her family to Corona Del Mar. It's our favorite beach for various reasons -- the #1 reason being we can pretty much back up to the beach and not have to go far with all our gear. Well worth the $8 parking fee IMO. It was a perfect day for the beach. Probably the best beach day we've had. All 3 kids thoroughly enjoyed the beach, the weather was not hot and not chilly, I didn't have a crawler to hover over, Kael is an accomplished swimmer, Malia enjoys the sand more... and all that meant I was able to enjoy myself.
Starting the moat.
No beach trip is complete without putting the kids to work digging.
Beautiful picture of my niece heading for a dip. But pictures can be deceiving: the water was freezing!!
Not sure if they dug the moat around Taede or if he decided to squat his territory.
Taede helping with the digging. He moved sand from Spot A to Spot B, which was about 4 inches to the right.
The completed moat. The kids did pretty good. Truong added the architectural features of the towers.
'Allo, mate. Want to put a shrimp on the bar-bee?
Amelie enjoying the moat.
Kael and Amelia playing in the freezing cold water. Brrr!!
Ahh... nothing better than squishy, wet sand.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
First Pony Rides
Sorry my posts are posting backwards in time. I really should do this in chronological order but hell, count your lucky stars I'm posting at all! As Taede gets older, he occupies more of my time (translation: I can't leave him alone for a second or something undesired will happen) and it's very hard finding time to get anything done during the day.
So the moral of the story: no complaints if these posts make no sense in the order of time.
For Spring Break we met my sister and her family in Vegas for 4 days. (A more detailed account of this story will come later along with pictures.) Afterward, they followed us home and spent 3 days at our place before heading back up to Fremont. Day 1, Amelie requested to go pony riding at Irvine Regional Park. Day 2 was spent at Corona Del Mar -- again, to be hashed out later.
Anyway... here are the pictures from the pony rides at Irvine Regional Park.
I love love love the look on Taede's face: "What the hell?! It's moving its head!!"
This was the first time he's ever ridden something alive, not staked through the body with a steel post, going around in circles to Disney music. He refused to hold onto the saddle horn the first lap, and loosened up the last 2 laps to enjoy the ride. At least I think he enjoyed the ride; he wasn't giving that WTF look anymore.
"Why am I on this hairy, smelly beast? Where's the music?! And why does it stink like poo here?!"
Jarod on the bigger trotting pony.
Kael and Amelie are next. Kael has a love/hate relationship with the trot ponies. He gets tossed around which he doesn't like but refuses to ride on the "baby ponies."
Collin on the trot pony.
Malia rode the trot pony for the first time. She felt that she was a big girl and wanted to ride the big ponies. Riders have to be at least 3 years old and of course her age was questioned when it was her turn. I was a little apprehensive that she would get tossed because she's so little but they really cinched her in tight. She bounced like no other and to see her pigtails go to and fro was hi-larious! And when you add Malia chewing and snapping her gum while riding, I got a scary premonition of her in her tween years. Yikes.
The family, minus Malia, waiting for the hay ride. Which I have to say was very uncomfortable. Whoever says hay is suitable to sit on for an extended period of time is a LIAR! That stuff pokes through your clothes and leaves splinters!
Now my kids can say that they've been on a John Deer tractor.
These two are inseparable. They do everything together. It's very sweet.
Taede adores Jarod. Luckily the feeling is mutual because wherever Jarod is, Taede is climbing on him.
My awesome kids.
My sister's kids.
We were so sad when they left. The kids are already asking when can we go up to San Jose for a visit. Luckily for them, it will probably in May since we haven't seen my parents since Christmas. I think this is the longest they've gone without seeing their grandparents. They have been asking to go for months.
So the moral of the story: no complaints if these posts make no sense in the order of time.
For Spring Break we met my sister and her family in Vegas for 4 days. (A more detailed account of this story will come later along with pictures.) Afterward, they followed us home and spent 3 days at our place before heading back up to Fremont. Day 1, Amelie requested to go pony riding at Irvine Regional Park. Day 2 was spent at Corona Del Mar -- again, to be hashed out later.
Anyway... here are the pictures from the pony rides at Irvine Regional Park.
I love love love the look on Taede's face: "What the hell?! It's moving its head!!"
This was the first time he's ever ridden something alive, not staked through the body with a steel post, going around in circles to Disney music. He refused to hold onto the saddle horn the first lap, and loosened up the last 2 laps to enjoy the ride. At least I think he enjoyed the ride; he wasn't giving that WTF look anymore.
"Why am I on this hairy, smelly beast? Where's the music?! And why does it stink like poo here?!"
Jarod on the bigger trotting pony.
Kael and Amelie are next. Kael has a love/hate relationship with the trot ponies. He gets tossed around which he doesn't like but refuses to ride on the "baby ponies."
Collin on the trot pony.
Malia rode the trot pony for the first time. She felt that she was a big girl and wanted to ride the big ponies. Riders have to be at least 3 years old and of course her age was questioned when it was her turn. I was a little apprehensive that she would get tossed because she's so little but they really cinched her in tight. She bounced like no other and to see her pigtails go to and fro was hi-larious! And when you add Malia chewing and snapping her gum while riding, I got a scary premonition of her in her tween years. Yikes.
The family, minus Malia, waiting for the hay ride. Which I have to say was very uncomfortable. Whoever says hay is suitable to sit on for an extended period of time is a LIAR! That stuff pokes through your clothes and leaves splinters!
Now my kids can say that they've been on a John Deer tractor.
These two are inseparable. They do everything together. It's very sweet.
Taede adores Jarod. Luckily the feeling is mutual because wherever Jarod is, Taede is climbing on him.
My awesome kids.
My sister's kids.
We were so sad when they left. The kids are already asking when can we go up to San Jose for a visit. Luckily for them, it will probably in May since we haven't seen my parents since Christmas. I think this is the longest they've gone without seeing their grandparents. They have been asking to go for months.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
The Youth Expo
A couple of weeks ago Mrs. DuClos (Kael's art teacher at school) sent home a note stating that his art work would be displayed at the Youth Expo this weekend. Kael didn't know anything about it and I kept forgetting to ask her what it was all about. At first I thought maybe all the kids had their art displayed. However the note was handwritten to The Mai Family so maybe I have an artist who can draw something other than Pokemon's, Bakugan's and Star Wars battle scenes.
After a late breakfast, we headed over to the Fairgrounds to check it out. Working our way to the right building was complicated by many other distracting exhibits.
The Bug and Reptile Exhibit:
Just like Ms. Crystal's Bubba -- only way bigger.
Some kind of large (and thankfully slow) lizard walking towards Malia.
Taede is not afraid. Worrisome? Yes. Because I really don't want another bug-reptile lover in the house.
The Science Exhibit:
Playing the drums
Directing lightening
Making bubbles. HUGE bubbles.
The kids had the most fun here.
We probably could have made a bubble over Malia. They are that huge (and she's that little).
The Rainbow Bubble over Kael.
Kael, the Bubble Master.
And finally, the reason for our trip: Kael's Collage
Way to go Kael! We are so proud!
After a late breakfast, we headed over to the Fairgrounds to check it out. Working our way to the right building was complicated by many other distracting exhibits.
The Bug and Reptile Exhibit:
Just like Ms. Crystal's Bubba -- only way bigger.
Some kind of large (and thankfully slow) lizard walking towards Malia.
Taede is not afraid. Worrisome? Yes. Because I really don't want another bug-reptile lover in the house.
The Science Exhibit:
Playing the drums
Directing lightening
Making bubbles. HUGE bubbles.
The kids had the most fun here.
We probably could have made a bubble over Malia. They are that huge (and she's that little).
The Rainbow Bubble over Kael.
Kael, the Bubble Master.
And finally, the reason for our trip: Kael's Collage
Way to go Kael! We are so proud!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
