Bird and Butterfly Festival

Amongst all the Earth Day (month) activities, we decided on this event. Afterall, our neighborhood is named after a famous butterfly. We thought it'd be good for Nathan who's not yet in preschool to get some exposure to life sciences. Even though it's called Bird and Butterfly festival, it really was mostly about butterflies. The kids got to do a ton of crafts and also held butterflies (The docent applied a sugar solution to each kids hands and laid butterflies on their palms). Nathan still remembers the experience after a couple of weeks which makes it all worthwhile. Many Kudos to daddy whose allergies got a lot worse this year. He was a great sport and endured the pollen gracefully despite all the discomfort and sneezing.

Bird & Butterfly Festival

Cal Day

Cal Day was a lot of fun. Everything was free: cable car rides, admission to all museums, and all sort of activities. Although we didn't get to see the exhibits that were only open to the public once a year, the T-rex centerpiece alone was worth the trek to the Valley Life Sciences Building. It was nice to take the cable car around the campus and the shuttle to the Lawrence Hall of Science considering we just had earth day (the kids love taking public transportation anyway). Check out how much fun it was:

CalDay

咁我同邊個結婚好呀

Katrina's been noticing that her friends' parents are always together and are "married". Being the curious girl she is, she asked about married people and marriage. I told her when she grows up, she oughta find someone whom she loves very much and who's very nice to her because it's 'forever' and she'd have to be with him till she dies (yes, we've had the death talk a while back)

A little after our talk, she was a little worried and asked, "咁我同邊個結婚好呀 ?" [so who should I marry ?"]I told her it's something that she needn't worry about at this age, it won't be until after she's gone through lots of school

Daddy overheard our conversation and suggested, "咁最好同日日畀山渣餅你食嘅結婚人嘞" [you should marry someone who would give you your favorite Chinese snack everyday !] (then he winked and whispered to hint that he's sowing seeds in her heart to marry someone with at least some Chinese affiliation. After thinking for a sec, Katrina said to Daddy, "咁我咪應該同你結婚囉 ?" [Then I should marry you !] Daddy smiled and said "咁又唔得,因為已經我同mommy 結咗婚喇嘛." ["Oh, can't do that because I'm already married to mommy"]. As always, K likes to laugh at her own jokes and giggled non-stop for a while...

Colorful Neighborhood

Since some of the homes in our neighborhood are voted as "must see" in the Lights of the valley page, we took the gang to check out some very elaborately decorated homes complete with synchronized light displays to music playing to your FM receiver.

Colorful Neighborhood

Halloween festivities

The kids got dressed up for a couple of outdoor neighborhood events in the morning but it was so hot we had to undress them and ended up taking some glass pumpkin pictures instead. Fortunately, our friend's indoor party had the AC on so they got to stay in character for a little while before active Katrina got too warm in her extra cozy costume. Enjoy the album:

Halloween 2008

Mini pumpkin patch

This year we went with the Au family - we picked a smaller patch at a nursery 'cause both families have very young kids who can be easily overwhelmed. At first I worried it might not be as fun as those mega farms but the kids still had fun, thanks to the unexpected "play" patch and a train show that happened to be there also.

There was this cool pony ride where the ponies weren't harnassed to a merry-go-round type structure but were allowed to roam around. We were going to let Marcus and Katrina ride along together but our kids got up late that morning and we had to meet other families for dim sum so they missed out this time, but there's always next year !

Katrina did try a stunt she hadn't tried before though - check out the album:

Pumpkin Patch 2008

Charisse's B-day party

It was a fun outdoor party for everyone

Enjoy the album:

Charisse's 3rd B-day

Love is....

Katrina started saying "I love you" to us a lot recently. Jonathan wasn't exceptionally excited because he thought it's not very meaningful when they say it at this age thinking she probably didn't know what she's saying or was just saying it for fun. One day I asked her if she knew what "I love you" meant, she said "即係好鍾意你囉 !" I went "係嘞 !" and felt it validated my mommy instinct that knew she meant what she said even before she answered.

A few days later, Katrina said "I love you" while she and Nathan were having breakfast together. Nathan the copycat then went "I LUB YOU" loudly too. I turned from packing lunch and noticed a big pool of milk on the floor right in front of his seat (he had intentionally "spooned" milk from his cup to the floor, a favorite stunt performed often whenever I turned my back for just a moment) With a sigh, I commented while I was wiping off the spill, "如果你知道'I love you"點解, 你就唔會特登倒啲奶落地下啦, 咁你知唔知道 'I love you' 點解呀?" While Nathan just looked at me with his big round eyes, Katrina answered wisely "即係唔叫你做辛苦嘅嘢 !"