Yellow Ladybugs

Whereas Katrina gets to hang out with bunnies, crickets, tadpoles, butterflies, and praying mantises at school, the extent of Nathan's daily interaction with nature is to water plants and pick flowers from the backyard. Imagine his awe when I caught him his own "can" of 4 yellow lady bugs that he can pick up and look at all day long.

Walking in my heart

Katrina is pretty quick at making a comeback sometimes: One night during her bedtime routine, she exclaimed: "Jesus is in my heart !", pointing happily to the right side of her chest. Daddy gently pointed out that hearts are on the left side. Immediately she went, "well that's 'cause Jesus walks back and forth from here to here inside of me ! (moving her hand back and forth from one side to another). As usual, she thought it was hilarious and couldn't stop laughing at her own wittiness :)

Happy Birthday Nathan

We ran out of steam and didn't throw a big party for Nathan this year. On his special day, I took lots of breaks from work to play with him, served him his favorite foods and basically he was given carte blanche to do anything he wanted the whole day. The happy camper seemed to really enjoy his cake and homemade strawberry/apple/grape popsicle too :)

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