We took DD to Lowe's this morning to do our usual bi-weekly "Build and Grow" event. As usual DD had a great time building with her daddy. Today she made a treasure box. She did exceptionally well today. She was able to hammer all of the nails without her daddy's help-- although DH read the instructions and put the wood pieces together for her to nail. Here's the photos from today. You can see how much fun DD was having. Showing off her new hammer. There were so many people there for the event that they had to open a new box of kid size hammers.
Very excited about building a treasure box.
Waiting for daddy to finish reading the instructions.
Finally, time to hammer!
Checking out her treasure paper.
All done with the treasure box. By the way, DD is wearing a dragon bracelet I got for her from the OC fair. She really loves it, the dragon bracelet is handcrafted and totally adorable.
Time to leave Lowe's and grab some lunch at Cost Co.
This was the treasure box DD built.
It is a very cute little box.
After Lowe's, we went to Cost Co. to grab some lunch and do a little shopping. As usual, DD asked for hot dogs.
She loves eating the hot dogs there.
" Yummy in my tummy."
As we were leaving Cost Co. I took a couple of photos of DD.
Today was the opening day to the OC Superfair in Costa Mesa. I took DD there to meet up with Lara, Irene and their kids. From 12 to 1, you can park and get into the fair for free, so we left the house at 11:15 to get there. We arrived at 11:45 and waited in line for 30 minutes to get in. To keep DD occupied as we waited, I gave her some snacks to eat. This was the line in front of us, the line behind us was even worst. I guess everyone wants to park and get in for free.
When we got there, we went to the Fun Zone first so that the kids can run around and play.
The kids had a lot of fun playing in the huge sand box.
Lindsay thought it would be fun to make a snow angel in the sand box. She was loving it.
DD trying her hands at the hula hoop. I think it was either too big for her or she did not understand how to use it.
Of course, none of that stopped her from having fun.
She liked spinning it around and around.
Following some drama (Katie and Savahanna were fighting over some toys in the sand box & they were both sent to time-out), we sat the kids down for a quick snack. This was the only way we could get them to sit still for a minute.
It was impossible to get all of them to look at the camera at the same time.
See, even my own daughter refused to look at the camera.
After playing at the Fun Zone, we walked around to grab some food. I was surprised to see Frog legs as something you can get at the fair (by the way, it is true that it taste just like chicken). I thought of DH because I know he would totally try that if he was there with us today.
It was crazy hot (I was the only one we got sun burn though....lucky me), so we got the kids Icee. I love Icee and it was prefect for a hot day like today.
The kids thoroughly enjoyed their icee.
After lunch, we walked around to check out the different booths to see what people are selling at the fair. Lindsay thought it was fun to pull her dress up and wear it as a hat. Lara tried to get Lindsay to pull her dress down many times to no avail.
Around 3, Bryan (Irene's husband) came to fair to meet up with us. Savahanna and DD immediately went to him.
We went to the barn to check out the cows. It was very stinky, and surprising enough the kids just did not care for the cows.
We decided to take the kids to the petting zoo, the kids were really excited about that.
DD used to be very afraid of the goats, but I guess she is not anymore.
We left the fair and got home around 5. Because DD was so dirty from playing in the sand box and running around at the fair, I gave her a shower when we got back. We went down for a nap about 5:30 and did not get up until 8. I was soooo exhausted and my feet were extremely tired too (I am totally out of shape). Anyhow, DD had so much fun today, she could not stop talking about it all night now. By the time we were getting her ready for bed, she was still smiling from ear to ear.
I am super glad she had fun today. Hanging out with the moms and kids really helped me relieve some of the anxiety and stress I have been dealing with this past week.
As some of you already know by now that my father passed away recently. It was a complete shock to myself and DH. I lost my mother to cancer when I was in college, now losing my father to cancer has been difficult for me to grasp and comprehend. For the past few days, we have tried our best to sort out the mess and figure out how to go on with our lives. I thought about blogging, but such activity seems so meaningless comparing to dealing with death. To be honest, I really did not much to say. As I look back, I realize that I actually know very little about my parents, and my fear is that my daughter will know even less about them. Subsequently, I decided to start a new blog that is completely private so that will document my memories of them for DD. I hope that it's something she will find helpful when she becomes an adult. This is as much as I am going to say about my father's death because I can't really discuss (or even type) about it without breaking down to a sobbing mess. I do want to take a moment to thank my friends for their warm thoughts and prayers, they are deeply appreciated.
DD is too young to understand death, and since my father had been living in Thailand for more than 3 years, she knows nothing about him. I am glad that death is not something she needs to understand or deal with right now. In any case, we are keeping DD's life and schedule as normal as possible. As far as she is concerned, the world is still the same and nothing has changed.
Now, here's what DD has been up to this fast few days. On Monday, we met some friends at the park for a watermelon playdate. It was a very hot day and the heat made DD's rash worst, so we did not stay long. But she was happy to play at the park even if it was for only a short while. The slides were too hot for her so she stayed on her swing most of the time. You can see our friends in the backgroud. After playing on the swing, she went back for more watermelons.
Then it was time to roll down the hill.
Wearing red to make sure the watermelon stain won't show.
There was a large plastic tree at the park and DD really liked it.
Peeking in to see what's inside of the plastic tree.
On Wednesday, DD started her very first Gymnastics Class. She had a blast. She loved all of the different activites the class did & she was adorable! By the way, she did great for her first class. I got a couple of pictures in. In this photo, her teacher is helping her up on the low beam.
DD boucing her way across the trampoline.
I am really glad that she had so much fun at her gymnastics class. I think we will probably let her attend classes there until she is tired of it.
I went to the marketplace on Saturday morning to pick some fruits and vegetables. While I was there, I brought a bag of peaches because it was only $1. Sadly, the peaches were just ok. Seeing that there is no chance anyone would be eating the peaches and not wanting to waste food, I decided to make a peach pie with the unwanted peaches. This is my first time ever making a pie, and I am super happy with the way it turned out. The crust turned out amazing good. This is what my peach pie look like :). Here's my recipe for the pie crust in case anyone is interested in making their own pies too. This recipe is enough to make the bottom and top crust.
*2 1/2 cups of flour (You can use all purpose flour, but I did not have any so I ended up using bread flour instead) * 1 teaspoon of salt * 1 cup of butter (2 sticks of butter) * 1/4 cup of cold water
Mix flour with salt and then add the butter to the mixture bit by bit using a fork. Add cold water to the mixture 1 tablespoon at a time and fork each time. Continue to do this until mixture has the dough-like texture. Use your hand to divide the dough into 2 parts and roll out the dough to make the bottom & top piece of the pie. For my peach pie, instead of doing a normal top to cover the pie filling, I rolled out the dough and use the mouth of a small cup to cut out 17 pieces and lay them on the pie by overlapping them. You might need more or less pieces depending on how much overlapping you do and how large your pie is.
This is one of my all time favorite songs. I cried every time I listen to it because it is so sweet. It is in Taiwanese and I have been wanting to translated it into English for DH. Anyhow, I finally got around to doing it so that I can give it to him on our wedding anniversary. I don't know if my translation catpures how beautiful the lyrics are, but here it is:
English: One day when we are old and can't find anyone to care for us, I will sit with you and listen to you talk about your accomplishments as a young man. The ups and downs will not matter to me, and I will not cast blames on heaven and earth. I will tightly hold onto your hands because I am your wife*.
My youth will be given to you and your family, I will follow you from now until I am old. I have seen past the good and bad of this world, There is no one as important as you are to me. With my entire life scrificed to build our home, I learn that happiness is the day to day living with you. When it is time for us to die, I will let you go before me, Because I will not be able bare to see you cry for me.
One day when we are old and have children to look after us. If you are bored, you can take out photos from your youth to see how handsome you were. Material things will not matter to me, and I will not complain about everything and nothing. I will always remember your love because I am your wife.
My youth will be given to you and your family, I will follow from now until I am old. I have seen past the good and bad of this world, There is no one as important as you are to me. With my entire life scrificed to build our home, I learn that happiness is the day to day living with you. When it is time for us to die, I will let you go before me, Because I will not bare to see you cry for me.
*This phase is a play on words. The word for wife in Taiwanese is "Jin Shou," which also means the person holding your hand.
I grew up in Southern Taiwan where there were literally acres and acres of bamboo forests every where. My best friend lived about 10 minutes (walking distance) from my house and her father owned a bamboo furniture factory when we were growing up. I have very fond memories of bamboo not only because I grew up spending a lot of time playing amongst bamboo trees but also because of the nice bamboo furniture we used to own. As an adult, I really like the simplicity of bamboo and I also love the fact that they lessen the impact we place on the earth's limited natural resources. In any case, I was introduced to Bambu by the co-op group I belong to. I tried some bowls about a year ago and totally loved it, so during our last co-op buy, I ended up ordering a bunch of stuff.
One of the things I brought was the Bamboo Knife, Fork & Spoon Set (I got 5 sets of these). I love that they are made of bamboo so that they are completely sustainable. I also don't have to worry if these are BPA free-- of course they are, they are made of 100% natural material :).
Another thing I got was the Mini-Me's Hand Coiled Bamboo Bowl (8 of these for DD). These bowls are coiled by hand and finished with a unique lacquering process that impregnates each bamboo bowl with 18 layers of natural food-safe lacquer.
Anyhow, although they are more pricy that the plastic stuff we used to buy, but the bambu products are amazingly well made. They are also a pleasure to look at. The photos just don't do them justice at all. Other than how nice they feel to touch and how beautifully made they are, here's some information I pulled off the bambu website:
" Because bamboo is not a wood, but a species of grass, it grows incredibly fast - and never needs replanting. We at bambu use only 100% organically grown bamboo. Bamboo reduces our reliance on valued timber. Bamboo is also a vital aid to water and land conversation efforts around the world. Bamboo offers vital economic and ecological benefits to the lives of millions of people around the world. Bamboo is an important and plentiful non-timber, non-petroleum resource."
"We work directly with the people that make our products. That means our manufacturing partners are personally selected by meeting a number of criteria, environmental concerns, fair labor practices, proper training, and health and safety standards. We do not work through brokers or middleman, and thus, are fully accountable for our manufacturing centers. Our factories have been audited for worker health, safety and environmental protection by an internationally recognized independent auditing firm. bambu contributes to environmentalorganizations through an alliance with 1% FOR THE PLANET bambu supports cottage industries as they support local communities bambu supports Fair Trade practices bambu is a member of Co-Op America and are listed in 'The Green Pages'"
I am a full time stay at home mom who loves to craft and making stuff for my DD. If you see anything you like on my blog and would like to purchase some please contact me through my ETSY store or my online store (www.sugarpopribbons.com), and I will be happy to give you a quote.
Showing off her new hammer. There were so many people there for the event that they had to open a new box of kid size hammers.
Very excited about building a treasure box.
Waiting for daddy to finish reading the instructions.
Finally, time to hammer!
Checking out her treasure paper.
All done with the treasure box. By the way, DD is wearing a dragon bracelet I got for her from the OC fair. She really loves it, the dragon bracelet is handcrafted and totally adorable.
Time to leave Lowe's and grab some lunch at Cost Co.
This was the treasure box DD built.
It is a very cute little box.
After Lowe's, we went to Cost Co. to grab some lunch and do a little shopping. As usual, DD asked for hot dogs.
She loves eating the hot dogs there.
" Yummy in my tummy."
As we were leaving Cost Co. I took a couple of photos of DD.
What a silly girl!
