Fun day with Jessica and Meimei

Jessica and her kids got back from Taiwan a few days ago, so we met up with them for lunch today. After I picked DD up from preschool, we went straight to Irvine to meet up with them. DD was so excited to see Meimei, she had been asking for her friend for weeks now. As soon as they saw each other, they started running in circles.

After about 15 minutes of chatting with Jessica while our kids were going nuts running in circles, we went to have some Ramen. DD was instantly impressed by the statue of the little girl holding a bowl of ramen.

DD was very excited about eating lunch with her friend Meimei.

Jessica and Meimei.

The ramen was delicious! It was as good as my favorite ramen place in Huntington Beach, so now we don't have to drive that far north to get good ramen. After lunch, we went and got some frozen yogurt for dessert.

Meimei got some too (because you know that if one kid gets something, all of the other kids want to get the exact same thing).

DD was running off with Jessica's purse, she was calling it her purse. LOL!

We had a great time catching up with our friends. Excellent company and tasty food! We could not ask for anything else.

Except there was something else. While Jessica was in Taiwan, I asked her to pick up a few things for me and she got everything I requested for. 6 bags of high end hand-picked Taiwanese tea, 1 cal-king size bamboo mat and the 2 books I wanted. I reimbursed Jessica for everything I asked for because the stuff I wanted were kind of expensive. For example, the 6 little loose tea packages were $80.

Because I insisted on paying for the stuff I requested, Jessica got me a bunch of stuff as gifts. 1 huge bag of sweet potato snack (yummy!), 1 box of Chinese wedding cake (double yummy!), 1 thermos cup, and 1 large package of Mu Er. This is the reason why Jessica is my bff. She knows the key to my heart is food. ROFL!

I was pretty excited about the bamboo mat* Jessica brought back too. As soon as I got home, I cleaned it and put it on our bed. It is the prefect size! Hooray! DH will be so excited when he sees it tonight (especially since he is the one who asked for it).

* Bamboo mats are very common in Taiwan. Because Taiwan is a tropical island, it gets very hot and humid in the summer. To stay cool, Taiwanese people put bamboo mats on chairs, sofas and their beds. Whenever it gets hot, DH would talk about how much he loved the bamboo mats in Taiwan and how he was able to stay cool while he was sleeping because of the mats. During our last move, we lost our bamboo mat (misplaced it somewhere), so he had been complaining about how he NEEDS a new bamboo mat. Thankfully, Jessica was heading back to Taiwan and her brother, after much research, was able to get one for us that actually fits our cal-king size bed.

Gymnastics Wednesday

DD had gymnastics class today. I took a few of photos of her doing her thing. Today was her fourth class and we just signed her up for another month. I think that attending gymnastics class is good for her on several levels. Not only that she is getting great excise, she is also learning how to follow instructions. Hopefully, one day, the gymnastic classes will be able to teach her discipline. Anyhow, for now, she is having so much fun with it and having fun is her only job right now ^_^.

After gymnastics, we met with with our friends Lara, Katie and Lindsay for a lunch playdate at McDonald's. The kids had a lot of fun eating together and they also enjoyed creating chaos as Lara and I shopped at Walmart. What a crazy busy fun day we had.

Mission Viejo Lake Playdate

We went to the lake with Lara, Katie and Lindsay today. As soon as we got there, Katie and DD decided that it would be fun to roll down the little hill in the middle of the parking lot.
When we got to the lake, the kids could not wait to get into the water.

Poor Lindsay was also excited to get into the water. She got so excited that she fell and drank some of the lake water.

The kids just love being in the water.

Today was a good day to be playing in the water.

There were quiet a few fish in the water and the girls tried really hard to catch one.

They could not catch a fish, but luckily I brought some plastic sharks for them to play with.

You can see our little set up in the backgroup. Glad I was able to put my beach chair and shade into good use for once this year.

The kids decided to play in the sand for a while.

Katie and DD made some new friends.

You can tell how much fun DD was having.

I have to admit that I was loving the cool water too.

DD, Katie and their new friends got together to build a sand castle.

After all of the hard playing, it was time for some lunch.

We had a great time at the lake. Can't wait to do it again soon :).

Lowe's Build & Grow: Helicopter

Yesterday morning we took DD to Lowe's Build and Grow event. When she woke up in the morning, she was very excited. She asked when her daddy was going to take her to "hammer, hammer."
Waiting for daddy to finish reading the instructions.

This was when she actually hammered daddy's finger. Poor daddy!

Could not wait for the helicopter to finish!

Playing with the pieces of wood while daddy was trying to figure out a tricky part of the helicopter.

Then we saw Lara with Katie and Lindsay. DD was so happy to see her friend, Katie.

All done with the helicopter. DD was very impressed. She could not stop looking at it.

So happy with the new toy she just made with her daddy.

We love making jewelery!

This photo is totally not related to jewelery making. I took this when DD went to her gymnastic class this morning. As usual she had a lot of fun, I love how silly the kids are. I also think that the coach is pretty courageous for taking on so many kids.
After we got home from gymnastics class, lunch, and a trip to Michael's, DD and I sat down to make some jewelery.

If you are not sure how excited she was, this was how happy she was. She is such a girly girl. She wants to wear necklaces and bracelets all the time. I brought her some jewelery from the dollar bin at Target awhile back. But, being the 3 year old she is, she frequently lose her things (especially when she insists on wearing her jewelery to school). So, armed with my coupons, I went to Joann's and Michel's & got some supplies so we can make the jewelery at home. It has been working out really well because the beads are relatively cheap; as such, if she loses her jewelery, it is really no big deal. An extra added bonus to making our own jewelery is that DD really enjoys doing the craft with me. So far we have made at least 3 necklaces and 3 bracelets together.

We made a cupcake cake necklace today. Both Michael's and Joann's have $1 necklace kits that comes with wooden beans. I combine the $1 kits with the loose beads I brought separately for DD to make her jewelery. I always hold one end of the necklace while DD threads the other end with beads.

Pretty excited by how her necklace was coming along.

Pretty necklace that DD made by herself.

Being the girly girl she is, she always wants to make a matching bracelet.

Look at those fingers at work.

I could not get her to hold her hand up so I can take a photo of her bracelet, she just looked confused, lol!

I also picked up a a few things from Michael's and made this necklace for myself.

Anyhow, I really enjoy making the jewelery with DD. I think it is a great activity for her. There are many benefits from doing the craft with her. Not only that it helps with her hand-eye coordination, she also feel great about being able to accomplish a task and then able to proudly wear her achievement (the jewelery). While we are making the jewelery, I am also teaching DD about patterns and reviewing colors and shapes with her. Oh, and it is great mother-daughter bonding time too. It is just all around a great thing ^_^!