Summer 2010

I am beginning to associate painted faces with summer fun.

g, my budding artist

I am really proud of all the things g creates. I realized that I haven't shared many of them recently. So here you go.

The diorama was her idea. The straw on the butterfly is to simulate movement. She told her dad to cut a slit on the top so that she can slide the butterfly from side.

Seldom heard in a bathroom

s, in a particularly gleeful mood, one morning exclaimed quite loudly as she exited the bathroom, "it smells DELICIOUS in here."

Butterflies

s and I were cuddled in bed this morning. We both didn't want to get up. It was cold. The sky was dark and it was warm under the covers. s started to talk about the butterfly decals in her room.

She pointed to the largest one and said that it was the jie-jie one (big sister). The smaller blue one was hers. Then she pointed to one of the smaller ones and said that it was the the mommy one. Finding it quite odd that the mommy one was substantially smaller than the other butterflies, I asked her why she thought the mommy one should be the smallest.

She then said without missing a beat that the mommy one was small because she had to be in Flaw-dah (Florida). She was really far away and that's why she is small.

This makes me want to cry.

Curry night at the C's

After a morning celebrating Mother Earth, the Family C decided to do curry night for dinner. What's curry night without a pile of naan? This batch turn out really well.

Here's g with a dal curry naan pizza.

s in her aunt jemima outfit. I did spring cleaning today and found this outfit. Not sure where it came from but s loves that auntie j kerchief.

Wacky moments at dinner time.

I don't like my food staring at me!!!!

heard on the homefront

Another "funny" s moment (in quotes because I am not sure if it is funny or just plain scary):

Her nanny was putting her down for her nap. I guess she must have been resisting. So the nanny said, "I am going to count to 5. You better go to sleep." s responded, "I am going to count to 10. You better get out of here."

I guess you would need to have a smart mouth when you are a dishwasher.

heard on the homefront

This is from daddy:

Over lunch we asked s what she wanted to be when she grew up.
She told us she wanted to be a dishwasher!

++++++++++

I guess I can reduce her college savings plan.

Snow!

 

 

 

 

Snow day for the kids.

The Iconic Bohol Photo

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Originally uploaded by tychuaco

When dreaming of Bohol (beautiful island in the Philippines to the non-Filipino), this is the image that comes to mind. We were racing our way back to shore in our banca (small boat) so that we could get on a bigger boat to ensure that we make our plane back to Manila. On the way, the guide roused this clown fish up from its anemone and g gamely held out her hand. The fish rested on her palm for a second. Then Nemo was passed on to another excited little kid. It was back home in a blink.

This moment however is timeless, a happy end to a perfect day.

g and her best friend

 

the princess and the witch

A Belated Birthday Post

 

Happy birthday to my littlest girl.

A new game?

it went something like this:

g: (big sister, turns to little sister): Let's play a game.
s: Sure
g: This is the game. The one who is bigger gets to play with the toy.

hmmm. Not much of a game.

Cinco Calabesitas

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Originally uploaded by tychuaco

Here's a video of Spanish Halloween song.

We have made the decision of signing g up for a Spanish immersion program through the local public school. Half her school day is taught in Spanish while the rest is in English. I had a bit of hesitation since she speaks Mandarin to her nanny, a bit of Cantonese to her gmom. I thought that it might be too much language.

Again, little g surprised me with what she can truly learn. I am so proud of her.

Happy Birthday, s!

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Originally uploaded by tychuaco

Time has flown, little wonder. I can't believe it's been 3 years.

My indefatigable love, happy birthday to you.

Can you say "trouble"?

s was misbehaving. I think it had to do with throwing clothing around or changing out of her tutu. Either way it was an escalating non-so-good situation.

The nanny told her that her mommy would not want her to be doing that.

Her response?

"My mommy's not here."

Can you say "trouble"?

The Family goes to Hershey

As in years past, we packed the chillun' into the family vehicle and headed out. This time we settled on Hershey Park. This time I had left the planning to G. (Work has been out of control that I barely had time to absorb our itinerary.)

.

 

First stop - Chocolate World. Having been to Hershey Park previously, we decided against doing another amusement park. The kids are too small for most rides and the adults will be tending to the kids who won't be able to ride. We went to the chocolate tour. It is much like the "It's a small world" ride in Disney. The kids enjoyed it. Their favorite part - free chocolate samples.

We went to the Hershey Trolley Tour next. The reviews on the tour had said that it was a little hokey. Well, the reviewers spoke the truth. It was a lighthearted jaunt through the life of Milton Hershey and the town that he built. If you are not into lighthearted jaunts with a generous dash of "moonlight bay" sing-a-longs, I would recommend that you pass. A bit longer than the kids could tolerate as well.

Serendipity! We discovered that a music festival/fair was happening in Harrisburg. A short drive from Hershey, it was also where our hotel was. It was a small scale affair but houses in Harrisburg was a treat. The kids watched a puppet show (with a rather disturbing song about marrying one's cousin - appalachia joke?), went on a few rides while enjoying a beautiful view of the Susquehanna River.

 

Another lovely discovery is the Children's Garden at Hershey Park. It is part of a bigger garden but the kids could have stayed in the Chidren's Garden. It had a small butterfly garden, funky fountains, whimsical sculptures and a variety of "please touch" plants. There was even a little outdoor theatre.

 

There was also a nice safari/zoo park close by. Lake Tobias has a small safari. There were only a few wow animals. They had some bears, a tiger, lions. It is a nice size for preschoolers and toddlers but bigger kids might find it too simple. I do love the petting zoo at this place though. It can be best described as a farm experience. You enter a corral of goats and llamas. They roam freely around you and you are free to feed and pet them. Cool.

 

However one of my favorite part was the almost traffic-free drive home. That was the last bit of happy to complete a great trip.

Greetings from the Sweetest Place on Earth!

 

The family went to Hershey park over the weekend. It turned out to be a wonderful weekend albeit slightly chilly.

Happy Fathers Day 2009

a post from G:

g made a card and a gift for me a few days before Father's Day last week at school. I saw the card and wrapped gift in the living room for days but I made a promise to her that I would wait until Sunday to open it. Every morning from Thursday til Sunday she would ask me if it was Father's day yet. When Sunday finally arrived, she was so happy. Her first words that morning from her top bunk were "Happy's father's Day." She presented me with a fancy card she drew herself and also my present wrapped in construction paper with a picture of her on it. Inside the wrapping was a laminated picture of her made into a keychain.

Not to be outdone, the day after while I was cooking lunch for the kids in the morning, Sydney found a H&M clothing tag in the living room and convinced the nanny to loop an orange ribbon though it. She then taped an orange jewel to the front and presented it to me and said "For you daddy, happy father day" and then ran away. Now I have two keychains but not enough keys to put them on.

Memory

The moral of the lesson is to never underestimate your kids.

We have purchased g a Dora memory game ages ago. There are about 72 cards on a deck so I "assumed" (you know what they say about assuming) that g would not be able to handle remembering the full desk. I usually play the game using only about 12 cards.

This weekend she played with dad who laid out the entire set. I told him that it might be too much but he persisted.

g won 24 to 11. (one card is lost so the last pair could not be made)

Needless to say G needs to do more BrainAge.

g art series

 

Another one of g's art work. She twisted all of this herself. The obvious part is a flower. The orange part are the leaves. The black part at the bottom is the dirt. The black part on top (by the petals of the flower) is supposed to be a butterfly.