Sarah Baby Photo Book

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Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!
We celebrated Valentine's Day at Buca Di Beppo for dinner. The kids enjoyed the pepperoni pizza, linguine, green beans and free dessert (chocolate dipped strawberries). Thank goodness I made reservations early because the wait time for walk in was 1 and half hour long. We did well in polishing off the food now that Buca has "Small" sized dishes. We even saved $$ because we used a $10 coupon when I signed up for their Eclub online.

Saving every bit counts nowadays. News of layoffs have been very depressing. At my current workplace, they have started to lay off some people. I don't know when and if I will be the next to go. Thank goodness we haven't bought a house or else financial pressures would be heavier. We decided to keep Darren at Lily's Garden for Kindergarten next year. We feel Lily's Garden is a good place where Darren can learn more for the future. The extra year at Lily's Garden will be costly but the benefits will hopefully show in his future.

Here are some pictures from our Disneyland trip:

Chinese New Year 2009

I have been a little lazy in updating the blog...even Doug has been complaining. I haven't uploaded the December 2008 Mexican Rivera cruise and holiday pictures (I will do that soon hopefully)

Chinese New Year this year was on January 26. This year is 4707 (Year of the Ox)

We usually have dinner with family before the Lunar New Year's day. Doug's mother made a lot of food (an abalone dish, shark fin soup, hot pot, noodles and Vietnamese cold cuts) which is a lot of work. Some of the kids wore the traditional Chinese outfits. Darren was excited to wear them that he ripped the pants the previous night. There was a gaping hole in the butt area, guess the silk material is not suitable for rumbustious kid like Darren. Sarah actually had 2 outfits to choose from. I will post the other outfit picture(yellow & red) soon. Sarah was adamant in wearing the blue one, it's difficult to reason with a 3 yr old on fashion.

Lily's Garden X'mas Performance 2008

This year's Christmas performance is extra special. It was Sarah's debut and Darren get to perform more. Enough said...Enjoy!

Halloween 2008

This year's Halloween was on a Friday and the weather is still warm. Our kids wore their costumes to school and had Halloween parties. It is family tradition to get together for dinner at Doug's parents house. All cousins, except for the 2 "BIG" boys, went trick or treating. Sarah was dressed as Minnie Mouse and Darren as Power Ranger. In the morning Sarah was reluctant to wear the "Mouse Ears" but by nighttime she was fine with it. Darren, the brat, wanted to the first to ring the doorbell and ask for candy. After returning to their grandparents', the kids tossed all the candy on the floor, sorted the ones to keep and the ones to re-give. At home, Doug hid all the leftover candies to avoid the kids asking for more.

Pumpkin Festival 2008

Last weekend was the Annual Pumpkin Festival at Kidspace Museum in Pasadena. This was the 2nd year we attended it. Darren and Sarah can better appreciate the activities such as bouncers, pumpkin decorating, face painting. Here are pictures of their painted faces. These were taken with my cellphone camera because our Canon S3 camera lens was jammed :(...Oh well, I am just thankful of cellphone cameras!

Yes to those that know Darren, Darren was patient enough to wait for his face to be painted as Spiderman! Sarah was actually dozing off at face painting, it was afterall her nap time.

Halloween is coming up in a few days so stay tuned for our kids in Halloween costumes. Now I just have to borrow a camera somewhere.

School for Sarah & Darren

In September, Darren has moved into the pre-K class Room 1 at Lily's Garden. Sarah is now on her own in Room 5 and her teachers (Ms. Kelly and Ms. Lily) say she has adjusted very well. After almost 2 months of preschool, she has become more talkative....singing songs when she goes the bathroom and using full sentences sometimes. I think it is still stressful for her to adjust to the rigorous school schedule(filled with indoor and outdoor activities). Also after starting school, she has been getting sick more often (coughing and runny nose). The good still outweighs the bad. Here is a videoclip of her cute little singing voice.

Darren meanwhile has a lot more challenging school work. He is learning to read and spell simple words. He has moved onto to more educational videos such as Word World. This month marks the 1st month of Chinese language class. He didn't want to learn Chinese in the beginning but lately he had surprised all of us. He is learning the basics of Zhu Yin and he has learned a couple of phrases/songs. Doug and I hope his interest in Chinese will continue because it is important to know his family heritage. $100/month is worth it! Here is a clip of his mandarin skills.