4th of July 2008

It's the long weekend for 4th of July so time for parties and fireworks. We went to Aidan's 1st birthday party at Kid's Island first. There was a lot of activities for the kids to do: playing ball, dress up, slide/swing/tunnel, playing pretend.






For July 4th, it is always tradition to go to Doug brother's house for fireworks. His backyard faces Almansor Park so we get to watch beautiful fireworks without dealing with trafffic. We had BBQ short ribs, Vietnamese rolls, sashimi, papaya salad and fruits. Here is the grand finale of the 20 minutes fireworks show:

Summer Activities

The kids went to their first baseball game on Monday 6/30 Anaheim Angels vs. Oakland Athletics. My sister won 4 tickets from the radio station 93.9. The seats were really far from the home plate but we wanted the kids to experience a game. We were rooting for the Angels but they lost with a score of 1 to 6. Here are some pics from the event.





During the summer, a lot of parks hold concerts. The kids can dance or jump while enjoying a picnic outdoors. Levitt Pavilion in Pasadena has Children's Night on Wednesdays. You can check out their performance schedule here at http://www.levittpavilionpasadena.org/ I made sushi for the adults and the kids had Little Caesar's $5 Hot and Ready pizza for July 2nd performance by Joanie Bartels.

Summer is here!

The official start of summer was June 21st this year. It has been HOT! Last weekend was over 100 degrees at San Gabriel. We cooled off by spending time in the apartment complex pool. Yesterday we went to a pool birthday party. The pool was filled with parents and kids. Everyone enjoyed the cooling pool. Today we packed the kids up and went to the Huntington Library. We signed up for membership at Huntington Library because it is really close to our home and the kids can enjoy the beautiful flowers and scenery. It was 90 degrees today so we spent about an hour and half at the Children's Garden, Japanese Garden and the new Chinese Garden.

Maui Vacation 6/3-6/9 2008

This is our 2nd vacation trip to Maui. We went last year also around the first week of June, before the peak summer season begins. We stayed at Kapalua Villa for both trips because we love the open space so the kids can run around, there's the full kitchen so we can cook and washer/dryer. This year we stayed at a 2 bedroom villa. Thank goodness we booked our vacation in late March or else the airfare would have been outrageous. 2 of the airlines that service Hawaii (Aloha and ATA) filed for bankruptcy a few days after we confirmed our trip. This was a long awaited vacation for us. This time we traveled with our friends "The Caos". It was their baby's aerial trip. Even though there was a washer/dryer at the villa, I over packed for the kids and myself. In the end, we packed 2 suitcases of clothes and 1 golf case of clubs. Overall, it was a relaxing trip. We enjoyed ourselves at the pool, beach, got suntanned/burnt, ate a lot of delicious food and took tons of pictures.








What made this trip weird for me was we encountered some cockroaches and a toad, I lost and recovered my house keys, got my cell phone wet, lost and recovered my cell phone. As I previously posted in my blog, my brain has been deteriorating ever since parenthood. Of course that's not an excuse but I am so grateful for those nice people out there...the person who found my keys and turned it into the resort security and the lady who found my cell in the restroom. All I can say is "We'll be back, Maui"

Sarah's 2nd Birthday 5/22/08

We celebrated Sarah's birthday at CPK California Pizza Kitchen. Sarah got a free Birthday meal for signing up with the CPKids. She ordered the Fusilli with Meat Sauce, Apple Juice and a Sundae for dessert...in the end, it was the adults who ate up the dessert. There will be another blog post for the combined Banh family birthday party on May 25 (Sunday). Jackie, Sarah's Cousin, turned 6 on May 23rd.




Sarah and Jackie's birthday party bash pictures at Live Oak Park, Temple City
May 25, 2008 (Sunday) Pictures courtesy of Jack Muramatsu.

Mother's Day 2008

Darren brought home a self made Mother's Day card from preschool. He kept wishing me a "Happy Mother's Day" throughout the whole weekend. He used only use 1 color for the entire picture but lately he has been using more colors, which is a big accomplishment. His writing is still a little sloppy but it's pretty good since he is a true lefty. Eats, writes and cuts with his left hand. Anyways, I had sinusitis over Mother's Day weekend so I wasn't really up to going out or celebrating. Daddy took the kids to grandma's house for a few hours so I could rest up. Thank you Doug, Darren and Sarah for a great mother's day!

Sibling Love

Today was a good day. Darren and Sarah played nicely together. Here are a few pictures and video of Darren and Sarah singing together. It was a rare occurrence for Darren to rock his sister in the bouncer. Most of the time, he wants whatever Sarah has. Sarah idolizes her brother so she copies whatever he does.