Visit to Trice Jewelers

We bought our engagement from Larry of Trice Jewelers and have gone back nearly every year for our anniversary to buy something to add to my jewelry collection. We haven't done it in maybe 3-4 yrs due to fact that i never wear any of the jewelry that we've purchased!!!

Anyways, Alan wants to buy me a eternity ring for our upcoming vow renewal and so off we went to see Larry. He was happy to see us after such a long time and was blown away that it's been 10 yrs!

So, he as usual helped us pick out the best ring for the occasion and i have to say i really like their new fancy schmancy new location and they had sooo many beautiful pieces.

It was nice to catch up with Larry again and so we took a picture of commemorate!

Group pic with Larry

After that, we went to a Middle Easter restaurant, just around the corner, recommended by Larry. Yums...

The world from Cody's point of view

This has been going on for a while now and I've been saying i should post it but i never did.

Cody is obsessed with 3 things - the sun, volcano and Superman. His view of the world revolves around these 3 things. Everyday we get multiple questions from him regarding this. Is the sun hotter than a volcano? is the volcano hotter than Superman's laser? Is his laser hotter than the sun? etc. EVERYDAY.

Then i think he finally got the order of heat in his little head - volcano, Superman, sun.

Then we started having conversations like this.

Daddy : I'm a fast driver.
Cody : Are you faster than a bullet train?
Daddy : No.
Cody : Can Superman fly fast than the bullet train?
Daddy : Yes

Daddy : I'm strong.
Cody : Can you lift an elephant?
Daddy : No
Cody : Can superman lift an elephant?
Daddy : Yes
Cody : Can superman lift infinity(another favorite word that we finally had to ban it) elephants?
Daddy : No, there are no infinity elephants.
Cody : Can superman lift the sun?

*Another number he likes to use is googolplex

So, you get the idea, anything you say, he'll somehow connect it back to the sun, volcano or Superman. More often Superman!

Cody being cheeky

Cody is known as the comedian in the family because he often makes us laugh. This week, he did a few things that i thought i should write it down so i'd remember it.

This happened in school, apparently:
Teacher : Cody, if you finish your handwriting, you can go and play.
Cody : OK
So, he turned his paper over and drew a hand on it, and handed it back to the teacher!
When Alan told me about it, i thought he made it up.

Then one night, Alan folded one of his fingers and pretended that it had broken off.
Alan : Cody, look. Daddy's finger's broken, it's gone.
Cody : Ohh..
The next thing we know, Cody started hopping on one foot.
Cody : Daddy, look!! My leg's broken!!!!
That made Alan laugh REALLY hard!

Tyler and badminton

Tyler's been going to badminton with us ever since he was born. And as his hand eye coordination got a little better, Alan's been playing with him on the side courts. A few weeks ago, Alan told me that he was going to sign Tyler up for a tournament with him as a partner.

I raised my eye brows a few times and expressed my doubts. But Alan's got Tyler's badminton career path mapped out and even splurged on a pair of sports glasses and even bought matching outfits! hehehe..

But i watched them play last week and thought Tyler might actually be ready! :)

Here's Tyler with his badminton glasses

And here's a video of Tyler practicing

Not too bad!!!

Dinner with the Prossers

The Prossers are good friends of ours and are always(ok, almost always) punctual and very useful at my parties!!  So, to show that we appreciate them, we invited them over for an early dinner.

As usual, i pack way too many things into one day and dinner was an hour late. :(

Anyways, it was nice to see them and hang out for a bit and introduce some Malaysian dishes to them. I made Beef curry, sambal shrimp, sayur lodeh(vege stew in coconut milk) and corn fritters. Turned out Tyler LOVED the corn fritters and have been requesting for them since. :)

So, to good times!!

I lit some candles to mask the fact that i was running late! 

Jordan Andrews

"My American Family", the Andrews just had a new baby. It was Karen and Ken's first grandson. Since Karen was in town visiting them, we managed to sneak a quick visit to go meet Jordan.

It truly is sweet to carry such a tiny baby in my arms again. Can't wait for Sabrina to have her baby so we can have something cute and tiny to carry!

Jordan Andrews

Proud Grandma

Jump City

We finally had a free weekend in the Millser's household and what do we do? We filled it up, of course!

Since Tyler's been to his new school, he doesn't get to see his friend Matthew too often. So, we decided to take them for a playdate at Jumpcity which is a trampoline place. Giant trampolines! Matthew's brother was supposed to come but had changed his mind at the last minute, so i got to go jump too!

Turned out jumping on trampoline is a lot of work. And jumping in that pit of foam, is not as fun as you think! Definitely not recommended for people with allergies!

The kids had about 1.5 hrs of jumping fun before they screamed for food. We went to East Moon for a little bit of cocktails for the kids and some yummy food! And we got to see Auntie Addy!

Tyler in the foam pit

Cody in the foam pit

Cody learning how to jump

Tyler is good at jumping

Matthew riding the bull - got thrown off pretty quick on hard and medium setting

Tyler hung on for sometime on easy setting. That bull is scary!!!

The big boys on the big trampolines

Cocktail hour!!!

The socks keep coming off!!

Park Life

Tuesdays is a crazy day for us. We have school, then Kumon, Swimming, Kumon.  The boys had additional motivation to finish their work early with the chance of going to the park with the Chandrasomethings.

We arrived for park life just as they were leaving, so Siobhan got to play for extra minutes while the boys showed off their climbing and sliding prowess.  Cody even went down the famous red tube slide which normally he doesn't want to do.  Maybe the fact he was wearing his moose hat and shades made him that much braver.

Made it to the end?

The tricky fish stairs

Tyler completes Kumon B1

Tyler has been working hard all summer on his Kumon reading and Maths and today he completed level B1 of reading which is pretty advanced.

Good Job Tyler

Tyler the Politician

Tyler has always struck me as kinda politically correct which i found rather strange and his excuses are  legendary. Here's an example of conversation of his political correctness.

Me : Do you love me?
Tyler : Of course.. and i love Daddy too..
(just in case Daddy feels unloved)

Anyways, since going to his new school, he's been having his school lunch provided by the school. As always, i'm obsessed about him eating his lunch, so i asked him about it.

Me : You eating lunch at school?
Tyler : Yes.
Me : Tell me how you get lunch.
Tyler : I get in line, i pick up a tray. I put my own milk on my tray and i put the tray on the slidey thing then i go to the food and they will ask me, would you like this? Do you want that? I'll say, i'd like apple please(not sure if he's that polite in real life). And then i go see the Cafeteria police(we made that up so that he gets healthy food, but there is somebody who will send them back if their selection is not balanced).
Me : Did the police get you?
Tyler : No.
Me : Do you like the food?
Tyler : So far, it's been super yummy.
Me : You like the food there more than mommy's food?
Tyler : Mmm..(pause) i like them both the same, Mommy..
Me : Ha! (see.. politically correct)

Cody - All about myself

As it's the 2nd week of school, Cody got to do "All About Myself" project at school. I like activities where the kid answers questions because the answers are usually quite funny.

Not sure if you can see this, but here is it:
My favorite animal is - lion
My favorite food is - alphabet soup
My favorite game is - play fighting
My favorite thing to do is - hug and kiss  (awwww)
My favorite book is - lion books
My favorite color is - green
My favorite movie is - a long lion movie (bahahaha)

I showed him this picture and asked him who it was. He said "It's me and I have 3 eyes!!"

Tyler read this and thought this was really funny too!!

Lemonade and Trees

Tyler and Cody have been playing with our neighbours children over the summer and Olivia and Jack liked the lemonade stand so much that they got their own and invited Tyler and Cody to help sell it.

Cody and Jack spent most of their time throwing pine cones and Tyler climbed trees, so Olivia ended up doing most of the selling

The Lemonade Crew

I never saw a tree I couldn't climb

Christmas comes early, 133 days early

This must be the earliest I have ever seen Christmas stuff on sale..

Christmas is already coming?

Tyler Kindergarten Redux

Tyler started at his new school today.  He has to get up crazy early now, which means I have to as well, so we can make sure we dont miss the starting bell.

Tyler seemed to enjoy his first day, said it was fun and is already set for 'Hug and go' dropoff.

Ready for school with
his new backpack

So ready for school

Camping at Lake Jackson

Alan planned another camping trip for us this weekend. The camping sites seemed to have been all snapped up early, so we had to explore new areas. He found this Lake Jackson that we've never heard about and i thought, why not.

The kids were as usual very excited to know we're going camping. After a quick round of packing(we're getting faster at getting the stuff together, OK, Alan is getting faster), we were off! Thank goodness, it's only a little over an hour drive.

We got there, set up tent, ate and went to check out the lake. The kids were impressed by the lake, i was not! But hey, i'm not the one who has to go in it! :)

So, for the next day and a half while the kids had so much fun in the water, i spent it sneezing and wiping my nose. Some pollen must have been at it's peak and really got to me. Every time i look up from my shady hide out, the kids are like digging up a mud castle, flinging mud at each other, diving into murky water. It's like what i always say, kids don't need fancy. Give them a muddy lake and they have a ball! Tyler even said, it's the best adventure EVER!

Oh, they've finally caught on with the whole fire idea and was pestering us to build a fire and make marshmallows. So, we did for one night.

Anyways, here are the pictures:

Tyler exploring the grassy lands..

Cody and his angry face

Cody and his mud piles

Tyler digging his mud castle

Happy as a water buffalo. I guess his texture problem is history!

First attempt at a pyramid

2nd attempt at a pyramid

The best pyramid

Having so much fun

Dinner time

I had to wade in the yucky water to get this shot

See.. pure pleasure.. 

They got their fire, don't ask me why they are standing so far away!!

Tyler and his marshmallows

He keeps saying, "I got the perfect one, mommy"

The kids loved their sleeping bags

One last dip before we left. They were looking for Tyler's missing shoe which got stuck in the mud

And here I am.. hiding in my shade paradise

Tyler last day of freedom before school starts

Tyler got to spend one last day with Daddy before he had to go back to school. We spent it playing golf, then going to the mini water park, finding some treasure and then swim team.

Tyler's golf is getting better, but I did manage to just beat him twice, scoring several hole in ones..

Golf Champion?

Water fun

Little Tuxes

We had bought some little tuxes for the kids for our vow renewal ceremony in Sept. What do you think?

Staying with the Heides

When we got home, our house was still not ready from the work on the floors. Uyen and Jim were kind enough to let us squat at their home. We got to use their new beautiful basement which turned out to be pretty comfortable(envious!!)

So, while the kids were together, we thought of a few activities for the to do together. First thing was the visit to the Sunflower Farm. We try to go there once or twice a year just to get the kids to like animals a little more and Sienna also remember the trip from a year ago!

The next morning, we went for hike at Betasso. The kids did well but were happy when we were done. We headed to Boulder for some quick Argentinian. 

That night, the Heides hosted a nice little kebab party and we had fun catching up with the Chandrasekaras too and played Mexican train till wayyy too late at night! 

The next morning, we headed out early and got out of their hair and headed for badminton!

Thanks again for letting us stay at your nice house!! :)