CNY Banquet 2014

This year's CNY banquet was missing quite a few of the usual suspects. So, i had to invite people from the badminton group to make up the numbers. We tried Super Star Restaurant and again the food was so so.

But anyways, traditions are traditions.. and i got to meet another relative that was visiting from Singapore. Seems like a nice young man!

What's left of the usual suspect!

Frederic who is my cousin Sia Chong Shin's wife's nephew

Happy Chinese New Year 2014

In the last few days leading to Chinese New Year, my friends have been posting Facebook posts of their preparation for chinese new year. From cookies to decorations to everything. I was feeling increasingly guilty for not doing anything(apart from organizing a CNY feast).

I feel that i was lucky to grow up with some Chinese culture exposure and feel bad that i'm not imparting any to the boys, especially now that they are slowly understanding stuff. So, i was in gear. I made some Chinese New Year cookies and got myself some Chinese New Year decorations. The kids sorta got a little excited when they were shopping the decorations with me!

I had to explain some culture stuff to them about Chinese New Year. And here are some conversation that i had with them.

Before they went to bed:
Me : So, tomorrow is chinese new year, you will have to remember to wish me so i can give you red packets.
Tyler : what's in the red packet?
Me : Money
Tyler : Can you give me dollars??

Cody was in bed with Alan:
Cody : tomorrow i'm going to wake up and wish mommy Happy New Year so i can get red packet!!

And the next morning, Cody's comes in and snuggle with me..
Cody : Hi Mommy!! Happy Christmas!!!
Me : hehehe.. Christmas???
Cody : Ohhh.. Happy New Year!!
Me : Happy New Year..
Cody : where is my.. umm.. umm.. thing.. umm umm.. red packet!!!
Me : *sigh*

And after Tyler opens his red packet:
Tyler : wow.. 50 dollar bill!!!
Me : Hey, he knows his notes!! :)

Anyways, tomorrow we will go watch some chinese cultural show for more cultural exposure!!!

Happy New Year!!!

First day cookie - Peanut cookie

2nd day cookie - pineapple tarts and cornflake cookies

3rd day - Nori/Seaweed Crisps

Trying to create some CNY atmosphere in the house with my newly acquired cherry blossoms!

And my new door decoration! Happy New Year!!

Cody's first movie theater

Cody's been rather late to the movie theater scene. So, i decided that it was time. And Alan could take a few hours break from the children anyways. Unfortunately the only movie that was available that weekend was Frozen, which is really a girly movie(good for me). Severe warnings were issued to both kids to not talk in the movie and surprisingly, Cody really took that to heart and i did not hear a peep from him during the entire show. And they even enjoyed it and Tyler managed to finish nearly a whole bag of pop corn!!!

Cody 100 day project

Cody just finished his 100 day project last week.  He chose to use fruity loops for his 100 objects and enjoyed sticking them on the paper.

100 Fruity loops

Cody at Badminton

After so many years of hanging out at badminton, we finally bought Cody some badminton clothes and glasses to wear to play badminton(we got them last year). But this week, he was very excited because Steffen had made him his very own peg and he managed to get some court time. Not sure how many shots went across the net!!! But you know, you got to start somewhere.

He thinks i'm going to eat him up because he looks so cute with his glasses on!!

Happy to get his peg!!

On court!!!

Skiing with Tyler at Winter Park

Tyler and I got season pass for skiing this year and i thought i'd make a little more effort to make my purchase worthwhile. So, this weekend, i had to drag myself out of my comfy bed to drive 3 hrs to Winter Park, so that Tyler can improve on his skiing!!

But it turned out to be a an awesome skiing day with blue skies and warm weather. We skied hard for about 3 hrs before we took a lunch break and after a quick lunch, we did our final long run before heading home. It was a rather short day but i wanted to get out of there before the return traffic started. I am liking this short skiing day routine and may do a few more of these.

For this trip, we managed to hit a few more slopes and tried quite a few long runs and even some blue ones. Tyler is getting more confident about his skiing but his technique needs to be refined.

Beautiful day on the slopes

p.s. I didn't know this, but Tyler apparently really loves skiing because he wants to be a skier when he grows up. Just a skier, not an Olympic skier because that is apparently TOO hard!! BUT, if Cody is an Olympic athlete, then he wants to be an Olympic skier!!!

Couples Night at the Heides

We were excited to have our first Couples Night for 2013 and once again the Heides set the bar high with their Prime Rib with hand scraped fresh horseradish! The Chandrasekaras challenged themselves with Devil Eggs and Grilled zucchini with Parmesan.

We were in charge of dessert. I had initially planned on making Tiramisu which i've always wanted to try but by some bad planning, one of my ingredients did not arrive on time. As i had planned to go skiing that day, Alan stepped up and volunteered to make it. The purpose of Couples Night purpose was to push you a little on your skills and that definitely pushed my faith in Alan!! But i decided it was time. 

It turned out, Alan had some hidden skills and made some awesome Raspberry chocolate molten cake! It was pretty good, if i must say so myself!!

It was another night of good food and great company. Can't wait for the next couples night!

I forgot to take a picture of the plated dessert!

Christmas presents and running shoes

I finally decided on my Christmas Present from Siew Gin this year after trying out a bunch of different running shoes.  My old Brooks T7 had more than a 1,000 miles on them which is way over the recommended distance, but as I run a lot on the treadmill and they are pretty minimalist to start with they still seemed to be okay.

I went with the New Balance 1400v2 as they seem closest to the Brooks and have some pretty good reviews, plus of course I can always buy a pair of brooks if I don't like them.

This is what shoes with 6 miles on them look like

This is what shoes with 1,000 miles on them look like

Tyler and Cody visit the dentist

The boys went to the Dentist today, and luckily it wasn't a repeat of Marathon Man.  As they both had good teeth with no cavities, must be that healthy diet and good toothbrush technique working out for them.

Two for the price of one!

Climbing and Running

The boys had Monday off, and in between completing their homework they did get a chance to go outside and play on the climbing frame.

We also spotted a 100 yard football field, so they both ran it to see how fast they are now.  Tyler finished in 20 seconds, Cody in 40 seconds, but probably should have been 34 seconds as he walked over the line.

100 yard splits for Tyler and Cody

Climbing to the top

Cody - King of random topics

Cody is quite shy with strangers at first. But once he gets used to you, he will chat your ears off. Often with random topics. It always cracks me up when i see him chatting with random people, like he's discussing something really serious.

In the last few days, he has come up with a few random topics to talk about without any prompting.

Scenario 1:

He was having his breakfast quietly and suddenly he started to smile and giggle all by himself.

Me : Why are you laughing, Cody?

Cody : You know, mommy, if there is a tornado, you shouldn't go to the basement. You must go hide in the bathroom. Get in the bathtub, cover yourself with a towel and take a shower!

Me : ???? Who told you that??

Cody : The weather lady (they had a weather lady visit their class)

A few mins later, Alan came to get him to get changed.

Scenario 2

Cody : Daddy, you know, if you want to get shooted(bad english on his part, not mine) by police you have to put your hands up.

Alan : You mean, if you DON'T want to get shot by the police?

Cody : No, the police always say, "Hands up!" to the bad guy and then shoots him! 

Me : tee hee...

(Didn't hear Alan's response to that coz they had gone upstairs)

Scenario 3

One of the morning, i was still sleeping(of course), Cody comes and snuggles with me..

Cody : Mommy, why does aaaaaa means rough?

Me : huh????? what??

Cody : Why does AAAAAAA means rough...??? (getting louder, he gets really annoyed when i don't understand him, usually then he shuts down and says "You don't know ANYTHING!!!")

Me : I don't know what you're talking about. Where did you hear it?

Cody : In my volcano book, i'll show you.. (he goes and get the book, spends a few minutes flipping back and forth).. seee.. its says.. AA means rough..

Me : (he was right.. there it was.. "Aa means rough")!!! 

And if you want to know, aa is a kind of lava. The rough kind...

Tyler Skiing with Kristen and Paige

Tyler had the day off from school, and so did his friend Kristen, so I took them and Tyler's class project 'Paige the cat' to Eldora to Ski.  They both managed a lot of green and blue runs and I got the chance to ski for the first time since Tyler was born.

Skiing at Eldora

Class Project to take Paige on adventures for the week

Cody Skis in the backyard

Cody wanted a blue ski helmet from Santa, and this weekend he finally delivered so that Cody could practice his skiing in the backyard before he ventures on the big slopes..

Cody with his new helmet

Cody almost ready for Soshi

3 weeks of Kumon

The boys have been working on their Kumon during the winter break.  It is a pretty impressive stack of work and they have done really well to keep it up every day.

Plenty of Kumon work!!

2014 New Year Resolution

We talked briefly about New Year resolutions and didn't think they kids really got it, but one day Tyler came back from school and they had done NY resolutions(he calls it revolution) at school. It was broken in three parts. And when i saw it, i had to laugh at the concerns that ring in my kid's mind.

Resolutions:
At School - eat more food
At Home - play more
Personal - drink more water (??? i think this is due to him feeling dehydrated from our trip, this is one thing i'm completely NOT concerned about)

 Cody on the other hand only has one concern in his head apparently:

Resolutions:
Eat more food so that he can get to 40 lbs! (so he can get into a booster seat like Tyler)

Anyways, i wonder what other kids have as their resolutions??