Sweetest Child

I can't stop taking photos of our sweet Matilda. Here are just few from the Christmas season that I love. She is always so happy and cheerful and just great to have around. I work in the mornings at home and she is keeping me good and quiet company.

brave

Another proof that we have a fearless little girl. The dinosaur was big and scary but she liked to play with him. You go girl!

Winter Gala at Kindergarten

Last Friday Lukas' kindergarten hosted a winter gala. The children were well prepared by Ms. Ilma, their teacher, and sang songs for us parents. Lukas participated beautifuly which is usually not the case. He even wore the costume and sang all the songs.

Belated surprise!

Without any expectation I opened the mailbox yesterday and look what I found: a late birthday present from Joanna, my best friend forever ever. We know each other for over 25 years. We met in high school and became friends right away. After high school, our ways parted and through all these years, we never lived in the same city, for some years not even in the same country. But we kept being best friends through all of it.

Our friendship is true and real, honest and comfortable. We went through hard times and we learned from our mistakes. I consider Joanna my sister that I never had.

The gift is a beautiful bracelet with Lukas and Matilda's names on it as well as E ~heart~ P. I will wear it always from now on.

Vielen Dank liebstes Asku. Ich liebe Dich auch.

Greeting from the Farmers Market

We love to visit the local Farmer's Market in Milpitas. The popcorn, fresh made and sprinkeled with sugar, is the main attraction for the kids. I am happy to buy produce from local farmers and stroll around. Fun fun.

Matilda's 2nd birthday celebration!

Yesterday we finally celebrated Matilda's 2nd birthday in Hello Kitty style. Family and friends came over to hang out and have a good time with Matilda. We had lots of kids to play with and lots of grown ups to talk to. It was a great party.

Matilda didn't nap because of all the excitment so last night she slept 13 hours straight. Partying is exhausting.

She received lots of cool toys and even cooler clothing. Spring can start now!

Family photo.

Yummy Hello Kitty cake.

Living by Martha Stewart

My Christmas gift from my dear friend Jasmine arrived! Thank you so much!

Living by Martha Stewart will now monthly entertain me, feed me with new cooking ideas and just give me few minutes to myself amidst chores and other jobs I have. No, it's not that bad but reading a book or a magazine is a luxury these days.

Expect great things to come! ;)

Happy Birthday to Matilda!

Today is Matilda's second birthday! Hurray! We kissed and hugged her a lot after she woke up late and now we are playing with the instruments that she received as a birthday gift.

She is a beautiful, happy and lovely child. She is always happy, friendly and mostly quiet. She loves to play with Lukas, she follows him everywhere he goes. But she is no push-over and will fight for her own right when it's necessary. She started potty training and is doing very well. She is a good sleeper and eater. She likes to go shopping with me where she patiently sits in the cart and points out all the items in the store she likes.

We love you very much, sweet little girl!!!

cold Friday afternoon

When we got back home from school today, it was rainy and windy outside. So we put Matilda down for a nap and Lukas and I enjoyed a bowl of popcorn and watching Spongebob.

Don't you love a lazy Friday afternoon?

big imagination

Lukas loves Lego. I mentioned that in an earlier post. Well, here is his newest creation. I think it's super cool. Can you guess what those things are? A hint: they live under the water in a pineapple house. :)

"Julie & Julia" Movie

The other day, Patrick and I finally managed to watch "Julie & Julia" movie. Oh, what a nice movie that was! Even Patrick enjoyed it, I guess because of all the good cooking. I also liked how the scenes from the past and today were flowing into each other.

Now I am inspired to cook well again! Maybe I should get the Julia Child cook book but not sure if I am really a French cook. I will look through my other cook books to find some good recipes.

Bon Appetit!

Our Christmas morning to remember

Too bad Christmas is over. I love this time of the year and especially the Christmas morning when we open the presents and spend most of the day assembling Lego toys, playing with and trying on whatever Santa has left for us. This year was even more special since Matilda is now old enough to open her own presents.

Santa was very generous with us, again. Thank you and we can't wait for next year! ;)

Rainy day in Monterey

Our annual trip to the beach during the Christmas holiday was cut short today because of the wind and rain that came down on us. But the visit to the Aquarium made it all worth driving one hour in the car with two impatient children.

We love to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium and check on the penguins, the otters and sharks. And play with the water, watch out on the ocean and just hang out. Lovely day.

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you a wonderful Christmas celebration!

From our family to yours, bestest wishes!

Huge Surprise!

I have to share with you the biggest surprise I have ever gotten for my birthday. I will turn 40 in 3 days and wasn't really sure if I should celebrate this round birthday this year. Agonizing and thinking back and forth I invited friends for a celebration to later cancel it after all.

So last night Patrick said let's go out. We packed up Matilda (Lukas was with his cousin for the afternoon) and we went to King Crab, a Chinese restaurant here in Milpitas.

After we found parking while crossing the street I said to Patrick that I feel guilty to go to the restaurant without Lukas because he usually likes their food so much. But since he was with Kyle and was supposed to have pizza, I thought it's all good.

When we walked to the restaurant, I was still oblivious. After we walked in, I saw Britta, my friend, sitting in the back of the restaurant. My first thought was "hm, what a coincidence that she is here tonight too!". And then I saw them all! The whole family and my friends Britta and Evelyn were gathered at two tables to celebrate my 40th birthday with me! What a surprise! Tears came to my eyes and I felt so overwhelmed but so happy.

Then we had delicious dinner. I will never forget that evening, the surprise and my heartbeat.

Thank you all for loving me. I love you all back!

Advents-Calendar

It has been always a tradition at my house to receive an Advents-Calendar on December 1. The little chocolates inside the calendar have made each day of waiting for Christmas sweeter.

Of course I couldn't resist to give Lukas and Matilda their own calendar this year. Now we added opening one door from the calendar to the morning's routine.



Lukas is even opening his calendar every other day so that he has two chocolates at once.



So do you have a calendar like that?! :)

Cold

The last few days have been unusual cold here in the Bay Area. Or maybe we just forgot - after months of warmth and sun - that December is still a winter month. So to avoid getting sick and being cold, we wear lots of warm clothes and live with it.

Here is Matilda all bundled up while going shopping with me.

The Christmas Tree is up!

Finally, on Saturday we got our Christmas tree! I couldn't wait to get one and decorate it, and smell it, and enjoy it. This is the most beautiful tree we have ever had. Not only it is perfect size, but it's also well grown, even and thick.

So late Saturday afternoon the kids and us started to go through the Christmas boxes, took out all the ornaments and hang them on the tree. Lukas was a great decorater, he hang most of the decorations on the bottom of the tree.

The damage was minimal. Only two glass balls broke due to unsensitive care by Lukas and Matilda but that's ok.

Here is our pride and joy for this holiday season:

Going to school in PJ's

Only in America you have a PJ day in school. After the kids finished their work, they sat on their blankets, had popcorn and watched a movie. This was a price for all the reading coupons the kids turned in.

Lukas going to school in his PJ's.

Mommy's helper

You can count on Lukas. Messing up the living room, leaving his Lego's all over the house and... helping me feeding Matilda. Whenever he does that, Matilda will finish all the food in the bowl. She is a good eater anyway but with Lukas' help, she will finish it all. Good brother he is.

Thankful

Every day I am thankful for having a family, a home, living in a safe country, having freedom and peace. Today is no different but since it is Thanksgiving, I am taking this opportunity to thank all of you for being my friend and wishing you a wonderful day.

From my family to yours:

Orange Thunder - 2nd place in U6 division

We are #2 in the U6 division of the Milpitas Youth Soccer, yay!! Our team, Orange Thunder, won a game this morning and qualified for the final. This afternoon we lost 0:1 but that still made us #2.

The team celebration will be at ChuckECheese's in Fremont.

Here is Lukas with his trophy.

Coaches Michael and Stephen and the team celebrating!

New addition to our kitchen

After years of waiting and searching and searching and waiting, I finally found the perfect buffet for my kitchen! And it came just from across the street, from our neighbor, who is moving out and had a garage sale few weeks ago.

Patrick helped sanding it down and staining it so that it goes color wise well with my kitchen table that I love. We worked two days on it but it was worth every hour.

The buffet is made out of real wood and was not painted or stained before. This is how it looked before we started working on it.

I had not one helper, but two! Lukas in action.



And here is the final result. Doesn't it look awesome and perfect for our kitchen?!

Good read

Recently I have discovered Lisa See's books at our local library. It was pure coincidence that I grabbed her book from the bookshelf that was close to the check out station. It's hard to browse through the aisles and shelves with 2 kids in tow so I am lucky when I catch something for myself while leaving the library.

The first book I read from Lisa See was "Shanghai Girls". I am intrigued by the Chinese and Asian culture for many years. Maybe it is because I love and am married to a Chinese-American man or maybe it is because I love the Asian art, fragile and beautiful, delicate and minimalistic, full of well handcrafted items, with its attention to detail even in smallest items.

I will not give away the plot but I highly recommend this book if you look for a well written and fascinating story that describes the lives of women in the beginning of this century in a country that seems to live in the century before ours.

Lego-ist

Lukas loves to play with Lego. Through the years he got lots of Lego sets from the Spongebob, Star Wars and City collection. He eagerly puts the Lego together after we take it ouf of the box but few days later, after playing with the toys in a boyish way and having a sister that likes to touch the toys too, pieces start to fall apart and the brand new truck has now only wheels left or Spongebob's rocket ship wasn't as sturdy as Lukas thought after letting it fly through the air.

But this is a good thing that the toys eventually fall in many pieces because then the real fun starts. Lukas is a master in building cities, space shuttles, airplanes and helicopters, all made from his fantasy and without following any directions. His imagination is endless when it comes to explain what he has built. To me it might look like few little guys standing around, but to him is a construction site with many different elements that he patiently points out to me.

My favorite thing to do is sorting the Lego but it's not really very beneficial. After few days, everything lands back in few boxes.

Here is us and Lukas awesome space station with stormtroopers storming the base. Or something like that.

Brother & Sister

Our kids. Our pride and joy. Our king and our princess. Our sensitive but head strong children.
They are hard to get together in one photograph but I got lucky this week.

2002 Merlot

After years of abstinence, we finally drank some wine, at home, on the sofa, just the two of us. Few days ago I felt that the time has come that Patrick and I start to enjoy the quiet evenings even more.

My all time favorite wine is from the winery Chateau Julien in Carmel Valley. When I was working with the Plaza Hotel in Monterey, we ordered this wine for all our functions and it became my favorite since then. That's like 7 years ago. I was able to keep few bottles because of the pregnancies but now the time has come.

So last night, we enjoyed this smooth, fruity, sweet-but-not-sweet wine to the last drip. Can't wait for tonight to finish the bottle.

Yummy

It's only 9 am in the morning but I already think about the dessert that is still in our fridge. Waiting for me to be eaten. To be enjoyed.

Those chewy balls filled with a sesame paste and rolled in peanuts are so delicious, I can't even explain. Whenever we go the Mayflower restaurant in Milpitas to eat dimsum, I already wait for the dessert before all other dishes arrive. That's how good they are.

Mary Jane's

What would I do without this wonderful store where you can find any item you want at a resonable price? It's called... Target! I bet all of you know that place and love it - like me.

Anyway, how about those cute Mary Jane's that I found for Matilda? I wear those soft socky thingis for years already and now Matilda has a pair too.

She is still no keen on the idea to wear them in the house but I know that she soon will appreciate them.

Another milestone

Time flies fast. I can feel it watching Lukas and Matilda grow up. Just as of yesterday our car is one car seat lighter and we welcomed the booster seat for Lukas that he has wanted for some time now.

He loves to strap himself in and unstrap and enjoys the freedom around his body. I only hope that the booster seat is safe.

Matilda has already tried out the booster seat but she has few more years to go.

Trick or treating - fun night!

Trick or treating last night was fun! Matilda discovered very quickly how to get the candy and she was not scared to walk up to people and show her bucket.



Kyle and Lukas.



Lukas trying out the lightsaber on sister.



Nice pose Darth Vader.



Baby Claire - ladybug, Lukas - Darth Vader, Matilda - Bumblebee, Kyle - Scream, Diane - vampire, Baby Lawrence - lion (from left to right).

Happy Halloween

Have a fun Halloween, everyone! Lukas is going as Darth Vader (thus the carved pumpkin) and I hope I can get Matilda into the bumblebee costume. Photos to follow.

Go Yankees!

Not only I am teaching my daughter how to brush her teeth correctly, I am also teaching her which baseball team is the best team ever! So here is us showing off our matching hats (and the brushing teeth skill).

Go Yankees!!