Pre-Christmas Getaway!

We took the girls to Las Vegas/ Mt. Charleston again this year for the good food and enjoy the winter wonderland up in the mountains. We booked the hotels online via Travelocity, the rates were so cheap! It's nice to walk on Las Vegas Blvd at night, There are a few new hotels on the strip since last year! Overall the business in Las Vegas was quite slow. Vivian was sick during the trip (got it from her schoolmates), she's feeling better on the way back, we hope she'll have a full recovery soon!

We gave away tons of toy gifts to Erica and Vivian's class this year for Christmas, the girls also received quite a few gifts from their buddies... 3 more days till Christmas, we can definitely feel the holiday spirit!

Los Angeles Auto Show 2009

After a nice pancake breakfast at IHOP, we went downtown to see the LA AutoShow... It was not nearly as crowded as we were expecting. The show was definitely not as exciting as previous years. Europeans like BMW, Audi and VW all have some nice new additions. Japanese Honda/Acura, Toyota/Lexus both are doing great with their family and fuel efficient vehicles. Some people said the new Hyundai cars look cool but I just don't like them, "Hyundai" sounds weird, even the logo is ugly! American Ford seems are on the right track but others are just not cutting it... The girls were not too excited about the cars but they had fun at the Kid's Fun Zone. We went Costco shopping and had an early dinner on our way home. Christmas greeting cards and annual letter are done. Helen and the girls set up the Christmas tree tonight... It sums up a pretty productive Sunday.

Erica lost her 1st baby tooth!

She has been waiting for this day for a long time! Most of her best friends started loosing their baby teeth when they were in kindergarten, Erica was checking everyday to see if her own teeth were wiggling...

It came off this morning during her PE class. She was so excited and so proud! She put her tooth in the plastic box and placed under her pillow, hoping to find a dollar under the pillow from the tooth fairy when she wakes up tomorrow morning.

The Hollywood Christmas Parade 2009

It was a long waited holiday... We had a few gatherings with lot of friends during this 4-day Thanksgiving weekend. We had invited Helena/Henry & Bonnie/Danny's families over on Thanksgiving day for lunch, then we went to Dudee & Mr. Chen's house on Thanksgiving evening for dinner. On the day after Thanksgiving, we had invited Julia's family over for lunch and dinner. We went to visit Mike and Mari in Signal Hills on Saturday and they took us to a very delicious Hokkaido Buffet for lunch. This afternoon we went to the Hollywood Christmas Parade 2009 and enjoyed a wonderful event in the evening. There's only one more day till December, we are in holiday mood!

Trick or Treat?

It's Halloween night and we went to a party at friends' house. After dinner, we went out trick or treating in the neighborhood with friends and a bunch of their kids. 1.5 hours later, we were all tired, the girls thought it was quite rewarding because they have collected total over 7 pounds of candies! (Last year's record was 4 lbs)

More Halloween costumes to show off...

It was a lousy Halloween Parade organized by the Chinese school this morning... we left after waiting under the hot sun for over half an hour... The girls bumped in to some old buddies like Cynthia, Amy and Katelyn, here's a picture of the girls with Katelyn Chen. Happy Halloween everybody!

Halloween Parade 2009

The morning temperature was quite chilly these few days (45-46 degrees F) but it didn't stop the girls being so excited about their annual Halloween Parades. Here are a couple of snap shots to share...

A fun filled day at the Halloween Carnival!

Today we went to the Camp Ronald McDonald for Good Times 17th Annual Family Halloween Carnival at the back lot of Universal Studios. It's a fund raising event to sponsor the children affected by cancer. Daddy was a volunteer at the game booth and mommy took the girls to the rides, arts & crafts, games, food and collected tons of great toys donated by Jakks Pacific. The pictures posted above were all taken by mommy! Those are great shots mommy!

Our little princesses

Through employees' purchase program, we ordered half a dozen Disney Fairies & Princess/ Barbie costumes for the girls. Both girls will have Halloween Parades in school next week, they are so looking forward to show off their new outfits to their friends!

A few beauty shots...

I bought an pre-owned 5 year old 5 megapixel Panasonic with Leica Vario-Elmarit ASPH lens last week. Tried it out today and found the image quality is actually better than many of today's 10+ megapixel cameras! The actual file size of these pictures are approximately 1.8mb, I've reduced the file sizes to approximately 0.45mb for web posting.

Thousand Oaks Street Fair 2009

Once an year Street Fair started at 9am, hundreds of booths along half a mile on Moorpark Road... The girls collected candies, stickers, pencils, balloons and other goodies, it was a fun 2-hour walk on a beautiful Sunday morning.

Great time at Los Angeles Zoo

It's a fun day with buddies at the LA Zoo today...

Erica's old Pinecrest classmate Katelyn's family invited our family and another old Pinecrest classmate Caitlyn's family to visit the LA Zoo for a play day today. We arrived at 10am, it was a little chilly in the morning but we were all well prepared with jackets. This was our 1st time at the LA Zoo and we all love it! The girls were so excited to see each other! There were so many interesting animals at the zoo. We walked for almost 5 hours before going to see the bird show! It was tiring but relaxing day at the zoo for the grown-ups. We stopped by Sam Woo BBQ Restaurant for dinner before heading home, the girls were so exhausted, they passed out as soon as they sat down in the van.

Thousand Oaks Chinese School

We let the girls attend the Chinese school this school year. It's kindergarten level Chinese classes every Saturday morning from 11am till 12:30pm. We hoped to let the girls learn some basic Chinese pronunciations and vocabularies, most importantly we hope to create some interests for them to learn the Chinese language... They have been in the classes for 4 weekends, Erica seems okay with the classes but Vivian is just not enthusiastic about it, she's always bored in the class. Most students attending the class are from Mandarin speaking families and they already understand the speaking language. Our girls have extremely limited Mandarin language background and can not relate themselves to the language... I think the teaching method in this specific class does not fit the girls well. While letting them continue to attend the classes, I think I've a much better plan for them to learn Mandarin, I'll put in some efforts and teach them from ground zero at the home front...

Girls new toys

The legendary F2A+MD2+MB1 (5lbs) & F3+MD4 (4lbs) are the girls latest toys!

A fun afternoon at Malibu beach

We totally forgot about the Chinese school this morning... The girls didn't seem to care that much, they were all excited about the planned trip to Malibu...

It was a short but beautiful drive from home to Malibu at around noon. It was 97 degrees F at Thousand Oaks but cools down rapidly towards the end of Malibu Canyon Road before PCH, it felt more like in the high 70s and it was super foggy. We dropped off at the Jakks Pacific and gave the girls a tour of daddy's new workplace, they were very impressed with the new development of Girls Gourmet and Hello Kitty product lines! After a quick bite at the McDonnal's, we walked across PCH and headed to the Malibu Pier/Beach. We saw some people fishing at the pier and lots of people swimming and surfing at the beach. The water as not too cold and the girls were soaked from head to toes!

After showers at the beach, we walked back to the McDonnal's, the girls had chocolate dipped ice-cream cones and daddy had an iced coffee. The girls were exhausted, both slept all the way on the ride back home.

11:05pm in daddy & mommy's bed

Sweet dreams...

Friday dinner at Panda

It's Friday evening, we went to the girls' favorite Chinese food place for dinner. Erica loves her Chow Mien as always and Mei mei loves fried rice with Teriyaki sauce, both ate a lot. An hour at Target after dinner was fun, checked out the Halloween stuff and picked up some snacks. After showers, the girls did some drawings and read a book: "A Book About Erica Lee by her 1st Grade Friends". They each had a Ding Dong and a glass of milk, brushed their teeth and head to the bed (daddy & mommy's bed).

This week went by so quick. Everyday was very routine and uneventful for all three of us. The alarm went off at 6:30, I got up at 6:40, the girls got up at around 7, dropped off Vivian at 7:45, dropped Erica at Westlake Hills at 8:00, arrived work by 8:45, left work at 4:15, picked up Erica by 5, picked up Vivian by 5:15, both girls bedtime for the week was before 8:45 and my bedtime is always 1am. Tonight the girls stayed up till 10:30, maybe we can sleep in a little tomorrow morning...

Amy & Cynthia's Birthday Party

It was a fun afternoon at Amy & Cynthia's 6th Birthday Party at Monarch National Gym Center in Newbury Park... Erica met some old buddies from Pinecrest like Caitlyn S, Cynthia, Amy, Tori, Madelyn, Katelyn, even her pre-school classmate Emily showed up! Good food and fun gymnastic activities with lots of cool real equipment! We definitely will revisit the place again!