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!