4th of July

Ethan had a 4th of July parade at school where each preschool class made special hats, waived American flags and marched around their school:




On the actual holiday, we celebrated at Jim and Charity's house with Jen and Rommel and their family. They had games with fun prizes, kids dancing, showed an outdoor movie, tons of good food and a few fireworks. John and I even won the balloon toss game!

That is it for now!

Zoe at 22 months old

Zoe is 22 months old now and is quite a character. She loves to sing and dance. She learns new songs everyday but right now her favorite songs are "ABC's" and "Ba Ba Blacksheep". Here is a short clip of her singing ABCs (and doing a few dance steps too):



Last week, Zoe got her ears pierced. We've been wanting to pierce them since she was a baby but decided to wait because Zoe always scratched her ears when she got mad. Since she doesn't do that anymore, we decided it was time. She obviously didn't enjoy getting them pierced but I think she likes them now.

For her last birthday, Zoe got a baby doll and a stroller for her baby doll. Although she likes her baby doll, I think she likes the stroller more. In fact, her and Ethan take turns sitting in it and pushing eachother in this mini stroller. But when Ethan isn't there, Zoe doesn't wait around - nope, she just pushes herself around:

Ethan's special day

I have been wanting to spend some quality time with just Ethan since I find that I spend most of my time is with Zoe. John and Ethan a lot of time together and they do 'their' special things like go to the comic book store and cd store. So, I took a day off from work and pulled Ethan out of school. We decided to go to the Children's Discovery Museum and then to lunch. But any good day begins at Starbucks!

At the museum, we did so many things including played in the sand, in the water, painted with our hands and went to the story time, played with clay, etc. We spent three hours there but could have easily spent much more time there. Next time we will definitely spend more time there.

Ethan and I made a bridge which he is walking across here:

We're posing for the camera after making clay structures. We made an 'E' for Ethan but it got too dry and broke :(

Then we went to lunch at Red Robin. We got shakes to celebrate our special day! Ethan saw an episode of Jon and Kate plus 8 where Mady went to Red Robin with her parents on her special day. She got a milk shake so Ethan decided he wanted to do that too.

Gilroy Gardens

Memorial Day 2008

We went to Gilroy Gardens with the Patel family. We went on so many rides and watched a show, ate lunch and lots of sweets too! We had fun - gotta do it again soon.

Here are Ethan and Sana - holding hands and walking to their next ride.

From left to right:
Sai(20 mos), Sana (3 1/2 yrs), Zoe (20 mos) and Ethan (3 1/2 yrs)

Little kids racing up the slide. I think Sai is letting Zoe win.

Ethan is swinging like the monkey he is...

Ethan and Sana goofing off on the train ride

Mother's day 2008

On Mother's day, John took us to the Fairmont hotel for a special mother's day brunch. It was beautiful and quite a surprise because I was told we were going to Coco's (Ethan's favorite restaurant). We got dressed up and ate at this fancy ballroom which was very special. The Fairmont made it special for the kids to - the kids got to get their own food at the mini-sized buffet, decorate cookies and go to the petting zoo. It was fun!

Every year, the kids' school hosts a mother's day breakfast. Its always fun because the kids gett to show off their moms to their friends. The teachers serve us breakfast and the kids give us the presents they made for us. Its so cute! Here are some pictures of us at the Mother's day breakfast at the kids' school (May 9 2008):

Driving school

Here is Ethan driving at Legoland...I've been meaning to post this video but never got around to it...

Update on Zoe and Ethan

Its been a while since I've posted...so I'll do a quick summary of the kiddos:

We just got back from Legoland in Carlsbad, CA. We had a great time! Ethan had a great time because he was able to go on a lot of rides. Ethan’s favorite ride was the Jr Driving School ride, where 3-5 year olds get to drive their very own cars. Ethan had to steer but also push the pedal down to get the car to move. He did great – although did crash into a few other cars. He also had his face painted like Spiderman. He was so excited about it and was even asking strangers if they wanted to take a picture of him. Zoe, although she was too short to go on many rides, she still enjoyed it too. We all really enjoyed ourselves – it was a great vacation.

Zoe is 19 months old now and is talking a lot. She loves Elmo and still loves to sing and dance. She loves to snack and always wants to munch on something. She loves to mimic people and loves to copy whatever her brother does. She wants to play what he plays with, eat what he eats, sit where he sits etc. They get along really well and Ethan is a great Kuya. He likes to blame everything on Zoe but she likes to bite him when she doesn't get what she wants...I guess no relationship is perfect, hahahha. Zoe is throwing tantrums now - daily, in fact. She is really stubborn and does not like to negotiate. Hopefully this is just a phase!

Ethan just started preschool on April 29. It was his very first full day in Miss Trudy's class. He was so excited to be in preschool but I do think he misses his friends from his old classroom.

Ethan had his first dentist appt and had 20 cavity-free teeth (10 on top and 10 on bottom). He was a little nervous but didn't cry. He got a goody bag with a toy, a new toothbrush, and floss which he was excited about.

That's all for now. I'll try to update the blog more regularly.