Happy Stargate, Sarah!

Happy Birthday Sarah!

HNY, everyone!

Thanks to Sylvia for the awesome apple pie and blondie and Randall for cooking up a mean Ham with mashed potatoes!!

Ruining Xmas

Xmas with family


Sephie's wish come true. A yo-yo from Santa. Too bad it only lasted 2 pulls before it broke.

Birthday tea for the big Gma, her 101st birthday.

Gingerbread house
(Thanks to: Crystal, Kimberly, Jugina, Jacqueline, Krissy, Sylvia, Martin, David, Lili and Sarah!!)

Sephie's 2nd wish comes true. She got her wings! From Uncle Martin & David/Auntie Sylvia



The welfare line. Lining up for money and a kiss from the birthday girl.

HO! HO! HO! I'm here to ruin Christmas!



Gingerbread house making contest. Losers' entry.

At Location

We had to setup the party room the day before the event. There were still alot of work to do. Just when Tonee and Sarah though we were done. I decided last minute to EXTEND the gingerbread house and add a couple of trees!!!





Taking a break and having fun.

Gma Bday/Xmas Party Decor

Once again, I find myself in a mad rush to prepare the decorations for an event. This time it was for Gma 101st bday and Xmas Party. Why do I torture myself every single time?!? Some how I manage to torture Sarah too! Anyways, here I am I got these huge cardboards from Drew and started working on the gingerbread house thinking...how am I going to pull this one off?!



Thank goodness. On Christmas Eve Party with Tonee's family, his cousins came to the rescue! Even though we joked about how it like a sweat shop we still had a great time. Thank you Jugina, Jacqueline, Kimberly, Crystal and Krissy! You guys are the best!

Queue karma vs. Parking karma

If you know me, you would also know that I have bad line karma. The worst. I seemingly always chose the one that does all the price checks, penny-counter, amount-complainer, check-writer, and/or cashier-shift-changers. I know this. But, I accept this. Because, you'll also know that I have a counter karma... great parking karma. I would get the best parking spot on the crowdiest days in any mall. Always.

So, it's even. I'm even-Steven. The universe is balanced.

Now, with this video... a little bit of explanation is offered.

Cara's First Christmas Party

Cara's first Christmas party was celebrated at Nancy's house. Cara gets alot of attention from the kids during picture taking. Persephanie was SOooo happy to get one of those game gadget from Russell. Here she is playing it with Gryffin.

Lina

Princess Persephanie & Prince Jaden Dancing

Once in a while, these two bbf would dress up and have a great time.

Lina

Gingerbread House Practice Run

Po Po bought a gingerbread house for Persephanie, ironically, Sephie was not allowed to have any candies. Of course, that was not going to stop those kids from eating it. Once, they were caught, Sephie felt so guilty she quickly covered her mouth. This was also served as a practice run for next week gingerbread house competition at Great-grandmother's birthday.

Lina

Santa

Persephanie and Jaden taking pictures with Santa.

Lina

Cousins - Best Friends Forever!

Lately, Jaden had been staying over at our home during the weekends. It is not the first time. However, this time was different. Both Persephanie and Jaden begged me to allow Jaden to sleep over. It was Sephie first time ever pleading me like how I use to beg my parents to allow me stay over at Eileen's house. It brings back my childhood memories with Eileen. Persephanie and Jaden was so sad when it was time for Jaden to go home. Just like to good'ol days except Eileen and I had never fought. These two are at each other's throats every 15 mins!!! It's getting better.

Lina

Cara's Red Egg & Ginger Day

It was a beautiful day to celebrate Cara's Red Egg & Ginger Day. With lots traditional foods in the morning and a big feast at a chinese restaurant with 80 plus friends and family for dinner. Everyone had a great time especially Persephanie and Jaden since they knew that there will be lots of cake!

Lina

Movie Night: Toy Story

15 years ago, during a lunch, some animation co-workers and I went to see the movie, Toy Story. It simply blew our minds away. Went back to our office that afternoon both overwhelmingly inspired and extremely confused. "How did they do that?" and "How are WE going to achieve that in our show?" After many discussions and head scratching...we just hearty-breakingly concluded that we couldn't... at least not on our budget. But, we did have money to buy Toy Story merchandise!



Once we picked up the set and poked and prodded every well crafted button and pull string, it hit us. John Lasseter is a GENIUS! He made the toys exactly like the movie. That just continues the movie experience well beyond the 75 minutes in the theatre. Brilliant!

Years later, Woody, Buzz, and even the alien had been sitting on my shelf collecting dust (as in the movies). (We also have Mr. Potato head.. but, that doesn't really count as it was more a generic toy and wasn't exclusive to the movie franchise.) Fortunately, they had passed a few garage sales in recent times. Never had the heart to sell them or give them away since they were such high quality. Decided it would be nice to just pass them along to my kid.

That day has come. Seems like good timing.. since well, I have a kid now. And Toy Story 3 just came out.

Tonight I wanted to try something. I wanted to see if Persephanie is old enough to go to a theatre and sit though an entire movie without any bathroom breaks, talk, run around, cry, and more importantly to see if a movie can just hold a 3 year old's attention for over an hour in the dark. In our own home theater, lights were out and the volume was up. It worked.



The delight on their eyes was priceless when we brought out the toys immediately after the show. Shelving them for so many years paid off.

I'm pretty sure Woody and Buzz are really happy now.

Persephanie the "Babysitter"

Persephanie loves her new mui mui. She really loves craddling Cara and always asking to hold her. She's already a great babysitter.

~Lina