House of Krispy Kreme

Unfortunately (or fortunately) I expect to see a lot of this in the Lee family future

From the start, I knew there was a special place in Dae's heart for Krispy Kreme. Specifically, a dozen Krispy Kreme original glazed, which he told me he could polish off by himself in high school (thank goodness metabolisms were a little more forgiving some 20 odd years ago).

Fast forward to 2015 and the grand opening of Krispy Kreme Richland one week ago. This, in our home, was huge. Dae was looking online at all the updates and grand opening festivities for days, and kept me well-informed. We laughed about him camping out for the grand opening to get his hands on a year's supply of Krispy Kreme and a T-shirt. Dae was so eager to get a dozen of these guys he got home late on the day of grand opening (after having had to abort mission while in the drive-thru when I got mad that he made me late to book club).  The last two nights, at precisely 9:38pm and 9:40pm, Dae has looked over and asked "do you feel like a donut?". The first night he dismissed the cravings. The second night, the cravings would not be dismissed and he headed out into the dark of the night to get in the drive-thru (along with 2 other cars... I guess it's still pretty busy). He came back victorious!

Happenings

Nanny is leaving for China and she'll be gone for 2 months. Yikes. We have come to rely on her flexibility and availability. We had even started to take it for granted! Christian likes to write I (heart) U to everybody.

Below was the drawing Olin brought home today. He said it was Baba, Mama, Olin, and Ge Ge, and Ge ge was taking medicine and was sick. I guess he pointed at all the different color swatches as the 'medicine'. Olin is the pink character. He clearly sees himself as a standout!

Sagebrush Elementary hosts all the incoming first-graders and asks them to spend a day with the elementary kids. Christian came back pretty excited to have learned cursive, and for the new playground. I think this below picture is a compilation of a few students' handwriting. "Compound words" looks like Christian's handwriting.

Below photos: At last conference, teacher Karin said in 20 years she had never seen such fine motor control. Apparently it's really hard for the kids to exactly touch the borders with the loops, and to avoid going outside the borders. The first one is teacher Karin's example, and the last two are Leelee's. (Had she not explained it to me I probably wouldn't have known it was anything significant, but I am impressed!)

Lee Brothers' Portfolio

Kids + unrestrained iPhone access =

I'm actually glad the kids documented Dae reading a physical book. This is a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence, folks.

Latest happenings:

1) They are obsessed with Octonauts, and Olin asks for a bath multiple times a day to go play Octonauts in the bathtub. He'll stay in there for an hour by himself. The guy has never been cleaner in his life!

2) I got a call from the school today around noon. Leelee has come down with a fever now... :(

Vancouver

We managed to do a tour of Asian food while in Vancouver:

Dim Sum
Sushi
Izakaya (small plate Japanese)
Korean
Ramen

Olin maintained a steady sickness but we still got out and got our food fix, most importantly!

Stanley Park train. It went slow, and total ride was around 15 minutes. Good thing we paid for two hours of parking. :)

Our family pounds through dried mango from Trader Joe's. (And by our family, I mainly mean me. :)

It is pretty on the drive home

Northwest Tour, Memorial Day 2015

Grubbing on some red bean sesame balls at Pike Place Market

The pig! We had her all to ourself. Market shuts down around 6pm.

Beecher's Cheese magic

Olin, mad as a hornet. Refused to cooperate for our IncrediBooth photo op.

Finally...the kids get their long-awaited Amphibious Bus Tour

No filter! I love this shot of the houseboats

The lighting was so good here at Pike Place. I kept looking at Leelee's skin and eye tone.

Meeting up with Dae's friends Peter and Lani and their kids Kellan and Alexis

Vancouver! The nicest VRBO we've ever stayed in. Seriously, if you need a VRBO recommendation...

Comedy/juggling show at Granville Island. Dae got suckered into volunteering.

Crab claws at Sun Sui Wah dim sum. It was really really delicious, even for this Chinese gal who is just so-so for the dim sum.

Of course. An international Lee trip would not be an international Lee trip without someone getting the stomach flu or getting a fever. Poor Olin. Spiked a fever and proceeded to: 1) be crabby 2) nap at 11:30 & 4:30... 3) take medication and be really happy and excitable for about 1.5 hours.

Home Improvement

There has been a flurry of activity at 48 Vista Court. On the same morning, Mini got towed (battery and some engine harmonic balance problem), and the cement folks started pouring the cement, so the kids were in a frenzy running back and forth between exciting events.

Class field trip at McNary Wildlife Refuge

Being silly at the bank

Tales of a Sleepyhead

1) He fell asleep in the car for the second day in a row. Oh, if only this were consistent!

2) I ran a virtual 5K this morning for Ev's friend Julie's "Cause and Effect" in Boston. Yes, my time was 9:15 minute mile. And yes, it was my personal best for a 5K! I am only a little bit embarrassed to admit that. I was breathing heavily the entire time. It was a far cry from my usual leisurely pace of 10:30+ minute/mile.

3) We bought cherries today at $4.99/lb, which I thought was a deal until the entire bag rang up at $10. Kids de-stemmed them, washed them outside with a hose, de-pitted them with our pitter, and gobbled up the entire $10 worth of cherries this afternoon. They came in to the house with cherry face (Olin) and cherry shirt (Leelee).

4) Olin is starting to call Leelee "Christian" now instead of "ge ge", which is Chinese for big brother. It's a little bit sad to me...

5) Mad Men series finale is tonight! I am very curious as to what is going to happen.

Kidz Dig Rigz, and Sleep

The climax of the afternoon was a car crushing (compacting) at 3pm

So tired after all those Rigs

Peonies from Costco!

Mother's Day 2015

1) Mother's day. I slept in until 7am (woohoo!) and opened the bedroom door to this little art display on the floor.

2) CK auction photo booth.

3) I wanted to take a snapshot of the way they sit when they're watching a show. They nestle together on this little one-seater while the adjacent big couch remains empty. Their current favorite show is Octonauts.

4) Mother's Day Brunch: Look at Olin's side-eye and Leelee's huge smile. Can you guess which one had attitude that morning?

5) I'm still losing my ongoing battle with my sewing machine (specifically the bobbin - I hate the bobbin), but decided to either toss the brand new machine or start using it. I started using it and I sewed these pillow covers. I did a decent job - hallelujah! I'm just questioning my choice of pattern on the blue numbers though.

6) Demo of the driveway started today and this guy works fast.

7) BIG NEWS: The kids can make their own breakfast! Leelee toasts Eggo waffles, pours syrup, and pours bowls of cereal for both of them (while we lay in bed - it's glorious). The one thing we haven't gotten them to consistently do is pour their own cups of milk. It requires a stool, so apparently that's the deal breaker...