Summer in Full Swing

1) Workbooks and Piano. Couldn't consider myself Chinese if I didn't assign them some extra summer work!

2) Summer Soccer. Dae took Olin to his first YMCA game of the summer while I took Leelee to his soccer practice at another field. Dae said Olin pretty much stepped up his game to ultra-soccer-mode and scored 5 goals in the first half. Then Olin got benched because he scored too many.  haha. He is pretty darn competitive out there - he just wants to get to the ball, wherever it may be, and he's a good  little dribbler. He seems to have a lot of fun. So I am quite thankful for that.

Meanwhile, Leelee still hates ASE soccer. His words exactly. Today he even pulled me aside to say "Mom, I hate ASE soccer". In his defense, he hasn't complained at all this summer about ASE soccer and at least this fall both boys will be in it together so they can commiserate. ASE soccer is the academy-style program where they just do drills, no games really. And these boys just want to have fun and play in games - they don't want to do the mundane work of drills and footwork.

3) Pool time. Christian and Henry found a friend at the pool who pretty much taught them to dive. This older boy was so nice and so positive. I almost wanted to ask the guy to teach me!

It has been 100 degrees out every day this week. Between soccer and the pool, I am in a constant state of heat exhaustion. I need to just go in to the pool every now and then but it just seems like so much effort. :)

Pronunciation

I noticed this morning that Leelee says "may-sure" instead of "measure". Just like his piano teacher. I wonder if he will say Warshington next. hahaha. 

Whenever I open a new bottle of home-brewed kombucha, the kids now gather around because I get so excited when it is a good fizzy batch. Except I realized Olin has been saying badge the entire time. As in: "Mom had a good badge of kombucha!"

Gong Gong Turns 70 and a visit to California

With dad in front of Dad's frozen banana shop on Balboa Island. Balboa Island is someplace we visited around 15 years ago that I never forgot. It's in Newport Beach, California and is seriously quaint. Also some seriously expensive homes in this area!

In honor of my dad's 70th birthday (!), we spent an entire week with Gong Gong and Grandma Joanne in Riverside, California and Balboa Island, California. It was me, Ev and our kids, and Gong Gong and Joanne. We had a very, very nice trip!

Flight over. Leelee even has Olin reading the seat back pocket emergency information now.

When we arrived on Monday, June 20, Riverside was experiencing record highs of 114. So we stayed cool by doing glow in the dark miniature golf. We thought the kids would be entertained for quite some time but it ended up being10 minutes of miniature golf that we tried to drag out as long as possible.

The following 'Photo Booth' photos showcase how we are so Chinese. We went to the mall, since it was 114 degrees outside, and I spotted these photo booths. I love photo booths but Ev balked at the $5 cost. So we entered the photo booth, used their lighting and backdrop, and took selfies with the IncrediBooth app. Much better results, and the price of free sure was right!

We also tested Sleep Numbers at the mall at Mal's request. She really wants a Sleep Number. They are quite nice I have to say.

LegoLand! We visited on Tuesday. Thank goodness Dad and Joanne had BOGO coupons from Wendy's. These amusement parks are not cheap! LegoLand was great.

"Driver's License" around this little course where they get to drive their own cars.

Miniland at Legoland.

Olin got to drive in the 3-5 year old course. He did not seem at all disturbed that he couldn't go on some of the rides that all the bigger kids could go on. Including their 6+ age driver's course.

This was funny. This ride got stuck for like 7 minutes. We were stuck lower than what this picture shows, but we did wonder how long we'd be stuck up there. They gave us a coupon for a free cut-in-line (basically) for any ride.

Stuck, doing selfies.

They each got to pick out a prize at the BIG lego shop at the end.

Back in Riverside, we visited the March Field air museum and guess what Leeleee got to see? A Blackbird SR-71! Aka fastest plane on earth. He was happy.

How they slept. Gong Gong and grandma Joanne keep the house at a toasty 80+. And Aunty Ev dared to turn off the A/C the first night and Mal and I almost died of heat exhaustion.

Roy Choi's Kogi BBQ truck! Been wanting to try some of these tacos for years. They were good  - really good - but the other things I picked (kim chi quesadilla and this other dish) weren't as good as the regular tacos.

Newport Beach. Olin was a serious shell collector.

The boys couldn't get enough of this fire hydrant action that was going on at the beach. Firemen were trying to check this one fire hydrant or the hose pressure or something.

Plethora of Legos provided at our VRBO!

Outside our VRBO. This little canal and a great little view.

Tried to capture a panoramic view of our view from VRBO.

Kids spent a few hours catching crabs. These little crabs had one huge claw on their left front. The kids were good at practicing catch and release.

Surrey with a fringe on top. Perfect 8 seater. 

Kayak rentals at Fun Zone in Newport Beach. As we were racing (literally) back to the dock, I took a sharp turn and Olin kind of slowly slid off the front of our kayak. He fell in. He was so funny, as the only thing he said was "Oh no! My normal clothes!" (because he was wearing normal clothes, not swim clothes)

Meals at the VRBO

Olin found this keyboard at the VRBO. For some reason, he and the other kids loved this thing. He brought it with us to everything he could.

Moles. I love their cute moles.

Olin and Joanne's granddaughter Bridget, who was very cute, holding hands and hugging Olin.

Sharon and Bridget came down and visited with us for a few meals and some pool time!

CAKE (mini cakes)

Sooooo tired after the week of playing with cousins

So tired.

So tired. This last leg home (Portland - Pasco) was miserable. Our flight was delayed about a half hour so we arrived at midnight. Leelee fell asleep 4 separate times and had to be awoken 4 separate times. He was NOT happy. As luck would have it, Dae got called in to the hospital so I had to manhandle these two dead-asleep guys on my own. We made it out alive, but flying with kids can definitely be a little more stressful. There were some really, really nice people on my flight that offered to help multiple times.

Ev's new dog, Cookie. He's adorable.

Back home! Celebrating Kelly's birthday early with dinner and relaxing.

Back in the swing of things. The kids are taking tennis/swim combo lessons with Henry and Claira and they are loving tennis. Their instructor is very energetic and nice.