February was still Frozen

This winter can't end fast enough! I'm ready for sun and warmth.

President's Day was sunny so we jogged and biked to the track. Here they are taking an applesauce pack break.

Piano adjudications at the library. He plays two memorized pieces. I was really proud of him...he does really well on crescendos and diminuendos and reads music and keeps the beat almost better than I do.

Pike Place tulips

Waiting at DTF

Best place to play Battleship - with a view

Kids get so much excitement from pushing the cart up and down the escalator (Escavator as Olin says. Kind of like elevator and escalator hybrid)

Link light rail

Sushi Kashiba. Olin inspecting sushi. Leelee doing workbook. These maze and find-things workbooks are so entertaining to the kids. They have been very helpful to bring to restaurants.

Happened upon this celebration in Chinatown. The firecrackers were very loud!

This pianist at Pike Place drew a big crowd.

Looking in at the Crumpet Shop

Valentine's Day

A perfect depiction of Valentine's Day Dinner. Dae was at the hospital, so I had a date night with Dae's parents and the kids at Lao Kitchen. The kids were really in to watching HGTV on the TV on the wall.

My first Louis! A cute little wallet from Dae from Vegas.

The kids making Valentine's for their classmates. It gets a lot easier every year since they can actually write their own names now.

I was wondering why Leelee wrote with his normal handwriting for Bram, but very neat handwriting for Brianna, and he said it's because Brianna cares about stuff like that and Bram doesn't. 

My mom flew in for one day to attend Special Friends' Day. 

Quite the knitter

Teacher's Aide Leah, and teacher Samantha and her baby Luna

Christian loves playing Uno with grandparents

Weekend in Portland. Here we are watching Mal's b-ball game.

Doing intricate braiding

We stopped by Multnomah Falls very quickly on the way home. Olin did not want to get out for the photo.

Snow Day No. 1000?

It feels like snow day times a thousand, but it has only been 8 or 9. Anyway, the kids did some crafts today.

Christian's craft. He was keen on getting the label maker so that he could label his masterpiece.

Olin's. He cut out each little yellow center and then taped them on to each flower. He was absolutely exhausted after he was halfway done but I told him not to quit.

This was so funny. I was doing my workout tape this morning and Olin was darting around "making something for me". Then he slipped this under the door to the office. I had no idea what it read. He happily translated and said "Happy Gung Hay Fat Choy!". As in, Happy New year in Cantonese, for Chinese New Year. The funniest thing is that I don't even know what that means because I don't speak Cantonese, and ever since Terri told them that saying he has been totally obsessed with it, and he spelled it entirely wrong and then asked if he spelled it close to correct, and of course I said he did a great job :)

After the kids watched 2-3 straight hours of TV this afternoon I told them it was time to "ing dong" which is exercise in Chinese. They had the option of playing in the snow or setting up an American Ninja Warrior course in our house and they opted to play in the snow.

Flower delivery for our anniversary yesterday. This vase/pitcher is so cute. My favorite!

9 Years

Dae and I celebrated 9 years (of 'marital bliss', as we like to say, and then laugh hysterically!) a little early yesterday. Our actual anniversary is tomorrow, but with Dae's Mondays off we thought we'd go to Seattle for a very fast overnighter and then drive home this morning at 4:30am in time for Dae to make it in to work by 7:30am. Well, I think luck and nature were looking out for us because Seattle got snow dumped on them and the Pass was closed a majority of the day yesterday, so we were forced to rein in our plans and do an anniversary day, Richland-style. It was for the best. Side note: Hotwire is the best! I called them and they fully refunded our night, even though Hotwire is pretty much nonrefundable and we knew that going in. They also let us change our hotel one time in the past when we picked the wrong area. So we're loyal Hotwirers.

So, we started with a trip to the mall. We literally walked the mall, along with all the senior citizens. And just as we were talking about seniors walking the mall, my uncle taps us on the shoulder from behind! He was walking the mall 4 times (for a total of 3 miles, he says) with his headphones on. Pretty funny.

Dae and I were going to share a Cinnabon but then we came to our senses, bought two, and ate one each.

Then, we picked up 3 bags of pellets from Ace Hardware, along with a package of nails.

Then we went home, ate Korean lunch, watched 2 episodes of Suits, went to the Queensgate Theater to watch "La La Land" (ate popcorn and Milk Duds), went to Aki Sushi for dinner and got the omakase tasting menu (surprisingly tasty for Tri-Cities!) and then went to Safeway for snacks, and home. Seattle it was not, but it was probably just what we needed. Dae has been really busy at work all of January so probably best not to drive home at 4:30 in the morning.  We were grateful that Halmoni and Haraboji were home watching the kids for us.

Yesterday night Dae got called in, returned around 2am, and saw and took a picture of this:

Funny little guy had snuck in sometime after 10:30pm. I had no clue. I barely knew Dae was gone! hahaha.

Super Sunday

Patriots won SuperBowl LI today in a thrilling overtime win! We attended church in the morning and Haraboji asked someone to snap this picture of us.

Christian is a really good speller. He's had weekly spelling tests since starting 2nd grade and has only gotten one word wrong ("through" when he forgot the R). Perhaps he will follow in my spelling footsteps and go on to school and district-wide spelling bees...ha!...and hopefully without the eyepatch I had to wear in front of the entire school in my 3rd (or 8th?) grade school spelling bee when I had a piece of sawdust embedded in my eyelid and had to go to the ophthalmologist to have it removed. That is embarrassing...

Celebration

Celebrating the new year, Al's new job, winning a lawsuit appeal, and Kelly finishing her Masters (soon)!

3-D

Leelee is gifted at creating 3-D things out of paper. He made a working space needle elevator, a roller coaster, and his newest creation was a shark. He fabricated this guy one morning before school, complete with dorsal fin, side fins, and teeth perfectly sized for the mouth opening he had made. The red eyes crack me up.

Hermit Crabs

We were gifted a Hermit Crab Habitat from the Safrankis and, since then, talk of these crabs had been reaching a fever pitch. The kids, all week, kept asking if it was Saturday yet and therefore time to go get their crabs. Saturday came, and armed with Adrienne (hermit crab expert) and some cash, we arrived at the pet store and left $73 lighter with 4 hermit crabs (Louis, Hermie, Um Um Um, and unnamed), some soil, some powder food, a heater for the tank, and a green climbing thing.

I had no idea hermit crabs shed their shell (molt, or something) every few months!

At Petco

Laying out the crabs on our nice new carpet

Waiting (im)patiently for them to move

Their daily tasks are: spray the soil with warm water.
Their weekly tasks are: change the food and water, check on the crabs and how they are fitting in their shells.

So far, on Day 2, the soil has not yet been watered.....

Potty Humor

How he always sits. Sometimes he gets a little wet, unfortunately.

Squattin'