Dialogue

• Christian wandered in to the bathroom this morning and started toying around with my concealer and blush. He asked what it does and I said covers up red spots, so he covered up one of the "spots" on his face. Then he asked what the blush is for and I said to make your cheeks red and he said "why do you put red on after you just covered it up?". I was like, good question...
• On those same lines, at Costa Vida this evening Olin asked me "did you know there's a thing you can spray on your face and it makes red spots go away and cleans it off?". I asked how he knew that and he said he saw it on a commercial and then he then he proceeded to show me where he would spray it on my face (he brushed his hand on my cheek and my nose) and told me "you would spray it here and here, where your face is red, and then your skin would get clean". So I was totally laughing and asked him if I had dirty skin, and he just laughed. 
• I worked Monday through Thursday this week so everybody got up around 6am and the kids would ask to come in to our big shower, so we all showered together every morning. It was fun, but actually my take home message was that this is by far the cleanest they've ever been in their entire lives. I keep smelling their heads because they smell so nice and clean. hahaha.
• Christian and Olin had a month off of piano lessons due to various reasons (teacher didn't have lessons after ribbon festival, I worked this week, we were in New York one week, Thanksgiving). Once I realized that at the beginning of the month, I had an idea and I told Christian he should surprise Onnie and learn the entire Fur Elise - parts I, II, and III - by his next lesson a month away. He seemed very interested, so I told him I'd sweeten the deal (he was like "what is sweeten the deal?") by offering a Garmin Vivofit as a prize if he accomplished his goal (he's been begging for a FitBit). And THEN, boy, did things take off. He's never been on that piano more in his life. He has learned the entire thing fairly quickly. It helps that he loves Fur Elise. Anyway, about 2 weeks in, he goes "mom, all this practicing of Fur Elise has made me really like practicing piano!".......Score!!!

Apple Cup Weekend

We met up with Ev and kids and my mom over Apple Cup Weekend in Seattle. During the Apple Cup Game (Huskies beat Cougs 41-14!) Ev and Mal attended the game while my mom, the boys and I relaxed and ate fried rice prepared by my mom. It was so much fun.

Doing Rockettes. My kids were sooooo excited and energized to see cousins this weekend. Even more so than usual!

Tree lighting festivities happened to be the day we arrived, so we got free pictures with Santa.

And free cookie decorating.

And always free pics on the pig

And always my JNCO jeans..... (ha)

No waste for these Chinese (+ white, + Korean) people. One hot apple cider for all kids to share.

Pike Place Chowder. Always a huge line and today was no different. We probably stood in line for 30 minutes. We ordered 4 different chowders: Vegan Curry (my favorite), Traditional New England, Salmon Chowder, Seafood Bisque (my least favorite)

So cute

In the Pike Place Atrium after cookie decorating

Old photo I had printed and hung on our wall, from Seattle Archives. July 1919.

Same angle. Ev said I should take a photo today. So I did. Great idea!

Starbucks Reserve Store. They've got a whole new bakery area (below), Princi bakery, which is yummy and very pretty.

We ordered a few croissants, an egg dish, a chocolate loaf. The kids gobbled it all up. They eat so much now.

Olin's Scavenger Hunt

He spent a lot of time making this scavenger hunt without anybody's help. The most enlightening part was seeing how things are pronounced in his eyes:

soocase = suitcase

gust = guest

A Lot of Thanks

It was a low-key and quite awesome Thanksgiving. We did absolutely nothing and barely left the house. Just cooked and ate and napped and watched TV all day.

Dae saw this and took the photo this morning. It was a 65 degree Thanksgiving Day!

The boys were actually very helpful in peeling apples for me for the apple pie. They peeled 8 out of the 12 apples I needed. And then our peeler broke :(

Apple filling. My Orange Theory instructor had her hair like this (double buns) and I was fascinated by it so decided to try it. :)

I've been asking all 3 family members to play chess with me. I am addicted. I have never beat Dae (grrr!) but I have been practicing quite a bit and I am getting better and better, if I do say so myself. haha. The kids are in chess club, which piqued my interest, and then the Delta flight last week had Chess and I was bored so I kept playing over and over. Now I can't stop! I am even playing one of the chess moms online (and winning....ha!)

One of my best sourdoughs yet. Just in time for Thanksgiving dinner.

First apple pie! It turned out way better than I expected. But I realized I'm really more of a cherry pie person, so that's next on my line-up.

Dinner was nice. Sometimes my cooking can be a little spotty, but today everything was as good as I have ever cooked it.  I did boxed stuffing (my favorite) and gravy from a packet. and they were both delicious. ha! The rest I homemade: the turkey, mashed potatoes, brussels, cranberry, sourdough, apple pie, whipped cream.

Somebody (Leelee) is extremely excited about early Christmas at puop's house.

I saw their two little luggages lined up on the staircase and laughed. These two luggages are nicer than any piece of luggage I have ever had, except my current suitcase which was purchased as a very nice gift of course from Dae - who else. He appreciates fine quality!

Olin making scrambled eggs, start to finish. Christian can do the entire thing with no supervision, which is great. Olin needed a little bit of help the first time figuring out how to turn the stove on, but he can do it all, beginning with beating the eggs, cheese, and milk together, putting oil on the pan, waiting for it to heat up, pouring egg mixture in, using spatula, turning off stove. Turning off the stove being the most important part of the entire process, as I told the kids! 

NYC 2017

It's always a fun time in NYC! We had sun one day, rain one day, and a mixture of wind, rain and sun the last day. Dae was there for a conference so we tagged along like last year and did a lot of the same things as last year, with some new things thrown in:

• Central Park
• Joe's Shanghai x 2
• Jongro Korean restaurant
• Museum of Natural History
• Horse carriage ride
• Broadway Play: Charlie & The Chocolate Factory
• Walking and Subway
• Coffee
• Brooklyn Nets vs. Golden State Warriors Basketball Game
• Dylan's Candy Bar
• Sprinkles Cupcakes
• Times Square
• Ootoya restaurant
• Legos for kids
• Chelsea Highline
• Boba guys bubble tea
• Shopping for me - just one store, Bershka, where I picked up a green puffy coat

Lots of photos of just me and Christian. Olin unfortunately opted himself out.

We got the cup o'noodles on our layover en route to JFK and the kids could not get enough. So much so that I decided I'm going to have "cup o'noodles dinner" as one of their new Advent days. haha. Easy on the wallet, that's for sure!

Sipped and slurped every last drop. I didn't get one bite of that!

I like photos of them walking on the streets of New York.

They remembered the rocks of Central Park and couldn't wait to climb them again. We learned that the rocks are the only original artifact in Central Park.

Horse carriage ride was fun. We hemmed and hawed a little bit about taking the ride. Olin pulled me down and asked me twice "mom, I know it's expensive, but I really want to take the horse carriage ride"

The workers here were planting tulips (from Holland!) in very neat rows. I don't know why it captured attention but there were several people stopped and watching them. 

I was going to let them get 5 individual pieces of candy each. Dae swoops in and says they can fill half a bag each....

Dylan's and Sprinkles.....heavenly

Subway riding. Olin tried to get out of the shot.

Toys R Us. This store was so hot I was sweating and just wanted to get out.

This button was outside the show theater. We of course pushed it. All it did was light up that top light that says "rotten behavior detected"

Times Square

Looking at their new Legos

Bubbly. New orange lipstick. Wore it every day. haha.

Museum of Natural History. We were able to get tickets for the exhibits "Mummies" and "Senses" which were pretty cool. 

Leelee wanted to mask with me.

Pier 25 (Hudson Park) with Freedom Tower in the background.

Times Square at night

None of us are in to Broadway shows but we saw this sign for the show and thought the kids might love it, and they did.

Walking the Highline in Chelsea. 

Museum of Natural History entrance.

Nets vs. Warriors game! Stephen Curry! Dae's friend James got tickets for 8 of us so we all met for Mexican food in Brooklyn and then walked to the game. It was quite fun.

Joe's Shanghai.

Mexican food with Christian, Christian, Olin, Aiden

The rows at Barclay center were so steep! Aiden, here at the front of the photo, is really cute.