June so far

It's been quite a busy month so far. We had a few quiet days after Memorial Day, and during that week Taisim got out her Pink Princess cookbook and we made a few recipes. The first was a marshmallow smoothie, which we happened to have all of the ingredients on hand for. Taipan and Taisim really liked these (it's a slight variation on our usual smoothie recipe, with mini-marshmallows on top):


Next we decided to make "fortune cookies". These are super easy and turned out really well. It's pie crust dough cut into circles, then folded into quarters, with a fortune inside, then dipped in colored sugar. They were yummy!


Pics of the kids hanging out - Taipan and Taisim both have shorter hair, at their request:



My dad and stepmom came for a long weekend too. They got here on June 11, which happened to be my stepmom's birthday, so we made cupcakes to celebrate. While they were here they took the kids to a bounce house and McDonald's to play, and Simi went to Chuck E Cheese with them. There was also a ton of play at the house - tea parties, xbox games, swinging, bouncey ball games and more! We had a fabulous time, and hope that they'll be able to visit again soon.


While my dad was here, Taipan lost his first two teeth. Here's a picture with the first one gone:


We also had caterpillars for our butterfly garden. This is the second time we've had them, and this batch went through their metamorphoses much quicker than the last ones we had. We hardly got any pictures, but here is one finding its way after being released:


Lastly, a quick picture of our skate-dancers, inspired by the robots in The Backyardigans new Robot Rampage episode:

Memorial Day Weekend 2010

My mom came to visit us for the long weekend. She got here on Thursday evening, and left Memorial Day weekend. She got a little bit of snuggle time with Taiko and a lot of play time with Taipan and Taisim. And she also helped us pretty up our front yard by planting flowers for us. Thanks, Mom!

For Christmas Mom had given Taipan a tin can robot kit. We hadn't put it together yet, and Taipan brought it out a few days before my mom got here, so we decided to wait until she was here and put it together during her visit.

As soon as we took it out of the box it was pretty clear that this was a project for Yuta. The kids enjoyed watching for a while, and Taipan thought it was pretty cool to play with, and it now sits with the rest of his robot collection.

Taisim and Grammy made one of Taipan's favorite meals - Grammy's noodles (egg noodles with soup, sour cream & bread crumbs ... and optional chicken). We actually made three batches of this over the long weekend.

Mom taking a break from planting flowers:

Yuta's sister Yuli and her husband Keith were also in town over the weekend. The came to visit on Saturday and Sunday. They brought the kids Pumpinators and clip clop stilts (not sure what the offical name of these are, but they're in the picture below). The Pumpinators are a ton of fun - they do air balloons and water balloons. The water balloons in particular have been a big hit.

We have more family coming next weekend - my dad and stepmom - and then Ling will be here the middle of the following week. We're so happy for family visits.

Yuli and Taisim:

Kids with stilts:

Simi and Taipan joining me and Taiko on the big red chair:

Yuli and Taiko on Sunday:

Cute baby pic: