Life Lately

Sorry readers for not posting any recent updates.  Mommy has been busy with work and weekend activities.  Let's get started with what's been going on.  Po Po's birthday recently passed.  Daddy was on business travel, so Po Po and Gung Gung came over to help out.  One of the days they were over happened to fall on Po Po's birthday.  Uncle Derek and Auntie Gabby came over to celebrate by going out to dinner and dessert afterwards.

Auntie Gabby read the girls bedtime stories before the girls showered.  Auntie Gabby was a teacher in her previous job and told the girls she really misses reading stories to children. 

Katelyn continues to love her art lessons.  It's her favorite activity even more than gymnastics.  Bella likes picking up her sister and seeing what she draws each week.

This lesson the kids drew a lighthouse using watercolors and pastels.  It's pretty cool to see how different each of the drawings are and how the kids interpret the lesson.

Katelyn and Daddy spent some quality time together on her day off for Columbus day.  She took Bart to San Francisco.

They walked around the pier and took a selfie.

Their next stop was the Exploratorium.  She tried different activities such as putting her head in this light bulb contraption.

She turned the wheel as fast she could on this gravity exercise.

They ended the day with ice cream.

The girls celebrated Sam's birthday.  She turned two, but almotst weighs as much as Bella.

Bella is such a ham these days.  She decided to wear Mommy's jeans on top of her pajamas.

She also put a ball in her tummy since Teacher C is pregnant.  It's never a dull moment when Bella is around.  She keeps things entertaining!

Spending Time With Family and Friends

The girls had brunch with their good friends Courtney and Natalie at Flemings.  The adults were served complimentary mimosas while the girls shared mac and cheese, chicken tenders and finished off with sundaes.

They walked around Stanford mall afterwards and sat in the the Model X at the Tesla store.

The eating fest continued at Korean BBQ for dinner with Christian, Josh, Auntie Suzy and Uncle Wilbur.  It's been a long time since they have hung out.

Mochi ice-cream was for dessert at Japantown.

They celebrated a few birthdays in the last couple of weeks.  Uncle Vu's birthday at a Thai restaurant.

Ashley turned 6.  These 3 girls are so close and more like sisters instead of cousins.

The girls are involved with different activities and will separate from time to time.  Katelyn is learning different techniques during basketball practice like dribbling with both hands and dribbling in between the legs.  Mommy stayed home with Bella during one of the practices and had udon for lunch.  Udon is one of her favorite things to eat.  She showed Mommy she finished her whole bowl.

Another time, her preschool friends had a play date at a park in the city.

Bella usually prefers Mommy.  Daddy was happy to have some quality time with this little one.

Auntie Justine invited the girls over for dinner.  Greysen is now going to the same school as Katelyn and Mo Mo and Bella are in the same ballet class.

One morning, Bella and Teacher Arnie arrived at school at the same time.  She wanted to hold his hand and walk to class together.  It was cultural day for the teachers, so Teacher Arnie wore his Spanish sandals and brought Spanish snacks. 

Heat Wave!

A few weeks ago the weather reached over a 100 degrees which unusually hot for the time of year.  Our upstairs was 92 degrees.  The girls ended up sleeping downstairs on the floor.  Excuse Bella's belly picture...it was THAT HOT!

Uncle Pete invited the girls to join Uncle Richard's birthday celebration in Parajo Dunes to escape the heat.  They visited some tide pools and saw some tiny crabs, starfish and sea anemones.

Uncle Richard rented a beach house.  After dinner, they roasted smores for dessert.

Bella is loving her new classroom.  When it's time to pick her up, she always says, can you pick me up later?  I am not ready to go home yet.  She practices writing her name daily.

Katelyn loves first grade as well.  Her reading skills are improving every day.  Mommy volunteered to be a mystery reader.  The students including Katelyn do not know who the mystery reader is and play 20 questions before the mystery comes to the classroom.  Katelyn was so surprised it was Mommy and ecstatic.  Mommy read two books to the kids.  Mrs. I took this pic and sent it to Mommy.

Katelyn started taking art lessons with her friend Sora.

Each week the students use different mediums and techniques.  At the first class she painted with water color and made a steam boat.

The following week, the kids used oil pastels and drew a bike.  She can't wait to go back each week!

SF Giants Race

Uncle Pete invited Daddy and Katelyn to the SF Giants Race.  Katelyn was excited run the race with Courtney as part of the family relay.

Katelyn received her official number, but had to wait in the stands until the race began.

Once the race was completed, each kid got a medal.  It was an unusually hot day in SF, but the girls endured the heat.

The girls saw Lou the seal and posed for a picture.

While the older girls were at the race, Bella attended Luca's birthday party.  Power Ranger masks were given as favors.

Bella transitioned classrooms in preschool.  She was looking forward to seeing her old friends again who moved earlier in the year.

Teacher B is her new primary teacher.

Katelyn joined a basketball league.  It took some convincing for her to sign up.  Her friend, Alana really wanted her to join.

Bella watched on the sidelines as her older sister did drills.

The first 30 minutes was drills and learning different techniques and the remaining 30 minutes was a two on two game.  Katelyn passed the ball to her teammate in this photo.

Mommy was proud of Katelyn for a trying a new sport.  Afterwards Katelyn said it was pretty hard, but fun.

The girls headed to Uncle Ken and Auntie Becca's house for dinner.  It was such a hot day, the kids enjoyed a smoothie boba drink.

Starting First Grade

After returning from Hawaii, Katelyn went to the Genentech camp for a week.  The girls took turns dropping each other off in their classrooms each morning.

Katelyn's attended a back to school event to bring in her school supplies.  The kids were served shaved ice.

The following day was first grade orientation.  Katelyn met her new teacher and found where her desk and cubby was.  Her teacher had welcome back bags for each of the students.

Katelyn was really excited to see her kindergarten friends. Even though some of the girls' are in different first grade classes, the girls picked up where they last left off.

She wanted to visit Mrs. B's classroom to say hello.  Kindergarten orientation happened to be on the same day.  Mrs. B said Katelyn got taller and said she will do great in first grade!

Katelyn was excited, but a little nervous about first grade.  She wanted to have Mrs. B again since she loves her so much.

The first graders now line up with the rest of the older classes and say the pledge of allegiance and hear morning announcements before walking to their classroom.

Here's her new teacher, Mrs. I.

The girls had lunch with Auntie Andrea.  After lunch, she treated the girls to ice cream at her place.

The cousins got together one last time before Nicholas headed to college and Julia to high school in the east coast.

The girls love spending time with Uncle Derek and playing with Taz.