The Weekend After Our Vacation

After coming back from vacation, we were in full swing again with activities. Saturday was mainly spent in SF and Sunday was just a bunch of church related things. Overall, I'm glad I have summer off because there's no way I can teach with this hectic weekend.

 Bubble fun at the park

 Kids loved this!

 Rice krispie on a stick? Awesome!

 Hiding under a tunnel = genius

Although the weather report said that it was going to be 20 degrees cooler in SF, the sun was still shining. That meant we all turned pink. The weather in SF was gorgeous and unfortunately, nobody was willing to walk two blocks downhill to grab the sunblock in the car.

 Tomato picking in the backyard

For some odd reason, the kids are afraid of some imaginary penguin(s) at night. This might've started with opening their blinds and pretending that the hyenas are attacking them (thank you Lion King!). Lucas said he was scared at night. In turn, Char, who follows everything Lucas does, said she was scared to. I told them that they can both sleep in the same bed so that the other person can protect them.

 Night 1: attack of the imaginary penguins

The scary penguins came back the next night. This time, they decided to sleep in Char's bed. Char fell asleep before Lucas.

L: Charlotte's asleep already. No one will protect me.

Mommy: Don't worry, Char can just protect you when she's asleep.

L: Oh, okay.

 Night 2: attack of the imaginary penguins

When I asked if they were scared of penguins last night, they said no. Lucas told me the penguins didn't attack them cause they were busy sleeping in the playroom. Okay...

 Selfie with me and my best friend

 Selfie with matching hair clips from Vietnam

 Trying out their an dao's without pants

 Oh Charlotte...

 Lucas doing one of his favorite things in the world - spending time @ bookstore

I can't believe my baby boy turns four this Thursday. I told him he can do ANYTHING (key word: ANYTHING) he wants on his birthday. He told me he wants to go to the bookstore, pet store, then home. That's what would make him happy. Oh I love my simple-to-please boy.

Viva Las Vegas

I am checking things off my summer bucket list. June's vacation has come and gone. Maybe we could've spent an extra day in Vegas, but oh well. Hanging poolside has never felt so good when it's 109 outside! Once the kids were starting to really enjoy the pool, we had to get out and head to the airport. Maybe it might be sorta cool to have a pool in the backyard, especially if we're staying in (hot) SSJ!


Can't believe we have to pay for everyone's plane ticket now


Waiting to board the plane


Ready for take off!


Ready for take off, too!


Random breakfast place in PH


Obligatory family selfie on the strip


Went to see a pet show performance


... at V Theater

The best part of vacationing is the TV in the rooms, jumping on beds, and being crazy in the hotel room. The kids didn't ask (and I don't know why we did it), but we wanted to get a souvenir for them. Daddy originally won Lucas's giraffe (Gerald) for $4 doing this hit-chicken-in-the-can thing. When Char woke up from her stroller nap, of course she wanted the same thing (but in pink!). I had to spend two extra dollars to get "Shu Shu" for Char. Overall, both kids are happy campers and the giraffes are currently on their beds.


Won "Shu Shu" for $6 and "Gerald" for $4


Another day, another random breakfast place


Tried out Spice Market Buffet

We had a nice view of the strip and also our humongous pool from our window. They had these lounge chairs that rested in the pool which was pretty awesome. I also like the platformed area where people can just sit/lie down; it's also perfect for kids.

 Room view

Mommy/daughter poolside selfie


Lucas chilling out poolside

Two happy and cool Shinn kids

I rinsed the kids off, packed our bags, and headed back to the airport. Overall, the trip was a success since we came back in one piece and the kids had a good time.

Waiting to board to go back home

Thank you iPad

And that was summer vacay numero uno!

Father's Day Weekend

As with all summer weekends, there seems to be something going on every single weekend! Wait, how is that different from regular weekends? Shrug.

 Obligatory Father's Day picture

Daddy wanted to go to Tomi Buffet in Eastridge for dinner. What we failed to realize is that EVERY Asian father wanted to go there. I ran out of the car at 5:45 and was waitlisted for an estimated 1 - 1.5 hours. Insane in the membrane! Luckily, both kids are old enough to be okay and not have to follow a routine schedule 24/7 and there was something that kept them entertained for a good 30 minutes. We traveled so "far" to get here, we were not going to settle for mall food. So, we got seated around 7:30 and all was good.

 Some people were not happy about the crazy wait

 How the kids stayed entertained (no money was used)

On Father's Day weekend, Daddy had to go in to work on Saturday morning. Lucky me (sort of sarcastic), I get to spend an extra day alone with these rascals. No, I'm kidding. It was actually not bad at all.

 Little Miss Ham

 Sporting a Frozen murse(?)

 Silly kiddos

 Playing with his first 4th birthday gift

Someone Char scored an Elsa doll, too

... and that was Father's Day 2015.

Happy Friday

Since it's summer, every day seems like a Friday to me. Slow mornings are great, especially when we don't have anything to do till at least 9:30 or so. Summer's been good to me so far. The kids are pretty well-behaved overall, which makes me a  happy person. It's amazing to see how much they've grown and changed in the span of a year (but that'll be a topic for another post). The transition from FT working mom to FT (temporary) SAHM has been pretty sweet. I'm enjoying this summer a lot more than the past four summers. I never knew this till recently, but having a stable job and knowing exactly what I'm going to be doing in August makes me feel much more confident about who I am. I feel more secure telling people I'm a teacher versus telling people (before) that I'm a SAHM. And honestly, these kids are getting older. If they didn't go to school, they'll be bored of me and bored at home.

 Slow mornings means being a creeper and taking pics of my sleeping beauty

 Getting their read on

 I need a reading chair like this

Not working also means I can hang out with SAHM who I have not seen for ages. This is Charlotte entertaining baby Jase. Char is surprisingly really, really good with babies. She's also a very empathetic being. Lucas, on the other hand, does not like babies at all, "they are boring".

Chummy chummy with baby

Lucas has a sudden interest with Starbucks. This may or may not be because I introduced him to strawberries and creme frap. And why are they not selling mini sizes anymore?!

 Mommy/son SBux date

After dropping Char off at school, Lucas and I went to a school that was giving away things for free. We rummaged around for an hour and came home with tons of goodies! Both my class and the shinnkids scored from this!

 This picture doesn't do my gathering justice

 Happy Lu with one of his many puzzles

A hobby I picked up in the spring was gardening. I had a little interest in this back in 2010, but once I found out I was pregnant, I just let everything die off. Dan was a bit hesitant when I told him I wanted to garden again. However, I proved him wrong! I've been good with tending to my plants and now my fruits and veggies are growing. I have a zucchini that's ripe enough to be picked off, but I still refuse to do it. I am currently playing the how-big-can-you-grow game with it. I hope it doesn't turn bitter or anything. There are also lots of ripening tomatoes which you can't really see. One reason why gardening is enjoyable for me nowadays is because it reminds me of my Mom. I felt like I was too young to really care at the time, or maybe I thought I was too "cool" to garden, but she randomly came home one day and decided to grow stuff. A few months later, she had a full fledged garden! Now that I have a backyard with good soil, I figured I'll give it a try and see what I can actually grow. 

 Proud of my little garden

Where all the blogging happens

Char's First Play Date

Char has been on play dates, but she's always tagging along with whoever Lucas is friends with. Today marks a very special day because this is the first time where the play date revolved around Char and her bestie, Jordan.

 Snack time

I didn't get a chance to snap a lot of pictures of Char and Jordan today, but they had so much fun together. When I told Char that I see Jordan from afar, she screamed with glee and ran towards him. They then embraced in a sweet toddler hug. Poor Lucas, for the first time he was on his own and pretty bored. But have no fear, after we had our play date at the park, we went back to Almaden Lake Park because Lucas wanted to show Char where the ducks were.

 Happily seesawing with Mommy

 "Look Char, there's the ducks!"

 Awkwardly cheesing

Hello ladies. Shinn. Lucas Shinn.