Summer Vacay-cay 2019

It's tradition for us to go on vacation the day after Memorial Day. Pretty much all the other students are still at school, which makes wherever we go much less crowded. This year, we decided to fly down to So Cal and visit... 

Great Wolf Lodge!

Whole family shot of GWL

Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures in the waterpark because I didn't buy one of those waterproof phone holding lanyards. Believe me when I say this though, we had a blast! The lines were very short (if any) and we just went up and down the slides the entire time. I can't wait for the Manteca one to open next year! 

 Evangie loved the characters

Char thought they were okay... nothing too special

Lucas thought he was too cool for them

But when there's no lines, you take picture with whoever you see!

Evangie spotted "ah strawberry" (aka ice cream)

Just hangin'

Boba shop around the corner

Lucas's fake enthusiasm

Good bye GWL! 

(Note: 2 days and 2 nights is probably the perfect amount of time to be there.)

After we checked out of GWL, we headed to downtown Disney. No, we did not make it into Disneyland. Due to the housing project and me not being paid over the summer, we gots no money! However, the kids were perfectly fine not going to Disneyland. It was also the opening weekend of Star Wars Land. I think Dan was more disappointed than the kids. 

 Finally had good pizza @ downtown Disney

Matchy matchy

Char really loves matching with me. I will take it as long as I can! Evangie is at that age where it's still hard to find clothes that match us. One more year, Evang...

The child that looks most like me, I guess?

 The ladies found some Friends

 Goodbye So Cal

Another note: I purposely had us decked out in Warriors gear while down in So Cal. It was also game 1 of the Finals (and the Warriors got embarrassed!). It was a bit embarrassing walking around with our Warriors clothes when not in the Bay Area after a bad loss... 

Another Kinder Grad

Two years later, we have another Kinder grad. I learned that Charlotte is silly (based off what all her teachers wrote about her in her yearbook) and always smiles. Hmm... I wonder where she got that from.

 Congrats Char Shinn

 We left Evangie at daycare

Char & Daddy

Me & my baby

Graduation signifies the beginning of summer! What better way to start summer off than...

 iPad time!

 ... and cherry picking!

Hello, Summer 2019! The summer where I don't have a backyard to throw the kids in before and after dinner. The summer where we don't have central A/C. The summer where our house is just a piece of land right now. 

Our House

We handed over our keys to our contractor on January 8. Since then, we've obsessively driven by/stopped by our house pretty religiously. We've seen the entire demo process (it's completely different from demo days on TV). We've seen the important (but boring) work of laying down the proper foundation. Right now, I'm just waiting for framing to be done so we can FINALLY see the skeleton of what our future house will look like. I keep telling myself that although the process is tedious (and I have wanted to kill someone every once in a while), it'll all be worth it when we move back home.

One last picture in front of our house till it's not ours for the next year

Everything was taken apart from the inside out

Remnants of our fireplace

Walls slowly being stripped away

Char dancing through our former living room

Almost bare... roof = gone

Our (dead) front lawn and (disgusting) driveway... destroyed!

Destroying everything bit by bit

Our cheap and not-so-functional roof... gone!

This lot will become something beautiful in a few months

And there you have it... our former house

Lots of digging for the foundation work

This house lived a good life for the past five years. However, as time went on, more and more things were coming apart. Our biggest pet peeve were the unleveled floors. A Hot Wheel car can easily slide towards the backyard without any pushing. With our new solid foundation, we will no longer have this problem. 

Containing the children while I look at house stuff

 How the entire family is entered while I look at house stuff

I'm still crossing my fingers that we can move back home just in time for the holidays. 

February 2019

I honestly forgot what happened in March. I guess I was busy with work and school and once again... life in general. Sorry, March 2019. You got shafted.

February was more special because both girls turned a year older. How is my baby no longer an official baby?! 

 The birthday ladies - birthdays are 13 days apart (I couldn't get it to be exactly 2 weeks)

 Save the cheerleader, save the world

 Two year old nerd alert

 Kissy kissy

 Celebrated Char's family birthday at OSF

 My little prodigies 

 Loves HK and girlie stuff just like her sissy poo

She has a love for shoes

 1/3 of what you see was what she got for her birthday

The third child got the biggest shaft birthday-wise. We didn't have a party or a special celebration dinner for her because... she doesn't care! As a veteran mother, I know she'll care by the time she turns three. So, I'll waste my efforts on her birthday next year. Till now, I'm still riding the wave of not officially celebrating anything... yet!

Spring Break 2019... and more

Has it really been more than a year since I last updated? I would like to blame it on life. 

Quite a bit has changed since March 2018. First off, we are no longer in our house. We've temporarily downgraded to a 1/1 apartment while our house is being rebuilt from the ground up! I'm hoping to move back by the holidays. Still crossing fingers... although we're a few phases behind schedule, I still believe in miracles. 

Our Spring Break just ended and we took a quickie one nighter trip to Monterey. Lucas went on a field trip to the aquarium and really wanted to go back again without rushing. 

Ready for our trip

Barely fitting in that clam shell

These three are barely fitting in that shell

Pier of Fisherman's Wharf

Cannery Row (PC: Lucas)

PC: Lucas

Clam chowder samples galore at Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey

Not sure she understands the concept of binoculars

Sister sister

Out of all the kids, Evangeline has changed the most in every aspect. She's a big troublemaker, but she's a smart kid. She's a super picky eater and loves to follow in her siblings footsteps. Sometimes it's not the best ideas to copy them since they're up to no good as well.

 One of their favorite store - Claire's

Panda sisters

 Sharing snow cones

... and ice cream cones

When the trio are together and getting along, they're pretty cute. But on most occasions, the two older ones are fighting and Evangeline is just joining in the mix somehow. 

Lucas and matchy matchy sisters

Annual doctor's appointment - three healthy kids

Evangie loves posing for the camera too now

Little cheeseball

And then there's Lucas... the boy who can't wait to get his own room and get some peace and quiet away from all then noise (aka: his sisters).

Fresh fade for his "modeling" debut

 Thinks he's so cool with his fedora and shades

 Mom thinks she's pretty cool with her sun hat, too

And then there's the family pictures in April. There's Dad's birthday and Easter. This is our sixth year celebrating Dad's birthday at Benihana's. That glob of butter they put on everything took a toll on me when I got up the next morning. #gettingold

Kids are growing like weeds

 Evangie was so happy to sit on the Easter bunny

And that's pretty much April in a nutshell. We are four weeks away from summer. Hopefully there's also crazy quick progress with our house as well.