Thanksgiving 5 Day Weekend

We started the Thanksgiving Festivities on Tuesday at Attie's school.

Her class dressed like Pilgrims and we had a Feast outside.

That evening my Dad and Sandy arrived and the weekend began with dinner at our favorite local Mexican restaurant, Casa Lupe.
The picture above is of our lovely Thanksgiving dinner complete with 5 pies! Four of which Terry and Attie baked.

Atticus was so happy to have her Grandma and Grandpa at her house. She kept them very occupied. The first day, she and Sandy sat and read over 15 books!

One evening we played Cadoo. It was Attie and her grandparents against me and Terry.

They also taught her to play marbles, she had a lot of fun with that.

They did puzzles and also went for walks around the neighborhood. On Thanksgiving, she took them to her school and the principal just happened to be there.

So Atticus got to introduce Ms. Jambor to her Grandma and Grandpa!

And what would a visit with Grandma and Grandpa be without a little shopping.

The day after Thanksgiving we took them to downtown Los Gatos, their favorite little town and shopped til we dropped!

It was so nice having them here for the holiday.

We so enjoyed kicking off the season by hosting them!
We miss you!!!!

We rounded out the weekend after my Dad and Sandy left by sharing leftovers with Julie on Saturday night and on Sunday we took Attie to see "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium."

Cute movie.

More fun stuff

Atticus is still in swim lessons. She started back in March in the Seahorse level.

Since then she has moved through Jellyfish, Octopus, Sea Turtle, and just last week got promoted to Otter!

This picture was taken at one of her lessons in the summer.

This fall, Atticus joined Girl Scouts. She is in a Daisy troop with several of her classmates from school. Here she is on their first outing, a Nature Walk in the Cupertino Foothills.



Last weekend, we adopted this sweet little girl. Meet "Sunday," a 5 1/2 year old, 9 pound cutie.
We have really enjoyed having her in the family. Everyone is adjusting well, even Levi.
She has a lot to learn and seems to be catching on pretty well by following Levi around.
Atticus is in doggy heaven.

Please don't forget to check in the online gallery for the whole picture.

Halloween 2007

This year we went to a new pumpkin patch that had a corn maze.

Here are Attie and Terry checking out the aerial view.

There were 10 checkpoints along the way. Attie was able to read and answer the questions which pointed you in the right direction.

Attie chose a very cute little pumpkin and designed it to be a pumpkin princess with a crown. Good job!

Attie had lots of opportunities to wear her Supergirl costume.

Here she is at the school Halloween dance with some of her classmates, Cheerleader, Cowgirl and Indiana Jones.

We had a very busy Halloween day. 1st a party at school, then a party at Terry's office, then trick-or-treating on our street.

September/October Highlights

KINDERGARTEN!!!!!

My baby girl is in Kindergarten. Here she is with her teacher, Mrs. Kuljis (cool-yes) and her 19 classmates. She is absolutely thriving, loves her school and teacher and has made many friends and no enemies:) I have become the Kindergarten cheerleader, acting as room parent, working in the classroom once a week, sitting in on Home & School Club meetings and I even co-chaired Fammatre's 1st Annual "Monster Bash Boogie," a Halloween Dance. It has been so exciting to join the Kindergarten culture and I have made many friends too.

BACK IN FLORIDA

The last of my siblings, Katie got married in September and we were back in Florida for another party! We all stayed in cottages on the beach and had a wonderful 4 day weekend. The wedding was so fun and Attie was not happy until this picture was taken. She kept asking me if she coulde have her picture taken with the bride. She referred to Katie as the bride all day. So cute!

FUN WITH AYUMI

We took Ayumi with us to a night tour of the San Francisco Zoo.

It started at 5pm with dinner included.

The line for dinner was so long so we decided to skip it and head into the exhibits instead.

One of the highlights was that one of the giraffes had just had a baby.

She was not on display yet, but because it was a special

tour we were able to see her.

The girls thought she was very cute and they did a great job of observing her quietly so she wouldn't run back into the giraffe house.

The tour allowed us to visit the animal kitchen as well as the hospital.

We saw animal xrays, the shell of a tortoise, and a demo on how they medicate the big animals with darts.

Pretty cool.

We enjoyed having Ayumi for the evening and got to see bears, gorillas, penguins, tigers, flamingos and an Asian rhino.

We wore the girls out and they slept all the way home.

FIRE PREVENTION WEEK

We went with the Bergans to a nearby firestation in San Jose where we got to see the firehouse, including where the firemen live.

Taro loved the firetruck.

The girls were really interested in the paramedic.

They also loved that they got stickers!

MOMMY'S BIRTHDAY

I had a lovely birthday this year which lasted a few days.

On Thursday Terry took the day off and after we picked Attie up at school, they took me out to lunch at my favorite pizza place.

Then on Friday night they baked this beautiful cake and we ate it for breakfast on Saturday morning.

Happy 5th Birthday

For Attie's birthday this year, instead of having a party, we took her to afternoon tea at "The Secret Garden Tea Room" in San Francisco. It was very fancy and they had a dress up room so you could deck yourself out for the occasion.
At our monthly dinner we celebrated Attie, Terry and Tomoko's birthdays with 70 something candles on the cake so everyone had their appropriate number to blow out.

We got Atticus a "big girl bike" and she was pretty thrilled.

The tricycle was definitely too small and she is enjoying bike riding.

July Highlights

GILROY GARLIC FESTIVAL

We finally went to the famous Gilroy Garlic Festival in July.

It was loaded with garlicky food, music, beer, crafts, even an Xtreme Sports expo and a karaoke tent.

Because of the intense heat and lack of shade, it became a day of cold indulgences.

Here is Attie having a frozen lemonade.

We stood in line for quite a while to try the garlic ice cream.

It was pretty tasty. We got garlic-hazelnut, I think.

Once we had had all the food and treats we could handle we headed over to the cooking tent and Guy Fieri from TV Food Network's "Drive-Ins, Diners and Dives" was just finishing his demo. Attie recognized him from TV so of course we had to get a picture.

Before heading out, Terry got Attie a little kettle corn :)

After the festival, we went to Gilroy Gardens.

It's a horticultural theme park nearby.

They timed a "Family fun Night" to coincide with the Garlic Festival.

So we set up our tent with about 50 other families.

They provided dinner and then we got to go into the theme park after hours and check out all the rides.

Here are Attie and Terry pretending to ride the cobra.

We actually convinced her to ride it the next day and she had a mixture of fun and fear, exactly what a roller coaster is all about!

We were so proud of her for trying it!

Another first for her was having her picture taken with "Garlic Boy" or whatever he is called. She's typically not into characters, but for some reason she was not intimidated by the walking head of garlic?

After a hot and sweaty day walking around the festival, sleeping in a tent and then theme parking the following day, we were certainly ready to get home to our shower and beds.

June Highlights

DAD'S 60TH

In June, we added an additional surprise to my Dad's Surprise 60th Birthday Party by unexpectedly showing up in Florida. It was a great night to show him how much we all love and appreciate him. Everybody said a little something, some roasting, but mostly toasting.Terry gave a lovely speech about how my Dad used to visit us in NYC and I tried to give an eloquent speech but ended up crying and blubbering.

BEACH HOUSE

We stayed in Florida for 12 days in a whacky beach house on Anna Maria Island.

The beach came right up to our porch and we had an unobstructed view of the Gulf.

It was Paradise and Terry and I were completely detoxed from suburban life within 24 hours and then easily switched to hardcore Beach Bums.

We pretty much stayed on the Island the whole time and almost every day various parts of the family would come and visit.

Terry made Cuban burgers for the first time and we enjoyed eating three meals a day in our bathing suits with sand between our toes.

My mom spent her two nights and three days off out at the beach with us and had a vacation of her own!

Terry got her hooked on Vanity Fair magazine and we really enjoyed relaxing together, walking to dinner on the beach, and visiting in such an amazing setting.

Atticus had so much fun with her cousins. Here we are with my sister Jessie's kids, Julia, Hannah and Ian.

It was great for the kids because they could come in and out from the beach, track sand in the house as they got another juice box, shower off in the outdoor shower, dry off in the sun for a while and then do it all over again.

Here are my brother Josh's kids, Jackson and Caroline and Jeff's daughter Abbi.

Jackson brought his hermit crabs to the beach and the kids had fun watching them.

On the table you'll notice a coconut shell they found and of course we have an enormous shell collection from this trip.

The Gulf was so clear, you could see the bottom. Every time we went out, we were definitely reminded that we were visitors in the home of the many ocean creatures.

On day one, dolphins were playing just off shore.

On day two, a ginormous Manatee swam right by. I mean RIGHT by, we could have reached out and touched it. Before swimming off, it came up for a breath and then displayed it's tail. AMAZING!

Atticus adapted to the Island lifestyle so well. Give her water and sand, tell her she doesn't have to get dressed for the next twelve days and that she can have as many popsicles as she wants...

Happy Girl!

More great pics in the online gallery.

Silkworms

Silworms are being raised at Attie's school.

Above are the growing worms, eating Mulberry leaves that parents are donating.

Below are the cocoons that some have spun in the cocoon-condo built out of toilet paper rolls.

Pretty cool!

We made the paper

Saturday, Atticus and her classmates performed at the annual Chinese Community's Festival sponsored by the regional Chinese newspapaer, The World Journal.

The next day, our photos appeared on the front page!! (Along with all of the other performers and spectators)

CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO GET A CLOSER LOOK, ARROWS POINT TO WHERE WE ARE.

xoxoxox

Wendy

Video

Attie's school held a Mother's Day Tea today. The kids served us pearl tea and refreshments and sang three songs, two in English, one in Mandarin. Also she made me two mother's day crafts.

Click on this link to see video of the songs:

http://www.vimeo.com/clip:187985

xoxoxo and Happy Mother's Day!

Wendy

Atticus anecdote

Last night Atticus was reading jokes to us from her joke book.

She now "gets it." She was very excited to be able to explain what the puns and sound-the-same jokes meant. She then created a sort of contest where one would receive two thumbs up if you "got it" and she was tallying up our scores. It was very involved and she was really in command.

I said to her, "You're going to be in charge of something someday."

She said, "Yeah, I'm going to be a judge!"

Terry and I were so amazed, proud, tickled, and were gleaming over her when she added,

"Like Paula."

So, Attie is a Paula Abdul fan because she is "the nice judge" and yes, we let her watch American Idol.

It has been very hot lately and we are enjoying the early summer.

Roller Skating and Motorcycle Riding

We took a trip to Florida in March for my sister's wedding.

It was a jam-packed trip with wedding activities, beach trips, playdates with cousins, and a Roller Skating birthday party for my brother, Jeff, and niece, Julia. Attie was very nervous about this whole skating thing, but as the evening progressed she got more confident and even wheeled along by herself on the carpeted edge.

Xanadu!!!

One of the highlights of the Spring for Terry was his motorcycle class.

He and good friend, Bergan, gave each other lessons for Christmas and took the class together.

They had a lot of fun and Attie and I enjoyed watching Terry ride the course.

Terry has been working incredibly hard this past six months; it was great to see him enjoying something fun and new that he has been wanting to do for a long time.