Egg Dying Show

Huelan somehow came across a YouTube video a few months ago of a kinda wacky woman dying eggs with her dog Petey.  It's about 10 mins long, and she's been known to watch it three times on a loop.

We were conscious of not starting the Easter lead up too early so that she didn't burn out on it, but this week we finally did the egg dying.  There are many more egg dying options than I remember from growing up, but Liz, Grandma, and Huelan worked it out.  We had at least two sessions.  Was it all it was cracked up to be?  Check out the vids, Huelan's very own Egg Dying Shows:





And she started doing this recently.  She says she learned it from me, but I'm not taking the blame:

Skipped

 

Here are a few more pics from early March that I missed!

Whisper

 

 

 

Mid-March is a whirlwind.  We've got three birthdays, St. Patrick's Day, and this year the lead up to Easter.  Along with all this celebrating comes a house-full of sweets. 

One of the funny things about Huelan is that she thinks she's being tricky.  In the mornings, we'll hear her try to sneak out into the kitchen while we're still in bed, push her stool up to the counter, and hunt for candy.  She'll often come into our room when she thinks we're still asleep with chocolate on her mouth and teeth.  Her other thing is to say, "Let me whisper in your ear."  She's not that good at whispering, so she cups her hands around our ear and says at nearly full volume, "I want some candy."  Or cookie.  Or popsicle   She is seriously a sugar junkie.

On St. Patrick's Day, Anh and Patty came over to cook dinner and brought a cake for my birthday.  We lingered around the dinner table and didn't have cake til around 8.  After a small slice of cake, Huelan got a buzz and danced around for another hour.

At the St. Anne's St. Patrick's Day extravaganza a few weeks ago, she didn't even need sugar to get amped up.  We walked through the door at the lower hall at church and she saw about seven kids running around in circles, just chasing one another pointlessly.  Huelan was immediately all in.  She ran around until the dancefloor was cleared for the bagpipers, then she sat mesmerized by the troupe of Irish dancers.  Then as soon as they were done, the DJ took the stage and Huelan was back at it along with all the other kids in the place.  They climbed onto the stage, danced around up there, and lept off.

Huelan is not a shy girl.  She took a liking to the Irish dancing girls and basically wedged herself into their dance circle.  She would run around the hall, identify random people she liked, and grab their hands, leaving them no option but to dance with her.  She's kind of a smiling dance bully.  She bounced around like that for two straight hours, until we pulled her off the dance floor, wiped her down, and forcibly hydrated her.  Flashback to 1998.

Some pics here

St. Patty's Dance Video. Yes, those are random people she's dancing with.


Home Post Cake Dance Demo (5 mins- you're not missing a ton if you stop short)

Observance

Reposting from Bi's FB page:

today marks 6 years from the day of my dad’s passing. 

left photo :: cầu nam ô, đà nẵng, việt nam

back in october, i got the chance to take a 100km motorbike road trip from huế to đà nẵng. it’s supposed to be one of the most beautiful routes in vietnam: beaches to the left, mountains to the right. on the way, i asked the motorbike driver to make a special pitstop at cầu nam ô (nam o bridge) - the place from where my dad, mom, and eldest brother (who was a 1 year old baby at the time) hopped on a boat in 1978 into the sea - not knowing what would lie out there beyond vietnam, beyond huế, beyond what they’ve always known - but risking and hoping that beyond the vast and unknown sea is something better than the wartorn land that they were leaving behind.

right photo :: golden gate bridge, san francisco, usa

who would’ve thought that my family would end up in california. that my dad would one day be standing in front of the golden gate bridge; with his first daughter, his first child to be born in california, who will wear a “USA california” sweatshirt.

who would’ve thought that his first daughter, his first child to be born in california, would return to the land of his birth 28 years after his departure and meet his mother for the first time and they would exchange many smiles, and she would return again 34 years after his departure and 5 years after his death for a longer stay and ride her bicycle to his mother’s house everyday at 5pm when she knew that his bed-ridden mother was left home alone and when she experienced overwhelming frustrations with their family dynamics that she would call upon his spirit for guidance.

who would’ve thought that, though on different sides of the globe, nam o bridge and the golden gate bridge are actually connected. both bridge together hope and loss, beauty and destruction, beginnings and letting go.

Rockin Kids Sing-a-Long

I had gap in my Friday schedule, so I popped in to surprise Huelan at Ms. Stephanie's Rockin Kids Sing-a-Long, which has been her regular Friday activity for over a year now. She's very comfortable, and this week was the oldest kid there. She's so comfortable in fact that she picked up a guitar and played back up for Ms. Stephanie.

She's such a ham I have no idea where she gets it from.

Sweet Tooth

They were the small DumDum pops, so I told she could have one lollipop now and one after her nap. She happily took the first one down and we had a nice morning at Bay St. Old Navy and Rubios- doin it suburb style.

By design, she fell asleep on the way home. And predictably, her very first words upon awakening were, "done with my nap now- lollipop please." I guess a deal is a deal.

Snow Days

Last week was the highly anticipated, first annual Lake Tahoe Family Weekend.  Sam found a great house in the Tahoe Keys with a meadow in the backyard and view of the lake a mountains.  The set up was well complimented with plenty of good food, music, and even mood lighting courtesy of Hardcastle Entertainment.

We were treated to the best snow of the year so far, and most people took advantage one way or another.  Most of the snowboarding was accomplished before we got there, and that was surprisingly fine with me.  With less than 48 hours of family Tahoe time, I was content to spend the day on the homefront.,  In years past, activity was centered around the indoor ice luge; this year it was all about the kiddie ice luge....

Though we're usually able to get this crew together once or twice a year, it somehow feels like an accomplishment.  With how busy we all are (or think we are) it does take some planning, but nothing that we can't handle.  

Next challenge will increase the level of difficulty though... Family Camping.

Tahoe Pics Here