Catching up

I haven't been actively posting because I was trying to catch up in the house, cleaning. Wzg thinks that to clean the house is always a loosing game because kids can make a huge mess in seconds, cleaning could easily cost me whole night. But I just can't give up, I need a nice and clean house for the holiday.
Now I need to catch up here with my blog, there are so many exiting things happened in the last two months.

Halloween: Sophia was super girl, she looks very pretty in blue and red. I will definitely consider deep and rich blue when I shop her wardrobe next time. Olivia was fairy, she was the cutest fairy ever, she won the third place of cutest category in our community park costume contest. Lucas, his first Halloween, I put him in skeleton pjs, which is very practical for a baby, he was a chubby skeleton.

Thanksgiving: We went to New York city to see the Macy's parade. It was so much fun, especially when we have VIP window seats to watch parade inside. Sophia sat for the whole parade, loved the balloons, Olivia wasn't that patient and kept walking around and playing with boys. We also went to the American girl Place and the world biggest Toys R Us. Girls loved everything about the trip, even the subway and the crowd was a little overwhelming at the beginning of the trip, they were getting used to it at the end.

Christmas: We decided to stay home so that Santa could find our house (yes, Sophia and Olivia are both very into Santa now). When kids got to see Santa at my office Christmas party Sophia was very sure what wanted for Christmas, and her request was very reasonable. Olivia has been constantly changing, she asked for a boots doll at the beginning, then silly bands, then she asked for a party, I don't know how Santa could throw her a party but I will throw one for her. Since they have been good for the whole year, Santa brought exactly what they wanted. Sophia got a Fancy Nancy Christmas book and little calico critters. Olivia got a Boots doll and Zhuzhu pet playset. Lucas got a baby toy, well, he doesn't care. I love holidays, because kids are happy.

New Year: It's coming. I can't believe how time flies. Another year is coming, we will have a party to celebrate at our house (for Olivia).

Birthdays: Girls' birthdays are coming, still thinking if we're going to throw party for that.

A little progress this week

A corner of our home

This year we invested some money in garden, new fence, new door, new pavement. However the outcome is not as good as any year before. We had our first cucumber yesterday which is one month later than last year, pepper is still tiny, eggplant is still a sprout, not flowers at all, tomato overgrown, nothing too exited.

Big plan vs. small progress

Wzg and I both have a big plan for the weekend, however we did very little progress. I don't even have a picture to share, wzg has this one...

Bye, Chicago!

We just had a short vacation at Chicago. Short but great, we spent lots time with friends, had lots of good eats, Sophia had tons of fun, too. And came back with a wonderful gift, Barbie and Barbie house.

Sophia at work

Sophia's work is play.
We went to Children's museum today. There were lots of new things, Red dog Clifford, How people make things. We spent more than 3 hours in that building and backyard.

A very yellow day

Yesterday was a yellow day. I started with an outfit of yellow Tee and yellow belt, came back home with some yellow stuff from a thrift store on the way.
Yellow bias tape, yellow rick rack, yellow vintage apron, yellow place mats.

At work

I just got my new computer in, which comes with two huge LCD monitors.

Show and Tell

I was very productive last week, getting closer to finish my to do list.
Cleaned up basement and my work area, now it looks better than before.

Made a summer tote bag.

Did some shopping, got a dress for Sophia
and matching dress for her baby doll,
they're super cute, also bought a handbag for myself.

L@@K

Traveling on Mother's day

We spent Mother's day on the way this year. I couldn't believe there were so many people traveling on Sunday morning. The Denver international airport was packed. Check-in line and security check line were a mile long. We arrived at the airport about two hours ahead, still almost missed the flight. The stroller I recently bought was a life saver, it carried Sophia, carried her car seat, carried her bags, my bags, survived.
Guess my mother's day gift was that everyone got home safe and sound.

We're back

The trip was quite short considering we flew that far (more than 3 hours). But I love such shorter vacation better, because I don't want to go back to real life if it is too long.

This is our first time to Denver, however we didn't have time to dig into the city and enjoy everything.

Here are some highlight of the trip.
Pikes peak, amazing, I don't have any words to describe it, you have to go and feel it yourself. When we got to the the summit (not exactly the summit, still 2 miles of road was closed due to snow), I felt like when I first saw the ocean, it opened up my eyes and made me feel so tiny to this huge mother nature. The highest point we got was about 13000ft.
Garden of the gods, pretty neat, but if you've been to Zion national park, it won't surprise you. Horse ride in the park would be great, but I didn't feel like riding a horse. Sophia loves horse but is too young to enjoy pony ride.
Downtown Denver, doesn't look very safe, we didn't stay long, didn't even eat there. If I go again, I will go to the Denver art museum. Sophia enjoyed the children's corner at the museum very much.
Rocky mountain national park, pretty much like the Yellow stone national park, but smaller, not very impressive to me. Sophia was very exited to see wild animals though. It's not the park for us with a toddler, because Sophia is too heave to be carried while hiking, and too little to walk herself. She asked for stroller every time the car stops.

We also had some great eats at local restaurants, met our old friend and had good time.

Heading Denver

Tonight is the last dinner before we leave for vacation. I decided to make it easy and yummy. As requested by Sophia we stopped by grocery store on our way home and got lots of good eats for dinner and breakfast. Not only yummy but healthy, too.
We had raw baby carrots as appetizer, then Italian sandwich, Sophia loves ham and cheese, dessert was nicest, strawberry and mango dipped into organic soy chocolate yogurt. We will have chocolate chip muffin for breakfast.

Are you ready for summer?

I have been crazy shopping for summer gear. Today I got sunscreen, a fabric summer bag, and some summer clothes for Sophia, jersey, seersucker, eyelets, floral, polka dots,pink, peach, orange, white, perfect summer ingredients. Those clothes are very close to what I dreamed of when I was a kid. I so wanted to have summer dress, or skirt, or even shorts made of soft cotton with subtle crinkles in creamery yellow with white trim. I wish there is adult version of that yellow skirt, maybe I can make one if I can find that perfect fabric.

Diner tonight

I made mini sandwich with butter biscuit, yummy. I had 5!, Sophia had 1.5!

One more new toy

Just got it this morning. Now I know what I'm going to do tonight, make a skin for it.

Last 48 hours

was crazy, I slept very little. There were too many things going on, can't figure out where to start.

Big event on Saturday, was Treesdale neighborhood garage sale. It's not an average neighborhood garage sale. It's a huge one because the community is huge, I think there are thousands of houses. They even had the police at busy crossings to control traffic. Its ad says start at 7:30am. I planned to be out of door at 7:15am. However life is never predictable, we finally set off at 8:15am.
When we got there, the roads were all packed, crazier than Christmas shopping. I saw many cars were already stuffed, and some had furnitures on the top. We were told that it was even more cars at 7:30am.
We spent almost 3 hours there, not even close to drive through all houses, but decided to go home because we were exhausted.
Here are what I found.
Books


A bird for my craft table.

Who says cars are for boys? Sophia spent hours playing this match box car playset.

This cute doll bed in pink, which I've been looking for everywhere.

Rocking horse with brown hair, I love her hair, not for Sophia, it's for her dolls.
It's really funny. Three years ago, when I was shopping everywhere for baby stuff for Sophia. Now we're shopping everywhere for baby stuff for Sophia's dolls.
And we also got lots of great books for Sophia, some picture frames I can work on.
Overall it was very fruitful.