Sweet 16

Emily turned 16!

I can't believe that 16 years has passed!

2000 and 2016

She celebrated with her closest friends by watching a movie...

Can you believe I taught all these gals 7 years ago?

.. eating dinner...

...and having ice cream for dessert.

She's a very low-key gal.

Of which we are very thankful for since our other daughter wants to go to DisneyWorld!

In A Galaxy Far Far Away

My nephew Timothy turned 6 this year.
He had a Star Wars themed party... with the expected SW cake, favor bags and pretend light sabers.

Everything was going so well when some unexpected guests arrived and a FIGHT ensued...

Apparently Han Solo and Darth Vader wanted to go at it..

 But the kids did good.. they had everything under control!

 Poor Darth Vader.. He had no chance!

The girls were not swayed by Darth Vader's power!

 And Timothy was a great Jedi Knight!

Look for these men in the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens..

14

We celebrated Emily's 14th birthday with movie, pizza and pottery.

We watched Dolphin Tale 2

The theater was empty for us!

Love the Century Theaters near our house

So was the pizza place.

Round Table Pizza

But not the pottery place where we squeezed 6 gals onto one table so they can stay together.

Color Me Mine

She cut her cake at her aunt and uncle's house to celebrate with her cousins too!

Can you guess what kind of decor she had on her cake?

25, 50, & 55

After we witnessed the new union of my cousin Henry to his new bride, Josephine, we zipped over to the Yee home to witness their union of 25 years of marriage.

They both don't look they have aged in 25 years! It's those youthful Chinese genes!

Angela got back into her original wedding dress and her and Michael renewed their vows and recommitted their lives to each other continuing to make Jesus the center of their lives.

Can't wait to be at their 50th wedding anniversary!

Their kids were their attendants and it was a very beautiful ceremony in their backyard!

We were a little 'overdressed' for this wedding but we hope we gave it a 'classy' feel even though it was a casual affair.

They also celebrated their birthdays: 55 for Michael and 50 for Angela. (You would never have guessed their ages right?)

After giving them our well wishes, we were off to Henry & Josephine's wedding banquet.  It was a very FULL day of celebrating!

Creatures at 5

 The Sulfur Creek Nature Center in Hayward has been a "family' birthday center.

Celebrating Emily's 3rd Birthday (only one grandchild at the time) for Matthew's parents

Celebrating Hannah's 4th birthday with Emily and cousin, Marissa

She loved the chinchilla

Celebrating Marissa's 3rd birthday with the tarantula

So now it's my nephew's turn.. celebrating his 5th birthday at Sulfur Creek Nature Center.

Four grandchildren now.. time flies.. families grow..

Timothy had four animals to touch... although he was too nervous to touch them himself. His sister on the other hand was not!

The tortoise

The snake

The tarantula

He touched this one.. or actually  it touched him.

And the ever popular chinchilla,, yep same one as in Hannah's birthday party six years ago

Yay... he touched this one too!

Happy Birthday Lok-Wing!!

The happy family: Marissa, Kenny, Matthea and Timothy

Home Away From Home

My last post (6 of 6) of my celebration trip with the Girls.

We had the privilege of staying at Marj's parent's house.

They graciously let us stay there when they were away. It was wonderful to have a home to hang out in...

...and to see where Marj grew up.

QUESTION: Whom does this black and white picture look like to you?

Marj's parents have a bidet! I didn't get the chance to use one in Europe (where supposedly they are everywhere). It was fabulous! One more item on my household list to get!

So did you figure out who that b/w picture looked like? Marjorie or Lisa?

I totally think that she looked like Lisa but that is a picture of Marjorie's mom! LOL!

This trip wouldn't be possible without each of us doing our part to make it happen for Susana. 
Marj - for finding the place for us to stay, her parent's home.
Lisa W - our chauffeur and navigator for the whole long rainy weekend.
Lisa Y. - getting us all into Disneyland and a fancy lunch that didn't cost an arm and a leg.
Me - getting VIP tickets to The Doctors
Koreen - for joining us at a very busy time for her and her young family to make us 6 complete.

That is what we call TEAMWORK... that is what I call FRIENDS FOREVER... true BFFs!

Happy 50th Sus!

In two years, it'll be mine and Lisa W.'s turn! I better start planning! LOL!

Saddleback

For Sunday worship, Sus wanted to visit Saddleback Church. Home of Rick Warren's church.

They have trams like Disneyland to take people to the church building.

Rick was there to welcome us as we drove into one of their many parking lots.

 The church... it looked like a fancy office building or high tech museum.

 The sanctuary was filled with TV cameras on each side.

The High School Youth Group led worship that day. They sounded professional!

 It was hard not to watch the monitors rather then the real person. He was just so small to focus on.

Rick preached on financial responsibility. Good topic!

Outside are their info tables and lounge area.

NEXT UP: Home Away From Home

Gorging Again

Whenever we get together we eat. Eating binds and bonds us together. Sharing of food. Breaking of bread. We ate like queens. Late meals.

Starting with Thai for dinner.

Thai Ice Tea to Go.

This tiny hole in the wall was awesome. They gave out not only free water but free Thai ice tea AND free dessert- fried bananas. Many of us didn't drink the ice tea (and took it to go!) since it may keep us up. Smart! I drank mine and I was fine but Marj was wide awake throughout the night.

At Paramount Studios we ate lunch at the Commissary. (See Behind The Scenes At The Oscars). And after picking Koreen up from the airport we headed to a Chinese place Marj and her family went to when she was young.

At CA Adventure, we ate lunch at Carthay Circle.

I had the halibut.. delish!

The waiter treated Sus' to an apple pie dessert because it was her birthday!

At the end of the day, Sus' had to get her beignet and shared them with all of us. It was warm and yummy!

After sending Koreen off to the airport we headed to an all-you-can-eat Korean restaurant, Cham Soot Gol Korean BBQ.

It was packed and we waited for over an hour. It was freezing in there also. Because you have to cook your own food, they had a ton of fans going through out the restaurant.

This is how Lisa and I sat for an hour in the freezing wind as the door opened and closed frequently next to us. BTW, we were sitting INSIDE!

Once we were seated... Marj cooked up a storm.

They gave you a ton of meat to cook. It felt so wasteful when we left since we could not eat all of it.

We literally rolled out of this place. I felt so bad that we couldn't eat all that they gave us. What a waste!

After church service on Sunday, we headed to Guppy House... where they had the hugest shaved ice I ever saw!

Yep.. I had Marj's same expression but I could not have 'expressed' it like Marj can!

My lunch.. stewed pork bowl. It was delicious!

So very bummed that I could not take any food home with me on the plane.

NEXT UP: Saddleback