sing-along with Mak - nursery rhyme edition

Makayla has been in love with nursery rhymes lately. At any given time of the day, you can catch her reciting, watching, singing, dancing to (with or without music), or acting out a nursery rhyme...yes, I was assigned to be Humpty Dumpty once and was instructed to fall off the bed. I had to veto her idea of making Maya next so we used Elmo instead. Sometimes she switches melodies or words and make up her own song/rhyme.

For bedtime stories, guess what we've been reading every day? "Mother Goose", "My First Mother Goose Book" and what ever other nursery rhyme book we have. Yup, never gets old! One night we decided to record our readings for the night. Enjoy! (more to come)

Mary Had a Little Lamb


Hot Cross Buns


To Market To Market


Jack & Jill


Pat-A-Cake



Jack Be Nimble

...more to come...

Baa Baa Black Sheep
Humpty Dumpty

happy six months, maya!

homemade playdoh

Mak loves playing playdoh so we tried making some at home. Overall, it was pretty successful except for the excessive oil (should have used 2/3 as much oil than what the recipe asks for). Oh well, added more flour and now we have enough playdoh to last for a whole year! Check out Mak's favorite things to make - pizza and sandwich/burgers!

Maya had a good time watching all the playdoh action!

mommy's birthday

go mariners!

We took Maya to her first Mariners game this past Sunday. Looks like she didn't get to see much though...slept the whole time. Big sis enjoyed her pizza, hotdog, fries, and ice cream!!!

extreme makeover COMPLETE!!!

BABY ROOM IS READY!

With limited space, we decided to put create a baby corner in the master bedroom for Maya.  But HOW?!  Well, we were so blessed that Auntie Jada came to the rescue! Here are the amazing transformation of our master bedroom. Special thanks to Uncle Kyle for helping too!

 BEFORE: MESSY! 

Messy bed with mismatched nightstands, clutter clutter clutter...boring white walls...BLAH!

 

AFTER:CLEAN & CLASSY! 

Custom-made headboard, matching nightstands WITH STORAGE...no more clutter, and a perfectly made bed! ...can't really tell but walls have been painted a warm beige color...

BEFORE (left): open clothes rack and rocking chair (also used for stacking clothes)

AFTER (right): baby crib and rocking chair (clear of clothes, ready for feeding/baby bonding time!)

BEFORE (left): clothes, clothes, clothes and more clothes on chair...

AFTER (right): freshly painted wall with no clutter!

 

   BEFORE (left): Japanese noren (from the Mayor of Yoshitomi Machi that Heidi was emotionally attached to) to block bright lights and cover clutter...creating separation between bedroom and bathroom

AFTER (right): took down noren (with Heidi's blessings) clearing passage to bathroom - opened up the room and made it feel a lot bigger, new/updated mirror to match cabinet...(still need to do some cleaning)

Other details: drapes and headboard with matching patterns! :)

THANK YOU JADA & KYLE for helping us with this seemingly impossible project! :)

tai po's 90th birthday bash

Heidi's popo (maternal grandma/Mak's "Tai Po") turned 90 this Spring. To celebrate, the 2nd & 3rd generation (Heidi's cousins, nieces & nephews...20 ppl to be exact) took popo out for a special day of birthday festivities!

Unlike previous family parties which typically consist of going to someone's house big enough to fit 30+ people and a smorgasbord of food enough to feed 50 with leftovers to last two weeks after the party, we decided to do something different this year.

For this party, we left the 1st generation (aunts & uncles) behind (oooo...) and took popo out on our own! First time we've ever done this and happy to report...WE DID IT! Popo/Tai Po had a great time and all her grandkids/greatgrandkids did too! :) Definitely need to do this again!

Here's a recap of the birthday bash!

The "T-shirt committee" came up with a grandma meme idea and Abe made it into a sticker that we all proudly wore throughout the night! Here're the four different designs to choose from!

We started the party off with a fun pottery painting project at Creatively Yours. We broke up into four teams and each was responsible to paint an "I Love Grandma" mug. Four teams/four mugs is so that popo can have a mug to use at each of the four houses that she stays at throughout the week.

Team 1 - Benita, Jason, Ian & Kyla

Team 2 - Jada, Sammi, Wendy & Eddie

Team 1's masterpiece


Team 2's masterpiece


Team 3 - Myron, Marvin, Kevin & Eric

Team 4 - Heidi, Makayla, Brian & Myron

Team 3's masterpiece



Kevin (right) painting carefully under Marvin's (left) artistic leadership as Marvin so confidently tells his team, "I've got this, guys! I've been here before. I know what to do!".

Team 4's masterpiece


Mak showing Uncle Brian how it's done!

In addition to the mugs, we all signed a large platter that Jada so diligently and patiently painted with 90 tree rings! Great Job, Jada! Can't wait to see how it turns out!

Immediately following our art project, we headed over to the Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot for a yummy feast!

Mak admiring her older cousin, Marvin's mad iPhone skills

After we stuffed ourselves with more than we can handle, we concluded the evening's celebration with some refreshing froyo at Peaks!

It was a fun evening and we are all so blessed to have this opportunity to celebrate grandma's 90th birthday! She has lived such a full and blessed life. Without her, none of us would be here today. THANK YOU GOD for blessing us with such an amazing grandma/greatgrandma!