May-Lynn!

It seems like a lot happened in the Wang household in the span of about 1 week.

One of our highlights was catching up with our friend May-Lynn who was visiting from Boston. It's always such a joy and delight to fellowship with friends who just know your heart and understand without you having to explain every little thing.

We love you May-Lynn! And congrats on the new job!

Auntie Sarah & Uncle Jeffy

We surprised our friends, Sarah and Jeff, late Halloween night. They had run out of candy at 7:30pm and Jeff had to ride his bike to Safeway for a sugar run so their house wouldn't get egged by the neighborhood kids. They were well stocked by the time we arrived.

Trick-Or-Treating at Hillsdale

I think everyone had the same idea Halloween night, cuz there were tons of people packed out at the Hillsdale Mall.

We ran into some friends from church. The kids got to decorate cookies and got lots of candy.

Art

Lauryn's starting to learn word recognition. I wrote out, "I Love You" on a piece of paper for her and now she is writing it on all of her drawings.

Here is one she made for her teacher. Ms. Bonilla graciously hung it on the board in the classroom along with a drawing by her friend Emma.

Halloween at Sea Breeze

Here's Lauryn's class from Room 4. The kids got to parade for the whole school and Lauryn was very proud to be the Line Leader.

Jacob's Party

Another party we just attended was for Lauryn's classmate, Jacob, who also turned 4. The kids all dressed up in their Halloween costumes and got to go "trick or treating" from door to door in Jacob's house.

Here is Lauryn with her friends from Room 4 - Daphne (on the left) and Emma. There were several princesses in attendance that day.

The kids got to play a game where they had to eat a doughnut hung from a string with their hands behind their backs. (Jacob's the fireman in the middle, behind the yellow butterfly.)



Jacob's parents did an outstanding job decorating for Halloween and the party. There were scary "finger" cheese sticks, and ghostly cups of milk. Their fruit punch was chilled with ice in the shape of hands. So creative!

Caroline's Party

Lauryn's friend Caroline just turned 4 and we were so excited to attend since it was the first time Lauryn's been to a party for a friend from her school. We've never been able to attend other classmates' parties due to scheduling conflicts or illness.

You can see Lauryn, Caroline and their friend Alexandra in the picture sitting in front of the Dora jumper. There was also a real live Cinderella princess in attendance. She not only performed magic tricks, but she made balloon animals also! This was one multi-talented princess!

Princess Lauryn and Her Royal...uhh...Flower

"Asleep" in the Burley

On one of our walks with the kids in the Burley trailer, our little Sydney fell asleep on her Gia Gia's shoulder. We thought it was very cute and told Lauryn to pretend to sleep too. This was the best she could do.

Max & Sydney Hanging Out

The week that Auntie Rose and Yo stayed over, Max helped me watch the kids during the day. I work from home and let the kids play by themselves sometimes (ok, a lot of the time). One morning when Lauryn was in school and I was working in my office, I couldn't help but notice how nicely Max and Sydney got along. Max always stayed very close to Sydney and got up whenever she moved.

I snapped some shots of them hanging out.

Sleepover at the Wangs

When my aunt had her new hardwood floors sanded, she and my cousin Christine spent the week with us. It was like old times - but with kids. And of course Max had to sleep over too!

Tony & Marissa's Wedding

Our good friends Tony and Marissa got married a couple of weeks ago. We were so excited to be there to celebrate with them. And BOY was it a celebration! Complete with a LONG and LOUD dragon dance.

They both looked so happy. And Tony's speech was so heartwarming and touching. So sincere. Congratulations guys!

Camping

Yes, the Wangs went camping in Mendocino with 7 other families in September.

What possessed us to do this, I do not know. I think we were trying to pretend a bit that we are a normal family who can just pack up and live outdoors a couple of nights, no big deal. But it turns out it was much more difficult than we anticipated, even when everything was so fantastically planned for us and all we had to do was bring ourselves and a few supplies.

We got a late start and hit traffic through Marin County. By the time we got to the camp site, it was pitch black and took us approximately 4 1/2 hours to get there. I remember commenting to John that if we added another hour or so to our drive, we could've driven to LA.
With our friends' help, we were able to set up our tent and get the girls to bed with little trouble. However, sleeping through the night seems to have been lost and forgotten during this trip.
The first night Sydney woke up only once or twice. The 2nd night, she woke every few minutes because it was sooooo freezing cold. It had rained a little during the day and cooled things down dramatically. And Sydney is what I call an independent sleeper. She likes to sleep completely by herself with no one near her or touching her. So I would hold her next to me to keep her warm, but eventually she would cry and want to sleep alone. But sleeping alone left her freezing cold, even wearing 3 layers of pajamas. So we didn't sleep much at night. Major apologies to all of our camping neighbors!

We did have a lot of fun hiking (although we never made it to the waterfall), and Lauryn loved picking flowers with all of her friends. Sydney spent most of her time in the Burley trailer, which turned out to be most useful as a makeshift playpen for the younger kids (and older too), and as a wagon for carrying camping gear and supplies. It even made a debut as a shower caddy.

I do have to mention one strangely amusing moment. As we were packing up to go home, one of the kids, Josh, was playing very contentedly by himself while he waited for his parents. He was also humming a strangely familiar tune over and over at the top of his lungs. I listened to him for several minutes and finally, it dawned on me! Earth, Wind and Fire! He was humming the song, September over and over and over. I don't know. For some reason, it made me feel really old. But it was also really cool to hear a 4 year old humming such a classic oldie. Try imaging one of your kids humming that instead of Hi-5 and you'll see what I'm talking about.

Sydney's 1st Swim

We enjoyed a dip in the pool at the BFAM BBQ this summer. This was Sydney's first experience in a pool. The water was reaaaaallly cold so we started in the hot tub first to get her used to being in the water. When we switched to the big pool, aside from a few shivers, she seemed to enjoy it.

Big sister Lauryn, obviously LOVES swimming and thinks that she can swim. But of course, if we take away her floaties, she sinks straight to the bottom. We can't decide if she's ready for swimming lessons yet, but apparently she already "knows how to swim".

Lauryn & Sydney's Birthday Bash!

We decided to make life a little simpler and relieve my nagging feelings of guilt somewhat for not having a party for Sydney's first birthday and celebrated our two daughters' birthdays together last month. We had a Dora jumper - any jumper is always a big hit with the kids and guaranteed for you not to see your child for more than a few minutes all day, and the kids got to make backpacks.

We had chili, fajitas and tacos with authentic Taco Bell sauces (I sent the Kim girls in their Stanford sweatshirts to do the dirty deed. - Sorry for being such a bad influence on your kids, Peter and Emily!).The REAL treat for the day, however, was for adults and young-uns alike. Shaved Ice! Thanks to our good friends, Jeff and Sarah and Sarah's mom, who brought the shaved-ice machine back from Taiwan. The shaved ice brought back lots of memories of growing up in Taiwan for some of us ABC'ers. Most of us had at least 2 bowls. Some kids had 4 or 5! Who doesn't love condensed milk? It was a refreshing dessert for a perfect summer day.

Jeremy's picking out his piece of the cake ....or maybe counting candles?

Auntie Sarah knows the way to Isaac's heart. Let's play ball!

We also got a pleasant surprise when my cousin Min and his wife Cindy arrived and told us they were moving back to the Bay Area from China! Yay!

We were so glad to celebrate with our friends and family. The kids had a great time and a good nap afterwards. And mom got to check one more thing off her list. :)

SF Zoo

We took advantage of the free first wednesday deal and headed to the SF Zoo with Little Lambs. I don't recall ever going to the SF Zoo as a child, but I'm sure I must have having gone to grade school there. But I seriously didn't have any recollection of ever being there.

Do you know it's cold enough in SF to keep polar bears outside in their habitat? Likewise for penguins. Though both were very stinky...as you can see from Lauryn's picture. Lauryn and Ashlyn had lots of fun navigating with their map. Morgan LOVED feeding all of the animals. I think she's going to either be a vet or a zoo keeper when she grows up. While we were in the family petting area, some of the little rams and goats were being left out of the feeding. I saw a couple of them get upset after a while and start headbutting the visitors with their horns.