Month long summer vacation

Just got back from almost a month long of vacation. We are still fighting the jet lag or as my kids call it plane lag.
We spent our summer with the grandparents in Indonesia, we've been doing this for the last 6 years. I used to have to drag myself to go just because the thought of dealing with the kids' time difference, the sickness will be, the mosquito bites, the heat, the humidity are never too attractive to me. But every year after the vacation I came home and glad we went thru it. I have to say this year is so much different, the sleeping adjustment there was very quick, within 3 days done...woohoo....love it. the kids are so much easier on the plane, and this year my husband went a week later, but the kids were no problem at all.

The first thing that Kalia told me once we stop over in Hong Kong is that she can smell Asia already. and in certain spot with some hints of eucalyptus smell she said it remind her of my parents house. I hope those smells good or bad will always remind her of Indonesia, of the grandparents too. 

waiting for the tram in Hong Kong for the next flight

On the plane, Rael loves Cathay Pacific because of all the gadget and games .

Every year my kids are so excited about going to Indonesia, first thing is because of the cousins they are going to play with, which is the last 2 years been a lot of changes, but they are still excited.

For Rael, another cool stuff in Indonesia are: Animal Kaiser (game card only exist in Asia and Australia), and a traditional toy market calls Pasar Perumpung.

Kalia enjoys lots of new food, Pisang goreng madu which is a fried banana, Salak a fruit that I can never find it here in US, and some street pancakes. She even been buying her own food there, I gave her the money and let her decide whatever she feels like eating, and order it in INDONESIAN, very proud of her. 

It's funny and adorable to hear my kids trying to speak Indonesian, they are trying so hard and yet they still sound alien to me.

Animal Kaiser

Pasar Perumpung

He forgot the sandals so I asked him to walk into the mall bare feet before I found a cheap sandal for him Grrrr...

38th Birthday

Well well well... a week ago I threw my husband a big birthday party. Yes I am aware that usually the big 40th is the one that being celebrated, but since his parents were visiting from Indonesia, I thought it's the perfect time to celebrate it big. He loved it, they loved it, even the kids loved it. It's a casino party in our house, I tried so hard not to make it as a kiddie and tacky kind of party for him, I feel enough that we always do kid parties. We were actually planning on doing it strictly in our backyard, but the weather channel warned us already that it will rain late that night. So we set up mostly inside but still had time to enjoy outside before the rain poured.
As I browsed around I found a lot of Hang over party theme, so I decided on doing the Ocean Eleven theme instead. I didn't pursue much of the theme since it's gonna rain, but all and all I was very happy.

Picture of the last scene of Ocean Eleven in front of Bellagio Hotel

I used the favors for the decorations first, and just grab it to each one of the family to bring home.

The kids got to play a bit around the pool, this is one of our guest ;)

Indonesian Yellow Rice a tradition for good luck

The dessert table, under the 38 candles I filled up with ice cream cups,
 no cake since the birthday boy is not a big fan of cake.

 I did the photo booth for some fun pictures. I found these free printable props at :
http://ohhappyday.com/
I found a birthday gift wrap at TJMAXX for 3.99, and use it for the background.


At the end of the party, we did raffles and the winner got lottery tickets, 5 winners, haven't heard any big news yet so far ;)

Prayer to God

In the evening my son talked to my dad over the phone. He said something about October 15 as his birthday and he's been counting down the days to that, my dad kept teasing him by saying it's his/Opa's birthday. So during the bedtime routine I heard him prayed, "Please God make sure Oct 15 IS MY birthday."

Kids update

It's been one month after the school started, and I have to say I am very relieve, my son are enjoying the school so far. I thought dragging him every morning to school would be a pain, well getting ready and rush 2 kids yes still a pain, but I haven't heard a single peep, and we found out it's all thanks to soccer. He's looking forward to play soccer with some boys. He already has his group buddies. He chit chatted with my husband this morning and I heard he said, "I like playing soccer during recess, lunch and recess again."

We were aware of the trend nowadays to hold the early baby for kindergarten since we are in CA, and the cut date is way off in December, but still I was shocked when physically I can see that clearly, I can hardly see my son in the crowd. The good thing is he adores older boys, he think they are way cooler. So he mingled with them with no problem at all. My son's best friend in the class right now is a year older than him, and a whole hand taller than him.

When it comes to homework, I have a mix feeling, some days I think he's right on the spot, some days I sighs. We'll see how he grows this year. I keep telling myself, maybe once he has his 5th birthday which is next month he'll have the maturity that he needs, don't know how one month will make any different.

hardly can see him in the crowd.

And surprise to myself too, I am a co-room mom for my daughter's class, and my daughter is super excited, she even have ideas for this coming fall party. 

September

Yeah it's September, the first day of September. It gives me hope and it gives me chill. Just hear very sad news last night that our closest friend's husband who's been struggling with liver cancer just passed away. It was just 1.5 months from when my dear friend found out what her husband had. Too quick, too sad, I really can't imagine how she's feeling. I called her last night, she was pretty strong on the phone, she was about to go home and pick up his clothes for his last bath.
My mind went back thru our high school time, we knew each other thru high school, we giggled, laughed, cried, gossiped, and all. It was a group of 10, and I remember how we always share who we were flirting with, who we had feeling to, but this particular friend was always there for me. I could always ask her to go and hung out with me anytime, even after we got spread out thru college years. She'd always been the one that I call for Saturday lonely night, she would always said sure come by and let's go somewhere. It's kind of sad when this happen I can't be there for her, for at least give her hug and support.
I never really had a chance to know her husband, I remember only one time about 11 years ago when I went back to Indonesia and about to get married, she just had her baby girl, I met her husband right then, but it was a very quick one, and never after that had any chance to know him more. He worked out of town, he'd always been away for months and came home for a couple of weeks and back right after that. These last 6 years that I've visited, I got together with her and the other friends, but never saw him. This last June when I told one of the friend that I'd be on vacation there I actually asked if we can have a get together with all of our spouses, too many of the spouses that I don't really know, I didn't even go to any of their wedding, but that didn't happen, only the girls that made it, I should've pursued that, I would probably be able to get the last chance to know him.

I will pray and hope that she and her daughter will be able to go through this tough time.

School starts

Ok....a week after I bragged about enjoying summer, I was done. Yeah 3 days before the school started I was actually ready. They started on Thursday and today is actually just the 3rd day of school, I don't know what's gonna happen with a full week of school for my 4 years old. The heat is not helping either, my son came home tired, and all that he wants is playing with his toys. Now, I have another challenge, homework, yeah it's not due until Friday, but I would like him to do it everyday so it won't be too much for him in one day. I was so nervous, after some snacks and play a little bit, I asked him to go up and do his homework, he looked me and said "I'm very tired". In the beginning he scared the heck out of me, he looked like he didn't know anything, I was shaking, I was scared, I'm thinking too myself, this is why all the other parents hold their kids for another year when they are too young. But somehow he slowly picked up and even gave me a smile and said "Are you sure I only need to color the flowers? not the vase?" wow....I was a happy clam again, let's see what's gonna happen tomorrow and the rest of the week, I'm still crossing my fingers that everything 's going smooth. Happy Monday!!!!

He posed after he's done with homework.

Summer party

So, actually I planned this party in the beginning of the school vacation, but my daughter got sick, with fever and all, so I didn't have a chance to re invite the friends until a couple of week ago. I promised my daughter and her little brother that it will be a party, so I started to browse around, looking for some free printable tags, labels and some ideas for food and decoration (I found a lot from www.partyblog.mygrafico). Printed all the freebies, cut, glue and stick. These are what I gathered, the kids had fun swimming, the moms were basically chit chating and was enjoying one of the dish that one of the mom brought. It was a persian rice dish with yogurt and pickles.