Strolling with the Fongs..

Serene, Edwin and the boys came to Richmond today. We went out for lunch and then after they're done shopping, they came back to our house. We went out for a stroll at the dyke. It was such a good day. Afterwards, Simon cooked his famous instant noodle for Edwin to criticize. Edwin had nothing but good words. HAHAHAHA.. nice job Simon.

BBQ at the Tansuma's

We're having a BBQ at the Tansuma to talk about the camping trip.
They have a great big backyard and the kids were running around and playing happily.

We decided on what to bring regarding foods for all the families during camping. It's going to be good. Can't wait!!!

Mom and Dad Left

Mom and I baked pineapple tarts (kue nenas) and then mom baked her bread yesterday.
They were so yummy.. I'd definitely get fat if my mom lives here.. but I'd take the chance. :)

Mom and dad left around 7pm today.
Sayonara.. see you guys again soon..

Minoru Park Excursion

The weather was really nice, so we decide to go to Minoru Park. Dad wanted to take picture of the cherry blossoms but hadn't been able to do so. So we all went to Minoru park for some excursion.
The kids were running around happily trying to catch rabbits. When we got to the pond, they wanted to catch the ducks. It's a fun family time. The park was like a zoo for the kids.

Will definitely come back again for the summer time.

Seattle Trip - Day 2 - Tulips Festival

Yesterday was a nightmare with the kids. We went to bed around 8:30pm. Colin was sleeping in the crib the hotel provided (he didn't like it, but he fell asleep while drinking his milk). Then, when I was almost sleeping with Ava beside me, she suddenly told me she wanted to poop. So, I took her to the washroom and yes, she pooped. Then we went back to bed, but she was not sleeping. So I asked her again what she wanted. She said she wanted to poop again. I took her in and she did poop again. How can such a little body produced so much poops?? So, when Ava and I finally fell asleep.. around 11pm, Colin woke up and was crying and crying. Simon took him to sleep beside him but he didn't want to sleep now. He kept pointing at Ava and calling her. Finally Ava was up too. With both of them up and Simon and I sleeping, I hazily hearing the TV turned on and off and a lot of giggling and little feet running around. I believed it was around 2 or 3am when they finally switched places, Ava sleeping with Simon and Colin sleeping beside me (I picked him up hazily, when I heard someone kept yelling beside my bed saying up, up, up, up). They finally slept around 4am. What an exhausting night.

Woke up and changed then went for coffee at Tully's. After that, we drove out to Skagit Valley for the Tulips festival. There were a lot of fields of flowers (tulips and daffodils). My parents went ga ga over the flowers. Snapshots could be heard every now and then from my mom's camera. We went to a place called Roozengaarde and then to Tulips Town. Met up with the Cheungs at tulip town. The flowers were so pretty.

After all this, finally we went to lunch at Olive Garden. We ordered quite a lot of food because we're starving by then. After lunch, the Cheungs and us separated. We went to the small outlet mall because I wanted to go to lulu lemon to get a yoga mat and also some yoga clothes. All the clothes were either too small or too big, so I didn't get any. They also sold out of yoga mat.

Finally heading home. It was a long day.

Seattle Trip - Day 1 - Pike Place Market

Left home around 7:30am, when we arrived at the border, there were a lot of cars already and the lines were pretty long. We're stopped for inspection (agriculture type.. maybe we looked like ppl who might smuggle fruits and plants to US... haha). When we finally got out, it was around 9:30 already and mom and dad's flight was supposed to land around 10:30am. We're afraid that we might be late, so I sms-ed mom and dad to let them know.


Finally got to the airport around 11am, and then we went to "Indo Cafe" Restaurant for some much missed Indonesian food. The food was pretty good. There were a lot of food we didn't get to try yet. Have to go back next time.



After lunch, we went for a stroll at the Pike Place Market. The last time I was here was a long long time ago... I think it was before I moved to Canada. It was fun to watch the people, the street performers and all the food and flowers there.


Then, for dinner we met up with the Cheungs at the "Crab Pot" restaurant for some buckets of seafood dinner. It was funny to watch all the adults wearing "bibs". Colin had some companies in the bib department that day. :)

Went back to our hotel afterwards. We booked the Red Lion Hotel (sounds like a grocery store chain.. The Food Lion.. hahaha). The outside of the hotel was not that great, but the inside, I must say, was pretty nice. Had to sleep early for the tulip festival tomorrow.

ava's 2nd ballet class

Went to Ava's 2nd ballet class. She seemed to still love it.

The Joy of having a girl.. hah!!

Simon asked me to drop off Volvo at OK tire so they could change our tire. Since Ava doesn't nap anymore, Ihad to take her with me. I asked her, "Ava, Ava!!".. and did you know what she say?? She said, "WHAT??". I was like.. huh?? so rude..!! But then i asked her anyway, "Do you want to go out with Mommy??". She thought for a minute and replied," OK!!".

So, I put her in the P&T and then we strolled towards the mall. When we passed Purdy, she saw the ice cream but she was doubting if she should ask me (I could read her face). So I asked her instead if she wanted some ice cream. Of course she said yes.. :)
I got her a strawberry ice cream and I got myself a green tea ice cream. Then, we sat on the bench in front of gymboree and ate our ice cream. We also took silly pictures of ourselves. When we're laughing and eating our ice cream, I suddenly thought," It's so nice to have a girl, we can go shopping and snack together."

It didn't last too long though because she started to throw her tantrum when we're in Gymboree. Then I thought," damn!! shouldn't have brought her shopping.. I want to come here alone.. hik hik hik.. ".

But in the end, it was a pretty enjoyable day. The tantrum didn't last too long and we went back and got the car and went home.

For dinner we had a mini hotpot today. I love hotpot because basically I don't need to cook. HAHA!!

Yoga: 8:30pm-9:30pm with Alex. Hot Yoga
(There're a bunch of guys in the yoga class today. I believed the ratio was 50/50. Seemed like it's getting more popular with the guys).

Orange Chocolate Chips Muffins

Decided to bake some orange chocolate chips muffins. I wanted to bake the banana ones but since we've had too much bananas recently, I thought I'd try something new. I used 2 large oranges and squeezed all the juice and some pulp out. I also put a little orange zest in. The muffins tasted pretty ok, but I couldn't taste the orange. Maybe I didn't put enough? Experiment again next time. I gave some of the muffins to Jane, Elaine (my neighbour) and Mike. I hoped they won't throw them out.. haha

Yoga: 8:30pm-9:30pm with Mike. Yin Yoga.

More BBQ

We had another BBQ today with HL and Jenny. They just came back from Banff and wanted to eat BBQ. So we BBQ-ed AGAIN.. haha
Since the picture are pretty much the same, I only took the pic of the only new or different food.. BBQ PINEAPPLE.

Yoga: 8:15pm-9:15pm with Melissa. Yin Yoga.

Egg-ed Out.

Noticed that recently Colin screamed very loud to get our attention. He'd just scream AHHHHHH until we look at him and then he would point at whatever it was that he wanted us to see. He'd been doing this a lot recently. I kept telling him "No Colin, don't scream.. just call papa or mama and we'll look at you". But he still does it. (*sigh*)

Yoga: 8am-9am with Danny. Hot Yoga

Easter with the Fongs and The Cheungs

Serene called and asked if we'd like to have brunch together since they're coming to Richmond. Of course we'd love to. :) We're also wondering where Sharon was because she was missing from MSN and our email had been very quiet.. hahaha, then we remembered she's in Mexico now. So lucky!!! I finally saw Sharon online around 10am and asked if she'd like to join us. She said yes, so we met at Kingspark Restaurant around 11am. Serene brought some easter treats for the kids (Thanks Serene!!). Lucas and Ava were soon enjoying the treats.


After brunch, we went to Aberdeen center and saw that they actually had some easter activities going on. Stayed there for a little while and then the Fongs went back with us to our house. We'd decided to do a BBQ for dinner. The Cheungs joined us around 4pm. I must say.. Another successful BBQ !!!! Hooray for Chef Simon!!!

We saw some pictures from the Cheungs' trip to Mexico.. I WANT TO GOOOOOOO!!!!!
I really really really want to go...
The Fongs and us talked about the food in Medan also, and we might have convinced them to go back with us next time.. HAHAHAHAHAHA
But for now.. Serene and I want to go to MEXICO!!! So Edwin and Simon better do something about it!!!!!

Yoga: 8am - 9am with Mike. Hot Yoga. (I've decided to record this everyday.. hopefully.. )

Easter Party and First day Ballet

Ava had an Easter Party at her preschool in the morning. I took Colin with me and he had a blast. He followed and joined in all the activities and enjoyed himself immensely. He was laughing and playing and even went with the egg hunt. He found a couple of eggs and put it back inside the basket that the teacher was holding. He was doing crafts also and then played at the water table with Elizabeth. I must say that Colin's definitely ready for school. :)


After preschool, Ava started her first ballet class (again). She seemed to enjoy it much more this time. She was prepared and stood there waiting for the class to start. She even tried doing some dance moves and when the class actually started, she had so much fun and she listened so well to what the teacher said. I'm so proud at her.. :) Good job baby!!!



She was so tired after the class and she fell asleep on the floor. Colin was bugging her the whole time and she didn't even wake up. He was sleeping next to her, and then tried to climb on top of her. Then he tried to hug and kiss her. It was so fun to watch, but poor Ava to have to put up with such a mischievous brother.

Colin with Purse and banana bread

This morning, my boy, Colin decided to dance with his sister's purse and pink sock clutched in each hand. It's cute, but also disturbing.. HAHAHAHA


I made banana bread today using my newly bought square pan mold. I LOVE it (the mold, I mean.. haha). The bread was a little hard on the outside, but the inside was pretty good. I liked it and apparently Colin did too.

Mr. & Mrs. Lai

Mrs. Lam (my neighbour), Ava and I went to visit Mr. and Mrs. Lai at their rented Ocean Walk condo. They used to live across the street from us but had moved for quite a while now. They were leaving YVR for Taipei for good soon, so we wanted to visit them before they leave. They have 2 dogs named Bobo and Nini. Ava was so excited to see them. She posed with Nini and then we also took some pictures together.


I bought a mechanical chick for Colin since he likes to play with these kind of toys. He always gets so excited when toys like these move.

What to do when not watching TV??

Ava decided that she and Colin were not going to watch TV this morning. She then played with her dolls. She played with Pooh and pretending to wash him. Colin was walking around and playing with a lion doll also. I never thought that we can pass thru a day without TV. We actually did this for more than 2 hours. I thought it was pretty nice to watch Ava and Colin playing together instead of glueing their eyes on TV. Nice .. nice.. :)

After playing with her dollies, she wanted me to tie a blanket on her so she can pretend to be a parrot. But I must have tied it wrong or not according to what she wanted because she started to scream and throw some tantrums. Kids... (*shaking my head*)


I cooked "beef rendang" for dinner tonight and also steamed fish. They looked pretty nice and Ava actually liked the beef rendang too. I thought she might find it too spicy but she insisted on trying and then said it's good. So she ate beef rendang for dinner.


After dinner, we decided to go out for a walk since the weather was sooo nice. Colin's so funny when he ran all over the place outside on our front door. He's such a little monkey.. :)

BBQ again

Simon BBQ-ed again today for dinner. HL and J came by for dinner.
It was good.. but I was too full to eat the chicken wings so I didn't know what they tasted like. They just kept saying it's really good.