Aiden's 4th Birthday...

Happy 4th Birthday to Aiden...even though you only see two candles on his cupcake.

The kids got to decorate their own cupcakes with sprinkles and M&M's. Here is Aiden's cupcake:

Yeah, I know...a little weak on the sprinkles and candy. Here is Jack's cupcake:

Yup, a little too heavy on the sprinkles and poor M&M placement. Of course here is *MY* cupcake design:

That's right! Awe-some. Just enough sprinkles, good M&M placement and great action shot that I took of myself! I am the cupcake decorating CHAMPION!!

Kailee...

A bunch of us got together to go visit the new addition to Ron and Laura's family...baby Kailee!! You would think the girl that made Ron a BRIDESMAID at her wedding would have shown up *ahem* Saori but she was a no show. Some illness or something. =)

The Fukute's and Jack:


Aunty Jenny and Jack:


Uncle Jeff & Aunty Melanie with Jack:

Hans, Tanya and Taylor came as well but I forgot to take pictures before they left. Bummers.

Rylee...

Cousin Rylee came to visit for a day last week. Rylee and Jack were like two peas in a pod!


Great timing as I caught Rylee the exhibionist flashing for a family picture!! For the website I pixelated the image but I saved the original for Rylee's wedding day photoslide show! =)

Swimming - Week 11

It has almost been 3 months now and Jack no longer cries when he has to go to his swim lesson. He doesn't stall as much as he used to. He still is tentative in the water but at least he is progessing each week.

This week he stood and jumped into the pool and flipped over to float.

Slow Slide...

I dunno why but some days the slide is fast and some days the slide is slow. This week it happened to be slow and Jack decided to have some fun. Totally his mother's son!

Biking...

Jack loves to bike down hill because he doesn't have to do any work. I wish I had it on video when he didn't turn his bike fast enough and plowed right into the bench. I know Aya doesn't like when Jack rides his bike here but it was just me and Jack on Saturday so I let him do whatever he wants....that is how he learns.

Basketball...

Slowly but surely Jack is getting better in basketball. He still tries to power dunk almost all his shots but I am trying to get him to 'shoot' the ball and learn to dribble. He can dribble maybe
3-4 times but he must of learned from Uncle Jeff because Jack never wants to pass and he always wants to shoot the ball. Oh yeah and he likes to be called KOBE when he plays bball!

Peddling...

No post for Monday because I decided that this will be a video blog week and I spent Monday uploading video's.

This week when I went to pick up Jack from my parents house he was outside on his tricycle. Normally he just uses his feet to move around instead of using the pedals. I asked Jack if he would try again and use the pedals and to my suprise, Jack pedalled for the first time!

Does anyone still have a land line?

For the past two months Aya and I have been debating about our land line. I think we should get rid of it and just use our cell phones. Aya thinks we should keep our land line just in case AND because we usually never hear our cell phones at home.

Here are some facts:

1. Our land line bill is 35 bucks a month and 1/2 the charges on it is TAX.
2. We have 4 land line phones in the house. 3 of the ringers are off.
3. We don't hear our land lines just as much as we don't hear our cell phones in the house.
4. Aya's mom is no longer 'local' and its a long distance call for us...which is FREE with our cell phone.
5. We screen most of our calls on the land line anyway.


So what do you think? I put up a voting poll. Your votes will determine if we keep our land line.

Swim Class - Week 10...

Jack has been getting better and better at swim class. He doesn't tell Aya and I that he doesn't want to go to swim school. He also stopped crying or whining that he doesn't want to go in the water. He does well during his lesson, however if you ask him any other time of the week if he wants to swim and the answer is, "NO".

Luckily the heater in our pool was fixed so we are back to practicing at least once a week and slowly but surely Jack is finally making some progress:

Dana Point...

The good news about using a broker to get my car was that it was easy and I got a better deal than if I negotiated with the dealers myself. Since I am not working I actually had more time to pit dealers head to head but none beat the broker.

Unfortunately, the broker didn't listen to all the options I wanted which meant I had to drive out to the dealership to get the blue tooth option I had requested....but it was in Dana Point!

Again, luckily since I am not working, I drove out there and just waited for the car to be done. It really wasn't a bad drive as I got there in under an hour and they had a courtesy shuttle that drove and picked me up so I decided to go to Doheny Beach.

I was there at 8:30 so the beach was empty except for a handful of surfers:



There was a man made rock barrier along the beach for the harbor so I decided to walk out there so read my newspaper:



It was nice sitting on the rocks except there was a ton of birds flying around, squawking and actually diving into the ocean to snag fish. It was nice but I was always worried the birds would fly by and take a crap on me so I headed back to the beach.

My car was done in 4 hours so it was nice leisurely day for me at the beach!!

Star Trek...

It is nice to have friends with connections and it was great to get the invite from Jenny to see Star Trek on the Paramount Studios saturday. It started with a walk on the red carpet, a reception with food and free booze and then the movie:

It was my first time meeting Tosh, whom I thought was going to come wearing vulcan ears but I guess that just talk. Jenny, Tosh and Saori:

The first summer movie I have seen this year and it did not disappoint. I had heard the movie was good but I was trying not to listen to reviews as I didn't want to be disappointed in case the movie did not live up to the hype.

You don't have to be a Star Trek fan to like the movie...but if you are I think you will like it even better. Definately a must see...must own on DVD movie!

Mother's Day...

Thanks for school and my mom Jack was all prepared for Mother's Day. Jack made a card for Aya at school:



The card also had a bee:



He also made a flower magnet:




My mom bought some flowers but Jack picked out the color for Aya...orange tulips:

We celebrated Mother's Day with some dim sum!

Earth Day Part 2...

I guess I should have posted this the day after I posted the video but I forgot I had pictures from Earth Day. I guess the only thing Jack really liked was the Trash truck...he got to sit in the truck:



Jack got to work the controls to lift up the trash can:



I guess Jack also liked the turtles. The turtles were pretty active so it kept Jack entertained:

If anyone is interested in going to Earth Day next year, I suggest skip it...totally over rated.

Old Hat, New Hat...

Okay this is kind of cheating because Jack isn't really reading...he is just memorizing more and more books:

Cinco de Miles...

Simply put...I got a new car!! I should correct myself and say, "Ayako bought me a new car!!"

The lease on the BMW is up at the end of the month so before car registration tax goes up and at the end of April we decided to buy a Honda Accord.

As usual the dilemma was what car to get and should we buy or lease. I was pretty sure I wanted to buy a car this time. I realize I have been very lucky to drive nice cars the past 5 years with the Porsche, Mercedes and BMW but I always hate to pay the outrageously high maintenance fees.

It also sucks when I turn a car in to think of all the money I could have saved if I wasn't making a lease payment.

I always wanted an Accord when I was in college and I liked the way it looks more than a Camry so my decision was pretty easy. I got it tinted the day after it was delivered. I will probably change out the headlights and lower it and get rims. I am still looking up what type of rims I want.

I figure it is time to settle in and keep a car for the long term...I suppose in 12-13 years this can be Jack's car!

Earth Day...

We went to Earth Day last Saturday...totally boring and nothing interesting unless you are a tree hugging environmentalist. The highlight of the event was Jack getting to see the neighborhood trashman and operate a natural gas trash truck.