Girls Day Part 2…

Once all the food was selected and bought, the next stop was the chef’s client home where they cooked and ate.  So they Chef has several clients in Montecito and when they are not around they let the Chef use the house for her cooking classes:


Aya says the house was gorgeous:



Kitchen:



Dining room:


Okay, enough picture taking…time to eat:


The cooking class has about 8-10 people.  Everyone has to help chop, dice, cook, clean, etc.  Of course the first step was to eat t he cheese and DRINK!!!


The first course was a soup:


Then a watermelon salad that Aya said she didn’t think would be good…grilled watermelon??  But she said it was outstanding!



Then the prawns:


Followed up with a cobbler:


I had a planned dinner for the girls as well but after eating all day long, they cancelled dinner and ended up stopping off at the outlets for some shopping!   All in all a good girls day!  For a better recap, read Jenny's review of girls day:  http://devourtheworld.com/2011/08/girls-day-out-market-forays-in-santa-barbara/

Girls Day Part 1…

Every quarter, I try to get Aya to go out with her friends for ‘girls’ day.   This time Shirley, Jenny and Aya headed out to Santa Barbara for a day of cooking, eating and shopping!

 

The day started off at the Santa Barbara Marina where they picked up some fresh prawns:

 

Then they all headed over to the local Farmer’s Market to pick up some produce:

 

I know it is not pictures here, but Aya got this watermelon and it was super good:

 

Finally the cheese shop for some cheese and wine:

 

That is a lot of cheese…yuck.

Family time Part 3…

The kids had such a fun time playing together that they forgot to go into the pool.   We brought Jack’s swim stuff but told him it was too late for him to go into the pool.  Jack was fine with it and played around outside the pool getting the balls and just watching.   I noticed Jack getting closer and closer to the edge of the pool.  I kept thinking I bet he is going to fall in…sure enough Jack slipped and fell into the pool. 

The good news was, I wasn’t panicked when I saw him fall in…I just watched to see what Jack would do.  Uncle Su was quick and ran over to help Jack but Jack even fully dressed was able to swim to the wall and get out.  I guess at that point I couldn’t tell him it was too late to swim so Jack jumped in with Troy and Matthew for some night time swimming:

 

Jacuzzi basketball:

Family time Part 2…

Man, talk about a stereotypical moment….a bunch of Asians playing ping pong!!  Not only did we play but we had a family tournament.  Teams were randomly selected and bracketed.

Uncle Su and Jack were a team…they didn’t do well:

 

Ruth and Daniel were favorites to win it all:

 

Dan and Nicole were a team, talk about luck of the draw, mother and son and father and daughter were a team and played each other!

 

Grandma Chaunch and John every played:

 

Troy and I were a team:

 

Matthew and Andrew were the champs!

Family time Part 1…

We headed down to Newport to spend time with Aya’s family.    Sure, it might look like the ‘white’ people are moving in to surround the ‘asian’ people but all the cousins are 1/4 asian:

 

Daniel was getting ready to go back to George Washington and , Grandma Chaunch, Andrew, Taylor and Matthew gave Stacy so much attention:

 

Uncle Dan couldn’t stop playing with Stacy!

Stacy…

It just seems as though Stacy is growing up so much faster than Jack!    I can’t believe how big her vocabulary is.   How she knows what she likes or dislikes AND can communicate that to people.  Sometimes I forget she is just 19 months old because she wants to do everything Jack does!

 

Sureshots Week1…

I guess the time has come and we are back to Sureshots!   I thought I was done with Sureshots when I stopped coaching the girls team back when I started college but now Jack is old enough for SureShots.   It was kind of a big deal now.   When we first started it was varying aged, co-ed…just trying to get enough bodies to fill a team. 

Now it is divided by boys and girls.  Kids are turned away as they only fill a certain amount of teams.

This summer there was a 4 week clinic to introduce them to SureShots and evaluate the kids.   Jack dribbiling:

 

They had just as many ‘coaches’ as kids.   It was chaos:

 

Jack shooting:

Wow wow and Barney….

Okay, so I wrote about this before but I didn’t post pictures of Wow-wow and Barney.  Here are pics of Stacy and her wow-wow and Barney.  She has to take them every where we go:

 

Even when she sleeps:

 

Outside:

 

It gets nerve racking because everywhere we go, I have to remember:

 

1.  Go to the place I am going

2.  Have my stuff, keys, phone, etc

3.  Have the kids

4.  Have wow-wow and Barney

 

 

One day, Jack, Stacy and I were at Target and when we got back to the car, I noticed Stacy didn’t have wow-wow anymore.  I thought maybe we left it at home, but Jack said, NO SHE LOST IT!!  

Yup, we had to go back into Target to search for it but luckily Jack found it and saved the day!

No front tooth…

Aya and I wanted to try 5 Guys so we headed out to lunch.   Jack’s was eating his sandwhich….stopped…and said, “Hey my front tooth came out!!”   It is hard to see here because his bottom tooth looks like his top tooth:

 

But you can see it now:

Yes, the tooth fairy does come to our house…but he is cheap…only $1 dollar per tooth…regardless of size!

 

Aya posted this note on the wall:

I don’t think 5 guys really wants people to think kids teeth fall out eating their food.  When I went back a week later the card was gone. 

Stacy’s Crib….

Ha!  Not a good week for Jack’s ‘man-li-ness’.   First the Barbie car and now Stacy’s crib.   I was getting the kids ready for bed and decided to put Jack in the crib.   He looks ginormous in Stacy’s crib:

 

I tried to both of them in the crib but two things happened:

1 Jack took up all the room. 

2 Stacy wanted no part of Jack being in the crib and started to cry:

Cousins…

Our cousins, Abagail, Ariana and AJ from Hawaii were in town on vacation and we met at Grandpa and Grandma’s house for dinner.   So hard to take group pictures but at least the 3 girls are smiling:

 

Abagail going down the roller coaster:

 

Ariana driving the Barbie car:

 

Ariana, Abagail and Jack:

Driving…

Surprisingly Jack drives the car pretty well.   Exiting Grandpa’s back yard is pretty narrow considering the Barbie car is so wide but Jack manages to get by without hitting the house:

I’m a Barbie Girl…

Ruth gave us Nicole’s old Barbie car for Stacy but Stacy is still a bit too small for it, but it doesn’t stop Jack from driving:

 

Jack has no problems that he is in a HOT pink car:

 

Jack and Stacy cruise up and down the block:

Tot Lot…

As much as Stacy follows Jack around, Jack is really very nice to Stacy.   He is always looking at for her and he is more than willing to play on the ‘baby’ slide with Stacy: