Hats…

It was a hot weekend, so we wanted to keep Stacy’s face out of the sun so it was a hat weekend for her. 
I think this hat looks a little small on Stacy:

So can you tell the difference between the two pictures?   Sure, in one picture Stacy is smiling and in the other picture she is not.  However the real difference is that Aya took the top picture and I took the bottom picture. 
 
Aya will take unflattering pictures of ANYONE while I at least try to at least get a nice picture of the person.   I am just amazed Stacy’s head is in the picture.  I can’t tell you the amount of times Aya will cut a person’s head out of picture….like so:

Notice the hat isn’t in the picture AND Stacy isn’t smiling…again.

Back to School…

Jack went back to school a few weeks ago for his third year of preschool.  Since Jack was born in late November we decided to hold him back and not send him to Kindergarten yet.  I am not sure how I feel about it. 

At times I am glad we are holding him back because now he won’t be the youngest one anymore.  Hopefully this will make him more of a leader instead of a follower.  At other times, I want him to go ahead and start learning more because Jack can read, add, subtract and his writing has gotten a lot better.

Jack on his first day of school:

Jack was happy when we were LEAVING school:

 

I have to go and enroll him in Kindergarten before space fills up for 2011!

Green thumb…

Some people have it and other people do not.  I suppose I am one of the do N-O-T’s.   For some reason I can’t things to grow in our tiny garden.   I transplanted some black bamboo.  Granted it sort of looked dead when  I got it but one year later it looks worse than dead:

 

I just keep it around because I hope it blooms one day.  It isn’t brittle so I take it as a sign it must be alive.  Sadly, I can’t say my green onions are alive…they are beyond hope:

The green onion were alive and I was watering them but I don’t know if it is the location or what, but all my plants and flowers whither up an die.  

I thought Aya’s orchid was dead but some how I got the orchid to bloom:

Good thing we don’t have a house with a yard or else everything would be dead!  

Mobile…

I wasn’t sure when or if Stacy would crawl.  Stacy has been trying to pull herself up and walk so I just assumed she would walk before she crawled.  This weekend Stacy crawled and it seems like the light has clicked on because not only can she crawl, she can crawl quickly.

I was lucky and caught Stacy when she just started crawling:

Stacy has been mobile all weekend and she is busy trying to crawl to wherever Jack runs off too.  I guess it is time to get some gates and pick up all the small objects off the floor.

Disneyland Part 4…

Uh-oh…here comes Darth Vader!

And he brought help…Darth Maul:

AND Stormtroopers!

Who is going to beat Darth Vader?  Can young Padawan Jack win?

Jack is probably the only kid who rooted for Darth Vader to win and I love this picture because it looks like he is plotting to go to the dark side!

Disneyland Part 3…

Aya noticed that Disneyland had Star Wars Jedi Academy show and thought Jack might enjoy it.  We had missed the first few shows and caught the tail end of a show at lunch time but Jack seemed to enjoy it so we decided to stay for the next show.

As we sat down for the show, I asked a lady next to me, “Do ALL the kids get to participate?”  The lady told me that the kids are randomly picked for the show.   Okay fine.  Just before the show starts I hear parents on both sides of me tell there kids, “It’s okay, if you don’t get picked this time we will come back for the other shows.”    Huh??  How many shows have they already come too?  I wonder if Jack will get upset if he isn’t picked?

As the show starts, a Jedi Master comes out and randomly picks kids in the audience who are all shouting, “Pick me, Pick me, Pick me!”   I am just looking around not paying attention and then I realized the kids on either side of Jack have been picked and there are almost no spots left.   I was like crap, they aren’t going to pick Jack and Jack seemed to be sad that he wasn’t picked….then luckily right at the end Jack was picked to attend the Jedi Academy!

Jack with his padawan robe:

Not quite the way Luke Skywalker draws his light saber:

Jedi chick helping out Jack:

 

Lightsaber activated:

 

Jedi Academy training will now begin:

Disneyland Part 2…

Sticking with our theme of kiddie rides.  Jack on Dumbo:

This used to be Jack’s favorite ride, the rocket…but this time he only went on it once.  I dunno if this was Aya’s sexy ‘peace’ pose…I have no idea why she is making that face but it is pretty funny.

Family picture at the Main Street celebration parade.   Jack had so much fun on the Buzz Lightyear ride that we bought him his own Buzz Lightyear gun!

Jack got pulled up to dance with the dancers and last year he had a blast but this year he was up there a few minutes and then ran back to us before it was over. 

Disneyland Part 1…

So you want to know the reason why Jack picked Disneyland over Legoland?  Buzz Lightyear.  Apparently Jack wanted to go to Legoland because he saw the pirate boat ride on TV where people shoot each other with water cannons.  Then he saw the Buzz Lightyear ride on TV for Disneyland and that must have been more impressive because that is the reason Jack picked Disneyland.

Needless to say, Jack got his fill of Buzz Lightyear as we went home the ride 5-6 times.

Jack and Aya’s scores:

My score:

The gruesome twosome in action:

Such concentration:

Goofballs.

Pool Time…

Aunty Nora is probably wondering, “Where are the pictures of Stacy?”   Well, we didn’t take her to Disneyland with us and I still have a lot more picture of Jack from Disneyland, so we will take a break from the California Adventure and Disneyland photos for a video of Stacy and Jack…where else…at the pool:

California Adventure Part 4…

As I said last week when Jack and I went to the carnival, Jack didn’t want to ride a lot of rides.  I thought it was maybe because it was just Jack at I and I didn’t ride any rides with Jack.  This time Aya was with us and we could all ride on the rides together but Jack didn’t want to ride as many rides this time. 

Jack used to be so fearless but now he seems more timid and shy about going on some rides.    In any case, we still managed to have fun.   Jack taking a break to have a ‘snack.  Where is mom?  Here she is getting a corn dog!

This picture cracks me up because Jack is like a giant in the stroller now but there is no way he could walk between both parks as much as we did.  We stayed at Disneyland and California Adventure for 14 hours!

One of a kind, pose-able action figure, Jack Yoshioka:

Jack won a carnival game where you had to shoot water at a target. 

 

The World of Color show at California Adventure.  The show was okay…I expected a little more I guess…it just seemed like an upgraded Fantasmic show.

  

California Adventure Part 3…

Jack and I, on some Bugs Life Worm ride:

Dominating on the bumper cars:

Getting set for the Grizzy Rapids:

This is what happens when you fall asleep:

California Adventure Part 2…

It ended up being a great day to go to California Adventure.  Sure the weather was a tad hotter than I would have liked but both parks were relatively empty.   Most kids were already back in school and we heard the Wednesdays are the lower attendance days at Disneyland.  Who knew?  We didn’t but it sure ended up working out for us because the wait time for rides was no more than 5 minutes!

Jack and Aya with Toy Story army men:

In the Bugs Life section:

 

Mickey Mouse ferris wheel:

Aya playing with Jack’s Toy Story gun as he naps:

California Adventure Part 1...

As summer was ending, Aya and I asked Jack what he would like to do before he has to go back to school.  Jack said that he wanted to go to Legoland again.  Fine, not a problem.

Aya and I were trying to schedule a day off from work and plan everything out when Jack tells us that he changed his mind.  He wanted to go Disneyland instead.  Ok, great…it is closer for us.   

We ended up getting a deal on park hopper tickets for Disneyland and California Adventure.  It was the first time at California Adventure for us.

Aya was the only one that had a letter for her name:


Jack picked the letter “N”:



I went with the letter “O”:
 

Inspector Gadget…

Little Stacy is always reaching, grabbing, holding, drooling and just being as mischievous as possible. 

Stacy with Aya’s blackberry:

Stacy trying to use the TV remote control:

Fiesta La Ballona…

Jack and I went to Fiesta La Ballona over the weekend.   Last year we got suckered into buying tickets for each ride and it ended up costing us a small fortune.  This year, I decided to be smarter and I bought Jack a wristband that allowed him to ride as many times as he would like.  Unfortunately for me, Jack did not want to ride many rides this year.  

He kind of rode all the little kid rides again:

Slow car:

Then he wanted to play carnival games which was a separate cost from the ride wrist band.  Of course he picks the game with a gun.

He totally sucked at shooting the targets but since Mom wasn’t with us, I figured why not let Jack shoot a BB gun and have some fun!

The sad part of the carnival this year was Jack didn’t ride many rides so we didn’t maximize the use of the all you can ride wrist band.  The other sad part was Jack spent more time eating then riding rides.  

I wish I took pictures of Jack eating but when we sat down for lunch this super OLD couple sat across from us and they finished eating before Jack.   Then two guys took the seats of the old couple and they finished eating before Jack.  Then 6 handicapped people showed up and they started eating and I told Jack you have to finish before them because we can’t eat the entire carnival and not go on rides!  Totally his mother’s son.