Happy 4th Birthday Timothy & Cameron!!

I had high hopes of doing a birthday blog post, overwhelming you with photos of our birthday party, birthday cake and other celebrations...but alas, as they say, "the best laid plans..." Both Timo and Cameron are sick with bronchitis and ear infections. 2 kids, 2 cases of bronchitis, 2 ear infections, 2 different antibiotics. We have had a really rough week, beginning the two days before their party. We had to cancel the party but had hopes for a celebration at school on their birthday, they both were seemingly getting better...only to get another call saying Timo was crying and holding his ear. A birthday visit to the doctor for him, another later that day for Cameron with her coughing...Happy Birthday, huh? (Not to mention Mommy was now coming down with the fever and cough).
I managed to get some cupcakes made that day so the children would have some kind of "cake" on their birthday...it was nice to see a smile on their faces. Opening presents was so much fun but quickly tired out them out...little did we know Cameron was coming down with an ear infection too!

But in all our sickness, we still managed to have a happy day and enjoy our right of passage into our 4th year as a family! I'll post much more later...we're all still under the weather and need time to get back to 100%....birthday celebrations are to be continued...

Savings Account

For a while now, Timo has REALLY been into money...as in wanting as much money as he can get. (Young thinks we have an Alex P. Keaton on our hands) But not the "ticket money" (dollar bills), he only likes the coin money. I think he likes it jingling around in his pocket. He was ALWAYS asking for money but it just didn't seem right to give money for no reason....right? So, as strange as it might seem, we now give out coins instead of stickers or candy as rewards! They get a penny for getting dressed themselves, a nickle for being a "first time listener", and a quarter for cleaning up toys.
But then the problem was finding change in the laundry, car seats, sofa cushions...anywhere it would fall out of their pockets...and then a total melt down when Timo couldn't find his hard earned money! We thought it was time for piggy banks. Now each time they earn their money, they run to their room and deposit their savings! I don't think they have really associated the money they have can be used to buy toys with...let's hope it's a while before they want to spend it. For now, it's just a friendly competition on who can have the heaviest savings account!

Apple Seeds

Guess it's true what they say...the apple doesn't fall far from the tree...

Letting Daddy Sleep In

Young gets up almost every morning and goes running. If he doesn't run then that usually means he has to be at work super early for an East Coast conference call or to church early for some sort of meeting. Rarely does he EVER sleep in. Shortly after all the holiday hustle and bustle, I decided he need a morning off to sleep in. I planned on taking the kids out early so Timo wouldn't pounce on him asking him to play baseball at 8am!

We headed to Home Depot for their Kids Workshop. I love it in so many ways...the kids get to hammer, paint, see their accomplished work and it's all FREE! The project that months was a money savings house, right up the kids alley (anything they can put their "allowance" in).

Painting ended up being a very precise activity. They both had specific colors in mind for their houses. Timo wanted a red, white and blue house and Cameron wanted purple, red and green.

All done...and so proud!
I wanted to give Young plenty of time to relax so we decided to go out for doughnuts afterwards...the hardships we endure for our spouse's happiness...

A "quick" trip to the cake decorating store (that ended up not being so quick!). I needed to get some cake supplies for a sweet 16 cake I was making. The kids were in cake heaven! It turned into the twins picking everything they wanted for their birthday cake! Cameron deciding what kind of sprinkles she wants and Timo picking out his rocket ship cake pan.
I squeezed in a few more errands and ended up at the mall...which meant mall food for lunch! The kids were just having a red banner day! I bet they wish we would let Daddy sleep in late more often!
We got home and Young was all rested up, full of energy and promptly took the kids out on a jog with him...kids on their bikes while he ran behind them!

Dugout

Timo and Cameron were playing baseball down our hallway and I walked up on this...
Apparently Papi and Wosy are waiting in the Blankie dugout for their turn to bat! Gotta love a child's imagination!

Tide Pools

We met some friends of ours, the Hertzels, in Half Moon Bay a few weeks ago to have lunch and hang out on the beach, playing in the sand.
Once we got to the beach, we noticed around the corner were tons of tide pools with all kinds of sea life action in them! We ended up exploring the tide pool for hours...little treasures like this...

The hermit crabs were a big hit too. Timo kept finding more and more and putting them all in the pool.

Lots of hiking and climbing over rocks to find more and more tide pools. Young was much better about letting them wonder around...I was a nervous wreck watching them. I kept imaging a slip on a rock and "splat", right into the water! Luckily everyone was sure footed.


So much exploring to do...so exciting! I hear the pools are packed with all kinds of sea creatures just as the tide goes out. I can't wait to go back and plan it a little better with the tide.

Working Day

I am a stay home mom but do work at our church one day a week, volunteering in the office answering phones, run the social media and basically whatever else the staff needs done. Most days are pretty busy and I really enjoy my 6 hours a week of social/adult interaction....and using that "other side" of my brain.

A few weeks ago the children had a school holiday one my work day at the church. Normally I would have missed that week of work and stayed home with the kids but this particular week I actually had lots of work to do and things to catch up on. So what's a "working mom" to do when your kids have a day off...I took them to work with me! I started off by hitting the children's rooms at church to find crayons and markers and printed out tons of coloring pages for them. Combine that with a big cardboard box that they disassembled and you have a full days work!
I don't think our pastor has ever seen the office so full and busy! I'm so grateful everyone was patient with them! But at a certain point they got a little restless and we had to resort to the DVD player...Veggie Tales! A little lunch break and back to work! It had it's stressful moments (trying to talk on the phone just when they needed to potty) but I'm sure if you ask the kids, they had the best day ever!

Fashionista!

Cameron loves to pick out her own clothes and it very careful that they match...pink with pink, purple with purple and so on. This day she pick out polka dots with polka dots! I don't think there is any more I can say about my little one's fashion choices...except good thing it was a rainy day and we didn't have to go out in public!

Korean Traditions

In the Korean culture, one of the biggest holidays is New Year's Day. There is a certain meal you eat, a certain way you address your elders/love ones, and a little ceremony of children bowing to their elder relatives and receiving money. We thought this year would be the year to start Timo and Cameron celebrating this part of their Korean heritage.

Young started teaching them how to say Happy New Year in Korean a few days earlier, seh heh bok mahn ee bahd euh sae yo, which translates to "Receive a lot of new year's blessing". We called Young's parents, Harmony and Habachi, to wish them a new year...here are the kids saying Happy New Year in Korean.


The next step was to say the same thing to Young while bowing down and they would receive money. If you are with your whole family then the children get all dressed up in their hanbok (traditional Korean outfit) then bow to their parents, grandparents, and uncles, saying seh heh bok mahn ee bahd euh sae yo. It's a whole big ceremony and the children all make out like bandits! Grown children (like Young and myself) still do this to their parents if you are with them...maybe next year. Cameron did really well, if you can see, she bows all the way down...she really wanted the money!


They rushed to put their money in their piggy banks!
Later that day I made our Korean dinner...a soup called Dook Guk, or beef rib soup with rice cakes. We typically go out for the new years day feast but decided after our NYE dinner, it would be wise to eat at home. It turned out super yummy, thanks to some pointers from the Korean ladies at the Korean market! I'm turning into such the Korean wife and mommy!! Seh heh bok mahn ee bahd euh sae yo!

New Year Eve!

Happy New Year everyone! We're only a month late...but better late than never, huh? This year Young and I decided we wanted to really celebrate the new year with Timo and Cameron. They are just coming into the realization of "holidays" and we wanted to mark the beginning of a new year as a family. The past few years consisted of us putting the kids to be early and falling asleep on the sofa in exhaustion. But now, with a little more understanding, we thought they would enjoy making a special evening of it. We knew exactly where we wanted to ring in the new year...Four Seasons, downtown San Francisco! We opened with a toast to the new year! (lemonade for the kiddos!)
We love the Four Season because it's a nice restaurant, totally kid friendly and has really good food! The kids get these sticky sticks to build, cups with straws, coloring books and crayons. Both Timo and Cameron love the sticky sticks!
Timo tried Young's caviar and loved it! That's make this chef Mommy very proud!
Cameron decided her last meal of 2011 would be a PB&J while my foody son wanted steak...which Cameron ended up eating half of anyway...
Dessert! (the most important part of a meal as far as I'm concerned) The desserts all around were so much fun! Timo wanted fruit which he specially requested honeydew, Cameron requested white ice cream with chocolate sauce and we adults got some super yummy 2012 sweet treats. My fav was the white chocolate/raspberry/almond cake dessert.

Finishing up dinner with chocolate covered strawberries and a Thomas the Train story from Daddy.

A little New Year's Eve dancing by Timo!


The whole restaurant was decorated for NYE and the staff was so nice to let the children have a balloon. It was a wonderful end of 2011!! A huge thank you to the staff at the Season for making our dinner so special and accommodating two 3 year olds on one of the busiest nights of the year!