Thanksgiving Weekend

Typically, for Thanksgiving, we host friends/families that have no family around or place to go.  Having no family around ourselves, we love doing it and feel blessed by spending our holiday with such great friends. Except for this year...all our friends seemed to have had other plans.  Some had family come in town while others went to see family.  So we found ourselves with a free holiday and took advantage of it to get out of town for a little getaway...Tahoe!  It was actually the perfect Thanksgiving for us this year.  Young has been working SO MUCH and we've seen very little of him, it was so nice to just be a family for a few days without distractions.  We look back and see how the Lord moved in every situation to give us time away.

We drove up Thanksgiving morning and had dinner reservations at the Thanksgiving buffet.  We dressed the kids up in their finest...Timo was so excited to wear his suite and tie just like his daddy!

We had a super yummy lunch...so good.  They had game stations set up outside the restaurant for the kids. Timo tried his best to play be we just don't understand the games...we haven't hit the gaming stage yet.  But they had fun trying and Yound and I enjoyed coffee and dessert together while they played.

We finished up just in time for the afternoon Smores by the fire pit!

After our late lunch we changed and headed out to the snow.  There wasn't much snow around except what was being made on the Northstar slopes.  Since the Ritz is right on the slopes, we were able to play a little but it was mostly icy snow, not powder.  That didn't stop the kids from trying to make the most of it.

That night we wanted to get in the Christmas spirit so we watched The Grinch on the ipad.  Daddy crashed about 2min into it...he was exhausted!

The next morning we had breakfast and the kids were excited to "find the bear" the hotel does for the kids. The staff hides the bear in the living room area, you have to find it and take a picture of it with your phone, show it to the staff and get a prize.

They had made snow all night long (we heard the blowers all night long) so we knew there would be fresh white stuff to play with...only it was too packed and icy to do much.  The kids tried their best to make a snowman...

 We decided to head out on a hike and explore the area...which means picking up lots of sticks!

 I like the outtakes...we asked a friendly stranger to take our picture and he was so patient with us...

The Ritz had an afternoon Kids Club craft time so we took advantage of the break, dropped them off and Young and I headed to the spa.  He took a dip in the pool while I enjoyed the complementary hot cider and warm molasses cookies...mmmmm, so good.  We picked them up at 4pm, just in time for afternoon smores...Timo was becoming an expert at catching his on fire after about the 5 marshmallow!  I gotta say, the Ritz is all about families and had so much to offer for kids.

On the heels of smores, they began gingerbread cookie decorating in the living room area!  We were slowly getting into the holiday spirit....but feeling tired from our day of hiking.  Nothing like a lot of sugary marshmallows and gingerbread men to get them energized again.

That night we took the gondola down to North Star Village for dinner and were treated to a perfectly clear sky to see the Milky Way!  I'm not sure who was more exited, Young showing Timo or Timo seeing it for the first time.  Either way, father and son had a moment.  Then crashing hard after a good day.

We were leaving the next day so we got up early to go on a big family hike up the mountain...and collecting more sticks.  The kids LOVE to go on long hikes and Young out did himself on this one.  We headed up, up, up to an old abandon ski slope with an amazing view.  It was a hard hike and I'm impressed that the kids made it all the way up.  Playing commanders in the Army going on obstacle courses helped.  There was still a little snow on the hillside from the snow a few day before.  Just enough make it fun, not miserable.

Guess this used to be the Boondocks trail, we found this old sign buried under brush.  Going up was the hard part, going down was the most fun.

We returned to the hotel to check out and the pastry staff was putting up the gingerbread house.  They were asking all the kids to come and "help" unwrap candy...genius!  great way for free labor!

The bellman offered the kids a rid down the the car...I tried to take a video but he was zipping them down the hall way too fast.

We would have loved to stay long but we had commitments back in SF. It was a short but oh so sweet little getaway, perfect for our family to send some quality time together.

School Performances

Just before the Thanksgiving break the children had their Thanksgiving performance.  Each child had a few lines to say and some songs to memorize.  We worked very hard on our lines at home...as well as the songs...to the point I could have gotten up and performed with them!  But all the hard work payed off...

20131125_130655.mp4 from Sara ko on Vimeo.

20131125_132140.mp4 from Sara ko on Vimeo.

20131125_132355.mp4 from Sara ko on Vimeo.

Then a few weeks later they had a little school wide Christmas concert where each grade stood up and performed a song. You can see Cameron in the front row and Timo is directly behind her...you can see him when other kids sorta sway out of the way.

20131220_091134.mp4 from Sara ko on Vimeo.

School Update

Just a quick update on Kindergarten...I can't believe how much the kids are learning!  I mean I can, they are smart after all, but it all seems so fast.  One of the best courses the school offers in Art In Action.  Every Friday the children learn about a new artist or cultural art and get the chance to make it themselves.  One of the first ones was VanGough.  To my surprise, Timo's pieces as chosen as the center piece of the art display! Apparently, and I'm no art expert, he did an amazing job on his painting with detail and proportion.  Of course I think it's a work of art simply because he's my son, but most of the art folks agreed as well.  It's something we are very proud of him for.

Here is Cameron's class doing their VanGough, they placed a vase of flowers in front of each of them.  And her painting.  She took liberties and added more vases to each side...she said one was too boring for her.

 I got to peek in on Cameron's class while they were making Kuchina Masks. I got to see Timo's mask too one it was put on their class bulletin board.

And not to be outdone by her brother, her skeleton was put on display for the Chinese bulletin board around Halloween...pretty good job, huh?

Both are still enjoying Chinese class...Cameron more so than Timo but I know he'll thank me later in his life, when he lands his dream job because he can read and speak Chinese!

We LOVE being able to walk/ride to school.  We just started riding bikes to school, which is huge accomplishment.   Because we live at the top of a hill, I told the children they need to be able to ride their bikes home, up the hill, before we could ride bikes to school...Mommy was not pushing two bikes up a hill every day.  Cameron passed the test first, soon followed by Timo...we're developing some powerful legs living in SF!

We have Spirit Day the lats Friday of the month, a few months ago it was Jersey Day.  Most kids wore bay area teams (Giants, 49ers) but not my little Tarheels!  Thanks to Granny, Timo and Cameron represent the Blue and White.

I chaperoned my first filed trip...to the new Exploritorium!  It was enough to cure me of the chaperon bug!!   Afterward the teachers were all saying the never again.  The new one is so big, so spread out and so crowded...I feel like we only saw about 1/4 of the place and we were there for 4 hours.  It was so hard to keep up with the four children I was responsible for but we survived and managed to have a little fun.  I was technically chaperoning for Timo's class but Cameron's teacher allowed her to go with our group.

So much to see and do!  The Exploritorium is just hundreds of science experiments...right up my kids alley. They each wanted to do every display, read all the instructions and take it all in.  Unfortunately the other two little boys didn't have they kind of patience so it was a struggle to maintain balance between all the different interest levels.  We did agree on a few things and really tried to take it all in.

Cameron was the only one brave enough to "drink out the toilet"!  A practice in getting over stigma...a toilet turned into a water fountain.

Timothy's class has a student of the day everyday and I got to sit in on Timo's day last month.  They lead the class in the going over the date, weather and attendance...and they also get to be first in line all day long, something Timo gets the most excited about!