Snow trip #2

Since the boys enjoyed our first snow trip so much, we decided to go again. This time we went to Tahoe with the Lais. Caleb is still scare to sled on a steep hill, but he will do small tiny hills by himself. Joshie didn't like walking in the snow at this place because it was so soft that he sank down. Nonetheless, we had a good time. Doesn't Caleb look like a baby in this picture?

Caleb's 5th Birthday

Caleb requested to have his birthday at a children's museum because we have been visiting the various children museums in our area. We celebrated Caleb's 5th birthday at Habitot in Berkeley. Caleb had a great time at all the different stations. He usually likes to stay by my side or wants Hebron to follow him at a party, but this time he just went everywhere by himself and played with friends. Joshie also roamed by himself and made new friends with other kids.
In the previous years, it seemed like Caleb have more fun at other people's party than at his own.
It took alot of effort to plan the party because I am in the midst of busy season at work and school, but it's all worth it to see the boys having fun and enjoying themselves.

Super Why!

Lately, the boys love to watch a PBS show called "Super Why!" It's a fun show that uses story books to help kids solve problem and learn to read. When someone in the story have a problem, then all the "Super Reader" go to their rescue.

To turn into super heros, the characters put all their hands together and say...

"Super reader...










to the rescue!"

Caleb can READ!

Bansoon at Hebron's church in Oxnard gave us a set of Bob books. It's easy books for beginning reader. Last night Caleb can read three of the books in the first set. He didn't read it by memorizing it. He read it by sounding out the sound of each letters in words that he didn't know. I am so proud of him. Since we are sending him to private school, I was afraid that he would struggle academically. But it seems like he is on track.

This is what he read:
Dot has a hat.
Dot has a cat.
The cat has a hat.
Dot has a dog.
Dog has a hat.
Dog has a rag hat.
Sad dog. Sad Dot. Sad cat.
Dog has on a rag hat.

Let's Party

Hebron and I feel like such wild people because we have been partying two days in a row. On January 2nd, Stanley and Chrissy, our church friends, invited us over to their house for dessert and MJ (Ma Jong). We went over with the boys at 7:30 pm and played MJ untill 10:30pm. We got home at 11 pm. We have never done that before with our boys. In fact, Hebron and I do not go out past 9 pm anymore, except to companies' holiday party. We felt so wild and fun to stay out late. On Jan 3rd, we invited the worship team over for dinner and board games. After dinner a group played Monopoly and another group played MJ. We hung out with people untill 12 am and didn't head to bed untill 1 am. Wow, two wild nights in a row. It was kinda fun to hang out with people and play games. We miss doing wild things like that and hanging out with friends. I guess kids, work, serving, and school kept us busy and prevented us from partying. It was nice to have some wild partying fun.

Tears in my eyes

My friend, Melissa, gave Caleb and Joshie a few gifts yesterday. One of the gift was a set of four books about Christmas. They were all similar and we already had one of it. So I asked Caleb and Joshie to each choose one and save the other one to give away to other children through Operation Christmas Child. My goal was not to take away their things, but to help them realized that they are blessed with many things and they should share it with others. Well, of course no kid wants to give away their things. And since Caleb loves books, he doesn't want to part with any. He cried and said that he likes all of them. So I explained to him that he has a lot of toys and books while other children do not. I told him he can read them all and choose which one to keep, but he still didn't want to give one away. Well, I thought maybe we can try this lesson another year. Maybe when he is older he will understand that not everyone is as blessed as he is. So I went about my morning routine and brushed my teeth. Caleb came into the bathroom with one of the four new books he got and said, "Mommy, I want to send this one away." When I heard that, literally, my eyes where filled with tears. I am so proud of him. I want my children to grow up to be a giving person and to give generously what Christ have so richly blessed us with.

Our First Snow Trip

This was our first time in the snow with the boys. We went to Twain Harte with three other families from our college years. We rented a cabin in Mi-Wuk village. We had a scary experience as soon as we got to the cabin site. Even with chains, our Nissan van could not make it up the hill leading to our cabin. The car lost traction, slided back a little, and then wedge itself in a bed of snow. We can not go up or down. That was scary because everytime we tried to move the car, the snow wire created friction with the ground and generated sparks. So we got the kids off the car and walked up the hill to our cabin. Thank God the other family had a four-wheel drive and they made it up the hill ok. While my college roommate looked after my kids, Hebron and I took a few shovels and cleared away some snow so our van can slide back down the hill. The next day, our friend brought Hebron out to town to get better snow chains so we can drive home later. Despite of the little set back, our trip was alot of fun. Just three minutes walk from our cabin is a private sledding hill. We took the boys sledding there. The hill is steep enough for sledding but not so steep that it would be tiresome to walk back up. The sledding area is long with a large flat area at the bottom of the hill. With the large flat area at the bottom, we can be sure that we won't run into the brushes. Hebron's picture with the boys shows our sledding area in the background. This sledding hill was the perfect place because it was FREE and we had it all to ourselves. The snow was fluffy and soft and the weather was perfect. We had so much fun we didn't want to go home.


Caleb loved sledding so much that he requested to ride by himself. If you know him, you'll know that this is unusually for him. He usually wants us to ride with him. It just shows how much he loved it. Joshie is not as interested yet, mainly because he didn't want to wear all the snow gear. He didn't want to wear his boots, mittens, and hat. But he still had fun making snow balls.

Our Christmas Tradition

This must have been the 3rd year we did this. Our annual Christmas tradition includes the following:

1. Opening presents and dig into our stockings.

2. Reading of the Christmas story.

3. Playing the "Find the Baby Jesus" game where we dressed up as wisemen to follow the star in search of the baby King.

4. Attending Jesus' birthday party.

5. Making Christmas cookies

This year we didn't make as much cookies because Caleb and I already baked cookies for all his classmates the week before Christmas.

The boys loved being the star (i.e. holding the star) and guiding everyone to find baby Jesus.

Caleb's Christmas Play

This is Caleb's second year in a Christmas play. Last year he was the children wearing the green and the red in front. This year, he was a sheep. He actually participated and sang some songs. He loved playing the sheep and he was excited to see us. Can you find him?

San Jose Children's Museum

We went to the Children's Museum in San Jose with three of Caleb's friends from school. The boys loved the hands-on experiments. This is Curtis, the friend Caleb plays with a lot at school. Caleb even speaks Cantonese to him. For some reason, Caleb thinks he can only speak Chinese to Curtis. One time I told him to tell Curtis something in English, Caleb said, "Mommy, but Curtis speaks Chinese." Actually, I can relate to that. I only speak Chinese to certain friends.





The boys' favorite exhibit there is the Water Way. It's a water play area with lots of small pastic balls that you can put through tubes and specially designed paths so the water can shoot the ball up high or to another water tank.





Joshie must have spent half an bour here. He loved collecting the balls and feeding it through this tube. The tube sucks the ball in and shoots it out on top into a tornato funnel.


Dai dai loved touching everything.