Little Gymnasts

Saya likes Wednesdays because it's a gymnastics day!  She is very flexible and has strong muscles, so even though she is not quick, she can make up for it by having a good form.  She is probably going to be a tall girl and gymnastics might not suit her body type, but I am glad she is taking the lessons now since it is helping her be more aware of her movements.  Coach Lily is excellent and the little girls in Saya's group are all making good progress.  I've never taken any sports lessons growing up, so I am so glad Saya gets to explore her physical potential. 

Family Portrait DIY

 

 

I would like to think that I add certain professional value to the family!  Mike can fix computers and electronics (except for troubleshooting washing machine - that I am good at), assemble furniture and willing to climb up the roof.  I can cook, somewhat clean, find bargains, and draw decent pictures AND take good photographs!  Having a portrait done professionally is very expensive and can easily coast $150 plus.  Yesterday, we saved some money, I would like to think, since I took pictures of the family with my studio kit.  One draw back is that I am not in the picture!  I was too lazy to set up the tripod.  I had Mike snap a few pictures of me, but they didn't turn out great.  Sorry Mike!  The kids were goofy and weren't cooperative, but I was able to snap some decent shots.  I haven't edited them all, but here are some of them.  I was going to take them outside but it started to rain.  I still want to take some pictures for the Christmas cards outside, so we will probably do that when we go get our Christmas tree in Carnation. 

Roller Skate Night

I had forgotten to post pictures from Spiritridge Elementary roller skate night which happened a week before Halloween.  I remember my Dad taking my cousin and I to roller skating when we were kids and it was tons of fun.  Being kids, we learned to roller skate pretty quickly and were doing neat tricks together going around the link.  It was my kids' (Aly, Sean and Saya's) first roller skating experience and they fell a lot of course, but had lots of fun!  Many of the children were dressed in their costumes and the place was jammed.  I've seen the skate link before but never visited it before.  It screamed early 80s, possibly 70s, and it needed much updating not to mention cleaning.  Their circular benches were all carpeted in red and blue multi design and it felt like an old and dirty teddy bear fur.  The bathroom looked like prison bathrooms and I had to take a deep breath before diving inside with Alyson.  The rental roller skates used to be white, but it's all gray since the white outer layer all chaffed off.  Aly's skates had holes on them and had to exchange for another one.  I am not a whiner usually, but I was just surprised how dated everything was. 

The kids didn't seem to mind it though and jumped into the link after practicing a little on the carpet.  They were quite terrible at it and me being a little rusty on my own skating skill, we all looked pretty comical.  Alyson's bottoms and hands were all over the place, Saya kept falling and started to cry, Sean couldn't move forward in the middle of the link and the staff had to carry him to the side...  I thought they would want to just give up, but they kept on skating.  They had a great time!  We have to try it again in the near future.  They were beyond exhausted by the time they got home.  It was on a school night and I am pretty sure the teachers had fun the next day dealing with spacey children!

Aly's school video

This video was taken during Alyson's classroom Halloween Party.  Aly knew the pumpkin poem they were so adorable! 

Gymnastic

Saya is starting to enjoy her gymnastics class.  She has a little friend who is Japanese in the same class and we have a playdate together afterwards, too, which might contribute to her liking it.  She can do different styles of front rolls now and can hang from the bar with straight legs.  She talks a lot during the class, too, and it's good to see her interact with the teacher and her classmates.  She didn't want to buy the gymnastic suit, so she wears a dance leotard with a skirt.  Now Aly wants to try gymnastics, too, so I put her on a waiting list.  Saya is getting lucky because she is the only one left at home.  I have more time to take her to lessons in the morning and we go out shopping together often.  She is like my purse.  She comes with me everywhere I go, even when I volunteer at school.  She likes coming to my Chiropractic appointment and get a candy at the front desk  She sits on my back while I lay down during the adjustment session.  Everyone loves her and thinks she is the cutest thing ever.  Well, of course she is!  

Sean and Mommy Date in Seattle

A plaza in International District - Some Chinese elderlies were playing ping pong.

Colombia Center - still Sean's favorite building in Seattle.

A necessary skywalk bridge between two government buildings.

Very modern and sleek fire station!

Football stadium on the far left and King Station with its clock tower.  We turned the corner to the right to go to the Colombia Center.

Sean was waiting for Mommy to come in to the photo.

Self-timer attempt!  We tried it several times but this one shows most of me. 

The weekend started out with a crazy windstorm which made me worried for the first time since we moved here that one of our trees are going to fall.  The wind was stirring the tall Pine and Douglas Fir, bending their giant trunks further than my comfort level.  Mike and the three kids left for lunch with Nana around 11:30 am and I heard a large thump soon after.  I thought one of my kids' plaything got blown away on the deck, but it was a very large brunch falling from one of our big trees.  It missed the roof but hit the fence.  I went outside to pull it off the fence but it was so huge and heavy, I couldn't do it.  I soon realized I shouldn't be out there since the wind was still going strong, so I ran inside before something else fall on me.  It blew and blew pretty much all day and it finally stopped by late afternoon.  The entire city is a big mess and it will take some time to clean it all up.  Our Japanese Maple in the front lost all its leaves in one day!  It was just starting to turn orange and I was looking forward to taking pictures of the glorious annual display of bright fall colors.  No lost power in our area and we could have easily with a storm like that.  We got lucky this time!

Sunday turned out to be a beautiful day, so I decided to do a mini Sean and Mommy day in the city since it has been a while since we spent some alone time together.  Sean was so excited, he ate his lunch very fast.  Sean wanted to go see the Colombia Center, so we parked the car at International District and walked.  I could have driven there since there were plenty of street parking nearby.  There was a football game in Century Link which is right by the International District, but Colombia Center was about 15 minutes away from where we parked.  We had a nice walk looking at the buildings and scenery.  We saw some interesting architectures and took some pictures.  Maybe he got it from me.  I like looking at the designs of buildings.  I like looking at things that reflect the era of when it was created.  I can picture the time when it was brand new and what people might have dressed or looked like then walking in and out of the building.  We talked about the details on the buildings and what he thought about it.  I discovered that he and I are in agreement in a lot of things! 

We stopped by at one of my favorite places in Seattle, Panama Hotel.  I wanted to show Sean the display of the items Japanese Americans left at the basement of the hotel when they were forced to leave their home for Internment Camps during WWII.  I don't know if he understood, but he got a brief history lesson on WWII and how it impacted Japanese Americans living in the West Cost.  He had a lot of questions and it was great to show him something tangible, a piece of history, to visually explain the aftermath.  We will have more in depth lesson of WWII when we visit the Museum of Flight next time.  We then went to Uwajimaya's food court and had some cakes.  I have been on a diet for a while so I gobbled it up like a drug addict.   It's ok to cheat once in a while!  We went home after doing some shopping at the grocery store.  We had tons of fun in the city.  Oh, and Seahawks won again!   We heard the happy roar of spectators from the stadium it put us in a good mood.  I am looking forward to doing it again soon.  I love him so much.

Halloween and Things

Sean was quite upset that picture taking is delaying the trick or treating.

Fairy and Witch

Nice spider web decorations at Parker's house.

Sean couldn't gather the courage to go near the man in mask.

Knock knock!

Nana - trick or treat!?

We survived Halloween!  What a fun but crazy holiday it is!  We did quite a bit this year and I am glad there are 365 days before the next one.  Sean was sure sad that it's all over and cried about it before bedtime.  We did the usual neighborhood tour and Nana gave out candies at our house.  The neighborhood turns into a street festival in the dark with kids in costumes marching up and down the street.  Noah stayed back with Nana since he isn't interested in collecting candies but going into someone else's home instead.  The kids had tons of fun knocking on doors to get candies.  Everyone's main event was going to the "scary house" up the hill.  They are the house with flickering lights, smoke machine and zombie masks.  They kept the decorations minimal this year, but they still were pretty scary.  When the trick -or-treater opens the door, a tall man with a mask opens the door and the air is suddenly filled with misty smoke.  It's dark with only flickering light on the background.  Sean and Saya almost made it but they ran back as soon as the guy opened the door.  They were terrified.  That sent the girls begging to go home and that was the end of the night for a cute little witch and a fairy.  Sean stayed back a little with Daddy and gathered more candies.  Their bags were quite heavy by the night ended and Sean's bag even contained a soda can!  Someone must have ran out of candies. 

I had a long day and I am pretty wiped.  America is a fun country to be a kid!  Parents, we run around awfully a lot for the kiddos.   I guess it's all good, but I need to make sure I know when and where to draw the line.  I wish it came naturally to me! 

I know I haven't posted in a while so here is a digest of what we have been doing:

- I started volunteering for both Sean and Alyson's class once a week.  I get to see how they are during the class and observe how the teacher handles the children.  Their teachers are amazingly swift and dry when it comes to addressing problem behavior.  It's very valuable for me to learn their skills to manage all 28 children on their own!  Sean and Aly seem happy that I am there regularly now.  I've been wanting to get more involved and I am very excited to have a chance to this year!

- I had a conference with Sean's teacher yesterday.  He said he is on track academically and he is particularly doing well in creative writing.  That was great to hear.  He showed me an example of his writing and I was quite impressed by his work.  He wrote a short story and the sentence structure he used and mixing in the dialogues in his story seemed like a great skill beyond his age.  He is doing fine in math although he is not found of creating a story problem.  That I knew already since he has a terrible attitude towards such math questions at home  His calculation skills are superb and he is usually accurate.  I connected with the teacher very well and I already can tell this is going to be a great year for him.  He has come so far.  I am so very proud of him!

- Alyson, when she started the kindergarten had a hard time even reading simple words.  She didn't know all the alphabets and I really regretted not teaching her enough during summer.  It's been only two months but she improved a lot!  She can now read simple sentences and using phonics to guess what the word might sound like.  She also started to write a sentence using inventive spelling (she guesses the spelling of a word from the sound).  The teacher said she is starting to volunteer in her class and becoming more vocal.  Honestly, I expected things to be slower, but she is learning everything so fast, it's very exciting!  Hooray for Alyson!  Oh and she is the second tallest kid in her class. 

- Noah lost his tooth on 10/23!  I noticed it when I was feeding him dinner at night and looked for his tooth everywhere in the house.  He looks so cute without his baby tooth on the bottom.  He doesn't seem to mind it and he certainly didn't give me any indication that his tooth was getting loose.  I am glad he is growing up and hitting the physical milestone at the right age.  The handouts and things he brings back home from school tell me that he is now writing letters and identifying words.  Apart from not talking, he is not so far apart from his peer group.  He still loves being hugged and tickled.  He is the sweetest little boy I know!

- Saya is getting better at gymnastics!  She now can do the forward roll from high and low and currently working on sprinting and rolling at the end.  She can hang from the bar with straight legs and do many things she couldn't do the first few weeks.  The teacher at her Japanese school tells me that she is doing much better without her sis harboring around her.  She volunteers during class and works hard on her tasks.  She can write letters in English and Japanese.  She is ready for kindergarten now!  I am teaching her to read together with Alyson, so she will be in good shape by next fall.  She continues to be funny and makes us laugh everyday.   Oh and she had her fist swim lesson today at the gym.  She was refusing to get in the pool at first, but she cautiously went in with encouragement.  A little patience goes a long way and thank goodness the teacher's got plenty of it.  By the end of her 30 mins lesson, she was floating in the water with the teacher and managed to blow bubbles in the water.  I have to figure out some ways to have the other children enrolled in swimming.  Children are expensive!

- Halloween movie party at our house was a success and the kids and their friends (I had 10 kids in total in my house) had a really good time watching "Hotel Transylvania" and eating pizza.  I walked home with all 10 children from school and everyone thought I was brave.  The kids were very good at home and I liked the mix of kids we invited.  I will attempt to do something like that again soon since it was all fun for everyone! 

Did I mention I am tired?  I really am.  I really should go to sleep now.  Oh wait the photos.  Now I have to edit some photos to post here.  My job never ends!