Justin's Jewish Wedding

Mike and I were invited to Mike's fresh-faced coworker, Justin's wedding last Saturday.  I've met his bride-to-be Kaitlyn two summers ago when we went to see Mariner's game together.  They looked adorable together back then and they were glowing together in their wedding day, the sunniest Seattle had seen this year.  We had Bob, Marsha and grandma Marie over that weekend, they'd arrived on Friday evening.  They were brave enough to offer babysitting the three children while we attended the ceremony and reception, so we prepared their dinner and drove off to the sunny hill side golf course where they had the wedding.

The venue was just breathtakingly beautiful.  The golf course is situated on the hill over looking Mercer Island and the Olympic mountains.  The bright greens of the golf course were followed by deep green of Bellevue's forest then to the hazy green of Mercer Island.  The color palette changed to blue as the distance grew and the faint contour of the Olympics against the wide cloudless sky was the sight worthy of forever burning in my memory.  I felt like I took a mini vacation and came back just by looking at the scenery.

Mike and I have never been to a Jewish wedding before.  They left a box full of small black scalp covers by the entrance and suggested Mike to wear it to respect their religion.  He quickly corrected me and said "you have to be Jewish to wear it, Kimi!"  Ok, never knew.  After admiring the scenery, we sat in the gazebo where they were to hold the ceremony.  When I saw Justin walked in with his Mom, the memories from our wedding twelve years ago vividly came back.  This day means so much for these young couple, I thought.  Looking at his nervous yet excited face made me smile and cry and I truly felt happy for Justin, Kaitlyn and their family.   It as a very special day for them.  

Kaitlyn was beautiful in her modern wedding dress.  She wore her hair down and it must be the current trend.  She didn't look too made up, natural and effortless.  Her natural beauty shined through and it fit her style.  We sat with Kaitlyn's friends at the reception and I understood that she is smart and down to earth.  I took about 250 pictures at the wedding and it was easy to do.  I enjoyed capturing happiness and it was easy to snap away.  My best photos were the pictures of their family watching them do their first dance together.  Their teary happy smiles were priceless.  Their wedding reminded me how much a marriage means not just to the couple but to the entire family.  It was a very special wedding and we left happy and renewed.  We wish Justin and Kaitlyn all the happiness and good health!  Congratulations!

Sean's Dentist Visit

I was dreading the day I had an appointment to take Sean to see his dentist. Last visit was a nightmare according to Mike. He was terrified and he had a panic attack due to being extremely anxious. I almost wanted to ask Mike to take him since I thought we might need a man power to pin him down while the dentist checks his teeth.

Maybe I stress out too much for nothing. Sean was exemplary at the dentist! He was polite, he answered silly questions the assistant asked to make him feel relaxed, and he did everything the assistant and dentist asked him to do without a fuss! He was nervous for sure, but he held up and did great!

I am proud to say he had matured tons ever since he started the kindergarten last fall. The challenges he had overcome the past year such as being in a large classroom and learning to be on task alongside his classmates made him more confident in leaving the comfort zone and overcoming his fear. The dentist visit was another reminder how much improvement he is making. Way to go Sean!

Super Moon!

Supermoon taken from my deck.  It was hard to get a good shot of it.

I don't know much about this phenomenon... but we had a supermoon about a week ago and that happens when the moon is closest to the earth. It was the brightest moon I've ever seen, I think, but who really pays attention to the moon's brightness anyway!? I am a city girl, and I am not in tune with moon and stars on regular basis...

The excerpt from Wiki:

A supermoon is the coincidence of a full moon or a new moon with the closest approach the Moon makes to the Earth on its elliptical orbit, resulting in the largest apparent size of the moon's disk as seen from Earth.

I told Mike that you can notice the brightness of it if you look at it in the peripheral vision. If you don't look at it directly but look at about 90 degrees away from it, it sort of looks like a bright stadium light at a ball field. So, it was a small excitement of the night, but not a significant enough to write more about it.

Friend's Birthday Party

Our little friend, Hayato-kun, celebrated his fourth birthday last weekend at a fun play center in Woodinville.  It was a beautiful sunny day and a perfect weather to celebrate!  I took Sean and Saya to the party and let Noah and Daddy have a fun day together.  I think they went to a park and spent some quality time together.  Hayato-kun looked happy and it was also good to see all my Mommy friends there.  The faclitiy had fun set up where they had different themed room for imaginary play, active play etc.. and Sean and Saya had a very good time playing with friends.  Most chidren were younger than five and Sean suddenly looked huge and grown up.  He was once four, too...  I took some nice pictures of the birthday boy and his Mom.  We went to play at a park nearby afterwards and the kids had a good time playing under the sun.  I think Sean was very tired at the end and threw some tantrums at home, but that ultimately means he had a fun day.  That part, he hadn't outgrown.  Still waiting...

Bake like Mama

I regularly bake since you can't find decent gluten and casein free baked goods at stores.  I decided to bake gluten free pumpkin cupcakes the other day and Saya marched in the kitchen to help.  Her job was to stir the dry ingredients together and line up the cupcake sleeves in the pan.  I have my wonderful Kitchen Aid that does all the mixing thanks to Mike, so the rest is quite easy.  Saya and I watched the cupcakes raise in the oven and enjoyed the vanilla scents filling the house.  Maybe I bake often so that I make sweet memories with my kids.  I will always remember their little hands and happy smiles!

Noah, the little snooper and magician

When Noah is quiet, I am in trouble.  Ever since Noah ound his curiosity, there is no real peace in our house.  He has escaped out of our house and onto the street for at least seven times and have managed to lose or break things in the house.  The recent victims are the insurance cards!  I have an evidence of Noah getting into my wallet as above.  I see the insurance cards in the picture and that was the last time I had them.  Between the time of this photo and me putting away the camera, Noah did something to them and voila, they are gone!  They are the only ones missing and I noticed them gone when I went for Saya's three year well check at the doctor's office.  I pulled out a card and gave it to the recetionist and she laughed and told me that it was her YMCA card.  Where did they go?  Noah wouldn't say, but he gives me a superior smile.  I guess I need to order new cards tomorrow...

Saya's Happy Third Birthday

My little baby girl turned three on Apri 25.  The little baby that were part of the decor in early years is now a loud and bubbly little girl with exaggerated expressions on her face.  She is constantly talking, the only time she is quiet is when she is watching her favorite TV shows or sleeping.  She can defend herself against the invading forces, aka big brothers, sister, sometimes Mom and friends.  Even Sean gets chased by her pounding fists and he isn't sure what to do with his firecracker of a little sister.  Though she has a spirit of an octagon fighter, she knows how to be sweet.  She would just pretend like a cat and just meows at you at perfect moment.  It's as if she knows exactly how to sell her little girl charm and who would not melt when a three year old pig tailed girl meows with a shy smile?! 

Her birthday this year fell on Wednesday, so we cancelled Sean's OT session with Jessica and had a cupcake with her brothers, Mom and Nana.  Nana was very excited to be part of her birthday celebration since this is the reason why she moved here.  I promised Saya I would bake her an Anpanman (her favorite Japanese cartoon character) cake, but I baked pumpkin cupcakes for her actual birthday and saved the Anpanman cake for Saturday when I had more time to bake.  At school, they made her a tulip crown that said "Happy 3rd Birthday, Saya" in Japanse and she loved it.  She wore it all day and pretty much all week as long as it held up.  With her crown on, we sang her the birthday song and she actually sang it the loudest.  She knew all the words and looked very happy that it was her moment.  We decorated our own cupcakes with icing and sprinkles.  It was very good.

On Saturday, I wanted to have a mini party for her.  I invited Yuana-chan's family, but they were not able to make it since her Mom had to work late.  That was good though in a way since the Anpanman cake was a disaster!  I pushed hiding veggies in anything idea too hard this time.  I mixed in pureed sweet peas in the batter.  The main purpose of it was to make the cake green since green is Saya's favorite color.  I didn't have the green tea powder and all I had was the peas.  Peas are sweet, so I thought it would work.  However, I underestimated the grainy texture of sweet peas.  The rice flour itself has grainy and heavy texture compared to the regular wheat flour.  On top of that, I decided to make my own buttercream frosting from scratch.  I've learned that when it says "butter" in the name, you should not use a vegan fake butter.  I made a most aweful frosting I've ever made in my short baking life on top of the most aweful textured ill colored sponge cake. 

The ony thing that turned out decent was the Anpanman thin cookie I made for decoration.  My friend, Yukie, gave me a fun recipe to make any characters you want on the cake.  It's the same recipe I used to make the Ironman decoration as well.  It's a pain streaking task and it took me a while to complete it, but Saya was very happy to see Anpanman on her cake.  Saya wasn't sure about the taste of the cake and Noah didn't eat it at all.  Sean ate at least half of it and that was very surprising to me.  Nana was polite and ate all of it and Mike and I looked at each other while poking at our slice. 

I think she had a nice third birthday.  She is very proud to be three and she is now almost fully potty trained!  She pees and poops on the potty 90% of the time and we are very proud of her.  The tinkling I hear after she seats herself on the toilet is the cutest noise.  She slowly smiles and asks for a cookie as that is her reward for doing it right. 

Funny side notes about the very early stage of Saya's life...
My friend, Hanae, teases me all the time how Daddy and I drove to Sammamish to look for a bigger house the next day the pregnancy test came back positive.  I also remember feeling a little embarassed that I came back to see Dr. Roger for another pregnancy after seeing him just five months ago in post birth check up.   I think I sort of said to him in my little OB gown "yep, I am back!" Hanae and I went to get contraception implant about the same time after the twins birth, but I got a stomach ache and left the clinic before the doctor could put it in.  I am so glad I had that stomach ache because if not for the cramp, we would not have had you, Saya!