happy day o' love!

man, watching olympics is so addicting.  i meant to get this post up earlier this week, but here we are at the week's end already!  aw well...

one thing i really appreciate about phil is that he's never dismissed valentine's day as a fake holiday but rather used the day as an opportunity to do something sweet for me.  this year was no different as he informed me in the morning that he would be making dinner for us that evening.  he even inquired about which "seating time" i preferred-- giving me the choice between 4pm and 9:30pm (arranged around when the kids are asleep).  i chose the latter.

but first, we got to spend the day with the kiddos doing little valentine-y things together.

phil had this for me in the morning.  he said he got me "dr. love".  : p

and this was for phil from me.  the inside of the card read, 

"as long as i'm with you, i'm right where i want to be."  aww...

especially fitting this year as we wait and see where phil gets a job.

inside the box...

i wrote one thing on each heart and laid them over the chocolates.

and as tempting as it was, i didn't eat a single chocolate while i was putting it together.

can't say the same now as i've been sneaking into the box all week!

and we couldn't forget a little something for the kiddos.  this was for mikey.

and for allie (and lauren).

i also picked this up to make with the kids after breakfast

(nice and ghetto, just how i like it!).

ghetto or not, the kids had a good time putting m&ms and the funfetti on top.

 and this one?  she was a happy girl once the brownies were ready to eat!

that night, we got the kiddos in bed by 9pm and phil made good on his promise to make
dinner.  we started off with white bean and basil hummus served with pita chips
and sourdough bread (toasted, even!) with butter.  and wine.  just kidding!  we
don't like the taste of wine, so phil poured us blueberry juice instead.  the
wineglasses were a nice touch, though.

enjoying my yummy chopped salad.

then came bacon-wrapped scallops and ham-somethings in puff pastry 

(i'm a sucker for anything in puff pastry).

then came the main course (though i was pretty stuffed at this point!).

wagyu beef, buttered brown rice (cuz it's healthy), corn, and a little mint jelly.

and some salmon sashimi, too!

cheers, honey!

we watched iron chef: duff vs. simon while we feasted.

and for dessert: blueberry-peach panna cotta.

thanks honey for the delicious meal and for always 'cooking up' new ways to make me feel special.  love you!

jello popcorn balls.

for joyce (and anyone else interested).  from allrecipes.com:


JELL-O Popcorn Balls

Ingredients:

12 cups popped popcorn 1 cup light corn syrup 1/2 cup sugar

1 pkg. (4 serving size) JELL-O Brand Gelatin, any flavor 1 1/2 cups PLANTERS COCKTAIL Peanuts, coarsely chopped

Directions:

1.	Place popcorn in large bowl.
2.	Mix syrup and sugar in saucepan; bring to boil. Remove from heat. Add gelatin; stir until dissolved. Add peanuts.
3.	Pour over popcorn; mix well. Cool about 5 minutes. Shape into 18 balls, each about 3 inches in diameter.

note-- i used two flavors of jello, strawberry and lime, and omitted the nuts.  i'd also recommend eating these immediately after forming them in to balls since they don't keep too long before they go stale (i learned this the hard way!).  enjoy!  :)

printable recipe

special visitor.

last month, mikey had a special guest visit his classroom...

none other than dr. phil!

phil was game to visit mikey's class on one of his days off and even spent some time 

preparing some notes of what he'd talk about.  i thought that was so cute.  he also went 

and bought some band-aids for the kiddos-- transformers for the boys and princesses 

for the girls (cuz you know the mom rule about no band-aid unless there's blood).  we 

figured the kids would like sticking them on each other without having to shed blood first.

miss tanya introducing mikey's daddy to the class.

dr. phil trying to have an educational moment.

phil had the kids throw out ideas of what he wears at work, then he 

put the item on when it was something he actually does wear.

then it was time for the kids to be doctors, too!  

the kids thought the stethoscopes were especially cool.

these two girls were so cute! note the princess bandaid on her wrist.

coincidentally, it was also mikey's turn to be "VIP" for his class.  he got to be line leader,

bell ringer, calendar helper, pledge leader, and all that good stuff.  he (read: his mom)
was asked to decorate a poster with pictures and stuff he likes.  and there it is next to
the class calendar.

closer shot of his poster.  :)

he (read: his mom) was also asked to bring in a snack during the week for the class

that started with the letter of the week:  p.  so we brought popcorn balls!  unfortunately,

mikey got sick that week and wasn't able to go to school the day we dropped them 

off.  but we saved a couple so he and allie could eat theirs at home. 

all in all, a pretty good week (in spite of being sick) in the life of mikey tsai.  :)

that girl.

allie:  daddy, there's a new girl in my sunflowers class!
daddy:  oh yeah?  what's her name?
allie:  lexi.
daddy:  lexi?  hmm...  is she hispanic?
allie:  no daddy!  she's a SUNFLOWER!

 ********

she slays me.  :)

these are the days...

i want to remember for the rest of my life.  even though we've had a crazy week including everything from flooding in our first floor/garage (from the rain we got over the weekend and the sopping wet carpet is STILL sitting there-- ah the joys of renting.  but that's another story), my finally catching the cold the kids had for the last few weeks and am currently about to lose a lung from my lovely hacking cough that has kept me up for the last two nights, phil having a couple of job interviews which kind of raises our hopes of staying in the area, lauren booking a job that lasted two days (another story for another day), and well, here i sit just wanting to remember the little moments that happened in between all the big stuff.

like this afternoon when mikey and i sat together decorating a plastic shoebox while the girls were down for naps.  the shoebox was actually supposed to be sent to school undecorated on monday, because the kids were going to be decorating them together in class that day for their valentine party on wednesday.  but because of all the big stuff happening lately, i totally forgot about it.  so i felt like the worst mom ever when the teacher asked if mikey had a box with him that morning.  and i couldn't go out and just get one to bring him right then because of lauren's thing that i was already running late for.  and i felt even worse after school when i asked mikey what he did while all the other kids were decorating their boxes and he replied, "i just played on the carpet by myself."  ouch.

so today, i went out (in the rain, even!) to get that darn box and stuff to decorate it with since there wasn't any way this mama was gonna let her boy go to school with a plain ol' box when all the other kids had boxes all fancied up.  mikey was fine with my plan when i told him we'd do it at home together.  his only concern was that the other kids had hearts on their boxes.  no need to worry about that dear boy, cuz i had the heart thing covered!

so here's the valentine box mikey and i made together.

but even better than just cutting out hearts and sticking them all over the box was all the talking he and i got to do just by ourselves.  now if you know mikey at all, you know he's a TALKER and no two ways about it.  he will tell you exactly what's on his mind, whether you want to know or not!  : p  and sadly, it's not often that i get to give him my undivided attention and really listen to him.  (another thing i'm trying to do more of these days).  so it was just really nice to sit together and talk, just him and i, while we did this little project together (made possible because of his delinquent mom).  he informed me that he doesn't really like spiderman anymore but he still likes star wars and transformers.  good thing cuz i bought him little star wars stickers to stick in between all the hearts.  then he said, "mommy, C3PO talks a lot to R2D2, doesn't he."  i smiled and agreed that yes indeed, he does talk a lot to R2D2.  then mikey continues, "C3PO does talk a lot to R2D2.  kind of like how i talk a lot to you."  surprised, i said, "what makes you say that, mikey?"  he replies, "i don't know.  it was just something i was thinking about."  so i hugged him and said, "but i like it when you talk to me."  he smiled and seemed to know that.  which made me happy.

wow, i didn't even mean to talk about this little story and actually had a totally different entry in mind.  but that one will have to wait since now the kiddos are up and clamoring and dinner needs to be made and life calls.

(ps- this one's for you esther, and your sweet request for more entries!)

good times with good friends.

last week, we had the fun privilege of having our good friends from minnesota stay with us for a few days while they were here on vacation.  dave and phil were in med school together and brooke and i had fun times getting together for playdates and commiserating over our similar plights.  so it was really, really nice to see them again and have a few days to catch up (though it still didn't feel like enough!) as well as show them a few sights.

the fermins were raring to go even after a long flight over.  so off we went to check out the whale fiesta over at the cabrillo aquarium in san pedro (mikey asked if we'd see you, esther!).  we kinda caught the tail-end of it, but still managed to have a good time!

whale skeleton!

allie went straight to the coloring table (she's been BIG on drawing lately).

luke watching as his daddy finished cutting out his dolphin door hanger.

catching krill in between the baleen.

seahorse!

phil and i totally didn't see this fish until we saw the EYE looking at us!

checking out the touch pool but not quite ready to stick his hand in there. 

don't worry luke, i've never done it either!  :)

we finally let lauren out of the baby carrier to get a closer view of the fish.

samuel stayed a happy camper strapped to his mommy's back.

the boys became fast friends and had a blast playing together.

here's phil modeling the latest trend of using tights as a fashionable scarf.  it's all the rage!

lauren made herself comfy in the sand.  it later even found itself down her shirt.

this little rascal kept making a beeline for the ocean
and kept his mommy running after him!

lauren did her best to convince dave that he and brooke
need to have a girl baby sooner rather than later!  :)

the next day, the fermins headed over to disneyland while we took mikey and allie
to school.  but we picked the kids up at lunchtime to join them soon after.

quick pic with minnie just as we got into the park.  allie later told me that she liked minnie,

but didn't want to get too close to her.  that's my hand on allie to keep her from bolting!

we met up with the fermins in the bug's life area
where the bigger kids rode the bumper cars.

lauren didn't meet the height requirement, but found
a little porthole just her size to look in on the fun.

then it was on to heimlich's ride!

happy little guys.

what?  don't they look like they're having a blast, too?

samuel enjoyed the part of the mickey mouse clubhouse show he was awake for...

mikey and daddy getting in on the fight scene.

and we caught the pixar play parade, too!

mikey (and phil) thought these army guys were pretty cool.

little bo peep stopped to blow a kiss and wave to allie,
which about thrilled her to pieces.

in between all the outings, we had a bit of time to kick back at the house too.
lauren LOVED having another baby around.  but i think samuel could have
done without all the feminine attention.  : p

we (minus phil) visited the long beach aquarium on our final day together.

here are the boys sizing up this rather large whale.

brooke claimed that holding lauren balanced her out. 

(thanks brooke, for keeping me from losing any of the kiddos!)

always fun to see a diver in there with the fish.

THANKS fermins for coming out to visit us!  we had a great time and only wish we could have played longer!  we miss you guys-- especially mikey, who kept asking if luke was going to come back after you left. : (