First day of Chinese school

Today is Haley's first day of Chinese school. The school teaches traditional Chinese characters and offers both Mandarin and Cantonese classes. The class is only one hour on Saturday morning. There is only 7 more classes left for this school year before summer. We are still debating to enroll her into Mandarin or Cantonese pre-K class. Mandarin definitely has a better future. However, it is hard to keep an ABC to continue to speak their native language after they go to Kindergarten. So, we are not sure how effective would it be for her to only learn or speak Mandarin during that 1 or 2 hours of class time. Research says a child can learn a new language when they are younger because they have better language skill. We decide to let Haley try out the Mandarin class till the end of this school year. If she's doing well, maybe we will let her continue in the Mandarin class. In her regular preschool, there is a 20-minute Mandarin lesson everyday. Haley actually picked up some words, children's songs and children's poems in Mandarin from her regular preschool. Will see how it goes... From a parent's point of view, we want our children learn more things and have a better future. However, we don't want to stress them out, instead we want them to have fun while learning.

http://pccs-usa.org/

Oakland Zoo on Daddy's birthday 2012

An expensive kick by Chester

This is the only picture I was captured on the day out to Oakland Zoo. Chester kicked me in the eye in the morning, I thought the pain will go away. But I couldn't open my eyes by the afternoon. We had to finish our visit early to see an optometrist. His big toe scratched my eye ball. The doctor put an eye bandage (just like a contact lens) to reduce the pain. The scratch will heal by itself in about a week. Meanwhile, I have to apply the antibiotics eye drop to prevent infection. This is going to be an expensive kick by Chester. Just the antibiotics costed over $90, really don't want to receive the medical bill for the doctor's consultation.

YEAH! Playground...

The playground is finally completed. Everyone is excited. I even got on the slide myself, surprisingly the slide is pretty slippery. The playground sat on the lawn right outside their doll house, it's just like my childhood dream come true.

Helping out - folding towels

While Haley's helping out, Chester is messing with the laundry basket.

Copy cat Chester

Chester is a copy cat. He does everything Haley does. He picks up Haley's naughty tricks in no time. They both were blowing air into the straws this morning. It's like they are playing duet music.

為食Chester

There is this one cabinet in our kitchen that we stored all the snack. As soon as I opened this cabinet, Chester will drop whatever he's doing and run to me. If I told him that I am not getting snack for him, he will yell out his complaint right away. He is interested in everything that we eat, and demands for a bigger piece. His favorite snack is pork jerky and raisin. Compared to Haley, he's the luckier one. He gets to taste junk food like chocolate and ice cream much younger. Thanks to his beloved sister who loves to share with her little brother.

Outside time - playing ball & bubbles

Chester's favorite is ball...he can spend a long time playing with anything that has a round shape.

Easter egg decorating

Haley asked a few times about decorating Easter eggs since I told her about the project couple weeks ago. She is excited and grabbed her pink basket for me to hold the boiled eggs.Got to eat couple eggs during the project

Get set, GO!!

After many days of bad weather, the play set still has not been completed. Only two more swings and a trapeze bar left to be built. But Haley and Chester can't wait any longer. They love the slide! Haley climbs up and slides down again and again. Chester also has fun sliding down with mommy's help.

Helping out

Haley loves to help out. Preparing vegetables and washing Chester's face are her new jobs.

Haley's first BEST FRIEND

Haley is a shy girl, I find it hard to believe, but she always need time to warm up before she can get comfortable with others. Instead of playing next to other kids in school, she is now playing with the other kids. She also found a BEST FRIEND in school. She said Kaylie is her best friend. They held each other's hand in school. She asked me to call Kaylie's mom to bring Kaylie to taste the cookies she made. She told me to save one of the two baskets we gave her for the upcoming egg hunt for Kaylie too. She always tells me that Kaylie is her best friend. Teacher Gloria told me Kaylie and Haley always stick together. Another student, Jinyee went to Ms. Gloria and said that Haley doesn't play with her as often since now Kaylie is her best friend. I tried to explain to Haley that she can have more than one best friend and they can all play together. She then told me Jinyee is not her friend. I can already foresee these girl drama in the future. Oh No!

California Pizza Kitchen tour - making of...

We had a tour at the California Pizza Kitchen in the school field trip today. We got to tour around the kitchen and Haley got to experience the making of a pizza. Everyone got to taste their pizza at the end. Yummy!

Haley's first swimming lesson

I asked Haley if she wants to learn swimming couple months ago, but she refused at the time. She came to me last week and said that she wants to learn swimming with her friend, Claire. I told her Claire's class is full but she can still go to swimming lesson if she wants to swim with other kids. She said ok... So we signed up for a free trial lesson. We arrived early so she can get familiar with the area. She got so excited as we waited for her class to begin. She sat on the poolside and walked into the water with the instructor. The instructor asked her to put her mouth under water to throw bubbles in the water, she did it. He asked her to tilt her head side way so her ears can touch the water, she did it. She said she had fun in that 30 minutes class and wanted to go back. It will probably take her many sessions before she can dig her head in the water. Yet, I'm proud of her to be brave from the beginning to even get in the water without mommy. YEAH!

Say Goodbye to the BIG tree in front of our house

The tree guys took almost five hours to take this big tree down. So long...BIG TREE!