Is it summer?

We have had a nice week. On Monday Rick had the day off work so we headed to Moraga to look at some houses. We really like it out there. It is beautiful, however, no luck with the houses. We went to the park for a picnic lunch. We also got to see the firemen at the store.







On Thursday we played outside in grandma's backyard in the nice warm weather (75). We rode bikes and played ball. On Friday we went to San Jose to spend the day with grandpa O. We rode bikes down to the park and played soccer with grandpa. We also played basketball, rode the fire truck and had a picnic in the backyard.



On Saturday, there were no new houses on the market so we had the day off from house hunting. We decided to go garage sale(ing). We found some estate sales in Alameda that were GREAT. This is what I got:

1 straw hat
1 black vintage fur hat
1 pair of very old white leather baby shoes
1 set of vintage sheets for picnics at the park
1 vintage yellow glass pitcher (LOVE)
The Magic Umbrella book from 1925
1 silver shawl
all that for $3

At the next sale I got a beautiful mirror for just $5, and the next one I got:

1 box of old vintage fabric (some even labeled as 5cents a yard)
10 bonnets (I got these for the girls in the ward for Trek)
2 aprons
1 pair of vintage navy blue gloves

I think I got a few other things but I can't remember. I spent under $20 for the day. We then went to the park for a picnic lunch. After nap time we took a stroll along the lake. Athen rode his bike, I roller skated and Rick pushed the stroller. We strolled down to the bakery for some donuts. Lots of days at the park this week. We have loved this weather.

IKEA dinner party

For Christmas my family gave us a "Bathroom Reader" Book. I am not a bathroom reader. However, I was taking a bath recently and opened the book and began reading. It is a random book with crazy stories about people in the US. I read about a man in Sacramento who hosts an IKEA dinner party each year. He invites a bunch of his friends and they dress up, eat dinner in the cafe and then play board games on the showroom floor. I thought this was a brilliant and fun idea that I could easily do. I made a few changes and made it my own.
The hosts:


I first started out with some invitations. I made the IKEA logo on Illustrator. I added the Swedish words "You are hereby invited to.. (thanks to my Swedish brother in law Mats) and I designed a simple Swedish invite. I printed it on magnet paper so people could easily remember the party day and time while glancing at it every time they opened the refrigerator. I used the IKEA catalog to make envelopes for the invites and printed the IKEA logo on sticker paper to make stickers.


The instructions were to meet at the IKEA cafe at 6:00 dressed up and with a hat on. Rick and I got to IKEA early to set up our tables. We had 10 couples RSVP yes so we had 20 people. We put white table clothes down cute blue paper napkins that we bought at IKEA and 10 bottles of Kristian Regale Swedish Sparkling Pear, Lingonberry and Apple Cider (purchased from IKEA).







Once people started arriving, we got in line and ordered dinner. It was a lovely time. Towards the end of dinner I passed out envelope bags that had instructions and games pieces. The first game we played was called Noah's Ark. Each person had an animal name in their bag. Everyone spread out on the top showroom floor and had to find their animal mate by acting out their animal. No talking or noises were allowed. Once they thought they found their mate they had to report to Rick or I to see if they were correct. The second game we played was IKEA Bingo. I made IKEA Bingo cards with random squares such as - Lived outside the US, played in a band, or wore lingerie in the last week. Everyone wandered the showroom floor looking for people to fill in their squares. This was a good way to get to know each other. Once the Bingo game was over we divided into 3 groups and each group found a showroom to play games. One group played pass the pigs, another played Yahtzee, and the third played BS. The first few games people didn't necessarily know we were playing games. However, once we seperated into groups and found a showroom to play in people we smiling and asking questions.













Once the games were over we all headed downstairs for dessert. Rick stood in line and ordered 20 ice cream cones and 6 chocolate bars (for the winners of the games). The lady looked at him and said "Sir you need help". Not sure if she meant mentally or physically but it was still funny. They passed out ice cream cones to the group and we all added our own sprinkles (which I brought) just for fun.



It was a fun night and I loved that everyone dressed up in their own way and wore hats. Thanks for playing everyone.

The whole gang!

Valentine's Day

The kids and I made some Valentines for Rick. Each day in Feb. he got a little wrapped up match box with Valentines from everyone in it. We put it in his work bag each day so he would have something to open on the train each day. Some days he got little jars of candy.



The kids had a little valentines exchange at playgroup. We made little butterflies with lollipops and passed those out. They each had a little mailbox for the valentines it was cute.



We had Danny come over and babysit while Rick and I went out to dinner. We ate at our favorite Vietnamese restaurant. We had coconut prawns with peanut mustard sauce (one of my favorite appetizers - so delicious). I had my favorite clay pot with steak, chicken and prawns. I can't ever pass up getting that. It is so good. Rick had a lemongrass chicken and rice. It was nice to actually go to a restaurant and enjoy a meal together with out the kids.

Sproket/Pouf Pillow/Chair

In January I made a sproket/pouf pillow/chair for they boys. I cut out material to make two, one for each boy for their room. However, I don't really have a place to put it in our small apt. (there is no more room in Athen's room for anything) so I decided not to make the second one until we find a house and there is space for it.

I am pretty happy with how it turned out. Those of you who are super matchy matchy probablly won't like the fabric and color choice, but you know me - random colors, patterns and prints and no matching.

January

This is what we have been up to in January. We had two fires in one day in the same complex a few down from us. Athen was in Heaven all day long watching the firetrucks, fireman, and ambulances in front of our building. Too bad his happy day was someone elses sad day.



I heard Athen giggling in the family room the other day so I went to see what was going on. Little Crew was sucking on his toes and Athen was laughing and saying "again, again". I was laughing out loud.



For Christmas Rick got my a gym membership so we have started a new daily routine. Crew wakes up at the butt crack of dawn, we play for a bit. Athen wakes up at a normal time and Crew heads down for a nap. Athen and I play for a bit. Crew wakes up and we all head over to the gym in the stroller. It is about 1.2 miles from the house. the kids play with Josephina for an hour while I swim and work out. The babysitting room has a wall of windows that over look the swimming pool so Athen can watch me swim and I can wave to him after my laps. Athen has been enjoying my goggles and swim cap and thinks he is funny.


We went to Super Franks with cousin Alyssa and grandma.



We have spent some time at the park feeding the ducks and riding bikes around the lake.







We have also had some delicious meals lately. I never had the desire to have a crock pot in the past because roast, potatoes and carrots is not my favorite meal but these days there are so many other recipes out there that you can use for your crock pot, so I asked for one for Christmas. I have made a delicious chicken teriyaki, chicken tika masala (which was super excellent) and today I am making Cafe Rio pulled pork. I also made some bolgenese sauce and a sataurday morning breakfast with homemade hashbrowns in the waffle maker which was also delicious. I have been trying my new recipes on Pinterest so lucky for Ricky and my family.


We have also had some good meals out. We have Friday night family date nights each week. We all go out to dinner. It is starting to become a little more challenging with the kids to go out at 7 or 7:30 at night (bed time) on Friday nights but it is my only time to go out and get out so we do it. We had some delicious skewers a few weeks ago - beef, prawns and mahi mahi skewers they were all delicious. The next week we had fijitas - beef and shrimp also delicious. This last week we had a fresh lobster dinner with shrimp, coconut chicken and asparagus and a pork chowmein. The lobster, shrimp and pork were the best. The chicken was ok.

We have also spent our weekends this month looking for houses. All the houses for sale are all bank owned and there aren't that many out there. The banks are holding the houses so the market doesn't get saturated and they get more for the few houses available - greedy. People are making several offers on several houses and then picking which one they want which makes it difficult to get a house. The houses go on and off the market several times - annoying. And, people are offering more then the asking price for these bank owned and short sales which makes it impossible to get a good deal. Who said this was a buyers market???

LOVE

Our Sunday tradition

Our Sunday afternoon tradition when we don't have other church obligations is to take a walk around the lake. We usually let Athen bring his Ybike or his new red bike that he got for Christmas. It is usually the only time that he actually gets to ride his bike.


I recently remembered that I have some roller skates with purple wheels that I bought last year at the white elephant sale. I haven't been able to use them because I was pregnant with Crew and didn't want to fall on my butt with a bun in the oven. I pulled them out on Sunday afternoon and we all headed to the park and lake. It was fun. Here are some pictures.







Rick has been out of town for the last four days. He took a guy trip with his best friends growing up. They went to San Diego for a surfing trip. Even though he took the waterproof camera with him he didn't take any pictures so no photo documentation there. On Saturday the boys and I needed to get out of our little box and do something so my friend Anupa and I took all the kids down to Fairyland. This was our first time there. We went on the rides, ate a picnic lunch and played on all they had to play on. Here are some pictures of our day.









This guy is such a cutie pie and he is such a mommas boy too! I finally got out the rubber ducky bath tub that my friend Elise gave me a few years ago for Athen. Crew loved it. I had to give Athen a bath in it too once he saw Crew in it.