Science Museum

Last week was the kids' spring break. We felt a little bad because both Cedric and I had to work all week. We decided to take a day off head up to Baltimore to the children's museum there. It was really neat. Everything was hands-on and there was this huge play area where the kids could climb up pretty high. Both G and T were pretty brave and climbed all the way up to the top with their dad. Here are some shots of our day!

This is just part of the climbing adventure!
G & T at the top with Cedric...they were quite proud of themselves!

M pointing at the fake cow that you could actually try your turn in "milking."

Building a house from wood sticks... Introducing Queen T... G the Jester...

T was so tired that she fell asleep with a french fry hanging out of her mouth...what a day!

A Visit From the Tooth Fairy

You are looking at one happy man. For almost a month, G's bottom tooth was loose. He wiggled and wiggled, to no avail. Then, we started noticing that the permanent tooth had come in and that the baby tooth was not budging. We immediately called and made an appointment with the dentist, because we have heard that the roots could intertwine and stick the teeth together. We told G that if that thing did not come out before the appt., they'd have to take matters into their own hands.

That about did it for him. He marched into the kitchen and got himself an apple and kept biting as hard as he could. After a few hard bites and some tugging from me, pop, out it came! He was so excited to get money from the tooth fairy. The next morning, when Cedric went in to wake him up for school, he was already sitting up with a grin on his face, waving the money around. He walked around for the rest of the day staring at the money with glee. When we went to the store to cash in the dough for a toy, the little stinker even talked me into using my own cash because he said that the money he got from the tooth fairy was too special and he wanted to keep it forever. That was a double whammy on the wallet!

Our Ballerina

T started her first ballet class last week. It was the cutest thing. I think she was more excited about wearing the pink leotard and ballet shoes than the class itself. She had a wonderful time. Here she is practicing her move before we left. I was going to post a video clip, but it took too long to process. At the beginning of the class during roll call, the teacher gave each girl an opportunity to dance around the circle by herself. T decided to run and then slide. It was so adorable. I'll try and post it later.

Photographer in Training...

G always wants to take pics with my camera. He will not leave it alone. A lot of times I turn the camera on and find the most random things on there. I even got him his own cheap camera to use, but he still cannot keep himself away from mine. Here are some shots G took. He will be happy to see I put them somewhere!

Daddy being silly...

Random shot of the family room...

He even got one of himself!

Doing What Princesses Do Best

The other day when I came out of my study (I work from home) I found the girls playing dress-up. It was just too cute, I had to take a picture. Then, a few hours later, I caught M red-handed (literally) with my lipstick painted all over her face...I guess they moved on to more realistic things as the day progressed!

Playing in the Sand...I Mean, Rice Box

Being the Asian that I am, I will be the first to admit that we may have A LOT more rice in our house than many families. By a lot, I mean, as we speak, there are about 5-7 50 lb. bags in our basement ready to be eaten! We eat rice like a white person eats bread :) In our pantry, we have these big buckets that we hold the rice in. For some reason, all of our kids have been drawn to these buckets. It's like a sand box, only with rice. They dig their toys in the the rice, they love running their hands through it, and not to mention, spreading it all over the floor. I just wanted to say, I'm probably the only one who has kids that play in rice buckets!

Healthy Again!

We'll see how long this streak lasts! Our poor little M got the stomache virus and it lasted about 2 weeks. With 8-10 dirty diapers a day, she lost half a pound during that time. If you've ever seen this little girl, you know that she's already petite, so every ounce counts! She's finally back to her old self again, laughing, singing, running...and eating like a pig! Now she does this thing where if she thinks you are going to leave, she will run and get her shoes and wait by the door. The little girl wants to go anywhere and everywhere, even if it is to get the mail. Above is a classic picture of her almost at the garage door, worried she won't get to go out. That bug she had must have given her a major case of cabin fever! Here are some pics of M and her brother and sister...

Reading with Daddy

Every night before bed (when all goes well) we read to the kids. They love reading with their daddy...so much they fight over who gets to lay on him. There's always an odd man out because of the lack of daddy lap space, but everyone always enjoys it.

Our Trip to Mt. Vernon

We tried to be spontaneous today and headed out to Mt. Vernon, which is where George Washington's home is. The day started out very bright and sunny. Since it was a holiday, we thought it would be a fun thing to do. It was also a plus that tickets were free today in honor of President's Day. Little did we know that everyone and their mother (and sister and brother's sister-in-law and grandma) had the same idea we did. It took us over two hours to get there (normally 45mins-1 hr) and then there was no parking, which meant we would have had to hike it (over a mile) with three kids. Given the situation, we headed home and tried to make lemonade out of lemons. We stopped at a park alongside the road and took a nice walk along the Potomac River. With our luck, the skies turned grey and it got really cold and started to rain. However, the kids had a blast looking at the ducks and enjoying the scenery. Despite the four hours in the car, we had fun. It makes us appreciate our kids a heck of a lot more for being so well behaved...we didn't hear a single complaint from them, more than we could say for ourselves.

Happy Heart Day, I guess

Am I the only one that thinks Valentine's Day is a sorry excuse for a holiday? I am just not a very sappy person to begin with, but it seems like all those heart shaped chocolates and cheesy pink stuffed animals that say "I love you" are just a way for stores to make money. I don't know, shouldn't you tell the person you love them every day, rather than have a holiday for it? Okay, you can call me a sourpuss if you want...

So today we made up the valentines for all the kids in G's kindergarten and T's pre-k classes. I was so sick of those things by the end of the night. I had G write up all of the "To: so-and-so" and "From: G." His hand was all cramped up by the end of the night. It was a long task. After half an hour, he was only halfway through his list. It didn't help that he had to pick out the perfect one that fit each person in his class. Then he'd tell me all about the person, "this kid, he got sent to the principal's office for cutting his hair in class...this girl, she likes to show people her bum..." uh, stay away from her, buddy! Miss T was even more funny. Every time I got to a boy on the list, she'd say, "Can I skip him? I don't want to give valentines to boys, I don't like them." Oh, how one day that will change. I guess I will cherish this moment while it lasts!

Anyway, Happy V-day, whether or not you like it!

Random Pics

The kids got a tent for Christmas from their uncle and aunt. Aunt T actually made it! It's shaped like a teepee, and it's is so cool. They love it so much, they put their little couch in it. They will do almost anything in it. As you can see, M is eating in it. I couldn't resist taking a picture...

T has become such the girly girl. She always wants to wear dresses around the house. I'm so not like that, so I have no idea where she gets it from. She's a girly girl in some aspects, but she will drop everything to wrestle around with the boys. I guess she is well rounded!

M is totally running now. She says so much stuff too, it's crazy...Like the other night when we were telling the kids, "Okay, clean up your toys before bed so you can get a (and I paused for a second to think of the word) and all of the sudden we swore M shouted out "sticker." I know, it sounds crazy, but I'm serious!

Our Mr. G is getting bigger. He has his first loose tooth. He's only five, isn't he too young for this? Some of his friends have been losing teeth, so I am probably wrong. I always thought I was like 7 when I lost mine. I'll have to show him a cool trick where I used to stick my straw where my teeth used to be.

Wild Times at the Moran House

So, I've never posted a video before, and I'm going to try it. We were hanging out one night and the kids decided to dance and ham it up for the camera. However, things got a little wild when I saw Mr. G. in the corner of the lens stripping down...I tried to keep this g-rated by stopping it before you could see anything, but you might catch a little glimpse of a little something. Just wanted you to see the crazy kids in action...in all its glory!