Twin Chow's 1st Birthday

The Twin's 1st birthday bash was today at Uncle Johnny & Auntie Josie's house.  They just did a huge remodel on their home and it was just absolutely gorgeous for the Twin's party!  Makayla is always so excited to go to all the birthday parties!  She's really glad her lil sis was awake and enjoyed it too!  Mylee is up more and more now and really starting to really enjoy all our little activities!

Mylee and Daddy when we arrived to the party.  Isn't she a cutie pie!  I guess he is too! 

They had a bounce house in the backyard so once we arrived and Makayla said her hellos and got a little comfortable she was off to jump, jump, jump!  

After all the play and yummy lunch it was time to get ready to sing Happy Birthday to the twins and have yummy cake!  Makayla's friend Jordan was there next to her to get ready!

The Chow Family!  So cute!  Can't believe the twins are already 1!  

Getting the twins ready for their cake!  Will it be messy or not?  Probably messy is my guess!  See that cute sign in the back, so proud that Grace made that for them!  She's a scrapbooker in hiding!  Hope we can get her to come out soon!

Makayla and Haley after she's all cleaned up!  The cake time was messy for both kiddos!  So much fun!  What a great 1st birthday party!  Thank you so much for inviting us!  

Mylee 8-months old w/ Mr. Pooh Bear

Mylee is 23" tall and weighing in at 17 lbs. at 8-months old.  She is finally starting to sit on her own without support.  I still don't trust her all the way but at least she's finally getting there.  She is just full of giggles, smiles and just personality!  She just chills still and plays really well on her own.  Super good girl!  She just adores her big sis's company and for some reason just thinks she's soooo funny!  You should hear the way she laughs when her sister plays with her.  They are just going to be best of friends!  I love it!  Mylee also moved to her big girl crib this month and out of the cradle in our room.  She was getting way too big. She probably should have moved sooner since she's been sleeping through the night at around 2-months but we just liked her close to us.  I still can't believe she's already 8-months old!  Time is sure flying faster the 2nd round!  They just grow way too quick!

Big smiles with Mr. Pooh Bear!  Just gotta love her spiked hair too!  

Tet - Year of the Ox

The year of the little mouse/rat has come to an end and the start of the Lunar New Year begins as the year of the Ox.  My little Mylee is a little mouse.  When my mom went back to Vietnam last year she brought back some traditional Vietnamese dresses for Makayla so she still had some to wear this year too.  We had one from Makayla that she passed on to Mylee.  They looked so cute together in these traditional gowns.  The girls both got the good luck red envelopes from family today and over the weekend.  This all goes towards their little piggy banks!  The New Year landed on a weekday (Monday) so we just celebrated it with our cousins at their house.  My Auntie 9 made some traditional dishes for dinner and set up their table with pretty traditional and good luck flowers and plants.  After dinner my aunt wanted us to all join her at the Buddhist Temple.  There were magnificent statues all over the temple that was outdoors.  It was very nice.  We're glad we got to experience this.  It's been a long time since I've been to a Temple and boy have they changed.  They are so much bigger now and so beautiful!  What a fun cultural evening to celebrate the Lunar New Year!  Chuc Mung Nam Moi! (Happy New Year) in Vietnamese.  Makayla even knew how to say this to the family this year!  So proud of her and she made her Grandparents very happy!

Makayla and her cousins in their pretty traditional gowns.

Mylee too!  This outfit from big sis fit her perfectly!

The pretty girls in pink!  The flowers in the back is a traditional plum tree with red envelopes hanging all over it.  It's a good luck plant.

Mak Opening B-day Gifts

After Makayla's big birthday celebration she managed to still have a little energy to open a few birthday gifts.  Amazing that she wanted to do this.  This year we asked that each of her friends bring their favorite used or new books for her to donate to the Friends of the Library (FOTL) and CHOC hospital in lieu of gifts.  We just have too many toys from the holidays that just passed.  But of course there were those that didn't pay attention to the rules and still got her a few toys.  She loved it but understood about donated.  She just said she wanted to read them all before we donate them which we will for her.  I think these are good lessons for her to be learning at this early age to give!

She picked out the gift bag from Grandma Jennie, Grandpa Stan, Uncle Alan  and Auntie Som first.  They got her a bunch of kitchen appliances which she loved.  It went perfectly with the kitchen we all got her for Christmas.  After that one she was over opening up any other presents.  She just wanted those all put together to play with.  But shortly after that she passed out and fell asleep.  It was a long day!

After about 3 hours she woke up from a really good nap!  I gave her a nice bath and she was ready to open all the other birthday gifts!  She got lots of good books to donate and some for herself and some new fun toys too!  Thank you everyone for all the goodies!

Princess Makayla's 3rd Birthday Party

It's the big day for Makayla, her Princess birthday party is finally here!  She's been looking forward to this day for a long time.  She's had her favorite Princess Aurora dress, wand and tiara all ready!  Auntie Janai was here and made her hair all fancy too!  I so could not have done that at all.  Thank goodness for her!  We had the party at our clubhouse.  We're expecting about 25 little ones and their parents so should be a full house.  It's going to be super simple with pizza & chicken nuggets since that's Makayla's favorite.  The Grandparents recommended some sandwiches for the parents so we ordered those in addition and I made a Chinese chicken salad.  All turned out great and was easy!  Everyone thing was just fine and calm until the guests started to arrive.  It got real crazy real quick but was so much fun!  All the little girls were so cute since they all pretty much dressed up in their favorite Princess dress as well.  There's lots of pictures since I couldn't resist them all!

The yummy birthday cake from Kings Hawaiian!  Thanks to Uncle Alan and Auntie Som for picking up the paradise delight cake!  It's so cute too!

Once the girls arrived they started at the little craft table to make their own tiara's and wands.  They got to decorate them with sparkly glue, glitter and fun Princess foam shapes.  They all had so much fun crafting away!  The boys make crowns.

One of the big surprises was this amazing balloon dude!  His name is Nolan and he is seriously unbelievable to watch!  He makes the coolest balloon creations in a matter of seconds!  His specialty is Disney so it was perfect!  He kept the kids and the parents pretty entertained for a little bit over an hour that he was here for.  He was a great referral from a friend!  Thanks!

Here's Makayla, the 1st to get her balloon.  He made her Princess Aurora! Super special to match her pretty dress today!

Of course we can't forget little sis, Mylee.  She was dressed up as Princess Snow White and was a doll!  We had these neat wooden head cut outs of the princesses from a friend of ours that had a princess party before.  Her Daddy and Mommy were so generous as to let us borrow them. They were beautifully made and we had Snow White, Belle & Cinderella!  So perfect!

Rachee (Belle), Makayla (Aurora), & Alyssa (Jasmine) hanging out on the back patio because it was a nice day!

Can we go in the pool with our dresses on?  Not so much!  They all love swimming!  Let's wait until summertime when it warms up a little bit girls!

Oh Wow!  This is a giant surprise for our little Princess, we got Princess Aurora to come visit Makayla and all her friends!  She was fantastic and so cute!  She painted all the kids faces and much, much more.  She arrived right as the balloon dude was leaving so it was perfect timing to keep everything going.

Is it cake time yet?  Princess Aurora even helped us cut the cake and get the kids together.  I didn't expect her to do that at all.

Little Aidan was the big bad dragon out  to get the Princesses.  Auntie Bonnie is just so silly!  Mylee, don't get too close!

After cake, the kids all gathered around Aurora for story time.  

Then they all danced.  Makayla is having a fantastic time and just so happy!

Is it now parachute time too.  Aurora did so much with the kids and they all had so much fun!  I'm sure they're going to be tired after this party!  A lot of action all morning!  Well, that wraps it up for Makayla's 3rd Princess Birthday party!  Hope you had a great birthday to my little princess!   Thanks to everyone for joining us to celebrate!  

1st Nail Spa Visit

After Goofy's Kitchen Makayla got another really special treat for her birthday!  She's been asking to get her nails painted since Thanksgiving but I wasn't too sure how I felt about my little girl getting her nails done at such a young age.  Well Auntie Janai was there when Makayla asked and said what about for her birthday?  So that's what I decided to let her do and boy she didn't forget and was so excited that this day was finally here.  I don't get them done often but when I do she sure notices my cute nails and toes and would say for my birthday I get them done too!  So cute!  Here are some photos of her 1st experience at the Happy Nails salon.

Picking out her color.

Now she's waiting so patiently in her big spa chair to get her nails and toes done today.

She really is excited here but was being really shy.  She even picked out her own nail color and it was a really light pink and perfect for her Princess party tomorrow.  I'm glad she picked a light color.

Showing off her nails now that they're done.  I know it's too hard to see but it was a super light pink and a white flower on her thumbs.  Very pretty!

She's all done now and waiting for Auntie Janai to be done while hers are drying.  Auntie Janai always has the cutest nails and is getting her toes to match them today for her February Valentine's Day theme.  I think Makayla seeing her Aunties fun nails all the time gave her the idea of wanting to get her nails done.  I do blame it on Janai!  Bad, bad influence! j/k!

This is Michelle.  She was doing Mommy's toes and is super nice.  She gave Makayla snacks and really made her feel special in the salon and so did all the other girls too.

Here are our toesies.  Makayla even got flowers on her toes too to match her hands.  What a fun day at the nail salon.  It was rainy out but we still had our flip flops on!  Really special treat for my special girl today!   I don't know when she'll ask to get them done again but I hope it's not anytime soon and I think I can do it once a year for her on her birthday!  We'll see.

3rd Annual Goofy's Kitchen

We've made it a little tradition to take Makayla to Goofy's kitchen for brunch on her birthday every year.  I'm sure we'll do the same for little Mylee too!  This year we had to do it the day before because her actual birthday party is on her big day this year. The Grandparents usually join us and if any Aunties & Uncles, but it's usually hard since we always seem to go on a weekday, but Auntie Janai was able to join us all the way from San Diego!  It was a gloomy and rainy morning but that didn't stop us.  This year Makayla is liking the characters more and more so she had a blast, the only character that she didn't care for was big old Baloo!  He kept coming by and teasing her, it was cute.  All in all it was yummy brunch with lots of excitement and attention for our special birthday girl that's turning 3!

While waiting to be seated she was zoom, zooming in the car in front.  She loves pretending to drive!

Auntie Janai was stuck in a little traffic so the girls were being silly while waiting.  Mylee and her tongue!  She's awake more often now and is so playful and fun! 

The family picture with Pluto before being seated.

Makayla meets Belle for the 1st time and her 1st autograph of the day!  She's got a special autograph book that we started for her last year on her birthday.

Mylee's 1st picture with a Disney Princess.

And Goofy, this was her 1st autograph too!

Chip comes over and gives Makayla a big birthday squeeze!

Her favorite birthday song and blowing out the candles!  This is so cute what they do!

She's a real big girl telling us how old she is with her fingers.

Finally Princess Cinderella comes over.  Makayla was watching her make her rounds and kept asking when it was going to be her turn.  She waiting so nicely and patiently!  Look how Princess is showing her to hold her hands just like a sweet little Princess she is!  What a fun morning!  Thank you everyone for joining us and helping her kick off her birthday celebration! 

Mak's B-day Celebration at School

Makayla's birthday is coming up this weekend so she gets to be a birthday Princess all week long and it started with a special day at preschool today.  They allow us to do a little something to help her celebrate her special day!  She was so excited when I told her we could have a little party at school just for her.  It's so much fun to do all these great little things for the kids!  Sometimes I feel like I should have been a teacher.

Here she is ready to go in the morning.  Yes, she's still in her pajamas since it's pajama day to boot!  Good thing she had little stars and wand PJ's that could fit her little princess craze lately.  Grandma even got her a little birthday princess button to wear all day too.  And of course her birthday princess hat with pink fluff!

I got these little mini cookies for the kids to have at snack time.  They don't let us do cupcakes since it's way too much frosting so I went this route instead.  They are super yummy plain sugar cookies with light frosting for decorations.  They were just too cute to resist and so much fun for the kids! 

Let's get this party started!  Makayla even picked out these cute party hats for all her little friends with matching napkins for their cookies.  That's little Mikey in red, his daddy is my IT guy at work.  Small world!

Here's the special princess alright before she digs into her cookie!

Yummy!  Looks like she had a fantastic day at school since all focus was on her today!  Well deserved since she's such a good little girl!  Happy early birthday Makayla!

Tet - Flower Festival

Well it's almost that time of year to celebrate the Lunar New Year again.  It's going to be a little earlier this year on January 26th, two days after Makayla's 3rd birthday.  It's usually the 1st weekend in February but not this year.  We couldn't get the whole family together this year to do the "Tet" festival so we decided to go check out the flowers and orchid shows in Little Saigon.  It's about a week before the actual New Year so it was very, very busy and quite crowded with everyone preparing for the big holiday!

Makayla in her traditional Vietnamese gown that Ba Ngoai brought back from Vietnam a few years ago.  It fits her perfectly!  Here she is with the dragon headpiece.  This is what the wear for the traditional dragon dance.  I can't believe she wanted to go stand next to this.

Here she is with the good luck Buddha.  She even rubbed his belly for great luck in the New Year!

The girls with their Daddy.  It was a beautiful day out to check out all the flowers. You can see in the background the little booths with all the red fire cracker displays.  Of course they're fake one's but fun to have the decorations.  Really gets you in the cultural mood!  Mylee is also wearing a pink traditional gown that was Makayla's when she was a baby.  It actually fit her perfectly!

Ong Ngoai & Ba Ngoai with their grand daughters!  This is only a few of the orchid displays and these are the simple and plain ones.  It was too hard to take pictures of the nicer displays because it was just too crowded and too hot.

We're now hungry for some lunch so we headed in doors where it was  cooler.  Daddy got Makayla her favorite drink, Strawberry/Lychee slush with Boba!  Yummy to cool her down!

Mylee is hungry too.  She didn't do too well in the heat and crowd.  Was not a happy camper checking out the flowers.  She's much better now.