Happy Spring!

Welcome to The Arakaki "Ohana" (family) blog! We hope you enjoy all our updates! It's a neat way to keep all our family & friends up to speed with what we're up to without bombarding you with constant emails and pictures. It's a view at your convenience so we hope you save us to your favorites! Makayla & Mylee are just growing way too fast for us! We have a lot going on so come back soon!

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Happy Halloween!

It's finally Halloween day! There was so much leading up to this day with so many other activities beforehand. Halloween is super exciting this year since it lands on a Saturday. We started off the evening early at our church for their carnival event for all the kids.
Here we all are for all the festivities. There were games, games & food, food!
We had to stop at the cotton candy/snow cone booth since my growth group was manning that booth. They made a yummy cotton candy for Makayla! She loved it and so did baby sis Mylee but boy was it messy! We're gonna get the costumes all sticky before trick or treating even begins. All in the fun!
Oh boy! The big giant slide! There were also bounce houses too. When the kids played the games they all won a little candy treat.
Our Little Mermaid family photo. Too bad Mylee passed out fairly early.
Trick or Treat?
Here we all are at the very scary house that's decked out every year! Scary giant spiderweb!
All done and full of candy! All the troopers that dressed up to get one photo opportunity. What fun! That's it for all the Halloweeny festivities! Whew we're all pooped after this long week!

Friday, October 30, 2009

Halloween Tumbling Class

It's a Halloween party at Mylee's tumbling class today. The girls both dressed up in their Ariel costumes to jump around and play in. Of course Makayla loved it since she's wearing her favorite Princess right now over and over again.
The two Ariel's at circle time with their Daddy. I snuck in for photos since Makayla and I come from her karate lessons so we're always a little late.
Mylee saw my camera and loves it! She tries to grab it right away but instead I got a cute close up of her instead.
It's jingle, jingle time now.

If you're happy and you know it.
Now that all the tumblin' time is over it's party time! Food! One of Mylee's favorite things to do and boy did she love it all! Yummy cookie though! More fun time during Halloween! So good to let them wear their costumes more than once.

My Gym Halloween Party

One of Makayla's favorite spots, My Gym had a Trick or Treat event today. For some reason she wanted to wear her mouse costume from her ballet recital in June. Did she get tired of Ariel already and it's not even Halloween yet?

Here she is with Katie one of her favorite teachers there. I guess this is the check in counter. Grandma had to take her today since I had to work. Boo!

Looks like a good crowd. There she is hands up in the air with one of her best buds Jordan during their circle time.

It's bubble time!

The girls and their instructors all dressed up for Halloween! So much fun!

R&B's Halloween Contest

We even have a little Halloween fun at my work too! We have a fun contest with some pretty good prizes and dessert! Good times to lighten things up at work! haha! Even the big bosses all dress up too! I love the participation!

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Carving Pumpkins

It's carving time with my little pumpkins!

They are both ready in their cute matching Halloween PJ's. PJ's are really one of my addictions for my girls! Love them to match especially during any of the holidays! Well, this little pumpkin really isn't going to be carved, but poked!

Poked just enough to add the little Princess Potato Head from Auntie Som & Uncle Alan. How did they know Makayla was eyeing this at Target.....good thing we didn't buy it.

Makayla just loves her Princess creation! So much variety for the kids these days it's amazing!

Onto the next one! We're really going to carve this one! But it's really Mommy's pumpkin.

Doesn't Ry look thrilled to be carving his? He really did have fun, I think he was just over me and that camera. haha!

Here are the carved masterpieces before they are lit up. Not bad!

Boo! Scary in the dark! Not so much. Pretty cute if you ask me! Can you tell which one is his and hers? We're so predictable!

My favorite part after carving the pumpkins. Homemade baked seeds! I kicked it up a notch and added some garlic powder, salt & Cajun seasoning. And of course spray butter is a must! They were awesome! A keeper recipe for sure!

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Halloween Magic Show

Daddy took his little girl to a Halloween Magic Show at the library tonight. So sweet that they were able to have a little date night. Makayla was excited to go with him since she mostly does almost everything with me. Of course she's in her Ariel costume again! We are really getting our money's worth here! She loves to dress up! Especially in her Princess costumes!

Cute Daddy & Makerdoodle pic!

The Magician and all the kids on stage. I tried uploading the video but it didn't work. He was pulling a rabbit out of his hat! They were thrilled! Same magician she saw last year. And same guy they she saw at Disneyland too. Small world! The library always puts on such great little shows for the kids.

School Halloween Parade & Party

Makayla is so excited about her Halloween parade at school and party! She is already with her costume this year! She is thrilled to be Ariel. Can you believe she even let me color her hair red? She was so cute and such a pretty little Ariel!

Posing in the front room of our house before she heads out to school. Look at that pose with her hands out like little fins and all. I don't ask her to do any of this. She does it all on her own. She must get it from her movies.

Some her her little friends at school. Looks like we have a rocker, Silvermist fairy, Snow White, Ariel and another pretty, pretty fairy!

A little video clip of their parade. They are all so adorable! Amazing how the school can get all these little one's to do this parade is amazing. It's always so much chaos fun!

Even better that after the parade they were even able to get a class photo! Everyone pretty much cooperated nicely! Not bad for 3 & 4 year olds.

She's back in the class and now it's time for the party! Crafts & snacks! But first we must take the costume off. Good thing I had extra cloths for her. The craft they did was so cute! The room moms are pretty amazing. They got the kids a Halloween frame that they decorated and then they even got the group picture developed and into the frames for the kids to take home. Now that's efficient! All the kids had so much fun!

School Portraits

Makayla's school portraits this year in the Yellow Room. Her 2nd year of preschool is much better! I love the back drop that they used! Very cool school picture for sure! Last year she wasn't happy and was crying in her pictures so this is 100 times better! She's such a big girl, even picked out her own pretty dress for this today. We're so proud of her each and everyday and enjoy every minute of watching our girls grow up! Oh, it's just way too fast though.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Singing Away

Just making up some words and singing her silly songs from school. She's been doing this and pretending to read a lot on her own. Just making things up. The creativity is really flowing right now. it's so cute! I hope she continues since we love watching it!

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Playdate with Rachee

Makayla had a little play date with Rachee today. The girls were so excited to spend some time together. I heard about a little Halloween trick or treat event at the OC fairgrounds swamp meet so I took the girls to walk around. It wasn't too exciting but we got to shop around and have ice cream!

Mmmmm, yummy ice cream! It was super hot day so this really cooled them off! They both shared so nicely with each other! Good girls!

They were both super interested in the man carving the giant pumpkins! They watched for quite awhile here. After collecting some candy and buying a few fun items we called it a day and headed home.

Now it's park time! We got out the monster wagon and went for a ride! I took the girls to our little park that we always hang out at. They brought a ball to kick around and a tea set? Interesting combo but whatever they want! They all rode over in the wagon so nicely! It was a fun little ride! I got my workout pulling the 3 of them! Look at Rachee's silly little face!

It's tea time! I forgot a blanket for them but they were fine right on the grass sipping their pretend tea. They all played for about an hour and my cousins came to join the girls in the fun. So there was more tea time, kicking the ball around or chasing it and then some jungle gym time! What a relaxing day in the outdoors!

We got another passenger on the monster wagon for the ride home! Double the workout now! Mylee loved being in the wagon with all the girls! So much they had together. I'm sure they're headed home for some dress up time now! I think I know them all way too well! What a fun day the girls had with each other. We need more of these days!

Saturday, October 24, 2009

OC Great Park Harvest Festival

We heard about the Great Park from a friend that lives in Irvine so we went to check it out for the Halloween festivities. It was kind of in a weird location over by the base in the middle of concrete? Not so much a park setting to me but maybe one day......since that's what they're trying to promote. They did a good job though with lots of activities and vendors. We had fun and enjoyed ourselves for a few hours if that.

This was the entrance to the park. The girls seemed excited since they saw a little train right when we got in. So we rode that first.

Then they had all kinds of craft stations set up for the kids. Here, Makayla got to make a spider with a tootsie pop. Turned out super scary!

It's pumpkin time for my little pumpkin!

My two little pumpkins picking out their pumpkins. Can you believe they gave these away for free to the kids? Pretty nice! It was a super hot day too! Can you tell? We're in shorts and t-shirts and it's October! Only in Sunny Cal! Gotta love it!

After the girls picked out their pumpkins they had an area for them to decorate their pumpkins. Real fun with paint pens, feathers, pipe cleaners and foam stickers. So much fun. We've never decorated pumpkins this way before. Only good old fashioned carving in the past. Very creative!

Makayla excited about her pumpkin. She even decorated one for Mylee too! What a good big sis!

Friday, October 23, 2009

Ngoai's Birthday Dinner

It's Grandma's (Ngoai's) birthday celebration today! We took her out to dinner at Spaghettini's! Same place we celebrated Grandpa's 70th! Mom loved it so much that she wanted to go back there! I'm so glad we did because it's so yummy! Great ambiance and music too!

Here's Grandma with her two favorite grand babies! Mylee is eyeing that creme brulee. That girl loves her food! Especially sweets!

Grandpa & Grandma with the girls.

The Arakaki Grandparents also came out to help us celebrate with my mom! Again, I have to say how blessed we are to be able to have both sides of the family get along so well and pretty much celebrate almost everything together! Makes life for us kids so much simpler!

Uncle Binh & Auntie Janai came up from San Diego too! What a treat!

Uncle Alan & Auntie Som with one of their favorite nieces! Happy Birthday Mom!

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Mylee Walks!

Our Mylee finally starts walking! Yippee or not? I know we've been anxious since she started so late (18 months) but I know she's going to be moving faster then I can keep up! We're super excited about this milestone for here! More chasing around here I come!

Where the heck are her pants in both of these videos? I guess you grab what you can and sometimes the moments are just not perfect. It's so cute and she is thrilled by this new thing that she's doing called "walking".

Super wobbly but it'll get there before we know it! Our baby is getting big way too fast! You want them to progress forward but why does it make us so sad that they grow up way too quickly! I remember her being in my arms not too long ago. How time flies, even more so with the 2nd for some reason. So proud of you Myleeboo! Big steps!

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Silly Girl

Grandma and her silly girl! I had to post this picture of them since she rarely sits still for a decent picture with anyone anymore and I had to post these silly pictures that she took all on her own! Amazing how she would press the button put the camera on the table real quick and make a silly face and get it all to take and come out. Amazing kid!

Makayla and her Ba Ngoai!

Silly Face #1

Silly Face #2

Silly Face #3. Note again, she took these all by herself! My crazy girl!

Monday, October 19, 2009

Ballet & Sippy Cup

Makayla is starting another session of ballet lessons through the city again. She just loves it so much! It does fit her perfectly! She has chosen this and karate as her two things to do since that's all I can handle and at times I don't even know if I can. Good thing for Grandma since she takes her to her ballet lessons each week. Thank you so much Grandma! We couldn't do it without you!

Pretty girl in pink!

That evening we decided that Mylee should really be drinking more and more out of a sippy cup. Here she is with it! She's so excited but oh so messy. She really lets it drool right on out. We'll see what happens with this. I notice that we are much lazier with switching to the next milestone with the 2nd baby for sure. What the heck's the rush right? haha!