The Weekend of 3/20

The kids didn't have school on Friday, 3/20. It was a teacher work day. The kids are really good at entertaining themselves. On that day, they busted out some yoga moves.

The next morning when I brought Mathis into the kids room and laid him on the floor, Hansel was inspired to take a photo of all the kids lying next to each other.

Everyone was looking forward to Zoe's birthday party at Pump It Up. I knew Maile would have a good time, but I wasn't sure about Beck. He didn't even take one bounce when we went to Bounce-A-Rama with their cousins, Carter and Tabitha.

Mathis cried most of the way up to the party, and I found a kindred spirit in Aimee Kao when I found out her daughter Juliet also hated the carseat as a newborn. Aimee said Juliet grew out of it around 2.5 months, which gave me hope.

Hansel took Beck into the first bounce house, and next thing you know Beck's bouncing on his own. Maile and Beck spent most of their time on the slide in the first room.

When they opened the next room, the kids went rushing in. Hansel shortly after asked me if I'd seen Beck. Apparantly, he had followed Maile into an obstacle course bounce house and got stuck. Hansel found him crying. Later, Beck was playing in a bounce house that had a little obstacle part. He came running out of it to Hansel and said, "Daddy, I did it." Boy, he's resillient.

Here's a photo of the birthday girl and her guests.

The Lynn Visit

Recently, Haniel's family and Hansel's mom came for a visit. Hansel's mom is here until tomorrow (3/18). Haniel's family came out to see Mathis while taking advantage of a super-cheap airfare. Haniel came Sunday night since he had business meetings all week out here and Anita and the kids came Wed night.

Thursday Maile, Beck, and Tabitha helped me make sugar cookie dough. We ran out of regular flour so we used wheat flour for half of the flour. The cookies turned out okay, tasted less sweet.

The next day we went to Bounce-A-Rama in the Great Mall. We got there around 10:30, and there was only about 4 other kids already there. It was great, or at least I thought it was great. Carter got bored after 1/2 hr, and Beck didn't want to have anything to do with the bounce houses. GrandMama ended up walking around the game area with him. The Bounce-A-Rama also had a restaurant, so we had pizza for lunch.

Tabitha and Maile

Beck and Carter

In general, the kids had a great time together. Maile and Tabitha were like sisters, and Beck loved having a "big brother" to follow around.

All the Lynn cousins, including Mathis.

We always take family photos at the last minute, so below are some photos we took before Haniel's family left for the airport. The photos with everyone were taken on Haniel's camera.

I think this is our first family photo with Mathis. I'm squinting, Mathis is yawning, and Maile and Beck are looking to the side. As always, only Hansel looks good.

Winnie's Bridal Shower

On Sunday, 3/8, I hosted a brunch bridal shower for Winnie who is marrying Dave Hew in April in Hawaii. The shower had a beach/Lost (as in the TV show) theme. As always I kind of left a lot of things to the last minute -- doing almost all my shopping the week of the party. So that morning I was running a little behind in finishing up the food, decorating, and getting the favors and games ready. Thankfully, a couple of Winnie's UCLA friends (Liz and DeeDee) and Lourdes and Lara, high school friends of me and Winnie, came early to help set up.

For food, I made apple pecan french toast (a recipe I got from Lourdes' sister), spinach and potato frittata, fruit salad, and a dozen cupcakes from a Sprinkles mix and another dozen from scratch. I made the frosting using the Sprinkles recipe. I thought it tasted a little funny.

For games, I had asked Dave to answer 13 questions which were inspired by Lost. Winnie had to guess what his answers would be and before I asked the questions, the guests wrote down how many Winnie would get right. Sample questions...

Who are you most like in your relationship with Winnie?
Jack: The leader with baggage
Jin: Intensely loyal and quiet
Sawyer: The bad boy
Sayid: The tortured torturer

Who would Winnie say you are most like?

Who is Winnie most like in your relationship?
Juliet: Gentle nurturer who feels trapped
Kate: Cute, scrappy, protective, and takes matters into her own hands
Sun: Repentant adultress who has renewed her love

Who would Winnie say she is most like?

If you know Winnie and Dave, you can try and guess what their answers were. Winnie ended up getting 5 right. Winnie's friends were so confident in her that not only one but two people thought she'd only get 5. Winnie admitted that she even tried to study before the shower. She didn't know the questions, but she knew there were going to be games.

Along the lines of the beach theme, the next game was making wedding cakes out of Moon Sand. Moon Sand is moldable sand that never dries up. There were four teams, and all were quite creative. Not quite Ace of Cakes but fun nonetheless.

We ended the party with Winnie opening her gifts.

The winners of the wedding cake game with Winnie

Runner Ups in the wedding cake game

Team 3 putting together their "impressionist" cake

Team 4 putting together their "journey" cake


The question mark represents where they first met (Pasta? restaurant) and their future. The cat is for their new kitty, and H is for Hew.

Winnie wearing her ribbon bouquet

Happy 7 Weeks Old!

Mathis turned 6-weeks old on 2/26. I think of 6 weeks as a benchmark. Usually babies have their first real smile around then and might start sleeping longer at night. Mathis does smile but it still seems random. Some photos from 2/25.

Mathis is now 7 weeks old, and we have both survived two nights of not nursing in the middle of the night. The first night I pretty much held him all night, either on my front or on the side. Good thing I don't turn in my sleep. The second night I held him from 2am on. While half asleep I spent a good part of each morning (from 5:00-7/7:30) sticking his pacifier in his mouth.

Mathis has also become very accustomed to sleeping on his stomach/side during the day. So, it's fairly easy to put him down for a nap. I lay him on the slanted side of a change pad while he's awake, and later when I check on him he's asleep. However, he doesn't transfer well to his carseat. So far every day this week we've had at least one car ride where he cried the entire time. And, the past couple of times we've gone out to eat, I've had to hold him for most of the meal. He ends up being my lap napkin.

Hold Him

Maile and Beck love holding Mathis. Beck used to say "Hold it," but we've taught him to say "Hold him." The kids usually hold him either in our bed or in their kids chair. When they were done holding Mathis, they had a little fun holding each other.

George and I

My birthday is on George Washington's actual birthday -- 2/22. A nice piece of trivia that earned me an extra credit point in high school.

For my birthday, Vicki and Caroline treated me to dinner at Calafia in Palo Alto on President's Day. It's a slow-food restaurant. I'm not sure what that means. I think it has something to do with local, natural ingredients. I got the lentl tofu loaf, which was actually pretty good. The gravy made the dish. As Vicki pointed out when I was debating ordering it, "it comes with gravy; it's gotta be good." We ordered the Death by Chocolate for dessert, which was a flourless chocolate cake. It was very rich. We could have used some milk. They also gave me a Wonder Woman hoodie because I have three kids and I used to collect comic books (a result of having an older brother). It was nice to catch up with the Capricorn Twins (both have the exact same birthday).

The Saturday before my birthday some of my high school friends treated me to tea at Lisa's Tea Treasures. I love going out for tea. It's so girly and fun. On both of these outings, I brought Mathis with me since I figured he'd sleep the whole time, which he did. However, these days I end up having to hold him when we go out to eat.

On my actual birthday we went to the Old Spaghetti Factory in downtown San Jose. We got there around 5:30 and still had to wait about 20 minutes for a table. It was nice to go out even though Hansel was sick. I ended up buying a "shamrock." The proceeds go toward MS research, and the shamrock is good for a garlic cheesebread. But of course you can't use it until the next visit. So, we'll have to go back. They get you every time. At least the money goes to charity.

Below is the only photo I have from any of my birthday celebrations. Beck is trying to roll his tongue.