Mason Regional Park

Our new goal is to visit all of Orange County's Regional Parks. On Saturday we went to Mason Regional Park in Irvine, by UCI. It is not too big, but there are nice paths circling a lake, and a couple of play areas. We brought the scooter and balance bike for k and n to ride. k is still getting used to the bike, but both and she and n have become quite proficient on the scooter. n was going downhill pretty fast on some parts.












Turtle Rock--haha, some Irvine humor


Saturday morning we went to another Native Foods cooking demo. k was able to sit through the whole thing, but n needed to get his wiggles out.

Playing Around

I received this book for Christmas 2009. However, it wasn't until Christmas 2010 that I was able to actually make something from it. Actually, I made two things, one for k and one for n.


Meet Peggy & Steggie! D said they were the coolest things I've made yet. I'm itching to sew some more, but I think I still need to organize some more before I start a new project.

Another Christmas present k received was this lego set.

(picture taken by k!)
k and I had fun putting this horse stable together today (although it was somewhat difficult to keep n from destroying it). I was never too into Legos as a kid, but I can see myself getting into them, along with k + n, which may be dangerous.

Chick-Fil-A

I remember the first time I tried Chick-Fil-A was at a mall in Indiana. I was helping D move to Bloomington to attend business school at IU. I'm not sure when Chick-Fil-A came to California, but now we're lucky enough to live just down the street from one. Not only that, this particular one is very generous with their giveaways.

On Saturday morning we all stayed in our pjs (actually D had already gone running, so he had to get back into his pjs) and went to Chick-Fil-A for a free chicken biscuit. Not only that, when we arrived, the kids received free mini cows, plus D and I each received a coupon for a free chicken sandwich!





D had today off, and he has spent a lot of time watching the kids this weekend. n is becoming quite the handful. He just turned 22 months yesterday, and I'm just starting to realize that we still have all of his terrible two's to experience. I like to say he is "bent for destruction". Unfotunately this is in direct opposition to my New Year's resolution to organize 52 areas of our home this year. Who will prevail?

New Year's Traditions

Back to New Year's, which seems oh so long ago now. On December 30th, D and I followed our tradition of going out to eat by ourselves. We do this so we can still spend December 31st with the kids. They are always memorable meals (and we spend a little more than usual). Here's as far back as I can remember:
2006: Didn't go out due to our ten day old baby
2007: The Fish Company
2008: The Melting Pot
2009: Agorra Churrascaria
For 2010 we went to Cham Sut Gol for lunch...AYCE Korean BBQ for $13.99!

The service was good, they changed our grill about 3-4 times, I think. We didn't care too much for the pork belly, but the beef, chicken, spicy pork and brisket were all good. The hot tofu soup that came with it was also excellent, better than BCD in my opinion. They also serve a large salad, rice paper wrappers and radish wrappers to make your own rolls with the meat. Plus, you can ask for rice (free!) which I learned from Yelp. Finally, there is AYCE Thrifty's ice cream at the end. Needless to say, we were stuffed at the end of the meal. (We had skipped breakfast that morning!)

On New Year's Eve we followed another tradition that we started last year: we all slept on our IKEA Manstad sofa-bed. Actually, last year, n was still in his crib, since he was only nine months old, so this was the first year that everyone slept on the same bed.


I'm not quite sure why we find this fun, but it is. Wonder how long it will be before the kids need to sleep on the floor while we sleep on the couch. We stayed up for the NY ball drop and then lights were out by 9:30!

Citizenship Party

On Wednesday night we went to a party to celebrate our nephew's U.S. citizenship. The theme was "circus".



Look at that cake. Wow. Totally looks professional, doesn't it?




A couple of days later, when we were driving in the car, k said, out of the blue, "j's party was very circus-y". Why yes, it was.

Well, j and his parents went back to Japan today, so we won't see them for a while. But, D and I need to start planning because we are going to be visiting them in the not too distant future!

Adventure in Adventure City

On Monday of our Christmas break, we went to Adventure City, a small theme park geared towards little kids. Tickets are usually $14 per person (kids and adults), which is less than parking at Disneyland. Of course, it is a LOT smaller than Disneyland, but it is also a lot less crowded. We had a coupon from the Entertainment Book, so we decided to try it out. We were also able to get 3 free churros and hot chocolates by joining their e-club.

In all, we spent just over 3 hours at the park. For most of the rides there was no line. I think the longest line was about ten minutes. n was able to ride on most of the rides with us. There are two roller coasters. k went on the tamer one with me, but she didn't want to go again, nor did she want to go on the scarier one. D and I rode it by ourselves, though, haha. The ride attendants were pretty friendly, too.

n's favorite ride was the merry-go-ride. There was no line, so we went about five times throughout the day. k insisted on riding on the same horse everytime, though (black, with purple saddle).






k's favorite ride was the School Bus. As you can see, D enjoyed it too. It made me a little nauseous.


This one made me even more sick! k cried the first time we went on this ride because she didn't get to ride in the pink one. That was remedied the second time around.


Giggle Wheel


Giggling


Free Churros




Both k and n really liked this Rescue Ride, where they drove and the parents sat in back. I think this was my favorite of the day.




Afterward we went to one our old favorites from when we lived in the area, The Mad Greek. (Thanks Entertainment Book!) Still delicious as ever, and the portions actually seemed to be bigger to me, though I am not sure if I just do not remember. There were a couple of shady characters that came in, but they took their food to go, so it was all good.

k's 4th Birthday Party

As mentioned earlier, we had to postpone k's party to the day after Christmas. This was not ideal, as many people understandably already had plans for that day. However, it probably turned out for the best since we can only hold so many people in our house comfortably.

The theme was pinwheels and we kept it pretty simple. Light snacks, cake, ice cream, cookie decorating and a cookie swap.








Everything went smoothly until what will now be called the "birthday candle incident".


See, k could not blow out the candles because they were too far away.


So, we turned the cake around, she leaned over to blow out the candles, and her hair caught on fire! Luckily, D quickly put the flame out, k was unhurt, and no major damage was done to her hair. Just some fried ends. I didn't know what was happening until it was over, so I didn't have time to be scared. The smell of burnt hair lingered in the air for a bit, but we were just relieved that k was OK. Lesson learned.

Pac-10 vs Big Ten

2001 - 2010

Football (BCS Games)
Pac-10 9-3 (1 of the 9 was vacated)
Big Ten 6-10
Pac-10 Wins. USC & Oregon have been more dominant than Ohio State and Penn State.


Basketball (Final Four)
Pac-10 4
Big Ten 7
Big Ten Wins Michigan State and Ohio State have been more dominant than UCLA and Arizona

BTW: This is our five year anniversary of our blog!