My Own Jungle Gym

Cutie pie making her own jungle gym out of a chair.  

Love....

Alex and Julia were hanging out in the playroom last night when I went into the kitchen to check on dinner.  I came back and they were lying next to each other on the floor, being silly.  So cute!  It doesn't happen this way all of the time, but you need to enjoy those moments when they are like that.

Random Happenings

 Playing together

Exploring the ex-box room together

Pretending he is rock climbing on the wall next to the front steps.

Up and At It

I may be small, but this slide is not going to cut it.  Can we please get a bigger one?

Julia has mastered the stairs (at least going up) and is now onto pulling herself up using any object which she can find.  

Coloring

Alex still loves to color, and so do I!  Especially when we have new crayons, like we did the other night.  Hopefully Julia will soon join us in some good coloring sessions.

Alex at Four!

Alex

4 years old

AKA:  Bro Bro, Ali Kat, Little T-Rex

33 pound dynamo

Little MacGyver who can make anything out of his PVC pipes, IKEA chairs, sofa cushions, string and other assorted materials and his huge imagination!

Knows and loves his dinosaurs....dozens of them, and will correct you if you happen to mispronounce them.

Chatterbox

Funny

Goofy

Inventive

Loves to learn

Full of questions

A good big brother who loves to entertain his little sister, who happens to be completely fascinated with him.

Loves sushi, boiled eggs, yummy mac and cheese, chile verde, rice, pho, any kind of protein, almonds, dim sum (char siu bao, shu mai, har gow), berries and bacon.  Really, there aren't many foods that he doesn't love.  Dark green veggies, not so much, but other than that, he is pretty adventurous.

Loves to explore outside, play in the sandbox, ride his Strider, and pretend to be a paleontologist.

Avid reader.  Favorites include any Richard Scarry book, Dr. Seuss, DK Eyewitness books (in particular his Dinosaur DK book), atlases (loves maps!), and Saturday Night at the Dinosaur Stomp.

 Loves all kinds of music, jazz, pop, classical.  Songs of the year:  Dino-mite (Dynamite) by Taio Cruz, Life is a Highway by Rascall Flats (from Cars), I'm Yours by Jason Mraz, and anything by Lady Gaga, as well as songs from the Nutcracker.

Really enjoys school, his new friends there and his teachers Miss Jennifer and Miss Jaime.  Definitely not the same shy guy that went to school last year.
Hard to believe that four years have passed, but we look forward to all of the excitement of the year ahead.
Happy Birthday Alex!

Tall Ships

Last weekend we headed over to Jack London Square in Oakland to tour a tall ship which was stopping in Oakland for a couple of weeks.  These ships are based in Washington State, but tour down the coast every winter to provide the opportunity for the public and school groups to tour the ships and participate in educational activities on them.  They also provide opportunities to take excursions, which we did not do, but perhaps will sometime in the future.  I wasn't particularly excited about encouraging a boy who has a recent interest in pirates (even before the cousins sent him the pirate gear, Brant and Bonnie...you were right on the money!) to go on a battle cruise where you are encouraged to "verbally taunt your adversaries" on the other ship and then shoot cannons (no cannonballs) at them.  ;-)  Alex enjoyed the tour and then we walked around the Sunday farmer's market before heading home.

Little Valentines

Last week, we visited Moraga Royale Assisted Living Facility with Alex's class.  The kiddos had been practicing some valentine songs and finger plays for the past few weeks and they sang these for some of the ladies at Moraga Royale.  They also planted some flowers at school last week and then we brought them to give out to the residents.  It was a nice activity and it seemed to be well received by the residents who attended.

How Do You Open This?

Someone has found the gate and is already trying to figure out how to get it open.

Mimi's New Ride!

It was a gorgeous weekend with no rain (not so good), so we decided to get out Mimi's new car.  I bought it a few months ago from another family who was no longer using it and was just waiting until Mimi could enjoy it.  I didn't realize it, but the Cozy Coupes have a floor in them, so that when the little one is not big enough to scoot it around, they can just sit inside of it.  With a little help from her Bumbo seat, she was able to comfortably sit inside and enjoy some cruising around the yard.

Alex was quite excited about the new addition to the backyard fleet and promptly starting helping her with her tires, a couple of fuel ups, and towing her when she got in an accident.  Quite the helpful big brother!

Friday Night

So, here are photos from a typical Friday night at the Chng house.  The first picture shows Alex "snowmobiling" to his ice fishing spot (note the tent in the background is his ice fishing house).  I was watching a video on a friend's Facebook page and Alex thought that the concept of ice fishing was pretty cool and wanted to recreate it.  He recreates almost everything he sees, using whatever equipment he may have around.  Later in the evening, as you see in the second picture, David, Alex and Julia (and Xena too) were playing firemen and firegirl.  Note the use of the IKEA chairs again, now as a firetruck.  As you can see, they are all belted in too, with that string.  Julia looks like she wants me to rescue her from the crazy guys ;-)  

Tackling the Steps!

Julia learned how to climb the steps yesterday!

Ah Ma and Ah Kong Visit California

We have had a nice visit with Ah Mah and Ah Kong for the past couple of weeks.  Alex and Julia have enjoyed having extra people to play with and I am sure they will miss them!  We showed them around the new neighborhood and they helped us out getting ready for the party and doing all sorts of other not so fun tasks that you do as a homeowner.  Today we all planted some seeds indoors, as well as some poppies outdoors and made pineapple tarts.  I think Daddy will be sad to go back to work, as it has been quite a fun couple of weeks having him home every few days.  At least this coming weekend is a long weekend, so the transition will be easier ;-)

Climbing!

Julia is trying her best to keep up with her big brother these days.  Tonight she was trying to climb the ramps, yes those same garage sale ramps that have provided endless hours of entertainment to so many kids.  She's going to be just like him....never ending energy!

Sisters

Julia has been checking Xena out a little bit more these days, since she is actually mobile and can crawl over to her point of interest.  Xena is very patient, as always and just lets Julia touch her.  She is a great, big sister!

Alex's 4th Birthday Party

Alex and Grandpa Tony's birthday party was on Saturday and I think it is safe to say that they both had a lot of fun!  It was a bit chaotic with that many people inside, but all in all, very fun.  There was a dinosaur dig for the budding paleontologists, some dino puzzles to put together and a whole table of big dino sketches to color in, which Daddy so nicely drew.  Tony Borders, a ventriloquist and magician from Sacramento, provided the entertainment with some of his furry friends.  Amazingly, a group of 20+ three to five year olds sat and watched him for the whole 45 minute show.  We have many more videos than stills, so I'll post a compilation of the videos once that happens.  A lunch of mac and cheese, barbecued meatballs, veggies, fruit and of course some dino cake followed.   Thanks to everyone for making this a special birthday!

4!

Hard to believe, but Alex turned four years old on Monday.  He had a little celebration with his friends at school and brought a fruit pizza to share.  Then, for his birthday dinner, he chose to have prawns, rice, peas and corn.  He was able to celebrate with Ah Mah and Kong Kong since they are here visiting, so he enjoyed that.  And, of course, there was a cake after dinner, always a treat!  We will continue the celebration this weekend with a party on Saturday, which should be very fun.

Self Portrait

At school today, they talked about Groundhog's Day and seeing your shadow.  They used a projector to make each student's shadow on the wall and then traced it onto paper.  As you can see, they then made a self-portrait.  Here is Alex's.  His hair was sticking up this morning, as it was wet when he went to bed, hence the emphasis on the spiky hair.  He told me that he made a face like a "soldier, you know a serious face".  He has been obsessed with the toy soliders from the Nutcracker ever since we went this year.  This explains the straight line mouth.