{Fishy}

Lil sister has always been fascinated with fishes --phishy as she fondly calls it. We've been so busy and haven't had the chance to take her to the aquarium. We decided to take the rest of the afternoon off after the kids' Thanksgiving lunch last week so we can explore the aquarium.

I absolutely adore this picture of William showing off his rock on look :) My child appreciates it very much that Mom and Dad can make it to his school events. I know these simple things mean a lot to him. Very fortunate that Ed and I have a job that allows us to be flexible with our schedule. The moment we walked in the Aquarium door Samantha was mesmerized! It was so neat to see her reaction. It was also so sweet to see how big brother was playing tour guide to his little sister's first trip to the aquarium.

Check out her phishy mouth! So cute!

There were a lot of ooohs and aaahhs and "check this fishes out". In the spirit of thankfulness, Ed and I kept reminding ourselves how thankful we are that we are able to provide these experiences to our kids. Adventure trips like these are not cheap---inspite of the group deal I found on the internet. On our way out, a family of five with three under 12 kids were pretending to be entering the exit signs. The security guard stopped them. We were actually secretly rooting that they can come in and the guard just let it go since the aquarium would closing in an hour.

This Ocean Voyager exhibit was the kids favorite. It houses whale sharks, the largest fish species in the world. The gigantic viewing windows were neat.

Walking through the acrylic tunnel make you feel like you are part of the endless blue sea. Samantha was once again mesmerized by it all. William is such a big boy now and was very interested in learning the various types of fishes that he is seeing.

There were various spots around the aquarium to pose for some pictures:) William absolutely adores taking pictures with characters and monuments. Samantha not so much. Future trip to Disney would really be interesting for her.

Deepo,Aquarium's original mascot was around to take pictures with adoring fans.

The jelly fish viewing centers were so cool with all the various colors.

We also got the chance to catch the latest AT&T Dolphin Tales show. It's a one of a kind production with dolphins performing with humans. Some of the scenes involves loud thunder and lightning. Samantha definitely did not liked it. William from time to time was startled but he toughed it out and stick to watch the entire show.

More fun activities included, petting the stingrays and checking out the albino gator, before we left.

{End of Season: Tball 2011}

William had his last Tball game a couple of weeks ago. It is amazing to see how friendships are built in a span of 9 weeks. By the end of the season, families moved from shaking our hands to hugging. We've been really fortunate to have been part of an awesome team. A group of very involved parents who's been inspirational to Ed and I. It's nice to be surrounded with parents who shares your value of raising good, respectful and responsible kids.

William has learned so much from playing with his team. He's learned that you have to practice with your team---even on days when you don't feel like it. He adores his coaches, who are just the right mix of discipline and sweetness!
Way to go Red Sox! What a great season!

{Strikes and Spares}

This past weekend, we went to one of William's BFFs birthday party. It was at a bowling alley and was the first time for both kids.
Being at the bowling alley,reminded me of Ed and I's early dating days. We joined a bowling league with a couple of my friends and that was the best way for them to get to know Ed. To this day, we are all still great friends and Ed is now part of the "family" circle of friends :)
Yes, William is such a ham! I don't know where he learned to shake off the hand and "warm up". The celebratory dance cracks me up! He's such a natural goof ball :) I love his enthusiasm!

Not that we are competitive parents....but I just want to note that William won this game with a whoooping score of 75 points!! That's our boy :) Okay, signing off now as stage parents.

{Trick or Treating: 2011}

Hallloween this year was extremely busy! Having a halloween birthday boy always makes every Halloween a big deal for us. This is actually the first year of real trick or treating for both kids. We decided to venture out to the neighborhood around the block from ours. They are big on Halloween. Serious decorations all around!

Check out this home. The owner will proudly tell you the history behind the theme that she picks.

It was a chaotic day at work. I was just so happy that I was able to make it home in time to trick or treat with the kids. Our lil Minnie was loving all these. She kept saying --- SPOOOOKY.

More homes decorated in full Halloween theme around the neighborhood

William and Tball team mate Reese

Trick or Treating partners

Kids enjoying their loot post trick or treating!

{William's 4th Birthday -- A Ben 10 Party}

Our awesome boy William is 4! We celebrated with a Ben 10 soccer party at an indoor soccer venue. It was packed with friends, family and William's classmate. The venue supervisor can not believed that he has that much friends but we would have not expected anything less. William is a special guy---loved by everybody. His birthdays alway coincide with a lot of Halloween celebrations but people make an effort to come celebrate with him because he's just a special kid that everybody adores and loves!

Birthday boy loves Ben 10 and our friend Karen made him this special cake!
Excited to have all his friends in the field
A couple of soccer drills with friends.
Make a wish buddy!
We had a huge crowd but sweet brother made it a point that he saves his baby sister a spot near him.
We have such generous and family! So thoughtful to shower William with all these presents.
A long day at our house. Time to unwind. Love how content they are just sitting next to each other.
Happy birthday big boy! We know how special you are and we continuously hear the same comments from people around you. We had a parents teachers conference with last week and your teacher said that she sometimes forget that you are barely even 4 because you are academically and socially advance. She said that you are one of the most thoughtful kid in the class and is always concern about other --- too much sometime, that she had to remind you to worry about yourself first then your friends :) You enjoy learning and we look forward to Friday nights when you take your folder home and tells us what you did or learned from school that week.

William, you are loved and it is a blessing to have you!

{William: 4 Year Check Up}

Ed took William to his 4 yr check up. It's one of the big check ups---4 shots total.

Height: 39.5 inches (31%)
Weight: 35 lbs 13 oz (50%)

Doctor was very pleased with his development. William is very independent and has great social skill. He interfaced and pretty much answered all of the doctor's questions at this appointment.

The nurse told him during shots time that it was going to hurt a lil. First shot was okay. Second shot went in and William looked her straight in the eyes and said "That hurt a lot". Nurse was laughing so hard because he gave her the look. He got over it and was very happy to get 4 items at the doctor's treasure box. It was his reward for being good with his 4 shots.

It was also during this time that we got the results of his school's Assesment Test. This was taken back in September so he was barely 4. Among all the Pre-K kids (4-5), William scored 97% and was classified as Advanced nationally. We are so proud of him!

{Decorating our Pumpkins}

Last night we finally had a chance to carve and decorate our pumpkins. William and Samantha enjoyed it so much.

Check out William cleaning out the goo. Did you notice how Miss Samantha had her arms behind her and was just watching intensely what was going on?
We also painted our lil pokemon pumpkins. What a messy activity but both kids absolutely loved it!

With a messy arm and hand, Samantha decided to join the dig in the pumpkin goo crowd. It was our Thursday evening dinner with Mike so he decided to join/assist us in this activity.

The kids decorated pumpkin - William's on the left, Samantha on the right.

Ed and William putting up the finishing touches

A lil more tweaking

And we have our carved pumpkin---Can you guess what it is? It can be the grave creaper or a dog :)
Samantha took a quick bath to get all of the paint out. She loved our jack o lantern!
Our Halloween boy of course loved it!

{Samantha:18 Months}

Miss Samantha is not too lil anymore. She just had a growth spurt and check out these stats!

Height: 32.75 (80%)

Weight: 24 lbs 13 oz (59%)

Head: 47.5 (72%)

• Has 2 molars coming in. Been so blessed because with all these teething, she's really been in good spirit and still sleeps through the night.


• LOVES gummies for snack. She'll usually open the pantry cabinet and get her self a bag.


• Follows and copy whatever big brother does. She loves sitting next to him. Whenever William plays with the Ipad, she'll just sit and watch him.


• LOVES Elmo!


• Can recognize a fish from a far. She says ---Phishy and thens puckers up her lip. Sooo cute!


• Eats with spoon and fork. She still likes vegetable and fruits. Still kinda picky with meat.


• Says too many words to count---Too funny when she says "Weeeyam, time to wake up!" She pretty much can repeat most of the words we say.


• Unlike her big brother who adores Santas and characters, she's a lil eefy seeing big and moving stuff.


• Is on the GO! She'll climb and run. She's fearless!


• Started telling us when her diaper is wet or messed


• Is getting really attached to her daddy. She says this soooo loud whenever Ed walks in the door. "HI DADDY!"


• Absolutely adores big kids---She loves her friend Evie. Her best friend at school is Isabella and is one of the oldest in her class. Her teachers said the Samantha keeps up with her and that's why they both get along so well.


• She's enjoying school and will recite her classmate and teacher's name to us when we ask her to.


• You will find sometime her sitting in one corner and just going through pages of her books.


• Almost bottle free. The past two days she's been drinking her morning and evening milk from a sippy.


• Very independent and will voice it out to. People dont call her sassy for nothing :)

{Pumpkin Patch 2011 & Celebration}

It's been a very busy month at our house and we "almost" didnt make it to a pumpkin patch this year. We love, love going to picturesque pumpkin patches but the traffic and congestion on some of those places are a nightmare and sometimes it almost takes your whole day to go on these trips. Luckily as I was searching the internet for patches to go see, I found this low key farm--Kinsey Farm. The plus side, it was really close to the North Georgia Premium outlet. We even got to do a lil office attires shopping for Ed for his new job!

A quick family picture. See that green pumpkin in the picture---one of the farmer was telling as that it's the best pumpkin for pie. So now, William tells everybody that green pies are pumpkin pie. So cute! I'm laughing out loud at Samantha checking out the witch.
So off we grabbed our cart to shop for some pumpkin. Can't believe that my lil boy is so big now and can tote our cart.

The kids chose to each get their own pumpkin and picked up these pokemon pumpkins.

They were having so much fun and busted out dancing

We also took a hayride and went to the petting zoo around the farm.

The cows loved the crackers!

The goats had enough of crackers and were turning them down. William said that they are allergic to crackers and only wants grass because they are healthy food.

After our trip to North Georgia, we headed downtown to celebrate my father in laws birthday at De Biergarten. What a fun day!

One bonus was they had a German band playing on the patio for the Octoberfest celebration. What a fun day!

{Weekends}

Fall weekends are super busy but oh so fun! We made it this year to the Georgia National State Fair. I always have wanted to come but it seems like we always miss it. We had the great company of the K and W family! Williams eye lit so big when we first pulled in the parking lot. All the lights and activities around got him so excited. It was too cute! Samantha enjoyed the adventure as well! Ms Evie leading the pack

Jackson and William are buds!

T ball of course is a must for us every Saturday morning. It's amazing to see how much the team is developing. The kids are fielding and hitting better. So fun to watch them learn the sport.

Here's the best loyal fan ever! She's proud and always cheering on her big brother!

{Most Valuable Player}

William was this weekend's MVP of the game and got the coveted golden baseball. There are 9 kids and 9 games, each week one child gets the golden ball. We are in game 5 of the season. Every week, William is really hoping to get the golden ball. He's been somewhat discouraged and we keep telling him to just continue working hard, enjoy the game and cheer for his team mate. I can't even express in words how big his smile was when he found out that he was this week's MVP. Oh my goodness...he needed that boost!
Wanna know the sweetest and funniest thing about all this? Everytime he shows off his priced golden baseball to friends and family---he makes it a point to tell everybody that he got it because he worked hard. He says it with face of determination too!