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Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Happy Valentine's Day

Ahh, Valentine's Day. The day when your true personality comes out. You are either really into it and expect something special. If you don't get something, you are extremely disappointed. You love all the cutesy aspects of it. This is for you:

Valentines Day

Or maybe you have no valentine to rely on, you just got dumped, or you feel that Valentine's is just a way for Hallmark, Godiva, and 1-800-Flowers to make money. Well, then, this is for you:



Or maybe you don't care what the day is, you just know that you received chocolate and that's all that matters. This is for you:



Any way you look at it, I just want to say...Happy Valentine's Day, or Happy Wednesday, or Happy Eat Chocolate Day!

Thursday, February 9, 2012

San Francisco

I haven't been to San Francisco for about 21 years! Sad, but true. I can't believe how things have changed there. When I was 7 years old, I lived there for a year. This is what happens to a Hawaii girl when her dad works for the airlines. You move when you have to. Anyway, at the time, besides me the only other Asian kid in my class, maybe even the school, was Jason. He was another airline kid. We were Asian, but we are both 3/4 Japanese and 1/4 white. Zoom forward to now...I think there are more Asians than any other group in the bay area.

So, on to our vacation. The sad truth is I hadn't seen my dad in 16 years. Not since my wedding day. It was about time. My two younger children had never met their grandfather, step-grandmother, aunt, or cousin. My Oldest was out in California last year and got to see everyone.

We got some great deals on airfare, so we pulled the kids out of school for a week. Oh, again about the school district. I received a letter today stating that they had to send one out when a child missed 10% or more of school attendance days. Maybe if their parents had all summer off like the teachers and most school staff, they could go on vacation then. Maybe we should just go to all year school to take care of that. What do you say school district?

We also got some hotel deals. We decided to split up our trip by staying 3 nights in the SF area, one night in Monterey, and 3 more nights in the SF area. We had an awesome time.

Yes, time for some lame-when-it's-not-you type photos. Did all the tourist stops: Fisherman's Wharf, Ghirardelli, Pier 39, Ripley's Believe It or Not, Alcatraz, Golden Gate Bridge, Muir Woods, Japan Town, Treasure Island, Santa Cruz, Monterey Bay Aquarium. The kids had a great time and want to go back soon. We had a good visit with my dad and family.



Can't forget a pic of the official bird of Fisherman's Wharf, the rat with wings, the squawking, annoying, seagull. Here is my attempt at getting as close as I could while walking backward and taking a self portrait. It didn't work that well.

A+ Mommy Gets an F

You know how sometimes you think you are going to be the A+ mommy and you have a great idea. So, you decide that you are going to create a fun Valentine's project for your child's classmates. Especially since the school district you are in has decided to remove any holiday enjoyment by not allowing any fun food for holidays or birthdays. Don't get me started on that one. That's right for birthdays they can bring a non-food item. The district suggests a pencil or sticker...woohoo! I'm sure my kid would be da bomb if he brought a sticker.

So, for Valentine's Day I suggested we make heart shaped crayons for the class. I got a box of crayons, we unwrapped them all, broke them, and put them into a heart shaped mold. They came out beautiful, see...




They came out really cute and colorful. We still need to put them on cards and prettify them for giving out on V-Day. But, a little known secret...these A+ Valentine's went F at home. The first batch turned out really cute. The second batch were on their way to cute. The oven timer went off, I got the oven mitts on, went to remove the mold, almost made it, and this happened.



Need a closer look?



Although you may be thinking that perhaps a rainbow pteradactyl came flying through my kitchen and pooped, it is really melted crayon wax all over my counter, cabinets, oven,and floor. Oh joy. I do have a tip for you though. If you are ever in this situation, this is how you get it out. You take a Pampered Chef scraper and get as much of it off as you can by scraping. Then you get an iron (I protected it with foil to avoid waxy clothes later) and some paper towels and iron the mess up. Someone else said brown paper bags work well also. When I got to the sections where the iron couldn't reach, I got a wet paper towel, ironed it, and used the steaming hot paper towel to re-melt the wax and wipe it up.

This was a slow process, but it worked. So, A+ craft, F for execution.