Happy Valentine’s Day, Everyone! This is how our evening went. It started with making a card for Jes.
Then instead of making dinner, we actually went down the street to Umami Burger.
We didn’t have to wait for a table and our funny little valentine entertained us.
I love this kid and I think she loves us too.
I finally put up some of the wall art that I’ve collected over the past two years. I couldn’t hang frames over her bed so I kinda sat on this project for a while. Then I found some clear command hooks at the store and figured out that I could juset tie a ribbon on them and used some binder clips to hang the prints. I also found these cool Scotch Restickable Dots that I used to display her artwork.
The prints are all from local artists. Below are the original versions of two of the prints. I met the artist, Genevieve Santos at a craft faire and was so sweet to offer to paint the boy’s hair black in both of the prints.
Pillow Fort
“Let me in. I have cookies.”
Here are a few from a girl named Elda The. I love her work.
Angry Birds
I don’t know what this one is called but I imagine this is where Koa lives now.
She also designed the Koa pillow that Kumquat sleeps with every night.
This is a cute one that Kumquat loves to point to and label “bus” and “GG”. The artist’s name is Nidhi Chanani. Love her stuff.
It looks a little tacky but I kept the plastic sleeves on them for now to keep them from getting greasy from the kitchen. They’ll come off when she has an enclosed room to herself one day. For now, this will just have to do.
Little by little, this space will be covered in scribbles…hopefully, they’ll all be on paper and not the actual wall.
James and Sylvia’s little girl turned 4 last weekend and they had her birthday party this weekend at Sky High Sports in Concord. It was a 30-minute drive in pouring rain for us but it was worth it to see Kumquat on a trampoline for the first time.
I would have liked to do some jumping myself but I was too busy supervising this little girl.
They also served pizza and cake and I was surprised to see Kumquat stealing all my olives!
Happy Birthday, Ariel!
We had lots of rain this weekend and it was so nice. On Saturday, I wanted some rainy-day food so we took the bus to Chinatown for our favorite porridge and noodle place. 
To add to the adventure, we took the bus with Kumquat unbuckled and unstrapped. 
She sat in her own seat and walked up and down the Chinatown hills with us in the rain like a big girl. She’s growing up way too fast. It’s so fun to see the world through her eyes and she had a blast.
The porridge, Chinese doughnut, and warm soy milk really hit the spot.
Jes got the Singapore rice noodles and Kumquat had a little of everything we ordered. We also ordered two dishes to-go so we wouldn’t have to cook or leave the house for dinner.
On Sunday morning, Kumquat and I walked down the street for brunch. I didn’t take the stroller and we braved the rain together on foot. On the walk home, it started to rain harder and Kumquat a fun time playing in the rain.
The Sochi Winter Olympic Games also started on Thursday and I’ve been watching it online thanks to my Brother who gave me access with his cable account. Thanks, Brother! It’s was the perfect thing to watch on a rainy weekend.
I stayed home today and it was so nice to have a day with Kumquat. In the morning, we had brunch at La Boulange Bakery. This is one of my favorite things to do with my little girl. She’s such a good little diner.
I was in major decluttering and purge mode this weekend so we went over to Target to pick up some containers and other household stuff.
With some time left before her nap, we stopped at the Yerba Buena Playground, which has a bunch of huge slides. We went up and down several times before heading home.
The rest of the day was spent at home while she napped and I cleaned. In the evening, we played a bit and went to Safeway. By the time Kumquat went to bed, I was exhausted. I realized that I hadn’t really sat down all day. Well, at least I was productive.
Boy, we had quite a weekend! It started a little early when Mirian asked if I could come home early on Friday because Karla had a fever. I managed to get home by noon to relieve her and I had an unexpected half-day to hang out with my little girl. It was sunny outside so I took her down to the courtyard for some water fun with her tea set. She LOVED it and I got some free time to pay bills and balance our finances.
That evening, we went to SOMA Streat Food Park for their version of Lunar New Year. All the food trucks had special dishes for the night, they played Bruce Lee movies on the big screens, Tsing tao was $3 all night, and they had a DJ playing Asian Hip-Hop music. They also had Chinese acrobats performing at 8pm but we left before that started.
On Saturday morning, we took a trip to the zoo for a quick 1-hour walk around the Savanna area. The giraffes and zebras were all so active that morning and Kumquat was so pleased to see her “GG” pals.
That same evening, we all gathered at Ryan and Michelle’s house in Orinda to welcome the Year of the Horse. We celebrate together every year and I was impressed at how civilized our dinner was this year considering we had 5 kids present.
At one point everyone was seated, eating, and enjoying each other’s company. 
We’ve come a long way from the year we had Jack, Reese, and Rowan together for the first time.
We had a potluck of “bring something from your homeland” so we pretty much had two dinners: my dish (chicken gravy over rice) first and then Michelle’s kalbi, spicy pork, and chap chae. For dessert, we had Vyl’s red bean pancakes and pecan pie. Yum.
The kids received red envelopes and I loved Reese’s expression when she discovered there was actual money inside for her.
Kumquat had a fun time playing with all of Reese and Jack’s toys and at one point Isla joined her. By the end of the night, she was falling asleep in Bang’s comfy lap.
After we got home and put Kumquat to bed, I mustered some energy to change my clothes and put on some heels(!) for Mai’s Bachelorette Party. Jes stayed home and I hailed a cab to Asia SF where the party had started since 5. I didn’t get there until 10 but I got there with enough to celebrate with the girls and get a good laugh. Amazingly, I was home by midnight. Thanks for the ride home, R!
On Sunday morning it was raining! Finally. We opted to stay in our PJs for as long as we could and it was great. I spent the morning archiving a bunch of our old bank and health insurance statements while reorganizing our files too. Victor and Susie were hosting Super Bowl so we joined them in the afternoon for all the tasty food that Susie prepared.
The game was not very exciting but Bruno Mars had a good half-time performance. And of course, the commercials were fun. These were my favorites:
Overall, this was a fun and productive weekend. Unfortunately, Karla is still sick so I’m going to have to stay home tomorrow. Yippee! Er, I meant Aw shucks. These unexpected long weekends are going to spoil me!!
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