We almost made it !  It was so close.  6:30 ish, I was woken up by the feeling of wetness in my waist area.  I thought Peanut's diaper leaked so I reached over to check on him.  He's sleeping away on his waterproof sheet, all warm and dry.  I puzzled then turned to the other side of me.  My eyes rested on set of sorry sad eyes piercing into mine.  She's on the brink of tears.  Lovebug wet the bed.  I look down on the bed and the darkened area was huge, all around her, 1/4 of our queen bed.  I must have forgotten to ask her to go to the washroom before bed.  Another half an hour and we might have avoided this.  I think.  Maybe.  Lovebug's usually wake up at 7am and rush off to the washroom.  Not today.  She haven't wet the bed for a few months now.

Accident happened.  I moved Peanut over to dry land !  He nor his sheet are wet.  He happily sleeps away.  Lovebug whispered to me, "Pee go in toilet mommy.  I didn't mean to!".  I patted her arm reassuringly, "I know honey, I know.  It happened sometime.  Let's get you and me cleaned up" I said then bent down to pick her up and headed to the bathroom.  "Sorry mommy.  I didn't mean to!" she repeated.  She feels bad, that I know but also I feel uneasy that she's so apologetic.  I don't want her to be too hard on herself.  She's only 3.  I assured her it's completely ok and sometime I have accident too (not same like this :)  It's good to acknowledge our mistakes but we must also be kind to ourselves.

She asked me to change her after.  She usually likes to dress herself so I asked her "Are you sure ?  You like to pick your clothes".  "I like you to change me sometime mommy.  Can you pick for me please", she said with a happy grin.  I picked out another Pj for her and as we shuffle back into bed she asked, "can you hold me to sleep mommy?".  I was so sleepy, and holding here means rocking her back to sleep.  Lovebug has always been very independent.  She prefers to do everything on her own, or in her words "by self".  Whenever she asked me to dress her or feed her or hold her to sleep, I jumped at the chance.  Mind you, I try to force my motherly way on her sometime, like rocking her to sleep and she would tell me to please put her down so she can sleep.  At least I try :) some times she'll let me, some day she would ask me, and I am eager to complied.

I love to baby her.  I feel she grew up so fast and became so independent from me so young.  I still remember her refusing my breast at 10 months. She was ready to live off solid food.  I didn't have to wean her.  It's great but I also feel a loss.  A catch 20 for me.

This morning I get to change and rock this baby to sleep.  I feel great.  I like holding her in the quietness of morning.  Feeling her tiny hand in my hand.  I am tired and wanted to sleep some more but that can wait.  I get to hold this girl !  No matter how independent she is, how grown she is, how she's capable of many things, she is still my baby and forever my baby she will be.

Growing up in Vietnam, we don't have the yellow lemon like here in the west.  Our lemon is the green lime and we got plenty of them.  There's at least one house on every street that has a lime tree.  When summer comes knocking, limeade is our drink of choice.  Cheap and easy to make.  There's also no packaged juice avail. then !!!  You either make your own drink or you have to go to a restaurant or food stall for them.

I love limeade !  the smell of cut limes brings back so many memories for me.  Our 264 Le Loi house, my grandma waiting for me coming home from school, and my mom with a pitcher of limeade.  My grandma would hug me and I can feel her cool soft skin on my cheeks when her face touches mine.  I miss her so much.  I know she's up there in heaven with the Lord and one day we will get to see each other again.  It's comforting knowing our relationship doesn't end with her passing, we're just apart from each other for a while !

Anyways, this drink is very easy to make.  You'll need lime or lemon, or a mix of both, cane sugar or honey (or white sugar) and water.  I used a mix of both lime and lemon because the lime we get here doesn't yield too much juice :-(  3 limes and I barely get half of a cup.

INGREDIENTS
Serving size:  8 cups

4 medium size limes (if using key lime, you'll need about 6-8 of them)
2 lemons
(all should yield about 1 to a cup of juice)
1 cup of cane sugar (more or less according to your taste, you can use white sugar if you like)
2 table spoon of honey (can be omitted, just add more sugar)
1 cup of boiling water
7 cups of cold water

Juice the limes and lemons into a bowl.  Strain out seeds and pulps and put juice into a pitcher.  Boil water then pour 1 cup of the boiling water into a bowl.  Add the sugar and honey to the boiled water and stir until completely dissolved.  Add the sugar water into the pitcher and mix.  Add the 7 cups of water, stir around then taste.  Add more sugar if you want it sweeter.  Chill in the fridge.

If you don't have time to chill the drink in the fridge, make the drink a bit more sweet then add 2 or 3 cups of ice.

Garnish with thinly sliced up left over rinds or slices of lime and lemon.

To make the limeade lemonade pink, I add 2 table spoons of crushed frozen raspberries !

I added the juice of 1 orange to make the drink orange in color (kid requested)

We drink our limeade in tea cup !  this is how we roll :-)

INGREDIENTS
Serves 2 

- 2 cups of dry macroni or small shell pasta
- 1 1/2 cup of milk (2% or homo milk)
- 2 table spoon of flour
- 1 1/2 - 2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese (I used marble cheese and it's just as good)
- 1/2 teaspoon of dry mustard (can be omitted)

INSTRUCTIONS

- In a pot of boiling water, add a pinch of salt, add the pasta and cook until done (tender but still firm, not mushy)- Pour cooked pasta into a colander to drain
- Pour milk into pot and add the flour, whisk until well blended, no clump left
- Cook on medium heat, stir constantly (while stirring, it's good to break up any lump that formed, to ensure for smooth sauce.  I stirred with a small whisk and it helps with the smooth consistency)
- When sauce is creamy, add the shredded cheese and stir
- When the cheese is melted, taste and season with a bit of salt or pepper
- Add the drained pasta back into the pot
- Stir pasta and sauce until they are mixed well
- Serve immediately

You can top pasta with more shredded cheese if you like !  Enjoy

My best friend and I are both pregnant and due about 2 weeks of each other !  It's quite a nice coincidence as we get to be both at home together and our kids will have each other to play with (like our first born, they were 3 months apart).

Over the weekend we had a shared baby shower at our place.  I went into baking mode the night before and was making cookies and cupcakes and more cookies and then burnt some and changed my mind on others and then on the morning off, went and made taro tapioca pudding !!!  My husband reminded me that my friends are not into western sweets like pastries and cakes and cookies, the kids like them, but our friends like asian dessert more.  He asked me "how many times do we ever finished a cake ?  even a small one ?", he's right, there's always so much left over cake.  I love it though, I would eat it for breakfast/lunch the next day :-)  No loss here.  But in this case, hubby meant that I shouldn't bake too much as it's a lot of effort with little yield.  And he's right, few cupcakes and cookies and eggrolls (purchased) went but the taro pudding went fast !  I made a huge pot and the bowl was scrape cleaned.  I must admit though, the taro roots I bought was good (luck of the picking as you can get not very tasty taro) so it was very nice with the coconut milk.  I highly enjoyed it.

I myself likes tea party !  As you can see from past photos, we do a lot of tea parties around here :-)  it's pretty to look at and fun and easy to set up !  Some sweets and/or some savories and some teas and you're set.  Anything goes !  So naturally I thought we should have a tea time after our meat heavy lunch.  While bestie, my kids and I sipped teas, our friends were distracted !  I think if it is a sans kids party, we all would be seating and sipping tea and giggles, but that's not the case with a full house !  Shortly after, I found myself refereeing 2 kids and then everyone else was attending to theirs.  It's normal and natural and expected.  But in the mist of all the busyness, we still managed to talk, to vent, to laugh and eat and drink !  Us women are queen multitaskers :-)  At the end of day, it was nice being in companies with friends while our kids get to run around and have their own fun.  Best part is after 7 hours together, the kids are all worn out and ready for sleep !

For me, I always have a great time with everyone over.  It warms my heart to hear people talking and laughing, kids yelling, and seeing emptied cupboards.  I like seeing my friends enjoying themselves, I like hosting and think it's helps that I have great friends who always lend a hand to clean up during and after the party.

C took the kids and I out to Van Dusen garden for a walk.  Little did we know, Van Dusen is kinda huge, it's not for a stroll or walk, more like a mini hike !  Everyone I checked was in runners and here I am on wedge.  Yeah...I feel a bit out of place !  I really thought it's a just a stroll around the garden to look at flowers.  I should have google it up first.  Luckily my Aldo wedge sandal was very comfortable.  I can even run in it.

Down the path into the garden, on the left, was this beautiful walk way.  I was mesmerized by the golden canopy of Laburnum dripping down.  It's quite breath taking.  

After Van Dusen we went to Granville Island for lunch and birds watching !  The busker out in the open outdoor sitting area was playing/singing lots of old tunes (90s) which I highly enjoyed :-)  I managed to hum along to a few songs.

After lunch we took the girls to the water park there.  The whole park isn't in full operational mode but they got a few water holes going !  Enough for the few kids there anyways.  Bee was cautious while Love went right in.  Our baby, the 2nd one, attacks everything head first, a free spirit she is; while my first born is cautious, takes time to warm up to things/ideas then enjoy herself.  Kids are so interesting, they are born with certain personality and attitudes about them.  You take what kid you're blessed with and love them and try your best in helping them to grown and flourish.  

In the evening C suggested we go to Guu for my Mother's day dinner !  I want to take my mom out for dinner too so I told my brother to take her and meet with us downtown.  Guu on Robson is the best one out of the 3 or 4 Guu branches around here.  It's my mom and kids' first time there so hearing the waitress yelling our orders to the kitchen freaked them out !  Bee asked "WHY are they yelling ???  so loud" and my mom "I'm going def!".  C and I've been here enough time that we're oblivious to the sound :-)  We just want to eat :D  After an hour, our bellies were full and our taste buds thanked us !  We tried many dishes and each was amazing.  Today was an excellent day.

  

Today is Vietnamese New Year's eve.  In Vietnam, this season is called Tet.  It has been a long long time since the last time I celebrated this occasion on my country soil.

Tet holds many special memories for me.   I remember every year, a few days before Tet, my mom would buy for our home a beautiful branch of cherry blossoms with a few blooms and many buds.  She said we have to tend it carefully so that we will get many blooms on new year's day, then many luck will enter our house.  On the morning of the eve, she would cook all these special dishes for an early dinner, and then that evening, my mom, dad (they were together then) and grandma would make Banh Chung (sweet rice covered mung beans and bacon all wrapped in banana leaves).  We would load them into a big pot and begin with the long cooking process !  Instead of cooking over our usual coal stove, my mom would bring a fire pit into our family room (also my grandma's bedroom, it's a big room) and she would load wood in it and we cook the Banh Chung pot on it.   It takes about 6 hours to cook them and we just sit there as a family, watching it cook, talking, laughing, listening to my grandma telling stories.  We would grill some squid or sweet potatoes next to the pot on the fire pit.

When it's near midnight (while Banh Chung still cooking) my dad would hung a long brick or two of pink firecrackers on a long stick, light each brick and stick it out our window and the firecrackers would crackle and explore into clouds of pink poofs.  Every single house on the street does the same thing so imagine the loud noise of firecrackers ringing down the street and exploding throughout the night.  We compete to see who's the loudest !  Us kids loves loves loves the firecrackers.  We look forward to this the whole year.  Actually, this and another event during TET, it's called Mung Tuoi for us northern (Li Xi for the southern) people.

On the morning of the 1st day of the lunar New Year, in our culture, family friends and neighbors are to visit each other's house to bestow good well wishes on them.  And every adults are to give money to the kids.  We don't have red envelop then, just plain beautiful colorful paper cash !  I spent my stash on toys and stationaries.  I don't remember what my brother did with his.  He was too young then so maybe my mom kept his :)

There are also many superstitious rituals that we followed on the 1st day of the lunar new year ! We were christians then but still practice a lot of "inherited" ideas.  We avoid cleaning the house (especially sweeping, we don't want to sweep all the luck out), we avoid breaking anything (especially mirror), and we don't do anything that we don't want to do for the whole year.  Common belief is that we only do good things and say good words so the rest of the new year will be filled with goodness.  

When our parents finished welcoming in all the guests and lugging us around visiting families and friends, my brother and I would go inspect our front street, which is now a battlefield of tiny pieces of pink paper, piles upon piles of them, much like confetti.  We would comb through the exploded firecracker corpses, hoping to find one that didn't explode yet.  We would collect them and gather them up along with other kids in our neighborhood.  Then the gang would go searching for a perfect power pole or a cement wall with a good size hole.  One brave kid will stick a firecracker into the hole, light it up and we all run away with hands covered over our ears.  It was good fun.  No one ever got hurt.  Thank God.

These aren't my pictures, just some I found on the internet

The fun continues on to the 2nd and 3rd day of the lunar new year.  We repeat our firecracker hunt each day, munch on roasted red watermelon seeds, enjoy many sweeten dried fruits (called "Mut"), and eat a lot of Banh Chung !  It was the best time of the year.  So much commotions all around and there's an air of jubilant everywhere you go.  3 days of celebration and the whole city/town is in on it together.

I miss Tet.  I miss the way we used to do Tet.  It's the only time in the year that I miss Vietnam.  We celebrate it here in Canada every year, we try to make it a special time for our family but a part of me, as I'm sure my mom as well, miss the good old days.  Time changes many things, strips away many things.



C emailed me at work and asked if I'm working Friday.  I told him I'm off and he told me he's going to take a day off work to take me out on an all day date !  I must say I was surprise and like always, a butterfly fleeting feeling in my tummy :)  I get happy at the thought of him.  Even though I see him every day and sleep next to him every night, every time we're meeting up or going somewhere together, I get this excited, nervous, anxious, happy feeling at the pit of my belly.  If I was meeting him for lunch I would scan the crowd and my heart just soar when I see him.  I don't know why, that's just how I feel.  Some people asked me how I maintained it, and honestly I don't know !!!  Perhaps we just spend a lot of time talking and being in each other's presence !  One of those, the longer we're together the deeper our love grow.  So sappy I know !  you can go vomit if you want :)  It's not like we don't have hardship, we do, but we often talk it out.  No hidden feeling or agenda or anything.  Full disclosure all.the.time.  We are very protected of us and our family so we don't let anything "off" go unnoticed. 

 



Hours spent talking at a quaint coffee/general store.  I love the old feeling/look of  this place, le Marche St. George.

This picture show my happy place in my house !  It's not a room or a space, just a table with all my favorite stuff on it.  Every time I walk by it, I can't help but smile and feel flooded with joy.  It's beautiful, the picture of my family drawn by Bee, the kids pictures, and my favorite flowers !  It takes so little to make me happy.

The kiddos and hubby were up at 9am and started work on our garden !  I wanted to sleep in but couldn't so I grudgingly went out and planted peonies.  I can't wait to see them bloom.  By noon, we were all tired so we all went in, ate lunch, got dressed and went to Richmond.  We (I) wanted to get prawns from Steveston Landing (Fisherman's Wharf). 

Mr. sun was bright, the wind was calm and cool, I suggested we pay an impromptu visit to Garry Point park (close by) since we got some time.  A place I heard of many times but never had a chance to see what it is all about.  And boy, was I ever glad we went.

My first feeling was:  quiet, quaint, calm, the air was clean and clear.  The mood ?  there's an ease about it.....I feel so relaxed, like I'm far far from the city.  My eyes were happy to see vast open field along side a body of water.  There are small sandy "beach" areas with drift woods lining up, separating the field from the rocks, sands and water.  There are few trails leading to the main one along the water and many people were out with their kids biking.  Something I wanted to do with the kids for sure.  As this place is simply too wonderful not to visit again. 

We went to look for a bench to sit and found a plot of lupins.  These wild flowers with shades of purple, indigo and magenta grew in groups, randomly dotted the park.  I quickly grabbed my camera and with some "selective" angle-ing, I managed to captured some pictures that looked like we're in a field of lupins, not a small patch :) and that we're the only one at the park !!!  Hubby did the same too.

The kids LOVE running around, up and down the hill, around the lupins patches, in the lupins patch, around the benches, chasing after dogs (there are many many people with their friendly cute pooch there), and watching tug boats pulling floaters full of sand.  There were many kites there too, a great place for those who loves flying kite.  They love it so much that we had a hard time stopping them from running and telling them we're leaving (too hot).  We bribed them with promises of ice cream so Bee happily complied (Lovebug follows whatever Bee wants to do).  We definitely will come back again for a picnic and (hopefully) to get some professional family pictures taken by our friend Jade !

Here are some photos:

   

Enjoy the warm sunny days ahead and do visit Garry Point if you're in the neighborhood.  A great place to for a long stroll or just to sit and soak in the sun !  I highly recommend a picnic or a bbq.  Or at the least, bring snacks and water for the kiddos as it's a long trail.   If you don't, there's concession stand there with concession price :)

There's absolutely NO shade once you leave the small park area near the entrance.  It's all open field from there on so remember to bring hats for the kids.  Where were ours ?  it was an impromptu first visit so we didn't bring hats for the kids or else we would have stayed longer.   It was so bright there that hubby glad he got his driving glasses on.  He even took our pictures with the glasses on because he couldn't barely open his eyes !  So hat and sunscreen is a must if you go on a sunny day ! 

Blessings,

TT 

We have got some gorgeous days here near the coast.  I got a day off so I spent it having a tea party out in our yard with the girls !  It was fun getting all dressed up and running around. 

Lovebug broke one of my fine china.  It's a pretty one too.  She's a baby, I should know better not to trust her holding 2 !  She banged them together and right when I stopped her, she managed to squeeze in another bang and one broke :-(

Morning came and Bee shot me an accusing look.  The look of "you're working today aren't you?".  She dislike me going to work.  She would say to me every morning "I love your so much.  Can you stay home with me ?  You stay home now ?".  I told her I have to go to work, to pay for our home, to help people, and so that we can do all the things she likes.  Like clock work, she would say "But I don't want you to.  I want you to stay home with me.  But I love you so much".

Before being a mom, I heard of other mothers telling me how hard it was for them to go to work.  I never fully understood it until recent of late.  Until Bee tells me how much she loves me to stay home with her.  I feel guilty working (not too much, but a bit, and that bit is enough to cause an ache my heart).

So, today, since I have some payroll info. to complete, I decided to take Bee to work with me.  She was so so so happy.  I can see her eyes light up.  She asked me again "I'm coming to work with you ?".  She then snuggled up next to me and whispered "I love you mommy.  You're my best friend" and we just lay there like that for a while, holding on to each other.  It's not out of the norm.  We do that every day.  It's our every morning routine.  She would get out of her bed (located beside our bed) and crawl into ours and ask me "Can you hold me mommy?".  And we would cuddle like for as long as we can until Love wake up and budge in to break us a part.  And even then I hold Love on one side while still holding Bee on the other.   

Bee likes the sky train ride to work.  She asked A LOT of questions (why no one drive the train, how the doors open and close, etc).  I like her inquiring mind.  She's on a good path.

It was nice showing Bee around and watching her shyly telling my colleagues that she's 4.  Once we did our greetings round, I sat her down in my office, gave her some paper and sharpies to draw with and commenced on the work I didn't get to the day before.  She drew me many pictures and we posted them up.  She was proud of her art work as was I.

 

After my work, we went out for Bon (cinnamon bun > we call it Bon :)  followed with a trip to the eye doctor for me, some play time at the mall's water fountain and pennies throwing, and then grocery !  She was such a good sport !  We had so much fun.  She did fell asleep for a bit on the bus home but managed to wake up when we reached our stop !  I told her I can't carry her because I got heavy bags.  She told me her eyes are tired, they're sleepy, but she will try to walk home.  Walk home with me she did. 

Later that day she pulled me close to her and said to me "I love you so much.  Look, I love you this much..." and she stretched out her arms as far back as she could.  Her eyes tell me that her heart is full of love for me and she wanted me to know that.  I know.  I can feel so much love with my heart.

Words cannot express the love and joy my two girls bought me.  Their presence in my life let me have a glimpse of the love my Jesus have for me.  We each are so deeply loved. 

My daughter loves tea party !  I was never a tea party kind of gal (first one was last summer > impromptu garden party) but with my daughter insisting on having a tea party whenever she spotted our tea pot, I decided to throw her not only one but two tea parties over this past long weekend !  It's time consuming to cook, set up and clean up.  But I must say, sipping milk tea and eating a bit of everything is kind of fun and delightful !  My girl knows how to enjoy life.

I got my hubby and baby to join in too and they seems to enjoy it !  Hubby complained the small china cup is too small to hold his coffee though !!! Oh yeah, so to be exact, I'm the only one that had tea !  my daughter had milk in her tea cup and hubby had coffee :)

On Friday, our tea party consisted of thin pan cakes, blueberry muffins (recipe here), finger sandwiches (coco hazelnut butter), and fresh fruits (Bee's favorite > pears and oranges).

On Saturday we had a rather Asian themed tea party, just Bee & I this time around !  hubby and baby Love slept in !  We had some left over muffins from the day before (no way I'm baking a fresh batch back to back !), poached egg, sticky rice balls (Bee's favorite > some with seaweeds and some with grounded sesame seeds), apple slices, and seaweed strips (I don't like them so much but my 2 kids loves loves them).  Oh and yes, those are gummies bears on the tray !!!  Bee asked me to give her 5 bears so that when she finished her breakfast she can eat candies for dessert :)

If you know me at all, once I get into something I get kinda obsessed with it.  So since the beginning of summer til now, I've acquired 5 tea pots, 4 serving plates and a few cream/sugar bowls.  I don't think I need any tea pots, I need more cups !  I have about 8 mismatched set of teacups right now.  How many do I need ?  I don't know...maybe a few more :)  so I can host a tea party for friends !  and we'll wear pretty floral dresses and fancy hats ... it'll be fun !

I love rummaging through junk (hoping to find treasure :)  If time permits, I would be hitting garage sale, yard sale, estate sale, moving sale, multi families garage sale, flea market, church thrift sale, second hand stores, and any other kind of old used items sale on the weekend !

 

 

I like them old things.  Simply because they reminded me of the past.  They hold so many memories (or not, if they were in storage most of their life, but I like to think they were well used and loved).  Many reminded me of my childhood.  Especially those 4 wheels roller skate. 

Every time I see them, they would transport me back to the first time I learnt to skate.  It was a late 80s' early summer morning.  My mom was sitting on the porch, my grandma was in the kitchen, and I was out side in the garden.  I was wearing a hand-me-down white button up dress with tiny green, yellow and red bouquets of flowers.  I was sitting on the garden's paved walk way, soaking in the sun, breathing in the smell of the fresh cut lawn and getting ready to take my first step on the skate.  I stood up fell flat down !  I don't know why I remember that day so vividly.  Perhaps it was a very good day.  Perhaps because it was my first experience of the west (roller skating)  during my first week in Canada.  I was finally united with my grandma and all my aunts.  I miss my grandma and my aunt Sarah very much.  I wish I can talk to them again, hug them again.  Memories of those who passed on are sweet and painful altogether.

 

So back to vintage stuff !!!  Used, old, items are the things of the past.  They age with time so they're bound to smell a little funky !  Do you notice that ?  or is this just us ?  My husband's sensitive nose can't handle the musty smell.  5 min. in a store and he feels the overwhelming need to rush outside for fresh air.  For him, antique or vintage shop conjures up images of old dead people, corpse to be exact.  Needless to say, he doesn't enjoy this kind of outing very much.  Also because I spend an unreasonably long amount of time (his words) in each of this store.  My husband doesn't understand that I need time to dig through these mountains of stuff.  That's what fun about it !  And I need time to think, to reminisce, to smile at the thought of the life it lived !  ah...look at that vhs player ?  oh and the hand crank egg beater, rotary phone...old times, good times.

 

Here are some pictures of my recent visit to Waterfront Antique Market and Auction in Lynnwood, WA, USA.   Each vendor decorated their own stall and set their own price.  It was very neat, clean and interesting.  You dig and pick out what you want then bring it up to the cash register to pay.  You can't haggle because the vendors aren't there.  Some are cheaper than others so you have to check out each stall.  I wish we have something like this here in BC.