Wild Animal Park with Austin

By MAGGIE WANG

We spent the day at the San Diego Wild Animal Park with the Lev family exploring animals in the open. It was a fun watching the kids enjoy and spending time with Austin. Even though a lot of people expect Maven to be the less timid one because she's louder, Sedona had a ball feeding and petting while Maven was wary.

Maven's 3rd Birthday Party

Maven picked the same stuffed animal to make as Sedona made for her 3rd birthday party: a chocolate-colored dog. Sedona named hers "Three" in honor of her new age. Maven decided to name hers "Inu" in memory of Maggie's real dog that recently died.

Sedona's New Tennis Tutor

By MAGGIE WANG

After I brought the girls to day-care at my West End tennis club, Sedona expressed interest in playing tennis again. (She aborted some lessons I set up for her last year.) Given my bias toward tennis, I quickly made a phone call to start up the lessons again.

A while back after Sedona stopped, we saw a little Caucasian girl named Jenna playing at West End. She was kicking her dad's butt, and I was impressed to the point that that sought out her coach's information. He was Coach Yang. I gave him a ring only to learn that his English isn't so great -- but I was able to work through it and set up a time for a lessons. Fortunately, he speaks Taiwanese!

So I'm able to communicate with him, even if it's not perfect, and we are all enjoying his tennis tutelage. He suggested the kids call him "Yeh-Yeh," as in the grandfather in "Ni Hao, Kai-lan." He started out keeping things very basic and trying to cultivate the "fun" angle of running around the court. We are taking lessons once or twice a week (with Riley joining in ... and Maven sometimes off doing her own thing given her age). The girls are having so much fun.

Scooter Comedy

By KEVIN DING

Two highlights for me from this video ...

1. Maven seamlessly delivers one heck of a compound sentence despite not yet turning 3 years old.
2. And she offers loud "polite" laughter at just the right moment before moving on quickly with her life.

A Salute to Inu

By KEVIN DING

Here's what I just posted to Facebook with a photo of Sedona, Maven and Inu from this blog just a month ago ...

A salute to Inu, the fella who preceded me in Maggie's life. He died today after a long life (kidney failure) but got to walk down the aisle at our wedding and lasted long enough to touch our daughters' lives -- especially Sedona, who loved visiting him at Maggie's parents' house or hosting him for sleepover stints (in Sedona's bed!) at our house.

And here is a photo blurb stolen from Felix's Facebook page:

Disneyland with Ronin

By MAGGIE WANG

We made another fun-filled trip to California Adventure and Disneyland, courtesy of our dear friend Rosana and son Ronin. (She has a friend who hooks us up.)

It was a long week leading up to D-land, which really concerned me as I wasn't sure the girls would behave. They got to bring along a couple favorite snuggle items; see if you can spot in a couple photos Sedona's pink "Blankie" and Maven's empty pillowcase "P.W." ("Pillowcase Walden" because she used to sleep with a Walden stuffed animal from "Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!") But they were perfect angels, and we spent a full 11 hours there!

Buzz Lightyear 3D shooting game! Sedona had a blast.

The girls' absolute favorite thing these days: a merry-go-round.

Driving and playing in the "It's a Bug's Life" area. Sedona was big enough to drive this time!

For the most part, we got to do a lot of activities, because the waits were not long. But to see the princesses, it was 45 minutes. I definitely could have skipped that event, but the girls thought it was a must-do ... so they patiently waited while I complained.

Waiting for the fireworks ... at the Happiest Place on Earth!