Happy 4th Birthday, Maven!

By MAGGIE DING

During our February trip to Phoenix, we went horseback riding -- which led to the fun idea of having ponies (and bunnies) at Maven's fourth birthday party. So the planning began!

When I finally booked the vendors, I told Maven we would have two ponies along with bunnies, baby goats, and all baby animals since she tends to be afraid of the larger animals in petting zoos. Dearest Maven's response: "Two!? Only two ponies?! I'm turning 4! (Sigh.)"

Luckily, hr mother's inability to provide her four ponies didn't put a damper on the party, which we held a week in advance of her real birthday to avoid conflict with Easter Sunday.

Maven was super excited about her birthday party and had a great time before and after the 20-minute, pre-cake nap she decided to have on broken-legged Kevin in the middle of her party! As long as she was happy.

 The girls went out to await the ponies coming out from the trailer. Exciting time!!!

The birthday girl was the first to ride and was in line over and over and over ...

Sedona was very much enjoying all aspects of the party, which was generously hosted by Whitney and Gene with their plush backyard and flat driveway!

 

Maven's Montessori Easter Hunt

By MAGGIE DING

Maven had fun at her Montessori Easter Egg hunt. Afterwards, she delighted me by showing me around and explaining her part of the class art project

Sedona's Eggs-periment

By MAGGIE DING

Sedona's kindergarten class did an egg experiment. Each student had to build a contraption in which you could put in a raw egg and not have it crack upon dropping.

I took some ideas from my dear friends Leslie, Anita and Alice -- and we came up with this!

Put the egg in a full mayo jar!

We tested it by throwing it off Sedona's bunk bed onto the floor. Success!

Unfortunately, today on test day was a slightly different story... but keep reading for results...

Sedona went to school totally excited. She pulled her contraption out immediately to show all her friends and well, it looked VERY different from her friends. Actually, it was the only one of its kind. Everyone else had put Styrofoam in a box or something like that.

At 11 a.m., all the parents and students gathered at the student lot to see the egg drops -- and most were successful until ... SPLAT! MAYO everywhere!

Our plastic jar hit concrete! Guess we should have thought about that -- and the top came off. A few kids and certainly the ground got a bit dirty.  I was a bit embarrassed, but Sedona not so much!

She was HAPPY! She said all day the kids were talking about how cool her dramatic egg drop was because it went splat. But most importantly ...

  

SUCCESS!!! The egg was safe!

Letters from Sedona

By MAGGIE DING


 Sedona's email letters (via A-Ma Ding) to us while we were on our three-day trip to Nor Cal:


" I am Sedona , I love you Mommy and Daddy. Maven and I just finished our breakfast. Skunky and Elly (A-Go Kristen's cats) are here. love you, Sedona"


"Dear Maggie and Kevin, It is raining very hard now so we can not go to the park today. I am using the baby cup today because Maven used it yesterday. love sedona"

Happy 34th Birthday, ME!

By MAGGIE DING

 For my birthday most years, Kevin is usually on the road and not around to celebrate. But this year, he planned it so that he would be with me by taking me on the road with him.

I've been drinking much more wine lately -- refining my taste now that I'm an adult with children (ha-ha). So I wanted to learn what I like and don't like in tasting. I'm not sure that was fully accomplished on this trip to the Sonoma wine country in advance of the Lakers playing in Oakland -- but at least we now know Kevin's likes and dislikes, as he figured his palate out! :-)

When the planning began, I thought it would be fun to have longtime pal Debs join without thinking it would be possible. But as usual, she made it possible!!! It was fabulous! She brought along Drew, her significant other.

Kevin wasn't stopped by the broken leg he suffered a week ago playing softball. He and I landed, drove straight to The Lodge at Sonoma (stayed in a fabulous cottage with a fireplace -- happy!) with a limo to greet us!



First stop, Gundlach Bundschu (Gun-Lock-Bun-Shoe!)

Second stop: Lunch and more wine at Ledson. Their wines were our second favorite on the day, with a yummy discovery of curry mustard sauce they also made.

Third stop: Chateau Ste. Michelle -- probably our least favorite because everything was too bland and commercialized.

We savored our fourth stop so long that we missed our fifth. It was the fabulous Deerfield Ranch with the tasting room inside a cave. Loved the 2002 DRX and 2007 Red Rex so much that we shipped quite a few bottles home!

Then a super yummy dinner at Ad Hoc by Thomas Keller in nearby Napa.

Before Debbie and Drew left us, we had a great breakfast at Fremont Diner (highly recommend the chicken and waffles, hangtown fries and shrimp and grits). Without them, we went back to scout out Napa further and did lunch at BarBersQ. We had high expectations for dinner back in Sonoma at The Girl and The Fig, and it was super, super yummy: Highly recommend the steak tartare, mussels and duck confit.

The day of my actual birthday we headed into SF to dine at a spot we've long loved: the ever-so-yummy Vietnamese joint La Vie, with their $50 garlic dungeness crab. Then I got quality time with Teddy Liaw at the Lakers-Warriors game, which the Lakers won!

Sedona and Maven stayed behind with A-Gong and A-Ma Ding and were super well-behaved. While we were away, Sedona kept us posted with brief e-mail reports!

January Action

By MAGGIE WANG

Cleaning up our phones and sharing some photos from them of all the fun we had in January... 

Snuggle time with A-Ma Ding ...

With Austin Lev at Dim Sum brunch at Sea Empress, where we feed the outside fish Cheerios (not sure it is good for them, but it's a tradition in our family) ...

Board-game action with Daddy! Monopoly Junior today, but we play all kinds ...

Friday night ballet class with our pals. Sedona (with Raychel, Sienna, Riley, Mackenzie and Isabel) and Maven (with Belle, Charlotte and Sabrina) ...

Birthday parties! Maven here at a princess party for Brooke, one of her ballet friends last year ...

Maven's playdate with little Riley. She also lives in Hermosa and will be going to View with Maven ...

January Family Breakfast

By MAGGIE WANG

The beauty of living where we are is that we can just walk down to the beach and grab breakfast, but for some reason we just don't seem to do it enough. Partly it must be because my dear husband isn't a morning person, so it is difficult to get him out the door in the morning! But we made it out today for yummy Good Stuff (even if it doesn't look like it in the first photo with Maven or the last photo with Sedona).

It makes me so happy to be all together -- and I can't complain about how fortunate we are to get so much time together despite our crazy schedules.

Christmas Card Wall

By MAGGIE WANG

It was another sweet Christmas with pictures of both longtime and newer friends on our breakfast-room wall, watching over us!