Fun weekend

This past weekend, we decided to have cheese fondue at home.  We found these packets of fondue cheese at a local German supermarket.  I recall the boys not liking it too much the last time (because of the infused white wine), but seems like they are getting accustomed to the taste!

For dipping, we had potatoes (which no one really had), bread, diced green apples, and diced/chunks of mortadella - which is Graham's favorite.  And looks like Graham is our winner for pulling up the longest string of cheese.  Ha ha!

"Wait, what??! I didn't finish all that cheese."  I think next time we need to get 2 packets of fondue cheese and have 2 little pots to share instead of one.  Didn't take long to finish dinner!

And as if the cheese (and carbs!) wasn't enough, we move up to the top patio where the fire is already going.  The boys love their S'mores:

As darkness settles, you can clearly see the marine layer creeping inland behind the house/trees: 

Oh, prior to dinner we had gone to a park to listen to the local symphony.  The music was not perfect like how they play in the concert hall but we still had fun.  The Symphony didn't have a string section!  Maybe Graham can start one with his violin, although he has only been practicing once a week now:

Daddy is having a relaxing day for sure:

Speaking of Daddy, we had gone out to the park for archery lessons earlier in the morning but it was canceled due to the rain. So we went out to shoot on our own anyway.  And Daddy shot the target we were all aiming for!  I'd say beginner's luck :-P  and obviously no photo to prove it.  Sooo... it's as if it never happened??! LOL!

On Sunday, we went to a local Farmer's Market where the Preparedness Expo was also going on.  I hope this is the only time I see the boys in a police vehicle.  And especially NOT in the backseat of one!

Check these out!  I never knew the cops that these fancy jet skis:

As per usual, Graham is hanging out by the table where the technology is.  They had regular flying drones and also underwater drones:

And we finally bought a bucket of emergency supplies!  It's not much but includes just enough water and food (some sort of packaged biscuits) to last each of us for 3 days if necessary. And the bucket doubles as a toilet.  Ps, seat sold separately.  LOL!

This kit will expire in 5 years.  I really hope we won't ever have to use it (especially the thought of having to poop in it!) but you just never know these days.  There was an 4.3 magnitude earthquake not too far from us last month.  And in reality, there are constant movements going on and recorded every day.  And there are almost always fires in and around the state of California.  We smell the smoke sometimes and then when it rains, the fire/burnt spots are prone to flash flooding.  So needless to say, we need to always be prepared.  The car is now always filled up with at least half a tank of gas. 

Halloween is this weekend.  We have no idea what we're going to do yet.  I suppose I don't mind the boys going trick-or-treating but I don't want them eating any of that candy that someone else has touched/put into their bags.  Bob keeps insisting that perhaps we should put a bucket of candy out on our front stoop but what if just one of those hands reaching in is contaminated??!  I don't think I want to be responsible for that.

Stay safe everyone!

Beautiful sunset

We were driving along the coast over the weekend and came across the beautiful sunset.  But right before that, we were reliving the time when we first came down this hill to check out our apartment complex 4 years ago now -  when we first moved out to Southern California.  The coastal view is just so pretty here:

The main reason to come down this way is so Charlie can have his soft-shell crab.  It was his reward for shooting over 180 points in archery and moving up into the Advanced class.  Yay Charlie! 

He loves his soft-shelled crabs! Ha ha!

As we were leaving, the sunset was just beautiful:

We decided to take a little detour:

Family we-fie but those colors are not showing up!

Good one of Graham and Charlie:

These boys are so goofy.  Ha ha! 

I'm just glad they are still willing to let me boss them around to take impromptu photos :-)

One last photo right before leaving.  Beautiful!

I hope we don't have to leave California, but if we do then so be it.  We've definitely created lots of memories here.

New paint project

Okay, so call me crazy but every time I look up towards the ceiling of our back patio - I am just not happy.  So I decided to just start painting it.   This was suppose to have been a summer project as there's so much to prep!  The existing paint is scraping off so that needs to be cleared up, although I am not going to sand it down.  That is just waaaaaaay too much work.  Ha!  So hopefully just painting will clean it up a bit.  But first off, time to pick the paint color:

I was thinking of maybe something lighter but this probably works too.  "Wild truffles" it's called - flat sheen and crazy expensive. Sheesh! And I really wonder who comes up with these names.  Ha ha!

No turning back now!

And oh, I found the jumpsuit that I had bought a while ago.  Ha ha!  Keeps me safe from the paint! Although I did just get some dripping paint on my face the other day. LOL!!!

At least the hummingbirds are still coming by and not afraid of me in my suit :-P

I would be afraid of ME in this outfit.  The boys said it will be my Halloween outfit.  Ha ha!

Unfortunately, you can still see a lot of the unevenness but like I said, there's no way I'm sanding this. Hopefully once the new string lights are up, no one will even notice it (other than me, of course!):

Okay, 2 panels done...

And a gazillion more to go! Phew!!!

And there's also a few smaller panes on the outer part as well.  Maybe I shouldn't have started this project at all.  Alrighty, wish me lots of luck!!!

And oh, Bobby wants me to change out those old florescent lights too.  Guess I'll have to change out my "hats" to do that too.  Ha ha!  :-P

Charlie's tooth

About a week ago, Charlie lost one of his tooth.  I almost forgot to record it!  Must be the 2nd child thing... where it doesn't matter anymore??! Ha ha, poor Charlie.  He obviously still does matter :-)

The tooth that Charlie loosened and finally popped off was his upper left canine.  He had been wriggling it for the past few weeks.  Looks like it's a bit early to pop off (supposedly between 10-12 years old) but the new one is already starting to come in:

And looks like the new permanent upper right canine tooth is also ready to come out.  Charlie will need to start wriggling it or perhaps we should take him to the dentist.  It's not going to be good for him to have 2 teeth in the same spot!

Well, this kid is still eating his sweets but perhaps not as often as before. Although with Halloween coming up, we will need to definitely monitor his sugar intake.  We did let him slide this past weekend with a flavored shaved ice.  We went to watch a local symphony at the park, which was a nice break from our regular routine:

Looks like it may have inspired some singing in the car on the way home:

Too funny!  Such a character!

Fun photography session

A good friend of mine used to be a professional wedding photographer and she offered to take our family portraits this past Sunday.  Glad everyone was on board as I had to actually buy some new outfits for Graham and Charlie that same morning.  They didn't have a single pair of jeans between the two of them.  Ha ha!

But we did get carried away a bit with buying some Halloween outfits.  Graham will be needing something for school.  But errr.... Houston, we may have a problem here with Spiderman's glasses.  LOL!  

Anyhow, I don't think costume masks are allowed at school since the kids are expected to wear a real mask due to Covid protocals.

Charlie, on the other hand is going to be Black Panther. Check out those (fake) muscles! He especially loves that mask and was wondering if he would wear it every day for online school.  Ha ha!

I also let Charlie buy some more hair ties.  He's obsessed with putting them around his little Wolfie.  Never a dull moment with this kid I tell you!

Okay, off to our photography session!  Our friend offered to let the boys ride in her Jeep.  It was a quick YES from both of them! 

And while on-site, Bobby was being quite the handy assistant to the photographer :-)

Who's being so silly.  Ha ha!  I couldn't have picked a more challenging spot.  We had to wait for the cars to drive by:

I also needed some photos for Charlie since he did not have any professional photos taken for his school year.  He was definitely working in and made sure to put Daddy and our photographer friend in the bushes.  LOL!

Such a poser!

And looks like Daddy was having some fun too.  Seriously... bunny ear for Charlie??!

I was really hoping to recreate this photo that was taken back in November 2015. It was taken by our wedding photographer at the same park where Bobby and I said our "I do's":

Not quite the same but you can definitely see how much the boys have grown :-)

She has yet to edit these photos so just the rough drafts for now, so to speak.  Although she did talk about getting another session in elsewhere, perhaps by the beach.  Stay tuned :-)

Advanced level (Archery)

Charlie has finally progressed to the Avanced level.  Woohoo!!!  He shot a total of 228!  A whole lot more than the 180 points that he needed to pass the Beginner class (that's assuming my math was correct):

Charlie was so confident especially after Friday night's lesson.  He did decide to take off the stabilizer from the bow and perhaps that was a bit easier.  The bow itself plus the pull weight is still a bit heavy for him.  And we actually had it measured this past Saturday - the pull weight is just over 23lbs.  Yikes!  The bow that Bob and I share has a pull weight of 25 lbs. So it's definitely a tad too heavy for them.  Maybe it will be something we can reduce again.

But it hasn't prevented Graham to continue shooting over 200 points.  He scored 216 last week:

And Mommy has an all time personal record of 231.  Yay! :-)

We have yet to celebrate with fried soft-shell crab - Charlie's favorite dish.  But in the meantime, we celebrate with some Guinness. LOL!

There's a tournament later in December that we may attempt to compete it. It will be our first event!  It will also a Christmas charity event so should be a fun day!

Walk down memory lane

I was clearing out a couple of boxes in the garage (yeah... still doing it even after 3 years in this house!) and found some stuff.  First off, some traditional hand-woven hats from my hometown in Malaysia.  I wonder if the locals still use these or if they are just for promotional purposes:

I still haven't figured out a spot to hang these hats yet so back into a box they go.  Well, actually I've upgraded them into a plastic container instead so hopefully the hats will continue to stay in good shape as they are now.

I also found a floppy disk and some old paperwork for the golf tour that I used to play on.  Geez, that was a long time ago! The floppy disk has 2004 written on it and the Futures Tour Golf Tour was back in 2008:

If anything, I got to show the boys what a floppy disk looks like.  It would probably be difficult to even try and find a computer that has a floppy disk insert these days.  Ha ha!

And some more pamphlets and programs/tee-times for some old tournaments. And my player's pin from 2011.  I wonder where the rest of my player's pins are. You'd think I have them all put together somewhere:

I keep wondering if I should go back to my Amateur status.  That way I would be able to play in more local tournaments. The LPGA used to have a golf tournament in Malaysia and that's no longer played there.  So I'm not sure why I'm still hanging on to my Professional status.  Hmmm.... maybe just for a bit longer :-P