Happy Valentine's Day

I can't really remember what we did now for Valentine's Day.  I think we just had dinner at home.  Did I make steaks?!  The last batch of steaks I grilled was really yummy - that's all I remember for now.  Ha!

I did get the boys some new additions to their marble run.  I'm hoping they will be off their phones more with it:

Although there isn't much space to work the marble run other than in one corner of the kitchen floor?!

I did finally get done with a table that I had bought from a thrift store a long long time ago. Figured it would be a good game table for the basement.  Will post an update on that soon!  

By the way, Graham said these 2 add-ons were too expensive for what it does.  Hmmm... these kids are too difficult to please these days?!

Bob wasn't so sure about this helmet cooler though at first:

But it's been working really well for his canned drinks next to his work area! 

I think the boys are happier now too because they don't have to go downstairs to the fridge downstairs to get Bobby his carbonated drinks.  Ha!

Until next year!

CNY - Year of the Dragon

Happy Chinese New Year! It's the Year of the Dragon this year - that's my year and also Charlie's!  Can't believe I'm going to be 48 years old this year.  And Charlie will be 12.  He's a Water Dragon and I'm a Fire Dragon (based on the 5 different elements within the Chinese Zodiac).  It's no wonder we butt heads so much!

Thankfully Charlie likes to make dumplings though.  He's a great helper!

Where as Graham only made like 3 dumplings.  Ha ha! At least he is still helping somewhat.  I guess that's all that matters at this point.

Good batch of dumplings!

I found out that a friend of Graham's is in the Chinese Immersion program at school and so we made extra and gave them some. I also finally found some black vinegar - to be mixed with soy sauce as the dipping sauce. Made such a huge difference!

I also made some pineapple cookies this year. Chinese New Year coincided with Valentine's Day this year, so I figured it was best to make some heart-shaped ones:

The round ones are still so much better somehow.  I guess there's just something about how the entire batter of butter & condense milk melting in your mouth, combined with the pineapple puree of course: 

I don't know how I ended up with so much pineapple puree this year.  I made a lot of cookies!

I haven't made Chinese Pancakes in ages and the dough was really fighting back! Graham did help me flip the pancakes:

Not too bad,... somewhat edible. I was so sore the next day though from all that dough kneading - arms and abs. Who knew! LOL!!

My sister bought this dice game for us.  If I were to literally translate it from Chinese, it would be "Prawn, Crab". 

Graham was the banker - yeah, it's gambling in some way.  We did use Monopoly money instead.  There's 6 different items on the board (or piece of paper in this case) -- a gourd, crab, fish, rooster, prawn, and a coin.  You put your money on a specific item and you get paid out accordingly to what shows up on the 3 dice:

It's all obviously a game of chance and luck.  You get paid double if you have 2 of a kind on the dice and triple if all 3 show items show up on the dice.  We used to play this game so much as kids and we would use our money that we received in our "ang pow" or red packets.  It can get pretty serious because if you're not careful, you can really lose all your money!

Chinese New Year was really quiet this year as we are not suppose to celebrate it due to the recent passing of my dad.  No dressing up in anything red, no ang pows to give the boys, no CNY decorations. I think everyone was just glad we were still able to eat dumplings though :-)

Orchestra/Band ~ Feb 4 & 8

I'm so glad both Graham and Charlie are still into their music.  Graham still plays violin for Orchestra and Charlie decided on clarinet for Band.

I finally got a chance to see Graham in action again.  I had missed two of his recital last year because of my multiples trips to Malaysia.  Oh, and Graham gave me this face because he was upset we went to McDonald's without him. He loves McDs for whatever reason!

Full house!  

We-fie :-)

There's Graham - looks like he is actually paying attention:

Not too shabby! They actually sound pretty good!

Here's the orchestra.  I'm thinking it's only for the kids in high school:

And they sound AMAZING!!

Graham is growing up too fast! 

Believe it or not, he actually has a baby mustache now and his voice is changing a bit too.

Boba and desserts after nearby.  It's always phone time with these boys:

See what I mean?! What does YouTube have that the real world doesn't have?? Ha!

Charlie gets all psyched up after watching the recital and decides to bust out a hand-me-down trumpet from his cousin:

Needs some work but definitely has potential! :-)

The keys were actually stuck.  So thankfully for YouTube, we were able to figure out how to oil them.  Charlie says he wants to be like his Band teacher, who can play all sorts of instruments :-)

A few days later, it was Charlie's turn:

6th Grade is sounding pretty good!

There hasn't been much progress with Moonlight Sonata on the piano lately with the boys' VR headset.  Perhaps if I tried to play/practice more on the piano, the boys might be more encouraged?  I have been organizing in the basement more lately.  More photos to follow soon.  But in the meantime, I'm cherishing all these moments.  I am definitely feeling a bit nostalgic lately about how quickly the boys are growing up, especially finding all their baby and toddler photos lately too.  Time is flying by too fast!!

Snowboarding trips (end of Jan)

We are trying to embrace the cold (yet another winter!) in the Midwest.  I guess we should have thought about how far we wanted to drive to our season-pass ski slope. 2 hours didn't seem that far last year, but this year it's a lot more than what we want to drive back and forth in a single day!

Do we have a muscle guy or what?!  Ha ha, that's Charlie for you. Never a dull moment in these hotel rooms:

Charlie is always trying to be stronger than Graham.  And I keep telling him that he shouldn't compare himself to Graham and at this point, Graham will always be stronger than him.  

So I'm sure once he has the opportunity to get stronger that Graham, he's going to go for it! It seems that Charlie is already eating more than Graham, so it will only be a matter of time!

Okay, we are here!

There's a huge tubing area too that we've yet to try out.  Maybe next season!

Okay, ready!

Okay, maybe not quite ready yet.  Ha ha!

But Graham is really the best snowboarder out of all of us, then Charlie,...

And then, Momma.  Hi!

Daddy, on the other hand - had a fall on his 2nd run on his skis.  Not a happy camper!

Boys are keeping track of Momma:

Looking good boys!

Graham is on his phone... again!

Charlie, being too tired.  Ha ha!

Getting up this beginner hill is no easy task.  At least it wasn't for me last year.  Graham makes that tow-rope look so easy and he doesn't even unbind his one foot off his snowboard:

And Charlie is still on the ground at the bottom of the hill.  Ha!

After a few more tries, YES!!

Despite everything, everyone is definitely improving going down the hill.  You can see both Graham and Charlie in this video.  Graham in black toward the right side of the video and Charlie in green pants to the left:

I made it up the hill a couple of times too.  Yay!!  And survived the day. Ha ha!

There was a food truck selling mini donuts.  Good way to end the day!

When we got home and was cleaning up all the gear, I noticed that my snowboarding boots had a thing for Ride:

And the other side says Walk!

And then, we checked Bobby's ski boots and it had this thing you could rotate with a screwdriver:

It's no wonder he couldn't get into his boots!!

Here goes...

Easy peasy!!!

We didn't get a chance to properly wax our board before our initial trip, so we managed to get our neighbor to help us out with it.  So firstly, just wipe down the board with a paper towel.  Then, get some Goo-gone and clean the board with that. After that, another quite wipe down with a clean paper towel.  Phew!

We should definitely let Jack handle the iron and wax combo!

Press the wax into the iron and let the liquid wax drip in a zig-zag pattern. I guess I need to just find an old iron as well.  And set it between Polyester and Wool!

Once the wax is on, lightly handle the iron and you're basically just ironing your board. Spread all the wax evenly and don't forget all the sides!  And then, here comes the messy part.  Find a metal scraper of some sort (even an old credit card works), angle it about 45 degrees, and start scraping the wax off.  Yup, the one you just put on!

Looking good, Charlie!

Once it's all pretty even, use a scrub sponge to finally smooth everything out:

And we're done!  I think that was it?!  Ha ha, I better look at my notes!

Well, we have another trip coming up.  Graham and Charlie joined the Ski Club at school and Bobby and I are having to chaperone.  Feels like there more stuff than when we go out golfing.  Maybe because the snowboards are a bit awkward?!  

I'm thinking we need some sort of cover and/or sling because the edges of the boards can be quite sharp.

Daddy doing his job announcing the rules on the bus.  Go Daddy! :-)

Mommy survived another night on the slopes. Although I am 0 for 3 getting off those ski lifts.  Why do they have to make it slope downwards when you're getting off the lift??!

Daddy was too lazy to pack his skis so he just hung around the ski resort.  Ha!

You could actually see your breathe but we didn't managed to catch that on the camera.

We might get one or two more weekends of skiing/snowboarding before the season is over.  Hopefully the boys will continue to enjoy it and we'll do it again next winter!