Random photos for January

I've come to realize that it's already February and there were a whole bunch of photos in January that didn't get posted! So, here they are.  First off, a belated Christmas gift from a dear friend.  She knows my taste! :-)

The only consolation with driving up and down the hill every day during the school week are the views:

There's been some pretty sunset here lately:

Don't ask... there was an old lawnmower that was put out by someone (within the neighborhood) to be thrown away.  And of course, Graham wanted it:

Another Mommy + Daddy date while the boys are at school.  I could get used to this:-D

Yes, it's way too convenient to have a Boba place just minutes away from the school.  When I'm out and about and have a few minutes to spare, it a yummy pick-me-up for the hour long drive routine during school pick-up:

I've been working on some macrame.  This one is a little handbag, which was a Christmas gift:

I've actually gotten to the end/bottom of the bag... but I'm thinking instead of tying it off, I might want to sew a lining on the inside???  See, this is why I have so many unfinished projects. LOL!!

We went out golfing on MLK Day.  So glad the boys enjoy doing this with us, as we enjoy playing golf with them too.  They are definitely slowly but surely coming along with their game:

And boys have no issues pushing their own golf carts too, so that's always a good thing:

Since Graham's collarbone is still recovering, we only let him chip and putt around the green.  Looks like Graham has some pressure to getting this one close on the hole!

And looks like Mommy wins!! Or was it Daddy? I don't remember now :-P  By the way, did we get our ice-cream treats yet??! 

The school district is requiring that kids test at home after the short 3-day weekend.  The numbers of positive Covid cases skyrocketed after the Christmas holidays.  Hope things settle down soon! 

And actually, I just received an email from Graham's school that he was a close contact to someone that tested positive (as of Wed 2/2) .  So far, Graham has had no symptoms and since he is vaccinated - he is allowed back on campus during this past week.  He will need to test today (Sunday) and send his results to the nurse before going back to school tomorrow.  So far so good on the non-existence of symptoms so I'm happy about that!!

In the meantime, we have also bought a few more things to fill up the "prep bag" that my good friend also bought (along with the Bailey's).  This bag will go into Bobby's car as we don't have an emergency bag in there. I've filled it up with some Emergency Water - 3 pouches per person to last 3 days. And there's also the new pocket knife and lantern, which my friend also bought.  She's such a sweet friend!

And I swear I'm not going crazy with all this prepping.  It's just a precaution.  But call me crazy if you don't see a cloud shaped like a shark??!  Specifically it's Bruce the shark in the animation Finding Nemo!!

See what I mean??!  Ha ha!!!

Graham had another doctor's appointment during the school week.  After the visit, we took the opportunity to grab some lunch before sending him back to school.  I love ramen noodles - thankfully Graham does too:

For a moment we thought there was a major emergency in the area, but seems that there has been lots of film shooting in downtown San Pedro.  Seeing Austin Police in Los Angeles should have been a big clue for us.  Ha ha!

By the way, speaking of Graham.  This is what I have to deal with when I tell him to put his laundry into the wash.  He "literally" puts his laundry in.  There's been several times when he will take things literally.  I swear I'm going to get even more white hairs on my head!

Looks like I killed another plant/succulent from over-watering.  Urgh!!

The reason I bought this particular succulent was because I didn't have this specific type.  So looks like I just need to replace it with something that I already have in my yard.  Although, this one does look pretty cute with our little rock face :-)

And I also put another succulent that broke off in the yard into my little fox planted that I had made last year.  Kinda works!

Our gardener seems to be MIA (missing in action) so we decided to take matters into our own hands:

This new trimmer seems to work quite well!  Except there's lots to clean up after.  And, the trimmer is quite heavy so it's quite the work out too:

Charlie had a recent Science project of making his volcano.  He decided to build a "shield" volcano using paper mache:

Not too shabby!

And now comes the part of making the solution to make his volcano "explode".  Here are a couple of videos of our experiments:

https://youtu.be/WHmoUtGqjBo
https://youtu.be/Vt9knd4_rgw

And of course, the boys never fail to use these funny filters on my phone when I'm not paying much attention.  Ha ha!

Okay,... pretty hilarious!

The mess from experimenting plus all the existing mess in the kitchen sink... not so hilarious unfortunately:

Charlie also has had another recent project of "Grit".  He decided to interview my dad (or Lao Ye to Charlie) for it and I'm glad I was able to dig up some old photos for his project:

Nice work, Charlie! 

Phew,... and first week of February is already over!  We just celebrated Chinese New Year. Well, it goes on for 15 days so technically we are still celebrating.  I feel that I've been cooking a lot and having to clean up after too, which has just been exhausting! Thankfully Chinese New Year is only once a year.  Ha ha!  I'll be posting about CNY next so stay tuned :-)