LA Zoo

I didn't get a chance to post about our trip to the LA Zoo a couple of weekends ago.  Bobby and I figured that since it is almost the end of the summer holidays, it is probably the best chance of using our family membership before it expires in December.  It almost seems like quite the chore to drive into downtown LA.  The traffic is just so terrible even on the weekends!

We didn't use our free tickets yet for the Zoo Rides so today was the perfect chance.  Plus, we only arrived at the zoo around 2:30pm so there wasn't a lot of time to actually walk around. It's a big zoo!

Daddy being silly with his reading glasses:

Graham snuggling with Momma:

 The boys insisted on bringing their little umbrellas from the last zoo visit.  I guess at least we are getting our monies worth out of it:

We got to see the Orang Utans today.  And I am trying to teach Charlie the words "Selamat Datang", which means "Welcome" in the Malay language:

Somehow, both boys were up against the glass when a gorilla came by and sat next to the glass.  Everyone was trying to take a photo and the boys didn't budge at all. LOL!!!

After it cleared out a bit, I was finally able to take a photo of Graham and Charlie. They did hog that space a bit long :-P

We finally bought some popcorn and Daddy was showing his "lizard tongue" skills....

Looks like the skill is catching on!!!

Zoo closes at 5pm and so we head home not too long after the quick visit.  I am really surprised how it doesn't stay open for longer in the summer time.  Oh well, nonetheless it is always a fun one for Graham and Charlie!

By the way, we spotted this lady pushing a "triple" stroller on the way out.  Talk about a work-out!

And I can't imagine having multiples of Graham and Charlie.  YIKES!!!

Graham lost a tooth today

We just came back from New Jersey last night and since Graham and Charlie didn't brush their teeth last night (boys went to bed past midnight Eastern time!), I decided to just floss and brush their teeth this morning.  I mean, what damage can 3 cups of apple juice during the flight really do??!  Although the flight attendant told me I should be so proud of them when the boys ordered their own juice while I was using the bathroom.  Ha!

Anyway, while I was brushing Graham's teeth, one of his tooth popped out!

It is the Upper right Canine (cuspid), which on this diagram that I found says it should only shed at age 10-12.  Looks like it's out early!  Or... maybe it was bad and popped out.  Who knows! I don't think the boys brush their teeth very well, especially Charlie.  It sounded like he was going through some sort of torture machine when I was brushing his teeth.  Looks like I will have to take over and brush their teeth again every night.  It was nice not having to do it but I'm not exactly sure how much our next dental bill will be at this point!

I hope the tooth fairy remembers about that loose tooth tonight :-D

Whimsical bottles

During the Puncher's visit here last week, there was a purchase of some Italian beer in some green bottles.  I was going to actually recycle these bottles at first but then decided they actually looked quite pretty!  So I soaked them to get the labels off and we painted them:

From right to left - the bottles say: Butterflies, Garden, Music, Love, Family, and as for the last one, Graham didn't want to draw anything so he wrote a secret message:

... in secret ink no less.  Not sure if that ink might eventually fade in the sun.  Guess we will find out whenever we decide to open it up!  By the way, if you're wondering - Graham has to wear an eye-patch for an hour or so every day.  This helps his left eye work a little harder and also to improve his depth perception.  Don't think he will ever be a pilot but you just never know ;-)  

Back to the beer bottles... I found some old wine corks to close up the bottles and since I couldn't find my ball of twine, I found some vines by the side of the house.  It was the same vine that I had used to make the wreath for the front door.  And while in the process of doing so, I managed to cut myself with my clippers!  I just barely swiped my arm with the tip of the clippers:

As if I am not getting enough scars from gardening.  Here are some other scars/scratches on my right arm that I had managed to get while removing some weeds and vine in the front side of the house:

Maybe I just need to start working on the yard with long sleeve gloves instead!

I hope these bottles look more whimsical than trashy.  Ha ha!  I pulled on the vines once the bottles were on the tree and 2 of them snapped.  I didn't find enough vine yet for the last 2 bottles so I left them on the ground for now.  I don't think they look so bad and so far, Bobby hasn't said anything yet.  Maybe he didn't even notice them!

Slowly but surely we are putting our personal touches to the house :-D

Garden update

I actually had to clean up the garden at school last week.  I had signed up for the Garden Classes in the Fall but who knew the volunteers also had to maintain the garden during the summer!  Well, we found a few veggies that were ready for picking.  Look at the size of that zucchini!!!  I guess that means I have to make zucchini bread then???!

In the meantime, both our blackberry plants are not doing very well.  I wonder if I can take them back to the store and ask for a refund???

My friend Linda gave me a couple of bell pepper plants for my birthday and one of them has a couple of peppers on them.  So exciting!

Over the weekend, I decided to take out the Yucca plant that was growing along the side of the house.  It was sort of smushed in among all the other foliage and knowing how big this Yucca plant can grow, I figured it was time to take it out.  Phew... what a battle!  The roots were not very deep but they were surely holding on strong to the dirt!  Needless to say, after about an hour or so, it was Yucca: 0 to Mommy: 1.  Hooray!!!

And in the meantime, I also decided to take out the makeshift grapevine poles that almost looks like a clothes line.  These were put up by the previous owner and we had been wanting to take it down for the longest time.  I did finally take down the one grape vine that was growing there.  It was the only vine that produced grapes but gosh, they were so sour!

And as small as they were, there was also 1 single seed in it!  I save these bunch of grapes but even so, not really knowing what I am going to do with it.  It's just pretty to look at.  Ha ha!

Yay, clothes line no more and the Yucca plant looks so much happier here!  These plants are suppose to be very low maintenance.  My biggest worry is actually over watering it!  I don't think I had the proper soil for it so I had to mix some potting mix and also some of the dirt from the ground from digging.  Maybe that will help keep the water draining better?!

There is an orange tree next to the Yucca plant that we are thinking of getting rid of as well.  We'll see when that will actually be done.  And actually, the rest of the grape vines as well along that pergola.  I am thinking of putting a small putting green under the pergola there.  He he he...

So happy that the gardener came by over the weekend and fixed up our sprinklers!  The sprinklers used to spray everywhere so we ended up having him put in drip lines instead.  I should have taken a photo of what I had drawn out.  We have 3 different spouts that run 3 separate sprinkler lines.  It was tricky figuring which spout turned on which sprinkler without getting too wet!

I'm sure the plants will be a lot happier now.  I planted the 2 rose bushes that we had brought over from Phoenix in this same plot as where the bell peppers are.  And we have a small tomato plant growing as well as a sweet pepper plant:

I decided to hang one tomato plant in our apricot tree - upside down in a container:

Will see how it all turns out. Stay tuned for further updates! :-)

Happy 7th Birthday to Charlie! (July 31)

Finally, as Charlie would say... "It is now my birthday!  I am the boss for the day!"  Ha ha!

The poor fella had to wait until after all of our birthdays in May and June before it is finally his special day.  I know I keep saying this about how quickly the boys are growing up, but yup, 7 years old now and weighing in at about 55lbs and 4 ft tall.  He is catching up to Graham in height!  People are still asking if they are twins. Although I don't think they look as much alike now with their different hairstyles.

Awww... some brotherly love first thing in the birthday morning:

 Graham bought Charlie a new drone and of course, it has to be blue in color:

Unfortunately, the drone is already starting to fail!  Maybe there is still time to return it despite throwing away all the packaging? Hmmm...

In any case, Charlie was a happy boy with his cake!  Mommy was put to the test again at the last minute to put a "light-saber" cake together.  I think it turned out pretty nicely.  Ha ha!

Here is our birthday song:

And then, Charlie invited "Alexa" to the party too!  It's crazy how this world of younger generation are thinking with all the technology that is available to them:

I love this next photo.  LOL!!!

We are off the Angels baseball game today!  Charlie is taking his catnap:

After almost an hour on the road, we are almost there!  You can sort of see 2 red caps in the distance:

The baseball stadium looks awesome!  Charlie is still trying to wake up from his nap:

We-fie!

I am obviously a fan of these giant Angels caps!

I love LOVE this photo of Charlie.  He looks so grown up here!

I know a baseball field is just a baseball field, but there is always something nice about walking into one that you have never been to before:

Too bad I don't drink!  A wine cellar in a baseball stadium??!

I made sure Bobby got us seats in the shade this time, so off we go onto the next floor up.  PS, Charlie is wearing his Angels baseball jersey - Pridgen #3:

I can't believe that Graham actually wanted to eat our garlic fries!  He had some and passed the rest to us.  And then, after a little while, he wanted some more so we made Daddy get another batch, but this time - as per his request, no ranch dressing on the top:

Nice and green:

There is a waterfall on this one side and thankfully we were also able to see the fireworks go off once during the solo home-run in the 6th inning:

This was the 2nd batch of garlic fries that Graham requested and Charlie is obviously super happy with his big tub of pop-corn:

Next round of food... salted pretzel for Charlie and cookies-and-cream ice-cream in a waffle cup for Graham:

The Angels are being whooped today!  Boo hoo....

The Angels lost 9-1 against the Detroit Tigers.  Oh well, at least the boys had a good time:

I didn't realize that Gene Autry was the founder of the California Angels in 1961:

Yes, I am still amazed with the structure of this Angels hat.  Sort of the same fascination with taking photos of bridges too I suppose :-)

One last photo before leaving the field.  When Graham got off that cement baseball, he immediately said it was actually really hot! LOL!

We are off to dinner.  Charlie said he wanted to eat at our favorite crepe restaurant (again!).  And somehow, I had forgotten to close my side of the door??!  I obviously blame the kids:

Graham and Charlie bought some new cars recently so that is still keeping them occupied... for now:

Charlie accidentally knocked over the glass of water and thankfully didn't break the glass but dumped all the water on the table and floor.  He kept looking at me knowing that I would be upset.  Just look at that pout:

Well, after dinner we went to have gelato instead of having crepe, which was quite the surprise.  Nonetheless, never missing a beat:

We are finally home and there is one more birthday present... a new bike!

Thank you Grandma and Pop-pop for contributing to the bike too!  I couldn't put it together in time as I had to bake the cake the night before.  So the next day, it was our little project to put the bike together:

Graham was actually a great helper and managed to put the handle bar into the bike frame while I was reading the manual.  Ha ha! And once it was all put together... WOAH!!!  The new bike is actually bigger than Graham's bike!

We haven't figured out what we are going to do yet about this conundrum.  The obvious solution would be to promote Graham to the new bike and have Charlie take Graham's bike, but right off the bat - Charlie does not like how heavy Graham's bike is.  We attempted to have Charlie try his new bike at school but he didn't even want to bring it!  Maybe once he grows another inch taller or so, he wouldn't be so afraid of the big bike.

In the meantime, Charlie is still a baby when he is tired.  Aaahhh... precious... quiet... moments:

Happy birthday to our Charlie!!!  With this kid, who knows what this next year will bring!