Sickie

Poor Pay was so upset when I told her she was going to have to stay home today because she is to snotty and goopy to go to school. She was all set to go to school and then have a play date with her friend, Georgia.

Her big sis, Kaylin, offered to make up a special cozy spot on the couch for her and Pay quickly perked up asking if she could watch a movie.

She is now all snuggled up watching "Finding Nemo" with all her favorite lovies.

*Side note:     Kaylin asked me if that was how she acted if I told her that she would have to miss Kindergarten. In which my response was "Ummm.... No Kaylin, you did not get upset. In fact, I think you would be happy to stay home everyday with me and cuddle on that couch."  She smiled and said "Yes, I would."

Christmas 2010

I feel like Christmas came and went faster than ever this year!

We had a yummy Thai inspired dinner at my sister, Andria's house for Christmas Eve. The kids decorated cookies for Santa and played hard until it was time to go home and get ready for bed.

They put on their matching Christmas jams and took the annual pic on the fireplace. They did their sister gift exchange earlier in the day. This year we tried doing a "Secret Santa" style gift exchange with them. They each drew a name and then made or bought small gifts to give throughout the month of December. Unfortunately, after the first exchange, they quickly found out who their Santa was. They continued with the giving, but when it was time to do one gift for the sister exchange, they opted to get a gift for each sister.

Cookies and milk for Santa. Carrots, celery, and water for his reindeer.

A special note from Kaylin to Santa.

A present for Santa from Emma.

A present for Santa from Payton.

The tree full of presents (the ones in bags are from Grandma). Dao picks her up every Christmas morning so she can eat breakfast and watch the kids open their gifts from Mom and Dad.

Kaylin opening her Harry Potter wand, and Em opening her Sounders Jersey. This is the only picture I took while they were opening our gifts!?!?! The following photos are all that I took for the entire day. I usually take a minimum of 100 picture on Christmas. Can you tell I wasn't feeling well?

The playroom was packed with presents and people!

Kaylin game Uncle Dan a Penguin made of Sculpey clay.

Goo Goo Xuan with her sophisticated ladies watch. :)

Auntie Andria wearing her new hat to keep her ears warm.

After Em opened her Sounders jersey, she requested Daddy put his on so that they could be twinsies/matchers.

No snow for Christmas, but it did snow a few days after. Haley stayed the night at her friends and Pay played out for a bit, but Em and Kaylin were out for a couple of hours and built this cute snowman.

I still can't believe that I hardly have any pics from Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving!

My brother in-law, Dan, had this on his Facebook page and I had to share.

I love The Muppets, The Swedish Chef, and Popcorn Shrimp!

Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours!

PS. Watch it once with closed captions. You won't regret it!

Vacay to Birch Bay

This year was the our first annual vacation with the Goo-Goo's and Uncle's. Dao has three sisters, two are married, and one is engaged. They don't have any kids, so when we get together our girls are spoiled with attention! At a family gathering we were all talking about camping, and we decided we should plan a trip together. We scheduled it for Dao's birthday weekend in early October, so we vetoed camping and decided to rent a house/cabin. Xuan found a cute little place right across from the beach and we had a blast!

Uncle Dan declared it a TV free weekend, but we still used our ipods and cell phones a little.

Uncle Dan says Payton is a natural horn player!

We got up early to take advantage of low tide, but only found one teeny, tiny, crab. The dogs loved playing on the beach, too! We had game nights (and days), enjoyed the beach, took a walk to the local candy shop, flied kites, did a couple of low tide walks, watched the sunset, and roasted marshmallows around the campfire. 

The sunset was beautiful. Kaylin and Daddy wanted to get a little closer to the water to enjoy it.

It was not quite breezy enough to fly kites, but they sure did try to get them up in the air.

We each took turns making meals and cleaning up, so it was stress free.

We had so much fun that we wanted to stay another night!

Thank you so much Goo-Goo Linh and Uncle Brian, Goo-Goo B and Uncle Rob, and Goo-Goo Xuan and Uncle Dan. These are memories that the girls will have for a lifetime!
We love spending time with you!

School Jog-A-Thon

We did it! Our school reached it's goal of making over $40,000!!!!!

It was a long day for us volunteers, but so worth it! The kids all worked so hard and took this fundraiser very seriously, determined to meet the goal.

Thank you so much to all who pledged and supported our girls and their school!

(Sorry, but no pic of Isa and Luc. They were to fast for me!)

Back to School 2010 Edition

 Okay, so it has been a looooooooong time since I blogged! I have been having a hard time uploading pics to blogger. Every time I attempt, it closes down my Internet Explorer! Ugh! So every few days, I sit down and try again, only to have it happen again!
Anyway, I was able to upload some today, and I'm hoping to be able to get some posts in soon.

This year was a huge milestone for the C6 family! All of our girls are in school. As in the same school, every day! This is super exciting for them, but sad for the Mommy. I can't help but miss my buddies. Especially my baby, Pay, our youngest. We home schooled her last year, so she was with me most of the time. She was so ready for Kindergarten, though.

 The week before school, her classroom had a "get to know each other" gathering. The kids all played, explored the classroom, and met many of their new friends. Pay is so happy to have her best bud Dev in class with her! She also knew many of the other kiddos because they have siblings her sisters ages. Needless to say, she was very comfortable with her new class.

 Here they are on the big day.

 Pay and Dev are locker buddies!

She sure does love Madi (Dev's little sis)!

 At her table with some friends. =)

Em with her class.  She got a haircut the day before, and ended up not liking it because she felt it was to short. Poor thing was devastated! She was able to pull herself (and her hair) together and continue on with her first day of 2nd grade.

 Kaylin was happy to find out that she and one of her besties (since pre-school) were back in class together! She is in 4th grade, and at our multi-age classrooms they will be together for next three years! We are all so happy that she was assigned to Haley's old class, and so there is much familiarity with the classroom and teachers. Although, one of the teachers is new as a full time teacher, she was a sub for them many times in the past, so she knows the kids well.

Haley is in 7th grade this year! That means that we have a middle schooler?!?!  (For those of you who don't know, Dao and I met in the 7th grade and started dating in 8th! We love to tease her and her friends that they might meet their future husbands this year. Actually, I love to tease about that. Dao doesn't think it's very funny. In fact, he gets a little upset when I do it. haha!)

Haley is doing great in Middle School so far, adjusting to her new schedule. She decided to be a TA for her elective and is working in her old class where Kaylin is now. She is also taking Language, Algebra, Applied Science, Social Studies, PE, and is once again in the Jazz Band playing Piano.

Jetty Island

I can't believe we had never been to Jetty Island! For years people have told me how great it is to take the free ferry and spend the day on a sand bar, picnicking and playing in the sand. It sounded great, but we never took the time to check it out, until Haley wanted to go for her birthday. Unfortunately, her friends were all either busy or on vacation and couldn't join her for an August party, so we decided to go as a family and bring along Amara and Caleb from the M4.

We got there around 4pm and found that the little snack shack had Italian Soda's! We quickly got one for each of the kiddo's (and the worst ever iced latte for me!) and then hopped on the ferry. The kids played for hours, wading in the water, building sand castles, and then the tide started to quickly come in. Everyone got dressed, and then the older kids took a short "nature walk" to the end of the bar to watch the wind surfer people. The temp was almost 95 degrees that day, but we had a nice breeze, and the ocean water to keep us cool. It felt like it was in the 70's not 90's.

My favorite part of the afternoon was watching the sunset while on the ferry. It was beautiful!

We will definitely be going back to Jetty Island again, and if you have never been, don't wait.... GO!