You Can't Outgrow Charlie- even if you want to

Woody was clearing the garden today when I caught a view of him from the kitchen window heading back toward the house with his arm outstretched.  I was talking with Ingrid at the moment and said, "Look out, here comes your dad with a bug."  When he came in and called for Annika, I knew before looking that he found a praying mantis.

Ready to relive a moment of Annika's early childhood, I began calling her too.  Annika came down and we all yelled, "Look, it's Charlie!!!"  Annika did a "ha-ha-ha" back at us and tried to go back up the stairs.  No, a proper greeting was in order for Annika.   Woody put the praying mantis in her hair.  For those that remember, Annika walked around for close to an hour with one in her hair when she was about four.  She introduced it to her toys.

Now, many years later, we couldn't let her get away without atleast a picture of the two of them together again. ;)   

Call it a reunion.

Nom Nom

We finally fulfilled the rain check request from the Althoff family and had a wonderful sit down Korean BBQ meal.  Woody and I ran up to Asiana while the kids were in VBS on Thursday and picked up meat and lettuce and all kinds of wonderful goodies to grill at the table.

We did our best to fill the entire table with banjun and dishes.  Rice wine was added and we also had Harmony juice for desert.

The kids were on their best behavior.  Janet and Michael were in stiches listening to them.  A fox reference immediately caused the kids to belt out "What Does the Fox Say" lyrics.  Annika ran and got her iTouch so they could watch the video.

Great dinner, great conversation.  After dinner, Janet and Woody went to look at the garden and Michael watched the kids play Lego Star Wars on the Wii.  

By seven, everyone was tired and the Althoffs said goodbye.

J. Paul Getty Villa Part 2

The outdoors.  I can't say enough about how beautiful the various gardens are at the Getty Villa.  The main coutyard and the herb garden are my favorites.  Despite the growing visitors, we were able to take some beautiful pictures - all with the iPhone.  We traveled light and I left the DSLR camera at home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

J. Paul Getty Villa Part 1

The Getty Villa in Malibu has one of the prettiest views of the Pacific Ocean that I've ever seen.  Built into a canyon by billionaire J. Paul Getty, the architecture and grounds are built based on Getty's passion:  bequething a museum dedicated to the study of the arts and cultures ofancient Greece, Rome, and Etruria. The collection has 44,000 Greek, Roman, and Etruscan antiquities dating from 6,500 BC to 400 AD, including the Lansdowne Heracles and the Victorious Youth.

The place is amazing.  You need reservations to go because the canyon has llimited parking.  Woody secured a reservation weeks ago for the family and Harmony and Harabagee to visit today.  We arrived at the gate at our scheduled time with our entry paper and proceeded to the underground parking garage.

The Greek and Roman arcitecture is built to meet the sloping lands of the area and the Getty Villa is no exception.  There are multiple levels and buildings and connecting gardens and outdoors meet indoors in many locations.  The staff was super nice to us everywhere we went.  There was so much to look at even the kids enjoyed it.  However, the family play room was Erik's favorite.  Here, they could participate in Greek antiquites and art without fear of touching anything delicate.  The kids designed their own pots and did stencils and trace rubs.

 

Movie Milestone

It's Memorial Day Weekend and the heat has finally arrived.  We're spending the better part of the day indoors working on home projects - like re-organzing cupboards and closets.  It's nice that everyone is helping and working together.

I made a great homemade chicken soup with chicken stock we froze from our last rotisserie chicken.  The kids loved it with homemade biscuits and watermelon we bought from Costco.

Everything was cleaned up and we settled into a movie we bought at Costco - Star Wars.  We finally decided it was time for the Chung Kiddos to see the Star Wars saga.  Erik is hooked on Lego Star Wars and his new Lego Star Wars Dictionary he picked out for his preschool graduation.  This movie completely kept his attention and he can't wait for the Empire Strikes Back.

I love movies at home where the entire family settles down together to watch - bean bag chairs come out, positions set and then total movie bliss - complete with great movie speakers.  I hope we can finish up our movie theater upstairs next winter so we can watch on a big screen again.

Minnesota Girl

After our big weekend of Graduation and Confirmation, we still had some work to do before Monday to help Ingrid get ready for her report on a U.S. State.  With some help from her parents, Ingrid chose Minnesota for her class report.

We spent Sunday afternoon and evening selecting, cutting and glueing a poster of some of the interesting things about Minnesota.  Grandma made a shirt for Ingrid with her embroidery machine.  I am so happy when I think about these t-shirts and my kids reports.  First it was was Morgan's hummingbird report.  Grandma made her a shirt to wear.  Then Annika and her fancy guppy report. Grandma made two shirts so she could pick one to wear for her report.  And now Ingrid with her State report.  I can't wait to see what Erik picks.

Ingrid also prepared a speech to go with her presentation.  She did a great job describing her poster and completing her Minnesota fact book.  Way to go Ingrid!

Facts about Minnesota:

St. Paul is the Capitol of Minnesota.  The bird of Minnesota is the Loon.  The Loon looks black and white and makes a pretty sound at sun down.  The state flower is the Lady Slipper.  The lady slipper is pink and white.  The flag is blue and has a picture in the middle.

Many things are made in Minnesota.  Did you know that people in Minnesota invented Cheerios and tape and Spam and sticky notes and other great things.

Minnesota people love sports.  The sports teams are called Minnesota Twins baseball, Minnesota Vikings football, Minnesota Wild Hockey and the Minnesota Gophers, which is the college.  My grandpa loves the Minnesota Vikings a lot.

Minnesota has four seasons: Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer.  They have lots of snow in winter.  It is cold and the ice can cover a whole bus.  In the spring there are a lot of flowers.  In the summer it is very green and many people go out doors.  In the fall, the colors are so beautiful.   In the summer, the farmers grow mostly corn and soybeans.

Minnesota has ten thousand lakes.  I will say them all now.  Just kidding!  My grandpa and grandma have a cabin on a lake.  The lake is called Bowstring.  Here is what you can do on a lake in Minnesota: go on a boat, go fishing, go tubing, go paddle boat riding, go canoeing with an oar, and of course you can go swimming.  The lakes give Minnesota a lot of clean water.

Morgan's Confirmation

Today we celebrated God's amazing love through Morgan as she affirms her baptism this morning at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church.

Morgan and I were up before sun up to get ready and be at church with the rest of the confirmands.  We needed to be at church by 7 AM.  Each of the nine kids worked over a month on their faith statements.  And each confirmand would be delivering their statement during the three services.  Morgan was chosen for the third service.  The affirmation of baptism was done at the third service.

Woody and the kids came to the last service while I stayed with Morgan through the 7:45 and 9:15 services.  All of the speeches were beautiful.  Morgan's was fantastic and out of the entire group, Morgan's delivery from the pulpit put it on top.  She was poised, her speech flawless and her voice was perfect.  I am so proud of her.

The pastor chose a verse for each confirmand and read them as they proclaimed their faith.  Morgan's verse is from Hebrews 12:1

"Let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith."

Erik's Graduation

It's finally here!  Our last child is finishing preschool and getting set for Kindergarten!  We have been waiting for this time around.  I'm excited for Erik and glad that he is done with this chapter.  Of course, we also are glad to be done with preschool costs.  That will be a nice savings back to us!

Erik had a great two years at Premier Learning Academy.  It's an academic based preschool owned and taught by a kindergarten teacher, Miss Debby, and her daughter Miss Kiersten.

Erik has learned a lot.  He is reading books, he is proficient in early math and knows all colors, letters, numbers, shapes, sizes, and all.  For his graduation, he completed a 115 page Kindergarten knowledge book in three weeks.  This boy is got it going!!

I am most amazed at his great reading skills.  He started just before he turned four and we were caught off guard.  "Is he really reading,?" we asked ourselves.  It blossomed from there.  He breezed through his favorites last fall - Dick and Jane.  That followed by some of the easy Dr. Seuss books.  Now he's on Reading Level 1 and I Can Read Books, checking out 10 from the library this week alone.

Back to graduation.  PLA was sold to new owners ten days before graduation.  Miss Debby was ready to retire and when she found a buyer for the preschool, she knew she had to jump at the chance.  That put everything into chaos as far as the school.

The new owner put on a chaotic graduation ceremony with the kids out of control running around the rented out church.   Instead of a standard program, the kids sang two songs from Frozen and then a girl dressed up as Elsa came out to meet the kids.  Erik was happy about that.  We were very unhappy.  Miss Debby did attend at the end sitting in the back and the request of the new owners.  But the kids still crowded around her.  We are grateful that she was Erik's teacher.  We do not have any younger kids so the future of PLA is not our concern.

Our little guy is growing up!!!!

The Desk Comes Home

Does absense make the heart grow fonder?  Yes.  After what has been a couple of years, I made the trip over to meet an old friend last week to drop off some things for a charity garage sale.  While chatting, my friend Kate told me she had been meaning to return something to me.  What, I inquired.  I had not idea.

She reminded me that she had been keeping my grandfather's desk safe and sound after our former house became too small to keep the desk - with a husband and four kiddos, that came quickly.  It's not that I forgot the desk completely; it's just that I hadn't thought of it in awhile.

It was certainly a great time to think about the desk.  We have been working with furniture ideas to decide on a bed for Ingrid and furniture for Erik.  Ingrids desk and dresser aren't working out too well.  The desk is up on legs and is way too high for her to work.  Her legs dangle and she doesn't like it.  The drawers (all of them) and narrow, not giving a lot of space in what appears to be a big dresser.  We may sell the unit.  We bought a grey set for Erik from a house stager.  But the desk and decor would work better for Ingrid and her upcoming Paris room.

So, no desk for Erik, yet.  And then Kate says it's time to give back the desk.  That's so awesome.

This desk was made by my grandfather, Bob Springer, in junior high, for his mom, Eva Springer.  It was in her house when I was little in their front room with a typewriter on it.

Now we will acquire a nice chair to go with it and set it up in Erik's room.  For now, it sits next to Ingrid's future desk in the living room.   Can't wait to show off the changes.

Mid Week What-Nots

It's been a typical Spring week at the Chung house.  With only three weeks left of school, projects and homework are occupying most of our time.  Morgan is getting ready for her Confirmation.  And Erik threw up on Tuesday night - all over me.  That's what counts for normal around here.

Ingrid is working on a packet about the State of Minnesota.  She will be doing a poster board and making a presentation about the state.   She's doing research in preparation.  Today this happened:         

 "Minnesota is a leader in manufacturing medical devices", copies Ingrid onto her State report.  "What's that?", she asks.  I explain a medical device.  She exclaims, "Oh, so Minnesota makes the most because of all the Norway-kind-of-old people live there."  Oh dear, Ingrid!

8th Grade Semi Formal

She's growing up.  It's going fast.  She's not the toddler at Sunny Days or the scared eleven month old traveling half the world.  She's now thirteen and about to enter high school.  She's our beautiful, smart and eldest daughter.  Morgan asked a few months ago whether we would buy her a ticket to the eighth grade dance.  She already had a dress from the neighbor, who's a senior in high school.

Just two weeks ago, Morgan told me someone asked her to the dance.  Who?  Miles?  Who's that?  He's on the track team with me.  He's going to go to Perry, too.  You'll like him.

So here we were, spending our Saturday getting Morgan's hair done and buying shoes.  We met Miles and his mom in the park near the school to take a few pictures.  And then off they went to the dance.  Miles agreed to walk Morgan home.  Morgan had special permission to walk instead of parent pick up. Morgan also went over to the school early in the morning to help hang decorations and take care of the algebra teacher's two year old son.  Nice living so close to the school.  We're going to miss that next year.

After the dance, Miles did walk Morgan home and the other Chung kiddos peppered him with questions.  Miles' mom arrive and the three of us talked for over an hour.  She's very nice and fun to talk with.  Miles, Morgan and Annika and Ingrid watched Transformers unitl late (really late).

I think Morgan is on Cloud 9.

Working Hard

We're working so hard with our Ingrid this year.  She is blossoming and reaching new academic niveaus each and every day.  Her efforts are paying off.  It's such a blessing to look and see her pick out chapter books to read and enjoy herself.  Math pages are no longer a great struggle and school is once again fun while simultaneously challenging.  Ingrid is embracing her new standing.

Today we got a head start of her weekly homework pack.  She wasn't struggling, but moreso doing a little drama as she worked through a page of subtraction.   Her expressions are priceless. 

 

 

 

 

Hamilton Invitational Track and Field Meet

This evening we had the pleasure of watching Morgan participate in one of her last junior high track meets before Regionals.  She did a great job today and qualified for Regionals in two events: 800 meter and 4 x 400 relay.  We are so proud.  Today Morgan took second in the 800 m.

She was formally asked to the 8th grade semi-formal dance this weekend.  Her date is Miles, one of her track team members.  She's excited, to say the least.

New Perspective - The Teen Years

It was not Morgan's best night last night, that's for sure.  The night sleep did not bring a reprieve and the typical as well as atypical sassiness continued in the morning.  No one was in good form.

What was a planned church, tacos, home, change, and back out kind of day turned into kitchen cleaning, homework and slowly working our way out the door.  We forced ourselves to change moods to prepare to go back to church in the afternoon.

Last week I volunteered our family to chaperone the confirmation class on a scavenger hunt at the Phoenix zoo.  Not knowing what to expect, we agreed to transport up to two extra kids and then take them into the zoo to meet up with the group.

When I re-looked at our Keeper's Club membership it said 10 kids ages 3-18 can be included in our family.  With four Chung kiddos, that meant we could take six extra youth with us.  As we met up at the zoo, we decided to take all of the youth with us, because they cost more, leaving only two children to go with Pastor Scott and the other chaperones.

We made our way forward through the walk way to the entrance - that's 12 of us if you're counting.  Two adults, 10 kids.  As part of the ten kids we had Joey and Jack.  Both Joey and Jack are seventh graders by age but are very special needs kids.  We weren't even sure if they could walk into the zoo without their moms, who had to stay back in line and pay for an adult ticket as chaperones.  We went ahead to get the entire group in under our membership which saved quite a bit for the youth group.  The group started to immediately separate and I could see the stress on Woody's eyes trying to keep count of our kids amongst all the others on the wide bridge entrance.  Jack got ahead and Woody was in the back.  I was with Joey.  I quickly asked each one of the other youth, including Morgan to take responsibility for Erik, Ingrid and Annika to walk to the entrance.  I told Woody to run up and walk with Jack and I stayed with Joey.  For this small time we were worried if we could handle the group or any perceived issues with the other two.

We approached the entrance and Woody announced our group was the 10 kids and handed our membership card.  We were ushered in and then had to wait for the other chaperones and the two younger kids who were paying to get in.  This was a long wait.  I glanced over and the group stayed together.  Joey and Jack and I chatted then Jack and Woody started talking - about anything really, just to keep them calm.  They were nervous without their mothers.  We had them people watch to keep a look our for their families.

In all of this, the rest of the group was calm, collected and very helpful to us.  It was so refreshing.  After the group gathered together, we split into scavenger hunt groups.  We had three girls and two boys, plus the younger Chung kiddos - eight kids.  Jack and Joey went with their moms.  Pastor Scott got to roam between the groups but mostly stayed with Jack and Joey.

Our teens so impressed us with their politeness and their calmness.  Everyone stayed together, no whining, no teenager antics.  It was a very nice afternoon.  We felt so blessed, both of us, to be around youth and enjoy ourselves.   We bought everyone ice cream and then extra water for one girl who was showing signs of dehydration.  The entire group stopped and waited for us to get her cooled off and hydrated.  We saw animals and talked.

This was the first time we were able to use our membership to its fullest extent, including the 10 kids entrance and the discounts on ice cream and sodas for Woody and me.

We got the group back to the the church as 4:30.  Everything was fine and the Chung gang decided we should celebrate with Sunday dinner at Red Robin.  One block out from the church parking lot, Erik threw up all over himself and the car seat.  What?????

We pulled over in a physician parking lot and got out.  It stunk.  I was happy that I decided just this once to pack an entire set of extra clothes for Erik.  Just because.  He's almost five so it's not something I do every trip.  I was so happy it was THIS trip that I did.   We cleaned the car seat as much as possible with wipes and stripped Erik in the parking lot and got him changed.  The smell mostly subsided and Erik decided he felt great.  Cautiously we continued on with our evening plans, still feeling the natural high of hanging out with GOOD TEENS.  We felt restored.

Just before our food arrived, Ingrid turns and her nose combusts with blood.  What??????  She soaked through a couple of napkins and still had to sit back after her food arrived.

I shake my head this evening.  All is well and four Chungs are in bed.

What's That All About?

Erik has taken up reading labels at mealtime.  Anything on the table is fair game.  He reads cereal boxes, salad dressings, juice containers, etc.  We eat a lot of wholesome and/or organic foods so it's common to read foods with "one hundred percent" this-or-that.  Erik calls those items "one hundred percent."  As in, "Mom, pass me the one hundred per-cent please." Which really means pass me the Hunts 100% natural ketchup.  Has he noticed that he keeps calling everything 100%?  No.  We think he likes noticing the percent sign and saying "PERRR-cent".

This morning he yelled out, "Wait a minute!!!  Dad, this is one per-cent!!!!  What's that all about??"

The rest of us couldn't contain our laughter.  Erik was reading the milk bottle.

Cereal Fairy

I cringed when I saw the assignment and made an instant calculation of how much of my weekend would be lost.  Ingrid brought home another one of the school's infamous "craft" book reports.  You know the ones, "Design a Robot with each appendage as a part of the book summary." or "Make a kite using one of the characters in your book." or the always-favorite "Design a book diorama in a shoebox".

These projects ALWAYS require parental help and parental cash.  I'm sure the school response would be something like, "We do it so the parent spends TIME with their kids." As if they are the ones dictating and monitoring the quality of parent/child/familial  interaction outside of school.  I think you get my perversion.

So with that mindset, I came to the table Saturday afternoon, silently kicking and screaming, and sat with Ingrid as she selected her book and begin to design her project.  And what devilish waste of my time book report craft project did they pick?  Design a cereal box for your book report.  Include your cereal name and a front picture, side panels with character descriptions and setting and summary and a back game that relates to your book.  The top should contain your bibliography.  And finally, create a 2 minute commercial about your cereal and present to the class.

Ingrid picked the book, "Alice the Tennis Fairy" by Daisy Meadows.  Easy enough.  The entire cereal box could have a tennis theme.

I though maybe we could get through this.  We printed pictures of Alice to add to the front.  We used the Silhouette to make a rainbow bowl and stamped with paint the "fairy-o" cereal.  For the side panel I downloaded a template from a real federal nutrition label and edited it in Adobe Illustrator.  We even wrote "Serving size: 1 book"  We started having a bit of fun.  For the back we found a maze generator and decided the game was for Alice to go through the maze to find her magic tennis racket.

The Silhouette came in handy to make all of the labels for the cereal which Ingrid glued onto a wrapped box of Cheerios.  Finally, Sunday evening (yes two days), we were done.  I was tired.

Ingrid's commercial contained references to tennis vocabulary.  Her dad and Annika helped with some of the puns, like "You will LOVE-40 eating Tennis Fairy-O's" and "Start your day with an ADVANTAGE."  It was comical and Ingrid performed well.  She practiced several times before turning in her assignment.

The final grade?  95% for the writing and A+ for her commercial.  Awesome job, Ingrid.  You ACE'D it!

Matchbox and Hotwheels

Monday is our designated no-electronics and somewhat no-TV day.  We aren't strict on either, but we do try.  With Ingrid gone to tutoring and Annika and Morgan doing homework, I was left as Erik's playmate.  I didn't want him gravitating toward a handheld electronic.  He wasn't interested today in Legos, Lincoln Logs or blocks.  But when I mentioned cars, he mentioned orange track and the fun was on.

Our living room is void of furniture.  There's no need to buy when the kids are young and we do most of our entertaining in the family room and kitchen (like everyone else these days).  It's a vast space of openess.  Perfect for a long track run with a double loop.  To get the slope necessary to build up the needed speed to complete the loop, we added a chair to the dining room and the short wall provided a great car line up.

Erik did some of the designing.  He's figuring out how long the rise over run has to be to make the car do the loop and not fall off.  (The free fall drop proved that point rather fast).  Erik was delighted that his favorite Batman (vintage Corgi Jr) made the cut.  He ranked the cars by how well they performed and how much he liked them.   A direct correlation, perhaps???

No Hotwheels story is complete without a picture of Erik's beloved Fed Ex truck.  This is the truck he used to hold in his hand to fall asleep - starting around 12 months.  I wish I had recorded how Erik would say "Fed Ex" as a 15 month old baby.  It was so cute.

 

 

 

Natural Egg Dyes

Easter Egg decorating was made fun by some food science using natural egg dyes to make colors.  We are in love with the muted tones and non-chemical hues made by long soaks in foods we found around the house.  I used mason jars and boiling water to combine tumeric, paprika, coffee grounds, grape juice, boiled and blended parsley, beet juice, and boiled red cabbage into egg dyes.  The results were fantastic.  We did have to infuse the eggs overnight to get the most saturation.  We can't wait until next year to try a few additonal items and perhaps to try some combinations.  Tumeric was the best, followed by the red cabbage.  The yellow and surprisingly blue eggs took the most color on the shells.

 

 

 

Afternoon Treat

It's Good Friday and a two-thirds work for me.  I arrived home to find out Woody has spent the better part of the mid day with a plumber at the house working on the upstairs bathtub drain.  Totally clogged.

I took the opportunity to go pick up Erik from preschool.  The girls had the day off from school.  I picked up Erik and the two of us headed to the Sun Lakes area McDonalds.  I bought him a chocolate milk - what a treat and we shared a bag of french fries while watching the trucks speed across Riggs Road.  It was a fun conversation and a chance to freeze time - just for the moment - it was so special. 

We need to learn to slow down, and have these moments.  Time really doesn't freeze.  It's there to enjoy, for that moment. P.S. He's getting big, isn't he?

Mid Week What-Nots

Erik loves his Delaney Kindergarten workbook.  This is the fourth night he has completed more than a dozen pages in the prep book.  At this rate, he'll be done with the entire book in about two weeks.  This book is called the Delaney book because we got it from the Hall family and it's been in our cupboard all this time.  Delaney completed about one page of the colorful worksheets.  It's a book of skills needed to successfully complete in kindergarten.  Erik is smoking through the book (forgive the pun).  He is great with all of his phonics, word blends, reading and math.  He doesn't really like writing and practicing his handwriting if he's only copying letters.  He likes writing words.  He doesn't like slowing down to color.  He's more "get-it-done" at this point.  The best part is his ability to read the instructions and know exactly how to complete the page with almost no explanation.  I love it.  Kindergarten - here comes Erik Chung in a few more months!