happily ever after: Happy Father's Day, first time Bowling for the Kids, and Leah visits!! (Week 206/68)

Two weeks late! Time to catch up! Lots of things went on this week - most importantly, Father's Day! Saturday morning was Tyler's Mommy & Me Chinese class. Being that it was the day before Father's Day, Miss Shawna (the teacher) invited the dads to join us for the Father's Day festivities. So of course, Katelyn got to come along for the ride too!

Here's Will and Katelyn doing some drawing on their Chinese worksheet. Katelyn was excited to be included with all the kids.

The kids all colored in a Chinese Father's Day picture. Here's Tyler with Miss Shawna practicing saying "Happy Father's Day" in Chinese to Will.

The kids all learned a new Chinese song, as well as reviewed songs from previous weeks. Katelyn was excited about participating with that too!

At the end of class, the kids always play with a parachute. This involves singing their new song as they walk around in a circle, and then sitting on it while the parents pull them in a circle.

Video of Tyler and Katelyn on the parachute. I must say Tyler is actually learning some Chinese phrases from these classes. This was the 4th in a 4 week session and he knows how to say the names of different shapes, "Yes I like it" or "No, I don't like it", beach phrases, and Father's Day phrases! We are signed up for the next session as well - it's better than nothing I guess and it gives me hope that maybe MAYBE Tyler has a chance at learning Chinese.

Later that morning we headed up to San Gabriel to have lunch with Will's parents and his aunt. I took the opportunity to dress Katelyn up in a super cute little puffy dress. She was so cute! I often forget how adorable she is when she wears girly dresses - I just automatically put her in comfortable clothes. But oh, she is so cute in dresses and a hairbow! Katelyn was in a great mood that day too - which makes her even more adorable. Here she is playing with chopsticks with Will's dad.

Katelyn and YehYeh! She's good at saying "yeh yeh" and "nai nai" to her grandparents. The grandparents love it very much. :)

Katelyn and nai nai!

Of course we can't forget about Tyler! I think the grandparents do a pretty good job about not fawning too much over Katelyn, and giving Tyler lots of attention as well.

Here's Katelyn and her great Aunt.

Tyler and his great Aunt (Will's 3rd Aunt).

Katelyn loves to play with whatever Tyler plays with. That day it was his Woody doll. She's not too good at sharing though, and will scream if anyone touches stuff that she thinks is hers. It's quite frustrating. Cheyenne has started trying to teach her otherwise, and will purposely take an item that Katelyn WAS playing with (Katelyn thinks she still has dibs even when she leaves something) and try to get Katelyn used to sharing. It's a slow work in progress. I have no idea why Katelyn's preferred method of communication these days is high pitched screaming. Argh! I am, however, starting to see improvements with Cheyenne. Instead of screaming for more, she'll say "help please" or as Katelyn says it "hep peese".

Here's Katelyn putting Woody's hat on her own head!

I must remember to put Katelyn in dresses more.

Silly Tyler! (Like his shirt? I think it was his first time wearing it and I was really surprised that he wore it at all since it's got collars and buttons. When I asked him that morning if he would wear this, he said something like "mm.. looks like it might tickle" - by which he means be itchy. But he put it on and didn't complain - which was VERY exciting. I know, silly and not a big deal, but it kind of made me realize that Tyler was starting to mature and be more reasonable. :) yay!)

And here's another one of Katelyn and grandma because she's just so darn cute! Yes, I'm biased.

Surprised look!

Why is Katelyn's hair so light and fly-away-ish? I suppose I shouldn't complain, at least it's coming in.

The kids and grandparents!

Video of Tyler and Katelyn dancing at grandma/grandpa's house. Tyler loves to dance and now Katelyn loves it also! She loves to bounce up and down to the music - can't wait to get her started on piano and dance lessons.

Later that afternoon, we were brave and met up with the Garners for a bowling night to celebrate Stacy (the dad)'s 40th birthday! We met them at the bowling alley at the District in Tustin. Tyler has never been bowling before and it's been quite a few years since we have too. Good thing we went early (4ish?) before it got busy and we had almost the whole bowling alley to ourselves.

Video of Tyler and Kaden excited for bowling. I don't even think Tyler knew what bowling was at this point in time.

Katelyn was ready to bowl as well!

Very interestingly, they have this metal ramp thing that the kids use. You just line it up, put the ball on top, and the kids pushes the ball down the aisle. Of course we had the bumpers up as well. Tyler was all about it!

He became quite engrossed in his bowling game. The other kids bowled a couple frames and quickly lost interest. We had rented two different aisles: one for the adults and one for the kids. After a short period, Tyler was bowling the frames for all 4 kids! The cutest part was how Tyler would watch his ball roll off intently and either droop his shoulders and sigh or jump up and down cheering!

Here's Tyler and Kaden and Stacy.

Uhoh, who's not sharing?

Will was quite rusty with his bowling! Here he is with both kids.

Go Katelyn, Go!

This bowling alley definitely had a nice and fun atmosphere. They even had a full bar (YUM).

Video of Tyler bowling all by himself. You can see him bummed, and then excited!

After lunch we strolled around the District.

Tyler was having a lot of fun running around the fountain. I was sure I was going to have to fish him out. Here he is jumping off the rocks that surround the fountain!

Katelyn's new favorite dad-for-the-day Stace! Everytime she saw that he wasn't busy holding Kylee (their daughter), she'd go up to him and say "Up!" and hold her hands up. Too cute!

Sunday morning we headed up the 57 freeway again to my parents' place in Hacienda Heights. We were all going out to dinner that night in Alhambra to celebrate my grandmothers 95th birthday. Tyler likes to draw with my dad on their dry erase board at home.

The kids are engrossed in watching the iPad.

Aww, Katelyn and my grandmother!

4 generations!

Katelyn and my cousin Stephanie.

Hanging out...

Katelyn and my parents!

Katelyn and my mom!

Saying Hi to Uncle Andy!

Yum, Tyler always loves strawberries!

Katelyn sitting in her highchair.

We sat with two of my cousins who also had babies this year (both boys). Here's a photo:

Here's me and Katelyn, and my cousin in law Katie and her son Hank.

At the end of dinner we started taking big group photos. Tyler was not very compliant at all. Apparently he was upset that Will had licked his soft serve ice cream cone (to prevent it from dripping) and demanded another one. And when he didn't get another one... well the little brat went off and pouted. Argh! So he wasn't in any of the group photos (but here you can see him to the side of the table throwing a reallllllly annoying fit).

I am not an amused mommy with him.

Group photo of all the women:

Big Group photo at the end:

My grandmother is turning 95, has 4 sons, 1 daughter, 11 grandchildren, and 10 (almost 11) great grandchildren! Here's my family with my grandmother.

Tyler happily sat by my grandmother to eat his cake.

Later in the evening Katelyn went off and made new friends. She would just wander around the room (the tables were quite close) and start waving and saying Hi to random people. She especially liked playing with other little (well, big to her I guess) girls.

After dinner, we managed to squeeze 4 adults and 3 carseats into our cx-9. Quite impressive! Leah and Kareen sat in the 3rd row.

Katelyn and Leah playing together! Too bad they can't do this more often..

Video of Katelyn and Leah playing together and hugging:

Great - now Katelyn will want to touch that pomander (left over from her birthday party) and no one here is tall enough to help her get to it!

My one shot with both kids. Leah is not as open to other people holding her as Katelyn is.

Presents from the kids from school for Father's Day! Tyler's is a painted frame with screws glued to it (?) and Katelyn's was a card with a tie she painted and her hand print on the back! Too cute!