One day when we were celebrating Kimbie’s birthday last weekend, we visited The Sagamore in Bolton Landing, NY in the Lake George area. I was very much looking forward to visiting this resort because of all its great reviews. The weather was beautiful. We enjoyed lunch at the Pavilion, their restaurant right on the water. After lunch we walked around the grounds a little bit. It was a perfect day.
While walking around, I saw a bride taking pictures and she looked like a girl I went to high school with, Christina Lane. Come to find out afterwards on Facebook (of course), it was Christina! What a small world!
In the morning, my Dad and Moysee relaxed a little bit before they had to get ready.
This was our view at lunch. I could have stayed there for hours…and then quickly came back to reality because Moysee needed a diaper change and Mimi needed to go to the bathroom.
My sisters!
The basil plant table setting. Behind our table was a garden full of tomatoes, rosemary, basil, chives, all of which are used in their food.
Moysee enjoying her congee (粥).
Mimi having fun coloring at the table.
Mimi and Ee-ee.
The girls, my mom, and me. Three generations of ladies.
The Sagamore is a family friendly resort and there are so many things at the resort, in Bolton Landing, and in Lake George that the girls would have so much fun doing. This resort is definitely on the list of family vacation destinations.
See you soon Sagamore, Chrissy xoxo
This weekend we found out my sister, Kimbie, and her boyfriend, Mike are engaged! I saw the ring on her finger before she could tell me the exciting news. Mike proposed in a park near his house and then they celebrated with a romantic dinner. When we were at Haddie’s during Kimbie’s 
Every year (except last year because I just had a baby), we celebrate my sister, Kimbie’s, birthday on Labor Day weekend at the 
After we placed our bet, we would watch the race. Mimi loved to watch the horses race.
We didn’t win any of the races but Mimi had a blast choosing the horses and watching the race and that’s all that counts. I hope she doesn’t become a closet low budget gambler like her Ee-ee…haha.
At the entrance of the track, there was a horse statue that Mimi wanted to take a picture with. She hung on its tail.
Then hung on his nose. Good thing it was a statue!
Around dinner time, we licked our wounds from losing and headed to dinner. In the past we have gone to 
I ordered the fried chicken, red beans and rice, and the cucumber salad. And even though I am on a gluten and dairy free diet because of my eczema and had to take off the fried parts of the chicken, the food was delicious!
We came home to eat Kimbie’s Price Chopper birthday cake. The girls helped her blow out the candles.
Happy Birthday Kimbie! We had a great time celebrating your 32nd (yes, I wrote it) birthday!
This summer at my parent’s house, I made up a game for Mimi to practice riding her 3-wheel bike. We played everyday and she had so much fun!
For the first part of the game, Mimi started in the middle of the driveway, turned onto the street, then rode up the hill to the two green electrical boxes at the corner of my parent’s property. She used the momentum coming down the driveway, peddled through the turn to get up the hill. It took her a little while to get over being scared going so fast down the driveway but once she did, she was flying.
The second part of the game, Mimi started at the electrical boxes, then turned onto the driveway up to the middle crack. She turned those corners tight!
There was no slowing down until she reached the crack.
And after she reached the finish line, she would raise her hands like a champion!
My cousin Brian is my mother’s only brother’s only son (haha…got that)(he is on the right with the blue shirt). Brian has lived in Japan for at least the past five years. While in Japan, he met a lovely lady, Ayumi (next to Brian in the stripes), and they got married last November. Though I would have loved to attend the wedding in Japan, Moysee was just a couple months old and flying internationally with two little ones under three might be a form of torture in some countries. This August, Brian and Ayumi came to visit the United States and we celebrated their marriage with a traditional banquet-style dinner at our favorite Chinatown restaurant, Delight 28.
My whole family was there to celebrate Brian and Ayumi. I am so excited she is part of our family. In my mind, Brian will always be the fifteen year old boy who loved Japanimation. I am still trying to wrap my head around how a fifteen year old boy can be married!
Ayumi’s parents (first row on the right) own a ramen shop with her older brother in Japan. Because of their business, they could only visit New York for seven days. For a few days of their trip, they stayed in Manhattan and toured the city with a Japanese tour guide. We were happy to meet Ayumi’s family.
Ayumi really liked the girls. And though Moysee doesn’t look like it in this picture, the girls really liked her also.
The girls decided to take a ride in Mimi’s Mercedes (another great gift from Oo-oo Melissa for her 3rd Birthday) with (of course) their necklaces. This was Moysee’s first time in the car and boy did she have a great time.
A brief stop for a photo of the ladies with their necklaces. They couldn’t stop too long. After a minute, Moysee started to shake the car back and forth signaling it was time to go!
Moysee watching her big sister drive. Look at the concentration on Mimi’s face.
Moysee liked to change the radio stations. And in this car the radio stations play real music!
How cute are these two!
Moysee sticking her tongue out at me.
Mimi taking a hard right turn. Moysee loved the turns!
A brief stop to play with the necklaces.
And now time to chase Ee-ee up the street.
And down the street!
We celebrated Isabella’s (or Moysee as we call her) first birthday last weekend. As I was putting together the guest list, I realized that Moysee doesn’t have any friends. I don’t have any friends with kids her age and we haven’t participated in any activities yet to meet friends…something I need to work on before her next birthday. So we decided to have a family party, which turned out to be over 40 people! The party was a BBQ and thankfully the weather cooperated and it was a beautiful day.
My parents stayed with me at the house a week before the party to get everything ready. My goal was to do very little cooking the day of the party besides BBQ’ing so that we could hang out with our guests. That meant all meat needed to be marinated, dumplings wrapped and frozen, corn husked, salad washed, fruit cut, decorations hung…there was a lot to do. And even with all of this preparation, I was up till 3am the day before the party, and my mom was up till 5am! I found this DIY birthday sign on Pinterest, made some modification to jazz it up a little bit, and had Jeff make the letters and numbers with his sticker machine. It took me three days to make but it looked great and I was so proud to make it myself. Because it was so much work, I decided to make it for ages 1 to 99 so we can use it for all our birthdays every year!
One of my Dad’s projects for the party was to paint the dining room. Boy, was this a big project…especially when you have a baby crawling into everything. As much work as parties are, it’s a great way to get you motivated to clean the house from top to bottom and take care of all home improvements on your list.
It rained in the morning but by the time the party started it was a beautiful day. We blew up the water slide jumping castle for the kids to play in. It was a huge hit!
We also had water balloons for the kids to play and throw. It’s amazing how 100 water balloons could be gone in less then 15 minutes. The kids had a blast!
Moysee played in the water for a little bit. It was a little hard with all of the big kids splashing around but she was happy to just be around them.
Then she went to her swing to hang out.
We had so much to BBQ my dad brought his charcoal BBQ from the house upstate. After dinner, we let the kids roast these gigantic marshmallows I found in the store. I found out later Mimi had two of them! No wonder she had a belly ache the next day.
Isabella’s birthday cake was an ice cream cake from Carvel. Two weeks before her birthday I started to replace her formula with cow’s milk to make sure she wouldn’t be allergic to her birthday cake. And of course we had the hello kitty candle we use for all our birthdays on top. Our cousin Zui took this photo. I love that he caught us all blowing out her candle.
Moysee loved her ice cream cake.
After I fed her a few times, she wanted to use the spoon to feed herself.
She was doing a great job with the spoon.
But she couldn’t scoop up a lot of ice cream so she started to use her hand.
Using the spoon and her hand was the best (and messiest) way to get the ice cream into her mouth. She had to take a bath right after finishing her cake.
The next morning Moysee opened her gifts after Mimi gave her a morning kiss.
She loved ripping the paper.
Mimi helped her open the gifts.
Oo-Oo Melissa (Chinese for paternal aunt in kiddy speak) always knows the fun toys to buy. Moysee played in the car all day.
Ee-ee (Chinese for maternal aunt in kiddy speak) really wanted to open a gift also so we finally let her.
I came to visit one of the weeks. Every week there is a theme and the week I was there it was the Olympics. Every day the class does a craft in line with the theme of the week and then on Friday the kids bring home all of the crafts they made. For the Olympics, Mimi made an Olive Leaf, Olympic torch, and German flag. She got new sneakers at the beginning of the summer when we were 
Mimi would hang her backpack on the shelf before walking into the classroom. She had sunscreen, bug spray, snacks, and a water bottle in her bag.
Parents (and Grandparents) would sign up to bring snack. My mom signed up for Monday, August 23.
One day that week Mimi got to take home Clifford and Cherry, the camp’s two red dog stuffed animals. She spent the day with them and we took pictures and wrote down what they did together in the notebook to share with the class the next day.
This summer Aunt Bernice and Uncle Mark invited us to their house in the Berkshires for the weekend. We were really excited to visit because we celebrate Christmas at the house and only know the Berkshires when it’s cold and wintery outside (which isn’t much because we usually stay in the warm cozy house), and now we can go out and explore in the warm weather. T-times, swimming in the outdoor pool, visiting a local farm, shopping, going to the park…so many choices! Unfortunately, it rained all weekend, but that didn’t ruin our fun at the indoor pool.
This was Moysee’s first time in a pool and she loved it! I think it’s because she thought it was a gigantic bath tub.
Mimi has been taking swimming lessons all summer. She loves to swim but wouldn’t wouldn’t jump in the water. Uncle Chris helped her get the courage to jump by holding her hand until finally she jumped by herself! Thank you Uncle Chris!
I know this is because I am her mom, but I think Mimi has the perfect back float.
There was lightening outside so we had to evacuate the pool. I’m not exactly sure why, I think it’s something to do with getting electrocuted. It was perfect timing because Moysee needed to take a nap. Oo-oo Melissa (Chinese for aunt in kiddy speak) walked Moysee to sleep with Mimi walking next to her playing her iPhone. Oo-oo Melissa is a great multi-tasker.
They walked…
And walked…
Until Moysee finally fell asleep.
And she wasn’t the only one sleeping…
When we make the trip down to the Chinatown apartment , we get really creative to keep the girls entertained. Without a backyard to have a swing set to play on, Cousin Cheryl became Mimi’s personal jungle gym. Here Mimi is climbing up her personal jungle gym.
Cheryl helping Mimi reach the bars.
Yes! Reached the bars…with a little help from Cheryl’s shoulder!
Hanging upside down!
The personal jungle gym is so much fun Si-Ee-ee (小姨姨, younger Aunt) wanted to give it a try also.