Mariel and Dana's Bday Bash

We recently attended a joint 18th birthday bash for my cousins Dana and Mariel.

Photo courtesy of Mariel's daddy.

Here's us at our table.

Here's me licking my boogies (I think).

Then I got bored so I took our camera and started taking pictures.  Yeah, me.  I took these pictures.  Here are my various grandmas.  They look gorgeous, don't they?  To the left is Leanne's daddy and to the right is uncle.

Here's lolo and auntie flashing their great smiles.

Here's Auntie Mylene flashing her great smile as well. That's Uncle Marlon's back.

It was a cool party with purple as their color theme.  My favorite!

After a few more rounds of pictures, Leanne and I had a dance off in between tables to "Party in the USA" by Miley Cyrus. I think that was the song from what I remember. It's been documented on video and from what I heard, it was pretty (hilarious) good.  Maybe one day will surface on YouTube.  Watch out.

Photo courtesy of Mariel's daddy.
It was a wonderful night.

Happy Birthday, Dana and Mariel!

An Outing with Belle

I have a new friend.  Her name is Belle. I took her with us during our errand run to show her around.

I put on a pretty skirt and slip on shoes, but my mom said it was too cold outside. I didn't want to take the skirt off, so she negotiated that I put on leggings and boots.  Fine, I said.

After a lunch of chicken curry and rice, we went to get frozen yogurt.  Green apple and blueberry tart was my choice.  My mom thought it was yucky, but I thought it was delicious. 

My mom, Belle, and I hung out quietly as we people-watched by the shop's window. It was pretty relaxing. I waved at a few people as they were passing by.  I made them smile.  Have you made someone smile today?

Dreaming of camping

Me, my new sleeping bag, and my camping buddy. 

We're ready for camping (or a slumber party)!

After the rain

After the rain, everything seems to sparkle.

Preparing for another round of rain this week...

What's wrong in these pictures

A) I look hungry and my hair wasn't combed.

B) I look hungry, my hair wasn't combed, and I'm dressed like an orphan.

C) I look hungry, my dress wasn't combed, I'm dressed like an orphan, and my dress is backwards.

Answer: If you answered A or B, that's about right.  But if you answered C, you're right on.  My daddy put on my dress backwards again and this is how I looked like when my mom picked me up from school this afternoon.  Sweet.

Color in the midst of gloom

My mom and I decided to take out our watercolors and paint on this gloomy MLK Day.

I painted splotches of color. 

My mom painted happy things like sunflowers and stuff.

I'm more into abstract for now.

While painting, we had some music on and it really made me happy and dancey:

"Say Hey" by Michael Franti

"Summertime" by the Sundays

"One Note Samba" by John Pizarelli

"Seven Days in June" by Jamiroquai

"St. Germain" by Vanessa Paradis

"Here Comes Your Man" by the Pixies

"O Samba Tai" by Seu Jorge

"Tropicalia" by Beck

Random things on a rainy evening

I'm kinda bummed it's raining because I can't play outside.  We all get lazy around the house and do random things.

Here I'm getting full service dinner from my dad while watching tv.

After dinner we watched "Superman Returns" and I kept asking if the bad guy's gonna hurt Superman. I think my mom walked out of the room and my dad just gave me this funny look.

My parents come up with things to do when we're trapped inside.  For example my mom decided to go through her magazines and I sat there and browsed them with her.

Now with my dad, it's a bit different.  He thinks a rainy evening calls for acrobatics practice. Our aim with this particular activity was for me to touch the ceiling with my feet as he flips me upside down.  After a few tries, I was able to do it. Yep. Now my mom wonders who's gonna clean the dirty footprint off the ceiling...

Haiti Relief Efforts

A magnitude 7 earthquake devastated the nation of Haiti on Tuesday.

Photo by Eduardo Munoz/Reuters

Clean water, food, and emergency medical supplies are crucial in the next few days of the relief efforts. If you can, please donate to any of these following organizations:

http://www.redcross.org/en/

http://doctorswithoutborders.org/

https://donate.mercycorps.org/donation.htm

http://www.savethechildren.org/

http://www.unicefusa.org/

Other organizations taking donations are listed in this link.

.http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/01/13/haiti.earthquake.how.to.help/index.html

Peace to all.

Houston, we have a problem...

I seem to have a toddler on my shoulders.  Can you get her off?

This is not good.

That Getty Place

We enjoyed another beautiful day at the Getty Center this past weekend.  My daddy and I hung out in the gardens and took photos, while my mommy lost herself in the current exhibits, "Drawings by Rembrant and His Pupils" and "Drawing Life: The Dutch Visual Tradition".  Here are some photos my daddy took:

Who's on Sesame Street?

Check out who Elmo's been rocking out with.  Wish I was there.

Feist doing a Sesame Street version of "1,2,3,4"

Jason Mraz doing a Sesame Street version of "I'm Yours"

Car Seat

My daddy is sorta having trouble letting go of a particular baby car seat, so I'm going to dedicate this post to it.

It was a $20 car seat my parents got from the hospital for free when they were taking baby classes.

It was also the car seat they used to bring me home from the hospital.  I think I was too tiny for the regular car seat.  Can you find me in this picture?

It was also passed on to my Lola to use in case she needs to pick me up at daycare if mommy's running late.

Since then, I grew into a bigger chicky and had other car seats. Daddy had no trouble getting rid of the ones I outgrew.  This car seat gathered dust in my Lola's garage for probably a year and a half.  Then recently, Lola asked my mom if we wanted it back.  Sure, she said and planned to donate it.  She's tried a couple of times already to get rid of it, but daddy always wanted to hold on to it. The last time she tried was when we were cleaning out on the first day of the new year.  We went to the donation center the following day.  Daddy was hauling the stuff out of our car and this car seat was the last one to be taken out.  He paused with a nostalgic look on his face and asked my mom again if we should get rid of it.  At that point, mommy realized how sentimental the car seat is to daddy so she said it was up to him.  And car seat stayed in the trunk.  I guess there are just some things that are priceless.

A Sense of Renewal

We spent the first day of the new year detoxing our humble little home.  We cleaned every possible area and got rid of stuff that we've either outgrown or that no longer contributed to our lives. We are grateful that this year we are given another opportunity to live our lives right.

Simplicity, minimalism, calm, silence, renewal.  Calm and silence will be hard to achieve with me around, but my parents will try. 

"Man suffers because of his craving to possess and keep forever things which are essentially impermanent."   Buddha

"Possessions, outward success, publicity, luxury - to me these have always been contemptible. I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best both for the body and the mind."   Albert Einstein