Go, Speed Racer !

On May 10th, my family and I went out to see "Speed Racer" IMAX movie for Ryan's 6th birthday in the afternoon. It took us two hours and a half to watch this movie. I honesty could tell you that it was wonderful to watch, even without closed captioned.

We had our eyes sticking out to the movie for an entire time. Ryan did not seem wanting to leave the movie like he did at Ice Age 2. I could see the reason. The filmmaker from Matrix used a lot of High Effect Technology and three dimensions. The filmmaker from Matrix also lay it on thick in "Speed Racer," a jangled, densely layered, narratively scrambled blob of movie making that will leave viewers alternately baffled and sensorially stunned.

While the scenes were unbelievable, I honesty could say that there were some disappointments. It is rated PG for sequences of action, violence, profanity and brief smoking. I just hoped that the boys would not learn to use the proficiency from the movie. However, there were also a good part of the movie that Speed's little brother and his pet chimp provide nothing by way of comic relief.

All we had wanted to take Ryan out to the movie as per his request. It turned out that it didn't waste our money, though the prices had gone awful expensive.

Our Times with Ginger and Danae

Last weekend, we had two wonderful relatives came to stay the night at our pad. I can tell you that we are the luckiest in the world that they are part of our family. They are fun to hang around.

On their first night at our place, we just relaxed after we celebrated Ryan's early sixth birthday party. Mostly, Danae and the boys spend their time playing with their obsessed toys: Gameboy and playing with the Hot Wheels. They got along quite well. Good grief, there were lots of giggles all evening.

After they had enough of giggling, they decided to play with our guinea pig, Fluffy. Danae was the ones who was curious to hold the Fluffy. It was fun watching her being surprised that Fluffy made lots of "tweeting" noises. It translated, "Thanks Danae!" The boys were used with our pet, so they gave her the privilege to pet our lovely animal.

Shortly after petting Fluffy, Danae and the boys went upstairs to watch the Disney while we, the adults, were watching "Golden Compass. " We also learned that there are books written about Golden Compass. Even more, we did not know that there were movie series. It was almost like watching, "Lord of Rings" or "Harry Porter." By the time our movies ended, we hit the sack for the night.

The next day, it was a big day for all of us. First, we went out to Broken Yolk Cafe. Don't forget to come out and try it whenever you are in San Diego, it was delicious. Before we took them out to the Grand Opening "Children Museum" in San Diego Downtown, we walked in and outside of Border's. The kids especially enjoyed looking at Koi fishes. Danae thought we could have Koi for lunch. Isn't she funny? While looking at the fishes, we got to know each other a lot more. That was one of the cherish moments to spend with these two wonderful people.

Another thing we have done was going inside of our favorite time: Border's. Ginger bought the boys few books: The Frog and Toad Series for Ryan and two books written by Ronald Dahl for Dylan. I did the same thing for Danae by getting her Horse book, bookmark and horse pen. It was fun to watch their smiling faces.

Finally we were heading for downtown to see the Grand Opening "Children's Museum." By the time we got there, we were disappointed because the parking lots were awful FULL! I meant FULL ! There were no way we could find it because there were so many special events at the same time: Grand Open Children's Museum, Cinco de Mayo and Red Bull Air Show. I personally thought it was not wise to schedule all three events at the same time.

Instead we ended up going to a nearby Balboa Park for a little while, the kids had fun playing on the playground for a little while. Danae was the role model by showing Dylan, my older son on how to do the swing higher without our assistance. Still, he is stubborned to even try it! I was proud of Danae. Ryan was exploring on the monkey bar. He kept asking me to stand nearby him because he thought it was dangerous.


At the end, we got another round of getting ourselves treat: to Cheesecake Factory. Oh boy, we had our stomach bigger than our eyes. But, who would argue that it was fun getting together with them? I wouldn't. I would go for to any where whom I haven't gotten together in a long while.

We do look forward to getting together with them when we go on our next trip to Oregon and Washington.

Six Things about Ryan

Today is Ryan's sixth birthday.

The six things we love about him are:

1. He makes us laugh a lot with his senses of humors.
2. He enjoys giving us raspberry kisses. It makes feel good. Sometimes, it tickles.
3. He so often likes to jump and cuddle between us in the middle of the night.
4. He strives being independence when learning new things.
5. Most of all, he continues to amaze us on little things daily.

We are lucky to have you entering in our world. We love you very much. May your 6th birthday brings you lots of memories especially going to "Speed Racer" IMAX movie that you have always wanted to see.

Happy Birthday to you !

Spooky Lights

In the middle of mid-morning, we were woken up by having our bedroom light on. We thought it was our older son, Dylan accidentally turned the light on as if he was coming in our bedroom. It wasn't. He was sound asleep in his own room. Ryan was already in our bed before the light came on.

After the bedroom light had interrupted us, we inspected in our upstairs rooms. We also saw our living room light went on. Why did two lights go on ? I thought it was bizarre because I was the ones who turned the entire house lights off and locked the doors before I hit the sack.

Don't you think it might be any of us had been sleep walking? David denied that he didn't do it. I was already dead tired. So, what do you think it caused the lights to go on?

McClellan's Turning to One

Believe it or not, I started my blog after I was being convinced by my two sister in laws, Deby and Mandee. I remember that I had mixed feelings about about creating my own blog. One was I admitted I was afraid I would be "retarded" (That s my sister in law, Mandee's favorite quote) whenever I posted my news. The other reason I went ahead to do it was that I would not have to worry about paying extra stamps, paying long distance phone bills, or taking my extra miles to send e-mails.

I had an opportunity to reflect what happened during my first year of my blog. There were several of my personal posts I enjoyed re-reading.

My favorite posts this year:

The first of many comments about debating whether my husband David should grow goatee or not, "Desperately Needs your Vote." Unfortunately, the votes turned out to be equal. Thus, I did not have a choice to force my husband to grow goatee that I always adore in MEN. Despite of my wishes, David did not keep his promises.

I like this one about those crazy times I have had on, "Crazy Friday." It was the day I had to change my clothes three times a day in order to show my spirits: my school's team, Mother/Son's 1950's event at Ryan's Pre-school, and Hawaiian outfits for all of us at Dyan's school while my husband was out for a scuba diving. Amazing I managed myself throughout the Crazy Friday.

I laughed when I re-read about Dylan writing "Unexcused Absence" to his teacher. It was the the weekend that my mom and her husband, Bruce were in town for a couple of days. In the note, he was telling his teacher that he had gone out to the beach for three days. Going out to the beach did not occurred except we went to Mission Bay where it had a bay and a park for the kids to play.

The proudest moments I have had were:

1. Dylan was getting the " Most Outstanding Award" last Fall. He was so proud to show everyone off.

2. "Ryan's Annual I.E.P" was a positive ones. It turned out that he shifted toward more being in mainstream classes than being in a Special Education Class. Also, he had met all of his first benchmarks within 5 months after he enrolled his Kindergarten year.

3. I felt so good that "David's new Toy" which he got his Stainless BBQ. He was so delighted that he was able to do the BBQ more often. I honesty could tell you that I could not compare David than my own cooking. There was no need to complain because I enjoyed being spoiled.

4. Last was the most recent ones, "The New Ownership." That was getting a BRAND NEW van after my husband and I had traded our old van. It was worth for getting all of the awesome technology.

This was my favorite picture of 2007:

Looking Back it was a full year. Lots of memories there.

Ready, Get Set, Party!

May 10th is Ryan's 6th birthday. The family and I celebrated Ryan's birthday a week early for two reasons. One was one of the family members from another state came down to visit us. Next weekend is a Mother's Day. It would conflict the celebration.

At dawn, I was half recovering from having a bad sinus a day before the party. I was all ready to get the party ready! While I was preparing for the party, I did encourage the boys to help me setting the party up. They especially like putting the candies and small toy items in a "Hot Wheels " Pinata.

Not too long after I finally got all set for the party, one of my friends and her three children were the first visitors. The boys were all excited to get it started, but they knew they had to wait for more visitors at our home. While waiting for more people to bring the delicious food, the kids went upstairs to play with "Hot Wheels " stuff! Oh brother, it was in the boys' world!

Once everyone was in our home, we all had full of delicious potluck food on our kitchen island. It was enough to make our eyes bigger than our stomach. The children were rather to take their time by coloring the table. Of course, I had butcher paper covering the table. Otherwise, I would be screaming at the top of my lungs. After we had a buffet lunch, it left us little room for our stomach especially for the cake.

While waiting for our stomaches to settle ourselves down, the children had the privilege to bat the "Hot Wheels" Pinata. Using the blindfold didn't succeed because the kids could see through with my scarf and was slippery enough to go down their neck. We gave up. So, we let the kids see the Pinata without scarf. Ryan was supposed to start batting the Pinata, but he was not confident. He was not ready until he saw the other kids doing the same thing. (He tended to be a follower.) Everything was good at the end especially getting their treats: candies.

Hope it would not cause me too much trouble for sending them ending up to the dentist office. That also included catching Aunt Pam had a sweet tooth.

However, there were more sweet came along the party; singing the birthday song to Ryan. It turned out that Ryan had a melt down. He screamed, cried and ran upstairs to his bedroom. This disappointment really impacted me because I had hoped he would be happy that everyone showed the love for him. But soon after I comforted Ryan down from his bedroom for a few minutes, I realized at any special events along with too many people focusing on Ryan was too much for him. It overwhelmed him. We just let him go and let others eating the cake and presents without him.

However, an hour after a few people leaving from the party, Ryan started wanting to eat the cake and opening the presents. Right after opening the gifts, he immediately wanted to start playing with the toys he had received. The remaining kids joined the gifts he got for another hour.

At the end of Ryan's early birthday, he was very fortunately everyone had showed their love for him. It made him very happy especially getting the toys, food, and breaking the Hot Wheels Pinata!

Why Now?

I have asked myself a question, "Why now?" This is a matter of a wrong time to get a bad migraine. I have too much to do before giving my younger son, Ryan's early 6th birthday party.

Hopefully after I get a few hours of sleep, I will be able to regain by energy by catching my errands up before having a family coming over to our home tomorrow.

After grabbing sleep, let's hope I will have some energy this evening before the big event comes.