Happy Tet!

book Here's necessary to get ready where we read Ten Mice for Tet while the kids ate their oranges. Its a cute little about all that's for Tet!

Here we are doing a dragon craft out of a paper cup. We also had a dragon parade. I made a dragon out of a box and red table cloth and if I must say so.... it was awesome!! I saved it for our next new year's party! Its a shame i'm the party planner and family photographer. No one took a picture of the dragon dance. I couldn't take the photo, I was helping lead them. I'll try to get a picture later of the dragon for you to see.

Since 2009 if the year of the ox all the kids made ox masks. So we also had an Ox and lantern parade. How cute!

Chuc Mung Nam Moi! Happy Tet!!

Happy Vietnamese New Year to everyone or if you're feeling really brave, Chuc Mung Nam Moi! We started our New Vietnamese New Year off right with a breakfast at Oma & Opas of ban quan (sp?) or Vietnamese pancakes as Mom calls them. Its one of my absolute favorite things she cooks, I could eat a million of them! Its nothing like an American pancake, think more dim sum or dumpling like with meat inside. Delicious!

We then headed home for our neighborhood Vietnamese New Year/Combined birthday party for the girls and our neighbor party. We started the party with a little coloring.... as any good party should!

We then educated the kids and grownups on the zodiacs for Vietnamese new year. Each person got a tag for what they were, Lilah is a dog and Aubrey Jane is a rat. Bill is an ox and i'm a rabbit/cat depending if you're talking Vietnamese or Chinese calendar. And I'm sporting a shirt Oma got me from Northern Vietnam on her last trip in case you were wondering.
The kids then planed pin the orange on the tree and got a cutie to eat. Oranges represent good fortune and health for the new year, or a million other things depending on what you read. The kids were wild about the oranges, you'd think I was giving away gold!

Here's the kids eating their cupcakes. This was the quietest moment of the entire 2 hours party! Lilah passed about red envelopes with chocolate coins inside for party favors! I think everyone had a great time and learned a little something too! As usual lately i'm having some posting problems. I'll go back a post a few more photos.

Birthday continues

After lunch we hit the streets of our neighborhood. Man, it was so foggy today....made it really chilly today. We were passing out invitations for a Vietnamese -Tet- New Year's Birthday Party for Lilah, Aubrey Jane, and our neighbor Matty, which we're hosting this Sunday afternoon. We didn't want to do a big party, actually our neighbor approached us about the group party idea, and then I added the VN New Year theme. I actually found out the Vietnamese celebrate everyone's birthday at Tet. Everyone turns their new age on New Year's and not on the date of their birth. See how culturally correct we are with our combined birthday party!

Then at night the Moore family all joined us for Pho at a local spot near our house. Do you like Lilah's hat? It actually said birthday boy, and I put a sticker over it that said girl. When we picked out her hat she just had to have the blue and didn't like any girl hats, i thought what the heck, its your birthday, you should have what you want. So I just made the gender corection.

I can hardly belive my little baby is already 2 years old. Where did the time go? If it continues to go this fast she'll be leaving for college in a blink. I feel so blessed to have this little person in my life. She's so full of life and she teaches me so much everday and makes me a better person. I love you Lilah, Happy Birthday Baby! On this day, January 20th, one of the most special people in my life was born, and I will always be so greatful!

Happy 2nd Birthday November

We started our day with a few presents for a birthday girl before Daddy headed to work.

We then got dressed in our ever so cute polka dot shirt complete with "Today's My Birthday" Button. Here she is showing off her cake Mommy stayed up late making. They don't make Charlie Brown cakes anymore. Its all Elmo, Dora, etc. I asked Lilah several times what kind of cake she wanted, and hands down it was Charlie Brown every time. So I was left to take matters into my own hands. I think it turned out pretty good for my first time. Its no Kelley Robertson cake, but I think its great. Lilah knew exactly who it was when I showed it to her and that's all I needed. We then headed to art class at gymboree. We made cupcakes to share with all our classmates that were white with red white & blue sprinkles to honor inauguration day and our big girl's birthday. I'll always remember Lilah's 2nd birthday was a day of history in the making. I took video of the girls eating their birthday breakfast with Obama taking his oath in the background.... how historic! So Mommy forgot the camera at gymboree to show us sharing our cupcakes, ...... so much to remember.

After we passed out our cupcakes at gymboree we headed over to starbucks to enjoy a coffee. Believe it or not at Lilah's request. I get her a kid sized vanilla steamer and she loves it. Can't get her to drink milk much at home, but she loves it at starbucks, we just call it her "coffee." This picture was taken by the clerk at the counter. I was praying Lilah didn't get that icing all in my hair.

Here we are enjoying a moment, us Moore girls on our sweet Lilah's birthday. Cupcakes and milk/coffee for everyone. Aubrey Jane tried her first sip of cow's milk, yes it was the starbucks steamer. What a life.... her first sip of milk was at Starbucks, what a northwest baby!

We then stopped by safeway and bought 2 birthday balloons to make the day feel even more special!

Here's Bill reading the night before Christmas I bought for our family last year.

And then he's the 4 of us at Liz and Jeff's on Christmas day. I would have put a big group shot, but the shot looked a little funny. And here's a great photo of Oma with the 5 grand kids.

I don't know if you heard about all the snow Seattle got for the holidays, but we got quite a bit. We didn't even know if the family was going to get together for the holidays due to driving conditions. The final estimates were 14 inches by the media. It was beautiful and made for a very warm Christmas.

Merry Christmas from Seattle!

Here we are just the 4 Moore's on Christmas morning and it was heaven! It was so wonderful to be in our own home, with our 2 happy healthy babies just enjoying every minute, we feel very blessed.

Santa brought the girls a kitchen for Christmas and they were delighted. We put their kitchen near my kitchen and they are cooking up a storm. I've never been served so much tea and soup in my life.

One of our neighbors invited us to their home for a Santa party. It was great for the kids. Every kid got to sit in Santa's lap and get a gift especially for them. Lilah did great, she didn't blink an eye and went right up to claim her gift and sit with Santa. I couldn't believe she wasn't scared.(This is a girl who at times is still scared of her own pet rabbit). I guess I had finally talked Santa up enough.

Merry Christmas Georgia!!

Here we are with Aunt Cindy and the girl's cousin Sarah. We had one of our best Chaney Christmas's ever. We sang songs, played games, read the Christmas story, had great food,...... we couldn't have asked for more. I know Papa was proud of us all.
Here we are visiting Kelly and Riley. Kelly and I have been friends since birth. She and her family were really there for me when my mom died and got me through some of the toughest days of my life. Friends like these are forever. One of the best gifts is Kelly adopted her daughter Riley, its wonderful to have an old friend that we share such a special commonality now. Lilah did have a tough time at our visit with them. Both the girls had awful colds and were feeling the pangs of such a busy schedule.

Here we are visiting Aunt Holly and her cute as a button daughter Katherine at the McDonald farm. Lilah had a blast seeing all the animals and getting to ride in the golf cart, and I had fun just catching up with my old friend.

Part of our trip we stayed with Papa Jack and Grandmama Genevieve and their granddaughter Cheryl Ann. We had a great time with them. The girls really enjoyed playing with their 2 cats. And Lilah still sings happy birthday Papa Jack everyday. (his bday while we were there).