i volunteered to make cupcakes for the fund raising + charity for the mothers club for this weekend's events. i made the cupcake topper so that it matches with t-shirt design i did for this event. there's gonna be parade, decorated bike contest, pie-bake off, etc. for our community. it should be fun and we are planning on attending the 4th of july celebration (not to mention i'm volunteering also)!

right out of the oven!

after putting cream cheese frosting to all of them. yum!

4th of july is also my neighbor's daughter, jordynne's birthday! so i set aside some of them and decorated (i think those colors are her favorite colors...) so that i can give them to her :)

i was craving for some potatoes for breakfast so i made some breakfast spuds! i had something like this when i lived in portland at the restaurant called junior's. ever since then, i love it and like to make it when i can. i just put together what i had in the fridge and this is what i came up with. there's red potatoes, minced garlic, bacon, breakfast sausage, onions, green onions, and cheese mix.

our backyard disaster seems to be completed (well, just the sprinkler system part). we moved all the piping/valves to the right side of the house but when we were all done with that, we took a little while to figure out how to get the main water supply turned on thru the valves to each sprinklers. but after few hours of thinking and nice deserving break with cold drinks, we did it and worked perfectly!

actually he wanted this straw hat to be off of his head after few min. ;)

yup, he was playing with the dinosaurs again! it was super hot (103 F/39.5 C) so we were sweating profusely, so gross!

hooray for the water and awesome water pressure! we just need to put sprinkler heads next time and rototill the ground so that we can put soil/fertilizer mix and grass seed to grow the grass (we decided to go with the grass seed rather than sod cuz it's significantly cheaper and we decided that we can wait to have grass). since it's getting hot i dunno when we get to work on the yard next but i'll keep you posted!

bought these sweet + juicy bing cherries (they are called 'american cherries' in japan.) for the first time this year. they were on sale for $2.99 lb., i paid $5.20 for the 1.75 lb. (794 g) bag for this basket full of cherries (is that cheap or average?). just washed them and now i'm gonna put them in the fridge for the dessert tonight :) yum!

i saw these cute free bookplates on orange you lucky blog so i thought i will share! i will be printing them out and sticking on kai's books :)

if you know daniel, you know he is obsessed about the iPhone...he got his iPhone 3G S delivered today at the house. he does anything and everything to change themes, icons, anything internally so that it looks and works good to him. last thing he does before going to bed is...iPhone, first thing he does when he wakes up is...iPhone. so you know what this means...he is gonna go even crazier and i'm gonna get his old 3G iPhone.

we got new trees in the front yard 'cuz the other one died and HOA finally replaced them! yay :) but they didn't replace with the same tree and this one has small purple flowers (a little smaller than 1" in diameter) on them. they are pretty but i have no idea what they are called, does anyone know?

i just desperately needed a good cup of strong coffee this afternoon. after exercising with my friend in the morning, chasing kai around the house, and was getting worn out already by the afternoon! so i made a cup of coffee and sat in front of computer and caught up on things that had to be done :)

this backyard thing became really a total disaster! we thought we were almost done with the sprinkler system but then we noticed that everything was pre-wired and the main water supply pipe ready to go on the other side of the house!?!?! so to do it right with no regrets later, we decide to move the sprinkler valves, more manually digging, and obviously re-do some of the piping. think we'll really be done with this next weekend and after that we gonna get ready to plant grass seeds.

here is our little helper, playing with the dinosaurs i got him the other day.

walking around with this cute silly face, totally cracked me up! :) in the background, there's stacked up soil with fertilizer for the grass, more pipes and tools and daniel working :)

very seriously checking out the "elbow" pvc pipe connector...
you see the dirt hill? that's how much we had to dig manually with a help of daniel's dad and uncle to re-do this thing!

this is after we connected everything with all the piping and valves (this thing controls the water flow like when to shut off or go. we have to wire these valves to the main controller (see the black wires coming out on the top) now). i don't know if you noticed but this time these valves are not as tall as the one we did before because we decided to put them underground with lid so it'll be out of the way! i'll put a picture next week so you know what i'm talking about! :)

i made chocolate croissants for breakfast! but i didn't make them from scratch, i just got the frozen stuff from my favorite trader joe's! it comes with 4 tiny croissants but you let them sit over night (about 9 hrs) and they totally poofs up and you just bake them for 20 min.! they were really yummy and i definitely recommend them for the good price, easy to cook, and tasty :)

this is the yummy stuff!

this is the "w" birch wood letter (8" H x 10.5" W, just in case if you are wondering, it's our last name initial) that we got with kai's door sign letters (guess, i was lazy about taking pictures :P). i'm just happy that finally i got what i want since i searched for the perfect type one for a long time. it's sitting above the tv shelf in the living room (yes, i am aware that i have lots of stuff on there ;->).

we also got "m + d" to put on a shelf above the headboard in our bedroom. it's in the middle of the shelf on this shelf you see here. i was thinking that we could even put a letter on each one of our night stands if we wanted to but have to wait to do that until kai doesn't turn them into to one of his toys! ;)

omg, it's hot today! it's like almost 94 F (34.4 C) out!!! seemed like it got hot all of a sudden today and totally reminding me of miserable hot summer that's around the corner. at least it cools down at night, i guess that's good and we don't have to run a/c all day...

went to park so that kai can play with his friends :) it was a nice day but was pretty windy!

don't give me the sad face... :(

kai's good friend, reid.

my friend, kristen took some of the pictures today. thanks for doing that and they are awesome!

kai is a year and half already! time really flies when you have a child...really! he is starting to have attitudes + tantrums and we are starting on "time outs" now. i can totally see that "terrible two" is coming ;)

cont. reading for old pics.

17 months

sad 16 months :(

15 months

14 months

12 months + 1 day

11 months

10 months

9 months

8 months

7 months

6 months

5 months

4 months

3 months

2 months

1 month

he hates hat ever since he was a little baby but he has been starting to show a little interest now. i think it's because daniel wears hat a lot so maybe he wants be like his daddy? maybe time for me to get him a hat in his size (rather than daniel's) and try it out!

we went to potluck + playdate today in the neighborhood where we closed off one of the cul-de-sac so the kids can play freely with bikes, scooter, and such.

he was interested in bikes/tricycles but he really like pushing around someone's stroller?!?

this was the one tricycle he pushed around for a bit.

he was having a "moment" with this little girl...girlfriend already??? but i don't even know her name! LOL

he loves his play house ever since he got it for xmas. we put it downstairs but thing big play house totally took over half of our dining room space... :( he watches tv from his house like here (he is lifting himself up on the door so he is not that tall) or he likes to hide in there to do his "diaper business." either way, he is a silly child! ;)

i volunteered to make some carmel corn for the kite festival here on sat. for the fundraising for the mother's club. i never made it before so it was interesting to make something new! and yes...i did have to "try" some to see if they are good and it was! i definitely want to make some for kai when he is a bit older, they are good yummy snacks! (but they are really fatty tho...).

cont. reading for the recipe.

++ INGREDIENTS ++

7 quarts plain popped popcorn
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 teaspoon salt (opt out if you use salted butter)
1 cup butter
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)

++ HOW TO ++

1. Place the popped popcorn into two shallow greased baking pans. You may use roasting pans, jelly roll pans, or disposable roasting pans. Add the peanuts to the popped corn if using. Set aside.

2. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F (120 degrees C). Combine the brown sugar, corn syrup, margarine and salt in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring enough to blend. Once the mixture begins to boil, boil for 5 minutes while stirring constantly.

3.Remove from the heat, and stir in the baking soda and vanilla. The mixture will be light and foamy. Immediately pour over the popcorn in the pans, and stir to coat. Don't worry too much at this point about getting all of the corn coated.

4. Bake for 1 hour, removing the pans, and giving them each a good stir every 15 minutes. Line the counter top with waxed paper. Dump the corn out onto the waxed paper and separate the pieces. Allow to cool completely, then store in airtight containers or resealable bags.

i love this wild sunflower, i'm saying "wild" cuz they are just blooming in the dirt field or side of the road around here. it's pretty cute, not big like the usual sunflower, it's only about 5" diameter (13 cm). i kinda want them in my backyard...maybe i can get some seeds when they are done blooming? hmm...

not sure what's his obsession with brushing teeth (but it's a good thing!) but he LOVES to brush them. he voluntarily climbs up on a counter and ask for his tooth brush and tooth paste!?! sometime he even cries or have crazy tantrum over NOT giving him tooth brush. is he a silly toddler or what???

he totally get the "order" right too. turn the water on...

wet the tooth brush...

and brush really good!

this is the "other end" of him ;) he toes are like ballerina, trying to reach so hard! of course, i just changed his diaper and ran away from me right before putting his pants on and he decided to brush his teeth! and for me, instead of putting his pants on, i decided to grabbed my camera and take pictures, ha ha ha ;)

yay, we are almost done with installing the sprinkler system in our backyard! no more cutting pvc pipes with the pipe cutter for a while, well let's just hope that way ;)

i dug the hole to match the depth of the trench and some so that we can put these ugly looking contraptions (it's actually called "automatic anti-siphon" which is to control the water flow and reduces fogging and overspray). after that we already assembled most of this contraptions, so we had to measure the pipes to connect them all with main water supply and rest of the pipes in the ground.

today kai was in the house with deedee for a bit. he was taking a nap for most of the time and just got up towards the end. so we left him inside since we are just few steps away and he can see us right outside of the door!

*sorry for the bad reflections on this picture...you can kinda see me with yard working clothes, ha ha.

fyi, this is why the glass is so dirty on the door! just lovely isn't it?

*sorry again for the bad reflections on the picture.

i really been liking this quote so i made myself desktop wallpapers in different colors (1280 x 800) so i thought i'll share with everyone! hope you guys enjoy! if you want some bigger sizes to fit perfectly, let me know, i'll make one for you :)

* please click to enlarge the image first then drag the picture to your desktop.

cont. reading for more colors.

this blue one is 1680 x 1050 size version

spotted pretty white agapanthus on a walk today. i do see the purple/blue color one a lot more than i see white around the neighborhood. i think i like the white one better...looks almost like fireworks (especially when it's fully bloomed!) on the side of the road :)

i've been procrastinating to give her a much needed bath. well, i finally got around to it and did it today while kai was napping! deedee's never been a "bath dog" and it's always been a constant battle to just keep her in the tub. but today, i gave her bath in our shower , which has glass doors so she can't escape at all! amazingly she behaved really well during and was calm through out, maybe she is getting old or did she give up???

deedee right before she's getting wet...totally telling me that "she doesn't want to" with those puppy eyes (well, i think anyways!).

wish she doesn't give me those pathetic eyes!!!

totally soaked.

water drops going crazy everywhere and she looks like a beast by shaking so hard!

we took a little adventure to the park today in the early evening. this park is the closest to our house which is only 2 blocks away so we decided to walk together rather than taking a stroller. i only planned to go there for like 30 min. but somehow it turned out to be this 2 hr long thing!?! there were so many kids playing and kai getting distracted constantly made it that long...

run kai run!

kai just goes running/walking to the park by himself...but he does stop and turn around sometimes to see where i am, being a good boy! :)

on the way home from the park, was about 7:30 pm or so, sun is going down!

this was one of the many distractions he encountered on the way home...finding a stick in the field and playing with it. now, remember, this park is only 2 blocks away from the house but took like 25 min. to get home when it should only take maybe 5 min. walk!

this was my weekend project to make the poster (ok, more like "trace" the poster), print it out, and frame it. i've seen this poster everywhere and i always wanted one but i really wanted to use this frame i already had and right dimension for the frame so i decided to trace the original poster i found on the internet. i made it orange to work with my decor better rather than original red color. i also see this poster in different colors who silk screen them locally here in san francisco. so cute too!

i like the quote, i think it suits well with chasing toddler around all day :) but did you know that this poster has a history behind it? well i didn't...until few days ago that this was a british propaganda poster in 1939. you can read more here.

p.s. if you happen to like this poster, i can send you high resolution pdf. it's about 11"x 14" (28 cm x 35.5 cm) and i can change colo if you want.