Father's Day 2012

Happy Father's Day Daddy!!!!!

Oh how I wish we could say that to him in person, but we are thousands of miles apart right now.

The girls and I took off on an adventure to Florida while Daddy is still at home, taking care of business.  We all miss him terribly, and talk to him every day.  

In the mean time, the girls and I are thoroughly enjoying our vacation in sunny, and hot and HUMID Florida. The girls go swimming almost every single day, and are loving the opportunity to improve their swimming skills.

The girls love spending lots of time with their Nana F., as well as their cousin S.

While here we visited the zoo and an amazing children's museum with wonderful hands-on activities for the girls.

Despite the fact the the girls are having loads of fun, being away from Daddy on this special day is pretty hard on the girls and I.

So, we created a little video for Daddy that we are sure he will enjoy.  This is a Part 2 to a video that we created a few years ago before we had the Butterfly, and we thought Father's Day would be a great opportunity to update the video.


So, here it is Daddy... Enjoy!!!

(If there is no video above or you would like to view a high quality version, please visit this link at YouTube where I have the video uploaded.)


We love and miss you Daddy!


~~Aloha!

My Little Ballerina

The Ladybug is once again getting ready for her ballet recital.

She is so excited and eager to be on the big stage, performing for her family and all of her friends. She even loves the fact that she will be dancing on the very stage where the cast of the touring Broadway show, Mamma Mia performed. But, more than anything, she cannot wait to wear and dance in her beautiful ballet costume. In my eyes, it is the quintessential ballet costume with tutu. And looking at the Ladybug in the costume, she is the perfect ballerina.

The recital is tomorrow afternoon. The Ladybug is now in bed, dreaming about her special day. And here I am, on the couch, looking at photos of my beautiful daughter. Thinking about how blessed I am to have her in my life. Thinking about how amazing it is that we were brought together from two so very different cultures, as mother and daughter. And also thinking about how quickly my little girl is growing up and how I need to cherish every single moment.

I love you Ladybug.

Good luck at your ballet recital.

~~Aloha!

My Butterfly

The Butterfly and I have a very special bond.  She and I just... click!

Maybe it is her extremely "spicy" personality that I understand because I was much the same way at her age.

Maybe it is that she likes to tell me special secrets... "Mommy, I Love You!"

Or, maybe it is because she happens to be a mommy's girl.

Whatever the reason, we love hanging out together.

Tonight there was a dinner fundraiser for a student group from my school.  As it turned out, tonight was a perfect night for the two of us to enjoy an evening together, just mommy and daughter.

Every Wednesday night, the Ladybug heads on out to ballet class with daddy.  That leaves the Butterfly and I to spend every Wednesday evening together.  We usually eat dinner, cuddle together on the couch, read books, sing songs, play games, and many other fun things.  However, tonight I decided that I wanted to spend our time together out on the town.

We went to dinner where she and I had a blast together.  The Butterfly, who with her spit-fire attitude, is sometimes crabby when we go out.  But, not tonight (I do think that she is much better behaved without her sister around, she probably sees her as competition)!  With just the two of us there together, she had my undevided attention.  We laughed and giggled, told stories, talked about our day, and thoroughly enjoyed our time together.

In the grand scheme of things, this evening wasn't all that special to the outside observor.  We didn't do anything extraordinary.  We just went to dinner.  That's it, nothing else.

But the time together meant the world to us both.  I love this little girl so darned much.  I feel so blessed that she is my daughter, and evenings like tonight make me realize that fact even more.

Here is a photo from our evening out.  Nothing special, just a silly arm-length photo taken with my phone.  But look at the smile on the Butterfly's face.  She is smiling from ear to ear.  I think that says it all.

~~Aloha!

Wearing of the Green!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

to all of my friends and family!

The Ladybug is feeling a little under the weather today, so I opted use the baby Butterfly as my model. I told her it was a day to wear green... or else she would get pinched. She ran to her room, grabbed everything green she could find and brought it all out to show me and exclaimed, "I don't want to be pinched Mommy!" After a few different matching choices, she finally chose a cute top that states, "I Feel Pretty!" Nice choice little one!

Being a girl of two, going on three (or thirteen!), she is a girl who definitely knows what she wants. Now that her wardrobe was chosen, it was time to do her hair. She immediately brought me the squirt bottle, a comb, and a bunch of hair ties and asked me to, "Make me pretty, and don't forget the green!" In keeping with the green theme, I thought it would be fun if we could somehow create a shamrock on her head. Heck, why not... she is young and can pull it off, and she was in a good mood to boot! I could totally rock this one!

After parting her hair and creating three tiny braids, I twisted them into an adorable little shamrock and tied them together with a green flower bow. Perfect! The Butterfly ran to the mirror, looked at her new hairdo and squealed!

My little Chinese-Irish girl (Irish by osmosis on my side of the family!) is ready to take on the day.

Enjoy a wonderful St Patrick's Day everyone!

~~Aloha!