Easter Rabbit and Sheep Shearing

Renee is settling in the new place, and she seems to be growing cheeks. My guess is that somehow the new teachers are better at getting her to pay attention to the food. Max is less stubborn, in that if I tell him enough times with threatening tone, he will obey, while Renee will just resort to crying. On the other hand, Renee deals with punishment quietly while Max will always throw a tantrum. With my little break from the school, I got to spend a bit more time with the kids, which was nice.

 Easter egg hunt!  This neighborhood activity seems to be the little tradition for us now.

Here they are with the rabbit.

We attended the concert at Renee's school. They did great.

While I was busy with school projects and finals, their mom took them to the six flags.

We attended a birthday party. Renee wanted to climb the rock but was not quite sure how to do it. After she gave up and came down, I offered to take her to the top. Here is the father and the daughter struggling together. I am proud to announce that we did reach to the top.

We went to a sheep shearing event nearby. Here is Max holding the wool. Their interest didn't last long though. Max did enjoy riding the tractor.

We also went to a local shopping plaza where there are a lot of ducks to feed. Here is Max with his smile.

Renee still goes to the dance class every Saturday. She gets to meet her old pal Lily here. We are going to host their birthday together. More pictures to come!

We went to the golden gate park. After one hour of row boat, we took a stroll in the island in the middle of the lake. Renee and Max enjoyed the hiking. It looks that when they are older and when I am done with school, we can resume our favorite hiking and camping activities.

Goodbye Carden West, Grandpa Visit, and Dance

The focus seems to be still on Renee, who is having constant activities like swimming, dancing, field trip. We start with saying goodbye to our favorite school, Carden West. The details are pretty painful and it is still going as we speak, but the bottom line is that Renee has to say goodbye to her friends one way or another. The good news is that she is adjusting well in the new place and is making friends.

On Sunday, I sometimes go out for a run with Renee biking on my side. We go from 2 miles to 4 miles. Sometimes I will take both kids out. Max loves hang out with his sister. He just follows her everywhere.

This is Renee helping one of her best buddies, Lily, putting on the cover sheet for nap time. Even after we took our kids out to Carden West and into separate school, we managed to have a play date so that the two friends get to hang out.

As far as the environment goes, Carden West remains forever as our favorite place. Renee learned very well there. I have tons of pictures of her learning, playing, laughing.

"Spider Web Park" is also our favorite park. We carry the bikes there. Renee and Max will ride around the park. Then they will climb the web. Here is Renee pretending that she found something interesting, and Max really trying to figure out what is that her sister looking at.

Renee had a dancing rehearsal. I took quite a few video taps.

We went to visit grandpa in Mountain View, hung around in the farmers' market, had some dim-sum.

Last but not the least, some dancing moves for your enjoyment (or amusement)

Cold Season, again

We started our year with pretty healthy family, and that didn't last too long. Max got cold for several weeks now. He is more cranky. What is worse, he has got the rest of us sick, or so we think. It seems that the mom and the daughter are the strongest, as they have covered pretty quickly. The dad and the son are still struggling through the day.
Through some turmoil at Carden West with their financial status and poor way of handling it, we ended up switching school for Renee. So she is starting at another school. The new school is not as well equipped but we hope the short period would not hurt. We are also hoping with Renee in this place, we can find a chance to get Max enrolled as well. He has been more and more spoiled staying home, and I think it is time to kick him out during the day to see the big world.

With me getting busier at school, I don't get to take the kids out to the part that often any more. I always have a good time whenever I do it.

Renee and Max are able to play along a lot better now. Although Renee is still pretty physical with her little brother, she would hit him or kick him when she is upset with Max. We talked to the teacher at school and apparently this behavior only exists at home. Go figure.

Renee and her class did a show about self control (haha from last picture). She was able to recite the whole thing, which was pretty cool.

Here is another trip that I don't get to go with them because I am in school. I do miss them. Anyway, I ask her mom to take lots of pictures whenever she gets a chance.

Here is a picture with the cousin from the mom's side. We start noticing the "camera smile" that Renee has now, which is very similar to that of the daughter of my cousin.