(dinner out)

Dinner out for my dad's birthday was a great chance to get family pictures taken. While we waited for our table in the courtyard of Benihana's, the lighting was nice and the camera did a bit of magic.

It was fun taking close up photographs of our family. Natural poses, happiness in our smiles.

Even though my parents spend lots of time with the kids daily, it's never an opportune time to take pictures. So on these fun occasions when we get to go out together, I get to take these! With a little bit of complaining sometimes, but what photographer mom has kids that are not tired of her antics. Haha.

Scrapbooking these pictures was extra fun. Kept with joyful colors and notebook style embellishments. In Vietnamese, we call grandfather Ong Ngoai so I like to keep that in our family pages to remember that's that our real life. The kids call my dad this everyday.

We are quite blessed to have my mom and dad be such a big part of our lives. Here's to celebrating his 72nd birthday. Many more to come.

A quick weeknight dinner out, a quick excuse to capture these memories to last a lifetime. Fun times!

Prompt 12-Favorite Places

Today's prompt asks what are your favorite places? Document them.

For me that's easy. I've been so blessed to have lived in some amazing places and each place will forever have a spot in my heart.

Right now we call Oceanside CA home. This gorgeous pier and beach sunset view we get to see almost daily. Our train commute to work is along the coast and drops us off here every weeknight. Most beautiful in the fall and winter once the summer crowds are gone.

Paris ... what's not to love. Je parle le francais. J'aime bien Paris! The culture, the food, the language, the hustle and bustle of big city life. That part of me still exists to desire exciting big city life.

Japan was a short stay so many years ago. I dream of returning with the family some day. Until then I remember most the kindness of the people, the history, the food and like a first love you never truly forget, this was my first adventure in travel.

Hawaii you have the biggest part of my heart. I saved the best for last and am sure I will return to you one day. Life in Hawaii holds so many memories, good and bad, but having lived there, it's evidently always going to stay with me. The easygoing lifestyle, the weather and the beach and the mountains, the ono foods, the people that are our ohana, this place feels like coming home again.

Challenge idea came from here.

Seaside Layout

We are pretty lucky to live in such a beautiful place. These are good times with family at the Oside Pier. Sunset is the prettiest here even with the colder weather during the winter months and the fog during May Gray and June Gloom.

We sometimes will head out all the way to the end of the pier for lunch or dinner at Ruby's Diner. While we wait for our table, we check out the fishermen and the sunset and the city view ... trying to find all our familiar spots in our little city.

In this double page layout I actually scrapped a picture with me in it. As the kids get older, they are learning to take over the camera and snap a few of me. I think I have junior photographers on my hands and it's pretty funny when the DSLR is bigger than their face as they peer into it. LOL

My favorite here is the pom pom fringe. I also got to use my edge punch, the ripped notebook paper one, and I saw the folding over technique somewhere in blogland. It's fun to see that this paper is double sided. Also fun is the glitter brad. Bling is a good thing. :)

Holiday Event: Moi's Work Party

Every year Moi's work does a holiday party. One year it was at Mission Bay, another bowling downtown, last year it was at a hotel in Old Town. This year it was all you can eat sushi. YUM! Count me in please! It was loads of fun hanging out with his coworkers, some I've gotten to know kind of well and I always look forward to having a drink or two with them.

We even got a smiling couple picture in front of the tree ... that almost never happens!

Our neighbors also got in the act. Coworkers and neighbors is a nice coincidence. :)

This year Moi and his coworkers were in charge of games. In the minute to win it style, Moi had games with a holiday twist. Fishing for candy canes (with your mouth), hanging nails on a line (like hanging Christmas lights), and don't blow it this Christmas where you had to blow the card to slide off the table without falling completely off.

Let's try it from the front angle.

It really is harder than it looks, much harder than it seems.

Even climbing on the table to get just the right angle didn't help. In the end no one really got it. Moi insisted that he did it successfully in the trial run at the office. We blamed it on the slippery slate table with the beveled edge. Booooo.

But no one was too disappointed because all prizes not won were raffled off along with other prizes. The winners had to pick an envelope and decide if they wanted to keep it or trade it in for another envelope (a la Deal or No Deal). There were some nice prizes including a blue ray DVD player and a 2 night stay at a hotel in town.

Overall it was a fun afternoon of game show happenings and everyone really had a good time, even the ones that said they didn't really want to eat a "buffet". This one is not your typical buffet, check out Tora, it's delicious and full of variety ... a higher end "buffet" in my opinion.

(New) Holiday Tradition: The Grinch Musical

I've never been on an outing with my oldest and her girl scout troop. I've never seen The Grinch musical and barely remember seeing The Grinch movie one time a long time ago. I've never heard of December Nights at Balboa Park, let alone been to it. But now, I think we might have started a new holiday tradition.

These girls were such a pleasure to spend the day with. They are well behaved. They are funny and they really enjoy each other's company. It was really nice to see my daughter interact that way with other girls her age, especially as we encounter these preteen years. I'm very grateful for a happy child!

Kaila's troop leader also leads a Brownie scout troop for her other daughter. They joined us too in all the fun!

The booths, the lights and the decorations at Balboa Park were very festive. The big Dr. Seuss tree was so cool and very merry! There were food booths from all over the world. It was definitely fascinating to smell all the various flavors. We visited with Peruvian, Italian, South African, Columbian, French, German, Hawaiian, Filipino and many more I'm sure I'm forgetting. It was a smorgasbord!

Another highlight of December Nights were the museums open for free admission. The girls played along with all the interactive displays at the science museum and were fascinated by the space museum. We even did a 4D movie experience where we felt like we were flying. The part that scared me most was the real water splashing in my face when we hit the bottom of a gutter! Eeeeww!

The Grinch musical was spectacular. The music was lively and loud and fun! The set was perfectly Dr. Seuss style. The lights were dramatic. The cast was wonderful. I was pleasantly surprised by the storyline. I'm familiar with how the Grinch steals Christmas but this play had just the right amount of unpredictability that you were stuck to your seats fully entertained the whole time. We didn't even have intermission. Kaila who is supposed to take notes for her drama class, didn't even bother to write anything down because she was so riveted by the performance. I can't wait to share this with the whole family and do this every year as a new holiday tradition.

Oh and the surprise ending of the night was being part of a flash mob. Michelle found out about it and brought flashlights. The girls sang We are the World by Michael Jackson, swaying back and forth with their flashlights along with about a hundred other people right around the fountain. It was such a fun filled day!

Californification

UrbanDictionary.com definition of Californification: the act of becoming Californian.

In 2003, after moving to the mainland, it was time for new beginnings. Nani girl left Hawaii behind only 2 months after she was born. But now she has grandparents and uncles and aunties to shower attention on her chubby little baby self. We lived with my parents while trying to decide what part of Southern California we wanted to call home next.

We also spent many weekends visiting family in San Diego that year. Adventures in Legoland, Sea World and Wild Animal Park began. Lots of good times hanging out, grubbing and laughing late at night at the Filipino subtitles. All the more reason I'm sure we eventually decided to settle here.