(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 13-Who inspires you?

This prompt asks the question who inspires you? My momma. Not because I want to be like her, unfortunately our personalities are so different, but because she is awesome in her own way. Through the years I think we've learned to agree to disagree and through the years we've grown in love and respect. 

She is awesome for her unconditional love for her family. She would do anything for any one of us. 

She is awesome for being a great role model. She raised my brother and I well and now has a huge impact on raising my kids. I think they're turning out well too. ;-)

She is awesome for her talents ... cooking, sewing, knitting and gardening. 

She is awesome for her sense of adventure. She lives to travel and will keep going till the end. 

I am inspired by my totally awesome mom. Thank you for who you are and all you do. 

Challenge idea came from here.

(puppy love)

On our recent trip to Las Vegas, the kids got to spend lots of quality time with the Cupp's pups ...  Aiko and Sasha. Lena normally doesn't like dogs but every spare moment this weekend was spent with these dogs. She cuddled with them, napped with them, hugged on them. Her favorite place to be was on or next to one of them.

Lucky for her they loved her too. They loved the attention and let her be all over them. :)

These sweet pictures I captured for sure showed their connection. So adorable, so precious!

Had to keep the scrapbook layout pretty simple to keep the attention on the pictures. And the cardboard letters I've never used before. I never seem to come up with a title short enough since the letters are so large. This time, however, it worked! Such sweet puppy luv!

(Benihana Birthday)

For my dad's 72nd birthday this year we took them to Benihana. They've never been and thought it was both delicious and fun. I think they've been to a teppanyaki place like this before but each chain has it's show characteristics. So much so that my foodie kids claimed Tanaka of Tokyo in Hawaii is better.

When we visited Hawaii earlier this year, we took them for their first time to Tanaka of Tokyo. It was where Moi and I had our first date 12 years ago. Kainani was most impressed with the personality of the chef, the fire volcano and the yummy food. She was the one that said let's go again.

Here at Benihana in Carlsbad, the chef was experienced and skilled but didn't crack jokes or have as much interaction with the audience. In the end, the food made up for it and was delicious ... steak, shrimp, scallops. Yum!

Scrapbooking this was most fun. I tried to keep a more masculine feel with the blues and plaid since the theme was my dad's birthday. Still had to include some fun bling, but overall a simple design.  

(a vegas 4th)

We had a really nice loooong weekend celebrating the 4th of July this year in Las Vegas.

Our pyrotechnic friends (haha) have made a tradition of having a large display of fireworks each year for the 4th and now we are included in this tradition. Each year gets better than the last. Awesome!

While there, we squeezed in a little time on the strip. Our friend works for the Palazzo/Venetian complex and we hung out there shopping and lunching. It's not our first time but always amazingly beautiful how the indoors is made to look like the outdoors. We took a stroll down the canals just like in Italy ... not really but we pretended. It was still gorgeous, complete with an impromptu "street" performance of Italian opera.

Once home, I stole a few hours in the early morning to scrapbook. I can't wait to find time, I just have to get it all out and just steal time.  This is one of the kits I got from the last Ever After garage sale. Page layout came together pretty quickly because I challenged (or forced) myself to use what was in front of me.

In a few hours, I made 4 double page layouts. Woot woot! More to come as I get them blogged. A Vegas 4th was a blast! And I mean that literally!!!

The Year 2006

It seems so long ago to think about my oldest just starting Kindergarten. But this was the year 2006. Kaila was the first to start Girl Scouts ... unfortunately the troop disbanded after one year as Daisies because the leader moved away.

This was also a year of a fun Valentines double date .... actually I think it was more like 6 couples. Not the most romantic but memorable nevertheless as we all really enjoyed hanging out, the boys with their beers and the girls with their wines.

My baby was still really a baby and barely 1 this year. While ba ngoai was gardening during the summer, she splashed around a bit all by herself. These pics might be worth something when she grows up. Tee hee.

Summer meant picnics and carnivals. They all look so young here.

Every year for every birthday, we usually get a cake for the one being honored. This cake for Nani girl this year was from Grandma. :)

Our first and only time at Disney on Ice. Not sure why we haven't been interested in going to any others as I remember Nani really enjoyed this one.

2006 was also the year my brother got married. Here are the girls at the bachelorette party in Temecula Wine Country. 

It was so relaxing with spa treatments, so delicious with dining out and so much fun getting to know my sister in law's friends.

That year I had to make an unusual amount of business trips. But I wasn't complaining as it brought me to Chicago 3 times! Wonderful city and the perfect opportunity to reconnect with my friend Jackie. After 8 years of living in different states (we met in Hawaii), we picked up right where we left off. Chicago was memorable for the lake view, the giant bean, shopping H&M, pizza, tapas and sangria, the Bulls and so much more great dining experiences.

The best part about scrapbooking is remembering ... and I remember 2006 like it was just last year. Even though the years seem to speed on by, the memories will stay with us forever. What did you do in 2006?

Summer Frenz Layout

Our friends from Chicago came out to visit last summer and the kids had a great time together. They are close enough in age that they immediately bonded ... much like their moms who bonded years ago in Hawaii when chance put them together as coworkers.

Time spent at the house, time spent at the beach, time spent together ... we are pretty blessed to have good friends that despite the miles are so close at heart.

Used several edge punches here. Also took out the cuttlebug and made texture paper from scraps rather than tossing them out. Sometimes old school techniques are just as fun as new ones. My favorite part about this double page layout is the picture of Lena and Olivia. They are so sweet!!!

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. :)

First Day Layout

Kaila's first day of school was a big one this year. Wasn't it just yesterday that she was starting Kindergarten? Well now she's in middle school. Middle school means no uniforms, no single teacher (aka second mom during the day), and no recess. Middle school also means more classes, more homework and being responsible for your own schedule. But with Kaila, we were not worried ... she has been an A+ student from the start.

The school we chose for her to attend was not close to home. Enter carpooling as the saving grace. It was also a 7:30-3:30 school day, much longer than she's used to. But this school had a unique bell schedule where 2 days a week they had extended periods of 1.5 hours to be able to delve deeper into each subject matter. More like a college schedule ... allowing the kids to have discussions, work on group projects and do science experiments. In addition, at GPA, Kaila gets to play in the orchestra and join the after school science club. Now that the first year is almost over ... we can reflect back and be happy that we made the right decision for her. She's very happy with her new school and her new friends as well.

This layout is special for the memory ... my baby is growing up. It's also pretty special for all the colors. I love color and am realizing how much happier it makes me when I scrapbook this way. No more vintage, no more muted colors for me. I love bright and cheerful ... even if it means printing the pics in black and white sometimes. I also love the notebook paper, the ruler paper and the banner. Again with the banner?!? Yep, love it.

Pretty Girls Layout

Last year we took advantage of the girls dressing up for an American Girl tea party and took them to the park for pictures afterwards. These days, Nani girl seems to wear only skinny jeans. Lena, however, is more girly girl and will put on a dress or skirt just because. Either way, having them all in pretty clothes was the perfect opportunity for mom to take pictures of them together looking "pretty".

My favorite part about this layout is the picture. The expression on the girls faces are so genuinely happy and I want to remember this innocence and joy forever. Also love the vinyl thickers from American Crafts and took out my Martha Stewart glitter pack that I scored at a garage sale a while back. Thick star glitter is soooo fun. And in my favorite color ... teal!