I grew up in upstate New York. The Saratoga Race Track, the “Track”, was part of my summers growing up. Now every year, we make a trip upstate and go to Saratoga, the Track, and other events like Fasig Tipton. Fasig Tipton is one of the premier horse auctions in the world with one of their auctions hosted at Saratoga during track season. My brother is the General Manager of Sherry-Lehmann and they throw a few Fasig Tipton parties. We went to the a cocktail hour for horse owners one night. Henriot was there serving champagne. I always feel like a desperate housewife when I go to adult-only events…drink too much, talk a lot, I need to get out more.
My Grouchy Husband and me at the party. I love all of the traditions in horse racing. Many of the owners had come to the party right after spending the day at the Track and still had on their hats they wore for good luck (see the lady in the back).
One day we went to the Track. We spent most of the day in the Fasig Tipton hospitality tent because it was more comfortable with the girls.
The tent was air conditioned, we could eat, drink, make bets and relax at our own table. This is a picture of what the tent looked like inside.
This is what our table looked like. There were a lot of people from Kentucky and horse buyers in the tent. The table had books on how to buy horses. Sometimes I dream about owning a horse one day and then I look at how much they cost and reality sets in.
We had front row seats to the paddock, where the horses get ready to walk out to race.
My Princess loved watching the horses in the paddock.
But not as much as the monkey bars at the playground.
Weekend in Saratoga mama,
Chrissy xo
My sister is getting married next month and we just had her 
All of the meat at the “cookie party” had heads and tails to symbolize completeness. Chickens have 
Here is my sister in front of some of her wedding dowry. Liquor is a part of the party also. I’m just not quite sure what the symbolism is.
These were some of the sweet pastries. My mom went to taste the special “cookie party” pastries at the bakery and decided not to buy a lot of them because she didn’t think our Americanized palates would like them.
My brother chopped up all of the meat. He has watched the restaurants in Chinatown chop meat for years and was excited to do this. We made him wear a glove because well…he is my brother.
Here is our family in front of the “cookie party” feast. Wearing red or reddish color was a requirement for the party because red symbolizes good luck. You can’t see it in the photo but my pants were red-orange.
The party was filled with relatives and my parent’s friends. I’ve come to realize after my own “cookie party” and now my sister’s, the “cookie party” is really a party for the bride’s parents…haha!
After the groom’s family delivers the pig, the bride’s family is suppose to cut off the head and tail and give them back to the groom’s family. This is to symbolize that everything has a beginning and end. The bride’s family also gives the groom a wallet, belt, suit, and money to symbolize prosperity and completeness. My sister took the head and tail home to Mike the next day.
Instead of buying the traditional cookies and cakes, my mom ordered a cake from 
And of course the party would not be complete without jewelry from the groom. It is tradition the groom buy a pair of dragon and phoenix bangles for the bride to be worn at the wedding. The dragon and phoenix symbolize a blissful union. Seeing these bangles reminds me of how much jewelry the bride gets at weddings. We have two girls, my husband is in trouble!
One of my favorite gifts my Princess received for her fifth birthday was a 
When she first opened the 
On the back of the paper there was a big sticker and a fun coloring activity.
All of the materials needed for the activities were in the box. Some of the activities might need additional household items. In this Kiwi Crate, we needed water, scissors, and a plate.
Each activity came with an instruction manual. I found very helpful on the bottom of the front cover a rating for messiness and grownup involvement, and icons representing what your child will be learning with the activity.
We started with the floating sailboat. Here were the materials needed for this activity.
My Princess had a great time with this craft, especially decorating the sail. She used a craft tray when decorating the sails.
All smiles when the floating sailboat was completed! We let the sails dry for a few hours then during bath time, filled the tub with water and learned how moving the rudder to different angles turned the boat.
The second activity was watercolor animals. The crate had three sea animal paper cut-outs along with extra paper that we colored, sprayed with a water bottle, and watched the colors spread and mix.
We put our watercolor animals on the front step to dry.
The 
An extra activity in the box was to see how many drops of water fit on a penny. We had to save this fun activity for another time.
I feel like in a blink of an eye this day has come. I remember the day my Princess was born and cannot believe she has graduated preschool. I have a feeling I’m going to be saying these same words when she graduates high school, college, gets married, has her first child, etc. Life is so busy and goes so fast, I’m trying to be more present in my daily life (which is so hard when I’m so busy taking care of my little ones), because I don’t want life to fly by and only have to-do lists in my memory. My Baby, Grouchy Husband, and I all attended my Princess’ graduation.
The school had a graduation ceremony but first we attended her class ceremony. This was the kindergarten bridge the children would all be walking over after accepting their diplomas. I am not an emotional person except when it comes to my children. I was teary-eyed watching her walk over the bridge.
My Princess attended a 
The class sang songs.
This is when my eyes started to water.
At the end of the class ceremony, the children graduating held up their diplomas.
During the school ceremony there was more singing. Olivia loves to sing.
After the school ceremony the kids enjoyed ice cream and Ms. Marilia, their teacher, talked about the portfolio each child put together. I really loved Ms. Marilia. She was so creative yet so structured. My Princess had a wonderful time in Ms. Marilia’s class.
Trader Joe’s is my favorite grocery store. Great price for organic food and great service. I picked up a bag of their pork gyoza, the japanese word for dumpling. Here is my criteria for delicious dumplings.
The dumplings have a textured bottom. Their closures are messy but after they’re cooked you can’t tell.
The list of ingredients included things I knew and things I had not heard of. I always get nervous about the things I’ve never heard of. I followed the cooking instructions for stovetop cooking.
I filled a 12″ pan with the whole bag.
Our Father’s Day celebration usually always involves a BBQ. We also like to try to include some higher cholesterol foods to make the dads feel extra special. I am totally into matching the girl’s outfits right now and dressed them early so that I could tend to all of the food for the celebration.
We had roasted tomato and mozzarella salad.
My father in-law’s famous ribs.
My brother’s famous fried chicken.
BBQ chicken.
We drank tequila, margaritas and Skinny Girl.
My sister in-law brought lobsters from Long Island. We also ate BLT’s with thick cut Boar’s Head bacon, sticky rice, corn, and potato salad. It was just a steady stream of food for hours. We didn’t even cook the steaks because people could not eat anymore. No one went home hungry.
The lobster bib looked like a dress on my Baby.
The lobster bib turned into a cape for the Lobster Heros to save the day.
Uncle Chris helped the girls fly with their capes.
For dessert, a Carvel ice cream cake.
A picture of all the dads. From left to right, my uncle, my dad, father-in-law, and my Grouchy Husband.
To celebrate Father’s Day with my grandfather, we go to Chinatown (of course my dad drives us) to spend time with him and eat dinner. My Gung (maternal grandfather, 公) has had a tough year. He has been in the hospital twice because of his congenital heart disease. I lived in Chinatown for a year when I was in college and seven years after college. I was a frequent visitor for dinner at my Gung and Pau’s (maternal grandmother, 婆) apartment and really cherish the relationship I have with them. After dinner we all sat in the courtyard of their apartment complex and watched the girls run around. I sat next to my Gung and we chatted. Our conversations are very simple, he only speaks Chinese and my Chinese is very basic. Today as I sat their with him I thought about his life, my life, and all of the sacrifices he made to allow me to have the life I have today. I will share his life with you soon because it was an amazing one. From the stories I’ve heard, he was not the nicest of men, but as his granddaughter, I never knew that side of him. Happy Father’s Day Gung!
Start by chopping up the fresh shiitake mushroom caps. A cup of mushrooms is about 6 to 8 caps.
Chop up a cup of scallions both white and green parts.
Chop up two cups of napa cabbage. This is about four leaves depending on the size of your cabbage.
Shred a cup of carrots. I like to use organic carrots.
Soak the glass noodles in water for at least 15 minutes and then chop into small pieces. The softer the noodles, the easier they are to chop.
Chop the Chinese chives or spinach.
Put the mushrooms, chives, napa cabbage, carrots, noodles, salt, corn starch, and sesame oil in a large bowl.
And mix together. Use your hands, they are the best mixers.
Using either store bought skins or 
(1) Place the filling in the middle of the dumpling skin, dab your fingers in the egg wash and coat the edge of the skin, then fold in half but do not press shut (2) You will make three pleats at the edge of the side closest to you. To make a pleat, pinch the skin in between your thumbs and then press firmly to stick to the back side of the skin. (3) Repeat two more times (4) Evenly space the pleats and place firmly on a flat surface to make sure the dumpling “sits” on its own. Pinch the edge firmly to make sure the dumpling is completely sealed. Wrapping 
Coat the bottom of a non-stick pan with oil. Fill the bottom of the pan with dumplings. Line them up snug. Cover the dumplings half way with water, put a cover on the pan, and cook on medium heat. After fifteen minutes check the dumplings to make sure most of the water has disappeared. Wait another five to ten minutes. When all of the water is evaporated and the bottoms are brown and crispy, the dumplings are ready to eat!
These veggie dumplings are light and delicious. My little girls love the noodles inside!
I am still dreaming about this brunch. I filled my plate with salads, seafood, leg of lamb, an omelet, and of course a sampling of desserts. Everything was glorious and best of all, I didn’t have to cook any of it.
I had been to the Mohonk Mountain House once before with my Grouchy Husband before he was my husband and was so grouchy. We had a wonderful time and I always knew I would come back again one day. My sister wanted a low key bachelorette, not too far of a drive away, where there was a great spa, and we could do activities. Mohonk immediately came to mind. I love the rooms here. Though the Mountain House has been renovated, they have kept the original rustic look while adding modern amenities like air conditioning and wireless internet. I love most that there are no televisions in the room.
I have a mild obsession with hotel bathrooms and it’s one of the key metrics I use to judge my stay. The bathroom was big, bright, and clean with lots of hooks and shelves. All of my favorite things in a hotel bathroom.
My most favorite part of the bathroom was that the toilet was separated from the rest of the bathroom. Super convenient when you have three ladies trying to get ready at the same time.
We had a little porch and this was the view from our room. Looking out the window or being on the porch was a great way to start the day.
There was a fitness schedule that was part of the spa and my sister wanted to take a class each day. The first class we took was a core strengthening class that wasn’t that hard. The teacher kept saying everyone was doing a phenomenal job even when my youngest sister was using the wall to balance…haha! I figured out a way to take our picture using the mirror in the room. I thought I was such a genius…ha!
The second class we took was a power yoga class. This class was much harder. My sisters have never taken yoga so it was great to see them struggle in a class they always made fun of me taking because they never thought it was a good workout.
We all decided to get facials at the spa. I’m going to embarrass my sister for a minute telling this story. I think this might have been the second facial my sister has ever gotten in her life. She was confused with the directions from the esthetician on how to lay on the bed. So instead of waiting for the esthetician to come back to the room to clarify her directions, my sister took off all her clothes except her panties and laid on the bed, on top of the covers, with her hands over her boobs. The esthetician was startled when she came back into the room, she quickly shut the door, and told my sister to lay underneath the covers. Duh…only my sister would do something like this. When she told me the story afterwards, I choked on my tea and could not catch my breath for at least two minutes. I thought I was going to need emergency services.
The spa had a solarium and the day was gorgeous. After lunch, we headed back and sunned ourselves for the rest of the afternoon.
I’m going to embarrass my sister one more time. With her bridal shower and the bachelorette vacation back to back, my sister didn’t pack enough underwear for the trip so she had to wash it in the sink and hang it on the porch to dry. The “China” (this is what I call all of her grungy tendencies she acquired after spending six months at a rural school in China teaching English) in her considered wearing underwear two days in a row…um, gross.
There are two levels of porches on the Mountain House that overlook the lake. On the porches there are rocking chairs and throughout the day people are reading, enjoying their cookies from the “Cookies and Milk” hour, or sipping wine from the cocktail hour in the rocking chairs.
The view from these rocking chairs is breathtaking.
The grounds at Mohonk are beautiful and they have several hiking trails at varying degrees of difficulty. My sister loves to hike and she chose a difficult two hour hike for us to take. My youngest sister and I have never hiked. Thankfully, we spoke to Guest Services first and they recommended we try one of the short easy hikes to see how we feel before going on the difficult hike. As we were hiking up the mountain it was very very clear that this would be the only hike we would be going on and my youngest sister and I should not be anywhere near the difficult two hour hike.
The short hike we took was up the mountain to the tower. The view on this hike is the Mountainhouse, lake, and mountains. It is so beautiful, you can only marvel at God’s creations. At several points on the hike there are these sitting areas to take a rest and enjoy the view.
It felt like forever, but was actually only thirty minutes until we reached the tower.
The tower is a memorial for Albert K. Smiley. He and his brother were the founders of the Mohonk Mountain House.
We walked up to the top of the tower. It was so quiet.
The view from the top of the tower was amazing.
The lake in front of the Mountain House has a dock where you can take a row boat, paddleboat, or feed the fish. The fish come right up to the dock to eat. My girls would love doing this.
For dessert one night we chose the gigantic cream puff. This dessert was enormous. It took up almost the whole dinner plate and was almost the size of a spoon. This was an individual portion that the three of us shared and could not finish!
The dining hall served all our meals. Breakfast, lunch, and the Sunday brunch were a buffet. Dinner was sit-down with a menu selection of eight to ten appetizers, main courses, and desserts. We ate everything from Belgium waffles to foie gras and it was all delicious.
The time has flown by since my sister got 
The girls helped my Grouchy Husband put up the canopy in the backyard. With his special helpers, this thirty minute task took over an hour. My mom spent three weeks getting the yard ready and planting flowers. My dad took a week off of work to fix the fence, paint the bathroom, put up the blinds, paint the front door, and a whole bunch of other jobs to get the house ready for the party.
My youngest sister juiced 100 oranges for the fresh squeezed orange juice. This made a lot of juice.
I made dozens and dozens of paper flower decorations to decorate the house.
Kimbie and her fiance, Mike, have put a lot of time personalizing their wedding not only for themselves, but also for their guests. Kimbie wrote a special note to each of her guests on how they have influenced her life. We hung the notes for everyone to read. This is what my note said:
All the food for the brunch was homemade. This was A LOT of work, but the food was all delicious and everyone enjoyed it. The menu consisted of shrimp cocktail, roasted tomato and mozzarella caprese salad, garden salad with my mom’s homemade dressing, salmon nicoise salad, my sister’s favorite potato salad, Aunt Alice’s baked manicotti, Dumpling Mama chicken and vegetable dumplings, my father in-law’s ribs, fillet mignon sandwiches, and fruit. For drinks we served bellinis, lemon-cucumber infused water, fresh squeezed orange juice, Pellegrino, and wine. I had a helper that day, Alix, and he plated everything so beautifully.
The games the other bridesmaids planned were so fun. This was the wedding themed pictionary.
The last game was very special. My sister was asked questions like what was her favorite color, favorite restaurant, etc, and her bridesmaids coordinated with Mike to send in a video of his response to the questions. It was very touching to hear his answers to questions like when did you realize my sister was the woman you wanted to marry. The whole room was teary eyed.
The cake was from 
Kimbie and my mom are here with Mike’s mom (next to my mom), Mike’s Auntie Joyce, and our Aunt May.
Here is my sister with her three best friends. They drove all the way from Boston for the party. One is seven months pregnant, one just had a baby a month ago, and one is in residency. They are such great friends to her.
My girls had a great time at the party. They had lots of attention and had so much fun playing the games with everyone. I was so busy hosting, my mom had to mingle and take care of them at the same time. I don’t know what I would do without my mom.
My Grouchy Husband helped me make this sign for the party. Kimbie was a little upset that I didn’t ask if she was changing her name before I made the sign, because she wasn’t…oops. But besides that little mishap, the party was a huge success! I was so busy hosting the party I never had a chance to take a picture with my sisters at the party so the next day we all dressed up in our party clothes again and took the picture. Can you tell we aren’t wearing makeup?!