We just celebrated my Baby’s 2nd birthday. I have to admit, the night before her birthday, we all gave her her last 1-year-old kisses and I was sad. I understand why people want more babies when their babies aren’t babies anymore. For a brief moment, I wanted another baby, but then I came back to reality where I can barely handle raising the two babies I already have. So my last baby turned two and it feels like twenty-two.
We started the morning opening presents. So no one feels left out, we buy presents for the non-birthday girl also.
Getting ready for the birthday BBQ. The girls made pizza bread with my brother. They always talk him into letting them help him and it always makes a big mess.
Of course the girls got new sneakers from my Grouchy Husband. Lately, he has been obsessed with Nike Air Jordans.
Family picture with the birthday girl and the Hello Kitty candle we re-use for everyone’s birthday. You can see it in the pictures of my Baby’s 1st birthday.
My Grouchy Husband helping to blow out candles.
Happy Birthday Baby! Mama will always love you.
My Grouchy Husband works a lot so when he does have free time the girls love being with him. When we were visiting my parents last weekend we took the girls to a playground close by. I love how my girls still get so excited when they hear the word “playground”. It doesn’t matter how big or small, it’s not animated or motorized, they use it to create your own fun. I love how easily my girls find simple pleasures and wish I could do the same.
There was an extra wide slide the girls and my Grouchy Husband could go down together.
My Princess loves the monkey bars. If a playground has monkey bars, it’s a guarantee we’ll be there a long time. Her hands have callouses from spending so much time on them.
She loves any type of bar she can hang on.
My Baby wants to be just like her older sister. She’s still in training.
Every time we visit my parents upstate NY the girls look forward to visiting this little family-owned amusement park, 
This is the first year my Baby could enjoy the rides. She had a great time with her sister by her side. The cutest thing is she actually thought she was steering the rides. The girls loved riding the boat and ringing the bell.
They rode the magic bus countless times. There was a horn they were obsessed with pushing.
I grew up in upstate New York. The 
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.
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.
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!
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.