Fashion. Music. Family. Life.
Today is my niece’s birthday, and I wanted to wish her a wonderful day! She is at school, but she will have a fantastic soiree this weekend. I’ll be making her Adventure Time themed cake and will post pictures after the big event. Happy Birthday to my little Shmei-mers!
I know it’s a couple of weeks after the fact, but here are just a few images of our Halloween celebration this year. We went back to the Pumpkin Station at Plaza Bonita Mall on October 29th to use up the rest of the ride tickets (original post here). Dominic decided that he wanted to go down the Giant Slide rather than the smaller one he went down before. He did really well and had so much fun that he went back ten times. Conversely, he then went on a boat ride that started off fun, then quickly turned boring after the tenth go-around (I love the look on his face towards the end of the ride).
The next day, Dominic got the chance to gut his first pumpkin, with the help of daddy and cousin Mei-Lin. He was quite grossed out by the squishiness of the innards, but Mei-Lin had no problem with digging right in! Deon and I carved the pumpkin into its final Jack-O-Lantern state, and it turned out pretty well!
Also, as mentioned in a previous post, we went with the Batman theme for our Halloween costumes this year: I was Catwoman, Dominic was Batman and my husband was The Joker. I did my husband’s make-up, and he received tons of compliments at work and on Halloween. He also received requests for pictures from visiting trick-or-treaters! My sister and her family also came over for the trick-or-treat portion of the evening, and they dressed as Adventure Time characters. As predicted, the fun lasted as long as the candy supply. Hope you all had a wonderful Halloween!
WHY SO SERIOUS?!
The Dark Knight and two of his favorite villains.
What time is it? Adventure Time!
I just wanted to wish all of you and your loved ones a very Happy Halloween! We took Dominic to The Pumpkin Station at Plaza Bonita Mall to begin the festivities. This was our first time bringing him to a pumpkin patch, and he had a lot of fun. I can’t believe that he’s already at that age where he can practically manage on his own. He even played a game and won a prize, without our help. My, how time flies!
Dominic holding a blue snake, which he won in a ball toss game (no help from Mommy or Daddy!)
Dominic also decided that he wanted to be another superhero this year, and his crime fighter of choice was Batman. My husband, Deon, will be The Joker and I will be Catwoman (we try to select a theme when possible). I promise I will post pictures of us all in an upcoming post. Have a safe night!
(The bonus picture below is from 2009 when we dressed Dominic up as a Wookie. As you can see, he wasn’t too keen on being one at the time. Now when we show it to him, he loves that we dressed him up as someone from Star Wars.)
Last weekend, my sister took her very excited daughter to the Big Time Rush concert at the Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre in Chula Vista. I arrived home in time to get Mei-Lin all gussied up and ready for the concert, which meant doing her nails and playing dress up. She is quite the natural, and doesn’t need any guidance in the posing department. Rholnna said that the biggest thrill for Mei-Lin was when Kendall gave her a hug during the show (the first picture in the concert photo collage below). I must admit that I’m not so much a Big Time Rush connoisseur, so I used a line from a Depeche Mode song for the title of this post. I hope Mei-Lin doesn’t mind!
Concert photos by Rholnna Jiao
Dominic had his face painted during our third visit to the fair a couple of weekends ago. He got Spiderman painted on his cheek and did so well and sat still like a very big boy. He also did very well during his first big fireworks display last week. Typically we set off for Las Vegas during the Fourth of July because we can set off our own fireworks in the cul-de-sac of my in-law’s house. But because the holiday fell in the middle of the week, we decided to celebrate the Fourth at the last day of the fair last week. I know it’s technically not a weekend, but it certainly felt like one! As my last hurrah to the San Diego County Fair, I had a chocolate dipped cheesecake slice. It was better than I could ever describe here (and as my husband stated, I should have had them roll it in Oreo cookies). Hope you had a great weekend!
Zip liners: Cy, Deon and Rholnna
The zip line tower
We have gone to the San Diego County Fair every week since it opened this year, which we’ve never done before (the first time was Father’s Day, post here and this post marks the second time). Now that they have offered this unlimited pass, any trip to the fair going forward is basically free. Additionally, a promotional booklet called the “Passport to Savings” was being sold outside the fairgrounds of coupons that could be used both inside the fair, and then at vendors outside once the fair is done for the summer. I wasn’t going to buy it, but the salesman said “Don’t let love tear us apart, get your Passport to Savings right here!” in honor of my Joy Division shirt, which meant that I just had to buy a booklet because he was so clever. But I’m glad I did because some of the coupons were good for free drinks with purchase, buy one get one free items, or discounts. The best discount was the $5 off of High Fly’N Zip Line, which my sister, my husband and I all took a ride on. Deon went twice (that daredevil).
These are pictures from last weekend, and this time we brought along my sister and my niece. Of course we indulged in more fabulous fair food, including fried cheese curds (yet another first). We also have video evidence of our thrill ride (if the video is not currently below when this posts, it will be added at a later date). Hope you had a great weekend!
Mei-Lin and Dominic being cute (sneaky alien!)
Ah, glorious deep-fried cheese curds!
For Father’s Day, we went to The San Diego County Fair, where the theme was “Out of This World” and centered around all things science and science fiction. My husband tried zip lining for the first time, which I got a chance to do just this past weekend (video to come). Then we all tried our hands at archery, including Dominic! And of course, the food we indulged in was clearly an experience that could only be described as other worldly. Hope you had a great weekend!
My hubby, about to zip line (I’ll have a video of the two of us going in an upcoming post)
Dominic learned a little archery.
A triumphant picture of Dominic with one of his many winning prizes.
First stop: Chicken Charlie’s for anything and everything deep-fried.
My boys enjoying a little deep-fried goodness (deep-fried ribs & chicken strips).
My East/West tote was the perfect carry-all for the fair (as seen on Instagram, and thank you to Rebecca Minkoff for the re-Tweet!)
Enjoying a deep-fried peanut butter & jelly sandwich with Wendy Brandes, sort of! (I just love wearing my swear rings everywhere)
Yes, that would be deep-fried Trix cereal!
What was once The Heart Attack Cafe is now Bacon A-Fair, where their relationship with bacon runs deep…and fried!
Beer battered Polish dog & stuffed jalapeno peppers, both wrapped in bacon of course.
Wishing a Happy Father’s Day to all the fantastic fathers out there, specifically my husband, father-in-law and brother-in-law. I’m also sending a flying kiss to my own father, who I’m sure is smiling down at my boys.
A great film to watch on this “Day of the Dad” is a movie called The Other F Word, directed by Angela Blaugrund Nevins from Rare Bird Films. The tagline reads “Punk rock was never meant to grow up…but it did” and follows several veteran musicians, punk or otherwise, who all face the challenges of fatherhood. Of the groups listed, I’ve seen three in concert: Blink 182, Bad Religion and NOFX, so it was fun to see them interact with their children and hear their thoughts on raising them. The movie is funny and touching, and I think all fathers of all walks of life can relate.
Happy Father’s Day!
(Image courtesy of Living Cinema)
For Mother’s Day last weekend, we celebrated first at home with a simple lunch with my sister, her husband and my niece, myself, my husband, my son and our mom. I then treated my niece to a spa day while my hubby took our son out for a game of mini-golf. After I treated Mei-Lin and myself to a mani-pedi, we shopped for two pretty rings because she gave me such a beautiful set of stackable ones. My sister said she picked them out herself (Mei-Lin already has great taste)! We then had Tutti Frutti yogurt to end our day of relaxation. Meanwhile, my husband called us and proudly proclaimed Dominic shot his first hole-in-one on #12! As Mei-Lin said, that was the best day ever. Hope you had a great weekend!
