We had settled on a nice outdoor location for E’s birthday party: grassy area, nice views, playground, bathrooms, covered pavilion that could be rented, small beach by the bay. His birthday happened to fall on a Saturday this year so we decided to throw it day of. As mentioned in the previous post, Elias’ uncanny kinship to rain on important occasions reared its ugly fair head again but all is well in that we were able to reschedule to the following week and most were able to still make it.

No surprise that our Lego fanatic requested a Ninjago theme. We didn’t spend quite as much time on this one as his 1st but did enjoy a small dose of creative event planning. :)

We designed a digital invitation (paperless strong!) and a link to it on his website.

On the menu:

We made these food tents but it turned out to be super windy on that day so we actually had to tape down the labels. Oh well, kindergartners don’t care, right? And at least no rain!

The “snake fangs” container got a Ninjago face lift, haha.

The wind also affected the table covers so we kinda just stopped fooling with them after awhile. Very bare decorations (as in almost zilch besides Ninjago plates, Ninjago table cover (that kept flailing), brick platters and napkins) — we had considered balloons with Ninjago faces but the city’s Parks and Rec doesn’t allow them as they understandably didn’t want them floating into the water and possibly harming animals.

Kiddos started showing up and they wasted no time in playing!

After some food and free play, we assembled them for a 2-part ninja challenge that would deem them worthy to participate in the Ninjago Lego build. :)

Mischievous Sensei Yu imparting the mission. :P

The first charge involved the practice of Ninja star throwing. And to play the part, gotta look the part, right?

Shoutout to Daddy for folding like 30 of these — they also got to keep them after the game. Loved the origami paper and the masks were just too funny on the kids.

There they go!

The second task called for chopsticks — and picking up tiny origami folded stars (saved “confetti” from our wedding — can’t forget Chrissie who folded like thousands of these for us!) from one cup to another.

B-day boy needed a crash course on chopstick usage. :-P (Six, time to learn chopstix, haha!)

Alas, everyone passed the ninja challenge and it was time for the mini build.

We thought a boat would be appropriate and everyone started intently building.

All the parents were like, they are SO quiet!

With a bit of collaboration, adult help and flying tiny parts, all boats were complete! Cole + airboat:

Of course they all rushed off with build in hand to play with them in the grass, sand and playground. They roamed {wild} for a bit and then we congregated them again for cake.

The boat appeared in several cake photos. :)

Daddy made a little speech thanking guests for coming, becoming part of our community as we transitioned to our new lives here.

The cake wasn’t quite as elaborate as his first one (no Auntie Angeline here, boo). We ordered it from a local grocery store (recommended by SD moms for their cakes) with a custom edible photo printed on it and then enhanced it ourselves with this very cool Ninjago cake scene set (also edible — made with wafer paper!).

The wind decided to pick up right @ cake time so the background scene on the cake kept blowing over. :( We took a pic of it later with leftover cake for posterity:

(Daddy ended up eating the whole dang thing!)

Took quite a few tries to get all the candles lit.

Holding up the box to shield the wind.

WHOOOOOOOO.

Requests on particular toppers and which part of the cake (ie: Lloyd’s butt???) they wanted to eat were aplenty. :P We did our best in accommodating all, haha.

These two win the most-passionate-about-and-ate-the-most-cake awards. :) Oh, and party favors make a sneak appearance here.

Favors consisted of brick/block boxes with Ninjago faces affixed, Ninjago lollipops that we made, custom designed miniature candy bars, connectable brick erasers and stackable pencil sharpeners.

Close-up of the chocolate bars:

Wrapper design:

Mommy and E had fun assembling them:

These three played ’til it was dark (and chilly) and still did not want to leave! Another full circle story: we ran into their family last March @ LAX when Mommy had to go to TW. Their dad is actually the bro of one of our friends in Dallas! At the time, we had only been thinking about (wishing, praying) to move to SD. Shortly after that, through a sequence of total God-sized orchestrations, our move became a reality. We remember hanging out w/ them @ the airport, totally uncertain about our future and seeking His face about next steps. And here we are, a year later, playing on green pastures by the waters. :) On top of that, they go to the same Mandarin school. The Lord comes through and desires to give good things to His children, though sometimes that period of trusting and faithfulness seems soooooo long and laborious. But oh the sweetness of looking back and seeing His hand holding ours through the process and the journey.

Okay, so enough sappy stuff… Ninjago Birthday Party: Mission Accomplished? We hope so! Seemed like everyone had a good time (and told us so). We’re thinking birthday parties just once every few years but happy that his first real one turned out well and we’re so grateful to celebrate with new friends, neighbors, classmates and parents.

Lastly, we e-mailed personalized thank you cards to each guest that looked similar to the invite. (In the blank area was a custom message).

Happy 6th to this little big man that shares a b-day w/ Dr. Seuss!

Sooooooo we decided to have a first official b-day party for him in our lovely new city after the bad weather day of his 1st. It’s San Diego — we are guaranteed good weather everyday so we can def have it outside, right? Hehehehehe. True to trending past, this boy is a magnet for precipitation. We planned a party for a neat outdoor spot in Mission Bay and what do you know, forecast calls for lots of rain! (BTW, we’ve been told it’s been a higher than normal rain year … maybe thanks to E’s presence, lol.) We e-mailed the invitees to see if the following week was an option and thankfully, most were available and nobody else had booked the location so were able to switch dates.

On his actual birthday, we went to the SD Festival of Science and Engineering @ Petco Park. We were pretty impressed with all the tech, science, math and engineering exhibits and STEM-related interactive activities.

It was an exceptional expo and we hope to be back next year if they continue to do it. We also got some good ideas for summer camps.

That weekend, we also went to Busker Fest in Seaport Village — a spectacle of talented street performers.

Very unique tradition, apparently in its 13th year and CA’s only busker festival.

Happy Birthday, again, to our SIX YEAR OLD (how did it ever come to this????)! May you grow in faith, in knowledge of Him, in His stature, the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:13).

Next post coming atcha — his kickin’ Ninjago birthday party. :)

Happy Year of the Pig!

E had the unique opportunity to perform at the iconic Balboa Park for CNY w/ a few of his classmates.

It involved a good few weeks of intense practice but it was worth it.

Game face!

The school performance the day before was a good dry run.

Then Uncle Cliff, Auntie Anna and Caleb came over while on their first visit to SD (from the Bay Area). We’ve been meeting up every December in Dallas for awhile and every year, they tell us it’s time to move to CA. It was funny to finally come full circle and have our (a bit delayed) annual meet-up finally in Cali! We had a CNY hot pot feast… and consumed leftovers for dayyyssss, haha.

The V-Day haul. So we found out that it’s actually not allowed to give candy/sweets to other students… YES!

School was out for 4 days over President’s Day so we decided to do a short snowboarding trip to Big Bear — gotta get max usage out of our Ikon passes!

Stopped in the small town of Redlands so Daddy could take a work call. Mommy and son explored downtown: found a neat little toy store, good drinks, 24 hour donuts, an amazing chocolatier, cute shops. E also got his rental gear here which turned out much cheaper than on the mountain and even better: NO LINES!

The snow was really coming down which closed two of the major highways to Bear Mountain. We had to take a roundabout route to get to the resort so we arrived in the late afternoon and did just a few runs. They did have night skiing ’til 8pm but it sure was getting chilly! Mommy’s becoming a fair weather snowboarder — will only go out when the conditions are peachy. ;)

Spotted him getting on the lift by himself w/ a fellow ski school mate? OMG!

Practicing on the bunny slopes w/ his class. Mommy and Daddy then whisked off for a belated V-day “date” on the mountain. ;)

LOTS of snow on the second day which meant sweet, sweet POWDER!

After a full day of riding, we left Big Bear and found a pretty good Chinese resto that turned out to be super close to Y’s Uncle’s place in Loma Linda. We were all crazy thirsty and famished! The jellyfish was stellar. :)

Still had 1 more day of the long weekend to enjoy… Legoland. It was kinda crowded since it was President’s Day so we just did a few rides and enjoyed The Lego Movie 2 promo that was going on throughout the park. They had an area displaying actual sets that were used in the movie.

Another jaunt through SeaLife as he wanted to collect the stamps he didn’t get to last time.

Been a few years since our last pose in front of the sign, eh? :D (BTW, that hat was his “prize” for collecting all the SeaLife stamps).

And since we had time, we went inside the Lego hotel just for grins.

Perhaps a staycation another time?

We literally missed the memo that E was getting an award one Monday morning assembly. He needed to go to the bathroom when we got there, which has never happened before, and while still occupied, they called his name! A bit unprepared but still made it just in time for the pic with Principal H. (Found the notice a week later @ the bottom of his backpack, hehe).

Recognition for perseverance! Always biased, but we’d really have to agree on this one, especially the last few weeks/month… :)

Outdoor Lego build.

Perfecting the closed smile look. :|