L.O.V.E this tag

saw this when i was browsing the web.  soooo cute :)

summer outing

before we headed out to golden gate park, we had to stop by chinatown and get some delicious dim sum and steam buns.  y.u.m.m.i.e.  weather at the park was great - not too cold and not too warm.  we had a picnic at stow lake and we walked off our lunch by walking around the park for about three hours.  gus and shawn kept wanting to climb every big tree they saw - not sure why, but it was funny.  i had to carry dexter part of the trail around stow lake because he doesn't like walking on gravel (good thing he doesn't weigh a lot).  we wanted to check out the japanese tea garden but they do not allow dogs and since we had to pay, mom said forget it ;)  tin wanted to check out the food truck area in hopes that the belgian waffle truck was there, but the belgian waffle god was not with him today.  maybe next time tin.  we finished off our day with a visit to marco polo italian ice cream, where they have mostly asian flavors and owned by chinese people.  hehe.  aaron and i thought that was funny. 

picnic at stow lake - perfect spot as it was close to our car and not a lot of foot traffic

gopher right by our picnic table

turtles sunbathing on stow lake

in front some chinese pavillion

don't ask me what aaron was trying to do

stow lake

happy birthday kristen!

last sunday we celebrated kristen's 15th birthday.  i remembered when she was a tiny little girl and now she's a teenager and taller than me.  :) 



look at those dimples!  so cute



pierce loved uncle tin throwing him up in the air

lianne loved hitting the ball with her forehead - future soccer star???

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yummie ice cream cake

hanging out with friends

i haven't seen my friends jackie and lei for a while and i wanted to meet jackie's little girl, bridget.  so we decided to have a bbq at our place and let me tell you, bridget is a.d.o.r.a.b.l.e.  one good thing about having good girlfriends is that no matter how long we haven't seen each other, it seems like we just pick up where we left off last time. 



"cheese"



bridget wanted to see what i was doing - hehe, so darn cute!



half moon bay

my good friend betty and i were supposed to hang out this afternoon, but her daughter was sick so we had to reschedule.  since i already had half day off, i decided to take emma and dexter to the beach.  by the end of the hour that we were out on the beach, dexter was ready to head back to the car and get some treats. 

"stay"

"STAY"

emma boo

emma lounging on the couch :)

walk in the park

aaron has his long runs on sundays and emma and dexter has their long walks on sundays.  this past sunday i took them to cuesta park in mountain view.  this park is huge and very shady.  after 50 minutes of walking, they were slowing down, so it was time to call it a morning and wait for aaron to finish his run.  life is good.  :)

it took about 3 tries to get dexter to "stay"

breakfast after workout

some people at our running club usually go to breakfast after the workout on saturday, so we figure why not invite people over to our place for breakfast and that's what we did this morning.  besides, breakfast is one of my favorite meals of the day. Y.U.M.M.I.E.

we had scrambled eggs, (apparently if you want fluffy scrambled eggs, you add milk, which i recently just learned and applied it), noah's bagels, greenlee's cinnamon bread, watermelon, grapes, and mango (for those of you who loves mango and hate the stringies after you bite into them, look for KENT mangoes, but not the kent mangoes that's sold at costco because they still have stringies, go to an asian market).  for beverages we had water, orange juice, and coffee (you should have seen us last night, reading instructions on how to make coffee and where to put the filter, etc).  we did okay because people kept going back for 3rds, and for some, even 4ths.  :)  i do love the smell of coffee though. 

i've seen on some blogs on how they make food labels and it looks so cute and i wanted to do the same.  what made it easy is that i could just download the template and write what i wanted!  so that's my hobby now, to find free printables of what i like and save them for future parties.  i meant to take more pictures of the final setup, but i forgot and by the time i remembered, my battery died.  ahhh!!!  so i took some pictures after the fact just to give you an idea.

isn't that not the cutest sign and font???  you can find the free printables at http://www.hostessblog.com/2010/07/free-printables-patriotic-party-signs-and-place-cards-labels/

picture in your mind that the pitchers are full of oj and water  :)

i made placecards for the food - so adorable and cute

i went over to the neighbor's and clipped some of her roses.  yes, i asked permission first.

i love having fresh flowers all over the house.  guess i'll just have to clip some more flowers from the neighborhood.

i thought it would be neat to bring our couch, coffee table, and ottoman from the living room (since we were planning for everyone to sit outside and enjoy the weather) out to the patio - i love how it looks and how it feels like an an extension of our family room.

i'm planning to sit on the couch later this evening and read my book.

our friend madelyn gave us some carnations and i used one of the pitchers as a vase.

just because . . .

this is their morning routine - waiting for the cat or squirrels to show up

emma trying to catch a fly because it was buzzing by the window

yard work project #3

before - aaron removed the rocks and dug up dirt.  rocks were on a mound, so it would always fall down to the patio area.

after - leveled the dirt, put stepping stones and rocks down.  i love how clean it looks now!

while aaron was working on the patio area, i was planting some annuals on my wheel barrow.  this is probably the extent of my gardening.  :)

doggie muffins

emma and dexter were running low on treats, so i decided to bake them some homemade doggie muffins.  emma was so excited that she swallowed the whole muffin, with paper.   "leave it" did not work too well.

there were 51 doggy muffins - i froze most of them

"leave it" worked on this one, until i turned around and then she gobbled the whole muffin - no chewing, just swallowed the whole thing with paper

notice how aaron is holding dexter?  he does not know "leave it"