It’s recommended that the night routine is calm and quiet, to help your kids wind down at the end of the day. Obviously, we missed this memo:

We finally got a chance to take the kids to Pretend City Children’s Museum in Irvine, CA (right by the Irvine Spectrum). The museum is a non-profit that is basically a miniature city that includes a local Ralphs, bank, firestation, local farm and more. It cost $11/person and 12-months and under are free.

The kids had a great time! Brooke’s favorite was the apple tree wall. Aidan’s favorite was playing DJ for the stage, of course.

I forgot to pack snacks (due to the fact we were 30 minutes late to meet up with some friends) and they sell organic kid-friendly snacks and milk for just $1. Score!

The pictures don’t show it, but we went with the Wongs and a bunch of Leport kids/parents. We’re thinking about getting an annual pass since it’s $220 for a family of 4.

Aidan was not going to school since he was sick. This was going to be Brooke’s first time in school without him. I drove her myself today and on the way she was looking at his empty seat, pointing and saying, “Aidan.” I told her, “Aidan’s home, Brookie. He’s sick.” She’ll repeat, “Sick.”

We got to school and she walked with me to her class and of course cried when I left. I picked her up at 3pm and it was so wonderful to watch her participate in circle time and clapping to the music. We left school and I took her to Coldstone’s for a special treat for being a big girl and I also felt bad that all attention has been on the very sick Aidan. We got a good hour to hang out and brought home popsicles for her brother. She’s such a good girl. I’m proud to be her momma.

@ the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, CA.

We have taken the kids to 3 different aquariums now (Maui Ocean Center, Sea Life are the other two) and this by far is the BEST one. And the closest to home!

Mom had a company picnic celebrating a clean year of safety for Arlon in Fountain Valley, CA and we were part of her entourage for the day. The company must be doing very well. We received free tickets, free parking and free food (free GOOD food) for the day. Ong Ba Ngoai also enjoyed the aquarium with their grandkids!

Looking at fish with Ong Ngoai

Enjoy delicious corn muffins they call ‘cupcakes’

First time in a jump house!

Yet another fun-filled long weekend. We had the pleasure of hosting our house guest, “Da Ba” and “Mayor of Water Town” coming to us all the way from Washington D.C.? If nobody know what I’m talking about, I’m referring to my siblings, the Oberlys.

The jammed packed weekend included:
- Taking Eric to Nhu Y to enjoy some local Vietnamese music and delicious “ca 8 mon”
- Visiting Ba Noi in San Marcos and spending quality time with the Nguyen cousins
- Taking the kids to Sea Life in Carlsbad
- Water town
- Home-cooking from Eric’s other brother-in-law named Mike
- Swimming and Eric’s ‘casual encounter’
- Stefanovic’s visit

We had a great time and lots of good memories.

15 years ago to date, a boy asked a girl to be his girlfriend.

Gone are the days of talking on the phone until 4am (those days were replaced with 3AM feedings last year). Root beer floats and banana cream pies were replaced with protein shakes and Costco rotisserie chicken. Pager codes are replaced by IM and text messaging. Yogi’s and nickel arcades have been replaced by PS3 and the Wii. We’ve grown out of Street Fighter, Duke Nukem, Unreal Tournament and competing at Angry Birds now.

Even with all those changes, one thing remains the same (very apparent by our recent Cupcake Throwdown). We are still the goofiest couple I know.

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It all started with a sweet offer:

Wife craving cupcakes but didn’t feel like baking. Sweet husband offers to bake cupcakes. Wife laughed at this offer. Husband remarked that his cupcakes are better than wife. Wife says, Game on…

We decided to bake up four dozen cupcakes for close family and friends and let them be the judge of whose cupcakes are better. The judging was based off: taste, moistness, frosting and creativity. We baked two categories of cupcakes to go head to head: one classic flavor and one couture (or “It’s My Prerogative”).

Mike took a few weeks to finally decide on his flavors (with the support and encouragement of his all-male carpool buddies). Classic will be a play off the Hostess cupcake which he coined as the Fauxtess. His couture cupcake is a churro cupcake with dulce de leche and vanilla Swiss Meringue buttercream.

Fauxtess cupcake (left) & Churro cupcake (right)

I decided on doing a coconut cupcake for classic called the Haupia cupcake. Haupia is a Hawaiian dessert that I fell in love with when we went to Maui a few months ago. The Haupia cupcake is a coconut cupcake filled with haupia filling and whipped cream topping. I decided this challenge will be a good opportunity to try it. For my fancy-schmancy cupcake, I went with a spumoni cup which was half cherry batter and half chocolate batter with a pistachio Swiss meringue buttercream. I have to confess I came up with this idea to win Bao’s vote. Hahaha.

Haupia cupcake (left) & Spumoni cupcake (right)

So last Sunday we threw it down. Before he had even ONE cupcake in the oven, Mike turns and says to me, “I’m already tired.” Oh, he’s a goner. LOL. It was a lot of fun and we will definitely be doing it again. I had so much fun tasting and working WITH Mike on our recipes. We stayed up all night baking and tasting each others cupcakes.

All the cupcakes were delicious. I have to admit when I ate that churro cupcake, I thought it was over for me. It was definitely something I want to eat again. But at the end, the baker beat out the family chef with the haupia cupcake…coconut cupcake won of all things!

Filed under: Cupcakes, In Real Life by Thi
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