Yesterday, we took the kids to the Great Mall for lunch and had Big Island Hawaiian BBQ. There was a carnival outside in the parking lot, so we headed over after lunch. What a rip off! There was an entrance fee, $2 for adults, $1 for kids. So for all 4 of us, it was $6 just to get in. Then the rides were a minimum of $4 each! I told Natalie she could only ride 1 ride, so she chose the train. It went around in a small oval 4 times. While Natalie was riding, I decided to push Tyler around the carnival in his stroller so he wouldn’t get jealous that his sister got to ride, but he didn’t. I got suckered into playing a game… the guy guaranteed we would win a ball (I knew Tyler would like the ball) even if we didn’t truly win the game. So I waited for Natalie to finish her ride so she could play too. I ended spending $7 there just so we could win 2 balls, one for each. You can see in the picture of us playing the game, hardly anyone walking around in the background, no crowds, no bodies! I should’ve known not to go in. After the game, we left. Tyler loves his ball though. He chose a bright blue one and held it in the car ride home. He wouldn’t let go of it, even when he fell asleep I tried to take it away but he woke up and wanted it back. We ended up putting him down for his nap in bed and he still held onto it! The ball is in the picture of the kids at the end.
That evening we went over to the Bradley’s to celebrate Uncle Carrington’s birthday. We got to build our own burgers and ice cream sundae’s! It was great. The burgers were very tasty and the ice cream sundae’s were just as delish. They made their own frozen yogurt and ice cream too. There was a buffet of toppings for both the burgers and the ice creams. The kids went straight for the mini M&M’s!
Tyler, Sinclaire and Natalie enjoying Sinclaire’s new toys.
Natalie had several celebrations for her 4th birthday. At preschool, she celebrated by sharing popsicles with her friends (see the video here: 
We spent the past 7 days in LA. Drove down for Yin’s wedding reception, so we decided to make a week of it and do other fun stuff too. On the day of the reception, our family and WILLY, CHUBBER, JEFFREY and VANIDA, went to check out Oki dog. I saw it on TV as a popular LA joint, so I wanted to try it. The hot dogs were indeed very good. The Oki Dog original is 2 hotdogs wrapped in a tortilla, which cheese and chili and chunks of bacon. It was so good! The place is a little shack somewhere on Pico Blvd run by Japanese dudes.
Wedding time!
Birthday time!
Disneyland!!
On the drive back from LA, we encountered some traffic on hwy 152. There was a fire on the hillside and we came to a complete stop for about 15-20 minutes. I was worried someone might need to pee and we’d be stuck! Turned out it was a truck carrying onions that burnt up!
Yesterday while in line at Nordstrom paying for some tank tops, Natalie fell in love with a pair of red stud ball earrings. I told her that she couldn’t get them because her ears weren’t pierced, so she insisted right then that she wanted to get them pierced. So we wen’t to find a jewelry store that did ear piercing and found Claire’s. When we got there, 2 other girls (in their teens) were getting their ears pierced so I had Natalie watch them. And of course, neither showed signs of pain, so Natalie thought it would be easy. I tried to tell her that it would hurt but she wouldn’t change her mind. And of all days, I didn’t have my camera with me either! I tried to convince her to come back later with Daddy so he could hold her. Still, she wanted to them “right now.” So I called Uncle Chubber and asked him to bring his camera. Thank goodness for him and Willy coming to save the day! Willy helped us take these wonderful pictures and the video.
