Happy Birthday, Grandpa Shek!

Happy Birthday, Grandpa! Even though your birthday was last week, we would never want to deprive you of the traditional B-day video!

As usual, I had a completely different vision for this video, but once we got rolling it took an abrupt turn.

Tyler had an idea to pretend to "bake" a birthday cake for you, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to film the video. Baking lost it's appeal quickly, and the video somehow evolved into a little musical performance dedicated to you!

Without further ado, I present the Von Shek Boys!

Happy Family?

To start this out, you need to know that in Primary the kids sing a song called "Happy Family". The words are:

I love mother; she loves me.
We love daddy, yes sirree;
He loves us, and so you see,
We are a happy family.

So, today the boys were eating cereal, and as usual they started to bicker a bit. I heard Dylan starting to cry a little. Then Tyler said, "It's ok, Dylan. You hurt me and I hurt you. I hurt you and then you hurt me!" Apparently, this reminded him of the song "Happy Family", so he started to sing:

You hurt me; and I hurt you
I hurt you; and you hurt me
hmm, hmm, hmm, hmmm
We are a happy family.

Home Makeover

I have never been fond of the color of our walls, but because of our 18 foot ceilings, I thought it was impossible to paint it ourselves. The thought of hiring a painter just seemed like a waste of money, so we have never done it. I should know not to say something is impossible in front of my mom. So, after 7 trips to Home Depot, almost falling off of a 20 foot ladder, taping a paint brush to the end of a pole to be able to reach edges, and a lot of fun, the room was painted.

I forgot to take "before" pictures, but was able to track down a few random shots to give a better idea.

Bedroom before (notice furniture placement and wall-color):

Bedroom after (I still need to hang pictures and make some curtains):

And because my mom doesn't know how to relax when she visits, she decided to remove a nasty shower door that was moldy and broken and installed a shower curtain.

Before:

After:

When she finished all of that, she didn't want the unused paint to waste, so she painted a bathroom, replaced our towel bars, toilet paper holder, and gave us the softest towels I have ever felt. I don't have a before picture, but I am sure you can imagine:

Did I mention that my mom is old-enough to have a 43 year old son???

Thank you, Mom! I wish I had as much energy as you do!

Summer Field Trip - Science Center

So, last week, we met up at the California Science Center. This is one of our favorite museums and we visit pretty often. The best part is that it is completely FREE!! Well, this time, we met with our group, saw a few exhibits and then went outside to eat lunch. When we were done, a few of us decided to head over to the Air & Space Museum (which is also free). In no way does this compare to the Air & Space Museum in Washington D.C., but it was still fun for the kids. They could hop on a L.A.P.D. Helicopter, shoot airplanes (Dylan's fav), and watch a parachute fall. Plus, it has an extra large elevator - which pleased Tyler immensely!

Here are 2 pictures with the kids piled into the helicopter. As usual, it is nearly impossible to get everyone to sit nicely and look at the camera for the shot!

Chlorine in the Veins?

I know my boys look a lot more like Arthur than me. They are adorably handsome boys, so I am fine with it! But, when I look at pictures like this, I start to think that they might be a little bit like me on the inside. After all, it is what's on the inside that really counts!

Chinese Food Weekend

Arthur's parents were in town for the weekend. We love having them visit, because we get to eat lots of good Chinese food. Even though we ended up at the wrong Sam Woo BBQ location, the food was still just as good as always.

Here are Tyler and Dylan with 2 of their favorite people in the world:

And of course, we had to hit up Ocean Star for Dim Sum the next day. Here are Tyler and Dylan with 3 more of their favorite people in the world:

Mormon Night at Dodger Stadium

Well, we had nose-bleed seats, we missed Manny by one day, and we lost the game. Normally, that would be a bummer of a night, but at least we were sitting by about 50 of our friends and thousands of other Mormons to make it fun!

BJ's GNO

Our good friend, Tisha, was in town briefly, so what better way to catch up? Girl's Night Out at BJ's, of course! As usual, we talked and laughed and scared the first-time pregnant girls with birthing horror stories. Hopefully someone will send me a picture with all 9 of us, but for now, this is the only one that I have that didn't emphasize a weird double chin or crazy eyes on someone:

It was so much fun, Tisha! You know, our little town is just not the same without you!