HAPPY BIRTHDAY SADIE!!!

For Sadie's first birthday party, we decided to have a small gathering at Grandpa Minn's house with our closest family and friends.  Although I can't say what the exact head count was, my guess is that about 60 adults and 11 children attended.  The night went so fast, which is always the case when you're having fun! The theme for the party was Hello Kitty, and the colors were green and pink.  We set up tents, tables, and chairs on the lawn in front of grandpa's house and the food was set up in the garage.  For our pupus we had assorted poke from Tamura's, chips and dip (homemade by Grammie), and soy beans.  For dinner, we had Pulehu chicken, rosemary pork, and furikake salmon....which both mom and dad didn't get to try since there was so much excitement all night long!  And lastly, for dessert we had a giant HK cookie from Cookie Corner, ice cream, and a HUGE neapolitan cake from Zippy's.

Grandpa bought Sadie a traditional Korean outfit, which she wore while she performing a traditional Korean ritual of placing a ball (signifying athletics), money (business), and a pen (academics) in front of the baby to tell it's fortune.  Sadie went straight for the $100 bill!  Daddy thought she just chose the money because it was in the middle, so we repeated it, and she again chose the $100 bill.  We have a businesswoman in the making!

We planned a couple of activities for the kids, which kept them busy.  First, we had Aunty Kara's cookie factory, where the children were able to draw on their cookies with edible food coloring pens.  This was a hit with not only the children, but with the adults as well!

Next, we had sidewalk chalk for the kids to express their artistic skills on an even bigger scale.

Then, we had a pull-string pinata....which malfunctioned because it was OVER-stuffed with toys, senbei, and goldfish.  The look on the kids' faces was priceless!...they were SO confused because nothing was coming out!  Uncle Alika ended up shaking the pinata to release all the goodies.  And even more priceless was none of the kids wanted the senbei!  It was so funny....but I wanted to avoid putting CANDY inside, so senbei seemed like a reasonable alternative, but I guess not!

The next activity was a modern-day version of "pin the tail on the donkey"....it was "put the bow on Hello Kitty."  All the kids under 2 years old were able to see while they put their sticker on, but the kids over 2 were blindfolded.  When it was Naila's turn (she is 6), she put the box exactly on the spot!  Aunty Jenn was so impressed with Naila's placement of the bow she said "oh my gosh, that was SO good!  could you see when you did that?!"  And being the honest girl that she is, she sort of put her head down and nodded her head and said "yeah."  SO CUTE!

For the final activity of the night, Aunty Jenn set up a mini-nightclub for the kiddies.  With the colorful disco lights and the music pumping, the kids (especially the girls) were having a blast!  Most of the girls were jumping up and down and just having fun, but cousin Paisley was showing off her moves in a very serious manner!....her new favorite song is the LMFAO's Party Rock Anthem.  Sadie seems to be following cousin Paisley's footsteps, as she was also grooving a bit to the music.

Mostly everyone left by about 10:30 or so, including the birthday girl.  She ended up having her first sleep over at Grammie's house, since mommy and daddy had to stay at Grandpa's house to clean up.  All in all, it was a great night: catching up with friends and family and watching the kids have a ball.  Thank you, everyone, for coming and celebrating with us!

Lastly, two very special people were missing from Sadie's party, Uncle Ryan and Aunty Jenn....but they weren't able to come for a very legitimate reason....they had their first baby (Benji Orion Hew), exactly 1 year after Sadie was born!  What a birthday present....a new cousin!!!

Can't find a decent toy ANYWHERE!

This is a video of Sadie's new hobby...emptying her toy box while sitting IN it!  She does this to both her toy box and her book box on a daily basis.  She's always on the look out for a new, more interesting toy!

Social butterfly

Little miss social will not miss a party.  We went to Uncle Alika's house to celebrate his 1st anniversary since his bone marrow transplant and Sadie stayed up almost the entire time.  We thought we caught a break when she went down at about 8:30, but 20 minutes later she was up....and she was refreshed!  She passed out again for a few minutes on Uncle Koa's shoulder, but the minute he tried to put her down, she was wide awake again!  She ended up staying awake for the rest of the night (till about midnight), when we finally gave up and decided we'd better head home.   The party animal also got a surprise from Aunty Lei....a Hello Kitty water bottle and backpack, which she LOVES!  It's always a blast with the uncles, aunties, and cousins!

Eli & Sadie - so hard to get a good pic of these two since they're always on the go!

Good job Uncle Koa (experienced daddy of 2!)

Ready for school!

Walking update

Sadie is getting braver and is taking a few more steps each day, but she still loves knee-walking :)  She's quite an expert at standing up and now enjoys wearing shoes.  

Not too sure what she was so mad about, but she is half Korean!  Joked with Uncle Corey (who thought these were Gucci shoes) and said - she just found out they're Guess and not Gucci!  ;)

Sadie also has new Hello Kitty leg warmers (totally unnecessary in this hot/humid weather, but so completely adorable, thus a total "must have").   She was thrilled!!!........with the plastic wrapping that is, and as for the leggings....uuuhhh, she didn't even notice them.  

Miss. Energetic

Sadie's walking is progressing so rapidly!  She now can get to a standing position in a variety of ways...from a squat to standing, or from all fours (butt in the air) to standing.  It's so amazing to watch her develop new skills everyday, and she understands so much!

Here are some things that she's been up to:

-crawling up stairs

-points to things when you ask where they are (bumbo, little quack book, fluoride bottle)

-babbles constantly when playing

-tries to imitate sounds or words

-has a (little bit) longer attention span, and will sit through a series of books 

-loves "Wheel of Fortune" and "Oprah," she enjoys clapping whenever the audience does 

-loves the weather report on the news (nice graphics that look like cartoons)

-enjoys being "roughed up" - chased, wrestled, flipped, poked, body slammed, etc...

Stepping up!

We knew for awhile now that Sadie could probably walk if she wanted to (with those big/thick feet to help her balance), but her extra cautious personality was preventing her from doing so....until today!  Here she goes, with a whole audience to cheer her on!

Busy weekend w/ the aunties and uncles

It was a fun filled weekend!  On saturday, Aunty Kara and Aunty Cheryl came to visit.  Aunty Cheryl brought baby Noah, who is now 4 months old and looks almost the same size as Sadie (and not to mention wears the same size diapers as her!)  He was such a good sport....he just sat quietly in the bumbo chair while Sadie pulled his hair, patted his head, and poked him!

Sadie got her (early) first b-day present from Aunty and Noah...a TWEETY BIRD ROCKING CHAIR -- just what she wanted (although mommy got more excited than Sadie did). We were so bummed when we took it out of the wrapping and noticed that one of the parts were broken....oh well, amazon will have to send a new one!  Aunty Kara (who always get the biggest smiles from Sadie -- somehow I think Sadie knows her first beanie and blanket were made with love by this aunty) also brought Sadie a present - Humu's colorul ocean (book), which Sadie played with all afternoon.

On sunday, the whole family was off to accompany daddy to his NFL fantasy football draft at Uncle Ryan and Aunty Jenn's new home.  Sadie had the time of her life there (after an initial crying episode when we first got there).  Next time we go there for a visit, Sadie will have a new cousin, B-boy, who is set to make an appearance in October!

Defective book, lol