Skagit Valley and Deception Pass

Since Sophie is on spring break this whole week, her auntie Ngân flew in from LA for a visit. On Monday, we all went to Skagit Valley for the Tulip Festival then to Deception Pass for a short hike. We didn't do much hiking, but it was nice to leave town for a while. It was a fun filled day.

Mud...

I don't want to take a picture, mommy!

Smile, Sophie!

Tulips

Deception Pass

Ocean

Sophie's new hiking shoes

Hama Hama

Last weekend, we drove 2 hours to Hama Hama in Hoodsport for its open-farm event. It was our chance to roam around the farm, digging for clams and harvesting oysters. Vân did most of the digging, and I did most of the talking -- and shucking. And Sophie, well, hung on to me most of the time.

We had a lot of fun. And we came home with three dozen oysters and 3 lbs of clams. We ate all of the oysters in one sitting, and Vân made a seafood pasta dish with the clams. It was delicious. I'm sure it would have been a lot cheaper to buy the oysters and the clams from the store, but things always taste better when you labor for them. We're thinking of going back to their next open farm in May.

Where are the clams?

An endless field of oysters

Tiny little crab

Chorizo! Yum!

I got my bread on. I got my chair on

.

Sleeping on the way home

Pacific oysters on the half shell

Sophie digging for clams

Chasing Coots

The coots are back at Green Lake. Let's chase them, mommy!

Easter Egg Hunt

I would sum up our Easter Egg Hunt experience as fast and furious. We went to two locations: Wallingford Center and the Woodland Zoo. The egg hunt at Wallingford Center was over in 2 minutes, and the one at the zoo lasted all day, but it had empty eggs -- yep, lame! Sophie didn't mind the empty eggs at first, but when she discovered that they didn't have any treat inside, she was a bit confused. Next year, we'll go to the egg hunt at the Children's Museum.

Egg hunt outfit and basket
Belle from Beauty and the Beast

I found an egg

Eggs and candies

Picking up candies from the Easter Bunny's basket

Easter Bunny?

Let's find some eggs

I found a big one

Rain Boots

I bought some rain boots from REI to go clamming with Vân and Sophie. Of course, Sophie had to try them out herself. Have a look!

How do they look on me? Too tall?

What's the Weather Like Today?

Here's another song that Sophie loves to sing. She definitely learned this from school. And the weather is always sunny!

New Child Carrier for Hiking

My brother gave me some money to buy Sophie a bike for Christmas. But after some thinking, we decided to buy a child carrier instead. And it was definitely worth the money.  Check out our new child carrier from REI.

1, 2, 3 Testing

Make a funny face!

Testing out the carrier at Discovery Park

Dance Class

Sophie and I have been going to a Parent/Toddler dance class for almost a year. Every Tuesday, we tip-toe, hop and crawl for 45 minutes with other children and their moms or nannies. Sophie has a lot of fun, and she loves her teacher Kelsey. I'm so glad that I stuck with the class. It was really weird for me at first. But the more I went with Sophie the clearer it became: it's about Sophie, and how I feel is irrelevant.

Let's dance, daddy!

Warming up

Balance

Parachute time

Carpet time

Here are the videos for most of the exercises that we do in dance class. Turn up your volume a bit. Vân was filming everything from the waiting room, so the sound was muffled.

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

One, Two Buckle Your Shoes

Criss-Cross Apple Sauce

Let's crawl! 

Obstacle Course

Musical Instrument

Singing ABC

Here's a video of Sophie singing ABC. It's very loud!

Áo Dài for Tết

My friend Tuyến bought Sophie an áo dài outfit from Hanoi when Sophie was just a few months old. It was too big for Sophie at the time, so we put it away in storage. We almost forgot about it. Now, after two years, it was a bit tight on Sophie, but it looked pretty cool when paired with tights. I think cô Tuyến has to buy Sophie a new áo dài outfit soon.

Princess Dress

There is a used clothing store close to where we live. Each time we pass by it, Sophie points out to us the princess dress she wants. So I took her in one day to buy one.  She was very surprised and took her time to find what she wanted. Of course, it was pink -- with tulle.

Tết - Part 2

We took Sophie to the Tết Festival at Seattle Center. It was nice to see young children singing in Vietnamese and celebrating Tết. But it was also sad to see how disappointed the adults were. They were too absorbed in their own pain and suffering due to displacement and war trauma to realize that their children had nothing to do with it. The children just wanted to sing and have fun -- and eat their egg rolls.

Enjoying her egg roll

Children from Trường Việt Ngữ Lạc Hồng singing

Tết, Phở and Macarons

Tết (Lunar New Year) came and went months ago, but I never had the chance to create a post for it. So here are some pictures and a video for what we did. Our own Tết tradition.

To prepare for Tết, Vân and I took Sophie to Green Lake to gather some twigs. Then we bought some fake  flowers from Viet-Wah and used them to decorate the twigs. Sophie helped Vân stick the twigs in the pot and filled it up with styrofoam chips. Voilà, our own hoa mai.

Hoa mai

Hoa mai close up -- not so pretty

On New Year's Day, we went to the ID (International District) for the dragon dance, which Sophie did not care for. She was scared of the sound and the people. So we only stayed for about 5 minutes.

Sophie with Plex

Dragon dance

For our Tết meal, we had phở with bò viên (beef balls). Vân made a big pot of stock, which lasted us for three meals. And I bought some grass-fed beef by Painted Hill. It was the best phở. Sophie had a big bowl, and she wanted seconds.

Bò viên in stock

Painted Hill beef

Phở with bò viên and beef

But the best part of our meal was the macarons Vân made. We fell in love with macarons when we were in Aix. We had pretty good macarons in Seattle, too. But Vân wanted to make her own. They turned out pretty well. Check out the "pied" (feet) on those macarons. Of course, Sophie was the biggest fan.  She would never share her macaron with anyone.

Macaron shells

I'm not sharing!

Sophie is eating her macaron with chocolate ganache