A Birthday Party And An Award

There are 2 important things that happened to the children.

First, on January LL turned 2 . We chose not to have a big party because we think it will be just a waste of money for a 2 years old. She hasn't go to school so she has no school friends to invite. It's also a bit scary to invite all of our relatives because the number is just too big!!!

So instead we have a small BBQ party, partly for me to have fun since I have no excuse to cook for a party for sometime now. This is the excuse I have been waiting for.

We invite my uncle and his family because his family is the closest one for us since we work together daily. Then I invited a few old friends with their kids to come. Their kids are all in the same age range with my son, so it's perfect, my son will be too busy to entertain his new friends to bother us, hahaha. His sister can watch too. She loves watching her big brother in action.

The party menu is Westernize. Just for fun, let me wrote the menu here:

Appetizer:
Bruschetta ( grilled garlic bread with fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil for topping ) Grilled Shrimp with mango salsa

Soup:
Cold Cucumber Vichyssoise

Salad:
Mixed Apple Salad Over Greens with honey dressing
Coleslaw

Main Menu:
Tony Roma's Style BBQ Baby Back Ribs
Tony Roma's Style BBQ Chicken
BBQ Corn
Grilled Sweet peppers, zucchinis, mushrooms
Grilled tomatoes with parmesan, thyme and garlic toppings
Grilled sweet potatoes/yam with maple butter toppings

Dessers:
Lemon Sorbet ( homemade )
Vanilla Bean Ice Cream ( homemade )
Birthday Cake
Tangerines

Drinks:
Varieties of Ice Teas

Yum!

It was a fun small party for all of us. Because it's small, we were able to mingle and to get to know each other.

So yes, my little princess now is 2 years old, 86 cm in height, 13 kg in weight and she speaks in many languages, depends on her listeners. Very smart girl but a very fussy eater!!! Always happy, and that's important.





Now let's move on to the big boy, KK.

I think now he started to be on the right track regarding his grades in school. I was not the best student in the school before, but his dad was, so he has a lot of pressure to be the best student in the class.

If he could not be the best student in the class, most of the blame is on me. My father raised me not to be the best in class, but to do things the best I can. So I do the same to my son. This is a different philosophy with what my husband has. To be honest, how do you measure someone's best performance standard anyway? Hard isn't it? Some time we can't even know what is our best performance until we have really been forced to . So when I told my son, hey do your best in test son, well..... what he considered as his best maybe not exactly his best after all , am I right? So his grades always stays in the so-so range. Lots of B's. His test results usually range around 80 to 90. Once in a while he got 100. My husband philosophy is more clear. First set your goal, in this case the goal is to be number one in the class, then work hard to reach it. If you are not number one in your class yet, then you are not doing your best yet.

But this semester, he changed. I know actually that he is always very competitive, but not about his grades, but now he is very competitive with his grades because he saw his classmates get awards and he did not. He told me now that he really wants to received those awards.

Now, he took his homeworks, assignments, and his test more seriously. He put a lot of effort into them. What amazing is, I still remember how I hate my homeworks and my tests. But he seems to thrive more with more homeworks and exams! Weird!!! He even yell " Oh YEAH!" when I give him more homeworks then the teacher does! If his teachers gives him 20 questions on his homework, then I will add 20 - 40 more questions on top of that and he is happier!! Never in my life I feel happier when my mom gave me more homeworks!!! Not even my husband, even though he was a very good student. KK thinks homeworks, assignments, exams are FUN. Yes F-U-N , all in capital letter....

Let me show you his daily schedule. He comes home around 4, then first he will eat his afternoon snacks, usually sandwiches and fruit while drinking milk ( while watching cartoon ), then he will take his bath, and start to do his homework for about 1 hour. That homework will consist of math, spellling, reading, and writing. Sometime I will give him more homework on top of that, and sometime his dad will spend time with him to review his Chinese homework with him and this one will take at least 2 hours of his time. All of this activities hopefully will be finish by 9 PM, then he will brush his teeth, wash his hands and feet and join us in our family prayer time until around 9.30 PM, then before 10 PM usually he already falling asleep. When his dad has no time to review or practice his Chinese homeworks then KK can have time to play with either his toys or his rabbit. Saturday he has to go to his Chinese class and then he can use the rest of the time until Sunday night for fun. We tried to give our children a routine life style. Easier on all of us.

So start from this semester, he scored 100% on all of his tests, both math, and spelling. Even his Chinese teacher ( the only subject that he hates ) called in surprise because for the first time KK scored 100 too on her test. Let me tell you that her test is really hard. At least twice harder than any other test. Even I don't think I can score a perfect 100 if she gave me that many questions.

Yesterday I was invited to school by his class teacher because KK would receive his third award for 100% in spelling. I don't understand why she did not acknowledge in the award that KK also receive 100% on all his math tests and exams. If there is a reason behind it, I don't know about it. But for now, we are both very happy to see KK very happy that now he can see that his hard works paid off! Even his grandparents keep telling their friends about his achievement in school.


For me.... the proudest moment that I have is when he told me that the reason why he get 100 on his Chinese test is because he prayed to God to help him remember all the Chinese words that he has learn and God has answered his prayer. He said God gave him 100. Not because he believes that he is the smartest kid on earth, but because God is GOOD. When I asked him if he also prayed before his math and spelling tests, he answered yes.

I feel I also received my award from Him that time when he confessed to me about his pre-tests prayers.

I wish I can receive an award that looks like this:

Certificate of Recognition

Yohana Wu
Outstanding Mom
2008 School Year
For your undying dedication
to teach your son to put God first in every aspect of his life.

February 1 , 2008

God

These 2 video clips below has nothing to do with birthday or the award , but I think they are fun to watch so I post them in here as well.