Beach, Frozen Yogurt & Rainbow...

{Image By Soapy}

Well, it's already Wednesday, but I hope you all had a great Lobor Day weekend! Did you guys do anything special - or did you go any place special???


My weekend with the girls was just laid back - nothing crazy, but really good one. Thank you very much. I took the girls to our favorite Lido Beach and also we celebrated the Grand Opening of our favorite yogurt joint "White Berry" that came really close to our home. The original store is in downtown which is about 20 minutes drive and the new store is a lot closer and it takes less than 10 minutes:)


While the store guy R prepares the yummy yogurt for us, Soapy looks up like a little girl - she looks like a big girl, but I think she looks like a two year old from looking at this photo. So cute. She couldn't wait for him to make her yogurt:)



I got the Original flavor with Kiwi and Ju Ju and Soapy got their favorite Green Tea flovor with Mochi and Chocolate Chip. Seriously, they are yummy.

Somehow, Soapy in this picture is ready to snort yogurt out of spoon. Funny. This was just a random picture and I didn't set her up to this.

Now that looks better Soapy!

Julia and Soapy love these canisters full of Fruit Loops & Trix.

{Image By Ju Ju}

I must admit, my girls are really cute!

The same day afternoon before yogurt, I took the girls to our favorite Lido beach. It was a perfect beach day because the beach was not crowded and it was really quiet. I hate when there are too many people and no parking. I was a bit surprised becausse it was Labor Day weekend afterall, but I guess we just picked the right day because my friend who went to the same beach the next day told me the beach was packed Zoo. Thank goodness, it wouldn't be as fun if we're there on Sunday instead of Saturday..

I feel tremendous happiness when I'm at the beach - it doesn't matter where or which one, I just feel at home. Maybe because I grew up in Hawaii surrounded by the ocean, but I can't think of my life without beach.....

It's surreal to know that the BP oil spill has stopped. Yes, the cleanup effort still continues and it will stay that way for many years to come, and I get nervous when I think of the effect of the spill, but I think we cleared the first obstacle to contain the oil. I was really nervous at first that we'd lose our beautiful beach. I'm so glad that we don't need to see tar-balls washing ashore, but I wonder if all the marine lives and eco-system will ever be the same. I just don't know..

Often times when I look at my girls, as much as hard to grasp the thoughts, I realize that my life is not my life anymore. My life is for my daughters - I live my life for them. I need to think of their life first before I think of mine. It's not an easy tast at times because I consider myself a free sprited individual who has done many selfish things. But we all need to grow up sometimes, right? And when I look at their smiles, it's all worth it.

By the way, I ran to "white berry" again during a lunch break yesterday. I got Green Tea with Blackberries. It was soo declious - I can honestly have this frozen yogurt every single day.

After I finished working, I went to pick up my daughters at their grandparents house. My boss and his wife are in Seattle for a mini vacay, so I had to close the salon which was my first experience. I got to be the boss for the day which was not bad, but three more weeks, and I'm free!

On the way home from my in laws, I spotted a rainbown - We get ton of afternoon-evening thunderstorms and this happened right before the storm. Can you see the blue sky and the rain clouds next to each other? I had to stop and take pictures because it's so unusual to see a rainbow. It was really pretty!

I often dream of walking over a rainbow - how fun and beautiful experience would that be???

V-cast : "One Fine Day"

It's been forever since the weather here in FL got warm up in the 70's. We got to wear short sleeves dresses today and we decided to drive down to downtown and walk around the streets. I had my Flipcam with me, so here are some of the video clips - visiting our favorite yogurt store "White Berry" -> beach "Lido Beach" -> our favorite Italian restaurant "Epicure". We didn't get to do this for awhile (that's how much the weather has been chilly in FL) - so I decided to do everything all at once... I think it's okay to have a nice day like this sometimes, right? I was very happy to spend the carefree evening with my daughters.. :)

Enjoy the videos!

Expensive Indulgence

I had a cup of latte at a nearby Starbucks with my BFF K this morning. My favorite drink is 2 pump Vanilla Latte (iced for summer time!) To tell you the truth, I love coffee, period. It doesn't have to be Starbucks. Actually Dunkin Donuts's iced latte is pretty good. Or a cappuccino after dinner at my favorite restauratns. That makes me very happy.

When K and I were sitting and talking about nothing and everything, we talked about the price of Starbucks coffee. We all know that the price will be going up very soon, again, some say up to 30%. 30%! That's crazy. Is that possible???

I remember there were times my Grande 2pump Latte was $3.65. Then to $3.85. Now? It's $4.11. I don't even want to think about how much it's going to be within a few months. Funny thing is, people complain about it, but still go to the drive through and order the same thing all over again. It's like cigarettes. If you love it, it doesn't matter how expensive it is, you will still pay for it. Right?

I'm not sure how much of raise I'm willing to pay, but $5 for a cup of latte is damn expensive! What do you think everyone? Do you like Starbucks or do you have other favorite place for a nice cup of coffee???

My Favorite Sweets...

It's no secret that I love chocolate, especially dark chocolate. I have tough time stop eating them once I start - it's really bad. I justify my binge on dark chocolate by telling myself that dark chocolate is good for you. Did you know?

Dark chocolate is known to lower the high blood pressure, unlike milk or white chocolate. Also, dark chocolate contains large amount of antioxidants (one study suggests 8 times more than found in strawberries!!!" The taste is so much richer and deeper (yeah? It's not called "dark" for nothing! LOL) than milk chocolate. It tastes healthy indeed!

Oh dark chocolate, I heart thee..

So, do you like chocolate? Do you like dark, milk or white???


P.S. Thanks so much everyone - I feel 75% better tonight. I almost wanted to ask my daughter to stay home because I was so miserable in the morning to take her to school. Of course I drove her to school, but I went back to bed after coming home. I realized sleep is the best remedy for the cold. Stay warm everybody!

My Favorite Winter Fruits..

I love fruits. I think there's nothing better than eating fruits. I pretty much eat everything and I have made sure that my daughters eat fresh fruits every day.

One of the things I miss about living in FL is that I don't get to eat "Nashi" - Japanese pear. We have different kinds of nashi, but they are all crisp and juicy. It's one of JT's favorite fruits when we lived in Hawaii (great thing about living in Hawaii was getting and eatchin Japanese food was no problem.) He couldn't believe how tastey they were when he tried for the first time.

I couldn't wait for the Nashi season in the fall when I was a little girl. I used to watch my mom peeling the skin of nashi for me and my sister. We ate it like eating candy. I loved it! Now I buy pears and peel the skin for my daughters just like my mom did for me.... And they eat it like eating candy!


{nashi}

And another fall/winter fruit I love is Fuji Apple. There are domestic grown Fuji that comes from Washington here in the U.S. or I see ones from New Zealand. But wait until you eat Fuji apple from Japan. They are juicy, sweet (a bit tart, too, if that makes sense) and very crispy. Have you tried it? If you haven't, you should! I get it here in the FL for $1.89 a pound. It wasn't this expensive before, but it's worth it. My husband loves it, so when he goes to grocery shopping, he makes sure to buy them and tells me, "Look I got Fuji!!!" He is so proud when he buys good Fuji apples...


So, what is your favorite fruits for fall and winter??