St. Regis Treelighting

November 28, 2010

St. Regis Monarch Beach invited us to assist with the annual treelighting and sand sculpture inauguration. The sand artists took 4 days and 9 tons of special sand to construct this amazing work - sandman with playful children and a puppy. Sand dollars were marked with children's names and placed on the sculpture. The girls had help in placing their sand dollars on the St. Regis sign and another one for the inauguration.

The General Manager, Johnny So also asked Alisha and Ashley to flip the switch in lighting the 60-foot Christmas tree. There were hot chocolate, freshly baked cookies, popcorn, cotton candies and adult drinks to keep all the guests warm. There were at least 1,500 in attendance. We cannot rave enough about the staff at St. Regis as each of them welcomed us and paid extra attention to the girls. We finished the evening with another fabulous dinner at the Motif. Thank you, St. Regis for your generosity and hospitality!

Craig's Birthday

November 23, 2010

Craig treated us at Lucille's Smokehouse BBQ on his birthday. The kids enjoyed the laid back environment and rang the bell to notify the cooks that the bbq ribs smoked inside the huge oven were done.

Alisha and Ashley has grown quite close to Uncle Craig and a few days before his birthday, they had started working on a birthday card for him. The theme of Alisha's card was centered around guns and shooting along with a joke at the bottom while Ashley killed two birds with one stone and wished him both happy birthday and Thanksgiving on the same card. Both of the girls taped Craig's favorite candies on the card - it was quite endearing!

Turkey Feast at Springbook

November 19, 2010

Ashley celebrated Thanksgiving at school by performing a skit involving indians, pilgrims and turkeys. She made her costume and dressed up as a pilgrim girl. Her line for the most part was "sassy me" accompanied with a hip sway, which completely fits her personality! After the performance, the students enjoyed a turkey feast.

The pre-made placemats and settings were set up on the lunch tables and the students had to decorate their plates. The feasting included cheese pizza, pumpkin pie, potato chips and water. For the past few weeks, Ashley has been experiencing fevers on and off. She was prescribed antibiotics for viral infections, which knocked her immunity down even further and promoted more fevers. She had no appetite for a good month and looked extremely emaciated. It was a challenge for her to finish the small piece of pizza, but we were thankful that she actually did.

Mini Pearls Food Drive Assembly

November 13, 2010

Today, our little helpers from the Irvine Chapter got together with other chapters from the corporate office to assist in the food assembly process. The adults separated and categorized all the items donated and the kids were responsible for making certain the food items were allocated appropriately amongst their baskets. Between the 6 chapters, we were trading items to fill up our baskets evenly. The Irvine Chapter ended up with more food than baskets/boxes, so those extras were given to other chapters to fill their baskets.

After the baskets/boxes will filled to the rim and decorated, the Minis placed their turkey tags and greeting cards on it to identify which family it will be going to. Thanks to all the hard work and dedication of the Minis, we were able to fill 8 baskets/boxes with more food to spare. Alisha was a bit tired from having chemotherapy a few days back, so we opted out of delivering the food baskets to the families. Mini Pearls as a whole assembled 30 baskets, which was an awesome feat!

Mini Pearls Food Drive Boxes

November 6, 2010

A week before Mini Pearls got together to assemble the food baskets, we checked out the boxes placed at three of the buildings at work to see how they fared. The boxes were meticulously wrapped with built-in carrying slots by grandpa and adorned with colorful signs by the girls. The girls were super excited to see that their hard work is paying off and that we have cans to donate to families in need.

There were a few unexpected items donated such as toothpaste, products promoting hair growth and perfume; however, we appreciate everyone who chipped in to help make this a successful drive. We unloaded and transported some of the food items back home, so there would be more room in the boxes for additional donations.

Afterwards, the girls celebrated my birthday at Maggiano's. We had their famous Vera's Lemon Cookies - yum!

Anaheim Ducks & No Hat to School

November 5, 2010

Thanks to Starlight Foundation, we were invited to attend a hockey game for the first time. The Ducks beat the Penguins while we cheered from the back row. The kids were quite curious about the zambonis and impressed with anyone who skates on ice.

There were so many things going on that they did not have time to complain about being bored. In between periods, Serta had their sheep blimp floating around inside the arena dropping tickets. Unfortunately, our seat location is not conducive to catching any of the tickets. Regardless, the girls stayed warm and enjoyed the game!

Alisha did not wear her cap for the first time at school today. After the fiasco a few weeks ago of being teased and called ugly, Alisha was able to overcome the ridicule and attended school without her LA Angels hat. Her teacher was very good in applauding her for her efforts and informing her classmates what she had been going through for the past year. All in all, it was a very positive experience and we're all very proud of her for stepping outside her comfort zone.

Halloween & Chinese Athletic Event

October 31, 2010

Halloween was a heavily anticipated event for the girls. Alisha had complained about wearing the same Sleeping Beauty dress two years in a row even though she was in a butterfly outfit last year (see photo from October 2009). Unfortunately, her memory bank during the time period following her diagnosis is a complete blur. Ashley was quite content to wear her Snow White outfit again, so she was busy convincing Alisha that SpongeBob costume is not a wise choice while at Toys R Us. Alisha finally acquiesced to sibling pressure and settled with Cinderella.

Prior to trick-o-treating, the girls had their annual Chinese School athletic event where they competed in tug-o-war, three-legged race, tennis ball toss, potato-sack race, etc. within their grade level. Alisha soon got tired with standing around and waiting, so opted out most of the events after the tug-o-war and three-legged race. My parents were busy lining up with the various food vendors ensuring that all of us are fed. They got boiled tea eggs, pastry with custard fillings, stinky tofu (it's so good!), boba milk tea, sticky rice, etc. Batman was around for photo opportunities and urging all of us over 18 to vote. Can't wait for the food next year!

Luckily, the Chinese event was long and out in the sun, so the girls managed to take a nap before the evening venture. My sister invited us to their new neighborhood since our neighborhood doesn't participate in giving out candies as do their community. However, Ashley got really scared a few times with the haunted house and eerie decorations. The girls made it out like bandits and received many king-size candy bars at the end of the evening. The following day, we divvied up some candies and donated a huge bag to the brave men and women serving in the military.

Mini Pearls Greeting Cards

October 23, 2010

Mini Pearls held the second chapter meeting with the Thanksgiving greeting cards project. All the Minis worked colored the greeting card, wrote a note for the family and added their special touches to brighten someone's day.

We were impressed with the concentration and attention to detail displayed by all the Minis. There was a lot of thought put into these cards...thank you Minis!

Friends Like Us

October 17, 2010

One of our wonderful Chemo Angels informed us of an organization called "Friends Like Us". It's a fabulous program where children receive a teddy bear with a port-a-cath built in it. Alisha was pleasantly surprised and immediately started playing doctor and nurse and caring for her teddy bear.

Alisha administered chemotherapy to the bear after putting on her sanitized gloves, swabbed the port and syringe with alcohol, put a mask on her patient, examined it with her stethoscope, etc. She was a pro and knew exactly what the next step was. She was thrilled that the stethoscope actually works. Ashley also received a letter of encouragement in caring for her sister and gifts. Thank you "Friends Like Us" for coming up with such an ingenious way for children to cope with their illness.