Pokemon Birthday Party

So sorry it's been a while since my last post!  Summer is so busy, as you all know.  I have so many posts planned but just haven't had the time to sit down and write any of it.

First up is the post on my sons' 8th birthday party.  For this one, I didn't have as much time as I did with my daughter's Frozen themed birthday, but I had fun nevertheless.  It's difficult to have my boys agree on the same theme.  I suggested a super heroes theme, but they didn't want it.  They wanted Minecraft, but I didn't know enough about the game to plan a good one.  So we kept going back and forth until we all agreed on Pokemon.

Their birthday falls on May.  The weather was good enough for me to plan a swim party.  So I purchased some bubble wands and water guns via Amazon for the kids to play with.  For decorations, I bought some small Pokemon plush, also from Amazon.  The Pokeballs hanging on the trellis was made with white paper lanterns that I bought from Party City; I just painted the top half red, and used electrical tape for the middle.  I rented the furniture and table linens from Choura Events (there is a story to that one - I'll get to it in a minute).  The backdrop was made from plastic table cloths, and I used my Cricket to make the birthday bunting.  The bounce house was from Awesome Bounce, food was all from Corner Bakery (except for the Pokeball Oreo pops - which I made with Oreos, white and red melted chocolate, and black icing), and photography was done by the talented Thomas Teng from Thomas Teng Photography.  And...the cakes, oh, the beautiful cakes!  They are from Cinderella Cakes.  I LOVE their cakes.  This is where we order cakes every year for our children's birthdays!

So the story with Choura Events was, when I ordered the table linens from them, the sales person typed up the order and I signed it.  The only thing I checked was the dimensions, not the colors.  So what were delivered were a bunch of white table cloths.  I was panicking when I saw them.  I'm usually not one to believe in superstitions, but I don't really like too much white when it's a birthday celebration.  In the Chinese culture, white = death.  But Choura Events was so great in saving the day.  I spoke with the sales person, and voiced my concern, they then sent over some yellow ones, and let me keep the white ones too.  No extra charge!  I am a loyal customer from here on out.  Their customer service is beyond fantastic.  I love you, Choura Events!

Enjoy the pictures!

xoxo,
Lin

BB Cream vs. Foundation

Happy Sunday!

I'm excited about this post!  I've been wanting to write about the two beauty products that I've come to love recently.  I'm no Michelle Phan; not even a makeup artist.  Just your daily, regular, 30-something stay-at-home mom of 3.  But most women aren't makeup genius YouTubers, nor are they trained makeup artists.  And I know what works on my skin and what doesn't.  And for someone like me, who is prone to acne breakouts, you'll have to trust me when I say that I've tried a whole lotta products to get to the right balance.  

Since everyone's skin is different, I won't recommend any skin care line or products that will work well on you.  I would have no idea what goes well on anyone.  I thought my skin was super dry, so I was using all kinds of oils and thick moisturizers my entire adult life.  I'd been pretty fine all my life using those, but all of a sudden, for an entire year, I started breaking out like crazy.  One pimple would go down, and five more would come up.  It must be age and the hormones doing their best wreaking havoc on my skin.  I finally saw an aesthetician who put me on a completely different regimen and treated me every 4 weeks.  I realized the products I've been putting on my face were all the wrong ones!  

That being said, I can recommend a couple of beauty products though.  In one of my previous posts, I talked about how wonderful the Chanel Lumière foundations were.  Great coverage, goes on flawlessly, and was the only brand of foundation that I wore.  Well, guess what.  My aesthetician told me that on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the least pore clogging to 5 being the most pore clogging, it actually falls on a 4 and 5.  Well, DUH!  No wonder a bunch of zits decided to set up permanent residency on my face!  My aesthetician then recommended the Tarte BB Tinted Treatment Primer.  She said that was the only liquid that she found out there with no pore clogging ingredients at all.  So I've been using that ever since.  I was originally hesitant about it because I just didn't think it offered enough coverage.  It was only a primer, after all.  Well, here is a picture of me holding the Chanel foundation and the Tarte BB Primer on each side of my face, with the makeup being on the side of my face covered with it.  

Can't even tell a difference, can you?  I guess if you wanted to go on date night, you can wear the Chanel one, then immediately wash it off when you get home.  But Tarte is the only one I use now on a daily basis.  It offers great coverage, and goes on seamlessly as well.  It's also a lot more friendly to your wallet than Chanel.  

I wouldn't throw away my beloved Chanel though.  On those rare occasions when the hubby and I do get to sneak out, it's my go-to product.  Even though we've been married nearly 11 years, I still want to look nice for him.  :)  

You can find Tarte BB Tinted Treatment Primer here, and the Chanel Perfection Lumière here.  

That's it for now!  Guess what.  Today is just any regular o'Sunday.  I'm going straight to the sink to wash off my makeup.  Sometimes, you just need to let your skin breathe.  

xoxo,

Lin

You've Done It Again, Pixar!

I'm not a sappy person.  Really, it's true.  I can count on one finger the number of times I actually cried.  I'm just not one to shed tears much.

But man, the creative minds at Pixar are the only ones that can make me bawl like a baby.  Before you continue to read this, there's a major SPOILER ALERT for the movie Inside Out, so if you're haven't seen it, and are planning on doing so, don't read this post just yet.

You're like, "Seriously, Lin?  A child's movie?"  But you all know how Pixar can make any of you cry.  Toy Story 3 had grown men cry.  Why not this one?  The thing about this movie was that I was not expecting it to be so emotional.  I should've known though, all Pixar movies tug at your heartstrings.  For me, the moment happened when Bing Bong said his last few words, "Take her to the moon for me, will ya?" I held it together for about a minute, then completely lost it when the little girl next to me asked her mother what happened, and her mother couldn't answer her because she was a ball of emotions herself.

It was so sad.  Yes, sad for the obvious reasons, that Bing Bong vanished because Riley had grown up and forgotten him, so he's gone (I'm getting emotional even as I'm typing this).  But for me it was also sad because he wanted to save Riley so badly that he sacrificed himself, and even as he was vanishing, he was still rooting for Riley, the very person who is forgetting him.

This specifically tugs at my heartstrings because I now have a little girl of my own.  And she's at the age where she's happy every day, goofy, wacky, curious, and has a big heart filled with wonder and love.  No complicated emotions, just pure and simple joy.  Ever since I watched that movie yesterday, every time I look at my daughter, and how beautiful and wonderful and yummy she is, I feel sad.  Sad that she's growing up, that every day she gets a little older.  All that childhood naïveté will be chipped away little by little, as each year, day, or even seconds go by.

Everyone says, cherish each moment.  You can't get your children's childhood back.  And in the hustle and bustle of our every day lives, we ignore this advice.  There are so many memes that say things like, "Cherish every moment, they say...but can I just get one moment of peace?!?"  I mean, we all feel that way, but man, that piece of advice has never hit me so hard as it had this weekend.  I literally just sat on the couch today and watched my beautiful little girl play with her stickers then sing and dance to Let It Go for the millionth time. I found her so darn cute, I realized I hadn't sat down with her like this for so long and just watched her do her thing.  It was like, I wanted to take it all in, observe and breath in every piece of her, and preserve that innocence for as long as I can, even if it's in my own mind.

So, cherish every moment with your children!  They really do grow up too fast.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go cry my eyes raw at Bing Bong's demise.

xoxo,
Lin

Products I Love

Happy Thursday evening, everyone!

My kids are on summer break, and I might regret saying this in a couple of months, but I'm loving this whole 3-months-off-school thing!  Woo hoo!  No more rushing in the morning trying to get them ready, no more rushing in the afternoon trying to get to after school activities, no more rushing in the evening to eat dinner and do homework before bed.  Most importantly, NO school stuff that I have to deal with!  Ahhh...

But since they're home, I have been busy trying to make lunch daily and finding activities for them to do.  But here I am, writing another post.  I've been wanting to blog about products I've tried and have practically fallen in love with.  I am a very practical person.  Everything I buy must have a purpose.  Every room in my house serves a purpose.  We have a formal living room and a family room, so when my kids were old enough to play the piano, we put a piano in the living room.  Now it's a piano room!  My formal dining room wasn't being used, so I started having the kids do their homework there.  Now it serves as their homework room!

So without further ado, here are the products I've been finding really useful.

1) The Pikibu Rearview Mirror
How many times have you had to turn your head around while driving, just so you can see if little Johnny really is being punched by his older brother, as he claimed he was?  Or if little Susie stopped picking her nose like you asked her to?  Our rearview mirrors are so small that we can't see anything below the hairline of our small children.  So we have to crank our necks and turn around, risking the lives of everyone in the car!  You KNOW you've done it!   In comes the Pikibu.  This thing is so wide, so long, that it has saved my neck muscles from cramping!  I can see everything my kids are doing.  They try to tell me that they've finished their breakfasts; then I check to see there's still half of a waffle left.  Ha!  Caught ya!  Or if they're secretly reading in the backseat when I've specifically told them not to (esp. at dusk, when they can barely see).  Caught ya again!  It's super useful.  it might take a little while to get used to, but trust me, it's worth every effort and every penny, especially if you're a mom of small children!  You can find it on Amazon here.

2) Glare Visor
If you're tall, then this might not appeal to you.  But to the rest of us average American women, I'm sure you can relate.  The sun shade on your car is just not long enough to shield that afternoon sun.  It's beaming into your car through your window, trying to darken your sunspots, making them appear even more obvious.  As if I need another reason to look older!  For someone that's nearing her 40's, no thank you, I don't need more sun spots on my left cheek.  A friend of mine recently showed me her glare visor,  I was curious if it really worked, so I bought one on Amazon too.  Lo and behold, I'm no longer dodging the sun!  It works!  I can notice a difference too! The sun spots on my left cheek isn't popping up as enthusiastically anymore!  Sun: 0, Mom: 1!  You can find it on Amazon here.

3) Sing In Chinese Bilingual Audio Books
As you must know, Chinese is a very difficult language to learn.  If it wasn't because I was schooled up to 2nd grade in Taiwan, if I hadn't kept up reading Chinese books because I'm just a nerd like that, and if my parents hand't insisted that we speak Chinese to them, I wouldn't be as fluent in Chinese as I still am.   As difficult as it is to learn, Chinese has become such an important language.  Trying to get my kids to learn Chinese has been a struggle ever since they started school.  My husband doesn't speak Chinese, so we're an English-speaking family  School, media, friends, etc, my kids live in the United States; they're exposed to English all day long.  Yeah, we do Chinese school, but that's only once a week.  Recently, I've come across this product that actually makes learning Chinese fun!    Each book includes a CD, the song lyrics, and beautiful, fun pictures.  The songs are upbeat, adorable, and sang in both Chinese and English.  The theory behind this product is that we learn faster through music.  And remember songs like The Itsy Bitsy Spider?  We still remember all the words.  You're singing it right now, aren't you?  Because that's stored in our long term memory.  Same idea here with these books.  There are even apps that go with the books.  Check them out here.  If you want your little wants to learn Chinese in a fun way, you can't go wrong with these books.

Although it's only 3 products, I think I've written enough words for you to need a break from me for a while.  :)  So, when I spend more money and when my hubby feels like he's been robbed again, I'll update my products' post.  ;)

xoxo,
Lin

Mile Long Lashes

Hi Everyone,

If you're one of the lucky ones who is blessed with luscious, full, beautiful lashes, then you can skip this post!  This is for those of us who did not strike jackpot in the genetic lottery.  But then again, even if you do have lashes that even Helen of Troy would kill for, who wouldn't want longer lashes?  I'm old school that way.  I think the glamorous old Hollywood movie stars like Liz Taylor, Bridgette Bardot, Sophia Loren, etc, were so gorgeous with their killer lashes.

What's an Asian girl to do with so little hair on her lids?  I contemplated getting a prescription of Latisse.  But chickened out on it.  So I heard through a friend, that Rapidlash works very well too, and you can purchase that via Amazon.  I thought, what was there to lose?  There were pretty good reviews on Amazon.  I might as well try it.

Well, see the results for yourself!  I've been using Rapidlash for months now, but you'll definitely see results in just one week.

xoxo,
Lin

Before - Right Eye

Before - Left Eye

After - Right Eye

After - Left Eye

Yet Another Frozen Birthday Party

My daughter recently turned 4.  It sounds so cliché, but it's true.  How time flies.  The movie came out and was in the height of it's popularity when she turned 3, but remember the time when Frozen anything was in short demand?  It's hard to believe, since everywhere you turn now, Elsa and Olaf are right in front of you.  But it was only about a year ago that there was such a shortage of Frozen products.  Hence I waited an entire year to plan one for my daughter.  And it was the perfect timing to do one for her 4th birthday.  Pinterest had tons of ideas, there were Frozen products everywhere, and I had time to shop until I dropped for the party.

I made whatever I could get done easily and quickly.  Time is of utmost value to me!  And whatever I couldn't make, I bought.  For example, I did a lot of research on Easy and Pinterest regarding the invitation.  I didn't want to send an evite.  Luckily I looked early, and found some beautiful snowflake cards in December that were blank inside.  All I did was type up the words, printed them out on paper, and pasted them on the inside of the card.

I didn't want an Elsa cake - every little girl under the sun had an Elsa cake - and I didn't want to have Elsa et al popping up all over the party.  I went with a more simple Frozen look.  Everything was blue and white, I had snowflakes throughout the party, and princess stuff and swords for the kids to play with.  I bought most of the decorations from Party City, Dollar Tree, Homegoods, and Birthday Express.  I made my own birthday banner.  I hired Elsa and Anna to come sing for the kids via Princess Party Productions.  They were fantastic, btw.  I called and booked them 6 months in advance, just to ensure their availability!   And, because of the entire year I spent planning my party, I had to hire a photographer to photograph every moment!  Thomas from Thomas Teng Photography did a fantastic job.  I couldn't be happier with the results!  So of course I had to hire him back 2 months later to shoot my sons' birthday party too!  :)  For event furniture, I rented them from Choura Events.  They were so professional.  There's a story behind my review, I'll tell you about it in the post about my sons' birthday party.

Enjoy the photos and drop me a comment if you have any questions!

I'm pretty proud of my spread!

The inside - excuse the iTunes gift cards - I had to cover info!

The front of the invitation

Me and the birthday princess

I bought mason jars and hot glued Dollar Tree snow flakes on

Snowmen Arms (Pretzel sticks)

Elsa's Icicles (Blue rock candy)

Elsa's Snowballs (Cake pops with white candy coating)

Elsa's Wand and Tiara

Hans's Sword (The boys needed something!)

Melted Snowmen (Blue lemonade and water)

I also made snowmen string cheese.  But the photographer didn't take a picture of them.  Here's an example of them.  I basically just used Washi tape and permanent markers.  I made 50 of them!

Here are the party pictures!

LOOK at her face!  This picture alone makes all the work worth it!

Xoxo,
Lin