Alexis just got her second shot.

She was a bit nervous and tense so it hurt a little more but she is all good now.

Happy thanksgiving everyone.

Alexis wrote this just last week as she learns the basic structure of essay writing.  It is simple but so cute and pure. 

I Am Grateful For Happiness

By: Alexis Ling Lapena

I am grateful for happiness because it makes me feel happy and joyful, not grumpy. 

   

There are so many things that make me happy. First, it makes me happy when I play Roblox with my sister and cousin because I get to hang out with them. Second, I love going outside to play with the dogs because they are so cute and playful. Third, biking with my mom and getting soft serve ice cream is a fun treat. Fourth, I like learning escrima (stick fighting) with my dad. Fifth, it makes me happy when I draw with my nanny because I get to spend time with her. Lastly, it makes me happy when I sleep because I get to rest and stay cozy under the blankets. 

With this in mind, I am grateful for the feeling of happiness because I get to experience all those things.

Sent from my iPhone

Isabel latest portrait for her high school applications.

The Mysterious Ghost by Alexis Lapena

Alexis just wrote this story for her homework - spooky Halloween story.  What do you think?

Once upon a time, there was a little boy named Jack. Jack was preparing for Halloween, he couldn't find a Halloween costume to wear, so he went downstairs to the kitchen to ask his mom what he should be. Mom was making breakfast. Jack went to ask her. "Well, what is your favorite character?" asked Jack's mom. "I don't know" Said Jack. "Why don't you be a scary animal or something scary or even just really anything?" Said Jack's mom. "What are you and dad gonna be?" asked Jack. "I don't know what your dad is going to be, but I am going to be a reindeer." Replied Jack's mom. "We can ask your father what he is going to be once he comes back from the park." Said Jack's mom. "What is dad doing at the park?" Asked Jack. "He is taking Momo for a walk." Replied Jack's mom. Momo is Jack's dog. He is a furry little dog that hangs out and loves Jack a lot.  Jack went upstairs to his room and looked outside the window to see if his dad was outside. No one was outside.

A few hours later he heard his dad's keys clanging against the door. Jack ran downstairs to see if his dad was down there. "Hey buddy, did you finish your homework?" Asked Jack's dad. "Daddy!!!" Yelled Jack, running across the room. "Did you finish your homework" Asked Jack's dad again squinting at Jack. "No, not yet" Replied Jack. Jack gave his dad a big hug. "Okay, but you have to finish it later alright?" Asked Jack's dad. "Okay" Replied Jack. 

The next day Jack got out of his bed sprinting down the stairs like he was racing a billion other people and yelled "IT'S HALLOWEEENNNN" Waking his dad who was sleeping on the couch. "Mmm" Muttered his dad. "Oh buddy, i'm glad your so excited, but it's 6 o'clock. You don't need to be waking up so early, plus your mother is still sleeping." Said his dad. "BUT THERE'S NO TIME TO SLEEP. IT'S HALLOWEEN AND WE NEED TO DRESS UP AND GO TRICK OR TREATING!" Yelled Jack talking really fast. "Trick or treating isn't until 8 PM" Said Jack's dad. "Oh right" Said Jack. carrying Momo upstairs. "Oh Momo, don't you want to go trick or treating?" Asked Jack. "Rufff" Barked Momo. "I'll take that as a yes" Said Jack. 

At lunch time Jack was at the table shoving all his food into his mouth. "Jack, Don't do that at the table" Said his mom. "But ish halsowean and wi nead to bi redy" Replied Jack with his mouth full of food. "Don't talk with your mouth full" Said his mom. Jack swallowed all his food like it was nothing. His dad giving him the EW face looking like he is about to throw up. "You finished your homework right?" Asked his dad. "Oh no! I forgot." Exclaimed Jack. Jack's dad gave him a frustrated look. "I promise I'll do it later." Begging his dad. "Alright fineeee." Said his dad. Jack took an exhale of relief and ran back upstairs.

When it was finally time to go trick or treating, Jack put on his ghost costume and ran downstairs. Yes, he found a costume. Jack put on Momo's super hero jacket on Momo and looked at mom and dad walking out of their room. "I am the magnificent reindeer" Said Jack's mom. "Oh dad, your the male reindeer?" Asked Jack. "yes that's correct" Replied Jack's dad. "Now let's go!" Jack and his family walked down the street to notice that there were a ton of people in costumes trick or treating. Jack ran down the street to start trick or treating. When he also noticed another ghost up ahead. He walked toward the ghost and said "hi." The ghost ran away behind him. Jack turned around to know that the mysterious ghost had vanished. "Strange." said Jack. "oh well." Jack rang every door bell in the neighborhood. At the last door he was about to ring the doorbell when he saw the ghost he had seen before fly right through the door. He heard a loud scream. Jack ran back to his parents and told them everything. Of course they didn't believe Jack. "Let's go back. You have to finish your homework now okay?" Asked Jack's dad. "Okay!" Replied Jack in relief. Jack was almost glad that he could go home and know that he would be safe there.

Finally when they all got back home. Jack picked up Momo and ran upstairs. Jack put Momo in his bed and wondered "Did you see that Momo?!" Asked Jack. "Ruff!" Barked Momo. "never mind, you wouldn't even understand me." Said Jack. "But yes I would" Said a mysterious voice. Jack looked around. When lastly he saw Momo. "was that you Momo?" Asked Jack. "indeed it was" Said Momo. "YOU CAN TALK?!" Yelled Jack. "mwuahahahaha" Laughed Momo. "how is this possible?!" Yelled Jack backing away from Momo. "Well, you see your little friend outside has been contacting meeee" Said Momo looking very evil. "YOU MEAN THAT GHOST OUTSIDE?!" Yelled Jack panting. "Yesssss" Said Momo. "THIS IS NOT REAL, YOU CAN'T BE TALKING!!!! IT'S NOT YOU GHOST! YOUR FREAKING ME OUT!!!" Yelled Jack.

"You fool, IT IS ME!" Yelled Momo. "WHAT?!" Yelled Jack. "I AM YOUR FRIENDLY GHOST FRIEND" Said the ghost that Jack had seen before coming out of Momo. "ALL THE SCREAMS THE RUN AWAYS?!" yelled Jack. "Yes, and I am coming after you NEXT! MUAHAHAHAHAAAA!" Yelled the ghost. "What is going on in here?!" Yelled Jack's mom. Jack turned to his mom and pointed at Momo. Jack was trying to say that this ghost came out of momo and said he was coming for Jack next, but of course they wouldn't believe Jack. After Jack pointed at Momo. Mom and dad ran to Momo. "WHAT DID YOU DO?!" Yelled Jack's mom. Momo was laying on the floor not able to breath. "WE NEED TO TAKE MOMO TO THE VET NOW!" Yelled Jack's dad. "HURRY UP, GET YOUR JACKET AND SHOES WERE OUT OF HERE! WE ARE GOING TO TALK ABOUT THIS LATER YOUNG MAN!" Yelled his dad carrying Momo downstairs to the car. "It's okay buddy, we are going to the pet vet. Your going to be okay you hear me?" Said Jack's dad talking to Momo. "This is what happens when you treat a ghost like that" Said the mysterious ghost voice. "AHHHHHH" Yelled Jack. Everybody looked at Jack. "WHAT'S WRONG?!" Yelled mom and dad. Mom was driving and didn't look at the road and ran into a car. 

The next thing Jack knew, was sirens. He heard sirens. When the sirens got closer and louder it suddenly stopped. They took everybody out of the car and put us on beds and took us in the ambulance. I was really scared. We were at the hospital and they told us that it was going to be okay, but was it? I asked myself. It's all because of that ghost or is it all because I said hi to it. Jack got really curious. Jack knew he was going to be okay, but what he was worried about was his mom and dad. "They shouldn't have gotten into all of this, it's just between me and the ghost. Not mom and dad" Said Jack. All the doctors in Jack's room looked at Jack. "what did you say buddy?" Asked a doctor. "Oh! Nothing" Said Jack. "OWWWWW" Yelled Jack. "what happened?" asked a doctor. "You just stuck a needle in my arm and took it out, it really HURT!" Complained Jack. "We didn't do anythi-  All the doctors were interrupted by the floating needle. One doctor went to go poke it. Eventually got it stuck in the doctor's arm. "This is not possible" Said another doctor. "That's what I said, mom and dad just wouldn't believe me" Said Jack. Jack couldn't move from the car accident. Once the floating needle poked all the doctors in Jack's room. All the doctors in the room fell asleep. The floating needle suddenly turned into a ghost holding a needle! "I'M BACK!" Yelled the ghost. "And this time I am very hungry!" "MWUAHAHAHAHAH" Yelled the ghost. The other doctors ran into the room. "What happened herer?!" Yelled the doctor. "The ghost! The ghost! He was here. He poked everybody and the doctors fell asleep!"  explained Jack. Again no one believed him. The doctors got mad because Jack was the only one that wasn't asleep. "Alright kid, your not actually hurt are you? Get off the bed, ghosts aren't real." Said a doctor. "I am hurt, I'm telling you! There was a ghost!!!" Yelled Jack. The floating object came up again. All the doctors saw it. Except this time it wasn't a needle...it was a KNIFE. The ghost had gone to far. Jack had to do something. Unfortunately, Jack couldn't because of the car accident. In his head the ghost said that he had "handled" everybody outside of this room. "Even my mom and dad?" Asked Jack to the ghost. "Yesss indeed" Said the ghost. After he "handled" all the doctors in Jack's room the knife came closer to him. "Your going to be my desert!" Said the ghost in hunger. "No please no!!!" Yelled Jack. "Jack wake up! Jack wake up! Jack!" Said Jack's mom. Jack woke up. "Mom? You're, you're...you're here." Said Jack in relief. "Yes honey, I'm here." "It was all a dream." "It's ok." Said Jack's mom. Jack hugged his mom, his dad, and Momo. 

Jack's mom says It's just a dream...but was it?

The End

Love our patio

We feel so blessed to have outdoor space in downtown San Francisco. Very much enjoying decorating our patio and see all the ways we can use it. Winter is coming. Let's see how we can make it work so it's warm enough to hang in our outdoor space. 😬

From: Alexis <3

Alexis loves to type now. She got my keyboard to nights ago and wrote me this lovely email letter.  My heart just melts reading her stream of consciousness.    What a privilege to raise my kids and watch them blossom.  ❤️ 

Date: September 7, 2021 at 9:51:04 PM PDT
To: Lei Han
Subject: From: Alexis <3



Hi mommy!!! Haven't typed to you in a while…but I am now so…yeah! I really liked biking with you today! Not that you really biked, but I did! I rode something like 4 rounds around the circle at the park! I met a new dog which was very exciting! Cally I think. Weener dog, not how you spell it, but whatever. 😃 really like typing to you, makes my typing better and I get to share my thoughts with you! You type sooooooo fast. I'm getting there. I don't really have that much to say, but I'll keep talking anway. That rhymed! 😝 to bad Isabel doesn't really play roblox anymore. ☹ she plays a little bit of LPS though, which for her is kinda odd, but she's playing so I'm happy! Hopefully Stephanie will answer on roblox if she is still on the online zoom meeting and if she wants to join the group or something. Sometimes I play LPS by myself, but when you play you notice that no one is there to play with you, you feel left out and don't want to play anymore. I think that's what I feel, not sure how to explain it. My birthaday's coming soon! Daddy says No, but its actually  only 3 and a half months from now! what'cha gonna get me, what'cha gonna get me????? LPS? 😝 you know I want it. Or maybe for Christmas? Plllllssss???? To bad our birthday's and holidays are only once a year. ☹ anyways I don't really know what else I have to say today, but I'm sure I will come back and write you another letter! Byeeeeeeeeee! love you mommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmy!

❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤

 

 

PS. Thx for the nerf gun btw! I love the sounds even though there are no bullets.

Also the hearts are supposed to show love and make a colorful underline for the letter!

Hope you like it and have a good day!

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lei Han

Digital Experience Leader – Private Bank & Wealth | San Francisco office

"Vision without action is a day dream; Action without vision is a nightmare."

 

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Kids first 1000 piece puzzle

Isabel and Alexis did it today. Just felt like doing it. They have such patience when they want to and when it's self initiated.

A lovely bday weekend for me

It was relaxing - lunch by the bay, 2 pool days, 2 cakes and a tart, flowers and chocolate but most of all lots of quality time with family and friends. 🥰

Alexis drew this with her left hand

I cannot do this. I guess she is ambidextrous :-)

A long weekend trip to San Diego

We haven't travelled in 18 months since covid started. We had planned to go to puerto Vallarta for a week. Given all the warning against traveling there, we decided to change our flights to go to San Diego for 4 nights instead.

Gaslamp has changed a bit for the better with many restaurants with built out decks and tons of places with 4+ stars Yelp reviews. We had a great time eating around town and did a few touristy things as well.

Here are the touristy highlights
- Thursday: taco tour and went to three places at Point Loma, ocean beach and Logan. Pretty fun
- Saturday: little Italy also got built out a bit. We had lunch there and walked to Embarcadero to visit the port side pier and kissing statue. We took the train there and rented scooter to get ourselves back
- Friday: hanging a day at the roof deck pool. Played corn hole and just lazed around to get some color.
- Saturday after dinner : played dominos and scrabble at a cool bar at Moxy hotel. It wasn't crowded and was playing great music while we played. My first time playing scrabble if you can believe it. 🤪

Food highlights were plenty
- full moon sushi for a large exotic sashimi platter. Still so good with fresh uni and chilled oysters as well. The fresh wasabi was also a delight
- happy hour at the pool house wed. Trendy scene reasonable prices for a five star hotel
- late night crepe and panini at chocolate creamery. Broke our no late night eating ritual but was worth it 😋
- meze light dinner where the Filipino waiter told us stories of his saga to find a black members only jacket that jaime was wearing that night. Also gave us great recommendation on the food. Salmon stuffed with spinach With lemon caper cream sauce was divine.
- ironside lunch at little Italy. Bloody Caesar with oyster and shrimp was just what I wanted. We also had Brazilian seafood stew. 😋
- water grill dinner with isabel and long who drove 30 min to see us. We had a deluxe cold seafood platter. I was surprised how much I liked the raw clams. Never had it before
- happy hour at la puerta on a sat 3-5. Half price apps and all drinks. Amazing. Had chicken quesadillas. I even liked their margarita.

We didn't go clubbing anywhere as most people seemed to have stopped wearing masks in San Diego at the gaslamp. We didn't feel comfortable going into any crowded places. We enjoyed our day time and early night activities and was in bed by midnight or earlier. Also was able to nap almost everyday. Was nice to get lots of rest. ☺️

We still love San Diego and especially the food scene and temperate weather. It was 72 degrees everyday. Hope to come back with friends next time.

Big girl Alexis makes her own breakfast

She loves loves avocado toast. Since it's summer, agnes asked her to start making her own breakfast. She is tall enough to reach everything she need but the plate.

We celebrated our anniversary yesterday with ...

A second shot of the COVID vaccine Moderna.
A surprise chocolate bund cake from our neighbor - it's for isabel birthday but we double celebrated
Two nicely drawn cards from the kids. This one is from Alexis. Apparently accordingly to this I proposed to daddy. She is so cute.

Spending a day in bed today recovering from the shot but happy to be more protected soon. ;-)

Happy birthday to Isabel from Alexis

Alexis drew this card for her big sis. Alexis knows she loves stitch. This is super cute. So glad I decided to have two kids. My girls are such a great joy in my life. 🥰

“Wedding of the century”

Isabel and Alexis are quite creative and created a whole scene for their LPS and a wedding between Desiree and Jake, two LPS characters they named. They made costumes for the bride and groom and all the guests and set this scene up to conduct the wedding. This includes the backdrop blue sign and the arch. Basically everything. Amazing what kids can do when they are bored or have a lot of time at home. 😬

Alexis daily duties

Alexis is super responsible and goes around making sure all the plants are sprayed and watered.

Amazing food in Sonoma

LaVier in San Rafael 

https://yelp.to/zHu9Lozkcfb

Jacob's restaurant.  Better for take out than eat outdoors for a party of 5. 

https://yelp.to/4VUYljFkcfb

Santé at the Fairmont sonoma for lunch - we had two Travelzoo coupons for 2. Amazing deal. 

https://www.travelzoo.com/local-deals/San-Francisco/Restaurant/365299/Dining-Fairmont-Sonoma-Mission-Inn

Tasca Tasca awesome Portugese food for dinner

https://yelp.to/1JVJ04Ukcfb

Cline cellars - winery was good for kids. 

https://yelp.to/PxlpOHZkcfb

Sent from my iPhone

First vacation in 14 months.

It's been 14 months since the family went anywhere. So it was really nice to getaway to Fairmont Sonoma for two nights.

We had amazing food, made s'mores by the fireplace outside on the beautiful grounds of our hotel, scored some good loot at a thrift store in downtown Sonoma and visited Cline Cellars on the way home. Amazing 80 degree weather. We lucked out as it's back to 55 degrees now. We had connected king rooms which was really fun for the kids.

New puppy neighbor

We met laika last week. she is a 3 months old shiba inu and so affectionate with our girls. I think she will get more stand offish later as she gets older. Her owner is Rose and she just started teaching my kids digital art which is super nice as well. So happy to accidentally meet them on the 3rd floor plaza.

Thanks
Lei