Bears, Cars, & Pet Shops

The last few days have been very relaxing- it's nice not to have plans and have the liberty to do nothing! 

One thing that my sister, Sarah, tries to do every year is to spend some one-on-one time with each of our kids.  Today, she (Di Dao) and Jeremy had their "date."  We told the kids about a month ago to start thinking of what they'd like to do with Di Dao.  Jeremy has been looking forward to this day for a long, long time.  He knew a month ago that he wanted to go to Build-A-Bear Workshop.  Whereas Grace has never really cared about stuffed animals, Jeremy LOVES them.  In fact, his bed is usually full of them and more are piled around his room.  The only location in Edmonton happens to be at West Edmonton Mall.  Di Dao and Jeremy went to Build-A-Bear while Jason, Grace, and I roamed around the mall.  Here are some pictures that Di Dao took of their time together. 

Thank you, Di Dao, for Bear Jere (that's the name Jeremy chose for his bear).  He absolutely loves it and I'm sure his memory of getting to do something so special with you is priceless!

The kids also got to spend some time with my parents, Ong and Ba, today.  I grew up going to thrift stores and today, my parents took the kids with them today to check out two stores.  They were able to get Grace some Littlest Pet Shops and Jeremy got a Hot Wheels set.  All of Grace and Jeremy's toys for less than $15!

 Grace doubled her Pet Shop collection and got a ton of accessories for them, and Jeremy got a very cool track set for his cars.

My parents then took the kids out for a Vietnamese dinner before bringing them home.  The kids spent over an hour playing with their new "old" toys.  This is the first year that it hasn't taken the kids very long to warm up to Ong and Ba.  My parents are very excited about that and it'll make this visit much more special for them.