Happy Belated Girl’s Day! Girls Day is March 3rd, and every year, Aunty Helen sets up our Girl’s Day Dolls. Here’s a link to last years pictures and an explanation of the dolls.
Archive for Family pics
Weekend review: Punahou Carnival and family dinner X 2
Last week, we had a busy family infused weekend. On Friday, we all went to the annual Punahou Carnival. I love the “trash and treasures” booth (the white elephant), and for a third year in a row, got the best loot ever– three pairs of jeans (Hollister, Frankie B and Lucky), kahki pants (Victoria Secrets), eight shirts (Gap, Hollister, and other goodies), a book, and four plants- all for $25! Aunty Helen even scored a pair of jeans and a polo button down shirt for $3. Of course, Jonathan and I ate a ton of carnival junk food. We took a break from our Alli diet and in the span of 3 hours, enjoyed malasadas, teri cheeseburgers, Portuguese bean soup, a gyro, and my favorite, the chicken plate.
On Saturday, the kids went to the Carnival with Jr and Catherine, and on Sunday, everyone came over for lunch. Jarrin watched the Superbowl, and we did things Dad like to do, like fishing, picking coconuts, and eating good food.
And on Monday, we had a dinner for Dad, at his favorite restaurant Gyotaku.
Here is a the last dinner that we went to Gyotaku with Dad in April 2009. It was right after he was diagnosed with Cancer and right before his big surgery to remove his kidney and surrounding tumor. I’m glad that Dad insisted that Jr throw a Yakudoshi party, because it was nice to get the family all together before Dad began surgery and chemo and radiation treatments.
And here are pictures from this year. Although it was suppose to be a somber event, we made party favors (I made chex mix and Mom bought boxes of chocolate hearts from Longs), and like all Sato social events, it was fun and loud. We all miss Dad, but I know that he was there in spirit, making origami with the kids and spending good family time with us.
I found the pink tiara in the Kiddie basket. Each kid gets a toy with their meal, and it’s always fun to dig through the basket to pick out a toy. Sadly, Janell did not pick the tiara, and Julie said I was not allowed to take a toy from the kiddie basket.
Remembering Dad
Last Sunday was one year since we said goodbye to dad. We miss him terribly and I think about him everyday.
I think Dad’s Heaven must have a lot of puppies and family and a big garden and wood shop, and I’m sure that he’s already the most popular guy in Heaven.
Hawaii Kai Boat Parade 2010
My last 2010 Holiday post!
Our favorite float, based on the movie “Avatar”
We gathered at our house, and decorated gingerbread cookies and enjoyed the 2010 Hawaii Kai Boat Parade. Julie brought the gingerbread house, and I made a boatload of gingerbread peeps, stars, flowers, trees and angels.
Mochi Making 2010
Also a little, late, but the holidays came and went so quickly this year. I promised Julie that I would blog about our Mochi adventures, so here it is:
Every year, since I was little, we have made mochi for New Years. Dad typically led us and did all of the “hard stuff”, like loading the machine, transferring the mochi to the table, and cutting the mochi into even proportions.
This year, we were on our own, and it turned into a mochi mess. Dad tried to teach us how to use the machines last year– he even scribbled notes on the side of the manual and box. Unfortunately, we didn’t pay close enough attention, and it turned into an epic fail. It made me hope that I paid better attention to all of Dad’s other life lessons more than his mochi lesson.
Four hours, three ruined batches, and one ruined machine later, we finally figured it out enough to make edible, non crunchy, not too watery mochi. Here’s a picture of our ruined machine– the mochi ran out of the maker an into all of the joints and mechanisms of the machine. This never happened when Dad made mochi.
How many doctorate degrees does it take to figure out the mochi maker? Three! A picture of Julie, Jr and I standing around the instruction manual. It’s Jonathan’s favorite picture of the day…
And our finished product, after eight hours of hard work. When Dad did it, it only took 3 hours. 
So, for next year, I’m putting our notes onto this blog, so we can easily print it up, and save us the trouble of figuring it all out again.
Mochi Making Tips for the Sato Family
1. Use the WHITE, NEW machine. Don’t use the old red one.
2. Load the WHITE machine in the following order: 2 and 1/2 cups of water on the bottom of the machine, then lock in the bucket, then the spinner, then add 10 cups of soaked mochi rice.
3. Use the small measuring cup that COMES WITH THE MACHINE.
4. Turn the machine on, and let it steam for 35 minutes. Wait for the beep.
5. Press OFF button before starting the pounding.
6. There is no Beep to signal the end of pounding. Check on it in 10-15 minutes.
7. Ingredients for 8 Kasane, 60-70 mochi soup mochi, and a small batch of an mochi: 2 bags of mochi rice (extra bag if we want more an mochi), 1 can of koshi an, 1 can of tsubushi an, potato starch.
Happy New Year 2011!
A little late, but better late then never.
I was unfortunately working the evening shift on the 31st and the night shifts in the ED on the 1st, so I didn’t get to partake in the New Years Eve fireworks festivities. Jonathan took pictures of the party at Julie and Grant’s, and luckily, we weren’t too busy on New Years Eve, so I got out at a reasonable time, and was home by midnight. Jonathan and I enjoyed the fireworks “show” across the marina, and we were able to set off our fireworks at midnight. Also, since I worked the night shift the following day, I was able to be blessed at temple and enjoy our traditional New Years lunch at Aunty Helen’s house.
January has been a busy month so far. Some highlights for January:
Our house is still a work in progress, but this year, we will be working on the fence in the backyard and filling in the pool (and making Jonathan’s “man” room). We actually hired a fence guy AND a contractor, so hopefully, we’ll start our big building projects soon! There’s still a lot of little projects to do around the house– Here’s a picture of Jonathan fixing the gutters during the last rain, and our donation stuff for Goodwill– but we’re planning on the big projects first, and doing the little ones between the big projects.
I’m also back into my garden, and made a new vegi garden patch! I’ll put up more updates when the plants actually grow, but for now, nothing is really planted yet because Elton and Rafa like to dig holes in the new dirt. Once the fence is in, I’ll be able to plant more stuff and have less muddy puppies. Cheers for now, but I’ll put up more posts soon. 
Happy Merry Christmas!
Thanks for the presents and holiday wishes! We enjoyed opening our gifts this morning, then dim sum brunch with Mom, Julie and Grant. Rafa especially enjoyed his new toys (he got a lot!). Special thanks to our friends Pat, Sarah and Sky in Oregon for the Abominable Winter Ale, Stumptown coffee, and awesome Santa beard.
Crystal and Danny are safely in Knoxville with Danny’s family for the holidays. Yesterday, we spread a little Christmas cheer, and volunteered at the Habitat for Humanity Christmas gift wrapping booth at Ward Gateway Center. Props to Jonathan and Crystal for wrapping an elliptical machine.
More pictures later! I’m off to make the Christmas turkey for tonight’s dinner.
Ping Weekend Update and Jenny’s Yakudoshi Party
Happy Holiday Weekend! Santa Paws (more pictures later this week) on Sunday and the Cavalier King Charles Club of Hawaii Cookie Exchange and Christmas Playgroup on Saturday. I made peppermint bark for the cookie exchange, and decorated the bags with sticker pictures of the puppies. Jonathan really likes my peppermint bark, but I think Rafa most enjoyed his new octopus toy, a Christmas present to the boys from the Cavalier Club. It has nine squeakers and a crinkle head, so Rafa is driving his brother crazy with the squeaky noises.
On Saturday, we also celebrated my belated Yakudoshi birthday at Asia Manoa. According to Japanese beliefs, a yakudoshi year is a bad luck year (age 32 for girls and 41 for guys), or in literal translation, a “year of calamity”. In Hawaii, it is custom to have a party to ward off the bad luck. We wanted a happy and healthy year, so Jonathan and I wanted to make my yakudoshi party especially festive. We chose the theme “Toy Story Aliens”, and decked out the entire party with Alien everything- cups, party hats, candle, balloons, party favors (I made chex mix and we decorated the containers with aliens!), and an alien table top pinata! Love it!
More Vegas Thanksgiving Pictures!
The Route 66 gift shop. We stopped on Route 66 on the way to the Grand Canyon. The Disney movie “Cars” is based on Route 66, and Jonathan and I dug the Cars cutouts.
Vegas sights: Gondolas at the Venetian (Jonathan and I went to both the real Venice and the Venetian this year, and although I like the real Venice a ton more, I must admit that the canals in the Venetian are a lot cleaner), The Chihuly chandeliers and gardens in the Bellagio, and penny slots at Texas Station.
Thanksgiving dinner at McCormic and Schmicks. Mom Ping and I got the scallops, Jonathan enjoyed the filet and shrimp and Dad Ping, Crystal and Danny enjoyed the Thanksgiving turkey feast. Delicious.
We also found a very delicious Taiwanese deli, called Yi-Mei Champion Taiwan Deli. We enjoyed all of Jonathan’s favorite foods: Soy milk, scallion pancakes, beef sandwiches and Taiwanese style donuts. I found the place on Yelp, and this place gets 5 stars from our family. In fact, we loved it so much, we went back for breakfast three days in a row!
And Grand Canyon pictures! It was a very nice day trip to our Vegas vacation. Grand Canyon-tastic.
Safe and Sound, back from Vegas!
Me, at the Grand Canyon. It looks like I’m flying!
Jonathan, Crystal, Danny and I arrived safely back in Hawaii last night. I only lost $4 in penny slots (I actually lost $14, but got a big $10 jackpot right at the end of our trip!). We had a great time eating a ton of Taiwanese food, watching O, touring the Grand Canyon and going after Thanksgiving outlet mall shopping. We loved hanging out with Mom and Dad Ping and we were all sad that the vacation went by so quickly. Here are some of our pictures from the Grand Canyon/ Hoover Dam tour, ala Crystal’s camera. I still have to unpack and download our pictures, but I was able to download Crystals pics at the airport– Thanks Crystal!
