Madison in Jungle Book!

7-29-08: Madison Garner, friends of Summer and Natalie, is in the middle of a 14-day run of Jungle Book at the Perris Hill Bowl in San Bernardino. We enjoyed the program last night, and she did a great job!

Who would guess this quiet girl in our Sabbath School enjoys performing in front of hundreds of people every night? She auditioned end of May, got a part in her first attempt, and has been in rehearsals ever since then.

Congrats to Madison for a great job and all the best as she finishes out this week.

Can you find Madison, the monkey? She's the one in the middle, 4th actor from the left.
There she is again, with that one monkey's hand almost on her face!
And there she is, the shortest monkey in the middle.
The whole cast, with the Jungle Boy coming out to bow at the end.
Summer and Natalie with our "star" of the show!
She was kind enough to autograph our programs for us. Who knows, it may be very valuable someday?!
We all know behind every aspiring and rising young child actor are dedicated parents who bring them auditions, classes, and rehearsals galore Congrats to Cindy and Eric (who was working the cold drinks concession stand during the intermission) and any other relatives like Grandpa Dick and Grandma Gracie for their support, sacrifice, and dedication of Madison's budding career. We can't wait to see what the future will bring for her!

Rasheed and Nate's b-day

7-27-08: Tonight, after some tricky planning with Nanci, we surprised Rasheed (aka Thomas) for his 41st b-day. Also celebrating a b-day was Nate the Great (aka Nathaniel Choi). Rasheed said "he knew", but he really only had a hunch and didn't know exactly when or where, if even something was going to happen since it was a "minor" b-day year this year. So we gotcha ya, Rasheed! Just admit it...LOL!!!

This couldn't have happened without a lot of people helping out. Nanci was the main starter of this whole thing, pulling me in after concocting the basic logistics of all of this. She was also the main cook for the incredible spread of food we enjoyed--it was like being at a catered meal!

Mike and I planned the "games" that we did afterwards. Ya gotta see the pictures!

Thanks to everyone else for helping out with prep, cleaning, etc.

Anyway, enjoy the pictures and video clips of the action!

Nanci slaves over a hot stove--the food was incredible!!! Great job, Nanci! You really could open up your own restaurant or catering business. Cheer up, Nanci, we really did enjoy your cooking!

The 2 birthday boys, Rasheed and Nate the Great
Donut eating game...though Rasheed has a larger "donut" than the others!
Caught in the action (see the small crumbs flying), Dee helps one smiley face get real close to the other smiley face (pie).
Doesn't he look like the lion on the Wizard of Oz?!?!
The winner of the pie eating contest, Chloe, gives her mom a sugary, sticky kiss for passing on the genes for eating pies very fast. (Holly won the pie eating contest at family camp last summer, though there is still some dispute on the real winner, based on the pictures....LOL!)
Summer says, "I've waited almost a year to use this haiku on your card, Uncle Thomas. It's about sailing." (Thomas is a certified captain for sailing.)
All the kids with the b-day celebrants!


Our practice surprise on Vivian....

The real thing--surprising Rasheed...

Wizard of Oz @ Redlands Bowl

7-24-08 Because of Summer's swim practice, we haven't been to the Redlands Bowl in the last couple of years. The Bowl is the longest running free Bowl series in the USA, so we're fortunate to have it right here next to Loma Linda.

This year's feature play was the classic, the Wizard of Oz. What started out as a few friends going grew to a quite a few families. Being the most free, and due to my ninja skills, I was tasked with going to reserve seats for our group of over 20 people!

Got there at around 5:45 PM and spread my 2 blankets to reserve to sections of benches. By 7 PM, it was really starting to fill up, and people were even ignoring my blankets and sitting down! They were quite unhappy when I told them it was reserved. Anyway, I started to call everyone to see where they were at and fortunately, reinforcements were on there way...just in time! I didn't have to resort to violence to protect our seats. Even then, with most of us there, some people still tried to squeeze by and sit down in our places! Go figure!

Overall, we had a great time watching this classic and the characters all did a great job! For a free event, they were superb. Enjoy the pictures! (BTW, I took some pictures in complete darkness, and it was suprising to see what I caught! To spare the "innocent", I have refrained from posting them here for all the world to see.)

Who is that paparazzi taking my picture??? How dare they!!! Oh wait, she's using a Canon...ok, she's cool.

Look at the crowds! It was a packed house at the bowl.
Here's the "kid's row" with the "parent's row" behind them. I had to really fight off some people to protect these 2 rows! It almost got ugly but fortunately, I refrained from using my ninja skills and only use verbal tactics, which is part of our ninjitsu training.
Nice stage and acting. That little boy was sure a good dancer!
The stars of the show! They all did a great job, like the originals!
Tonya and Keri enjoy a break in the play.
Congrats to the cast. They did a super job!

MaMiMe de Soleil's amazing performance!

7-22-08: Airing for the first time, produced by Spicy Curry Productions, we present the troupe above all troupes, the acrobatic team above all acrobatic teams, the gymnastic team above all gymnastic teams, presenting, the one, the only, the MaMiMe de Soleil!

Be prepared to be amazed, in awe, and gasp in wonderment at their feats of strength and flexibility. The creativity of the choreography will stun you with it's complexity, it's intricacy, interwoven in a simple tapestry.

Watch, be mesmerized, and enjoy...


What will MaMiMe Restaurant think of next to top this? Stay tuned for the 2009 MaMiMe's performance...already in the works!

Belated Mother's Day Brunch

7-20-08: After months of preparation, we finally did our annual Mother's Day Brunch at the world-famous, MaMiMe Restaurant. This year included 2 new kitchen help--Todd and Pastor John, and the return of 2nd year Dee. Of course, the founders of the restaurant, Thomas, Mike, and moi were on hand.

This year, to break in our newest help, we had Pastor John and Dee waiting on the moms and kids, while Todd had his hands full with the fruit appetizers. Mike was on the potato duty and he and Thomas were on omelettes, while I took care of pancakes and everyone helped with everything else.

We had 2 feature programs this year: a magic show by the girls and the Mamime de Sole Troup, who gave their premiere & finale performance of a lifetime (some of us saw our lives flash before our eyes on some of the routines!)

Thanks to the Makowski's for hosting this annual event once again. We hope you enjoy these pictures as much as we enjoyed doing this (even with as tough and demanding customers as these women and girls! LOL!)

Updating our prayer group list

7-19-08: This Sat. AM, instead of our usual prayer group praying, we had did a working prayer group breakfast where we went over our requests to update them, sometimes calling the person to see what the latest was on their request. It was good to see what has been answered so far! Some of our members weren't there, so they missed out on the good food!

Dance intensive showcase

7-18-08: Summer's been in this special summer workshop for dance, and this was a showcase to show what they've learned so far.

Here Teacher Andrea has them demonstrate various ballet moves on the bar. (Summer is on the front left. What you're seeing is the reflection in the mirror.)
Summer is on the front (darkened) leading out in the tap number.
One of their contemporary dance numbers.

Soup with Cunnans

7-13-08: After the last ditch meet, we ended up going to our usual place - Souplantation - with Coach Vicky and some teammates. This was probably the *last time* we would be swimming and eating out with the Cunnan family since they are moving up north after JO's, so we were glad to have one last final meal at Souplantation with them.

Mia swims in Summer's group, while Nathaniel and Calvin are a bit younger. Mom Nina is filipina while their dad is a very tall Irish guy...making Mia the same ethnic mix as Olympian Natalie Coughlin!

Summer has enjoyed getting to know Mia these few short years, especially since Mia joined the dance school this past year so they've done that together as well.

We wish them the best in their new home up north, and hopefully we'll keep in touch with them and see them when they visit down here.

The swimmers surrounding Coach Vicky.

Calvin shows me his version of hiding the sprinkles under the cup. I'll miss racing him on T and Th nights at REV when we are able to get an empty lane. He's a fast little kid!Nathaniel strikes an interesting pose while playing a fave post-souplantation game on the tables, Sharks.
One last pose with the gang!

Last Ditch Meet

7-13-08 Summer entered her "last ditch" meet to try and qualify for JO's, and even though she didn't quite make it, she has plenty of time in her new 11 & 12 y/o category to improve her times.

Summer's starts off the block have steadily been improving. She's now launching herself out there more instead of just diving straight down into the water.
Almost made her 100m fly JO time as an 11/12 y/o by less than a second. She'll get it soon!
Concentrating on her breaststroke...

Conchita on Telemundo

7-15-08: Conchita and I got to be on Telemundo, the 2nd largest Spanish station in the US. Then later, on Sunday, we got to watch it--in Spanish, of course!
Here we are on Sunday, watching it at the Zone.

Another b-day!

7-12-08: Had a jam session at the Makowski's and while there, celebrated Christopher Choi's b-day! Thanks to Holly and Summer for the photos.

Summy's b-day

7-5-08: We celebrated Summer's b-day quietly this year, with one of her best friends, Natalie. Since they are "only's" (Natalie does have some step-siblings), they are like sisters. Enjoy the slide show on how they celebrated together!