CelebrASIANS!

We had a lot to celebrate this weekend and have been down in Orange County!

Kelvin's great childhood friend Tina (from their radio show days) married Chris in traditional Vietnamese style (afternoon Catholic church ceremony, then evening reception with a multi-course meal, singing and dancing) on Saturday (and since her wedding date is the same as Niall's second birthday, I have no excuse to forget her anniversary!).  I've been lucky to have gotten to know Tina well over the years that K and I have been together and it was so wonderful to see her marry her soulmate (the couple met two years ago at Coachella). Kelvin performed one of the church ceremony readings.

 

Both Tina and Chris looked so, so happy despite all of the stresses that come with pulling off a wedding!   

I enjoyed wearing my áo dài (one of several I own!), the traditional Vietnamese dress, to both the ceremony and reception, as I find it extremely comfortable (and elegant), although most of the other attendees (90% or more of whom were Vietnamese or Asian) were wearing western-style dresses in the evening. Kelvin again participated in the reception with doing some emcee-ing and led a fun and well-received scavenger hunt/musical chairs game.

Kelvin, Tina and Danny go way back...

... as does Chamreun (left). Chamreun and Danny were both groomsmen in K and my wedding in 2011 (Tina would have been, too, had she been male!).

While Kelvin and I didn't stay out too late, we got a few dances in (as did Danny, who you can see here wearing his earplugs so as to not have the lively music damage his hearing! We definitely gave him a hard time; however, we are in our *late* thirties now!)

Then on Sunday, we had a little family second birthday celebration for Niall and cousin Klian (born exactly a week later on the twenty-second) at Kenn and Lisa's lovely new home in Orange.

We got some adorable photos of the kiddos in their little áo dàis .

The birthday boys

with their older brothers (5)

 a rare still shot

(their personalities show up here)

They did some sweet joint candle-blowing (Klian took the le and was a a champ!)

Theresa (Niall's godmother) had brought a unicorn piñata at the older boys' request, and it (particularly the candy inside) was a (literal) hit (Theresa ultimately did the smashing damage).

Angel

As usual (Asians love to eat!), we had wonderful food (homemade spring rolls and tasty desserts, including mochi donuts and cream puffs).

The cream puffs were really popular amongst the kids!

 

 

We had so much sibling, auntie/uncle, grandparent, and cousin love to go around!
 

(yes, I believe that's a cream puff mustache!) 

Subi and Angel

The crew

 

 

I am blessed to have married into such a large, welcoming Asian family! While I am the odd non-Vietnamese out (and only half-Asian), I definitely have embraced their styles of eating and celebrating. To them, family is everything. They love my kids like you wouldn't believe, and it's great to be included in/a part of the fun (/chaos!).