my childhood playmates

I find this photo so adorable. I can so relate. I grew up with just my brother as my playmate. My grandmother (see previous posts about her here) didn't allow us to go outside & play with our kid-neighbors so we ended up pretending our stuffed toys were our playmates. My brother and I had 3 teddybears: a brown one named Wicket (yes, we are part of the Ewok generation), a chubby gray one named Wally with a tail that rattled, and a pink bear named Winnie. We would pretend we had a magic pill that allowed them to talk and join us on all our pretend adventures in our room. This is probably why I love Disney Junior's Doc McStuffins so much. I love the idea of having a magic stethoscope that makes her toys come alive and talk to her.

Wicket, Wally and Winnie (same starting letter! so Pinoy!) have become the heads of our pretend horses (see related post here), bears in an imaginary jungle adventure and even the audience of a few concerts.

Though these teddybears were not real, to me, they were real playmates in a childhood filled with fun, imaginary adventures and happy memories.

Photos from annnniegirl and ikea.

Click here for previous nostalgic posts. Oh, and speaking of grandmothers, Happy Grandparents' Day to my mom and Lola!

sandwich art

Who would have thought one could make art out of sandwiches? Well, that's what Brittany Powell did! Inspired by well-known masterpieces, she made art out of sandwiches! The Mondrian above is quite obvious.

It took me a while to recognize one of my favorites, Gustav Klimt's The Kiss - in sandwich form.

Here is Jasper John's Target.

Georgia O'Keeffe.

And one of Damien Hirst's Spot paintings. 

There are also other sandwich artists out there with adorable subjects like this cute giraffe and Tow Mater of Disney Cars!

Just google "sandwich art" and you'll find a Spongebob, Pooh and Sid (of Ice Age) sandwich which your kids will surely love! One of my favorites though is this Wall-E sandwich which comes complete with a step-by-step how-to here. 

Can you imagine how happy your child will be when he opens his lunchbox to find such intricate sandwich art?

And speaking of sandwiches, thanks to Lady's Choice for the goodie bag they sent me! It was filled with Lady's Choice sandwich spreads - bacon & ham, Lady's Choice mayonnaise, an apron (which Noah already brought to school), and a recipe book of sandwiches.

Let me end this post on sandwich art with this elaborate Nike-running-shoe sandwich. I can make out cheese, tomato slices, hamburger patties and ketchup!

Isn't it absolutely amazing?

Photos from here, here, here, here, here, here, here.

Click here for the down-in-the-dots version of this post - how you can prevent anyone from stealing these amazing sandwiches. Click here for previous posts from the Art series.

my morning drive - part 2

Speaking of morning drives here, my favorite ones fall on Fridays. Okay, my age will show, but I have to admit it's because I have two radio station options: The Morning Rush's always-funny banter and Friday Magic Madness (yes, I'm an 80's kid). I thought I had enough of a dilemma choosing between these two stations this morning.

But I brought the kids to school today and they wanted to listen to a Disney CD. So I gave in to their wishes - even though I knew I was giving up two radio shows that would surely serve as happiness-boosters for the last day of this long workweek.

Little did I know that a Disney CD would provide more happiness than any radio show could...

Because I ended up driving with the kids' duet of A Whole New World from Alladin in the background. It was so adorable how they sang along with the CD with Noah taking Alladin's parts and Isabella singing Princess Jasmine's parts.

And after we dropped off Isabella, Hakuna Matata came on and Noah loudly sang both Timon's and Pumbaa's parts by himself all the way to his school.

I couldn't help smile behind the wheel as I listened to the kids sing with so much gusto. That Disney CD started out as my third choice for musical accompaniment to my morning drive today, but now, it takes the top spot! What a happy, happy Friday morning drive!

Happy Friday everyone!

Photos from annnniegirl.  

Noah says...

Noah was watching Team Umizoomi over a year ago. The TV said, "Where's the wheel with white stripes?" And he answered, "Ayun o!! What are you? Blind??"

Then recently, he declared that sometimes, Special Agent Oso annoys him. When I asked why, he replied, "Because whenever they look for something that's just right beside them, they don't look. They just ask us!"

From blind to lazy. I'm glad Noah now has a more mature response to apparently annoying things on TV. But maybe Noah really should read instead.

Photo from annnniegirl.

Click here for previous posts from the Noah Says series.

happy mushu year!

We celebrated Noah's 7th birthday last week in Hongkong Disneyland. And throughout the park, Mushu from Mulan made several appearances.

From the Chinese lanterns on Main Street...

To the trimmings on one of the pagodas in Fantasy Garden where Noah got a photo with Pluto...

To a character appearance back on Main Street later that day!

It's Mushu's year this year! Happy Mushu year!

Photos are my own.

Click here for another post about our recent adventure in Hongkong Disneyland - including a preview of the newly-opened Toy Story Land!

some polka dots i spotted...

We've never had outdoor lights for Christmas. Noah wants me to get some and I haven't decided which one to get. A lantern? Santa and his reindeer? Or just a string of outdoor lights?

Our tree is up though! With our favorite Disney characters...

Funny, because Noah is so obsessed with Christmas lights, the lights on our tree are lit even during the day. So as we rush out our front door each morning, I spot our tree from the corner of my eye... dotted with sparkling lights and it somewhat feels like a sprinkling of fairydust... for a heartwarming, fairytale-like day ahead.

Have a happy fairytale of a weekend!

Photos are from here and my own.

Click here for previous posts from the Some Polka Dots I Spotted... series.