vacay high: cherry blossoms park

Over the next few months (too many photos, hard to sift through all!), I will be sharing some highlights of our recent vacation. This is the first of this mini-series: our trip to the Essex County Cherry Blossom Center.

I had never seen cherry blossoms before. My travel buddies and I were planning a trip to Japan 2 years ago but our work skeds conflicted with the uncertain cherry blossoms peak so we didn't get around to going. Little did I know I would witness their beauty during our trip to New Jersey.

Being surrounded by pink foliage was an incredibly pretty sight!

Quite surreal too that they will only be that way for a week or so and we were lucky enough to catch it! They hadn't completely peaked actually. See the buds that have not blossomed?

But it was breathtaking nevertheless.

Isabella gushed at how beautiful they were.

Noah, on the other hand, was busy climbing every single cherry blossom tree in the park.

I love how the branches cascaded downward so we had a lovely fort (which Noah calls a jail, hehe!) under the tree.

Such a pretty canopy, right?

There were also white cherry blossom trees...

... which the kids couldn't resist climbing.

And dark pink ones too.

But I much prefer the light pink ones.

Truly a captivating sight!

Photos are my own.

Whimsical Wednesday!

You won't believe who are on the cover of Mega Magazine's February 2013 issue... Betty & Veronica! Turns out it is their first magazine cover ever! How whimsical is that?

I grew up reading Archie Comics. Even Isabella reads them. So I found it so surreal to see them gracing the cover of a Philippine magazine donning couture by top Filipino designers. On the cover, Betty is in a Veejay Floresca creation and Veronica's gown is by Cary Santiago.

Here, Veronica is clad in a daring ensemble by Inno Sotto and Betty's dress is from Furne One.

The newly-launched MAC Archie's Girls color cosmetics collection is what got these comic book icons on the cover of Mega.

It's so adorable how the Betty color collection captures Betty's sweet girl-next-door personality in pinks, peaches & sheer plums... 

A stark contrast to Betty's collection, Veronica's is seductive in vivacious reds, blackened plums & deep violets... The contrast nodding to the epic rivalry between Archie's girls.

Both collections celebrate the distinct personas of these two beloved characters. Not only through the color palettes, but also through the variant names. Betty's collection included names like Girl Next Door, Summer Sweetheart, Pep Pep Pep, Stay Sweet and Kiss & Don't Tell. Aren't they characteristically Betty?

On the other hand, Veronica's collection included names like Daddy's Little Girl, Boyfriend Stealer, Mall Madness, Past Curfew and Prom Princess.

How can you not swoon over full color cosmetics collections (No, they don't just come in lipsticks & gloss.) that remind you of your girlhood with your nose buried in a double digest - reading about the Riverdale gang's adventures in and out of Pop's Choclit Shoppe? Am not sure if I just missed it, but I didn't find MAC's Archie's Girls collection in this whimsical Mega issue (View more of the collection here). The issue did have a surreal interview with Betty & Veronica, as if they were real people.

Indeed, it was a whimsical issue! Love that even Mega Magazine EIC, Sari Yap, was drawn by American illustrator for Archie Comics, Dan Parent.

So put on some MAC lipgloss, grab your copy of this month's Mega issue & maybe even a Betty & Veronica Double Digest, and have a whimsical Wednesday!

Photos are my own and from here & nitrolicious.

Click here for previous posts from the Whimsical Wednesday! series.

Mommy Mondays: a new holiday eve tradition

What do you do while waiting for the Christmas or New Year's eve festivities to begin? What do you and your kids do during that time after dinner on December 24 & 31, before Noche Buena or the New Year fireworks?

During previous Christmases, I'd be frantically wrapping gifts in time for gift-giving on Christmas eve. But this year, since I had wrapped all my gifts and put them under our tree early here, I realized we didn't have a customary activity for this window of time. With nothing to do, Isabella and I googled the right lyrics to Christmas carols and didn't bungle them up like we did here. :)

After we had sung all the Christmas carols, Isabella started searching for the lyrics to Auld Lang Syne. The lyrics she googled was just of the chorus so I jumped up from my bed and popped in our DVD of the movie, New Year's Eve, and played the part where Lea Michelle started singing Auld Lang Syne. We sang along since it had subtitles.

The movie kept playing after and when it reached the closing credits where the cast partied to the song Raise Your Glass, we both started dancing. While Zac Efron danced perfectly with Michelle Pfeiffer who crazily danced in-character, we also went crazy, dancing in front of the TV and laughing at how crazily we were dancing. We even replayed the part a couple of times and kept dancing!

We both don't like to dance (Isabella prefers choreographed routines and I have two left feet here), but we had a blast dancing freestyle together while waiting for the Christmas eve festivities to begin.

I think we stumbled upon (literally too, 'coz that's how I look dancing) a fun new tradition. I'm playing the New Year's Eve DVD again tonight and will go crazy dancing again with Isabella.

Don't be fancy, just get dancey

Why so serious?

So raise your glass if you are wrong

In all the right ways

All my underdogs, we will never be, never be

Anything but loud and nitty gritty, dirty little freaks

So won't you come on and come on and

Raise. Your. Glass.

Just come on and come on and

Raise. Your. Glass.

Happy New Year's Eve everyone!

Photo from annnniegirl.

Click here for previous posts from the Mommy Mondays series. Click here and here for previous New Year posts.

blissful bungled carols

Isabella and I have been singing Christmas carols in the car for weeks now. And I discovered that we don't know the right lyrics to many, if not all, carols!

Sa-ilent night, Ho-oly night. All is calm, all is bright... Okay, what's next? Is it down or round? Okay, round... Round young Virgin... Turns out, it's "yon", not "young". And there are 2 more stanzas after that that I don't think I've ever heard.

It's the same for Deck the Halls. Deck the halls with boughs of holly. Fa la la la la la la la la. Tis the season to be jolly. Fa la la la la la la la la. On with our way gay apparel. Turns out it's "Don we now our gay apparel". Fa la la la la la la la la. Oh, the ancient yuletide carol. Fa la la la la la la la la. But it's "Toll the ancient yuletide carol" after all. And there are 3 more verses I, again, have never heard!

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas. With every Christmas blah I blah. May your days be merry and briiight. And may all your Christmases be light? bright? white?

Isabella and I sang so many carols at the top of our lungs... even though we said "blah" a lot of times through them all. We did figure out the 12 Days of Christmas, but not after switching days 7 to 11 around so many times.

We even bungled Jingle Bells! And I've been singing that since I was a kid! Okay, we got the chorus right: Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells. Jingle all the way. Oh, what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh. We didn't do so well with the first verse though: Dashing through the snow. In a one-horse open sleigh. Oh? All? O'er the fields we go, laughing all the way. And then we just ruined the song...  Bella botcha ring, making spirits bright. What fun it is to ride and sing the sleighing song tonight!

Yes, we don't know the correct lyrics to common Christmas carols. But I think what matters is that we sang at the top of our voices, laughing hysterically every time we substituted a word with "blah" and felt the Christmas spirit all the way home. Maybe it can even be a way for us to be identified as family - singing the same wrong lyrics of Christmas carols (just like the father & son's Amazing Grace in the movie Maverick). :)

Hope you are having a holly, jolly Christmas - whether your lyrics are right or not!

All together now! Bella botcha ring, making spirits bright. What fun it is to ride and sing the sleighing song tonight!

Photos from annnniegirl.

Click here for a previous post on a Christmas song Noah botched up too. Hehe, runs in the family.

what's adorning your door?

What adorns your door at Christmas?

This Christmas, our doors aren't adorned with store-bought wreaths. They are decorated with paper parols (Christmas lanterns or stars) that Noah & Isabella made!

Noah brought this home from school one day. He was so proud saying "Teacher didn't help me one bit!" So he hung it on his bedroom door...

And made new ones...

... to hang on my bedroom door...

... and Isabella's door...

They're actually quite easy to make...

Isabella made a parol out of paper boats...

... and we hung it, and two more of Noah's parols made from the adcube, on our front door...

Every time I enter the house, or any of our rooms, I can't help but smile at the homemade Christmas parols adorning our door. Sure beats any store-bought lantern! :)

Photos are my own and from annnniegirl.

Mommy Mondays: teaching them to love books

Both my kids love to read today. And I truly believe this love for books was borne out of our nightly bedtime stories. Since they were babies, until they were about 6, I made it a point to read them a bedtime story (at least 2-3 times a week). We started with board books, then picture books, then those staged-reading books with big letters & some words substituted with pictures for the child to "read".

Today, I am so pleased that 7-year-old Noah borrows 2 books from the library every couple of days. He reads Geronimo Stilton (for girls, you can go for Thea Stilton books), Diary of A Wimpy Kid and 39 Clues books. Naturally, his favorite is the Wimpy Kid series, but I worry he'll bring some of the pranks to life. :( I am thrilled though that he's already reading 39 Clues because 15-year-old Isabella was reading those books just last year!

Isabella, on the other hand, reads and re-reads these books: the Twilight series, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Legend of Aang, The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series & the Heroes of Olympus series.

I just love that Isabella is such a wide reader! I have to say I am impressed that she reads novels with substance. I remember reading a lot of (eep!) Sweet Dreams when I was her age!

Some books both Isabella and I enjoyed as children that I am looking forward to Noah reading someday are: books by Roald Dahl, books by Judy Blume, Encyclopedia Brown, Cam Jansen & Nancy Drew (though my mom and I enjoyed them more than Isabella did and I suppose Noah will choose Hardy Boys if he does get into such a series).

I have to admit that both Isabella and Noah watch a lot of TV and play a lot of video games. But I am so thankful that they also have a desire to sit back and read a good, old novel.

I'm not 100% certain their love for books is solely due to our nightly bedtime stories when they were younger. But it doesn't hurt to start them young, right? Plus, books help teach other things too. Like reading a book about going to the dentist (ours was a Dora the Explorer book) helped take away the fear of Noah's first visit to the dentist. I also remember reading a Muppets Bye, Bye Diapers boardbook to Isabella when we were potty-training her. Among the books I read to them, my faves would have to be Guess How Much I Love You, The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Veggie Tales' God Made You Special. I adore that last one because it was short (reading aloud is hard on your voice), it rhymes (I looove rhyming books because it's fun to read in a singsong tone! Dr. Seuss books are just so so long.), and I got to use a fake French accent on one page ('Allo boys and girls! We are zee French peas!) which always made both Isabella & Noah laugh out loud. Awww, such fun memories of enjoying a book together! 

Have fun reading with your kids!

Photos from nyctaughtme & pinkwallpaper.

Click here for previous posts from the Mommy Mondays series. Click here for a previous post about the lack of classic children's books these days. Click here for my own version of "I love you to the moon and back".

Mommy Mondays: things I would have missed

When I was working, I didn't think I was missing much. I figured the kids were in school anyway when I was at the office. By the time I got home, they had already done the "chores" - homework, dinner, baths. And I was left with the moments that mattered - the "quality" fun bonding moments with them before bed. I thought I wasn't missing much.

But now that I'm on sabbatical and am around all day, everyday, I discovered there are things I would have missed, had I been at work.

Like seeing Noah enjoy his after-school karate class. Had I been at work, I would not have seen how much he was smiling through the session. Sure, my mom would likely have told me that his stance was really good for a beginner. She'd probably have told me that he learned to block or kick that day. But I would not have seen him beam with pride at the punch he just blocked. How his eyes danced with delight at each stance. How the corners of his mouth would turn up ever so slightly when he was pleased with his move. These things I would have missed had I been at work.

Last week was no exception. I picked up 15-year-old Isabella from school and I had to wait awhile because, as the guards had explained, "Napasarap sa paglaro!" (She was having so much fun playing!). Turns out, Isabella had been busy chasing a friend around the waiting area. I loved that that incident showed me she was still a kid. It was a side of her - that child-like side - I would have missed completely because she would be her quiet, glued-to-her-iTouch teenage self again at the house.

Had I been at work, I would have missed these subtle little things that speak volumes about my kids. Big realizations about their character from tiny observations that only a mother will notice. Yes, there are many things I would have missed had I been at work. So I am ever so grateful I am not missing them these days.

Working moms, don't fret. It isn't necessary for you to be there every minute. What I realized is the importance of observing an everyday, mundane moment. So make sure to reserve one or two of your VL (vacation leave) days for following them around on a normal day. The rest can be used for actual vacations or family trips or the necessary PTC (parent-teacher conference) or school program. But make it a point to take a day off to do nothing special and just observe your kids go through their usual day. I am certain you will witness those subtle little things that mean so, so much.

Photo from pinkwallpaper.

Click here for previous posts from the Mommy Mondays series. Watch for the downinthedots version of this post here tomorrow. 

halloween hangover

Isabella wasn't with me when I discovered Made In Candy in Powerplant Mall here. So I brought her there last weekend to replenish our stash of literal eye candy and let her watch the candy artisans work their magic.

And they did! They had just started working on a customized design when we arrived. Here's the sketch they had up on their glass wall.

They stuck strips of black & orange candy together to make the jack-o-lantern's mouth. Three triangular black rods formed the eyes & nose.

See the jack-o-lantern starting to form?

Then they added the green strip to form the stalk & a lot of white candy for the background.

They then wrapped it with a mat made out of orange (& dark orange) candy strips.

And voila! The jack-o-lantern in a huge cylinder!

The candy makers then pulled & tugged with all their might on one end of the huge roll until it stretched out into a thin tube.

Which they sliced into the finished product...

Isabella loooooved it! She had track & field practice that day but gave it up to watch the candy being made. She kept gushing, "I want to work here! I really do Mommy!" So much that she even asked one of the owners about the possibility of a summer internship.

Look how happy she was, finally tasting the candy we had watched being made for close to an hour!

Really love that 15-year-old Isabella is still a kid! :)

Now what's with the title of this post? I guess the halloween part is self-explanatory. Hangover, on the other hand, has to do with how delayed this Halloween post is (I mean, it's already November!). And the delightful surprise of this new candy design in our new stash of candy (the first batch I bought didn't have this particular design)... A tiny pink martini!

The best part is it tasted sooooo good! Like pink grapefruit martini or maybe pink lemonade. Certainly the kind of candy I can be drunk on! :)

Photos are my own and from Made In Candy's facebook page.

Mommy Mondays: a mothering ritual

Do you have a special mothering ritual you do with your kids? I don't mean a mom-child date or activity - even if it's a motherly duty like doing the grocery or watering the plants together. I mean a grooming, babycare ritual that you still do for them even though they're no longer babies.

Mine is ear-cleaning. Maybe because all the other rituals (bathing, hair-combing, dressing them up or even cutting their nails) are inevitably outgrown since they eventually learn to do these themselves. Sure, they can use a cottonbud by themselves, but reeeally cleaning - checking for earwax - is something they can never do on their own. Maybe that's why, every now and then, I still do this for 15-year-old Isabella and 7-year-old Noah.

And for some reason, I feel a special connection with them during this ritual. The exact same feeling of utmost trust, complete dependence and motherly love I felt when my mom used to clean my ears. I have this fear that if someone pokes deep enough, I could go deaf. So I could only trust my mom to go poking in my ear. I remember, as a young teen, feeling secure and cared for when my mom would clean my ear. Am I weirding you out? But I think that ritual allowed me to feel the mothering I felt as a baby, even in my gradeschool years. And there was something so comforting, so cocooning about that.

So I guess all those feelings come back to me when I clean my kids' ears. But this time, the tables are turned and they can trust me and feel secure that I will do it ever so gently, ever so carefully, in a way only their mother can.

That fear... of poking too deep... Used to rob me of the loving joy of this special ritual of ours. That is until I discovered these tweezers in True Value.

 

They come with a light so you see clearly. The thin end (before it gets too stout to fit inside the ear) is short enough to keep me from going in too deep. It isn't the usual scoop-like ear-cleaner so I don't end up hurting them by scraping the sides of their ear canals.

Of course, it's gross when you pull out the earwax. But that's less disgusting than being peed on during diaper-changing when they were just months old. Or washing their bums after they yell "Mommy, I'm done!" after sitting in the toilet for minutes. Maybe this adds to the motherly badge of the ritual. After all, before we became mothers, we wouldn't have thought we would voluntarily clean up someone else's poop, spit-up or earwax, right?

 

Yes, cleaning my kids' ears is my special mothering ritual. It gives me that fuzzy feeling of... home.

What about you? Do you have a special mothering ritual of your own? 

Photo from heritage.

 

Click here for the maiden post of this new Mommy Mondays series.

Noah says...

Yes, it's hard enough to teach the English language with all these quirks. But I'm sure most of you will agree that Filipino is much, much harder to teach!

I remember when Isabella was in her early gradeschooler days, her talasalitaan [vocabulary list] included the word pobre [poor] which, in her handout said, meant mahirap [poor in this context, but could also mean difficult]. After Isabella finished studying her talasalitaan, the hubby decided to test her. He asked her to use pobre in a sentence and she said, "Ang pag-aral ng Filipino ay pobre". Acheche!

Like sister, like brother: recently, while Noah was working on his Filipino assignment, he asked, "What's simbahan [church]?" I had grand dreams of teaching critical thinking, helping him figure it out on his own, so I asked him, "What's simba [go to church]?" He answered, "Lion?" (Yes, he was thinking of Simba from Lion King). Ayos!

Photo from here, but first discovered on my Facebook newsfeed.

Click here for previous posts from the Noah Says... series.

scrap-cycling

I moved from paper to digital scrapbooking 4 years ago but I still have a whole stash of pretty scrapbook paper. They're so pretty (and expensive) so I could never bare to just throw them out. They're too small (cardstock is too thick too) to be used as wrapping paper. So they're rotting away, albeit prettily, in one of my closets.

But maybe I can put those scraps to good use... As wall art...

As a clever shelf-turned-dollhouse, if Isabella were still a young child...

Or as pretty tiled wallpaper for my workspace.

It's perfect! We have the exact nook in between the closets in our room. It is currently used as a dresser. But my mom has been bugging me to cover up the mirror: "it's bad feng shui", she says. I never sit down and use the dresser as it is meant to be with my 10-second morning regimen anyway. So that nook might be of better use as a workstation. And prettified with my old scrapbook papers! Ooooh, I smell a new project brewing...

Photos from here, here, acupofjo and amischmashedlife (photo cropped to call attention to the wall instead of the labeled trash bins. Check out her post on this & other pretty workspaces here).

the BER months have arrived!

Can you believe it's September already? For the benefit of my non-Filipino readers: Christmas starts early in the Philippines. It has become a tradition for radio stations to play a Christmas carol or two on September 1.

As if programmed by Pinoy radio stations, then 4-year-old Noah decided to be Santa Claus 3 Septembers ago. He wore an Elmo shirt inside-out & his black Batman pajama pants and convinced (actually, more like demanded) Isabella to make him a moustache & suspenders out of paper (yes, Isabella started the super paper powers in our family. I called it paper magic.).

Then we made one of our wicker ottomans (see related posts here and here) Santa's sleigh and Caramel, our rocking horse, a reindeer. Isabella eventually got into the whole Christmas in September bit because putting those antlers on Caramel was completely her idea!

I eventually coaxed her into wearing a Mrs. Claus costume I wore the previous Christmas at an office party. But not without a binder clip at the back for a shapelier Mrs. Claus.

I never really found out what came over Noah that day in September 2009. But he sure had Christmas on his mind that day. Later that afternoon, he even asked me for a pair of scissors. Twas a good thing I didn't just hand him one because it turned out, he wanted to use it to cut a tree outside and put balls on it!

Can you believe the BER months have arrived?

Photos are all my own.  

Noah says...

As we entered Subic during one of the August long weekends (see related posts here and here), we spotted several monkeys by the road.

When Noah saw them, he excitedly exclaimed, "Friends!!!!"

Palm-claps-forehead moment for me.

But I guess he really considers himself a monkey... Because a month ago, Isabella, Noah and I were playing the Alphabet Animal game. When we got to letter N, Noah said, "Noah! Because a lot of people call me monkey."

Oh boy!

Photo is my own taken by my Canon S-90 in our moving car, one car-lane away.

Click here for previous posts from the Noah Says... series.

beach top-view

Did you go to the beach over the past 2 long weekends?

Photographer Gray Malin took this amazing series of top-view photos of beaches from St. Tropez to Manhattan Beach.

I love the pops of color...

... from the umbrellas,

... kayaks,

... and are-these-towels-or-recliners-?.

They say Malin took the photos from a doorless helicopter.

Don't these stunning photos make you want to go to the beach? It's a good thing we did go to the beach over the past long weekend. The hubbies (mine & two other friends' hubbies) planned a trip to Grande Island in Subic. Sans a helicopter, these are my best top-view photos of our beach trip.

Not as spectacular as Malin's (though I have to say Isabella's octopus is pretty spectacular!)...

... but just as colorful... and much more precious because they're of my Noah & Isabella!

What about you? Did you and your kids have a great time at the beach this long weekend?

Photos are my own and from here via acupofjo.

P.S. Isabella turns 15 today! Happy, happy birthday sweetheart! May you never tire of sculpting sand-animals at the beach! Love, love, love you!