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.

To-Do: PLAY

This is Noah at 1 year and 8 months -- playing soccer on our street.

Yes, I let Noah play on our street. I have always been a believer in the importance of play in a child's development.

Just recently, Noah was playing outside with my niece Makki. When our neighbor Sophie went out to play with them, he came running into the house crying. Turns out, the girls didn't want to play basketball with him and instead, wanted to play badminton. After processing the situation with him - how he wanted to play a game they didn't like and how they wanted to play a game he didn't like, I sent him back out to deal with the problem. He suggested they take turns playing basketball, then badminton (syempre, una pa rin yung gusto niya!). But the girls didn't want to because they said there wouldn't be time to play both games (they only had a few minutes left before dark). So they ended up choosing a game they all wanted to play: this tag game these days called Ice Ice Water.

Aside from the physical skills the active games inevitably taught them, that day's playtime drama taught them essential character-building skills like problem-solving, compromise, conflict-resolution and frustration-tolerance.

It is no wonder then that reputable entities like Johnson & Johnson, Play Pilipinas and DepEd have banded together in the campaign 'Di Lang Laro Ang Laro (Playtime is not just a pasttime), which advocates the importance of 1 hour of daily active play in children's health and holistic development.

I love that this campaign reminds me of what's important. Because with all the academic pressure in schools these days, it's easy for parents to fall into the trap of thinking playtime is just a pasttime.

Even I was guilty of this recently. I was out doing errands and arrived home a couple of hours after Noah got home. I came home to so much homework and very little time to do it. Frustrated, I asked Noah what he did the whole time since he got home. And when Noah said he played outside, I -- the supposed advocate of play -- found myself scolding Noah for playing. Yes, it is easy to dismiss play as just play.

So I am grateful to the Di Lang Laro Ang Laro advocacy of Johnson & Johnson, Play Pilipinas and DepEd. It is important for every parent to be educated that play is as important as everything else on their kid's daily to-do list: Play is just as important as eating, sleeping and studying. So let's all put PLAY on our kids' daily to-do list. Let's include 1 hour of play every day on our children's schedules.

Noah actually put playing with his cousin on his to-do list (I put red checks so you can easily spot this task on his list).

Now, my job is making sure its box gets ticked every day.

'Di Lang Laro Ang Laro. Add 1 hour of play every day on your child's to-do list too!


Photos are my own, from nyctaughtme and courtesy of Johnson & Johnson, the makers of Johnson's Baby Cooling Bath, Johnson's Baby Prickly Heat Powder, Johnson's Baby Daily Sun Protection Lotion and Johnson's Baby Happy Berries Cologne -- my personal picks to keep Noah cool, refreshed and protected from the discomforts of playing under the sun. With these products, I can make sure Noah can play outdoors at least 1 hour every day without me having to worry about the hot, sticky feeling, prickly heat, sun damage or stinky smell from playing under the sun. 

Watch out tomorrow for the down-in-the-dots version of this post.

orange juice for a cause

During the Habagat floods of 2012 here, I remember thinking it was the perfect opportunity to expose Noah to the idea of making a difference in our community. My FB news feed was flooded with photos of my friends' kids volunteering to pack relief goods for the flood victims including this instagram of Sophia, daughter of Camille of camillekingphotography.com.

I would have wanted to let Noah volunteer too. Problem is, we were stuck at home with a flooded street.

Sadly, I totally forgot about my intention of teaching Noah about community service until I came across Tang's new advocacy campaign Handa, Inom, Gawa! [Ready, Drink, Act!] a few weeks ago. Tang's mission is to inspire and empower kids to take responsibility and create real, positive change in the community. 

Tang featured many kid heroes who've made a difference -- from International Children's Peace Prize Awardee Kesz Valdez who founded Caring Children, a group that gives out slippers, books and hygiene kits to street children, to Harvey Gana who organized a fun run to raise funds for the expensive medication of kids with cancer, and to Pablo Gamboa who wrote and published books to raise awareness for hunger and environmental concerns.

Other kids sold home-baked goodies, bracelets and bookmarks to raise funds for rainforest rehabilitation and for charities like Cancer Warrior Foundation. Children did all these... Imagine that!

At the Tang launch, Joy Abaquin, a multi-awarded educator and founding directress of Multiple Intelligence International School, talked about the 3 E's that parents should arm children with: Exposure beyond his little world so he becomes aware of the less fortunate's very different world, Empathy to feel what it would be like to live in their world, and Empowerment to help him do something about it.

Turns out, even before this advocacy was launched, Tang orange drink has been empowering children in its own little way (okay, marketing friends, this is where the link to brand comes in). The powdered drink is so easy to prepare that moms have allowed kids to prepare their own Tang drink by themselves. Without meaning to, Tang has become a tool to teach kids a "can-do" attitude. So this is why they want to expand Tang's ability to empower children. This time, empowering them to make a difference in the world.

So I am heeding Tang's and Teacher Joy's call to empower Noah. Summer vacation is just around the corner (are you swamped with quarterly exam reviews too?). It's the perfect time to channel Noah's energies toward something meaningful... So I'm thinking of encouraging him to raise funds via an orange juice stand. Just imagine the pipe cleaners spelling ORANGE instead of LEMONADE...

And because Tang orange drink is so easy to prepare, Noah need not slave over juicing an actual orange.

He might need to bark out (like the taho-man) though to announce his wares to the neighborhood.

I have yet to expose Noah beyond his little world to decide what he would like to raise funds for. I am curious to find out which charity or cause he will empathize with the most.

Ooohh, I am so looking forward to a fun but also meaningful summer! 

Empower your own child and share your kid-hero stories on Tang's online site and facebook page.

Handa, Inom, Gawa!

Photos are from nyctaughtme, camillekingphotography and courtesy of Tang.

Mommy Mondays: learning trips

Sibika is hard enough for Noah because of the language barrier. So imagine how hard it is for him to memorize practically-alien terms as well as understand the terms' meaning or significance in Filipino. Last December, his Sibika lessons had to do with places in the Philippines. It started with Mga Magagandang Tanawin sa Pilipinas (Beautiful Places in the Philippines) like Bulkang Mayon, Pagudpod Beach, San Juanico Bridge, Banaue Rice Terraces, Pasonanca Park & Talon ng Maria Cristina. He had to memorize the places' names in Filipino, as well as a description of the sight & the province where they can be found. Then they moved on to a lesson on Mga Makasaysayang Pook sa Pilipinas (Philippine Historical Places). There were a total of 6 historical places in his lesson, 4 of which were found in Metro Manila (unlike the places in his previous lesson). So on the Sunday of that week, I decided to take Noah on a learning trip. I figured a real experience would make it easier to recall the new set of difficult-to-remember places.

First stop was Luneta Park. 

Noah got to see Rizal's Monument in full color vs the small black & white photo in his book. I told him this was where Rizal was shot and that it used to be called "Bagumbayan". He of course had to ask why we couldn't go near it (it was cordoned off), why the guards didn't move, and if the guards would move if tickled.

Second stop was Fort Santiago. 

Noah enjoyed Fort Santiago. He got to ride a kalesa (horse-drawn carriage). He even sat in front with the kutsero (carriage driver).

He had fun literally following the footsteps of Rizal. We just went the wrong way so Noah was walking in the opposite direction.

He did enjoy comparing the size of his foot to Rizal's.

And even his height vs. the Jose Rizal statue in his jail cell.

I think this is what helped with Noah's lesson best. He got to see Rizal in a jail cell. How easy will it be now to remember that Fort Santiago was where Rizal was imprisoned?

My Lola (my grandmother from here & here) was actually imprisoned in Fort Santiago as well. So Noah kept asking where Lola's jail cell was. He was obsessed with finding it, searching the place, until we found the dungeons and assumed that was where Lola was imprisoned.

I thought Noah would be eager to get out of the sweltering heat after going through the Fort Santiago gate. But he was still interested to explore the plaza (Plaza Moriones) between the ticket booth (first gate) and the real Fort Santiago gate. He even ran to this Jose Rizal monument in the middle of the plaza and right under the hot sun.

I was horrified when I saw this photo because I thought he was pretending to pee - a signature photo op pose of the hubby. But Noah was genuinely observing the monument. Ooohh, real learning!

He got a photo taken as a cardboard guard and with a real-life guard!

Noah pretended to smoke General MacArthur's pipe. It was only when I saw the photos that I realized his mouth actually touched the pipe. Horror!

He also (eeep!) tugged at the cross of some priests.

Noah played in this shaded area for a while. The Fort Santiago map says these were American Barracks Ruins. He pretended to fire the canon...

And tried to pull this (is-it-called-a-)bullet? 

After tugging on a few more bullets, we finally left Fort Santiago.

The last two weren't actually stops... because we just drove past them. I just told Noah to watch out for them through the window. We passed Espana going home so Noah could catch a glimpse of the Unibersidad ng Santo Tomas, where Jose Rizal studied. 

We also drove by Ortigas Avenue so Noah watched out for the EDSA Shrine (where today's historical event took place), the last on our list of Manila historical places.

Noah scored very well in his Sibika test. I don't know for sure if it was because of our little learning trip. I do know the learning trip has turned out to be a gift that keeps on giving. You see, before heading to UST that Sunday in December, since we were already in Manila, we also drove by the Intramuros Walls, Binondo Church and the Bonifacio Monument. Last week, Noah's Sibika lesson was Philippine Heroes and when we got to Andres Bonifacio, I asked him if he remembered the Bonifacio Monument from our learning trip. He did! And now, with that vision in his head of the monument with people fighting with swords and the KKK flag, it is easy for Noah to remember what Andres Bonifacio did for our country.

Turns out, tutoring need not be limited to worksheets. Real-life experiences are a fun way of tutoring your children. 

Photos are all my own.

Click here for previous posts from the Mommy Mondays series.

Simple Trick: Birthdays in School

Noah recently celebrated his birthday in school. After doing this for a couple of years now, I feel I've become an expert - learning what NOT to do one year and correcting it the next.

Before I share the tips & tricks I've collected over the years, let me start with a disclaimer. These tips will work only if our celebration objectives are aligned. I choose to celebrate my kids birthdays in school (during recess or lunch) because I don't believe in yearly, grand (I'm sure you know how wedding-reception-grand children's parties are these days) birthday parties. I prefer a few grand ones (Yes, I'm one of those parents that threw 1st birthday parties for their babies who had no clue what was going on. And yes, we celebrated Isabella and Noah's 7th birthdays in a big way too - without knowing why on earth, 7th birthdays are supposedly special.) and the rest of the years, just simple celebrations that will make the birthday celebrant feel special in a gathering among friends (vs. mommy & daddy's friends at those grand parties). So my goal for these school birthday parties is a simple celebration, planned for & executed in the easiest way possible.

Assuming you feel the same way, here are my school birthday celebration simple tips & tricks:

1. Choose your theme. I let my kids choose the theme of their simple celebration so we always end up with character themes, against my liking. So even if I would have prefered non-character themes like those blue ballerinas or Noah's Ark animals for Noah, I ended up with blech-Barney and Ben10 themes in previous years. But hey, it's their birthday, not mine. Because school birthdays are so short (no time to decorate), there are only 2 things that make your theme a theme: the birthday cake and the loot. So order a cake and buy loot according to your theme. And take photos of the cake & loot so you have proof of a theme (and do it before d-day because it's easy to forget to take photos before you slice the cake and before you distribute the loot).

2. Decide on your cake plan. The cake is critical for the candle-blowing photo op. This year, because Noah's birthday fell on a Saturday (a non-school day), I ended up ordering 2 cakes: one for his actual birthday for his birthday dinner with the family and another for his school birthday celebration. If you decide to do the same & serve the cake to your child's classmates...

• On d-day, along with the cake, don't forget to bring the birthday candle/s and lighter or box of matches.

• Conduct the candle-blowing photo op before the kids eat their food. This will give you time to slice the cake while they are eating their, say, chicken & spaghetti.
• ... which means, you need to bring a cake slicer to school (bring a serated knife too just in case your cake slicer needs help cutting through fondant cake icing).
• Don't forget to bring disposable forks so the kids can eat their cake.
• Instead of disposable plates, use disposable lunchboxes - the ones with lids that fold close. So if the kids can't finish their cake, they can bring home their leftovers.

But in 2 years, when Noah's birthday falls on a school day, my plan is to order 1 cake and several cake pops or cupcakes. Noah's classmates can eat the cake pops... And I will get to bring home the big cake for the candle-blowing photo op during dinner with the family. Plus, no need for the cake-slicing task anymore!

3. Decide on your loot bag plan. You can opt to buy themed toys and candies and stuff them in a bag (or your preferred container). Personally, I think stuffing bags & choosing candies & token toys just adds to the pre-work of this supposed easy-to-execute celebration. So I suggest to do away with candies - they might just lead to cavities and don't they get enough candy on Halloween?

I also suggest to pool your loot bag budget and pick one big (still within budget since kids are quite easy to please) toy rather than several really cheapo toys that end up breaking the next day or just turning into clutter later. Choose a fun toy so that you're sure everyone will like them.

For co-ed schools, either ensure the toy is gender-neutral or make sure you know how many boys & girls there are in your child's class before shopping for the toys so you get the right number of girl-toys vs. toys for boys.

4. Order food. (Easy-to-execute celebrations means no cooking required. Okay okay, I have no choice here. I can't cook. Remember from here?). 

• Visit (rather than merely call) the resto a few days before the celebration to place your order. Place your order and get a copy of the contract/order form. You can opt to have the food delivered to your child's school but you'll need to meet the delivery guy there. My brother did this and there were no problems. I'm paranoid so I opt for a pick-up arrangement. I prefer that the kitchen is right there, in case they get your order wrong or forget things like the spoons (which tends to happen with no-rice orders. They just give forks.). I even make sure to schedule pick-up 20 minutes earlier, in case they need the 20 minutes to fix something. (Haha, OC!) Make sure to check that the contract/order form has the correct date & time.
• You can never go wrong with chicken & spaghetti. Every kid eats at least one of these two fastfood staples.
• But do NOT get a chicken & spaghetti meal that comes with a drink. Transporting multiple drink-filled plastic cups is extremely difficult! Remember, those cardboard handles are only good for 4 cups. They don't make those for 15, 20 or 40 cups. Trying to carry this many cups to your child's classroom will inevitably result in some lids tearing and drinks spilling a little. Imagine the sticky mess! And even if the drinks don't spill, the plastic cups get those beads of condensation from the cold drink in it and lugging multiple wet cups will still be... ugh. So opt to order the food a la carte (vs. a meal) and serve tetra packs from the grocery for drinks. Their even, rectangular & stackable shape make even 50 tetra packs easy to lug around. Plus, they already come with a straw stuck to them so that's one less thing to distribute to each classmate on d-day.

• Put the tetra packs in the fridge the night before d-day. A cooler is also an option.
• On d-day, carry the tetra packs in a cooler (a styrofoam one with a shoulder strap will be ideal since it's light and you will be carrying a lot of things that day and will need your hands for other things).
• For the cooling agent in your cooler, use those plastic cooling things or seal the ice in ziplock bags so the tetra packs don't get wet when the ice melts. Or bring a rag to wipe the floor if your dripping wet tetra packs make a puddle in the classroom.  
• The chicken & spaghetti combo is not available a la carte. You can opt to order buckets of chicken and a la carte spaghetti. Then nicely request if they can pack it in the chicken & spaghetti meal box. McDonald's Tiendesitas agreed to do this for me this year. :) Make sure they note down this special packing instruction on your contract/order form.
• One of Noah's classmates recently did away with the common chicken & spaghetti fare and went for a gigantic pizza. It seems it was a big hit with the kids so this is an option for me next year. Am thinking it will also lessen the things I need to distribute since the kids will likely want to get up and get their own slice from the giant pizza.

5. Think of your staffing plan. Visualize how many things will need to be lugged to the classroom from your car. This will help you decide how many helpers you need. Remember too that you can't bring a battalion of helpers because you not only need space in your car for all the stuff you need to bring, but classrooms aren't big enough to fit too many additional people.

To help, here is a list of things to bring:

• Cooler containing tetra pack drinks (with straws) and cooling agent (ice in ziploc bag)
• the themed cake (& cake pops/cupcakes if you choose this cake plan)
• Cake slicer (& serrated knife)
• Birthday candle/s
• Lighter or box of matches
• Cake boxes (the disposable lunchboxes with lids that fold close)
• Disposable forks to eat the cake with
• Table napkins to accompany the cake
• Large ecobags to carry your food order
• Loot (in lootbag or not)
• Garbage bags so cleaning up is easy
• your camera (make sure battery is fully-charged & memory card has enough space)

There are basically 3 main tasks during the actual celebration: [1] distribute -- first, the food, utensils, napkins & drink; second, the cake, forks & napkins; and third, the loot (but this one, your celebrant can do). [2] slice the cake. [3] take photos of the celebration.

The decision on how many people you need to do the distribute task will depend on the class size and if it is an option for kids to just line up to pick up their meal from you.

And there you have it: all the tips & tricks I've collected from 5 years of school birthdays. Hope this helps make planning & executing your little one's birthday in school simple & easy!

Photos are from annniegirl, polkadotshoppingbag & lushlee. 

Click here for previous posts from the Simple Trick series.

unexpected valentine kilig

I guess it's true that you can find love in the most unexpected places.

Or hearts for that matter. Notice the heart-shaped nostrils of my friend B's new baby Noelle?

I didn't expect that my most kilig moment on Valentine's Day would be when Noah held our front door for me and waited for me to step out before going out himself. He even opened my car door for me! It made me tingly all over [kilig] to have been the recipient of this unexpected gentlemanly gesture.

Hope your Valentine's Day was also happier than you expected it to be!

Photos are all from my Facebook news feed.

Postscript: Noelle, I so didn't expect I wouldn't meet you in person. I was anticipating your birth with so much excitement and trooped to your area, the South, so many times that I cannot believe I didn't get to see for myself those heart-shaped nostrils of yours & everything else adorable about you. I hope you are relishing your love-filled home away from home. After all, as your Mama says, home is now also where you are.

Lego Tales: Homemade Minifigs Part 2

As you know from here, 7-year-old Noah had been repurposing his old minifigures with paper, markers, crayons & double-sided tape to change them into the minifig characters he wanted to play with. Most of his homemade minifigs were limited to paper masks & shirts, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that he also "decorated" Wolverine's pants. I just love Wolverine's claws made out white cardboard!

It has become common for him to prepare his minifig artworks. See the shirts of the Spiderman characters he plans to make.

Though so far, all he's made is Spidey...

... and the Big Lizard - who he probably started to make as a minifig (see the cut-out shirt above?) but decided against due to the villain-minifig's inaccurate proportion vis-a-vis Spiderman.

Love the eyes he drew and glued onto his Lego creation!

While I prefer the shirts he draws himself, I eventually gave in and printed the Batman minifig characters he had been pining for. I used a black & white printer this time so he opted to color in the parts that needed color.

See how he used red & black markers on Harley Quinn and a green marker to color in Poison Ivy's bodysuit?

But even though I saw how he prepped for Harley Quinn, I did not imagine his finished creation would look like this!

He used red, white & black clay to fashion Harley Quinn's jester hat! I was so amazed!

He used clay too for Two-Face's wild hair...

And even on Catwoman's mask...

Notice how he used black clay to cover up her white arms - the only arm pieces he had left after making all the Batman characters (he ran out of hands & legs to finish Black Spiderman)? Here are the rest of the Batman characters...

Even mixed with the actual Batman minifigs he owned (Joker's a remnant of an old keychain, see the hook on his head?), I still think (warning: mommy-goggles on!) Noah's homemade ones look way better than the store-bought ones!

Noah, at 7 years old, had moved beyond just Lego & paper to create his minifig characters. He had evolved to using clay as well. A true artist using mixed media!

My Noah... His creativity never fails to amaze me!

Photos are all my own.

Click here for previous posts from the Lego Tales series. Click here for Part 1 of this Homemade Lego Minifig post.