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!

Simple Trick: Must-Teach Piano Piece

Recently, Noah dug up his old toy piano (you know, those little pianos you can buy from the toy store). He was banging at it noisily (so not music to my ears - in fact, cannot be considered music, by any definition!) so I decided to teach him to play a simple song.

I taught him to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

CC GG AA G FF EE DD C

GG FF EE D GG FF EE D

CC GG AA G FF EE DD C (you can opt to replace D with G, it's just simpler to use D)

Here's why it's the best piano piece to teach your young child:

1. It only uses a total of 6 keys. So it works even on the smallest of toy pianos.

2. It repeats the GG FF EE DD pattern 4 times throughout the song. So it's easy for a little child to remember!

3. The GG FF EE DD pattern is so simple because it just goes down the scale 1 key at a time (vs. skipping keys all over the keyboard).

4. And best of all, when he gets tired of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, it works with Baa Baa Black Sheep and the Alphabet Song as well! So imagine the sense of accomplishment of your little pianist who can suddently play 3 whole songs!!!

Baa Baa Black Sheep

CC GG AAAA G FF EE DD C

GGG FFF EEE D GGG FFFF EEE D

CC GG AAAA G FF EE DD C (again, you can replace D with G)

The Alphabet Song

CC GG AA G FF EE DDDD C

GG F EE D GGG F EE D

CC GG AA G FF EE DD C (again, you can replace D with G)

Here's Noah playing 1 of his 3 piano pieces.

Have fun watching your child turn into a proud pianist!

Photos are my own, edited via pixlr, and from imjustsaying.

Click here for previous posts from the Simple Trick series.

Today, I am loving...

We've lived in our house for over 7 years and I still haven't decided on our house-number's design. Today, I am loving... the idea of an unexpected look for a house number - whether it be by stenciling it on a planter like in the photo above or by positioning it on an unusual spot of your front door like this one...

Or on pumpkins! Haha! (Remember my pumpkin-carving experience here?)

I even like that that this house number is spelled out!

Problem is, none of these ideas will work on my house. 1 The platform from our gate to the street is an incline so a planter would slide down. 2 We are a gated house so that idea of the numbers on the bottom part of our front door will not work. 3 Pumpkins? Okay, that doesn't need explanation. 4 Our street is a 3-block-long cul-de-sac, so houses are counted by lot & block numbers. It will be a whole paragraph to spell it out!

Hmmm... I wonder what unusual house number will work in my house? Ideas, anyone?

Though I haven't thought up one for my house yet, today, I am loving... the idea of an unexpected house number. After all, it's the first thing a visitor sees of your house.

Photos from annnniegirl, here and here.

Click here for previous posts from the Today, I Am Loving... series.

three of a kind

My friends K, C and I have very different fashion styles. K's style is edgy, structured and sleek. She wears a lot of blacks & neutrals - hardly ever in colors or patterns. C's style is romantic & feminine. She loves flouncy floral dresses and bows. And I guess I'm somewhere in between (K calls it creative classics). I go for effortless, classic shapes made fashion-forward with unusual detail - whether it be a large graphic print on a dress or my latest color fixation.

We're lucky we have such different styles because we work in the same office, in the same department, so the three of us going to work in the exact same clothes would be really weird (umm, uniform?)!

Since we shop together a lot, two of us would inevitably end up buying the same thing (because how can one not share a steal?). But in our years of shopping sprees, never did all three of us buy the exact same thing... Until two particular shopping trips to Zara this year.

It started out with a pair (correction, 3 pairs) of this mixed-color shoe.

Initially, we would text each other early in the morning if we were wearing what we started to call "our shoes" that day. But two weeks ago, the three of us got yet another pair of mixed-color shoes (which makes the quick text in the morning difficult since you have to say which pair you're talking about).

Seriously, how could any of us resist this yellow, python, black and tan shoe? Seriously!

Then we each got a different color of this pretty top with multiple peepholes along the collar.

Since we've relaxed on the morning warning texts, am not sure how big the chance is that all three of us will wear the exact same thing to work. Then again, I'm not worried. Our styles (and shapes, haha!) are so different, I'm sure the exact same thing will look very different on each of us.

Photos from annnniegirl and zara.

Click here for the first time I posted about these mixed-color shoes. And yes, the yellow python one was just in my pretend closet at that time. Not anymore! :)

a pink lake

Can you believe this is an actual lake? This pretty strawberry-milkshake-looking pink lake is Lake Retba in Senegal. Isn't it amazing?

The lake's extremely high salt content (1.5 times higher than the Dead Sea!) promotes the growth of a red microorganism that colors the water into this beautiful pink.

Salt collectors work long hours to harvest the salt. Before going into the water though, they have to coat their skin with shea butter for protection.

Here, microbiologist Bernard Oliver holds up a sample of the pink water.

Looks like pink grapefruit juice, right?

Isn't it so dramatic how the pink water meets the white shore? Such a majestic sight!

First discovered via blackeiffel. Photos from here, here and here.

Click here for a previous post on other pink things.