Status: B.U.S.Y

Hello mommy blogger friends! How are you? I missed you all and I missed reading and dropping comments to your posts. Rest assured that I will squeeze some time to read it later. Sorry for the lack of posts for the past few days, I had a lot of things in mind right now. Busy sa life because of some reasons, busy din sa work since we'll be having our Foundation Day celebration for the whole week with series of activities. Busy is an understatement. Chos! Isama pa ang internet connection problem ko na tlaga namang nakakasakit ng ulo .Saklap! :(

 photo source: image from Google 

I never thought my November will be like this, I had a lot of stories to blog pa naman sana from the past weekend.

Hope to be back on regular programming the soonest!

Toy Car, Again.

Continuation of Xian's day out last time.

After his play time, we headed next to Toy Kingdom. While I was busy checking out possible gifts for my 2 godchildren as part of that day's agenda, my two boys are also busy with their own thing. 

 pili,pili..

When they passed the collectible toys section,hubby asked Xian if he want a die-cast toy car again then showed him the design (If you happen to see Xian's toys, 80% of them are toy cars, no wonder he's a big Lightning McQueen fan) Although di pa nya nakikita at nache-check lahat, he promptly said no like. Himala. toy car,NO LIKE? Hmmm...

 

Gone are the days when the little man is much easier to please with just about anything.

Turned out iba ang gusto nya that time. You see at his age, he already have preferences from food to clothes,color, tv show at kung anu-ano pa. Then Xian pointed to the toy he like from the other side.

When I came back,eto na sila.

RC car again?

hubby's asking what's his color preference between yellow and red.

Lovin' yellow.there you go!

As expected, his favorite line nowadays, "look mommy, di-drift ang car!"

 

 

Xian's Fun Time, Play Time!

From our first long weekend, we decided to bring Xian to SM Lipa for a dose of play time since I also need to shop a birthday gift for Heinrich and to my another inaanak who also celebrated his birthday last week.

Malling is incomplete without an arcade visit with my two boys. In short, pag nasa Quantum or Timezone kami, parang dalawa yung anak ko,haha! Aside from Xian's usual carousel ride and other arcade rides, which is paulit-ulit na lang din na picture and pose sa mga favorite rides nya that's why I will not post it here anymore kase baka mauta na kayo.yun at yun pa din.

Anyway, after spending an hour and a half in Quantum, while strolling around we saw this play room called Simple Ride-Jump filled with giant inflatable slides, ball pool and other soft play area and rides, initially after the little man saw few kids of his age screaming with delight, he pulled us towards the fence entrance and there, I know you get the picture.

Their admission rate for 20 minutes is P60, P180 for 1 hour (I forgot to ask the rate of the unlimited playtime)

Simple Ride-Jump!

our happy Xian.actually iniisip na nya strategy nya sa pag-akyat.

What's nice about this is he gets to play with other kids and interacted with them, as in instant friends kagad sila. Xian had a lot of fun going up and down the inflatable slide. Up,down, roll around, jump.Repeat 100x.Walang pagod.

 

O di ba, hindi naman masyadong masaya ang munting binata namin no? Good thing that before he reached his 1 hour time limit, he is already satisfied with his play time, I think 45 minutes lang sya nag-stay. he didn't insist of staying anymore because the place is already jam-packed.

Impromptu Coffee Date

We had an impromptu coffee date last Saturday after my work together with two of my ATF girls, Dialyn and Shiela. Parang last weekend lang magkakasama kami ah.We met up in front of Starbucks (haha, I know) before we headed to Figaro.

Figaro Coffee Company opened 2 weeks ago here in Lipa. Their branch is located in the newly opened building along Ayala Highway near Lipa Medix Hospital. Although a bit small compare to their other branch, they still managed to maintain that perfect relaxing coffee shop ambiance. Very homey.

love the splash of color.

Figaro cakes and pastries.

I was craving for pasta that time so I gave in to pasta Arrabiatta paired with my Blackberry Mocha frost and Blueberry Cheesecake. Yum! Shiela ordered the same thing then for dessert she chose Banana Espresso Loaf while Dialyn tried their new Pasta Ala Carlo (or something like that basta may Carlo sa dulo.hehe.) paired with her caramel frost and skipped dessert.

 you made my tummy happy! :)

 Dialyn's Pasta Ala Carlo

 

My blueberry cheesecake is A-OK!

Shiela's Banana Espresso Loaf

 with the girls.

 I look forward to try the Banana Berry Frost Delight next time! :)

Fri-date Night at Giligan's

Allan and I make sure that we also have some couple time every once in a while, like dining out or watching a movie then window shopping with only the two of us and the best time is of course Friday night before going home. So last Friday, I met up with him at the mall since he came all the way from Manila pa.

It's always a question for us where to eat so we chose Giligan's Island Restaurant and Bar this time. Giligan's is located at the extension building of Robinson's Place Lipa that's why when you're already hungry, you'll have a second thought dining there kase medyo malayo and since we don't have a kulilit kid in tow and di naman kami nagmamadali masyado, kaya go! By the way on our way to Giligan's, we saw youtube sensation Marié Digby at the mall's activity area together with some people after her promo tour. Pretty! :)

 welcome to Giligan's!

We tried their sweet and spicy squid and sizzling chicken teriyaki and plain rice. For our drinks, hubby ordered bottomless iced tea and coke in can for me. (coke again!) By the way,Giligan's uses Lipton iced tea and it tastes really good. We capped our meal with their leche flan. Love it, just the right amount of sweetness and creaminess, perfect pangtanggal umay.

 

It was a nice dining experience, very casual and laid back with only a few customers dining there that time. Bamboo and Ely Buendia's songs played at the background. sakto sa mga trip ni hubby. There are more seats available outside for some al fresco dining and drinking with friends.

'Til our next Fri-date night! ♥

 

ATF Girls Instant Get Together

Long weekend is the best time to bond with the girls since we're all complete attendance. Well almost, since the pregnant Nancy is in Manila that time and she wasn't able to join us again. Like what I've mentioned before here and here, we make it a point to see each other during important occasions in each other's lives.

Our inaanak Heinrich (Shiela's son) celebrated his 2nd birthday intimately last Sunday with only his immediate relatives, ninangs, playmates (our respective kiddo) plus his tito allan (my hubby love who's our ever-reliable driver in times like this since Shiela's place is far from us) as his guests. The couple prepared the usual party foods which includes spaghetti, pansit lomi, lumpiang shanghai,fruity graham cake, ice cream and of course the birthday boy's chocolate cake which we enjoyed a lot.

Xian's toy car buddy,the birthday boy Rich! 
 

T'was hours of endless chikahan for us girls and endless playtime for the kids. Parang kelan lang kami pa yung naglalaro and now yung mga anak na namin.how time flies! (my favorite line here in my blog,you noticed?)

 wala man lang nakangiti sa mga kids, for the ladies, it's the other way around. forgive my "Lobo" eyes, huma-halloween effect eh.

 spell HAPPINESS!

bes Mabs son Arkin and of course my Xian.mag-bff na din dalawang yan.lol.

Xian and Rich,sabi ni Xian "karera daw sila.."

the two youngest baby in the group, Arkin and Hershie (Heinrich's sister)

Happy birthday again Heinrich, may Papa Jesus bless you with all the love and happiness. May you grow up to be the fine young man your mom and dad wants you to be, may all your dreams come true, same thing with your little sister Hershie. When you're all grown up, I know that you, Xian, Arkin, Hershie, Miguel (Nancy's soon to be born son) plus the future ATF babies will all be friends just like us. Always remember that we love you so much! kisses! 

 ♥ Ninang Joan

 

 

Moment with Granny

Last November 1,we visited our dearly departed great grandmother on my mother's side at St. Mary's Cemetery in my hometown. It is also an important time for our family to spend time together with the memory of our loving Nanay Anda.

SHORT KWENTO ABOUT MY NANAY ANDA: I'm really close to her even though I'm already her first apo sa tuhod since mama is her apo. I am a lola's girl. I grew up with her and I spent 24 years of my life living with her.the love and care she showered me during those years,it's more than enough. 

She has three children, she was widowed at the age of 25 because her husband is a soldier during the World War 2 and after her husband's death, she decided not to marry again and became the sole provider of her three little children that time - my lolo Vic as the eldest, followed by lolo Jorge (the father of mama) and my Inay Ludy (the one I mentioned here) as the youngest and only girl. Nanay Anda was one of the most loving, caring and kind-hearted woman I knew. Mahal na mahal nya kaming lahat na apo nya. All of us,her apo sa tuhod call her "Granny" everytime naglalambing kami.Cool na cool. I love her happy disposition, endearing traits and everytime she tell us stories,especially her very own love story with the soldier lolo Anastacio. very classic kind of love. She like hubby Allan for me even before, who's still my bf then and she knew that we'll end up together. Unfortunately, she's not with us anymore when we got married since she died last 2007 at the age of 90 while Allan and I got married last 2008. She didn't see Xian at all. I know she'll love him like the way she loved me, or I guess MORE. When I lost her, God gave me Xian. if there's one thing that I'm sure of, she's happy watching over my family and I know that she's proud of me because the little girl back then is now a mommy and a wife. If only she's still here with us right now, life is perfect for me.

I remember I had a very long blog entry after Nanay Anda's death based on my memories and moments shared with her. I posted it in my friendship account, too bad di ko naretrieve when friendster closed.tsk,tsk! 

Moving forward, even though she's gone, Allan and I make sure that in our own little way, Xian will get to know our "Nanay Anda" and tell stories about her.


Here are just some of the little man's snapshots during our visit.

staring intently at Nanay Anda's resting place

My mag-ama's moment. ako na ang OP! :D

  

eto pa..

 GROSS SHOT.Xian is actually trying to kiss hubby on the nose, ang pangit lang ng kinalabasan.

 Snack time.

 ume-Angry Bird Xian with his kuya Carlo.

We went there around 9:00 AM together with my other family members but hubby, me and Xian left the cemetery around 1:00 PM since we also went to hubby's hometown to visit my father-in-law as well as hubby's departed relatives. We came back at St. Mary's Cemetery around 5 PM and headed home at exactly 7:00 PM although I missed catching up with my other cousins while we're away.

We'll be back over the weekend to visit granny again.