Happy Birthday Jaja!

Justine 'Jaja' is Summer's cousin. She turned 3 on Tuesday and celebrated it with the family yesterday, July 29 at her Lola's house in Paranaque.

It was a simple party but with great food. We were served pata ham, spaghetti, chicken lollipops, mojos, pizza, and ice monster style dessert.

I learned from Tita Adette how to do a home-made pizza using an electric health grill. Yummy pa kasi it is thin crust and crispy just like Shakey's. I also learned from Ting how to do a home-made ice monster - just use vanilla ice cream, slices of banana and mango, marshmallows, chocolate syrup, sugar, crushed ice and evaporated milk, voila! Your do-it-yourself ice monster!

Bagong recipes na naman, kailan kaya magagawa?

Mall of Asia

We brought the Canadians to the Mall of Asia - a theme park for shopaholics hehehe.

Tita Jack and Tita Eli just loves to shop. They were amazed how great shopping malls are here in the Philippines. Dami daw choices at ang mumura.

We arrived at the mall before 11am, shopped around the Filipinana section of SM for pasalubong and had lunch at La mesa grill. Thank you Tita Jack for the lunch! We had pritson! So sinful yet so yummy!

The twins and Joshua went ice skating and played at the arcade while the mommies went shopping more. We went home a little past 6pm. I was able to buy stuff na rin for myself. Kaka-guilty, wala ako nabili for Omar (wala kasi syang size sa havaianas) and Summer (dami nya kasi pasalubong from Canada). Ang gastos! Puno na ang compartment ng shopping bags, pagod at gutom na.

Tita Jack will still go back one more time before she go home. Di pa kasi nalibot lahat.

Healthy Shabu Shabu

We have guests from Canada.

Tito Boyet's family arrived first week of July while Tita Jack and her twins arrived last night. We brought them to PowerPlant Mall for dinner.

They feasted over the fruit stand buying all the tropical fruits they can buy. They bought atis and lanzones.

We had dinner at Shabu Shabu - the official restaurant of the family. This is my Dad's favorite restaurant. Omar, having high blood and high in cholesterol, is good to eat here too.

It used to be Mini Shabu Shabu, but now they changed it to Healthy Shabu Shabu - new management din daw. So terminated na discount card namin. Still, we had fun. The Canadians enjoyed being creative cooking their dinner.

Karcraft turns 1

We survived our first year!

Karcraft turned 1year yesterday, July 19, 2007.

Omar, I and Summer hit the road early yesterday. We went to Farmers to do some shopping for our Thanksgiving Lunch for our staff and had breakfast there. Omar brought us to the shop and left for Pampanga and Bulacan for the other food.

For our Thanksgiving lunch, we had tinolang halaan, yummy adobo of Mama, inihaw na boneless bangus, fried and calderettang itik from our supplier, and Paradise specialty 'pinakbet'. Some friends and my inlaws dropped by to share the event with us.Mommy sent a bilao overflowing of pancit, a supplier gave puto and kutsinta, Mama brought cassava cake and we served them at merienda. The insurance agents gave us a cake. Summer sang 'happy birthday karcraft' and blew the candle. She refused to blow the cake without his Papa by her side. Oo nga naman, birthday din ni papa ang birthday ng karcraft.We then went to Twin Hearts to hear mass as our way of thanking God for helping us survived our first year and to ask for more strength and guidance to help us fight our ways to the coming years.

Thank you Po!

Ms. Saigon

An authentic Vietnamese dress from Vietnam from Ninang Jenny's friend:Thank you Tita Mia!

Tito Ben in Manila

Tito Ben, from Canada, arrived in Manila last week to visit his sick brother in Baguio. He'll be staying here in the country for 10 days only.

He went back to Manila 2days before his flight back to Canada. Daddy toured him around in their projects for the rest of his stay here and was able to sneak in a coffee at Starbucks for him at Magallanes. This is the only photo opportunity we had with him.Sadly, his brother died a day before his flight back and cannot go back to Baguio anymore.

Harry Potter

We saw Harry Potter yesterday with Summer.

It was her second time in a theater but her first to watch a movie. I'm not sorry I brought her even if it was hard and she did not watch at all.

Good thing we reserved seats at sureseats.com for the line was very long. It wasn't easy bringing Summer in the movie - there were times she would say her prayers (madilim kasi akala nya matutulog na), she would tap her cousins' heads who were sitting right in front of us, sing happy birthday and makulay ang buhay (must be out of boredom), say she would go pee or poo just to be able to go out (buti na lang sinuotan ko ng diapers). But overall, I found her okay for a first-timer. She did not cry or throw a tantrum.

Sa susunod kasi, dapat sa pang toddler na movie ko sya dalhin hehehe.

Birthdays! Birthdays!

Happy birthday Kuya Olejoe!

Kuya olejoe treated us for lunch and pm snack. We had binagoongan, inihaw na tilapia and liempo, nilagang okra and talong for lunch. For snacks, we had pancit and cake.


Happy birthday Paeng!

Paeng treated us for a pizza at Yellow Cab. We had 2 pizzas, spaghetti, spicy chicken pasta, hotwings, and ice cream. So yummy!Thank you for the treats! Happy birthday!

Pamamanhikan

We went to Carla's (my BIL Odie's girlfriend) house at Antipolo for pamamanhikan. The whole family of Reantaso came without the apos, Lolo Fidel, Tito Etoy, and Tito Tany and Tita Susan.We brought lots of food - salad, pasta, crab, prawns, mechado, chicken, mango and buko pandan. We had prayers for Odie and Carla, dinner, with Papa asking permission from Carla's parents for Odie to wed Carla, wishes for Carla and Odie - iyakan, and blessing from Tito Ito and Tita Cata - Carla's parents.They have a nice house with antique furnitures at Antipolo. The place was cozy and fresh with lots of trees surrounding the area and not a house next to theirs. Their family was funny too and loud. They even gave away books of Purpose Driven Life to everyone who attended the Pamanhikan.It will be a Christian wedding on November. We are Catholic while Carla's family are Christians.

A week after...

A week after, my mom brought Summer to Jollibee - ang daming chaperone! Kuya's family, me and Omar, and Jenny.

It so happened that there was a birthday party going on and Jollibee was there. This time, Summer waved hi and did not even cry when Jollibee approached her and had their picture taken peacefully. Though, di pa rin sya bumaba sa pagkakandong nya sa Papa nya. Still, it was an improvement.I'm a brave girl after all.

Jollibee

Summer loves Jollibee! - or so I thought! I knew because she loves her Jollibee VCDs.

We attended Luis' 2nd birthday party at Jollibee. I was so excited for it will be Summer's first time to meet her favorite - Jollibee!But to my surprise, she was so scared to the mascot! She hugged her Papa tightly and refused to be with me since she knew I will bring her to Jollibee.
The usual, she did not join with the games, ate a little, and had fun playing at the playground with her cousin, Jaja. Mas nageenjoy anak ko sa debut kesa sa kiddie parties. Should I be worried? hehehe

First Household Chore

This is Summer's first household chore - removing Papa's socks after work.