Inspiration

Said perfectly...

Favors for a "birds + rainbow" themed party -- clever and cute!

The power of bright colors and an attractive font.

A sweet treat for the new grad -- made from Godiva chocolate squares, Reeses PB cups and sour string for the tassle.

Such a classic way to eat ice cream -- and the combinations are endless! I'm thinking of sugar cookies with strawberry cheesecake ice cream! YUM.

Thank you -- someone finally got crafty with marshmallows! Love this idea and perfect for the little chefs in the kitchen.

Can't say I love moccasins, but these are adorable and look comfy -- I'd rock these with a pair of jeans to give my slippas a break!

Something blue...

Happy Friday!

So happy it’s Friday – and so happy that the weekend ahead is not a busy one. Lots of time to breathe, enjoy this beautiful San Diego weather, and spend time with the Hubby, the little one and the big one. :) What I’m looking forward to:

• Sleeping in as late as Ella will allow me to – which means until 7am. I’ll take whatever I can get.
• Early morning grocery shopping with the kids. My incentive to get our boy up early is to tell him he can drive to the store. :)
• A much-needed pedi!
• Having an islander lunch with the fam possibly at Chamorro Grill or Leilani’s in PB.
• Working on our room – finally. I AM DE-TER-MINED.
• A kiddie birthday party for one of my best girlfriend’s son and daughter.
• After watching the Twilight cast on Oprah, I feel excited to get caught up with the Twilight saga by finishing Twilight and watching New Moon.
• Maybe trying out another new recipe from one of my mags.

On a totally random note, I’ve always wanted to buy Ella a pair of skinny jeans. I just think they’re so adorable at such a teeny tiny size! Her grandparents gave her a gift card for BabyGap, and score — skinny jeans were on “sale”.

Tell me these aren't adorable!

Meet My 2 Year Old…and All of Her Personality!

 

 

 

 

Random Thoughts Thursday

• Tried to get the Charice album on the release day at Target only to find they were all sold out! There was a Filipino man standing in the “C” section of the CDs looking hopeless — I want to say he was there to get the Charice album too!
• Bieber Fever — my kids, especially Ella, crack up when I say ‘Bieber Fever’ randomly. But after seeing Justin Bieber on Oprah, I learned that he is a very talented and respectful kid. He seemed humbled by his success and guess what — his Mom takes his phone away too when he gets busted! I can respect any kid who can share that outloud. LOL.
• Ella had an AWESOME day at daycare yesterday. It’s hard when she goes just once a week. But I decided to wrap a gift and say it was from Auntie Sandra (her daycare provider) and had Sandra in on it. We also brought individual packs of mini Oreos (Ella picked it out herself at VONS) to share with her friends in celebration of her birthday. Turns out that mentioning the ‘present from Sandra’ helped control her crying throughout the day — and it was great to hear that she actually enjoyed handing out the treats and even napped with the other kids. My heart was singing with joy yesterday! Let’s see how it goes next week.
• As parents, you go through new stages as your kids grow and get older. My current stage is “spelling everything out” so that Ella doesn’t pick up on what I’m trying say. I’ve been spelling “I-C-E-C-R-E-A-M” a lot lately.
• Our teenage girl starts an every-other-weekend schedule with her biological mother this weekend – I can only pray it goes well, as it appears she has a false idea of what living with her mother is all about with all the shopping and eating out they do together. Money can’t buy love, and I think she will have to learn that lesson for herself.
• WW is going well and both Hubby and I continue to see the numbers go down each week.
• My nephew Shaun will be here any day now — come on, little guy!
• I love being able to dress down here at work — LOVE it.
• Looking forward to some down time this weekend after a very busy last weekend.
• So happy that our herb garden is finally sprouting — I was feeling a little nervous since I do not have a green thumb. Ella loves to water the plants and seems excited about seeing the green show through! Once the basil grows, I can’t wait to make pesto. Mmmm!
• What to do on Memorial Day weekend – no kiddies and a 3 day…foodventure with Hubby maybe?

25 Food Related Things You Didn’t Know About Me

• I don’t really care for JELL-O.
• I don’t like onions BUT I love the onion rings from Burger King.

• I love it when there are slices of Chinese sausage in pansit – the more the merrier!

• I will always love Top Ramen – but only chicken flavored.
• When I was pregnant, I used to crave chocolate milk and eat cereal after dinner a lot.
• I have several magazine subscriptions, many of them relating to food (or family): Food Network, Taste of Home, Kraft Food & Family, Good Housekeeping, Family Circle, Woman’s Day, Oprah, and Red Book.
• My favorite TV shows are Top Chef, Iron Chef, Chopped, Chefs vs. City, Dinner Impossible and Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.
• My kids love my version of Filipino Bistek.
• SPAM or bacon makes everything better.

• I fell in love with my Hubby when I tried his pot roast for the first time.
• I make a mean meatloaf…and I didn’t really grow up eating it.
• My mom and dad will always be the best cooks I have ever known.
• Even when I’m not hungry, I will eat my mother-in-law’s pansit – it’s that good!
• No matter how small the pieces are, I am a champ at picking out garlic and onions.
• My kids are better eaters than me when it comes to vegetables.
• I am a Ninja in the kitchen – ask my Hubby and kids. I can prepare a home-cooked meal, clean all the pots and pans I used, pack the kids lunches and bake a dessert at the same time (while doing laundry).
• My favorite part of the chicken is the wing.

• My Dad and Hubby treat me like a princess when we’re eating crabs – they crack the shell and pick out all the yummy crab meat for me. Spoiled, I know.
• I put fish sauce or shrimp paste on most things, never soy sauce.
• Apples are my favorite fruit, just not the green granny smith ones.

• I prefer my bananas firm with a little green on the peel – if they’re spotting and soft, I probably won’t eat them.
• I love – LOVE grocery shopping!
• Whenever Hubby and I go out to eat and order an appetizer, it is almost always calamari.

• A guilty pleasure of mine is eating salted eggs (the purple ones from the Filipino restaurants) over warm rice. Mmmmm…

• My last supper would be my Mom’s kare-kare over rice and bagoong – stewed oxtail in a peanut sauce with Chinese long beans, egg plant, bok choy. Man, I’m hungry!

Ella’s 2nd Birthday Party

The dust has settled from Ella’s Yo Gabba Gabba party in celebration of her turning TWO. I can’t believe my baby is two years old already. She had a great time, although she was a bit overwhelmed by all the people. But she was a trooper and passed up her usual afternoon nap to hang out with the other kids. Tons of food (still working on the leftovers), YGG inspired games, and it was great catching up with family and friends.

A lot of planning went into her party — my Hubby and I can’t resist all the DIY stuff (more him than me…really…hehe). We LOVE details, which we spent a lot of time on. Here are some photos from the days leading to the party and the actual party itself.

I designed Ella's birthday invite and with a little bit of 'magic' she was able to stand along side DJ Lance Rock and the rest of the Gabba gang! I used Vista Print for the printing. I had an offer for 100 FREE postcards and all I paid was shipping. Sweet deal!

Making the food bean bags for the Party in My Tummy game. We bought felt and beans from Wal-mart (total cost less than $10) and hand-sewed the beanbags ourselves. We drew the faces with a regular ol' Sharpie. Ella had fun stuffing the bags with beans!

I was so impressed (but not at all surprised) by Hubby's artistic skills. He drew and painted Brobee freehand. Later he cut it out for the Party in My Tummy game. Ella loved watching Daddy work on this project, constantly saying to him "Good job, Daddy!" with a thumbs-up. :)

Carrots, chicken, green bean and oranges - yummy, yummy!

Ella tossing a carrot in Brobee's tummy!

My nephew Koa playing too! The kids really enjoyed this game.

We made Toodee, Muno and Foofa cupcakes, and none other than my bro-in-law Mike helped me decorate and mix the frosting colors!

I picked up these mini-tubs of play-doh from the Dollar Tree store. Then I created labels to add a personal touch. These went in the boombox favors!

We ordered the YGG boombox pinata from Party Express.

My niece/goddaughter Ads taking her turn at the pinata!

I ordered these boombox favors from Party Express as well. Inside along with the play-doh were kid-friendly snacks, a rubber ball and sunglasses.

The party wouldn't be complete without DJ Lance Rock - "Lovely love I love my family" (performed by The Roots on YGG)

Ella with DJ Lance Rock

Ella with her awesome big brother and sisters

Throughout the day, I enjoyed snapping away with our DSLR and got some great shots of our kids, nieces, nephews and godkids — beautiful children! :)

Ella Tahalani

Nia

Cassius Makoa

Kylie Alexis

Edmon Cristian

Addison Reese

Ella had a wonderful fun-filled birthday with friends and family. She received a lot of  gifts including summer clothes and toys to add to her brand new kitchen! Thank you all for making Ella’s 2nd birthday a very special one. :)

Mother’s Day Food-venture

For Mother’s Day, we had lunch at Pizzicato’s in Banker’s Hill – a joint that specializes in New York style pizza. I wanted to be somewhat healthy so we started with an arugula/pear/gorgonzola cheese/candied walnut salad. It was delicious and was plenty for all of us to share. It was fresh, tasty and lightly dressed. I loved the sugary candied walnuts for the sweet crunch!

Yummy Salad

Pizzicato had so many pizzas to choose from. We decided to share two small size pizzas, which were bigger than I expected. The first was a molto carne – sliced Italian sausage, pepperoni, prosciutto, tomatoes and black olives. This was really good.

Molto Carne

I wanted to try pizzas that we don’t usually order or even see on menus at other places. So I decided to order the  Al Forno – roasted eggplant, zucchini, sweet peppers, feta and roma tomatoes. This one was delicious too, and great for vegetarians. I would say this one was guilt-free. :)

Al Forno

After lunch, we headed to the older part of Point Loma to a place my cousin recommended – Cupcakes Squared. If you ever decide to try this place out, don’t expect to dine-in because you can’t. The place is tiny! They have one table right outside, but it’s not an attractive area, so you’re better off taking it to go. The cupcakes themselves were very moist and tasty! Hubby had the peanut butter berry, I had the strawberry, our son had lilikoi and little Ella had a mini strawberry cupcake. They are square-shaped, which is totally cute and different from the competition. All the flavors we ordered were fantastic! But again, go for the food, not for the ambiance or location.

Cute Packaging

Dessert!

Mother’s Day

After feeling exhausted from Ella’s birthday festivities the day before, I accepted that we would ALL be feeling exhausted the next day – Mother’s Day. Our original plans didn’t follow through, but that was my choice. And instead, I had a nice relaxing day that included some alone-time, time with my kids and a late coffee date with the Hubby. The hard part about Mother’s Day is not being able to spend time with all of the kids, as they usually spend most of the day with their biological mothers — but if it’s our weekend, they come back home and we can at least spend the evening together. But this is how awesome my kids are. Every year on Mother’s Day, they wake up extra early to prepare breakfast in bed for me. Although I try not to expect anything, I admit that I never get tired of hearing the knock on the door at 8am every Mother’s Day. Hugs, kisses, fruit tarts, a cup of coffee, and cards…it makes them leaving me easier to deal with. :)

One Lucky Mommy

Fruit Tarts

Words From The Heart

A Special Note From Aly (9 yr old)

After breakfast, I was able to sneak out for an hour to do some shopping. That was nice. :) Then Hubby, my stepson and Ella took me to a place called Pizzicato in Banker’s Hill for a late lunch. We grabbed dessert at a place I’ve been wanting to check out called Cupcakes Squared — I’ll save the details for a separate post. Then we ran errands and headed home.

With My Big One & Little One :)

The Men in My Life

Hubby and I were able to sneak out for an hour to grab a Starbucks and just sit and catch up from a very busy weekend. When I got home, he had a sweet card for me — I absolutely loved it!

Front

Inside

When the girls returned from their mother’s house, they hugged me so tight as if they missed being with me that day. That felt really good. Hubby finished off the laundry for me (which was nice) while I sat and enjoyed my gossip magazine! LOL. I couldn’t have asked for a better Mother’s Day. Thank you, family — love you all.

Random Thoughts Thursday

• Was happy to see Ella’s happy face yesterday – we had a simple dinner at our house followed by our family’s favorite Tuxedo cake and vanilla ice cream.
• Ella blew out her own candle – and looked so proud!
• What a week of will power – every day at work has been catered with GOOOOOD food. Staying true to my WW and eating healthier options versus the stuff I’d LIKE to eat. No more temptations at work after this week. Hooray!
• Love the Brobee Party in My Tummy bean bag game Hubby and I put together for Ella’s birthday this weekend – my Hubby is so artistic; I’m always impressed by him. Will post pictures after the party and hopefully we’ll be able to have our party featured on gabbafriends.com. :)
• Looking forward to my next foodventure with J-Dils – she’s on the hunt for the Best Burger in SD. Our next date will probably be at Hodad’s. I can’t wait. :)
• Anyone had  a cake from the Ralphs bakery? You’re missing out if you haven’t. This is where we get our Tuxedo cakes that we just LOVE. After much thought, I opted for the strawberry shortcake cake from Ralphs for Ella’s party.
• Looking forward to a nice relaxing Mother’s Day this Sunday.
• Mom and Dad’s 38th wedding anniversary is tomorrow – I’ve learned so much from them.
• Still need to design my eco-bags – after this weekend for sure.
• I’m happy that our family was complete yesterday for Ella’s birthday – made me realized how much I missed them so.
• Our boy finally has his driver’s license – watch out! :)

Happy 2nd Birthday, Darling Ella!

Two years ago, my whole life changed when I welcomed my daughter Ella into the world. Easy labor, easy delivery, some medical issues followed, but she survived it and is healthy and thriving! She’s funny, fiesty, loving, sassy, loves to sing and dance, color, and cook like her Mommy and Daddy…here is Ella’s big birthday gift!

This is one happy birthday girl!

It was so precious to see her face light up – you’d think I’d seen every smile ever worn on this little girl’s face, but the one she had this morning was unforgettable and melts me everytime I think of it. I am so happy she loved her gift. For weeks she has been saying “My bathday? My bathday?” Well, my darling, your “bathday” is finally here.  I love you more than you can ever imagine – you inspire me to be my  best every day! Happy, happy 2nd  birthday. Mommy loves you.

The tiny 2

And of course, our family's Happy Birthday sign...we plan to keep this sign as long as we can, no matter how torn or tattered. So special to us, and has seen us through many birthdays.