I have been tagged! (first time ever!)

Hi Sujee! Thanks for the tag.

Rule #1 Copy all the links below and replace a single link under the appropriate alphabet. If your domain name, or even the title of your blog, starts with an ”A,” you’d replace the link under that alphabet and put the replaced link at the bottom. Also, don’t forget to credit the tagger, or where you got the list from, at the end of the list with a full URL of the post so that a pingback gets generated.

A alwaysbcmom.com

B because life is fun

C caffeine-overload.com

D dzunejenn.blogspot.com

E enjoyingtheride-jenn.blogspot.com

F forumfinder.net

G gotic-peach.net

H happykeg.com

I ipentimento.com

J juliesjournal.com

K kabalyero.com

L leahjoseph.com <

M michmagbag.com

N notjustmama.net

O originalmx5.net

P patrickdevivo.com

Q qweddings.com

R rantingsofawoman.blogspot.com

S sujeesarmiento.blogspot.com

T the-working-mom.blogspot.com

U utada-online.net

V valmg.com

W wickedbabylon.com

X xaviermedia.com

Y yimto.com

Z zbudapest.com

Replaced Link:delusionsofgrandeur.com

Previous Tagger: http://www.sujeesarmiento.blogspot.com

Rule #2 You now have to “tag” at least five people and encourage them to participate so that this thing spreads like a virus. Remember, though, that not everyone’s into these kinds of things, so don’t be upset if they don’t participate. Just simply replace your tag. Remember to tag blogs only and no pornographic ones as we do want to keep the integrity as a blogging community. TIP: Tag your frequent EntreCard droppers via its messaging system.

I am tagging:

1. Abi

2. Anna

3. Rocks

4. Mec

5. Jessie/Dyes

Anne's Red Riding Hood Potrait

This still has some sort of connection to Anne’s birthday party.

I was thinking, how Anne’s is growing up fast and I know in a few months she will outgrow her Red Riding Hood costume. During her birthday celebration, she really didn’t have a portrait in it. So I know I need to have her portrait taken, the question was where? And how?

Though part of my work is taking photos, I don’t want to be the one to take her portrait, because I don’t want to take chances he he. But I ended up, with hubby’s nudging, asking why don’t I take Anne’s portrait.

With Anne’s gear and stuff, we head on to my office on the day of my birthday. My birthday last year (December 20) fell on a weekday and I took the day off though I know that it is one of the busiest day in school, December is Foundation month celebration for Letran so on my birthday, several activities were on schedule, the Bingo Socials and the Arriba Fest. So as soon as I arrived, I prepared Anne, changed into her costume and then, there was my boss, calling me for something that needs my immediate attention (I guess it was to design something, a presentation for the Christmas party which will be the next day)

Good thing that ninong Davy was around. He ended up taking Anne’s portrait. I was so happy with the output! I never thought that Davy has such patience with little kids! The only regret I have here is that when I returned the photo session was finished and we were not able to have some family photos taken.

Anne’s photos can be seen here.

Anne's Red Birthday

I started preparing for Anne’s birthday about six (6) months before. Actually, on and off in planning because I was too busy with other stuff. 

At first I was eyeing a Christmas themed party for Anne, I consulted this with n@wie sisters and a lot has shared their ideas and experiences on a Christmas themed party. Since Anne’s birthday is on the Christmas month I was really sold out with the idea. Among the ones who was really a big help; sharing her ideas and all is Jhoanne Paris Henson-Alon . She is really one creative person! 

I was thinking of a Santa costume for Anne. When I mentioned this to my Tita who will sew Anne’s Santa costume. She suggested why not Little Red Riding Hood instead. So when I mentioned this to Jhoanne she said that it’ll be a very good idea. 

My reference and ideas I got from the Internet and ofcourse from n@w.

Here goes our rating. In a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest rating.

INVITATIONS, GIFT TAGS. NAMETAGS, GUEST SHEETS, TARPAULIN: DIY
RATE: 10 (Do I need to rate myself? He he syempre )

Preferably, I want invitations to be made by someone else. I feel like it’s always myself who makes it when it comes to things like this. But due to time and budget constraints I have to contend myself with my DIY stuff.

I did it on Adobe Photoshop using photos of Anne, which Dzune and I took over the months. Have it printed at Photoline at Robinsons Place. 

Guests say it was beautiful and they love it that they say that they are keeping it because of Anne’s photos. Some of our guests to whom I just sent the invites via email kept requesting I give them the actual copy on the day of the party.

For the guest sheets I did this last minute, as in on the morning of the party. I remembered that I wanted to have some messages from the guests like what we did during our wedding so I can show it to Anne when she grows up. My mistake is that I had it printed at Kodak and the paper that they use is glossy so guests had hard time writing on it. 

BALLOONS: Jhoanne Paris Henson-Alon
RATE: 10

Jhoanne is such a dynamic woman which lots of really creative ideas in her head! The moment I mentioned Anne’s theme for the party she immediately had in mind an idea of what to use for the balloons, which is red and gold stars. The result was really really creative. Everyone was asking if they can take home the centerpieces and I don’t really care if you call me “madamot” but I don’t want to allow it! He he I want it all for myself to display around the house since it’s Christmas time and balloons were shaped into a Christmas tree! Really unique! 

CAKE: Quintbelle’s
RATE: 10

The cake was truly a work of art! Quintbelles really know the craft of cake making and they sure know what they are doing and they do it good!!

I came to know about Quintbelle’s through the n@wies Elaine and I communicated via email and then I told Elaine what I wanted about Anne’s cake. At first Elaine was hesitant in accepting my cake order since they already had another client for December 15, but she told me that if it will be just a simple cake they might accept my order so I went over their multiply site and the “Isabelle cake” caught my attention. It has a girl sitting on top of a painted cake. I just asked Elaine to make a hood for the girl since the theme for the party is Red Riding Hood.

I am very thankful to Elaine because she accommodated my order though they already have another booking for that day. 

Everyone was asking where did I have the cake made since they don’t often see such cakes at birthdays! My family really enjoyed the cake; it was chocolate and really moist. I love the cupcakes maybe because of the icing; I should have gotten the bigger ones.

I am really happy with Anne’s cake the only problem we realized was when it was time to blow the candle, there was no candle with the cake. I really wasn’t able to ask Elaine about it, if it was included or not, but it was a minor problem and we were able to solve it by buying one at Robinsons. Though because it was Christmas time, Christmas rush I had to fall in a long line to buy the candle, Goldilocks was not selling candles not unless you buy a cake from them.

VENUE: Don Henricos Ermita (across Robinsons Place Manila)
RATING:
PLACE: 7
FOOD: 10

We decided on Don Henricos mainly because of two things: - it was conveniently located beside a mall. Parking won’t be a problem since you can park at the mall and valet parking is available I believe at Don Henricos and the second reason is the food. We want our guests to enjoy the food since some of them will be traveling really far. 

I rate the place 7 because though the place is good, the ambiance good, I don’t know if we just have too many guests (about 50 adults and 20 kids) but the place is quite small, and the air conditioning was poor. My mom kept saying “mainit” (hot) and it was. By the way, the resto was still accepting walk-in costumers while the party is going on so some of the places were closed, they have these wood panels which they put as dividers between the party area and the places for their walk-in clients.

But all the guests kept raving how good the food was! We chose the special buffet package. As the manager suggested to me, I didn’t order plated food for the kids, they can just get from the buffet and it was ok I guess, we ordered for about 60 persons.

Don Henricos wasn’t that strict at all, when I told them that I have a puppet show and I’d be bringing in my own loot bags they allowed it, in other venues they are quite strict that you avail from them the party amenities.

PUPPET SHOW: c/o Jhoanne Paris Henson-Alon
RATE: 10

The puppet show was a sure hit to everyone! 

I guess it’s been a long time since the guests had seen a puppet show that’s why they loved it.

It was Jhoanne who suggested we do the puppet show instead of the magician since there is a red riding hood show. I chose 3 shows, alphabet, red riding hood and Christmas wish. 

HOST: c/o Jhoanne Paris Henson-Alon
RATE: 8

Sorry but I forgot the name of the host. Well, her diction was good and she was able to deliver the games I wanted but I don’t know if it was the sound system of Don Henricos or something else, she lacks the energy that I was expecting from a host.

COSTUME: Mama Cora
RATE: 10

I got the style from the Internet, I just printed it and given it to my Tita and she was able to copy it exactly the way I wanted it. 

LOOTBAGS AND CONTENTS: Bought everything from DIVI

I bought some translucent bags in colors red and green with gold designs from Divi and then bought candies, yoyos, pencils, erasers, and crayons and assembled it all.

The coloring books I got the idea from fellow n@wie Vima it is from her I got the inspiration to prepare for Anne’s party I got the coloring book idea from her. I got the pages from the Internet then printed one clear copy and then had it photocopied and then got a long reach staple, I bought some red colored board and then printed red riding hood stickers and placed it in front of the coloring books. I hope the kids enjoyed coloring it.

PHOTOS: Rio Rico Rojas (0917-8307902)
RATE: 10

I’ve known Rico as a student. In their photo class, he is one of the few who works really hard inside the dark room to process his photos and that class is where he got hooked into photography (I guess.) 

Taking photos for Anne’s party is a gift from Rico (it’s pay back time, remember when I used to wait up for you guys to finish in the darkroom so I can go home. He he) 

I was satisfied with Rico’s photos. He took photos of the guests and our families pictures as well.

CHOCO FOUNTAIN: HUEY YING RESTAURANT c/o Kleng

No rating for this, it’s priceless since my friend loaned me their choco fountain, bought the chocolates from the Chocolate Factory then Kleng asked their staff to prepare it then I asked my good friend Shane to pick it up from Macapagal. I bought bread sticks and marshmallows from the grocery then assembled it at the venue.

The choco fountain is for rent by the way.

It was tiring but it was sure fun! And if you’ll ask me if I will do it over again, sure I will, but let me pray first that I will have the budget so I can do it over again and the energy. 

I am really thankful for having Jhoanne she was a great help. She was hands-on with the party and her creativity really is the reason why Anne’s party was unique and we really got a lot of compliments for the balloons and the puppet show. Thankful also for the n@w community, all the sisters there are helpful in sharing their ideas. If not for them I wouldn’t be able to come up with a nice party.

Hey sis Jhoanne! Hope you never get tired with what you do. You surely are an inspiration! Thanks so much!

More photos can be seen here.

Back track to the year that was…

Let me make up for the year that I haven’t been posting.

Let me give you and overview of what our little family have been up to for the past year, 2007. Let me begin, December 2006 when the source of all the “busy-ness” arrived in our lives.

December 10, 2006

Gave birth via c-section after 12 hours in labor at Chinese General Hospital. Baby Girl Lao arrived in this world, 6.15 lbs.

December 12, 2006

This is the first time I was able to see our baby girl, she was brought to my room from the nursery because we were discharged that day. We went home and ate Pancit Malabon and puto to celebrate!

December 13, 2006

First day at home, among the first ones who came to see Anne was Ate Marlene and Therese. This is also the day I first gave Anne a bath.

December 20, 2006

Happy birthday brand new mom!

The day I turned 30 years old. Anne is 10 days old. Being a mom is foreign to me but I am starting to get the hang of it, my only problem is her world is up side down my baby is awake all night and sleeps all day! So during these days when I felt like a zombie! Because I was up all night. Its like when i see the sky turning black, fear eats me. And in my mind I’m saying “eto na naman kami…” (Here we go again)

My birthday was no different. I was up until 5am or 6am. Dzune left early to attend Letran’s annual Christmas party I was asleep practically all morning. When Dzune arrived in the afternoon, we cooked spaghetti. My family came, as well as Nino Boy and Therese.

December 25, 2006

Since Anne is only a few days old, we decided to stay at Tondo to celebrate Christmas with my in-laws, Anne was so small then. A simple dinner was prepared by Nanay and we all ate together at midnight.

December 31, 2006

Again New Year was with Lolo Rene and Lola Babes at Tondo. Not much activity for us since Anne was so small we stayed inside the guest room all the time with the air conditioning to avoid hearing the fireworks and the snow. Therese and Dave was also with us.

January

A brand new year!

On the 10th Anne turned a month old, which we celebrated with Pancit and chicken, prepared by Lola Babes. There was also cake brought by Mama Doyet.

On the 14th Tatay and Ninong Davy that Anne must be christened! So when Dzune arrived home on the 12th, which is a Friday, I was informed that Anne will be christened on Sunday at the Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary-Binondo Chinese Parish and we also have a reservation at Presidents Restaurant in Binondo for the reception.

So they snatched me the chance of preparing invitations, souvenirs. By the next day I was busy sending SMS to the ninangs and ninongs and our other friends. Good thing most of the Ninangs and Ninongs confirmed their attendance some of my friends have prior commitments like Ninang Miel but thankfully they cancelled their prior appointments to attend the christening.

January 14, 2007

Anne’s dress was borrowed from Ate Therese. Souvenirs were angel figurines from Divi, no tags. Ninong Davy, Ninong Gerard and Mama Doyet using their trusted digital cameras took photos. Only a handful came, mostly relatives and closest friends, Ninong Richard arrived all the way from Dipolog!

We only reserved 3 tables at the Presidents and it was just enough. The menu was chosen none other than Ninong Davy and guests was saying that the food was great.

It was around this time that Anne started having a normal sleeping pattern. She was sleeping at night waking up every three hours for her milk.

By the way, I don’t know if I am abnormal but my milk never really flowed and I never had a chance to breastfeed Anne, and up to now I still look at this as my failure.

February

Around February I was alone taking care of Anne, Dzune went back to the office. On Valentines, I dressed up Anne in a pretty yellow dress and visited Lolo Babes and Lolo Rene, my Mom arrived in the afternoon and though we don’t have any flowers for them, Anne was enough gift for them. We only stayed home that day and enjoyed dinner I think, I prepared.

On the 19th of February, I reported back to work, and here I realized, I understand most of my friends who kept saying they miss their children when they go to work. I thought it was exaggeration, but when I became a Mom, well, I realized how true it is. I miss Baby Anne so much I almost fly home as soon as it’s 5pm.

February 25, 2007

This is the first time we took Anne out. We went to Malate Catholic Church to attend the christening of Cheska, she is the daughter of our good friend, Grace and Jensen. Reception was held at Huey Ying, Ninang Kleng’s resto at Macapagal Seaside. Then for the first time, we took Anne to a place, which I have known as home, we went home to Taguig so we can fetch Lola Rose.

March 10, 2007

Anne turned 3 months today and today, she also turned on her tummy all by herself! Today we also celebrate Papa Jay’s birthday. Pamamanhikan was also scheduled on this day, so in the afternoon, the family fetched us and we went to Mama Chacha’s house at San Andres and then to dinner at Huey Ying Restaurant. Papa Jay’s wedding is scheduled October 10 of the same year.

April, May passed on without so much happenings, Anne continued to thrive as she grows. 

A new building was constructed at the back of our apartment blocking the source of ventilation and since it was summer, it was really hot. My mom kept complaining so the air-condition was turned on almost the entire day. 

On June we finally came to a decision that we need to stop renting, we figured that the money we spend on renting we could spend on somewhere else. Like for Anne’s formula and diapers so on the same month we gave notice to our landlady that we are moving out by the end of the month. It was also on the same month that Anne's two front teeth came out.

Moving was painful. I felt sentimental, it is our home, it is the first place where Anne came home to and she will never remember it.

July, we moved out and stayed with my Mom in Taguig. Thanks to some generous persons, the construction of our house was started. It is also on the same month that we celebrated Tatay's birthday and this is the first time Anne celebrated it with her Tatay since the previous year she was still inside Nanay's tummy. 

We celebrated it at the house in Balut.

On August, we celebrated Dave (Anne's cousin, they were born four months apart) first birthday. On the very same day the latest addition to the Lao Clan was born, Aurora Kimly or Rory daughter of Albert and Karie. 

Our family has been so much blessed with babies on this year, on September Marie was born, she is the youngest sibling of Therese and Dave. Too bad that Yayen miscarried, her baby was supposed to be born on October.

For some months Dzune and I and Anne was living apart. Anne and I were staying at Taguig with Lola Rose and Dzune was staying with in laws at their house in Balut. Around the end of September, our house was almost livable, Our target completion was originally October in time for Jay and Cha’s wedding, we were saying that as soon they started living with us we must be comfortably staying at our house. But due to some concerns, we were really not able to meet this deadline.

October 10, 2007

Jay and Cha’s wedding. Theirs is a Christian wedding, Anne is so little to play a role of a flower girl but this never stopped her from changing her outfit three times, her dresses was tailor made by my Tita who made the bridesmaids dresses during our wedding (Mama Cora).

Wedding was at a church in UN Avenue and reception was at Teatrillo in Intramuros.

Otober 12 to 16, 2007

It’s our first family outing!

We decided to join Jay and Chacha in their honeymoon. Destination: Puerto Princesa Palawan. Because Jensen’s family was also there! We flew via Cebu Pacific. We availed of their Piso-Fare promo then we stayed at Niko’s Cabanas , which my brothers and sister enjoyed immensely because of the swimming pool.

The place was really nice and conveniently located near Jensen and Grace’s home. Jensen’s family was so accommodating and they took us almost everywhere, we skipped the Underground River Tour because we had two babies (Cheska and Anne) with us. What we love most was the Island Hopping tour and the dinner we had at Ka Lui. Food was great! And if given the chance we would tour Palawan again.

When we came back, now we must get to business.

Anne’s birthday was in a few months and it was my major project.

Thanks to n@w which was a big help during my preparation for Anne’s first birthday party celebration. I met Jhoanne Paris and thanks to her and her brilliant ideas that I was able to prepare a nice party for Anne!

October 31, 2007

Anne goes to her first Halloween activity, Trick or Treat!

But the Glorietta blast was still fresh during these times so the remedy, we brought Anne to go trick or treating at Toyota Pasong Tamo with Mama Doyet.

Mama Doyet, of course bought her costume, the angel in her red devil costume. My mom and Mama Doyet were of course excited since its Anne’s first time to go to a Halloween activity.

And much to our surprise, Anne was called third place during the awarding for the Best in Costume. Lucky Baby!


 

December 10, 2007

Anne turns 1!

On the day of her birthday was a Monday, we were at the house in Balut, in the afternoon we attended Mass at San Rafael’s Parish. There was pancit and cake for Anne courtesy of Tita Rebie at home. The later that night we were fetch by Papa jeff and Lola Rose.

We celebrated Anne’s birthday at Don Henricos in front of Robinsons Place in Ermita. Her birthday celebration will be a different entry.

The Weekend

Towards the end of the week I had this splitting headache and on Thursday morning I was down, so it was a no work day for me, Baby Anne maybe thought that I am in for the day to take care of her, so there I was lying on the floor trying to get some sleep, because I was thinking that if I sleep this headache off, it’ll be gone but to no avail, Anne keep getting my hand, I assume she wants me to feed her because she was trying to put her mouth in my hand, my poor baby, Nanay was at home for the day but cannot take care of her. Oh well, it took a massage from our neighborhood “manghihilot” to take off the headache and by the afternoon the headache was quite gone and I was able to get some chores done.

It was a busy weekend.

….busy learning new things.

I attended a beginner’s course on Adobe After Effects CS3 at PCCI (Philippine Center for Creative Imaging). So there I was learning to do effects for video with the pro, no other than Robert Quilao himself as the instructor. It was interesting seeing how those effects are made using this software. I know I will be needing time to learn this new software, so I need to use it and I have some ideas in mind, as a beginners it still boggles my mind on how will I do things and I hope and pray that sometime this week I will be able to come up with even a simple “reel” which I myself did.

Oh by the way, what interests me most is that Robert together with some guys are coming up with an all digital animation film titled “Dayo” and whew the stuff is quite something! And I am looking forward to seeing it in theaters come December of this year so I can say “the guy who directed that taught me my basic know how on after effects!” ha ha!

Check out their site: dayo movie

The Return of the Come Back!

Getting back on the track of blogging will be quite a feat. I have to re-learn the ropes of blogging (again) and of course there’s also the html codes and all. I haven’t been bloggin’ for quite some time (ok, I don’t have even a single entry for 2007)

You see my life for the past year has been quite rewarding, specifically, my life as a mother is pretty rewarding, thanks to my lovely lil' girl specially now that she has started to talk and can now call me “Nana” (Nanay- Mother) though she learned to say “Tata” (Tatay-Father) first.

When and How did you know...

... that you want to spend the rest of your life with your spouse? That he/she is THE ONE?

As Mec said, she is pre-empting the mushiness of Valentines. Oh well, I guess this is the start of my Return of the come-back to blogging…

Interesting…How did you know nga ba….

The answer is I don’t know! Ha Ha…

You know, you just feel that feeling that you feel when you feel that you feel inside….

I just know….

Maybe when the right person comes along that’s it, you just know, our love story is quite simple, we’ve known each other for some time. We went out, on our way home kami na…we have doubts alright, it all happened so fast anyway, “pag mabilis dumating, mabilis din daw mawala” but our love proved that wrong, we dated for 7 years, during those times, our relationship was smooth sailing, we got married November 23, 2005 and we are still very much married now, with one beautiful daughter, J’Anne who is the light of our life.

Do you believe in magic?

It’s magic, LOVE doesn’t need an explanation, you just know and then you believe that the best is yet to come.