Last January 29, we celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary. I can’t believe time flies that fast. I can still remember when hubby and I were still preparing for our wedding and now here we are. We were able to stick with each other for 9 years. LOL.

We did not have any big celebration. What is important for us is that we are together on that day and we have spent some quality time together even if it is just for a couple of hours. We left home early and we went to our favorite out of town getaway, Tagaytay. It was an impromptu decision. We actually had reservations at Vikings but hubby decided to take a long drive. I did not even know where to eat as hubby like to try a new restaurant.

Thanks to my viber friends as they were able to give me suggestions in an instant and so we ended up eating at Steaktown at Lake House Hotel and we just enjoyed our sumptuous steak:

I am really thankful to God for giving me hubby and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else but with him.

The men in Cobi’s life:

This picture was taken during Cobi’s 3rd birthday party held at Shakey’s Bluewave Macapagal. I am so thankful that they took time from their busy schedule to celebrate with us. We really felt the love.

Thanks again to all of Cobi’s Titos, Titas, Lolos, Lolas, cousins and friends who all came to his party, despite their busy Saturday schedule. You all really made his party extra special.

On January 29, my husband and I will celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary. It is just a few days from now so I am in a bit of a panic as I don’t have a gift yet for my dear husband.

I know he is not after the material things but I just want to get something special for him as my gratitude for sticking up with me through thick an thin. LOL.

My husband is a real music lover. He loves to listen to good music and he has a good voice too. He mentioned a few months back that he wanted to enroll in guitar lessons and that is when I realized that getting one of those dean guitars would be the perfect gift for him.

He has long been planning to enroll in guitar lessons but he kept on postponing it. Maybe if he has a new guitar, then he will be more motivated to do something which I know he really, really love.

A few weeks before Christmas, I was telling myself that I couldn’t wait for it to be all over. From the numerous get together, last minute shopping, and more, I got so tired and stress that I want for this season to be over and just relax and rest.

But now that Christmas is over, I can’t wait for the next Christmas season to come. Weird huh? What I love about the Christmas season is the overflowing of love, joy and gratitude. It is only the chance where we get to see and spend time with friends and family members that we don’t spend that much time with.

As for our Christmas, we had our usual family traditions. We all heard mass at my alma mater and then we all went to our home for our Noche Buena. On the morning of Christmas, all my relatives went to our house too for our family reunion and gift giving. We initially planned to go to my in-laws house but they went out to watch a movie.

The kids are ecstatic with their gifts and they can’t contain their happiness as they received a lot. As for me, we did not find the time yet to get my present but I am checking out kraftmaid kitchen cabinets here as I am thinking to ask this as my Christmas gift from hubby.

It was a very meaningful Christmas for my family. Hope you had a fun and memorable celebration too of Jesus’ birthday.

The household is preparing for this: 

My brother subscribed to Sky Cable’s Pay-per-view of the Pacquiao-Marquez fight and so all my relatives, from my cousins, aunts, uncles, will be coming over today to watch the fight live and in HD.

My aunt will be cooking lunch so we can all feast on my Tita’s home-style specialty after the fight.

Hope this fight will end the saga between Pacquiao and Marquez and hopefully, we will know who really is the better fighter.

Last June 29 was the 87th birthday of my grand mother. It is a weekday so instead of celebrating it on her actual birthday, we had a party on July 1 instead so my aunt and her family from Rizal can join us.

We just had potluck and each family was asked to bring something to share for lunch. I brought chicken from Chicken Bon-Chon, my sister brought California maki and sushi, my cousin brought ice cream cake, my brother brought lechon, my three aunts brought pansit, estofado and lumpia and my cousin Tessa baked cookies.

We also rented a videoke machine and so the oldies really had fun partying as they sing and dance to their favorite songs (which makes me think how many wine bottles they consumed as they really party hard. LOL).

My relatives stayed until dinner and so it was a great bonding moment with the whole clan, which made the birthday celebrant really happy.

To our dear Nanay Puti, Happy, happy birthday!! We love you very much!!

Last Sunday was Father’s Day and to treat all the fathers in our family, we again had our Sunday dinner at our place.

I contacted my cousins so they can bring in something as their share for the dinner so my aunt doesn’t have to cook. I bought chicken from Chicken Bonchon in Lucky Chinatown, my aunt brought grilled chicken, my cousin brought chicken and liempo from ChicBoy, my other aunt brought ice cream for dessert and my cousin brought Cheesy Brazo de Mercedes (which was a hit to everybody).

So our dining room was full again as we share the simple meal that we have prepared for the wonderful dads in our family – my dad, my husband, my brother, my Tito June and my cousin Pipit.

It was again another fun Sunday for all of us. To all of you guys, Happy Father's Day again. We love you all very much!!

During the wedding of my cousin last March, they had a mobile bar and all of us enjoyed it even the oldies and the younger generation in our family. That is why when I was planning for the party for my mom and dad, I know that we should get a mobile bar too.

We initially plan to get the same supplier as my cousins but luckily I found a good deal from one of the discount shopping sites, Groupon. I got the package for only P4,000 and is good for 30 – 50 guests already and it includes 5 international cocktails, 2 flaming shooters and 2 jello shots.

I was a bit scared at first to book them as it is the first time that I will be getting their service so I don’t know if they will be able to deliver or not. All our transactions are through text only so all the more I got a bit nervous. But I was really happy with the service that I got from them. They arrived early at the venue to set up the bar and the bartenders were really accommodating and friendly. They even created one of the drinks that we requested, which is not in their list. We extended for another 2 hours and the owner was so accommodating to our request that he also gave it to us at a discounted price.

I will definitely get them again for our future parties.

We know that we needed entertainment for the party of my mom and dad so it will not be quiet and boring and of course, the only answer to that is a videoke machine.

We would have wanted to get a live band complete with their electric guitar, Aquarian Drums, bass guitar and more but we are working on a limited budget and there is not much space in our garage for this.

My aunt was the one who looked for a supplier where we can rent a videoke machine and she instantly found one just in our neighborhood. We got the machine for only P500 for 24 hours of use so we were using the machine up to the next day. LOL.

The videoke machine was a huge hit as it was never vacant because there will always be someone who will be lining up their song on queue. It did provide a great entertainment and it surely did make the party bvery lively and fun.

I ordered the personalized cake for my mom and dad’s party from Iya of Thatlookstasty Goodies (you can search for her in Facebook). She was recommended by my friend Mai and Thea. 

Her cakes were delicious, affordable and very creative so I did not think twice to order from her after exchanging several emails of inquiries. We just talked via direct message in Facebook and I just gave her descriptions of my mom and dad and she was the one who made the overall concept for the cake. We all like how the cake turned out.

The price that we agreed to is suppose to be for a one layer 8” inch cake but she went out of her way to make it 2-layer to make the cake even nicer. I told her that I am not particular with the cupcake boxes and she tried looking for a cheaper alternative to further lower the price for the cupcake.

Aside from adding to the special effect of the main cake, the cupcake became the souvenirs as we gave each guests one cupcake that they can take home with them. We were initially thinking of getting cheap fragrances but we are not sure which scent will each of our guest like, so we decided to settle with the cupcake as the souvenir instead.

One more thing I love about Iya is I don’t have to worry on how to pick up the cake as she personally delivered them with a minimal fee to our house. She arrived very early and so we had a lot of time to setup the cakes even before the guests started to arrive.

I will be getting her again for Cobi’s 2nd birthday party and I am excited to see how Cobi’s cake will turn out.

My mom and dad’s joint birthday celebration held last Easter Sunday was a huge success. It was a last minute decision on our part (my siblings and I) to host a party at home. Our initial plan was to rent a yacht, which can accommodate 30 guests, and we will have a party with the family and a few of my mom and dad’s friends. We also considered having the celebration either in Casa Roces (my husband and I’s favorite restaurant), Barbaras (and avail the promo from one of the discount shopping site) or the buffet dinner in Vikings.

But we figured that it will be more fun if our mom and our dad can invite as many of their friends as possible so we decided to just have the party at home.

I contracted my usual caterer, Blue Petals, to cater the food for the party, and then I got the personalized cakes from That Looks Tasty which is a recommendation from my good friend Mai and Thea, the mobile bar from Bartenders at Work and a videoke machine from one of our neighbors.

Everybody that they invited came and the party was a huge hit. Thanks to the cocktails and shooters that made all the guests drunk (including me. LOL), which added fun to the party and the videoke machine plus my mom’s friends who are so game in showing their talent in singing.

Our mom and our dad were really happy with how the celebration turned out and my siblings and I were really glad, as we really wanted to make their birthdays extra special and memorable.

I am so busy this week and the coming week as I still have a lot of pending work to finish before I take a 3-week off from work. But let me just make this post abut my family’s Easter celebration at the farm before I totally forget to post about it again.

We decided to celebrate Easter in our house in Pandi which we haven’t done in a long while now. We are all excited as Pandi brings a lot of our childhood memories since this is where we always celebrate special occasion when we were still kids.

So we left the house around 9 AM and by 10 AM we were already at the farm. Howell brought out all the toys in the storage for the kids to enjoy. We even put out the inflatable pool so kids and adult alike can enjoy a dip. Then we had Easter egg hunting too.

Since it was a very hot day, we decided to go to a nearby resort for some real swimming since we haven’t had our summer outing yet. Thankfully we found a nice, clean resort near our house which is not crowded unlike Amana and Villa Concepcion. So right after eating lunch and Easter egg hunt, we all went to Villa Manaoag.

Of course all the kids had fun swimming. After swimming we went back to our house for late snack and then we head back home to Manila.

We all wish that we can do this more often.

This is a long overdue post but as what they always say, it is better late than never

My mom celebrated her nth birthday (LOL) last April 6, 2011. My bad because I did not really plan for anything special for my mom as I really have a lot on my plate these past few weeks that I did not have time to organize a party for her.

Since we all came from Mc Do to fetch Bela from her Kiddie Crew Workshop and since we have to drop by at Toyota Manila Bay to drop off some paper work for the insurance of our car, we decided to just have dinner at Yakimix.

We left McDo around 5:30 PM and we went straight to Yakimix as I know that they always have a long queue especially during dinner time. I was not able to make any reservations but thankfully, we were the 6th or 7th in line when we arrive since they open at exactly 6 PM so we were just in time for their opening.

It did not take that long before we got seated and so in no time, we were all lining up already at the buffet table to fill up our plate. My mom and my dad enjoyed it as it is their first time in Yakimix and they were just so ecstatic because they have overflowing servings of some of their favorite dishes like the California Maki, Tempura and Crabs.

It was a very intimate dinner to celebrate my mom’s birthday and we all wish that we can come back at Yakimix again as we definitely had fun.

This is a late post but like what they say, it is better late than never.

Last January 29, hubby and I celebrated our 6th Wedding Anniversary. Hubby actually wanted to have a quick getaway in Batangas with the kids but I told him we need to save for our upcoming US trip so we decided to just have a date. It was actually an impromptu date as we did not plan for it. We just decided that morning that we will use our Le Spa voucher, which I actually got as my anniversary gift for hubby from Cash Cash Pinoy. Luckily, there was a slot available when I called Le Spa for a schedule and so we decided to go there after getting Bela’s report card from St. Scholastica. We did not even have a print out of the voucher that I even have to go to a nearby computer center after getting Bela’s card.

We arrived in Sofitel around 11 AM and since we are still full after having a heavy breakfast, we just decided to go inside the spa and enjoy the sauna, steam bath and whirl pool before the massage.

By 12 noon, we were called already for our massage. We were given, Harmonie room, one of their couple’s rooms and we really had a very relaxing massage which is what hubby and I needed. After the massage, we were given hot tea which relaxes us even more.

We dressed up after and head to Spiral to enjoy their lunch buffet and boy we totally forgot about our diet as we really tried to enjoy all the food served in the different buffet stations.

It was a short but sweet date. We rarely get to spend alone time together as we always tag along our kids wherever we go so it was a perfect anniversary celebration.

Dad,

Thank you for the wonderful six years that you shared with me. You have made all my dreams come true, you are my rock, my shoulder to cry on, my ever dependable husband. I remember after we got married, we have a lot of dreams – having our own house, being able to enjoy traveling with our kids, sending our kids to good schools, giving them all the best that life has to offer. Before I thought that all those dreams are impossible. But little by little, (even if we just started with choosing the handlesets for our dream house), all those dreams are finally coming true all because of your dedication, hard work and your love for us.

I am one lucky girl to deserve someone as loving, caring, responsible, patient and most especially, handsome like you. LOL. And I am forever thankful to the Big Man up there for giving you to me.

Happy Anniversary dad and I love you very much.