To The Far East We Went - Philippines

Prologue : This post took place back in January this year.

Right after 9to6mom's visit and just as the wintry weather was getting worst, we were more than glad to escape to the sunshine.
And what better tropical place to go to than to my beloved home country - The Philippine islands!

With the 12 hours flight and with nothing to do apart from watching what is available on the in- flight entertainment (and eating & sleeping), Little Girl and Mummy thought it best to experience the latest on technology -  Facebooking while aboard SQ317 London-Singapore flight  all thanks to internet access while on air (but at $10 per 10MB and at a turtle's pace it was relatively $10/minute which of course I didn't carry on)

What boredom can do on a long haul flight!

Nothing can really compare to being  back HOME
to the food we grow up with

Traditional Filipino breakfast - steamed rice, some veggies, tocino and danggit with vinegar dip.

Or how  about some suman and biko for breakfast instead? 

Philippine lechon commonly gracing a Filipino occasion and here for my Little Girl's 3rd birthday

to catching up with good friends we left behind

experiencing the year round sunshiny weather (that I took for granted most oftentime while still living there)

be with former work colleagues

and of course to be with family again!

with siblings, parents and cousins bonding over Ahfat's classic food

The Emilia's, re united!
Little Girl and Grandmother met again!

with my father here with my Little Girl's coconut tree which he planted on the day my Little Girl was born
Little Girl and her coconut tree on a photo op on their 3rd birthday.
This is their 3rd picture together as every homecoming we see to it that little girl gets to have her picture taken with her coconut tree. 

with my paternal  grandparents.
My grandfather who is 96 years old  (and with no offence to the rest of my family)  is the one I look forward to seeing most every homecoming! ( with his age obviously).

And the rest of some of the family members taking time to be with us on my Little Girl's 3rd birthday

And last but not the least to meet again these special children.
Dearest Husband and I (and the rest of our family and some friends) feel so privileged to have met these wonderful children and somehow share some of our blessings.
They are indigenous children of the mountains of Davao. They are either abandoned, orphaned, neglected  or displaced due to poverty and  rescued and given a chance in life by Pag Amoma Foundation

January 2013

December 2011

Nothing can really surpass the feeling of being home.
And although we wanted to stay a bit longer yet we also have commitments left behind in the UK.

This is the first part of this Far East trip. The second part (and my little girl's birthday) would be on the next post.

I am trying my hardest to find time in my very busy schedule nowadays to sit down in front of the computer and share what I am up to.
For the time being, my priorities are my major  DIY dining room make over, little girl's school run and my ICT course (yes I just went back to school!).

Good night everyone.

Yves is turning One soon!

All I can say is where has the time gone?
I can't believe it's been a whole year since this little man came into our lives and it has gone by so fast!
My YSL will be turning one this Thursday, 19 September..

Here are some of the photos from Yves first outdoor photoshoot

Yves shirt by  H & M
Denims by Zara Kids
Shoes by Pediped
Balloons from Auntie Weng 

Yves shirt by Janie & Jack

Will be posting more pics soon..

Hello 2013!

Hello everyone! And hello 2013!
Yes, hello 2013 because this is my very first post for this year.
Pardon for the long absence. I wouldn't explain on the circumstance but I would just make it up by posting everything as best as I could remember.
How about we begin by welcoming 2013?
It was a very happy New Year as 9to6mom came to visit and welcomed the New Year with us.
I will let the pictures do the talking!

9to6mom and I with our little ones

Our handsome visitor (Little Yves) at the foot of our Christmas tree

 Here being helped by my little girl in opening his Christmas present. (They were in France at Christmas time).

New Year's Eve dinner

And of course cheers to 2013!

They stayed for a few more days (together with another friend couple) so Dearest Husband had the chance to share his culinary expertise with them.

My little girl with the other friend (couple) who came to stay and visit together with 9to6mom and family

Of course shopping can never be missed on the agenda!
 Here, first thing's first on the first day of the year!

On our way to the Shopping Centre

And at Bicester Village.

It was a very wonderful short visit. I hope next time it will be a bit much longer so there would be more shops to explore and more places to visit.
Nevertheless, the fact that we were able to spend time together (with our loved ones on a special occasion such as the New Year's) is more than enough.
Thank you so much sis and I look forward to your next visit! (This December, maybe?)

P.S (Most photos grabbed from 9to6mom Facebook account)

9to6mom and I met each other again a month after herUK visit and that would be in my next post together with my little girl's birthday.

Good night everyone.

Life Goes by Fast

Wow, it's been so long since we updated our blogs! If it weren't for the stomach bug that has invaded our GUTS this week, I would not have had the chance to sit down and do something with my time while my washing machine spins to no end.  The constant vomit on clothes, sheets and towels...nasty stuff I would rather keep to ourselves, just gave me this little window of opportunity to share what we've been up to lately.
First and foremost, My darling Mads has entered First Grade! Here she is super excited to go back to school.  While most kids dreaded the end of Summer vacation, mine has not stopped asking when it's over.  She did enjoy summer camp, but she is thirsty for some real structured learning!

It's almost noon and she has not gotten up from our bed, her dad had her sleep with us for the  night, as her poor bed suffered the smelly disaster.  Poor baby!

The good news is, her sleeping in gave me time to clean up her room and put clean sheets on.  Her comforter was not fun to load to the machine while it was wet, I had to hose the scraps of food off the bedding in the tub before I threw them in for a spin.  Here's her room, which I think I have not shown in this blog before.

Four poster bed

Walk-in closet

Little girl vanity

We have decided to update her entire bedroom furniture, her previous room was all dark and did not go well with the theme we wanted for the over all look of the room.  This time we went with all white, using wooden vintage furniture that were custom painted and re-upholstered. 

Since our move, we have found so many things that we want to change in the house, big projects are sort of being put off for now until we save enough funds to tackle them.  The little things such as skylights shades, yard fence and playrooms are getting there.  So many things, so little time.  But...we figured we have enough time to get to it as we are probably going to stay here until the kids graduate from high school.  For now, I have to plan for my little boy's birthday, which is by the way creeping up on me.  I can't believe he is almost one!

This picture was six months ago...

And here he is now!

Time flies by so fast.  I do hope I get to enjoy every minute of it with them. Sigh. 

Yves turned 9

Ah oui, I'm 9 months old... I'm a big boy now Mom!

My Little Man and My Pretty Lady

Some updates:  My little man is seven months old and we started giving him baby food for over a month now.  I like to feed this baby naked, as he loves drooling all over for his food!

Ma, hurry give me my food!

 Madison is turning six soon.  I still have to start planning for her party.  We came up with a Hawaiian Luau theme, here's a picture that went with the invitations.

We just moved to our new home.  I am still unpacking three weeks after our move.  I am starting to wonder how we were able to acquire so much stuff?  I need to start putting stuff away for a spring cleaning next year.  Garage sale!

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!:)

Happy Mothers Day

I am looking forward to our next weekend holidays...