Kids: Dylan's 7th birthday

March 18, 2013

The weeks after the photo shoot were pretty hectic with Dana's and Dylan's exams, Patrick's trip to Batanes (I was envious) and Dylan's rehearsals for their Moving Up Ceremony/Graduation.  Dylan's 7th birthday was buried under all these activities but wasn't forgotten.  We decided that we'll celebrate his birthday at the same time with his Graduation which were only days apart.

It was very nice of Den to come and visit on Dylan's birthday and brought with her such a great assortment of J. Co donuts for Dylan.  We hadn't tried any of the donuts from J. Co as we were Dunkin Donuts and Krispy Kreme fans so it was a learning experience as well.  :)

Dylan didn't know which one to eat first hahaha Thank you Den!

2nd Photo Shoot

March 07, 2013

Today was the schedule for the 2nd photo shoot for Smart Parenting magazine.  They were cutting it too close for their April deadline so everything was kind of in a rush.  Apparently, the photos from the first shoot wasn't cohesive with the rest of the photos of the other interviewees so they decided to re-shoot at Mom and Tina's cafe in Makati.  It was fine with me although it was too bad that the first one didn't make the cut.  I kind of liked how I looked there hahaha (vain!)

Anyway, these photos were taken by Den at the photo shoot.  She had a crappy mobile camera so the pictures are a little blurry hahha  It was a bit awkward that they had to do the makeup there at the cafe in front of other people but I guess there was no other extra private space and besides who was I to complain? ;)

This time our photographer was Dax Angeles who also happened to know Patrick since he also freelances for Top Gear Philippines.  Unfortunately, I can't remember the makeup artist's name because when we got there, there was no time for introductions and small talk. Just straight to the makeup and shoot.  After, we were treated to the delicious cakes and pastries they have on hand! :)  Then, it was all  a matter of waiting for the issue to hit the stands!

Before going home, we all trooped to Hainanese Delights in Robinsons Otis and we took this opportunity to take pictures.  hahaha.  It's rare that I look this good and with professional makeup at that! So "Ready, Aim, Shoot!" haaha We were so noisy we woke up Tracy hahaha

Update:  Here's a scanned pic of the article in the Smart Parenting Magazine

Travel: Trip to UP and then Tagaytay

August 26, 2012

Ordinarily, we don't go out on Sundays because we just all want to rest and stay home in preparation for the new week ahead.  But since, it was going to be a holiday tomorrow and Patrick is test driving the Subaru Impreza, we all decided to take a trip to UP so that the kids can bike freely.  We were also looking forward to having lunch at Rodic's :) So here are the kids having Taho while on break :)

Now, we didn't take pictures at Rodic's because you've seen a lot of them by now.  What surprised us though was when Patrick decided to drive all the way to Tagaytay just to test the Subaru Impreza :)  So, we decided to go to Palace in the Sky which we haven't gone to.  It was quite a ride going up through the slightly  roads zig-zagging roads and we had to do a little climbing (walking) to get to the entrance.  Apparently, a lot of people had the same thought during this holiday as there were a lot of people here too.

So here we were, taking advantage of the views from our high vantage point.

Now these two succeeding pictures actually tell an unfortunate incident while we were there.  I took this picture (notice the umbrella behind them).  It was cloudy when we arrived that's why we took it and indeed, it rained a little while we were there.  At the next picture, Patrick took the shot and after that, we all went somewhere else.  Unfortunately, Patrick forgot the umbrella under this picnic hut!  We realized it after we climbed the other peak which was about 5-7 minutes away so by the time we got back to this spot, the umbrella was gone.  Patrick was pissed because it was his favorite Subaru umbrella and it was huge and can protect all four of us.

After a rather frustrating time trying to locate the umbrella, we just decided to chalk it up to experience.  We left Palace in the Sky (I think they call it People's Park now) but I was still keeping an eye out for that huge Subaru umbrella hehe.  To console ourselves, Patrick drove to Mushroom Burger since the kids haven't eaten there yet and it has been a long time for Patrick and me too.  After our snacks of burgers, fries and drinks, the kids went outside and spent some time in the playground :)

To end the day, we had dinner at Rose and Grace restaurant in Sta. Rosa, Laguna.

Travel: Trip to Subic (Day 1)

June 08, 2012

Our summer vacation came a little late this year but as they say, "better late than never".  The kids, Patrick and I went to Subic for 3 days and 2 nights and we were lucky enough to be test driving the 2012 Subaru Impreza WRX STI for Top Gear Philippines in the same trip.

Our first stop on our trip was the Teriyaki Boy Restaurant in the Petron compound along the North Luzon Expressway.  We all love Japanese food and Dylan especially loves California Maki as you can see from this picture.

The rest of us had Katsudon,gyoza and the rest of the Maki.

It's just great that my kids really love trying out new food for themselves. :)

After having that hefty lunch, we all trooped back to the Subaru STI we named "Ghost" in honor of John Snow's direwolf in Game of Thrones.  Why Ghost?  Well, he's silver (close to white) but he's so ferocious on the road.  He can reach up to 200 kilometers per hour and there's not even a hint of hardship on the engine.  He's as cool as they come.  I didn't even know we were running at that speed!  But sshhh! I don't think that's allowed :D  I did have a problem with it being too sporty as I felt it was a bumpy ride.  I ended up getting a headache upon arriving in Subic.  This car is an animal on the road!!





We arrived in Subic in record time. We checked in at the Bayfront Hotel which was were we usually stay when in Subic.  We were surprised to see a new hotel in front of Bayfront.  It was still under construction when we last came to Subic.    Now it was called the Terrace Hotel and it looked interesting from my vantage point.  At first we had a problem with checking in because the room that they assigned was not the one that I requested when I made the booking.  Then they couldn't accommodate the request because they were fully booked.  Good for them so I settled with a different room.  This one had twin beds which still wasn't what I asked for and not what I paid for.  Eventually, they got it right.  It was a good thing I was still in a good mood or else ...  With this setback, I was considering trying out the Terrace Hotel on the other side the next time we came to Subic.


So we just rested for a while with the kids just watching TV.  In the end, we opted to go to Royal Subic to buy our snacks for the beach trip tomorrow and to see if there was anything worth buying :)


Right after buying what we needed to buy, it really didn't take us long, we went to Meat Plus Cafe for dinner.  It was a good thing we didn't take too long at the Duty Free because when we reached Meat Plus, there wasn't that many people lined up and we were able to get a very cozy table.  Right after we ordered, the people started coming in...

Here are pics of us waiting for our orders at Meat Plus Cafe.

And here are our orders:

Tenderloin Meal

Meat Plus Burger Meal

Hamburger Steak Meal

After a satisfying meal, we all went back to the hotel to rest.  I also had to pack our stuff for our trip to the beach the next day.

Kids: Tracy's Baptism

May 6, 2012

Today was Tracy's baptism.  It was held at the Santisimo Rosario Parish in UST where both Dana and Dylan were baptized too.  Everyone woke up early to prepare for it and for once, we were early to an event LOL  We just hung out at the benches in front of the church while we waited for the rest of the party to arrive.  We were actually the first to sign up for the baptism (which was a mass baptism held every Sunday).

Here's what happened at the Church:

Registration

Opening Prayers

Blessing of the Priest

Anointing with holy oil

Rites of Godparents

 While the rest of the other baptism celebrants took their positions, I took the time to just take pictures of the attendees.

Godparents on the Front Row

The Immediate Family

Ninangs Uye, Pat and Mira

Ninong Gelo and Ninong Mike

After the ceremony, we all took our time taking pictures.  One of the benefits of being first in line is that you don't have to wait for anyone.  You have first dibs on everything.

Ninang Glen in pink and the Grandfather on the far right

After the baptism, we all trooped to our house for the "reception".  Patrick missed the first part of the ceremony because he had to go and pick up our order from Amber's in Timog.  We forgot to take pictures of the cassava cake.. oh! that was really good too~!  :D

Barbecue

Lumpiang Shanghai

Spaghetti

 More picture taking happening at the house with the guests.

Ninang Danica and Ninong Edgar

Ninang Glenn and Ninong Gelo

Ninong Mike and Ninang Uye