i love saving money

random thing to be thankful for... giant's gas savings program with shell. had to fill up the benz, and with all our accumulated points, i saved $0.50 per gallon!

what a great way to start a morning

i had to move my car this morning so mom could get out. when i got in, WKYS was playing touch me, tease me. i was totally jamming out in my car, and then turned the radio on as soon as i got back in the house. here's the mix they played (click for youtube videos):

monica: don't take it personal
case & feat. foxy brown: touch me tease me
lil' kim feat. lil cease: crush on you
notorious b.i.g. feat. r. kelly: #!*@ you tonight
total feat. da brat: no one else
blackstreet: no diggity
aaliyah: back and forth
702: where my girls at

bringing it back to senior year high school! haha :)

empire state of mind

headed up to connecticut this weekend to celebrate my aunt/uncle's joint 60th birthday celebration. we had a packed car since we were also taking my parents plus smee. definitely thankful for the pilot!!

on the way up, we made our obligatory stop at jersey gardens. as much as i love it (and the VS outlet that has catalog returns/excess for dirt cheap), i'm glad we don't live near it because i would definitely buy that place out.

the girls had a good time running around the play area while smee and i got our quick shop on. heard belly even made a friend. :)

we continued on, and as much as i was dreading being in the car for 7-8 hours with 2 kids under the age of 4, it really wasn't as bad as i expected. we finally made it up to connecticut after some monster traffic on the merritt, and had some good times with family.

random good times from saturday:
-kings and charades with the cousins (and coming up with our own special ways for our team to guess "3D," "precious" and "my big fat greek wedding" -- as well as not being successful at guessing things like "avatar") ... and the aftermath (ha!)
-my convo with smee saturday night, laying in bed, whispering in the dark as belly slept

on our way back home on sunday, e took us on a "car tour of NYC" since we didn't really want to stop slash couldn't decide what area of midtown we wanted to park at and explore. of course, e had to stop at gray's papaya and i needed to find a nuts vendor. after that, we went to jersey city to take pictures of the NYC skyline and hunt down some good filipino food.

random good times on sunday:
-
(smee's hot nuts, literally)
-hot dogs from gray's papaya
-best pan de sal ever, warm and straight from the oven from PBH
-hilarious time: driving through Indian town three times because e couldn't find Max's or PBH!

dinner party

hosted my other in-laws for dinner (sis-in-law's parents) and planned a simple yet yummy menu ...

• salad
• cornish hens
• asparagus
• steak a la paubre
• homemade apple pie

and this:


thankful for good times with good friends.

accomplished

i can be very efficient at multi-tasking when i need to be. worked from home today and managed to put in a full day while simultaneously doing 7 loads of laundry and emptying the dishwasher. i'm exhausted.

thanks, mom

i can always count on my mom for some laughs. here's what happened when she parked my car this morning.

sunday quick post

sissy's here! got to our house around 8am and had crepes for breakfast. later in the afternoon, we played with the kids for a couple hours on the playground since the weather was gorgeous. wrapped up the day with a big chinese dinner at our house!

saturday quick post

things we did today:

• brunch at eggspectation
• taking metro to dc
• running around in front of the white house and nearby grounds
• jumping in leaves
• japanese dinner, kids so hungry they ate all their miso soup, salad and a whole dish of udon

girls girls girls

such a fun day. had lunch with one of my fave people in the world at friday's, and caught up on all the fam gossip. tonight, e took both kids so i could go do girls' night at hs bestie's house. on my way home to pick up my contribution for the dessert potluck (bruschetta and pumpkin bread), i saw a shooting star. i ended up wishing that e would have an easy time with the girls while i was away for the evening.

when i got home, wouldn't you know, both girls are sleeping and e said there were no waterworks. when i told him about the shooting star wish, he said i should've wished for a million dollars. what can i say ... me and thinking fast don't necessarily go together.

Pregnancy & Infant Loss Remembrance Day

October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month, and the 15th is designated as the remembrance day.

belly's excited

overhead from my office...
audible gasp of excitement, "dora pull ups! dora pull ups!! punky, look there are dora pull ups, YAY!!"

today, i was thankful for light traffic along 66 and (for the most part) good girls in the car who kept each other entertained while we drove home.

sensory memory

funny how certain smells trigger memories, even something you haven't smelled in a while. bulilit was prescribed augmentin, that thick chalky liquid, for a bacterial infection (i know, TMI). i worried she'd fight me and not want to take it but wouldn't you know? she had no complaints. even looked for more! but that may have more to do with the cool medicine squirter and less to do with the medicine.

today we also heard belly singing along to dj got us falling in love... didn't even know she knew that song.

10-10-10

happy 10-10-10!!

today, we met up with a friend whom i've known since kindergarten. we went to school together for most of our lives (missing only the 3rd grade and 3.5 years of college) and luckily reconnected a couple years ago. she had her first son a little over a week after i gave birth to buliilt. so it's even nicer to see our kids playing together!

since we both needed to get ready for halloween, we found a pumpkin patch somewhat halfway in between us, krop's crops. when we first drove up to it, e was a little hesitant, saying it looked really boring. to be fair, it did... all we could see was the storefront, a small selection of pumpkins and a bunch of flowers and pottery. once we parked and really looked around, we found a few things to keep the kids busy.

it took a while, but belly and bulilit warmed up to the farm animals in the back. belly was even feeding grass to the goats and the donkey (though she definitely favored the goats). this city girl was not excited to feed animals (but i did it anyway!). the girls also got a kick out of the bunny and the insane amount of chickens.

we were waiting around for the hay ride when we discovered the corn bin. oh. my. goodness. best invention ever. it's basically a ball pit with thousands of corn kernels. the kids jumped in and then convinced the adults to get in. we played in there for a long time (and had corn kernels falling out of various places the rest of the day!). we finally had our turn on the hay ride and the kids seemed to enjoy it. to top it all off, the weather was beautiful - sunny and warm! we'll definitely be going back next year!

after the hay ride, kids were starving so we stopped at a little pizza place nearby and had a really good lunch! it was adorable watching the kids run around the empty restaurant.

oh and interesting tidbit... on our way to krop's crops, we passed by gilbert arenas' house. all i have to say is DAMN.

busy weekend

what a busy weekend! saturday morning, we took family portraits for e's side of the family. bulilit was *not cooperating and was miserable until she found the strand of pearls! after that, we couldn't get her to *stop smiling. :) belly, as expected, loved getting pictures taken of her.

after the pictures and a quick lunch at whole foods, we went to e's cousin's wedding. i'd never been to a wedding at an iglesia ni cristo church, and i didn't go in with the rest of the fam since i was in the car with a sleeping bulilit. when i walked in, i headed for my left to sit in the back, and only when a man pointed me in the other direction did i realize that men were on the left, women were on the right. oops.

anyway, the wedding was beautiful and the reception was fun. in the car on the way home from gaithersburg, bulilit wanted her milk warmed and i told her we were in the car and i couldn't warm it. so belly says, "but mommy, if we wait for the sun, the sun can make the milk warm." why, yes, belly, yes it can. too bad it's 9:30 at night.

red patent leather pumps: $60gray pants: $20black button down long sleeve blouse: $20

feeling all grown up when i go to the office? priceless.

mmm baked goods

i'm really thankful for food. obviously.

i was on a baking kick the past couple days and, not to sound conceited, the three things i made were pretty darn good. :) here are the recipes.

maple apple pie
a few months ago, my sis-in-law's parents came to visit and my parents took them to west virginia. they came back with a homemade maple apple pie which was to die for. ever since then, i've been kind of obsessed. so sunday, i attempted my version. belly liked it, and e said it's the best apple pie he's ever had (aww, thanks boo). i prefer it with ice cream, warm from the oven.

Then last night, I made two different danishes. frozen puff pastry is my new friend. These two danishes make a yummy breakfast with coffee.

apple cheese danish from Disney Family.


giada's chocolate cheese danish. she's never done me wrong. every recipe i've ever tried of hers has been a hit... watch, i just jinxed myself.
here's the original recipe.

YouTube post

Time recently published their Top 10 best cartoon theme songs, with The Flintstones taking #1. I'm partial to #7: DuckTales


I'm also sad these didn't make the list:










Other cartoons I loved... Jem, Alvin & the Chipmunks, Smurfs, Care Bears... ahh I could go on and on!

kids choice weekend

what a super fun weekend ... e and i are exhausted, but it was sooo worth it.

on saturday, we went to the fall for fairfax kidsfest before heading to a birthday party. the weather was perfect and there was so much for the kids to do. we painted pumpkins, visited the petting zoo (where bulilit was scared to actually pet the animals), bounced around the moonbounce for a few minutes and took a ride on the train. on our way to the birthday party, bulilit passed out in the car without a whine (or milk!).

the kids loved the birthday party too, because it was at my gym which meant they got to run around and play. they definitely worked up an appetite, scarfing down the pizza and cake before playing some more. bulilit kind of loved the ball pit. when we were leaving, belly asked, "mommy, can we come back here?"

(yes, that's bulilit face-down in the ball pit. she popped right back up as soon as i snapped this picture.)

after the party, we headed back to the kidsfest, because e didn't get a chance to sample festival food. once we got back, we watched a ballet production (with belly saying she could do it too), went back to the petting zoo (bulilit is obsessed with the "mamas" aka llamas) and ate bad-for-you-but-tastes-so-good food. the girls also got to make crafts.

on sunday, we went to the wizards fanfest at mason. not as much fun as fall for fairfax, but it was still a nice day and being outside was a requisite. bulilit and i took a picture with g-wiz, who she called the blue elmo. she was a little scared of him but liked the mystics panda. while waiting for scrimmage to start, i asked belly if she wanted to be like the wizards cheerleaders or play basketball and she goes, "i think i want to play basketball." we watched the first half of the wizards scrimmage, then headed home for naps and chores.

one of the best things about this weekend was watching belly and bulilit play together and hearing them laugh, doing silly things that never fail to bring a smile to our faces... including belly's renditions of billionaire and california gurls and bulilit's rendition of justin bieber's baby. LOVE.

quiet stillness

worked from home today while the kids were at ami's. aside from my usual work (which has been beyond crazy this week), i had a yummy japanese lunch (chicken teriyaki, california rolls and tempura) and watched young victoria before the kids & e got home. then, after the kids went to bed, e and i caught up on glee (including the britney episode!!). NICE.