Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Halloween 2011

This year, Big M is a SWAT officer, K is Jessie, J is Cleopatra, Little M is Superman and Daddy is a grumpy old man. We only had trouble getting J's costume because she had one criteria that had to be met - the costume cannot be scratchy. We tried many many costumes before we landed on Cleopatra.

This year, Daddy stayed home with Little M. Little M goes to bed at 6 so we decided he should stay home and hand out candy instead.




This is Daddy fetching Superman from the neighbor's yard. The neighbor had balloons and that was just too much for the little superhero to resist.

I told Big M to pose near the head. :)

Scary house.

This is our neighbor identical twins. They are not quite 3 years old and both K & J have fallen in love with them and vice versa.

the mini superman

I know it's way past Halloween but I haven't posted anything about it yet. :( And seeing as blogging is the only way I'm going to remember this many many years from now, it's better late than never. My mommy group had a Halloween bash for the kids, and it was on the day that all the other kids were in school so Little M was the only who made it. He was superman. We bought this costume 3 weeks ago. This was the only time we bought the costumes way in advance. In the past years, we've always shopped the weekend before Halloween. And as it turned out, this was not such a good idea. Little M had a growth spurt. The sleeves and legs were a good 2 inches too short and kept rolling up.




Monday, November 21, 2011

Sick kids and the dutiful littlest brother

Last week Big M came home sick and missed 2 days of school. Little M kepy him company. Today K came home sick, and Little M is keeping her company too.



Saturday, November 19, 2011

The Ice Castle

We visited the ice castle ast week to see santa and the ice princess. The line was so long though. Thankfully, there were craft setup in sections of the line. It was a fun experience, though typical off young toddlers, Little M cried when he was placed on Santa's lap.











Sunday, November 6, 2011

my little BIG man

I've said it over and over, my youngest (now 19 months old) is so independent that he practically raises himself.

When we get home, he takes his shoes off and puts them on the rack by the door.

He feeds himself. Sometimes he disappears into the kitchen to look for snacks.

And of course, he barely asks for help if he can do something himself. He's trying to reach a juice box from the top of the counter. By the way, I know you're asking why a boy would have a bow on his head. What can I do? He tells me to put it on his head, and so I do.



This one is from 2 months ago when I decided to pick up my guitar after a long time of  neglect. I suck, but at least my kids are having fun.

2011-10-14 Carnival Imagination Cruise

Click here to view these pictures larger

Saturday, November 5, 2011

my first ever cruise

It's worth noting that not only did I experience my first cruise ever on Oct. 14 - 17th, but it was the first time I was away for that long from my kids, the first time I didn't have any voice contact for that long, and the first time I left the kids with the hubby. Phew, that's a lot of first. It was a very fun trip in so many ways. I have forgotten what it was like to do what I wanted to do whenever I wanted to do it, and for a 15-minute task to only take 15 minutes. I went with 2 of my long time friends from high-school, whom I haven't seen in 5 years! But it's amazing how we just got together without any sort of warm-up time.

It was a cruise to the Bahamas, though we only spent a day off shore in the Bahamas. We went to trivia games/shows, enjoyed a couple of stand up comic shows, enjoyed other entertainments, and enjoyed all the food we could eat! It was also fun to act like there was not a care in the world, and certainly no responsibilities. We gave people who made a fool of themselves nicknames, and enjoyed making fun of them. Although I've never met the "thong guy". The "thong guy" was a man who went to the hot tub in his thong with no shame in shaking his glutes to everyone who cared to look. There was "vanilla ice" who was the first to volunteer in the karaoke. Only it turned out he was overly confident in his ability to sing. And then there was the stand-up comic who kept looking at us, at me, specifically, and repeatedly pointed to me when he said "hispanic ladies". But the most fun had to be the game show we tried to participate in, only it was only Jenny who got called into the stage. She was made to perform the most amusing task for 60 seconds where I just about died laughing. I have a video, but Kim and I promised her not to post it. Perhaps one day when we're old and toothless. I had a lot of fun laughing thanks to Jenny for being such a great sport. This sort of thing can easily turn south when the person is a kill-joy. That, Jenny was not.

Jenny also managed to win us a trophy for a "name-that-tune" game. Though I knew most of the songs, I was pretty useless because I couldn't name the title. But as it turned out, we had amongst us a trivia goddess. Jenny, I would be honored to be on your team always!

Thanks to Kim for knowing the ins and outs of the cruise. If not for her, Jenny and I would not have known that you could order pretty much everything on the menu during our sit-down dinner. I mean, 2 entrees? Come on! We also went snorkeling on the fly by not booking in advance. We got off the ship and just told someone we wanted to do it, and there it was. She said it was cheaper that way. Though I must add that Jenny and I didn't really snorkel. We were both afraid of the open water so we only planned on staying in the boat and take a lot of pictures. But when it started raining on us, the captain urged us to get in the water to warm up. The rain pelting on our skin was way too cold. And so into the water Jenny and I went. Of course we held on to the boat the entire time.

Sea sickness was only mildly a problem. Anywhere but the Lido deck and other top decks, I was fine. But in the top decks, I felt the movement too much. The problem was that dining was on the top decks. I thought I was going to have to avoid eating the entire trip, but it didn't come to that.

And another yet memorable part of the trip was when we were pulled aside by customs when we returned to port in Miami. Who would have thought that 3 asian women could look so suspicious. Perhaps it was the sea shells I smuggled in with me. I just wanted to show the kids something from the Bahamas!

All in all, the trip was great. I only contacted hubby via email whenever there was wi-fi. I was afraid that I would not be able to enjoy myself in the trip worrying about hubby and the kids, but I did. Thanks to hubby for letting me go and enjoy myself at his sanity's expense. I love you, babe!