Hong Kong Trip: Day 1

 Hong Kong Trip: Day 1 (Dec 25, 2012)

We arrived quite late on Christmas Day @ 11:00 PM, pick-up our luggage and wait for our hotel shuttle bus.  For our first night, we choose Hong Kong SkyCity Marriott Hotel which is very close to the airport. 

Here's the shuttle bus would look like:

Here’s the map where to wait for the shuttle bus.

 Our room for the night.

Let's Play TAG!

My son has a new cool toy! It's a LeapFrog Tag Reading System.

Do you want your kids to love reading books?  Have you ever wonder how to make reading with your kids enjoyable and fun?

I am writing this to share with you how enjoyable and fun reading with leapfrog TAG.  It reads each page to you.  It can even read each word one at a time if you point to them!  There are also vocabulary games, picture finds, and a few other activities built in for each book. When my son got the toy, he couldn't stop playing with it.  He points it to the words and pictures in the book.  He is so happy with
it, it's the first thing he looks for in the morning and the last thing he play before going to sleep.

Here's  some of the picture of his book collection :)

bought the books in amazon.com 

You can buy this device in AMAZON.COM

December 2011 Gateaway!

This is a long overdue post! I wanted to write this down, in case someday my baby will ask me about our experience there.

We spent our 2011 year end holiday in Turi Beach Resort, Batam.  It's 45mins ferry ride from Singapore so that's the obvious reason why we choose it.  We booked for 3 days and 2 nights for the price of 1 night (yes, 2 nights for the price of 1).  It was off peak (Dec 26 - 28), so that's probably the reason why they have a promo.

The resort's location is somewhat isolated.  No establishment, mall or store nearby so guest have no choice but to eat, buy water and other food in the resort and mind you it's a little bit expensive. The resort has two style, there's a modern rooms in the left side and balinese style in riani wing.  Our room is in riani wing and somewhere up in the hill. What i like about this resort is the ambience and very relaxing.  The beach is ok, clean and hmmm not sure what's the best word to describe it.  Let's just say that i have seen beaches so much nicer than this.  I maybe a little bit bias about beaches since i grow up in an island surrounded by beaches and i have seen a lot of very appealing beaches, one can't even resist in getting so close to it and feel the water.

Here's some of the pics:

The modern rooms:

Swimming pool near the balinese style rooms.

Riani Wing units has this terrace

bed fit for a prince, that's our little one sleeping after a day filled with activities!

in one of the small resting area near the swimming pool

have so much space to run around

a closer look of the modern units.

By the way, check-in is a little dis-organized and took forever.  My baby was so restless already and very sleepy yet @2:30, we still don't have our room key.  When we finally have our room key at almost 3pm, we rush to our room right away so our little one can sleep.  We booked an ocean view but was given a room somewhere in the middle, too tired to ask we decided to just take it. It was only after we charge our dinner we knew that our room is registered to a different name. Strange, since the room key envelope had my husband's name on it,  so it must be correct.  At first, they were not willing to lower our room rate and insist that we should pay the rate that we have booked for.  I tried to argue but to no avail until i asked for their manager's number... and finally agree to change the room rate.

For our meals,  Lunch is around 25SGD (not sure if this is the price now), dinner is around SGD30 while breakfast is free ( included in the package)

Overall, it was a great experience but not something i look forward to visit again.

All About Photo books!

Photo book is in!  Gone are those days, where after our pictures are printed, we are given a "free album".  Now, they advised me to avail their photobooks.  Curious about it, I give it a try but the layout in the shop is simple and need to top-up/pay more money if you want to have a nice layout (in photoshop or other collage software maybe). 

I decided that i will try to create the layout for my photobooks.  At first, it looks so simple and eventually i learn to be "more creative".  My first photobook was my son's "First 12 Months".  In that photobook, i make sure that every month is represented.  When i first saw the photo book, i was in tears that anytime i wish to recall my baby's growth, all i have to do is open the book.  So after that, almost all events in my baby's life is in photobooks.  Now he is 3.5 yrs and here's the books that i have created so far.

I still have many more to put into photobooks like our recent vacation last yr and our 2012 Moments. The layout of these books are "lay flat" style.  Here's some of the pages:

Truly, photo album has evolved into a much more meaningful and fun to see.  Can you imagine how many photobooks will my son have in the future?? He might have a library full of his childhood pictures :).

18th Birthday!

Finally, the time has come where our youngest sister will celebrate her "18th Birthday"!  As the youngest, she is privilege to enjoy this opportunity..  All of us (elder sisters), had a simple celebration on our 18th birthday so this is the first time that we will held a grand birthday party.

You might be wondering, what's so special with 18th birthday for girls in the Philippines. From wikipedia:

The Debut is a traditional Filipino coming-of-age celebration for young women. The occasion is somewhat reminiscent of the Latin American Quinceañera, although instead of celebrating the girl's 15th birthday, the debut celebrates a young woman's 18th birthday, the age of maturity in the Philippines.

On their 18th birthday, Filipinos customarily throw a large party, complete with her own hand-picked entourage of 18 individuals or multiple sets of 18. These 18 are conventionally nine males and nine females whom the celebrant pairs off into partners. The celebrant's court usually wears a uniform formal outfit chosen by the celebrant (similar to the dress of a wedding party), while the celebrant herself typically wears one or several extravagant gowns during the course of the night.

Preparations have to be made and here's what we have consider before deciding to host a debut for my sister.
1. How much is the budget?  
   - Decide/Source out for possible venues.
   - How many guest?  I actually told my sister that she could not just invite all the people she knows so i give her a limit as to how many she can invite.
   - If decoration is not included in the venue package then need to look for one..
   - party suppliers like cake, tokens, projector, bubble machine, etc
  - if there's enough budget, it's good to have a party coordinator.
2.  What's the motif/theme?
  - source out for debutante gown?
  - do we need to provide gown for the cotillions?
       (The cotillion is a type of patterned social dance that originated in France in the 18th century.)
  - coordinate with party suppliers on what's the color motif and theme of the party to make sure that decorations/cakes etc match with the color motif/theme.
3. let the debutante come up with the list for her 18 dance, 18 treasures, 18 wishes.

My sister choose "pink and black" color motif and the theme is "masquerade".  So i make sure that her gown should have pink and black in it. Here's the pictures of her two gowns:

Here's the cake:

The party was a blast, and it was all worth it.  

Mom's 58th Birthday!

It's a dream come true to be able to celebrate Mama's 58th birthday since most of us are already living outside the island and it takes a lot of effort to pull it up. I am grateful for our Governor who let us use the convention center for free. 2 yrs ago, our mom had a cancer and was healed. Every second we are grateful that God has extend the life of our mom and she's still with us to celebrate our success, celebrate the greatness life has to offer. It's our goal to celebrate her coming birthday to give thanks on her healing and for all the blessings that we have received. It's refreshing to see our relatives and friends who came to celebrate with us this memorable event in our life.


 Here's some of the pictures:

Mom saying thanks to the guests!

Here's the flow of the program:
 I. Opening Prayer
II. Welcome remarks from the eldest.
III. Game #1: Balloon Tower
IV. Dinner
V. Game #2
VI. Intermission Number from us.
VII. Karaoke Challenge
VIII. Singing and Dancing.

3rd Birthday @ Neverland!

We celebrated our little one's 3rd birthday in my hometown.   It was a successful event and we had so much fun.  Night before that i was worried that we have to cancel it since the celebrant had fever.  Glad that we decided to have him checked right away even if it;s just the first day of fever and was able to take medication for the infection.

Here's some of the pics, the wing set i bought in China adds a magical  touch to the celebration!

Loots bag were bought in Malaysia :) and some are bought locally..

kids enjoyed the party...

picture with their loot bags!

Looking forward for next year's birthday.