Proud parents

School year has ended and our little boy graduated and had their school's recognition day few days back. It was only me and my husband who were able to attend to my son's special day. His two grandmas both want to go with us but due to some reason they weren't able to. So hubby and I made a plan. If Jared gets an award, I will be the one to join him on stage while he takes our photo. He has some kind of a stage freight haha!

Then it happened. Our little one got two medals, one is for being an Outstanding pupil and the other one, most diligent.

After all the medals were given, the teacher announced that there was another set of awards. Jared and hubby have an award too - Best father and son tandem during one of their school activities. I thought hub was really deserving as he was so active in participating on the games :) And so he had his moment.. on stage lol!

We both felt so proud so we have to take another picture on stage after the program haha!

Can't believe a school year has already gone. He'll be in kinder next. The next thing we know he's already in college. Oh no! don't grow up too fast my little boy :)

MOH

My sister and her long time boyfriend are going to get hitched! And I'm going to be the Matron of Honor.. yes matron! oh my.. does that sound so old???

OK, as a maid of honor.. err.. matron of honor, I helped her with the planning - choosing gown designs for the bridesmaids, wedding favors, trying out caterers' menu (I loved this!), sourcing out suppliers and making the invitation. The last on the list, I would like to share about.

We decided to just make the invitation on our own. I got the inspiration online (sorry card company I got some of your idea ;) ). I just tweaked it a bit and changed the colors according to her motif which are brown and teal. Got nice cardboard papers from National Bookstore for the invitation pages and also for the envelope. We did not use the traditional envelopes, instead we made our own also. It was just a bit tiring cutting all the half circles on the envelope. But I felt that our effort was all worth it. Here are some photos..

I really enjoyed being a soon-to-be Bride's slave! And I'm getting so excited for her wedding day which is barely a month from now.

The Little Champion

My little one was chosen as one of the contestants for the Poem Reading Contest during their school foundation week. It was an on the spot reading contest to test their reading skills (of course!) They will be given one short poem to read. Certainly, the little one's mom and dad were there to support him on his first ever contest.

I was not expecting anything, I just want him to enjoy the experience. And he did! He thought he was just playing and not in a contest haha! He was moving all the time while he was reading so we were not able to hear what he read. But even though he did not win he was still our little champion. :)

with the proud parents :D

Dentist Time

My little one was scheduled to visit his dentist last month but with the busy schedule, we were not able to. Add to that, his dentist's clinic is a bit far from our home so I just decided to transfer him to a new dentist from a nearby village who also happened to be our dentist too.

She is not a pediatric dentist but I was really amazed how she took care of Jared the whole time. First, she read a book to him titled, "A visit to the dentist" which explained all the things to expect during his visit. With that, he got so comfortable with the dentist he wanted to chat with her even the cleaning was done. It was his first ever teeth cleaning, the one with scaling and he really did a great job.

Our Subic Adventure

This post was so long overdue.. I know.. (Why do I always have to start with this line?) We initially planned of going to Enchanted Kingdom but everyone says that the place is jam-packed and super crowded during the holidays so we decided to just go to Subic to visit Zoobic Safari because our little one has been bugging us to visit a zoo again.

Went there after New Year's day early in the morning and arrived at about 9am. Thank goodness for SCTEX, our travel was a breeze! but not to the whopping increase in toll fees.. (what a way to start the year for motorists!)

Anyway, entrance fee for adults is P445, kids 3ft and below are free, and our little guy who's over 3ft and below 4ft gets a P100 discount.

The park assigns 1 tour guide for approximately every 30 visitors. The walking tour was just ok but you won't be able to hear what the guide is saying. The guided tour begins with the aviary or the "Bird Walk" where there is a section where you get to feed the birds on your hands for 10 bucks. Hubby, Jared and my sis tried it while I take their picture.

Next was the Zoobic Park where there are pet friendly animals that you can interact with. I personally tried to feed the camel a small leaf and it was fun.

Then there there was an animal show composed of talented dogs, donkey and the amazing Tinikling dancing poodle.

The next was to get to the other area of the park by taking the tram ride or use your own car throughout the tour. We opted for the tram ride or the "tiger train" as what my son calls it.

We then toured the Savannah while riding on the tram wherein we got a close encounter with the friendly ostriches that seem to like my youngest sister for some reason.. haha!

Other areas are the Dear Deer, Zoobic Cave, Forbidden Cave, Serpentarium, Rodent World, Croco Loco, etc.

The main attraction was the Tiger Safari where we boarded the caged jeep that brought us to the open area to see live tigers roaming around freely. It took for only a few minutes so we were not that fascinated at all. And we only saw a few tigers.. maybe we were just not that lucky.

The whole tour took around 3 to 4 hours and we were starving by the time we finished it. We quickly headed to the Tree Top Adventure which is just a few distances away from Zoobic Safari.

There are a lot of awesome packages to choose from. And after a quick lunch we decided to try the Tree Drop Adventure - here, you'll be literally dropped from a 60 foot tree with just the harness supporting your life :). It took us sometime to convince hubby to try it though :) But man, the experience was so thrilling and at the same time frightening, really really worth it! Price is affordable and the staff are so friendly so I highly recommend it. :)

How we spent the holidays

Been so busy during the month of December (well everyone was!) with a lot of reunions with relatives and friends. Sharing with you some of our photos from the holidays.

my little one had his first Christmas party with his classmates

he also joined the party games

and also his dad :)

catch-up time with my childhood friends

celebrated Christmas with my in-laws

and Jared patiently waited for Santa

attended the town fiesta in Batangas

had fun taking pictures on Christmas day

attended a baptism

post-christmas dinner with my highschool friends

welcomed the new year with my extended family

and celebrated by drinking the night away :)

Mom's 60th

My dearest mom celebrated her birthday yesterday. It was held at Chinatown's BestFood resto in Banawe. It was a simple celebration with her special friends and of course her family. She said we should all wear red on that day just for good luck I think and we all did! haha! sharing some of the photos..

Happy Birthday mommy! hope you have many many more birthdays to come! cliche but it's my wish really..