Livin high and takin it easy

Last Sunday, the family gathered to celebrate my only nephew and godson’s 5th birthday. Since my sisters’ kids and mine are all spaced two years apart, we will also be celebrating my niece’s 3rd birthday in three months’ time. Everyone in the family was there except for my brother and his wife who flew to Connecticut last week. My brother is starting his second masters degree in Yale University on a scholarship this fall.

I love this photo of the kids with the grandparents,

for it is actually a repeat of the photo from last year.
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I missed Top Junk’s performance in Ten02 Bar last year during Roma’s birthday party so this was the first time I got to see them perform… and boy did I love them! They got themselves one more fan (so much so that we are going to see them perform this coming Saturday, Sept 3 at 70s Bistro. Flush and the Toilets are also playing so that’s one more reason to go!)

I have uploaded the videos of the Top Junk performances from Amrei’s 30th birthday celebration at Route 196 last Saturday videos on the youtube account that I had to make just so I can have a place to upload videos to and share them. I’m new to this video-taking/video-making (like I’m new to “fashion photography” or the semblance of it), so it took me a while to make the videos brighter on iMovie. I re-uploaded the videos. They are now brighter but they are less sharp (which makes me a wee bit sad). It took me at least 3 hours each to upload the videos. I already took down the previously uploaded original videos.
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We’ve been looking forward to this event for quite some time as we knew it was gonna be one great night of celebration of life, friends and music. We had a blast with friends we get to see often and friends we don’t. Nothing like good old friends and wonderful music! (Watch out for videos of performances from Diwa de Leon, Top Junk, The Discoball and of course, Flush and the Toilets, to be posted as soon as they get uploaded on Youtube)

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Our very talented friend, The U.P. Repertory Company alumna and two-time chairperson, the person behind VitalStrats Creative Solutions and the lead vocals of Flush and the Toilets, celebrate her birthday today with music and friends at Route 196!

We have to admit that we’ve been looking forward to this for more than a month!

These days I find it hard to leave Lia at home with the maid after I caught the maid twice on different occasions and different days sleeping while watching over her. Another reason is that Lia needs a lot of activities and supervised play time. She is so interested in a lot of things and gets bored easily that I have to put a lot of effort in channeling her energies and her curiosity into things that are somehow developmental and educational.

So every time I have to do something outside the house, if it will not take a lot of time, like an errand to the bank a block away from the village gate, I do it while she is asleep. Every time I have to be away for a longer period of time, I try to take her with me.

Like Monday this week, I took her to U.P. with me, to the DUP office, Cashier’s Office and U.P. Shopping Center. In going home, we did a side trip to CDR King in Robinson’s East, had dinner at Jollibee and passed through Sta. Lucia East.

My day-to-day schedules and activities are basically governed by Lia’s schedules.

Friday this week had us going to Sta. Lucia again to pay our water bill, buy more DVD-Rs at CDR King, do the groceries and get her a new shirt, a new pair of walking sandals and a few pair of socks.

We did a little side trip to National Book Store where Lia had a grand time admiring books. She wanted all sorts of books! I had to take her away before she made a fuss.

On our way out the mall, I got her a little chocolate ice cream cone and she slurped at it like she was older than one year. It made me laugh to see her bob her head to the music blaring out of the speakers right outside Odyssey store, one hand holding mine and the other holding her little dripping ice cream cone, while her face was all splattered brown as we were passing by.

Sure, taking her out zaps all the energy out of me, but it makes me totally happy.

Weekend is always family day so Saturday saw us driving over to Cash & Carry mall over in Makati to supposedly look at this little shop for kids that carries pretty little dresses, a shop I found on Multiply. When we got there, I was happy to see that the dresses were really nice, the look and feel of it, but was saddened by the fact that there weren’t any in Lia’s size.

We ended buying her a toy and a nice Hello Kitty pen that lights up when you write and even has nice pink little feathers on it. We also bought presents for kids having their birthdays this month.

This Sunday, we took her to a kiddie birthday party in Fun Ranch in Tiendesitas.

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I don’t think I’ve ever been a party person and I would never describe myself as an extrovert, but I think, for Lia, I will go to parties, kiddie parties that is, because she loves people and she finds parties fun.

The Mayfield Park Residences clubhouse where Kria was having her first birthday party was jam packed when we got there. For someone who only goes to family kiddie parties, I’ve never seen so many kids and adults of all ages at a party. It was just Lia and I and we didn’t see anyone we knew when we got there so the first thing we did was look for Abet, Hash and Euan.

Euan, whom we fondly call “anti-social”, was already enjoying himself, playing with his mom at the playground by the pool.

Little big boy Euan looking like his mama in this photo

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My mother, looking good despite the chemotherapy sessions for the past eight months, celebrated her 61st birthday last night with her husband and all four of her children and her children’s children.

My brother bought this cake but we didn't have anything to light the candle with so my mom is just pretending to blow the candle..

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Abet, Hush and Euan as well as Lia and I were at Vanny and Jay’s daughter Kria’s first birthday party at the Mayfield Residences Clubhouse last Sunday, July 11. I felt what is probably how it is to be a single mom at that party, since my husband only dropped us off at the clubhouse and then took off to bring our shih tzu Ewok to Tiendesitas for a smear. We want Ewok to have little pups as she is almost three years old this year.

Ewok, our shih tzu, December 2008

This was Lia and I having our photo booth time. It is quite funny. She put the funky glasses on me for the first shot. We were both unprepared for the second. We were kinda prepared for the third and it looks like she has got a nice expression on too, but its too small to see. We tried to have a solo shot of her on the fourth by having her stand on a stool but well, there wasn’t enough time.

Lia and her mama at Kria's Bday party photo booth

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Unlike the wedding in 2006 when we did every single little thing ourselves, from sourcing suppliers down to writing on the invite envelopes, I did not want to deal with anything DIY for Lia’s birthday. Not because we can afford it but because we could not afford the time, all the effort and energy needed to do it all ourselves. Or even do it all MYSELF since this party was my idea anyway and it was what mothers did for their kids. So I looked all over the internet for kiddie party packages and stumbled onto the Cinco de Mayo Events site on Multiply. Out of all the packages Google got for me, from Metro Manila all the way to Cebu(!), Cinco de Mayo Events had the lowest kiddie party packages with almost everything I needed or wanted.

This was the package I got my eye on More

This is a photo of my father taken for his high school graduation book. I believe he was sixteen in this photo. Today, he is sixty-one. Happy birthday Pops!

I found a photo of us taken on the day of my wedding. I wish I have a better photo of us two.

Father and daughter, October 2006