Lavender ‘N Orange Welcome Guest | Login or Register

Yeasterday morning I enjoyed a bonding time with my son in a different activity. We did not watched airplanes in You Tube as his new fascination or the  new “in thing” for him now (it’s like he has an inkling on becoming a pilot) nor watched his backyardigans, barney or little einsteins tv series in xbox but  we did some art activity, we did some painting. I’m so proud of his imagination of an airplane in an abstract form.

We’ll have ample time for rest, sleep, play, do some activities with the kids, or how about get in touch with the nature or hang out with friends and beach would be nice too! For 9 consecutive days starting tomorrow, there’ll be no early wake up calls, no work for Dad Nath and no school for Andrea. And i’m happy that Hiro came back! Happy Eid Everyone!

We are so thankful to Daddy God for the gift of LOVE!!!

How time flies so quickly, now we are nearing our 5^th wedding anniversary. Looking back, 5 years ago we are so young yet matured. We decided to start our family though we don’t know how to cook, we don’t know how to raise kids but we trusted our feelings, our deep love that make us compromise on things.

In retrospect, we had our share of the normal rollercoaster ride of marriage. We had our ups and downs but with our love we surpassed everything. In our five years, it’s full of surprises, adventures, joy, and courage to face every dilemma that comes our way. We complimented each other with our varying views on things. It was sometimes like what you’ve said “the taming of the shrew!” Lalo na pag “meron” I was so unpredictable and moody! But again with our undying love you changed me into a more wonderful person, for that I thank you.

We are not afraid of starting a family; despite all the hurdles we’ve proved them wrong, our detractors. We are so motivated that we coped on how to raise a family. We said to each other that we we’ll learn especially in taking care of our first born baby. As first timers we are sometimes on a trial and error mode. But then again it’s the parent’s intuition that guided us.

At first nobody knows how to cook except put the rice cooker on and then fry everything that comes in handy. That was the funny part almost all of our food were fried as we don’t know how to cook. But hey, how about my cooking after 5 years I guess nobody would disagree with me that somehow I’ve improved and you too! From simple cooking we’ve learned to cook new dishes and at a taste of liken to a pro’s cook menu.

We always enjoy planning ahead our short term and long term goals. And how can I forget the up to wee hour discussion and sharing of stories of our childhood. And we always discuss on how to come up with a more viable approach on saving more. Do you remember on how we saved a lot on our first year of marriage? We were so frugal those times. We always compare prices of everything that we buy and mostly bought stuffs that are basically needed and not out of mere wants. Of how we always love to concoct ways to improve our financial awareness and planned of retiring rich and young. Alas! I’ve blurted out that lines maybe now we could start to materialize it. (Grin!) Though we have lots of properties and other stuffs to brag about. (This line is for you aka Christy Fermin!) But I don’t want to sound too thankful by writing and specifying those stuffs  coz what’s important for me is the abundancy of love that we are blessed of and our kids.

We always discuss things that we are so open with our communication and feelings and we always make it up to each other if someone hurt one’s heart. I’m so thankful for this because lots of marriages fail due to some gap in their communication which hinders their growth as couples. I’m so thankful to be blessed with a loving husband with a golden heart as what I always tell you. And I’m thankful to Mama Sie and Papa San for raising such a wonderful person like you!

You are my best friend (even before pa), and my everything,

My lover and still my boyfriend (sometimes we pretend heheheh),

You are my gentle hubby and you are the best dad!

You are the sweetest gift that God gave me.

Happy Anniversary! I love you!

Last night while I was busy preparing our dinner my two kids were also busy playing near our dining table. As I can’t see them, my daughter asked me if they can play pretend and quickly I retorted back at her, “of course you can!” And Andrea said to her brother, “Okay let’s pretend that we are playing with a lot of snow.”Unmindful of what they are really up to, I thought they were just pretending that they are really in a snowy place my hubby blurted out with emergency in his voice, “Andrea and Sean pick up all of those shredded tissues!”Oh my! They almost finished a box of a tissue, shredded them into tiny pieces then scattered them on the carpet so that it would look like snows. Clever kids but they had to pick all of them together with their daddy before we started our dinner. Kids are always kids and they love to play pretend. 

As the middle part of the Holy Month of Ramadan rolled on the children experienced again the Garangao festival. It is the Khaleeji halloween and part of the festivity is singing of garangao songs by the children and each household especially the elder women prepare huge sacks of every kind of nuts and sweets or as what they called it “halawa” and treat every children who knocks on their door. Children hop on door to door for sweets and nuts. It is like giving food to the disadvantaged people in the world and the music and daces show the traditions of the country.

And my daughter experienced her first Garangao festival in her school. Each pupil was asked to be dressed in their national costume by the teacher and also to bring loot bags full of nuts and sweets and they sang songs and visited other classes and shared with them their loot bags and they’re also given back sort of exchange of goodies. And Andrea went hone happily with all her goodies and shared it with her brother Sean.

She wore a traditional Qatari girl outfit for Garangao as we don’t have with us the Filipiniana dress (I guess next time we would be more ready with her costumes).Her BFF Xianne in an Igorot outfit.

To all our friends, for more 4th birthday pictures of our adorable daughter please visit my multiply account (just click the link below). Thank You!

Andrea Turned 4!

Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo! A Dream Come True! Last September 21^st (Friday) our daughter turned 4 and we celebrated her birthday with the company of our dear close friends. It was one successful event with the help of our friends.

The venue is in Bennigans Tavern and Grill in Khalifa Squash and Tennis Complex and we went there at 4 pm to decorate the playing area and some of the dining area designated only for our guests. We are so lucky to have angels, our friends who were there to help us like Mavis and Tita Jinky (the godmother of the celebrant) who helped us in inflating some of the balloons in their house making them into table toppers and transporting them to the venue and lastly she transported her gift (the birthday cake) from Ate Mayette to Bennigans again. We are also thankful to Tanc and Olivia who came here for their 3 days in-transit/vacation and they helped us in anyway that they can. They helped us in carrying the stuffs that we need, inflating more balloons, did the connections of the gadgets that we need for the party as it was not included in the services of Bennigans and they took some of the pictures and they were so cool to be with. The same with Mavis, she was there to help us in decorating the place and turned out to be a co-host of Ninong Robin during the program during the kiddy games. We really appreciate your help guys and we thank you so much for everything. You are really our angels in disguise!

It was kind of hard in decorating the place since there were other kids who kept on taking the balloons and also some of the cake toppers and I was also thankful that that kid returned it back to us, the Ariel cake topper. It was like we had to put to some unused garbage bags almost all of the inflated balloons or else we would end up with nothing before the party starts.

The party started with a prayer by ate Jannah Rasheya, a very close friend of the celebrant who sometimes acts as a real ate to Princess and followed by a song (reflection) from the movie Mulan by Andrea’s BFF (best friend forever). And the celebrant was very touched by the gesture that she kept on saying, “I love you Xiannelle!” And then followed by a dance number by one also Andrea’s close friend, Ate Anjela. It was hosted by the ever vibrant and jolly Ninong Robin. Thanks Sissy for the help!

It was followed by the kiddy games. This time it was Mavis who hosted the games with “the bring me” game first. The kids knew this game very much that they were on guard f what they are suppose to bring to the party host and the moment they got the message of what they bring they quickly ran to their parents for assistance. Kids were told to bring, a 10 riyal bill, a white hair, a shoe lace, and other stuffs. It was followed by the musical chair game then the stop dance which we had to let them be all the winners since almost all of them were so into it that they really know the game.  The birthday celebrant asked me if she can go down from her throne to be with the dancing kids. She enjoyed every moment of it and our friend Olivia asked Mom May why almost all of them were doing the same moves. And that’s because the music was from a noon time show that almost I guess of the Pinoys were watching in their everyday lives here I Doha.   

Then it was the time for the singing of happy birthday and blowing of the candles. We gathered around the birthday cake, which I almost made all of the decors in its stand and Andrea felt all the happiness I guess as we sang happy birthday to her and party poppers were opened and she blew her candles. The birthday cake was given by her NInay Jinky and family and another present from mom May and dad Yam, a tray full of yummy brownies for everyone to enjoy.

And the pulling of piñata came, we could not hang it there so we just decided to let uncle Tanc hold it up high and let the Ate Andrea pull the strings. Kids got crazy with all of the candies on the floor and as well as the celebrant.

Then the last part of the program was the awarding of the best in costume for the girls and boys. It was Angelie with a Grecian white gown attire who won and Kuya Ahsan in his traditional Pakistani outfit.    

Tito X-tian, our dear friend was the photographer. He’s always kind that even it was so tiring to bring his very heavy for professional photographers only cannon 400 D camera he patiently took pictures of the celebrant with family and with friends in each table. Uncle Noy is also the official video man cum carrier of other stuffs to the party room. To Tita Wen, thanks also for printing the name tags for the kids how we wish that you and your family were there:)

And what followed next was a sumptuous meal with Bennigans…

Here’s the Menu:

The Appetizers:

Buffalo Chicken Wings

Chicken Quesadilla

Chicken Country Salad

Main Course:

Fried Sea Food Platter with the side dish of corn and vegetables

Chicken Kebab with Rice and mashed potato

Shamrock Pasta

Monte Cristo

Chicken Strips with coleslaw and steamed vegetables as side dishes

Drinks:
Refillable Iced Tea

The Kids Meal:

Kids chosed from the ff:

Chicken a Little (chicken strips with fries)

Kid Burger

Hot Diggity Dog

Kid’s Fish and Chips

Dessert:

The Birthday chocolate cake made by ate Mayette

As they ate, a ceramic ballerina inside a purple and pink pouch with a tag on it were distributed to the guests and loot bags for the kids with Disney princess and friends stickers, colored pencils, assorted candies and chocolates. And lots of tattoos’ and stickers were also given to the kids.

We thank you also Ninay Jinky again for lending us the balloon poles and the nicely made castle (by Kuya Eric).

It was indeed a very happy birthday bash, our princess was so ecstatic with joy even though she was tired  since we were in the place from 4 pm until 10 pm.

T o all our friends and the staffs of Bennigans thank you very much.

To view more birthday pictures of our princess just click the link below:

http://athenalexia.multiply.com/

These are the pictures that we took on the first day of Ate Andrea’s school while waiting for the Pinoy driver to come just to keep Sean occupied with something and it worked! 

Last week, our daughter Ate Andrea started her school in DMBS as KG 4. We woke up early at 6 am on Sept. 4 even we knew that we can go there in between 8 am to 9 am since the school Principal, Ms. Sandra Williams will give us instructions as to where our daughter’s room will be. We headed straight to the administration office and Ms. Sandra asked us which class our daughter we’ll be attending and I told her that she’s in KG 3. As she flipped through her records Andrea’s name can’t be found (silly us we didn’t check her name on the information board near the gate as we already know that she’ll be in KG 3) so she asked us again the family name then only to find out that she’s already in KG 4.

We were led to the KG4-Yellow classroom by one of the school staff and Andrea happily told her teacher her name when she was asked then quickly ran to the group of other kids in the front who are already singing with the assistant teacher. But I found out that in their record she has only Andrea as her name without the second name Lizette, so I informed them that it should be Andrea Lizette.

Her dad was also excited and very supportive that he applied for a leave of absence for one day just to make sure that everything will be okay. The only problem was that we don’t have transport since the school has no school bus. Luckily our friend Mavis was able to find one with an Indian driver but the problem is he’ll not be available on time with the 12:15 dismissal of classes and we don’t want to pay another 600 riyals just to let them stay in the classroom until 1:15 so another option is to find another driver who would transport us. We met some Filipino moms too there and they were kind enough to tell us that maybe our daughter can go with their transport but after a long discussion the Filipino driver can’t accommodate us since he’ll be short of his time if he’s going to fetch me first before going to the school. And he can’t accommodate also Xianne (Princess BFF) since their house is in Old Airport, so we have to find another one. As school policy kids in KGs and Reception should be fetched by a parent or a guardian, so that mean me and Sean should fetch her and still she’s too young to manage to walk from her classroom to the parking area.

Andrea’s first day was a colorful one. She was bubbly and she came home with two flowers (instead of stars) on both hands as a sign that she did great in her first day at school. Even her teacher was happy to tell her dad that she was a good girl. She’s attentive to the instructions and she follows what the teacher told her to do.She missed her little brother very much that she hugged him tightly and kissed him on the car and she showed to Sean at once her 2 flowers on her hand. She told us their activities on the first day of school. And I know that she’ll be okay now, her mind was set in going to school and she’ll be fine. We told her how much we love her and we are happy for her. 

Some of her pictures during her first day in school: