Showing posts with label lalai chatterbox. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lalai chatterbox. Show all posts

Saturday, November 9, 2013

Allson Lorenzo's 3rd Birthday Celebration

The original plan was to celebrate Allson's birthday at school. But since he isn't coming to school lately, we decided to hold his celebration at home. 

I have a meager budget, so I have to come up with everything that's budget-friendly. This was my intial budgetary guideline: 



I woke up at around 3am to make som cuppies, and my eldest helped me out on these.


I started invading the kitchen to cook these quick and easy recipes: 


Then picked up the balloons just before noon. 

Our Ate Ganggang set up the balloons all over the living and dining area. (We love you, ate gang!)


Then we picked up Allson's cake afterwards. 

My little boy was excited. This is his first ever solo birthday party! (he always joins his ate's birthday celebration kase since their birthdays are just a week apart) This time, he has a celebration for himself alone :) 

We got him a cars-themed cake, like the first one on my peg. And some red and a few yellow balloons. 


I got him his birthday polo for only 155peso powers. Hehe... Such kuripot mommy.. But hey, the polo looked smart on him kaya! 


Let me share again, a few shots from our simple celebration: 





My little boy enjoyed his big day. I thank you people for coming. Even if Yolanda was on your way. (sheeeshh... remembering Yolanda makes these tears fall again.. the kids, the people in Visayas. Oh, God, please bless them, help them...) 

For the love of my three little indians, 


Lorie 

xoxo 

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Preparing for My Little Man's Big Day

A week after Ate's birthday would be Allson Lorenzo's. My boy is turning three and his mom is now busy preparing for his day. 


The initial plan was to celebrate his birthday at school. But my little boy is not coming in to class for the last 2 1/2 months now, and I think his classmates don't know him anymore. So we'd rather do it at home. Hehe... We'll have a simple thanksgiving with the family and a few close friends.

And since this little man is so much into Cars, we'll make it a Cars themed celebration. Here's my peg for his cake:


Kahit ano jan. Basta Cars, I'm sure he'll love it.

I have Ninang Lia to sponsor some chicken and mom's friend, tita cora and lani, 2 large trays of maja blanca :) 

I had a morning trip to Divisoria to buy some cute back packs (@28ea)* and coloring books (@8ea). I got Cars for the boys and Hello Kitty for the girls. 


Candies, lollies, gum, marshmallows, and corn puffs too, too: 


For the loot bags (backpacks, coloring books, crayons, straw cups, and candies), I spent 1094 peso powers. Just enough for 20kids. :) I also have some boxes of Alaska 3-4-5 to give out. I got them free from Alaska. :D


As usual, I have a strict budgetary guideline for this. I'll hope for the best. Ajah!

Xoxo,

Lorie

Thursday, July 4, 2013

My Birthday 2013

I have recently turned ===toot tooot===! Lol


I have celebrated this with my loved ones. Ngayon na lang uli ako nag-celebrate ng birthday na totoong, honest to goodness, super happy puso!

06/28. Visited Alabang with Mom and the kids.  My plan was to have our lunch at Cravings in Molito but the kids (and my mother dear) insisted on eating at Jollibee.

Then we visited Tita Lia @ SummerPointe.

Then off to The District for Metro's opening.

Wala naman. We just did our usual grocer stuff then uwi na din. It was not a good idea pala doing your grocery on the supermarket's opening. All aisles are crowded and it was super queueing at the counter. Binusog ko na lang eyes ko sa mga delights ng Suisse Cottage:




And while Mom was on queue at the counter, Aton had a photo op with Virginia Hotdog's mascot:

Anika was not on mood for the op. She was tired na kase. Kaya ayan.. 
06/29. A Visit to Tita Ginny's



 06/30. A Dinner with a good friend. :)

Gaya ng nabanggit ko kanina, this was one of the bestest birthdays I have ever had. I am blessed with a wonderful family, and a lot of good friends. At never Nya talaga akong pinabayaan.







Wednesday, January 2, 2013

A Retro and Vintage Christmas with Book Trees

Frugality = Resourcefulness + Creativity = Less Expense :D Winner!

Christmas 2012's theme was A December to Remember.  I thought of having a retro and vintage motif.

Vintage because people are attached to their memories and identify themselves with their past.  And the most interesting pop-art then was in the Retro era. So here we go....


 
We made these christmas trees and ninja stars from old Avon brochures (thanks Mommy Rache!) and recycled Nescafe Alegria and Starbucks coffee cups.


We didn't expect to win the bay deco contest, but i guess the spirit of creativity and resourcefulness prevailed over aesthetics.  The major plus was probably from the i ♥ mother earth idea. Well, thank you judges. Whoever you are :)

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Allson and Allison's Wonderpets + Hi-5 Partey 2012


This year was the easiest, most hassle-free, budget-friendly birthday preparation i ever had for the kids.

I got two 8" round cakes from Cakes and Memories (fellow moms from the South knew for sure how terrible this bakeshop's customer service was-- [past tense, ok?], nevertheless, i  got my cakes from them. the frugal mommy i am. their moist chocolate caramel cakes are superb, i just can't resist it!)
An 8" round cake would be enough to cover my kids' blowcakes. I got 2 of them. They won't be the star of the event anyway as we were holding the celeb at a play place. The kids might just ignore the cakes.

I got about 2 dozen balloons prepped for their mini party. Was expecting around 20 kiddie guests-- that's about 9 from allison's class (they're 19 in class  but i thought only nearly half would make it to Rob), 3 brats from the neighborhood, a nephew, and 6 officemate kids.

The initial plan was to get 2 cakes from C&M and order a giant pizza from, where else??? Pizza Hut of course! :D But Pizza Hut Robinson's Place Dasma and eve SM Dasma is not serving the giant one anymore. So I crossed it out from my planner. Will have to get trays of pasta from a friend then. Oh, jeez. this reminds me of Hannah. I miss her. :) Moving on, the plans weren't realized as I was very busy a few days before the kids' celebration. I was not even able to print out a peg for Allson's Wonderpets cake. I just gave the C&M staff a cutout of the wonderpets logo so they can make a gumpaste that would look like it.
Bought 3 boxes of Country Style crazy squares, logs and twists, 2 cases of C2, some candies and gums, and 2 dozens of non-woven mini bags (for the looties). Did an Art Attack for some Hi-5 hands, Jupjup artsys, and WOnderpets logos from spare construction paper we have at the office. Tagged some facebook friends on an e-invite, printed out a few invitations for Allison's classmates and the neighborhood kids, and texted my closest friends and relatives. This would do, I guess.

Come after shift, November 13, rushed from the office to the bakeshop to pick up the cakes.


Allson's Wonderpets Cake was very plain and dull. I even had a slight argument with the staff on how the gumpaste logo turned out to be. They didn't make a blue border for the red W on the yellow gumpaste. It didn't look like Wonderpets'! So we bought some candy-coated chocolates (mini Nips, to be specific), opened about 14 packets to collect blue candy-coats to complete the blue border for the Wonderpets logo. Added dots of red and yellow candies over the little cake, and voila! My efforts brought some life to the little blowcake!



Allison's Hi-5 cake was topperless. I was sleepless for several days contemplating on what to do with it. It has to resemble at least a bit of the Hi-5 theme. That morning, I thought of borrowing Tita Ginny's picture stand (a piece I have commissioned JenClaymaster to make for Ginny on her 27th birthday) as it resembles some color as the base cake I've ordered. Didn't realize it can do the trick. Here's what happened:

Not bad, uh?

Now we move on to the party. There was no program or anything. We just let the kids rule the floor. Set a Hi-5 and Wonderpets dvd playing at the background, and there you go...

The three hours were well-spent. It was a fantastic way to celebrate my kids birthdays, with this age range.

I told you, it was hassle-free.

Here's Allson's Tarp--


The Loot Bag Contents (Gums and Candies)--



 

The Invites-- 




Oh, let me share with you the peso powers. You won't believe it!

Action Station 3hour exclusivity-- 4,500 powers
8" Round Cakes from Cakes and Memories @485ea-- 970 powers
24 balloons on stick @13ea-- 312 powers
Mushroom Pasta Trays (serves 30) -- 700 powers
Country Style Doughnuts disc @20ea-- 720 powers
C2 Solo x 2cases @7.75/bottle-- 372 powers
Candies and Gums-- 500 powers
Non-woven bags @12ea--  288 powers
Allson's 3x4 tarpaulin-- 180 powers
Invites @4.75ea-- 114 powers


What have I not included? Oh, the gas to and fro, mobile phone talktime, and miscellaneous ones... :)


Saturday, August 25, 2012

My Chevron Racer Pen

I got a little treat from Anj today...

image credits: chevronstore.com
A Chevron Racer Pen!

It's a balck ballpoint, click action pen, in the figure of a racer car which really moves. I'm sure my dearest Allson will love this.

Thanks Anj, thanks Chevron! LOL

Xoxo,

Lalai

Thursday, August 9, 2012

My ID Checklist :D

My Company ID. For Last Name Update. My SSS Card. For Last Name Update.
My Pag-ibig HDMF ID. For Last Name Update.
My Passport. For Last Name Update. Expiring this year, too!
My Voter's ID.
My Driver's License.
My Philhealth Card. Updated. Check!


Sunday, July 22, 2012

Assessment First...


Before pushing through with an initiative like that I've mentioned from my previous entry, I'll strike at a needs assessment first. I hope I can get responses to compare feedback from internal and external respondents.

Feel free to participate in this survey in case you resonate with me. LOL


TIA! ;D

xoxo,

Lalai

Monday, July 2, 2012

A Child Care Facility, How About That??

I would love to be an at home mom to my 3 wonderful kids 24/7 without any complaints. But of course, being a single mom is tough. I had to work for us to live, which will make this ideal, very impossible. I'm just a little lucky that I can at least leave the kids with my 67-year old mom at night while I'm at work. I know how difficult it is for her to take care of these kiddoes while I'm away. But things would probably still work better if i had somebody to look after them while I'm at work, when mom's not around, or when the nanny stows away again. 

Like me, most of my friends and colleague moms do not have yayas to look after our children. Nannies have become increasingly difficult to find and sometimes when we do have one, we find it hard to trust them with our kids. There would also be instances when our nannies would have their own emergencies and we’re left with no choice but to call in and miss our shifts. I’m thinking… Parent employees like us need a back-up facility when there's nobody to attend to our kids. I wish my employer would have such facility in the office to accommodate this need.

The idea of having an amenity in GEMSPI like a next-door/ in-house child care center where working parents can deposit their children before their shifts, drop by them during breaks can boost productivity since we do not need to call in sick to attend to our kids and become more settled with the thought that our kids are just next door.



ABC & Me Childcare image credits: The New York Times

Since we do graveyard, odd shifts and non-standard hours, the need would probably be a night care center. Instead of the traditional day care center, the concept would be a child care center like that of ABC & Me Childcare.
GE can benefit from this as the idea projects reduced turnover, increased productivity and fewer unscheduled days off. Aside from GEMSPI's [already] promising benefits, this can be another edge for the company in hiring the best talents and can also encourage female employees to return to work after having children. It is a great benefit for us, female employees and (aside from SIP), will make it difficult for us to leave the company.:)

I hope the people behind GE Women's Network resonate with this. :)





My Birthday Wishlist =)

Let me share with you my very simple birthday wishlist:


Nenuco. Gap So Pink. To relive my olfactory mem'ries.
A pair of canvess sneakers.
And a happy puso.

Happy 25th birthday to me! =)

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

I'm Back!

It's been a while since my last entry. A lot has happened. A lot has change. And I'm back now.:)

For good.:)


xoxo

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Best Buy of the Day!

Passed by the fruit stand right across the shuttle terminal in Kadiwa and bought five dainty lakatan bananas for only 5 peso powers!



Imagine, 5 pesos for 5 potassium boosters! What a buy!:))

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Two Weeks of Struggle

Their dad left us shortly after their birthday celebration. And that was.... on the very next day!

I tried to push thru with a post birthday celebration for the kids to make use of the left over cakes and cuppies, balloons, party hats, candies, lootbags, and tutus. Before I tell you the story behind the reason why I was out and struggling for more than two weeks now, let me share a few captures from our backyard celebration:





Now, for the story where the struggles all began.




Drich and I fought over a very petty reason, which I wish not to disclose for the meantime.:)  He left us that Sunday morning. The neighborhood kids were already invited for an afternoon party and there's no way that I can not push it through. I had to do everything on my own again.

There you go..... Money hunt, groceries, cooking, contacts and preps. All done by myself. Alone. I can't complain. Because, again, I am alone.:)


Monday. I was still able to do the usual first-day-of-the-week to-do's and was even able to run an errand for some dog food and scheduled a session with the sonologist. That Monday, I found out we're having another baby girl. I was happy.

Come Tuesday. It was a so so day. Haven't heard anything from my husband yet. But that's okay. I'm used to his stow away- give me time to think about things- i need time alone drama. That night though, while I was at the office, our Meralco meter base at home got burned and our whole block was power out.  The neighbors were able to get their lines fixed the next day as they only had problems with their wirings. But ours was a big facer. We need to get a new base, start a new line and request for a new service application.


Wednesday. The Meralco inspector gave us instructions on filing for a new service app and installing the new wires and meter base. This was not a joke at all. Imagine, we had to scout for gazillions of hardwares to look for the right wire types and sizes. The wire buying task took us almost half a day which did not leave us a choice but to push the installation job for the next day.

Thursday. The money-hunt day.:) I was left with no choice but to withdraw from the kids' bank account. I was saving their money for the holidays but that's the only quick fix I can think of for the meantime. I was able to get a thousand from Nanay Mily for the Meralco Application and stuff. I didn't waste a second then. I rushed to Meralco to secure a meter base and fill out some forms and all.


In the afternoon, while I was trying to set myself for a siesta, I felt this adrenalin rush and decided to clean the garage and frontyard. Mom saw me rummaging through some bins and she helped me with it. We were able to collect old car spare parts, my kids' empty milk cans, some old toils, old boxes and empty distilled water bottles. This looks like an afternoon trip to the Junk Shop! And so we did:
 




We were able to sell these junk for a total of 408Pesos! Not bad!


Friday. All materials were successfully bought. Our Certificate of Final Electrical Inspection was  requested from the City Hall. I thought everything was set. The field inspector paid us a visit but he requested to have a few wires changed again. I was disheartened and almost gave up. Well, I actually gave up that day. I'm left with a few hundreds in my wallet and I can not spend that for another roll of wire. I was saving them in my billfold for Allson's milk and household allowance.

Come on Lalai, you can't fall apart today. Well, I think you deserve a little rest. Let's go visit your Ate Nice at Chateau Elysee. So there you go...








The kids enjoyed some swimming spree 'til about seven. They then dropped me off at the office for my night shift :)

The Weekend. No updates yet. Still struggling, but getting by. :)

I know, I'll get through this. God will always provide. I know.