Happy Halloween!

I hope you had a fun halloween despite the rain this afternoon and the traffic! I almost thought Ethan's first trick or treat will be in doom since the rain won't stop. I actually liked the idea that it's not too sunny, just the right temperature so the kids won't be feeling hot and sticky while trick or treating, but the lighting condition isn't that good for taking photos! Hah! Lumabas din ang totoo, yun lang pala ang habol ko hehehe.

Well, some of you may be wondering why is this Ethan's first trick or treat when he is already four! One, Ethan's bday falls within the Halloween season and our attention has always been focused on his bday party that we didn't want to think about Halloween nor Trick or Treat. Two, I don't give Ethan candies or sweets until age 3 (well, except that my mom gave him lollipops at an early age! You know how grandparents are : ) I thought it will be unfair for him to have treats only for me to hide it afterwards. Three, I'm not a Halloween fan! Although I love scary movies I'm not fond of dressing up in costumes. But when Ethan turned three, I thought it's time for him to join the bandwagon hehehe. My mom bought a Power Rangers costume for him to wear. But we had to go to Palawan for a short vacation. I brought everything with me - Ethan's costume, a small treat bag and even some packs of candies just in case we couldn't find any Halloween parties there. True enough there was none. I checked all the hotels, asked several locals if there will be any Trick or Treat or halloween party but my efforts were all futile. I insisted Ethan wore his costume at the hotel and maybe we could make our own "trick or treat" but we were invited by our godfather to have dinner that night. So, to make this story shorter, walang trick or treat na naganap! Sigh!

Anyway, this halloween I'd like you to meet my Little Captain Jack Sparrow (as he insists he is although his costume is not of a captain so to speak). He also insisted to wear his Diego rubber shoes, good thing he forgot about his Rescue pack or else we would have a Pirate Diego in tow this afternoon hehehe.

Here's the pirate complete with effects - a bandana, an eyepatch, a pirate hat, an earring, a pirate sword and a hotdog and marshmallow on stick : D I also bought a small telescope, a dagger and a hook but Ethan couldn't use them all together at the same time hahaha! Halata bang kinareer ng nanay pati ang socks?!

We arrived Chinggay's house a few minutes past three p.m. Chinggay, our gracious host and Chinny's mom (Ethan's classmate) invited us over today for trick or treat around their village and a simple get together for our kids. Unfortunately, only us made it this afternoon ... it was quite sad as we have been expecting Ethan to be with his classmates. Anyway, we still had fun and I heard Ethan and Jeff already talking of their next Halloween costumes and gimmicks!

Anyway, as we were walking around the village, I asked Ethan if he likes what we are doing and if he's having fun and he said, "yes"! As I'm writing this one, Ethan on the otherhand has been drawing his experiences today - he drew himself with Chinny, Chinny's house, the spider web decoration he saw, a jack o lantern, a pumpkin etc ... just a proof that he really enjoyed his halloween!

We didn't get a lot of candies though because we only chose the houses we asked for treats and we didn't want to tire our kids. Plus the fact that there were so many kids outside, bigger than Ethan and Chinny ... I know you know what I mean ; ) We are contented that we went around looking at beautiful Halloween decorations. Much as Jeff would like to take as many pictures, he just couldn't since he's also driving the car while I take Ethan around. Maybe next year we can come up with a better scheme so we could go around more and so Jeff will be in the photos too. Mind you, he was wearing a black skull bandana too and was in black shirt-di papayag ang nanay kung di coordinated ang lahat! : )

We really had a blast today! Ethan got to meet Peter Pan, Snow White, a Spartan and a group of Roman soldiers all in one night! Buti na lang di kami natuloy sa Cebu hehehe! I'm so excited to scrap the photos taken today, there were only a few but I just love them all!

Thanks for reading my long post!

-Pia

Filipina talent at Daisy Bucket blog

Head on over to the Daisy Bucket blog for an overload of Filipina talent at its finest!

Don't forget to leave messages for our 8 guest designers! Thanks!

-Pia

Chatterbox DT Callback Entries

At long last, I can share with you my Callback entries for Chatterbox!

Before I show my entries, let me give you a little background about the box of goodies Courtney sent me. The box arrived while I was at work so I didn't get to see it at once. Although the morning of that particular day, I received a call from UPS that a box will be delivered that afternoon. They were asking for directions how to go to our far away place hehehe. Past 12 noon, I received a call from the news reporter err I mean from my friend, Ria. She told me her box arrived with Artsylicious papers and embellishments on it. I don't know if it was fear of the unknown that I wasn't excited to go home and see what's inside my box, thinking that everyone will be getting the same things. Don't get me wrong though, Artsylicious are nice papers too but I was expecting some thing else hahaha! Ungrateful ba? : )

By evening, I got home and saw my box. I went upstairs to get my cutter. While descending the stairs, I saw Jeff trying to examine the box - shaking it! Duh, so here's my husband who sometimes gets peeved when I'm indulged in scrapping ... so eager to know what's inside my box! I opened the box ... and yes Jeff's still beside me helping me open the box too with his hands! Hay atat!

I read the letter first which was on top of the box and tried not to see the content yet. Lo and behold, I saw the word, "Eclectique" and that was it, I was as happy as could be hehehe! It was what I really wanted and what prompted me to join this contest anyway! Happily, I unearthed the box. I'm grinning from ear to ear each time I remove an item from the box! My favorites are the acrylic stamps and the chipboard embellishments! I love them all actually! Courtney sent us a lot that I thought even if I will not make it as a DT, I feel like a winner already!

My assignment for the callbacks was to make a layout using the Eclectique line and to make another project/layout using whatever is left. I didn't want to get pressured so I let the days passed without touching any of my stuff. I want "inspiration" to come and tell me what to do rather than me begging "inspiration" to come and tell me what will I do hehehe. So, "inspiration" did arrive only a day before the deadline hahaha!

Here's my layout:

I'm not into paper piecing but I thought I got to try it now. Making the body of the guitar was easy, it was just like drawing the letter B. After that, all the papers and embellishments seemed to fit perfectly! When I look at my layout, it looked simple but I love it!

For my second project, I thought of making a mini album since I got one in my box. But thinking that all of us got the same albums and perhaps most will create the same, I thought of highlighting the acrylic stamps instead. Since I've been reading birthday magazines lately, I was inspired to make these lootbags and flower lollipops.

This is an inexpensive way of decorating lollipops and lootbags by using stamps, left over paper or scraps, pens, and watercolor pencils. For the flower lollipops, I stamped an image then doodled on it. No two flowers are alike! I made sure I made each flower with a unique design! ; ) I filled the glass with rice (thanks BJay for this idea). I also embellished it with small flowers. I find the bird stamp perfect for the lollies!

For the lootbags, I stamped several images - heart, wings, bird and thought balloon. I color the images with color pencil, handcut and attached it at the back of bbq sticks. I also embellished the small cups with flowers, borders and scallops from my scraps. The small plastic cups are from Japan Store, they're so cheap and kids can even reuse them at home!

The fun part about these party food decors is the filling up and mixing of candies! Scrappers would always try to coordinate colors so I made sure the colors of the candies are matched with the color of the cups hahaha!

It was quite an experience to do this! I enjoyed the process a lot! Thanks Courtney of Chatterbox for the opportunity!

-Pia

All About Ethan ...

Last September 8 was Mother's Day at Rosemont School. Ethan's class had a surprise dance number. They danced to the tune of 'Happy' (di ako sure sa title hehehe). There aren't any photos that I could share with you because Jeff, our photographer missed Ethan's performance ... guess why?

Because, Jeff and the other dads were cooking up something for the moms ...

Si Jeff kumanta with the other dads!!! hehehe. He and the rest of the dads surprised us when they sang, 'You' (by Karen Carpenter). I hope he does this more often - surprise and sing to me hehehe!

The past weeks have also been very stressful for mommy! Almost every week, we were asked to send our kids to school in costumes: office attire, community helpers and on Oct. 24, international costume! I'm lucky to have a creative husband who thought of sending Ethan to school in a fireman's costume - the solution? A fireman's hat at Toys 'R Us for less than P90, a red raincoat and a pair of red rain boots! Now guess where did Jeff get the hose? From the washing machine, of course! Ethan was the only one wearing a fireman costume in their class. And everybody thought it was a real fireman costume hehehe; I told them we only made that up! One classmate even approached me, asking me where I bought the hose. He probably wants one for himself too : )

For the office attire, it was a good thing I was able to borrow one but the classes were cancelled on that day due to bad weather so Ethan didn't get to wear his office attire.

The test evaluation for nursery was also last week but unlike last quarter when I was so pressured to review Ethan with his lessons, this time I don't want to push him too hard. I'm not sure if I made the right decision, I hope I did. I just don't want to make things too hard for him, he's just a kid and I want him to enjoy school.

Ethan's class also had community field trips (at the Dentist's clinic and fire department). Parents were only asked to come when they visited the South Supermarket. Ethan had fun choosing the things he want to buy! They were given a P50 allowance for this activity but I think nobody stick to it hehehe ...

Ethan will be celebrating his 4th birthday on Wednesday, Oct. 22!!! I have a four year old na? Waah! Bakit parang ang bilis?! Anyway, we had a simple Diego themed bday party in school last Oct. 17, Friday. Parties in school are only allowed during their recess time on fridays and since next friday is already the start of the sem break, we thought of celebrating in advance. Nicole, his classmate celebrated her bday last Oct. 8 and was supposed to celebrate last Oct. 10, unfortunately classes were cancelled then so her mom and I decided to throw her party together with Ethan.

Ethan was so happy to see his Diego bday cake made by Tita Arlene (thanks too to Tita Ria for the cake pan) as well as the cute cupcakes with jungle animals as cake toppers. Tita Arlene even made cookie lollipops for Ethan's classmates in the shapes of cars, trucks and airplanes. I made animal lootbags too for that day - di bale nang napuyat ako! Here's what Ethan said when he saw his lootbags: "WoW!!! Ang ganda!!!" (anak ko talaga siya hehehe!)

We are throwing another birthday party for Ethan at home on his exact birth date. It'll be a small and simple one with family members at home. But we'll make sure he will also have a blast like he did on his school bday party.

Last activity for this school quarter is the Children's Day on Thursday, Oct. 23. Jeff has work that day and will miss this one but I hope to borrow a cam so I can take pictures.

Next week is Halloween and my Ethan is excited for his first Trick or Treat (yup, yup, it's his first!)

He's going to be a pirate. Ethan will be trick or treating with his classmates in school so he will really enjoy it! After that, we'll have a small Halloween potluck party!

(balloons at the back were gift of Tita Arlene given last friday and we're hoping they will stay inflated till Oct. 22, para masulit! hahaha!)

Thanks for reading my long post! I hope to share my layouts soon!

-Pia