All Set and Ready to Go

my carry on luggage filled with kids' stuff

Finally finished packing and cleaning today. I am dead tired, not feeling any excitement yet since our flight won't be until Tuesday morning. We are going to Calgary a day early to stay with hubby's relatives. This is our 3rd summer vacation and you'd think I'm used to packing. Much as I love organizing things, I tend to over pack all the time. This time, I tried so hard to just pack 'necessities' and was able to squeeze them into three luggages.

Call me meticulous but I probably started several weeks before and only finished today. I had hubby load them up in the trunk this afternoon. I wish I had more space, I wanted to bring tons from my stockpile but I packed so much clothes, mostly Leila's.

Weeks ago, I was already busy being busy. It's the anticipation of all the madness involved in packing, cleaning and last minute errands. It was stressful for me just because I get easily stressed by anything. Come to think of it, I do deserve this vacation! We all do!

HAPPY SUMMER EVERYONE!  Enjoy yours because we are definitely going to enjoy ours :D

One Last Post

Yeyy leaving tomorrow for our month long vacation. I want my camera empty so might as well post the remaining food pictures. With kids at home 24/7, I had to whip up their favorite food mostly store bought while we try to let them eat what Mom and Dad have as well, which was hard of course :P

Perogies- my kids' all time fave, 10 pcs. in one sitting plus a generous amt. of sour cream on the side and Yakult

We can eat these all day Mom!

chicken popcorn, cheese breadstick and Pediasure

my new fave!

fresh strawberries + vanilla ice cream

3 cheese toast

leftover luncheon meat with mayo and cucumber sandwich

cucumber and corn salad

Beef Broccoli

String beans Adobo

Beef and Tripe Kare Kare

Sauteed string beans and bok choy with ground pork

I made sure the fridge is empty except for some ice cream and my juice stock in the freezer. No veggies left and all leftovers recycled. New food adventures here we come, I am so ready for you! :D

Too Hot to Eat

We are getting by with simple food for the summer. I am too lazy to do anything because of too much heat. Hot food on a hot day just doesn't make any sense to me. Luckily, I was able to score cheap juice and free ice cream, which reminds me, I have to go pick up some more juice later.

So, what's on our table these days? Nothing fancy really. I'm itching to go to the supermarket so I can buy salad ingredients and fruits. That's all I want to prepare and eat. I wish I could say hubby and I are on a diet but we are not. It's laziness!

my free sausages, corn, cucumber and vinaigrette

loaded fried rice with leftover sausages and egg

ingredients for Pancit Canton

used fresh noodles

Stir Fried Pancit canton

grilled cheesy egg sandwich for Lance

marinated beef and scrambled egg

shrimp omelette

my favorite! cucumber and tuna salad

I guess we still have the same huge appetite that we have even though I have toned down on cooking, or maybe because our freezer has nothing but my cheap juice and free ice cream! :D

A Family Weekend

We spent the weekend in Calgary. I was able to convince hubby to stay there for 3 days and 2 nights and not just our usual overnight stay. The kids were pretty much amazed with the fancy hotel and begged to stay for a couple more nights.

Day 1 was spent in Deerfoot Mall and we ate lunch at Buffet Yangtze. It was delicious, there were plenty of choices, the kids loved the food and I would love to come back there again. The mall I didn't like much so after eating we headed to hubby's next agenda. The kids and I stayed in the car while hubby did his window shopping. A last minute trip to Chinook Centre was a must since Lance wanted to check out The Lego Store. Both kids got their toys while Mom and Dad bought nothing for themselves, maybe on Day 2!

Day 2 was reserved for CrossIron Mills. We had lunch at the food court, my favorite Tom Yum while the kids ordered pizza in Sbarro (I am craving for some Sbarro pizza as I type this), I forgot what hubby ordered all I can remember is we were satisfied and full. As usual hubby and I bought nothing but the kids got themselves some light up shoes. We went back to the hotel to rest then drove to Pacific Hut (a Filipino restaurant) and ate so much AGAIN!

Day 3 was the day of our very important appointment. We woke up early and walked to the building, luckily the kids were cooperative the whole time. After our appointment, we proceeded to the hotel and started packing. Our last day in Calgary, happy that we got what we came for, happy with the extra days and just happy for our family weekend.

I can't wait for August. A month long vacation, new places, new adventures, all I can think of is, soon I'll be tasting some yummy cannolis!!! :D

Pamper Kits

Leila and I made some gift bags for her teachers, she has four teachers by the way. So I made Leila shop from Mommy's stockpile and decided to give them toiletries. Each bag has the following items: Dove body wash, Dove soap, hairspray, hair mousse, lip gloss and eye enhancer. My friend Nadine suggested the tagline "Pamper Yourself for the Summer Because You Deserve It" which made the gift bags more perfect and FUN.

The best part? I only spent $$$ for the paper bags, the contents were all free because of my coupons. And now that my Dove stockpile is running low, I have to replenish it ASAP! I can't wait for another free shopping trip :D

Back to Posting About Food

I am BACK! I have been sick for the past few days so no shopping for me just sleeping all day long. Hopefully, I'll be up and running on the weekend just in time for the $1 flip flops at Old Navy!!!

I may have been too lazy to blog but I have been taking pictures of food I have cooked for the past few weeks. Here are some delicious meals we've had, enjoy lookin' :D

flattened bread on the griddle

no longer messy version of piggy in a blanket

chicken macaroni soup

tuna cheesy omelette

it doesn't look pretty but this is delicious :)

sauteed green beans with pork

sauteed spinach with bacon bits

meat sauce over eggplant

Sisig

Lechon Kawali

our weekly dose of sizzling beef

Pork in Tamarind soup with spinach

store bought frozen pizza when Mommy is having a lazy day or busy with her coupons

kids' favorite snack/dessert

first try of Mug cake was a failure :(

Strawberry banana muffins

No matter how busy I get, I still make time (I try) to make something delicious for the whole family. Now that the kids are on summer break, I need new ideas for their meals and snacks. I would love to bake more if only I knew how :D

Aquarium Makeover

the finished product!

We opted to stay at home for the weekend and decided to get some new fish for the aquarium. Our little project of just adding fish and cleaning the tank became a bigger project and kept us busy last Sunday. We finally purchased an aquarium stand, heater, different set of rocks and more fish! This time we got tetra fish and a beta fish. The day before that we bought three different types of goldfish, I chose a Black Moor, really weird looking and not pretty at all.

Anyway, the kids had fun hopping from one pet store to another looking for the perfect fish. They were rather impatient but the cleaning process took awhile plus hubby had to build the stand as well. We also transferred the aquarium in the living room now that it had a proper stand.

my ugly Black Moor w/ Lance's goldfish

The three goldfishes however were split into two improvised fish bowls (originally vases) since they might eat the small tetra fishes.

I loved the outcome of hubby's project everybody was happy and it's really pretty. I loved how we spent our lazy weekend, I'm glad we did something productive for a change :D