Restaurant City, Anyone

Ok I admit it. I caved in. I had held out for the looooongest time I could....but the kids' incessant OBSESSION with this particular game on facebook was too hard to resist!

LOL!

Presenting, my restaurant in Restaurant City:


I finally settled on Big Momma Meals, hahahaha! I also use that sign board to advertise to visiting clientele what particular ingredients I needed the most.

It is NOT an easy thing to set up, what with worries about chairs and tables, stoves, layouts, popularity rating, ingredients and gourmet points. The list seems endless! Sheesh! But after just a day or so of playing (errr....did I say PLAYING? hahahaha!) on RC, it was addicting.

Now I totally understand the kids. How they, upon arriving at a house with a computer, rush in the room, turn on the computer, log on to facebook---making sure they use different browsers so as NOT to slow down the game, lol ---"feed" their workers....before turning to us to say hi, sit down and regale us with tales of their day.

OK.

Just what I need most, another thing to keep me busy.

Becoming the Biggest Loser

Well, not IN the show, but at least STARTING a workout program. I coerced the kids, including Reese, to join me in the morning. They "reported" for exercise at 830ish am and we set up everything in the den which had the space to accommodate all 5 of us.

And we went right into......


Yup. We actually did it! Hehehehe. Obviously starting with Level 1, we followed Bob's instructions. And paid for it by the end of the day! Man, were my LEGS aching! My goodness! It hurt to walk down the stairs, to get up on the bed, to just move my legs! Sheesh! I guess that's what happens when we rarely use our muscles, LOL! Man!

And the sweat! Was it pouring down our faces and our bodies! Even the kids were sweating up a storm; Rogan stopped after the first few minutes and asked if he could just take off his shirt and exercise topless, hehehehe. Apparently, it worked because he didn't stop for the entire session, including the Biggest Loser Yoga! Whoa!

The only thing about all the sweating ---especially down the face--- is that pimples are most likely going to crop up. And with Raegan and Reese, that'll be another visit to the dermatologist for sure to get some acne treatment. I'm probably going to have to go too, if these pustules start popping all over my face! Blech!

After workout, I had to quickly shower and get to work....but I barely got any office work done because I was concentrating on fixing stuff for Lola's birthday trip to Singapore! Sigh!

It's Mother's Day!

This is me holding my Mother's Day gift:


Yup, an iPhone! Whoohooo!

I think I was making Japa edgy because I didn't rip apart the package first thing in the morning. Well, we woke up at 850 am and we decided to catch the 930 mass. Yeah. Hahahaha! But we made it in TIME! Whoohooo! Anyway, the packaging of my gift was pretty great! Totally creative, especially for Japa if you ask me. The pics are still in the camera; but I'll be scrapping those sometime soon, hehehehe.

After mass, I had my Mother's Day breakfast at Starbucks with the kiddos (sans Ranger) and Papa. It was relaxing and fun, with the kids eager to tell stories of what's been going on in their lives. Yes, we see them everyday, but for the past several days, they've been sleeping over at Apitong. Peace and quiet at home, but God only knows what a madhouse it probably is over at Lai's house! Bwahahaha!

After mass we headed over to Ayala where the kids spent a good part of the afternoon just cuddling the new puppies:




And here's the biggest "kid" of them all, playing with the puppies' mom:


Dinner was at some Japanese restaurant where we ate 'til we were stuffed!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all the moms out there!

Parlor and Potter

We went to Louis Phillip Kee's salon at the Fort to have our hair done. Bang, Lai and moi. Bang and Elizza had some major hair stuff done, primarily coloring AND highlighting. That highlighting part was the killer in terms of waiting time, hehehehe. I had my roots colored, as well as some hot oil treatment done to moisturize my hair, what with the almost-daily routine of ironing!

Anyway, I brought the first Harry Potter book along (HP and the Sorcerer's Stone); yes, I intend to read everything again BEFORE the Half-Blood Prince shows in theaters. Just so I can FEEL the entire story and not get lost in all the storylines for the different characters before the movie comes :) WHY? It's me, hahahahaha! So if you're counting, you would be correct in computing that this will be the 8th time I'm reading the first book in the series.

Suffice it to say that I practically FINISHED the ENTIRE book waiting for Lai and Bang! More for Lai, since Bang was done earlier than Lai and we even had lunch at the nearby cafe! Hahahahaha! Yes, Elizza was in there for close to 5 hours!!!

I would have taken pics, but my poor phone had tons of pics and I had no spare sd memory cards on me, lol. I mean, Elizza got up no less than 4 or 5 times to have her hair shampooed! Bwahahahaha! And I thought I was going to take long with my haircut, my dye, my oil treatment! Of course, Lai had all that PLUS highlights and eyebrow threading hehehehe. Yeah, it must have been the threading that took an extra 3 hours or so :)


Ok. Book 1 down, on to Book 2!

It's Mother's Day tomorrow and I have absolutely NO time to make something. Sigh. Oh well. Next year :)

Rounding Up April

Getting the questions to the Round Up from Katie the Scrapbook Lady:

Round Up: April

What books and/or magazines did I read this month?

I read ONE book this month, Kathleen McGowan's The Book of Love. A continuation of her previous hit, The Expected One. The books tell of Jesus' possible life of marriage and the story of his descendants and where and what they preached. Pretty explosive stuff, if she had published it as non-fiction. But hey, I'm pretty open to new ideas and this one has potential! :) I got this book just before we left for Singapore so needless to say I did get a LOT of reading done, almost finishing the book during our stay there.

Magazines, just Time. Trying to be intellectual here and keeping up with current news and trends, hehehe. This one came with an extra issue on Global Warming and its effects on our environment and, ultimately, the world. Interesting ---and scary!--- stuff.

What movies and/or tv shows did I watch this month?

We saw 17 Again starring Zac Efron. Cute movie. But I can't believe this is the ONLY movie we saw this month! Hahahaha! I guess we were too busy with swim meets and traveling!

What special days did I celebrate and how?

Raegan's 11th Birthday

Japa's 40th Birthday

What gifts did I give and/or receive?

Raegan got a Guitar Hero game for her DS from us. No gift for Japa as of now. There hasn't been a whole lot of time to think of what to give him, eek!

The kids got their prizes for swimming well at Toys R Us. Rogan got an early birthday gift --- that hideously expensive Lego Star Wars--- early, which was added to his swimming prize.

What illnesses or health concerns did I have?

Taking special care of my back, what with all the sitting down I've been doing for all the swim meets this month! Food input has been extremely plentiful this month, too, LOL, so I'm promising to cut back AND to exercise more next month! (keeping my fingers crossed!)

What fun things did I do with my friends and/or family?

The swim meets were pretty major events this month. It was fun to have some time alone with Raegan during our trip to Singapore. It was equally fun to have the 3 older kids plus Coach Jana for a day in Hong Kong, too.

We spent some quality time in Hong Kong, especially during the trip to the HK Science Museum and the loooooong walk to it, hehehe.

What new foods, recipes or restaurants did I try this month?

Definitely that HK restaurant where we spent most of our meals, Yun Nan Restaurant. And the local Park N Shop supermarket, where we had el cheapo but filling meals! Yeah!

What special or unusual purchases did I make?

Toys R Us stuff, hehehehe. I guess picking up that laser tube for the engraving machine while in Hong Kong counts as a highly unusual purchase :)

What were my scrapping accomplishments this month?

Another 22 pages scrapped this month, including my pages for Proj 365.

Anything else noteworthy to record?

Just a quick note to say that I never knew swimming could get soooo expensive! With all the trips we've been doing this month, it's breaking the bank! But it's worth it, too, since we get to spend so much quality time with the kids. Nothing like sports and all it teaches, eh?

***

Nothing exciting happening today.....just a family board meeting. Teleconferencing with the twins who are in the States.

Last Day in Hong Kong

I stayed up late to pack our bags. I woke up early today to pack our bags. :) We let the kids sleep in, since we got home late for the first time during our entire stay in Hong Kong.

Breakfast was McDonald's, as usual. Only this was, Japa didn't check the bags and we ALL got Egg McMuffins which we did NOT want!!! Grrrrrr!

We had lunch at our "regular" restaurant for the last time.....and finally took a photo just so we would remember the name. I mean, we had been eating most of our meals here for the past 6 days, lunch or dinner. And none of us knew the name of the place, hehehehe. So, for posterity's sake:



With all our bags packed, we stopped by the Concierge to pick up the laser tubes that were ordered by the Columbarium. And we were surprised by the size! At least it was light! So....we figured that it was best if Japa would take all the bags to the airport via taxi. When all the bags and the crate were loaded, I noticed some space in the middle of the back seat. I told Rogan to squeeze in there, heheehhe. That's at least one boy who would NOT be a liability on the MTR (I'm talking about having to constantly keep in him in my sights just so he wouldn't get into trouble or some other such thing).

We finally got to the airport. The kids rode FREE on the Airport Express train, so we saved some money there :) Japa was first in line in the Business Class line, flashing the Premier Elite card. Whew! Thank goodness for that one. The lady was verrrrry nice, helping Japa check in the crate at the oversized package section AND giving us ALL seats in the upper deck!!! Which meant that we got Business Class seating! Whoohoohooo!!!!

Here are a few pics of us enjoying our seats before take off:




Uneventful flight, with Ranger nodding off in his uber comfy seat before take off. Raine didn't throw up, and we were one of the first ones off the plane. We claimed our bags, paid a minor amount for the laser tube in the crate and went off.

We dropped off Raine and Raegan in LaVista because they were going to sleep with Zhar; Rod had left for the States yesterday.

And finally, finally, FINALLY. We got home. Ahhhhhh. Nothing like your OWN bed!!!

Girls' Time and Boys' Time

After having breakfast at McDonald's, we went our separate ways:

{GIRLS' TIME}

We went to Mongkok so that the girls could see what Hong Kong shopping was like. That it wasn't all department stores and fixed prices. Of course, the first store we went to, Bossini, was where the girls had fun shopping, hehehehe. They picked out shirts and jackets and were happy.

Mongkok showed them the stalls and stalls lined up on the streets. And the bargaining! Coach Jana taught them that they could chop off as much as 60% off the asking price of the vendors! Even *I* was surprised that we could go that low; I guess I was so used to shopping with Mom, who'd go only so low with her bargaining skills :) Apparently, prices were dropping because most of the goods were coming from China.

After shopping for a few more things, we passed by Park N Shop to get lunch. At 3 pm. Hehehehe. Yup, the girls got a chance to "live" the life of a Hong Kong shopper: going without lunch because there were still so many stalls to go to. :)

After a lovely lunch of char siu pork and roasted duck and rice that left us fully satisfied, we rested a bit before hitting the pool. Yeah right. It was *still* freezing water in the darn pool, despite the warmer temperatures outside! Sheesh! The ONLY reason why I ventured into the water was because the girls were playing with their new camera that could take UNDERWATER shots! Look how COOL this is:


All I did here was to hit Auto Levels in Photoshop and our skin tones were highlighted a bit. Otherwise, the pic was clear as day! Is that cool or what!

After the cold pool, the steam room was a WELCOME treat! We stayed in the steam room for probably close to an hour. Japa said that he heard us all the way to the gym, we were laughing and chatting up a storm! Hahahaha!

{BOYS' TIME}

When we left McDonald's, the boys went back to the hotel. And Rogan literally pooped up a storm. Our toilet overflowed and Japa had to call Housekeeping in a major way! Hehehehe. Ugh. Thank goodness us girls weren't there to witness the grossness of it all! Ewww.

The boys took a short dip in the cold pool as well; they couldn't stay that long since Ranger's lips were turning purple. They also had a much-needed stay in the steam room, long enough for Ranger's body to heat up.

{DINNER}

We found out that there was a Toys R Us by the Tsuen Wan station. So we walked aaaaaaalllll the way there. It took us about 15 minutes of straight walking and by the time we got to the Discovery Park Mall, we were hungry! After a short stop at the toy store that didn't yield a Star Wars Lego set, we proceeded to the food court.

And oh my goodness, was it totally authentically CHINESE! Everything was in Chinese, with the exception of McDonald's and KFC! After settling the kids onto tables and chairs, we bravely lined up for our food. Thank goodness the cashier could understand what we wanted. Sort of. Hehehehe. Obviously, we stuck to the "safe" staples of pork char siu, roasted duck and chicken. Everything with rice, of course.

And were we FULL by the time we were done! I regret not taking a pic of our food though, since everyone dug in when the food was set on the table. We were that famished! :)

{SCRAPS}

After dinner, I hurried everyone home because I needed to do 2-weeks' worth of layouts to qualify for the incentive over at Weeds and Wildflowers Designs. And I made the deadline, barely!





TTFN! I still need to pack! We're finally going home tomorrow!

Squeezing in Some Educational Time

What's a trip to Hong Kong without a trip to.....the HK Science Museum? :) It opened at 1 pm, so in the morning, we all trooped to Ocean Terminal to Toys R Us to get some prizes for the kids for swimming well.

Apparently, Raegan seems to be getting too old for toys; she couldn't for the life of her figure out what she wanted to get. She finally settled on some huge bubble thing. I have a feeling she just grabbed it just for the heck of getting something. At least it wasn't expensive; Raegan knew she was in for some clothes shopping this trip.

Raine picked out a dancing mat thingy, the one that you hook up to your TV and has some songs that you dance to while stepping on arrows on the mat. Ranger was content with a small Lego Star Wars toy. Not that he'd assemble it himself, but he's been Star Wars-crazed recently!

Rogan, on the other hand, had a huuuuuuuuuge problem: he couldn't figure out what Star Wars toy to get! And of COURSE he was looking at the huge expensive ones! Sigh! He really really REALLY wanted the AT-TE Walker, it was the second most expensive one of the bunch! Aaargh!


We told him this was going to be partly a prize and a birthday gift (his birthday's coming up in June) to which he quickly agreed to. Boy, let me tell you, he could NOT wait to get his hands on this thing! :)

Ranger freaked out when he realized we had to leave all the toys at the store just so we wouldn't have to carry everything around when we went to the HK Science Museum. It took some major convincing to do, but he grudgingly agreed to let go of his "prize". Hehehehe.

And so we walked and walked and walked. And walked some more. Apparently, I had told Japa the WRONG information. I totally thought the Science Museum was the Planetarium...which was why we took our sweet time over lunch since we thought that the museum was next to Ocean Terminal.

Was I majorly wrong! We were on the OTHER side!!! And so, after walking for a little bit over an HOUR through the HK Theater of the Arts and the Avenue of the Stars (which, by the way, looks very very clean and new, with this awesome glass encased deck with a whole view of the Harbor!!!) and a playground where the kids spent some 15 minutes playing, we arrived at the HK Science Museum.

Whew!

This dinosaur skeleton (a Lufengosaur) greeted us at the museum lobby. It was pretty big; skinny, but big. Very cool. I asked Japa to take lots of photos because I have a few dinosaur kits that I can use, hehehehe.

When we got there, we were a bit dismayed to see lines and lines of school kids outside the museum! Ack! We thought we'd have a quiet and pleasant stay inside the museum!

So we started at the lowest floor since most of the school kids rushed to go up to the topmost floor. Good thing, too! At the bottom floor, we enjoyed solving some puzzles. Rogan even refused to move to another station until he had at least tried to do the puzzle! :) I know we spent a LOT of time in that puzzle area!

Then it was off to the World of Mirrors where we had so much fun laughing at ourselves as we went in front of mirrors that changed our shapes and heights. There were some freaky mirrors too, that seemed to cut off our bodies!

There was this cool capsule room that proved that people's perception of time differ when placed in the dark. Even Ranger had a try at it, he wasn't scared of the dark!

With so many things to do in the museum, I could probably fill a whole album with photos! By the time we were done (taking our sweet time doing all the different things), about 4 hours or so had passed. Now THAT was money truly well spent! :)

Mantas Swim Meet Day 2

Last day of swimming races!

The girls had 4 events each, while Rogan had 2:

Raegan
200m free - 2:46.58, 4th in heat (personal best) [splits: 0:36.82 - 0:42.73 - 0:45.02 - 0:41.82]
100m breast - 1:41.09, 6th in heat
50m fly - , 3rd in heat
50m free - , 5th in heat

Rogan
200m free - 3:01.54, 4th in heat (PB!!!)
50m free - 0:37.96, 7th in heat

Raine
100m breast - 1:51.19 (PB) - DQ'd because she jumped too early :(
50m fly - 0:48.34, 4th in heat (PB)
100m back - 1:43.21, 5th in heat (PB)
50 free - 0:40.87, 6th in heat

And that's it! The Mantas Swim Meet 2009 is over. Overall, a pretty good showing, I thought, for everyone. For Raegan, for swimming well in a higher age group, placing in the upper middle of the pack. For Raine, for all those ribbons. Her DQ, by the way, is the EXACT event that she DQ'd in last year, hehehehe. Maybe she got TOO excited for the 100m breast?

And Rogan! Check out his time in the 200 free. His previous time was 3:24; he chopped off 23 seconds!!! The impetus? We told him that he'd earn double points towards a "real" Star Wars lightsaber if he could get his time down to a sub-3. And the wonder boy really swam his heart out. He didn't let up at all. When he finished, he automatically looked up at the time board, saw his 3:01, looked at us up in the stands and screamed in frustration (with a smile, sort of). Awwww. I told Japa that he really did swim all out, and we couldn't fault him for that. He swam very well. I guess all he needed was the proper bribe.....er, push. :)

With swimming over, time to think of more training, upcoming school, parlor time for hair, nails and the best acne treatment. Time to take Raegan (and maybe Raine) to the dermatologist to have some major cleaning done on all our faces. Walking in Hong Kong's busy streets (even if it is in provincial Tsuen Wan) isn't all that great for the skin!

Here's Raine with all her ribbons:


And last, but definitely not the least, a huge shout out to Japa:

HAPPY 40th BIRTHDAY, Japa!!!

I know, not exactly the 40th birth year celebration we envisioned, cheering on the kiddos at a swim meet, but I promise I'll make it up to you. How? No idea, hehehehehehehe. Suggestions are welcome! :)

Mantas Swim Meet Day 1

Here's the entire contingent of the Ayala Harpoons to the meet:


All 3 of them....plus Coach Jana. Hehehehehe. Such a laaaaarge group, eh? The kids were a bit embarrassed to be parading in front of everyone with just the 3 of them, but they couldn't NOT go around the pool right? Hahaahaha!

The kids had 3 events each:

Raegan
100m free - 1:16.32, 3rd in heat (personal best)
50m breast - 0:47.95, 4th in heat
200m IM - 3:05.78, 4th in heat (personal best)
[splits: fly - 0:40.54; back - 0:48.99; breast - 0:54.39; free - 0:42.00]

Rogan
100m free - 1:27.13, 4th in heat (personal best)
50m breast - 0:53.60, 4th in heat (personal best)
50m back - 0:47.66, 4th in heat (personal best)

Raine
100m free - 1:28.49, 1st in heat!!! (personal best)
50m breast - , 4th in heat (personal best)
50m back - 0:48.98 (didn't beat her personal best)

It was a good day for everyone. If the truth be told though, I was expecting a medal from Raine, considering it's her last year in the 8 and under age group. But she was thwarted again and again by her nemesis, Mary Rose, who did get a few medals. Oh well. A lesson for her in terms of doing better in training and not taking training for granted.

Coach was happy that everyone did swim their PBs in most of their events. I can't remember if Raegan got PBs in the first 2 events, since Singapore. She did well in her "first official meet" in the 11-12 age group. She placed in the top 10th to the 16th in all her events, so that was a good showing.

Raine, as expected did well, getting ribbons in all her events for the day. She showed some poise during the start AND towards the end of her swims. In the past, she'd just about died in the last half of the race. Today though, she was pretty consistent in her speed, so that was good.

Rogan, though, was a big surprise. Last year, he was always towards the bottom of the pack in the overall ranking. For today, he was 4th in all his heats, which weren't even the slowest heats! His placed somewhere in the middle of the pack, which was awesome for him! :)

It was a little bit confusing following the events because apparently, the team from Thailand entered the event 4 days ago, AFTER the programmes had been printed! Aaargh! I wasn't about to buy a newly printed programme for HK$40 when the kids had a free copy of the old programme, WHICH the organizers put on sale btw, for HK$20.

After the races of the day, the kids took showers and we all trooped back to the hotel to rest up a bit. Not even an hour later, we were downstairs for dinner so that the kids could go to bed early and be ready for another day of swimming tomorrow.