Our Special Vday Celebration 2014

I know it’s been a month since the heart’s day but please indulge me.  It’s just that this year’s celebration was quite extraordinary in the sense that it was treated like an ordinary day with a little extra effort filled with love and appreciation. 

Hubby and I have long decided that Valentine’s Day is not for us.  Sure, we do dine out but only for the heck of it.  We don’t go all the way with fancy dinners in Michelin star restaurants with me receiving a huge bouquet of red roses with a gift to boot.  I used to receive fancy flowers from him before we had kids but all that has now changed.   Both of us realized how expensive flowers are and how this whole shebang is a commercialized celebration to convince people to spend horrendous amounts on dinners and roses.  We decided we are not gonna fall for that.  We will celebrate Vday how we want it to be – lowkey, private and memorable just as we like it. 

So on the eve of Valentine’s Day, we ate at Romano’s Macaroni Grill 2 hours before the clock struck 12 midnight.  Quiet, delightful and kids-free, haha!

super late dinner

The next day was spent rough housing and playing with the kids.  They were so delighted with the balloon that Dada got for me from Party Centre.  I even caught the two of them kissing the owls!  So adorable!

Dada & Mom :)

Finally when the kids were asleep, we had our chance to have our planned Vday dinner.  Our evening celebration was inspired by The Every Girl.  I whipped up Barefoot Contessa’s Spaghetti Aglio E Olio while hubby prepared the roasted chicken.  

i can cook, too, you know!

dinner is served

We popped open a bottle of wine, plopped ourselves on the rug, and had dinner in our living room while watching ‘About Time’.      

For dessert, we had Lindt chocolate-dipped strawberries.

not the yummiest strawberries but definitely made sweet by Lindt

And I got this for a present, surprise, surprise!  Haha!!

Pandora Interlocking Hearts 

My husband is not the romantic type when it comes to film screening but he sure knows what movies I would typically like.  He picked out our film for that evening, and I must say it was the perfect choice!  If you haven’t seen it, I recommend that you do.  It’s all about finding the one, building a family, appreciating life, and knowing which ones matter the most.  Very timely.   

I loved how our evening ended with a beautiful conversation talking about our family life, our plans for the future, and our dreams as a couple.  It was all about love, love, and more love.  Our celebration may not have been the typical run-off-the-mill type but it was quite memorable to me.  I loved every bit of it, and I hope next year’s would be as intimate and meaningful as this one.  Probably a picnic by the beach you think?  

Camel Ride

9 years since i came to the sandbox, I finally had the courage to ride a camel!  

at Al Ain Zoo's Children's Park

I have always been scared of riding the camel because of its height.  Apparently, it wasn't as frightening as I thought it would be.  I'm just so glad i overcame my fear!  Next time, I'll do it in the desert when we go for a desert safari adventure :)

Lifestyle Photoshoot Sneak Peek

On the first day of the year, we had our customary lifestyle photoshoot c/o our family's favorite photographer, Bessie B who also took care of my maternity shoot.

Here's a sneak peek of the beach set:

hashtag what i live for

This is my favorite photo and i'm sure you can guess why.  Dear Dade and dear Lexie are looking at each other longingly without any prodding or encouragement from the photographer or from us.  It captured a brief moment of Kuya (the elder one) being Kuya and bunso (the youngest one) being bunso.  I love it!

The day before the shoot, I rummaged through our closets to find each of us a suitable ensemble to wear to the beach.  I've always been so fond of the colors of Lexie's skirt that I bought on sale from Gingersnaps for only Php 200 (USD 4.50) so I thought, "Hey, those colors would work for the camera!" We couldn't have picked a better motif for our pictorial!

I will be posting more of the pictures from the two sets we had that afternoon.  And if any of you Dubaians would like to hire my friend, do drop me a line and I will put you in touch with her.

Sigh of Relief!

When was my last post?  Feb?  Gosh!  I thought Iwas gonna get better at this.  Boy, was I so wrong!  Since we planned for the little girl's birthday party #1 (yes, she has another in Manila this coming July), we've been very, very busy at home.  Never thought that celebrating a girl's birthday party is a lot difficult than a boy's.  So many elements, so much DIY projects!  More on that later.

Now that my little one's party is through, I will finally get to have time for myself.  And me-time for me means pampering time and writing time. I'm planning another party but that will be a lot easier because I'll have suppliers that I can book who can handle everything without me having to burn the midnight oil.  I'll leave everything to the experts this time.

Tata for now and I promise to be back again soon.  No more idling this time.

Take care peeps!

Giving Back to Mother Earth

Fridays are always precious for me because it is the only day of the week that I can get to sleep in.  However, for the sake of personal social responsibility, I sacrificed one Friday morning to spend with nature and give a fraction of my time to save the earth in my own little way.

Last weekend, I had the honor of joining the “One Day To Make a Difference” CSR event in Emirates Marine Environmental Group (EMEG) in Ghantoot.  EMEG, who warmly welcomed us in their reserve area, is a non-profit organization that deals with the environmental issues in the UAE.  The morning activity was well-attended by EMEG volunteers as well as individuals from Deutsche Bank, Barclays, Transguard, Johnson Controls, DIFC and Goumbook.  I think all in all we were about roughly 200 in the area including kids. Each of us were given t-shirts that were actually made of recycled plastic bottles and nylon ropes.  Isn't that cool?

We started the day by watching a film about EMEG and their endeavors.  Then the real work began.

The group was divided into two.  The group where I belonged to were assigned to do the planting first. So yes, we were the first to get wet.  Not that it matters, really :p Each of us picked out a mangrove seedling and planted them in the muddy area of the reserve.  Mangroves are quite useful to sweeten the water and provide homes for species of plants and animals.  That helps a lot in the circle of life.

me & my mangrove seedling

After we’ve planted each of our mangrove seedlings, we proceeded to another section of the reserve to clean the algae.  Do you know that dried algae is used to clean oil spills?  I’ve seen the video of it and it’s amazing!  Works like magic!

that nifty contraption

buckets of algae

The next task was the most challenging of all -- cleaning up the beach at 11:00 am.  We had to walk about a kilometer from the reserve’s central to reach the area that needed cleaning.  I forgot to put sunblock so my skin had turned red and my watch had already made a mark on my wrist.  So are my flip flops on my feet!

At first, we thought there was nothing to clean because the water was crystal clear.  But when we were inching our way towards our destination, we saw how bad the shoreline looked!  We picked up lots of plastic rubbish.  And by lots, I meant piles and piles of garbage bags! 

rubbish i found 
(oh those pesky water bottles that aren't disposed of properly!)

all these in just 3 hours!

beautiful , untouched Dubai beach

By half past 12, we were all done and headed back to the central to replenish and rehydrate ourselves.  It would’ve been lovely to see the turtles and their eggs but it wasn’t their season so we found none.  The eggs were off limits while they were being incubated in a gated area so no desert fox could get through to them.  We did see paw prints of the elusive four-legged creature, as well as of hares. 

It was a tiring yet fulfilling day for each one of us.  I’m so glad i went.  I hope that my teeny weeny share in giving back to mother earth would someday pay off. 

Next time, i’m bringing the husband and Dade with me.