Showing posts with label My Kids. Show all posts
Showing posts with label My Kids. Show all posts

Friday, November 18, 2016

See you at the Alaska Ultimate Mission Camp this Sunday!

This post is brought to you by Alaska Milk.


Hello, all you mommies who have kids who love Marvel superheroes and the walang kamatayan Frozen! There's a special day for us and our kids this Nov. 20, Sunday, at the SMX 4 at Mall of Asia—the Alaska Ultimate Mission Camp!!!

Here are my kids getting all excited about the camp:


We're so excited!!!

At the camp, there will be Disney Mission Zones for kids to complete special assignments that are fun and educational. All the activities in the Mission Zones are for kids 5 years old and up. These zones are for kids only. Don't worry—Alaska made sure the missions and the areas are safe and secure.

There will be activities for moms and dads to enjoy, too. I believe there will be cooking and food tasting goodies for us to enjoy. Hooray! I love cooking and eating!

But if you bring kids aged 4 and below (like my Iñigo and Piero), well, you'll need to be with them when they enjoy the other activity zones.

Kids may come in costume but since costumes may restrict vision and movement (hello, capes and masks and gowns and crowns!), it's much better if they come in comfortable attire.

There will be snacks and Alaska Milk drinks (of course!) so just enjoy all the fun stuff lined up for us because Alaska Milk will take care of everything. Yes, even the entrance fee. There is NO ENTRANCE FEE! It's free! You just need to register at the Facebook page of the Alaska Ultimate Mission Camp up until 11:59 pm tonight!

See you on Sunday!

Friday, October 14, 2016

What my kids do while they wait for me to dress up

Now that my boys are a wee bit bigger, I can now spend more than 5 minutes in my bathroom. I can shower now, I can brush my teeth now, I can apply my moisturizer and eye cream and makeup, I can blow dry my hair. I can now feel gorgeous again!!! I mean, joking aside, the last 6 years have taken a toll on my skin and hair and teeth. The pregnancies. The sleeplessness. The missed meals, the wolfed-down meals. The rushed pooping (yep, it's hard to poop when little hands are banging on the bathroom door). The rushed, sometimes missed, brushing of teeth. The skincare regimen... what skincare regimen???

But now my kids are older and that means they leave me alone for a bit now. That means I now spend about 30 to 45 minutes in the bathroom. And it is a glorious 30 to 45 minutes, my friends!

I always assumed that in that span of time, my kids play or watch TV. I found out recently that they and their Papa are up to something else.

First, Vince dresses them up in much better outfits than if I did it. My sons always look like they rolled out of bed when I dress them up!

Then, all cute and handsome, the boys do a photo shoot for their Papa.
 
And they laugh and joke and play and laugh and sing and dance and laugh and laugh and laugh.

Then the boys start getting a wee bit impatient and start looking for me. 

"Where's Mama? What is taking her so long? Why is it taking such a looooong time?"

I know this because I dress up with the bedroom door ajar and my kids talk really loud and I can hear them chattering away.

And Vince says he doesn't know what's taking me so long but then he also says that Mama must be really pretty by now and the boys all agree that Mama is pretty, even when I haven't showered or even when I'm without makeup or even when I'm dressed in my ratty rags.

And I go all melty inside. Until Iñigo says he thinks I'm prettier with lipstick on.

So I quickly swipe on a lipstick and then hurry out of the bedroom and the boys all go, "Finally!" And they look at me and then they say, "Mama, you're pretty."

And my head knows I've had other days in a distant glamorous past when I've been waaaaay prettier than I look now as a harried mom of three, but my heart feels more beautiful now than I've ever felt before because three little boys and their daddy love me love me love me no matter what.

I love being a mommy!

Thursday, October 06, 2016

The food at Ascott Makati is sooo good!

Yesterday, I told you all about our wonderful stay at Ascott Makati. Today, we'll talk about the food. Oh oh oh, the food! This is going to be glorious!

We stayed at Ascott Makati a few weeks ago to go shopping at Glorietta. There was no plan to eat at the hotel since we wanted to try the many restaurants at the mall. We hardly ever go to this part of the city since the mega traffic jams have made Makati inconvenient for us to visit, so we really wanted to explore the area. Visit Ayala Museum, go to Salcedo Sunday Market, run around Ayala Triangle Park, and eat eat eat. Well, we liked the food at Ascott's Café on the 6th soooo much that we ate every meal at the hotel!


Here's what we indulged in:
Homemade pancakes, P380. We got the buttermilk pancakes served with fruits and this syrup that I swear must be made of muscovado. It was sinfully sweet! I dipped all the fruits in it and gobbled them all up!

Carnivore pizza, P520. This is an extremely thin herb pizza crust heavy with chopped Hungarian sausage, Italian garlic sausage, smoked ham and bacon. All that meat is held together by mozzarella cheese and a rich pomodoro sauce. The kids LOVED it!

Lasagna, P580. This isn't your regular lasagna. This is a lovingly baked dish of U.S. Angus ground beef, fresh tomatoes, and creamy bechamel sauce layered between lasagna pasta and oozing with mozzarella cheese. Yummy!

Ceasar's salad, P330. Crisp lettuce. Crunchy croutons. Freshly grated Parmesan. Generous sprinkling of bacon bits. Briny flavor balanced out by a squeeze of lemon. Perfect start to a meal!

Spaghetti with bolognese sauce, P380. This is the best spaghetti I've ever had. I usually prefer bolognese that has less meat—this one was chunky with it—but it was really a very tasty and meaty sauce on al dente noodles. Best spaghetti I've ever had!

Rib-eye steak, P1,450. This is a thick 12.5 oz. slice of juicy goodness served with red wine peppercorn sauce, and perfectly cooked vegetables. It's wonderful. It's huge, too. I don't know why that slab looks small in the photo!

Chicken and pork adobo, P440. This is served with garlic rice but since my kids prefer steamed rice, I asked the restaurant to tweak the dish. I like it, my kids like it, but my adobo is better.

Spicy shrimp fusili, P480. My favorite! Vince loved this, too. Definitely worth coming back for this! The pesto olive oil sauce was full of flavor—the spiciness didn't drown out the freshness of the basil or its nuttiness. This is seriously an amazing dish! I can eat this all day!

We also ordered the Chef's Burger combo but we don't have a photo of it. I don't remember why! Maybe it was that good that we gobbled it all up? It's a 6. oz patty of Angus beef with blue cheese, sautéed balsamic onions all resting on a bed of fresh lettuce.

Uh oh. I gained weight eating all that food from Café on the 6th*! Burp!

To burn all that food (I tried, okay?), we went shopping and then we played at the Cubbie Kids Club.

The Cubbie Kids Club is a cozy, newly refurbished room just off the lobby and past the restaurant. It's small but it has all the things kids will love—a play house, books, musical toys, an activity mat, a TV, a ball pit, and tons of toys! There's also a big comfy couch for parents and caregivers. I don't know how they fit that all in that amazing room! As you can see, my kids loved it!

And that's our wonderful staycation at Ascott Makati! I hope you enjoyed looking through our photos. We had so much fun. We can't wait to go back!

To book a stay at Ascott Makati, click here. For promos and contests, like their Facebook page.


*Café on the 6th will be replaced by Myron's this October. Watch for its opening!

Wednesday, October 05, 2016

Family fun at Ascott Makati!

Hello from Ascott Makati! Well, these photos are from our staycation there recently, and what a fun time my family had! Super fun and happy we were. My kids are still talking about our Ascott stay, and they keep asking me when we'll move there. Yes, they want to live there! I'll tell you why in a bit, but first, here we are checking in:
The reception lobby of Ascott Makati is at the 6th floor. The entrance to the hotel itself is a discreet door just right of Glorietta 4's main entry. Elevators in the tiny hall zip you up to the 6th floor, where you step out into the reception boasting high ceilings and massive windows. Pretty cool. Check in was super quick and then off we went to our two-bedroom deluxe suite!

Come in! Come in!
Here's our cozy living room. I love that accent chair with the bold print. I love that the neutrals are broken up by teal and patterns. I'm allergic to hotels that are all beige and brown. So blah. Ascott's newly revamped apartments don't suffer that boring decor. In fact, our suite reminded us of our own home. Even the layout! It's almost exactly our house!

Here's a view of the dining area and the small but impressively efficient kitchen. That kitchen was amazing. Vince and I wanted to renovate our large kitchen because of Ascott's small kitchen! It was that well designed!

My boys watching TV and feeling right at home. Each suite is now equipped with a home entertainment system. In our own suite, multiply that by three!

My boys being all cute and making my heart go all fuzzy wuzzy.

Here's the boys' bedroom! They love that queen-size bed soooo much. My goodness, they STILL keep talking about that bed. They won't leave me alone. They want to move in to Ascott because of that bed!

And also because there's the TV in their bedroom. So now we also have to deal with requests for a TV in their bedroom here at home. 

They also marveled at their walk-in closet. They thought it was another room hahahaha. My darling boys! But yeah... we all wanted a walk-in closet after our stay at Ascott. Their walk-in closets aren't even that big. But they were built well so that there's an efficient use of space.

That's Vito's homework on their sidetable. Yep, we brought homework. And he had lots of fun doing homework in our home away from home!

The boys' bedroom has its own bathroom. It's a cozy room with a shower and a small sink. But it was more than big enough for three little wriggly boys who loved all the little L'Occitane accoutrements.

Now here's our bedroom! The master's bedroom is huge. That is a king-size bed. I want a king-size bed. All five of us can fit in it!

We have our own small TV, too, and a padded bench with a little desk at the foot of the bed. There's also a generously sized work desk to the left of the TV.

I love this installation on the desk...

... and beside the master's bed. Very nifty and very useful! Business people, writers, those who work remotely, and bloggers will love these helpful tools and the fact that there's WiFi in the whole hotel.

The master's bathroom is a small room but the space is well designed. Those large mirrors hide cabinets, there's a roomy cabinet hidden under the sink, and...

... there's a tub! My kids enjoyed their bubble bath here. We have dozens of cute photos of them in bubbly joy! Vince and I enjoyed that tub later in the night, too!

Another thing we grownups liked is that our room in Ascott is a small home in itself. There's that efficient kitchen with its own stove, oven and microwave oven so you can cook. The sink even has dish soap and sponge so if you cook or order room service, you can wash your dishes.

The kitchen cupboards have everything you'll need for a proper meal—plates, bowls, serving dishes, drinking glasses, wine glasses, cups and saucers, cutlery, pots and pans, and cooking utensils. Even table mats!

In the entry hall, two large closets hide the laundry appliances. This one is really clever. It really truly is just a closet but behind it is a washing machine, shelves and large cabinets. There's even laundry detergent! Across this closet is another roomy closet where you can hang and iron clothes, and store other things like boots, coats, umbrellas and the like. I really love how clever the design of the apartment is!

I just want to point out, should this be a concern, that the windows look out onto the construction (or destruction, rather) site of the former Intercontinental Hotel. If you're worried that there will be all this noise, well, don't worry. We didn't hear a thing! We felt cocooned in our luxury apartment!

Our apartment also has a view of the pool. The pool is newly renovated, too, but there's still construction going on around it because the hotel is opening a new restaurant there. Myron's!!! Steak!!! Myron's should be opening this month so let's all go!

Where we did go when we were at Ascott was to Glorietta. Ascott is literally sitting on top of the huge mall. So we went shopping! So fun to shop knowing we didn't have to fight for parking space, we didn't have to beat rush hour traffic, and we can rest in our comfy and luxurious suite just a few steps away from the stores. Happiness!

After a day of shopping, eating and eating and eating, playing, wrestling, and a loooooong warm bubble bath in the tub, the little boys all jumped into bed and watched TV in their room.

And soon fell fast asleep in their home away from home.

We had so much fun at our lovely staycation at Ascott Makati. The hotel caters to business executives and their families for long stays, hence the fully equipped everything. But you don't need to have a business excuse to book a stay. For example, my family stayed there because we wanted to shop at Glorietta and to just have a different scenery for one weekend. We've been so busy this year that we haven't had time to go anywhere. We still don't! So a staycation at a wonderful hotel nearby was the perfect getaway.

I highly recommend it for families who are looking for somewhere to go this upcoming sem break. Or for OFWs who want to be ensconced in luxury (not relatives haha) while they vacation here. Ascott Makati has a lot to offer. I'll do another post on its amenities and food. Oh, the food! Yum de tum tum!

To book a stay at Ascott Makati, click here. For promos and contests, like their Facebook page.