Spell 'KATE LOUISE'

A week before school started, I gave Kate some educational and fun activities to get her busy. I thought of introducing the letters of the alphabet by starting with the letters of her name. Got this idea from the school tour I went to. I already started with 'KATE'. Blogged about it here. So now, we worked on 'LOUISE'. It took us 6 days to finish it - one letter a day. I got the activity ideas from 1+1+1 =1 and COAH. We used up our printer ink but it was all worth it. :)

First Name Project

Below are some of the activities she did for each letter of 'LOUISE'. I wasn't able to take pictures of all the activities per letter simply because I forgot to bring out my camera. Kainis. 
 

activity under letter U

 

activity under letter I (Phil. 4:13)

arts and crafts for S and E

put the correct number of snowflakes on each snowman

color by numbers

For the finale...

 ...we used popsicle sticks, poster paint, construction paper and glue. 

Here's the finished product!

VOILA!

The following day, I asked her to write her first and second name on paper. Here are the results:

 

It's a little messy, but still an achievement coming from a 3-year-old! No help from mommy, PROMISE! I think, aside from the activities, posting the letters of her name on the wall helped a lot too. That way, she can see it most of the time. Actually, our house now looks like a classroom, hehe, but we don't mind. Daddy and Mommy are so proud. Good job, Kate! :)

Goodbye Summer, Hello Rainy Days

Two days ago was the last day of Kate's summer class. Parents were requested to join the kids for the final activities. First, they had storytelling from the book, Caps for Sale. Next, the kids had a simple dance performance where they shook their little tambourines to the beat and, we, the parents, were given streamers to "shake" as well. Finally, my favorite part, food sharing! It was a good ending :)

all of them are wearing their own caps

long lost siblings???

YUM!

I Haven't Lost My Cooking Touch

That's true, I guess, based on Raymond's reaction when he tasted what I cooked for lunch. It's been awhile since I last cooked. I think I stopped cooking at the start of my pregnancy. It wasn't planned or anything. It's just that I get too tired easily. I can't multitask or do a lot of things like I used to. So, hubby was to the rescue then. He volunteered to cook before leaving for work. :)

Now that I'm on my 19th week, 2nd trimester, I feel a lot stronger now. I still get tired a lot though, but not as much as on my 1st trimester. Anyway, I came across this site where it has a lot of recipe ideas with (mostly) easy-to-find ingredients. It has pasta, fish, chicken, pork, beef - you name it! They have pictures of the finished product, too - looks really yummy. Hubby and I decided to just get the fish and chicken recipes first. We want to try this diet and see if there would be any good changes in our health. Wala lang. Experiment.

The first recipe I tried is the Quick Roast Chicken and Root Vegetables. Changes I made were 1) I didn't add turnip, because honestly, I didn't know what it was until just recently, I found out that turnip is actually singkamas. Hahaha, sayang. Not a big loss, though. The finished product still tasted good :P 2) I used olive oil instead of extra virgin olive oil because we have an unopened bottle of olive oil at home, cheaper option. 3) I used red onion instead of shallots because there's no shallots in the local grocery. The preparation part is the time-consuming task. Once everything is prepared, just pop it in the oven and voila!

When I first tasted the sauce while I was still cooking it, I thought it was too sour. But when we tried it with the chicken, it complimented it really well. The roasted baby potatoes were really yummy - Kate loved it, pinapak nya. Haha! There was still a half cup of chicken broth left in the can. So instead of throwing it, I made mashed potatoes based on the can's recipe. I boiled the potatoes (quartered) with the broth, cooked until tender, mashed it, stirred in all-purpose cream, butter, pepper and broth until I got the consistency I want. Of course, Ray loved it too. His comment was, "It grows on you." Haha, not sure what that means but I guess what he meant was, it gets better at every bite? Naks :) Hmmm, I know what you're thinking - "Ano? May roasted potatoes na nga tapos mag-mamash potatoes pa?" Eh, bakit ba! Hehe :) And besides, it's the lesser evil than throwing it away. Although, we didn't eat rice anymore because there's just too much carbs already. :)

Disclaimer: The author of this blog post brags about her cooking simply because of the positive reaction of her handsome husband and beautiful daughter.

Kate's First Horse Ride

Despite the sad start of the day, we managed to have a nice happy ending to it. Well, sad, because first we went to the wake of my friend's dad. Afterwards, we went straight to Tagaytay to visit my husband's friend there who had a stroke just recently. It made me and Ray realize a lot of things. Kakalungkot talaga.

Anyway, since we're already in Tagaytay, Raymond wanted to lighten the mood a little bit and try horseback riding with Kate, while I'm the photographer. :) There's no way I would ride a horse at 4 months preggers. The big horses are priced at 200 to 350 pesos per hour, depending on the route that we want to take. We tried the 350 option. It's a bigger (but also circular) route and has a beautiful scenery. You'll be able to see Taal Lake from this route. After 15 minutes, hubby gave up already coz of buttache and just accompanied Kate while she's still riding on the horse. Hay, Kate enjoyed it, SUPER! She didn't want to go down until finally it was really time to go and we had to force her. I think one of Ray's line was, "We'll just buy you a new horse, Kate." Haha as if! Um, toy horse? hehe! As long as it's new and it's a horse, pagtyagaan mo na anak :P

hubby still smiling even if uncomfy

future equestrian :)

An Extra Special Mother's Day

Mainly because this year has a lot of firsts. :)

1. It's the first time Kate greeted me. It was after school and I picked her up. As soon as she entered the car, she said, "Mommy, Happy Mother('s) Day!". I was super touched! I think I even got teary-eyed. Said thank you, kissed her and then she said, "This is for you!" - which brings me to my second first.

2. It's the first time I received gifts from Kate for Mother's Day. She both made it. The first one was from her Sunday school, the second one from her regular school. Nice noh? :)

She read this to me :)

Four Years and We're Happy!

Last May 4, 2011, Raymond and I celebrated our fourth year as a married couple. He even took a leave on that day just to spend time with me (how sweet diba?!). We're both excited (I'm pretty sure he is too :P) to spend the day together - just the two of us. It's been awhile since our last date because we were yaya-less for quite some time and we always bring Kate with us. Not that I'm complaining ha. But it's also nice to have some quality time with your hubby, even if it doesn't happen as often as we'd like it to be.

The day didn't start well though. There was a blackout. Hay, grabe, it was super hot! Also, our helper didn't come on time. We had no idea if she's ever going to show up. So, we had to decide whether to bring Kate with us to our date or just stay at home. Hay. Okay, things are not looking up. I had to do the morning chores plus take a bath, give Kate a bath, dress up the both of us and prepare for our "family" date. Of course, I had a lot of help from hubby. After 3 hours, finally, our helper showed up. Hurray! Now, the adventure begins! :)

A Week of Activites with Kate

As I was preparing for my 2nd pregnancy, a friend suggested that I join this email group of moms called NewlywedsatWork (N@W). She told me that I'll learn a lot from this group because it's full of information for moms like me - and it really is a haven of information! From the simplest and most trivial things to more serious issues concerning family life. 

I came across an email which came from a stay-at-home mom (SAHM) asking about other SAHM's daily routine. A lot of SAHMs responded, myself included, and there I found out that I've been exposing Kate to too much television. One of the moms sent me a link to her blog describing its effects. I got a little worried so I asked from friends and n@wie sisters about ideas that they might have on how to get a 3-year-old busy without TV and gadget use. Here's what Kate and I have been doing this whole week: