angry birds water party

m&m's friend, ben, had a birthday party this past weekend. he chose angry birds as his party theme. of course, the kids were super excited for his party. it was held at a park with a water playscape. they got so soaked.

here are some cool details of the party:

ben and his family made a pig pinata that turned out so good. my sister, jos, created centerpieces w/ jenga. my other sister, jen, made cool angry bird cake pops. and i made some decorated sugar cookies.

as always, the kids "helped" make the cookies with me. i let them decorate some themselves to keep at home. malia did a really good job all on her own.

m&m loved getting soaked and boy did they get tanned. as we left and drove away, malia said, "goodbye glorious water park with pine cones." (she found some pine cones by the playground.) they are already begging to go back to that park.

homemade angry birds game

we saw an angry birds game on amazon and the kids wanted one. i told them it was too expensive and they could just make one themselves. i figured it was a good way to pass the time since malia is on vacation. plus she loves arts and crafts. so i bought clay for $5, and she made some birds and a pig. micah got in on the fun too. but his way of making it was by telling me, "make a pig," while he just rolled clay around.

i baked the clay and they were ready to play. we even made a slingshot, which i regretted later when micah just kept playing with it and pretending to shoot us. some of the beaks broke off after several launches. so next time i'll make sure it's attached better before baking.


it was great to see how excited they were about it, especially because they made it. we'll make more another day.

father's day

we went to dinner at chili's on the day before father's day. couldn't really do anything but that since micah was sick the whole week. we gave daddy some lotto scratchers and won a whopping $2! father's day was spent with family, eating and eating. it was a pretty relaxing day.

micah's baptism birthday

happy baptism birthday to micah and happy birthday to my dad!

micah begged me for an angry birds cake for his baptism birthday. i knew he would be happy with something simple. so while he was taking a nap, i quickly made 2 figures out of fondant and threw it on a little cake from hans & harry's. he loved it.

it's hard to tell by the picture that this little boy has been sick with an ear infection since friday. and this morning i picked him up from school because he had a fever. but he's still smiling.

obsessions

just like everyone else, m&m are obsessed with angry birds. mostly malia though. she makes drawings and cut outs. above is her latest painting and their plush toys. malia counted out all her coins so she could buy the red plush toy. they make sounds and i swear that in one of the sounds the birds are saying 'hallelujah.' i have to admit that the game is very addicting. but the main reason i like the game is because it's the only game m&m don't fight over when they are at the computer. they will nicely take turns and support each other in getting those darn pigs!

words of wisdom from micah

you don't think bad thoughts, only good thoughts. bad thoughts are fighting and not being good. good thoughts are being good and going to disneyland.

my boy in beverly hills

took a last minute day trip to beverly hills to see some family friends from the philippines. i think the last time i was in beverly hills was with my parents when i was in high school. of course micah had no idea where he was. but it was a fun trip with jos, arnold, and joelle. we stopped by some shops. i saw an $58 pair of mickey mouse flip flops. that was the sale price! malia would have loved beverly hills since she likes fancy things, but she had to go to school. i'll take her there one day.

bedtime excuses

in our house, bedtime is usually at 8pm. this gives the kids some time to settle down, and hopefully they are fast asleep by 9pm. sometimes micah gets some leeway since he's still in preschool, plus he's my shadow. so if i have a lot of things to do around the house, he gets up from the bed and looks for me.

getting them to get ready for bed and in the bed is not always so easy. especially when we're having fun playing or watching a movie, no one wants to go to sleep. so the excuses start.

here's a list of the most common excuses:

• but i'm really really hungry (micah's favorite excuse)
• i'm not tired (this one is usually followed by a yawn)
• i have a lot of energy still (malia's #1 excuse)
• but i'm still playing
• the movie's not done yet (and they've watched it before, so they know the outcome)
• but micah's not going to bed yet
• i need to find a toy to bring to bed first (micah's 2nd favorite excuse)
• but i didn't get to read a book

so when i remember, i announce when it's the last chance to eat again. and i announce that it's 10 minutes until it's time to get ready for bed. it doesn't always eliminate the excuses, but it cuts down the whining. and no whining makes a parent happy.

my birthday at disneyland

i've never been to disneyland on my actual birthday. i got one of those birthday buttons and it was surprising how many cast members greeted me. it was really nice. micah's ninong arn was able to join us for the day.

micah's first ride choice was "the ghost ride", but since pirates was on the way we went to that first. we waited maybe 5 minutes for each ride. we were lucky because it got crowded right after we rode. they added some new things to haunted mansion, i was actually freaked out. malia just wanted to go to the tarzan treehouse.

the kids spent some of their money on sugar. then we headed to fantasy land. they rode the circus train for the first time. of course in the monkey car.

one of the highlights of this trip was seeing baby ducks walk across the way. micah is usually pretty good about just looking, but i turned around and there he was running after the ducks and trying to touch them. i don't know what got into him. i had to carry him away because he wasn't listening to me to stop.

malia also wanted to go see mickey in his house. i love that mickey's greeting place changes themes. last time he was in his sorcerer outfit. this time he was steamboat willie with his boat in the background.

the kids each chose 1 thing to buy. out of everything there is to choose at disneyland, malia picked a little tiara. she had me checking it the entire time to see if it was straight. micah picked a storm trooper figure. loved my thirty-something birthday.

words of wisdom from micah

if you eat a bug you explode...because bugs have bombs inside them.