president's day weekend

the highlight of our 3-day weekend was watching 'the secret world of arrietty.' roel was a little upset because he wanted to watch star wars in 3d. maybe next time. but we enjoyed the movie. micah got a little bored at some parts, but this time he didn't look for the exit like he normally does. so i think he's getting more used to watching movies in the theater. lia loved it. she's a movie buff.

it's raining

we finally had a rainy school day this winter. the kids were excited to wear their rain boots and rain jackets. had to pick up lia today since roel went home early with a migraine. (this kind of weather does that to him.)

somehow malia's boots remind me of the toy soldiers in the disneyland christmas parade.

stung by a bee

i don't know anything about bee stings other than that people can have allergic reactions to them. i don't know how they feel, what they look like, what i'm supposed to do about it, etc. i also don't do well in emergency situations. so pray that you aren't alone with me in case something bad happens.

well, the bee came while we were picking up a pizza to bring to grandma's house. malia wanted her window down and was her usual energetic self. roel was getting out of the car with micah to get the pizza.

all of a sudden, she's crying and leaning on me and holding her arm out. at first i couldn't tell what happened since she was half leaning on me, but then i saw something on her arm. at first i thought she had snagged her skin on something. then i thought it was a bug so i kinda pushed her arm away from me and told roel to look at it (because i'm scared of bugs). roel pulled out the stinger, which was still pulsating, so gross. after all that, i was able step in and do my mother thing, check it and clean it. i know, mother of the year.

while micah and roel were finally inside pizza hut to get the pizza, i was consoling malia. then she says,"i hear a buzzing noise." i looked back and the bee was walking around on the floor of the car. so we got out of the car. i know that bees die after they lose their stinger, but of course i wasn't going to be the one to kill it. we waited for roel to come back and get it. malia was still crying the entire time.

roel scooped up the bee on some paper and looked at it. and then asks me out loud,"it doesn't look like a killer bee right?" so malia started crying harder. omg!

she felt a little better after roel told her the story of when he was young, he caught 10 bees in a bag, dropped the bag, and all the bees stung him. thank God she didn't have an allergic reaction to the sting. he knows i wouldn't have done well with it. and goodness, what would i have done if it were just the 2 of us?!

but now i know more about bee stings. i dabbed some toothpaste on it and it took away her pain almost instantly. now she really fears bees, and i don't blame her. it's a good thing she still likes me.

morning dress up

malia plays dress up everyday. her ultimate dress up experience was at disney world, of course. but it's rare to get moments of micah playing dress up when it's not around halloween time. i was on my computer and he appeared in the hallway to shoot me. a little pirate (still in his star wars jammies.)

it cracks me up because he puts this face on when he's in pretend mode. so different from the pretty princess mode i'm used to from lia. 2 extremes when you have one of each. i love it.

moments to treasure

walking down the hill to church holding hands

art class

malia is all about art. she loves to draw, paint, create, etc. i'm still trying to find a good art class for her (that i can afford) outside of school. so for now, i enrolled her in a painting class through the chula vista recreation department. it's taught by ms. ofelia, an actual artist that has done murals and sells her artwork. first class, some drawing with shadowing, since painting involves both.

so behind

i am so behind in my blogging! ever since i got my new camera and my mac ran out of memory, i haven't blogged. but it's not my camera or my mac's fault, it's mine. just because it's not as easy to upload my photos, it's not impossible.

there are also some other stressors involved, but that too shouldn't stop me from blogging. so i will have to backtrack. so behind!

homework

m&m are back in school after a 3 week break. that means back to homework time, which hasn't been so bad with lia. but because micah will be starting kinder in july (which makes me cry inside every time i think about it), we started homework time for him. he hates it. and so do i because it's taking me back to when lia started and we would argue. there's lots of whining, and stalling, and getting distracted. so roel and i have to tag team because patience is nowhere near my name. (and believe me, i pray for patience every day.) but we'll get there.

snow days at legoland

we were lucky enough to get free tickets to legoland again. and they were hopper tickets!

it was a cool visit because we went in a big group with the adventos, olegarios, ninang hannah, and ninong arnold. of course we don't have any kind of group picture though.

first we went to sealife aquarium. it was still decked out with christmas decor, with trees and ornaments in the aquariums.

always love miniland usa, now with star wars.

micah found a garbage truck!

it was the kids' first "snow" experience. it was pretty cool. they both did the sleds once, but micah wanted to throw snowballs and malia was determined to make a snowman.

we split up for a while. malia went to ride the big roller coaster with some of the adults. micah and i went to the playground and rode the train. he made it a point to sit on this green motorcycle, which he really loved the last time we went.

we all met up to ride one last ride together before we left.

so much fun! roel wants to get an annual pass there since we aren't renewing our disneyland pass for a while. i'll have to think about it.

malia is 8

the little girl turned 8 today! she thinks she is SO old. i sent cupcakes for her class at school, then i picked her up. it was her half day. we went to one of her favorite places - the mall. i told her she could pick out her birthday present since micah got to pick out his birthday present at disney world. the first thing she picked was a small toy in target. then she picked out some dresses at H&M. we also picked out her christmas dress. and then, she enjoyed a free ice cream from baskin robbins, her favorite place for ice cream.

after that, we went to buy her cake at hans&harry's. the flourless chocolate cake is still her favorite. our friend, charlotte, was sweet enough to give us the cake for free. i had also found a deal online for a small cake and cookies, and that was delivered today.

(not bad for $4, right? and it was good.)

after homework, she received a phone call from princess jasmine. it must have made her day because she immediately went to write a letter to jasmine to thank her for the phone call. i will send the letter to the fanmail address, and she should receive a picture of jasmine in a couple of weeks.