Celebration in the Air 2011: A tour of the wonderful world of Disney! (Part 1)

This marked a lot of firsts for the kids, an experience that they will carry on for life.

Our flight was early Monday morning on the last week of Feb. We woke the kids up at 3am to get ready. Cab is already waiting, we're all packed! 

An hour and a half later, we found ourselves in a long line of passengers checking in for Flight 101. Too bad, it seems like we're not going to get seats close to each other. We had to plan a seating arrangement, separate the rascals apart and have a parent with each. We ended up with Team A ( Grandma, Daddy & J ) and Team B ( Grandpa, Mommy & E ). Well enough, I'm grateful my Team got the most number of zzzzz's and Mommy was able to watch a handful of short videos from the personal monitors in the plane. I had an overdose of  'Just for Laughs' the whole flight.

Little E sharing the plane ride with Big E

The baggage-cart-Rascals!

The long line of people checking in for our flight. Goodbye available seats!

Waiting for the pack to board.

The leader (and manager!) of the pack.

Baby J, sorting the headphones he'll use to play games on-board.

Baby J, pretending to be asleep just because he don't want his picture taken!

The congested plane bound to HK.

 After nearly 2 hrs (because of the delay caused by Filipinos held by the immigration), we finally arrived to our destination...Hello Hongkong!!!

We finally landed...

Hello shopping!

Me and my Superhero!

Waiting for the 'always' late tour guide.

My Knight with the guards! ( After this pic was taken, the HK Immigration officers just pointed out to a sign just infront of us: NO PICTURE TAKING IN THE AIRPORT). Sorry, damage has been done! haha

We got a bit frustrated about the tour guide because we waited 45 freaking minutes before he finally asked everyone to get in the shuttle. After being excited all along, now the kiddos are dead hungry! The ride was for about 45 minutes from the HK Airport to the Disney Hollywood Hotel. FYI: This is a pure Disney adventure which means we will be staying within the Disneyland grounds for 3 days. Bliss for the kids! Unfortunately, we'll have to save all our shopping energy up till the next HK trip. Tsk.

Still finding a way to hide from the camera.

HK freeway to Disneyland.

Our busmates enjoying the scenery consisting of roads, a few cars and a lot of hills.

This is just the start of a long 3-day hyperactivity!

The most excited member of the pack is so glad to be here!

A glimpse of heaven for the kiddos!

It was tiring but the actual travel time is only for a grand total of 8 hours including the wait time. That's 4.5 hours from our home to the airport plus checking in, bag inspections, paying airport fees, and quick breakfast. Then 1.something-hours plane ride including the delay. Then about 2 hours from the plane, wait time for the freaking late tour guide and shuttle travel. 

This will be a start of a 3-day adventure and I will share them by bits and pieces because telling the entire story might require me to look for a publisher. 

More pictures and lots of stories to come. Remember: WE JUST ARRIVED. So expect more stories on the next Parts of this trip.

Ciao,

Joyce

The 1st time I joined a blog contest!

This is the first time I joined a contest and I'm so freaking excited!

I was browsing for some Disneyland info through a Google cached page from work and I got into Animetric's World. I got the best info I can possibly get about the trip, and I got hooked! The blog site is very informative and it keeps me updated on latest trends and places. I loved the site!

This month, Animetric just launched a blog contest and I told myself I SHOULD join! Trying my luck (which I never had on contests, raffles or even the neighborhood Bingo), I'm officially sending my entry today. I'm crossing my fingers to grab any of her prizes coz any one of the choices I made is going to be for a person I love.

                                                           This is the official set of prizes.

                                              I hope this won't get me into any trouble posting it.

I suggest you try following her blog. You'll be hooked as I am. Wish me luck...I hope I win! =)

P.S.

And btw, check out her site if ever you'll be visiting HK Disneyland. It gave me all the info I needed since we stayed on the same Disney Hollywood Hotel.  

UPDATE: I was lucky to be chosen as one of the winners! I won a Book & the Pond's Gold radiance day and eye cream. Still waiting for an email to have my prizes shipped. I did it! =) Thanks Animetric! 

UPDATE 2: I already received the prizes from Ms. Rowena of Animetric's World. I love it! Thanks! =)

Short Term Friendships

I have worked with several companies and different people. I have met wonderful friends that I have shared my tears and cheers with. But the sad part of it is I have never had a real-long-time friend. This is more of my choice to keep my distance from friends, because I was once a slave of them.

On my earlier years, it was my passion to keep my friends and stick with them. Being an only child, I never had the brother or sister whom I will be spending my entire life with. I have great parents and a very small family (who, now are all enemies) but never had a person other than them I can call mine. I consulted every decision I made with my friends. I listened to advices, right or wrong. I spent my first paycheck for them. Planned all my free hours with them. Celebrated birthdays, holidays and even Mother's or Father's day with them. I learned about vices, homosexuality, shop lifting, cutting classes and even lying from them.

I suddenly met a man who made me realize that there are things in life that are better done with the people who matters to you the most. Not all things in life needs to be consulted or even told to friends. And that was when I started to be content of my family. God is good and I have a small but happy family.

Since then, I never gave my heart out to a friend anymore. I treated each and every person an acquaintance that will later on vanish as time pass by. I shared a few secrets related to the current time I was with a friend, and shared more relevant stories with more relevant friends. I made efforts in communicating with old friends but they seem to have their own groups and I am not included. 

I didn't know if it was really my fault, or if I made the right decision. I decided, from the time I had my first child, that I will never ever be the kind of friend that I was. And it seems like when I gave less of myself, they didn't want me anymore. 

That was when I realized, I made the right choice. I never had a friend visit me in the hospital when I was confined for dengue and almost died. I never had a friend who visited me in the hospital when I gave birth, twice. I never had a friend who regularly text and chat with me. I never had a friend who shares tears and cheers with me anymore. Where have they all gone? Gone.

This all happened when I stopped giving all myself to them, now tell me, I made the right decision, right?

How to make a paper plate lantern.

As promised, I will be posting the simple steps of crafts we love doing with the kids. This may be a simple start for parents to start bonding moments with the kids.

I'll call this the 'BK Lantern' ~ BK: Bujeng/Kokoi (the kids)

Materials:

• 6 pcs Silver paper plates - Plain ones will do, but the silver ones are more glittery when hanged.
• A few cm. of yarn - any color you prefer (this is for hanging the lantern)
• Japanese paper - the more colors, the better! (these only costs about 10php in bookstores)
• Stapler and a lot of staple wires
• Glue
• Stuff from the art leftovers kit for decorations - good examples are cotton balls (to make Mr. Frosty),art paper (to make Xmas ball patterns or Xmas trees), old Xmas cards, etc.

Steps:

1. Staple the first 4 paper plates together to form 4 walls. Be sure that the silver side of the plates are facing outwards. Make sure to make sturdy walls since this will be the main frame of the lantern. (Mommy and Daddy will take care of the stapling for you kiddos!)
2. Staple 1 paper plate at the bottom of the 4 walls, to make sure that the frame won't go out of place as the Christmas breeze blows from outside the window.
3. Punch a tiny hole in the middle of the last paper plate. Make a loop out of about a 6cm yarn. Shoot both ends of the yarn in the tiny hole and make a big bow, facing the non silver side. Make sure the bow is tight as this will be the 'hook' of your lantern.
4. Staple the last paper plate on top of the 4 walls. Make sure the yarn is sticking outside. Now the main frame of the lantern is fixed.
5. It's time for the kids to explore their imagination and artistic minds. Let the kids decorate the 4 silver walls of the lantern. 
6. While the kids decorate, cut several strips from multiple colored Japanese papers. Cut simple patterns on the strips as this will be the 'tail' of the lantern. After the final decorative touches, glue the strips at the bottom of the frame. Let it dry to make sure it won't fall off.
7. The lantern is ready! Make several lanterns to display around and outside the house.

Check out our Kuya Kokoi's lantern as a guide in making your own. Happy crafting kiddos and parents! I'll try to post more simple crafts for the kids soon.

Happy holidays!