Cherish the Weekends!! And it’s getting close to the time that we have to leave Toronto!
In honor of all the Gun Violence in Toronto and the world right now, I decided to break out my Obey Guns and Roses tee shirt. People are always complimenting me on my tee shirts and my timeliness with them.
Brooklyn is happy, she has a NEW table! He old table was getting a bit too small and worn, and it really should start to be passed down to Amerie. This new table is a drawing table, arts and crafts, and breakfast table all in one!
Oh, and speaking of Arts and Crafts, we decided to break into her Castle building set she got for her birthday! The product never got finished because somehow the glitter glue all got used on other things that the glitter glue was supposed to hold together.
As for the other baby Ninja, this one keeps getting bigger every day! She still has to get over her separation anxiety, but hopefully happens quite quickly!
Brooklyn is pretty fluent in our weekend routines for groceries, Costco, and WMart. Thankfully, we have all of that mapped out in our new place in Richmond, BC!
Poor kid just can’t keep up with the afternoon pace! Then again, I would take weekend naps all the time if I could!
Oh how I will miss Toronto nights. The lineup at Dutch Dreams tonight was at least 40 people long. I will definitely miss these times.
I will also miss the hilarity that came with Downtown Toronto nights. People drunk all over the place, making fools of themselves, but not always resulting in violence or guns. I always loved that everytime we went out (even in Vancouver), the fun we had was all Love. Didn’t anyone have to start a fight or shoot someone.
And one of the very last meetings of the Royal Order of the Jaded Old Men. To commemorate, we had to have the infamous Roast Beef Poutine. I think I’m going to take this dish with me to Vancouver!!
Cherish the Weekends! And guess what? It’s a BIRTHDAY WEEKEND for a special little girl!
I really cannot believe that this little Princess is turning THREE years old today. Holy moly, time really does fly. It pains me that she’s this smart, this pretty, and definitely going to be a Star!
The next Princess Star in waiting couldn’t figure out what all the commotion was about today, so she mostly just stuck to her own business. It’s ironic that this time last year we were in Vancouver for Brooklyn’s 2nd Birthday, and here we are on the verge of moving back for good.
The Dora Birthday hat was on since Cheerios. Here’s proof. After all the preparations, food cooking and getting, and loot bags building, we were off to the Amazon Playground where Brooklyn had her First Birthday at!
The first guest to the party was Brooklyn’s classmate Lori. They hung out in the ball room and were just getting warmed up.
Little Shaun and Tierra were in attendance also. I don’t have a picture of Tierra, probably because she was running so fast and in the bouncy castle! Shaun didn’t come dressed as a pirate, but he did have fun as one. Kaylee (in the background) and Tristan also pulled into the party too!
When Brooklyn raided the costume closet, she came out as Winnie the Pooh!! So hilarious!!
And here’s Peter! He had a great time, I don’t know if he’s been around this many kids, but he certainly kept smiling the whole time!
And here’s Brooklyn with Cousin Baby Jayla! Jayla’s so gorgeous, and she’s even got a fake cry now!
Peter was struttin his new hot wheels for the ladies!
Jayla had a good time just chillin out and watching all the chaos around her.
And Cousin Jizelle was having a great time with her Supergirl tee shirt and rockin out with Brooklyn!
Che, Bre, and Cyrus also came through, and Cyrus is getting really big! These kids grow up too fast, I tell ya.
Dino, another one of Brooklyn’s classmates also came by and he had a blast!!
We think everyone had enough food, and there was tons even leftover also!
Sometimes Brooklyn’s facial expressions are about as transparent as mine. She’s truly my own flesh and blood! 🙂 Oh and there’s Tierra to Brooklyn’s right!
HAPPY 3RD BIRTHDAY, BROOKLYN JULIANA!! (the only time she was looking straight into the camera!)
Brooklyn was already eating the sprinkles off the cake before they could even cut it up!
If you’ve ever tried to get 15 kids together for a group shot, and succeeded, you should get some sort of an award or medal.
After lunch, and cake, it was back to the playground to burn off some sugar!! Brooklyn hit the dressup room again, and came back as some Asian … thing.
Quentin her best buddy from school came late, but he was happy to see Brooklyn nonetheless! He didn’t get to eat much, but that didn’t matter!
The fun part about indoor playgrounds for birthdays is that you cna let your kids go around and do whatever. The bad part about indoor playgrounds is that everyone has to wear socks, even little babies!
We decided to open Brooklyn’s presents back at home, and WOW did this little girl get spoiled!
I’m not bragging, but even Brooklyn knows she’s so lucky to have all these presents! We tried to explain to her that there are kids out there that have NO presents for their birthdays, and that she should be thankful for what she gets on her birthday, even if it’s just gift cards. Yah, that still doesn’t register with a three year old.
Brooklyn got her fair share of new clothes! Thanks for everyone for enclosing gift cards with them, but we won’t be exchanging clothes for her. Either she’ll grow into them, or if they’re too small for Brooklyn, then Amerie will grow into them!
Hair clips courtesy of her classmate Lori!
And of COURSE what Brooklyn Birthday would be complete without some Dora stickers and a Hello Kitty purse!!
And Cousins Jizelle and Jayla got Brooklyn some new markers and a coloring book! Thank gawd they’re washable markers!! 🙂
And of course, the BESTEST and the most boring presents came from Mommy and Daddy! We ended up getting Brooklyn some new Robert Munsch and Jillian Jiggs books for her to read!!
Oh and we finally got Brooklyn’s bubble gun from last year to work! This will come in handy when we get outdoors in the next couple of weeks!
And Amerie, well, it was just another day for her. She is getting bigger, and everyone at the party just loved her and her hair!! We will definitely have some crazy adventures when she’s up and running!
And as for the Birthday girl, what more can I say? She’s smart, she’s gorgeous, she’s funny, she’s sensitive, she can sing, she can dance, and she’s a drama queen. She never stops making me proud. She’s my baby and I will love her forever, no matter what.
Cherish the Weekend continues! And it looks like Amerie is making a full recovery from last weekend’s adventures!
She’s still a bit temperamental, and she still has crazy Separation Anxiety, but in the end, she’ll be ok!
Oh and she’s started teething, so that will bring all new adventures and chaos!
And with two little ninjas such as these, who wouldn’t want to make it a Lazy Sunday afternoon??
One thing’s for sure, we definitely timed our afternoon properly because it started out with FREE ICE CREAM!!
And it was that time of year for our annual neighborhood Salsa festival, the Salsa on St Clair! It really was too bad that this would be our last Salsa on St Clair, so we took it all in as much as we could!
They had the usual kids’ area with rides, bouncy castle and overpriced cheap toys as prizes.
My own personal favorite food stand… CHURROS!!!
There were other lots of great food spots this year, this one served tons of food per portions!
MMMmmm Grilled Chicken!
Brooklyn had her pick of all the best foods, and in the end she chose Strawberry Pocky Sticks!!
There were all the perrenial festival favorites that make their way to ALL the festivals around Toronto also.
The newest ones on the scene were these Twisted Deep Fried Potatoes on a stick! What a great idea! And for $4 a stick, they were making tons of money!
MMMmmm Pupusas!!
Of course, what would Salsa on St Clair be without Salsa Dancing??
Everyone was getting into the dancing spirit!
And Brooklyn even ended up getting her arm painted! She would have gotten her face painted, but she chickened out and opted for a flower on her arm!
What a great day, and we were sad that won’t be seeing Salsa on St Clair for a while.
Congrats to Nephew #1 for winning the BC Provincial A Soccer Championship!! We’re proud of you, and we’re even more excited to see you at the end of the month!
Cherish the Weekends! And we’re running out of weekends in Toronto! We are definitely going to miss the things that Toronto has offered us, and most definitely we are going to miss our creature comforts and our routine weekend errand places!
Not to worry though, Brooklyn has vowed to help us find our favorite Grocery stores, Costco, Ikea, and shopping malls back in Vancouver for us!
And this little one, well she’s just getting started on her preferences for shopping and errand-running!
Brooklyn really loves it in Dollarama because she’s gets to play silly dressup and not have to worry about paying for anything that she breaks! It’s only a dollar!
I have no idea who made these hats, or why they bought these hats, but they are good for a little laugh.
I don’t know how she learned how to squat so well, but I guess with the Filipino that’s in her blood, it’s genetic!
Then we went home to get fancied up because it was Uncle Marvin’s Birthday bash!
For whatever reason, Baby Amerie is a mama’s girl, but there’s something about when Daddy comes around that she just lights up for a brief 5 seconds.
We went to an all you can eat Brazilian barbeque, where the guys with swords come around and slice meat off on to your plate. This would work out great as an all you can eat, except that the guys never came around to us! So Brooklyn was happy to dine on grapes, cheese, carrots, tomatoes!
Then we finally got a hold of one of these cards, and the waiters with the swords started to filter to the table.
Then they had a live band, capoeira dancers, and everyone got up and boogied down! Brooklyn definitely caught everyone’s attention on the dance floor, and safe to say she stole the attention away from the flamenco dancers!
And you couldn’t even pull her off the dance floor when it was time to go home! She didn’t want to leave! I know, I know, singer, dancer…. what next homee? Triple Threat Daughter #1??
Be careful what you wish for….
Ok, so here is how my Long Weekend holiday started. It was about 1:34 am and I was hanging out with the boys Sunday night, just taking in some good tunes at a local bar, and enjoying the vibe. I got a call from home saying that Amerie was suffering a seizure and 911 was called. Oh great. Here we go. So Amerie got her very first ambulance ride, and Brooklyn was a bit jealous. Long story short, it appears that it was a febrile fever, and the seizure was caused by her body not being able to take the changes all at once. Some of it could have been cause by being on her own in the crib, or just the stress of being in the crib period, the heat alert that we’re under, and the air conditioner blasting. All in all, luckily it is NOT meningitis, but she did have a urinary tract infection, and is on meds for that. Safe to say, drama is over and the Sick Kids staff were ALL great especially under the circumstances. 4am in a hospital just is NOT a good look for anyone.
Brooklyn, for being a trooper through the whole ordeal got a bunch of new stickers from all the nurses she saw there. This is what she ended up doing with them. Pretty smart kid, huh?
SO… we were supposed to go to Ribfest out in Mississauga, but because Amerie was stuck home on meds and recovering, Brooklyn and I decided to hit the playground once again! Luckily (or unluckily) for her, there were other kids there today! We weren’t in the Twilight Zone!!
Brooklyn is still so shy around strangers, and I guess that’s a good thing. We’re not aiming to course-correct that anytime soon, but I do wish that she would at least talk to other kids more openly.
Either way, she’s still Priority #1, and she knows it too!
Song of the Day: Momma Loves Me Part 2 – Jay-Z ft Coldplay
Cherish the Long Weekends continues!!
And today was pretty chill in comparison to yesterday. We all slept in a little, and Brooklyn was still getting over her very first Blue Jays baseball cap.
Amerie however, couldn’t care less. She’s just trying to find her banana cracker.
We decided to hit up brunch at our favoritest local brunch spot, and there was surprisingly NO LINE UP! Everyone must have gone to the cottage this weekend! YAY!
Brooklyn had her very own strawberry waffle and went right to work on the strawberries.
I went with the tried and true Benny Boom, smoked salmon eggs benedict!
We decided to head to the playground where there was some shade to deal with, and again there was NOBODY there! Not a single other kid at the playground, Brooklyn had everything all to herself!
Even SHE found it quite eerie that there were no other kids there, but she wasted no time in hoarding all the sand toys!
We are going to miss this playground, and at times, everything we do now seems like a victory lap, or at least “one more time for old time sakes”.
We will definitely have to find something comparable to this playground. Problem is that the huge playground in Steveston is just way too big, and always crowded. We’ll have to hunt for our happy medium.
It was definitely a strange night also….
Song of the Day: Separate Lives – Phil Collins (ft Marilyn Martin)
Cherish the Long Weekends!!! Thank Gawd it’s a long weekend, only because the exhaustion of dealing with everything else lately has come to a breaking point.
Brooklyn is sporting her Brand New New Era Pink Blue Jays Toddler hat! And why is she so excited? Because we’re going to the Blue Jays game today!
Being the long weekend, we decided to start crib training Amerie. Yes, I know, she’s not even 6 months yet, but it has to get started some time!
She wasn’t doing too badly with the crib training after Friday night and Saturday night, but Sunday night was a whole other ball game. More on that later.
So… a lot of people ask me, “how the heck do you get such good seats for the Jays games?” Well, the answer is simple… know a lot of good people in good places, and good things will follow. If you want to know who’s parking space this is, just ask me.
So here we are! Row 2 right behind home plate! Pretty awesome seats, right?
Damn, I’m going to miss these times that I get to spoil Brooklyn so badly.
Amerie on the other hand had no idea what was going on, and was simply not having any fun at all in the sun and with all the noise. After the Jays hit a home run, she was tapped out from all the commotion!
So Brooklyn inherited her very own seat for the rest of the game!
Of course, everyone around her started up with the “She’s SOOOO CUTE!” Why yes, yes she is…
Hopefully she’ll remember these times when she grows up. I highly doubt it, but there is hope.
The Jays ended up winning 11-2 against the Anaheim Angels and it was a great time for everyone. Brooklyn even got a free ice cream cone!
And how do you top off a great dinner from a great baseball game? Why, The Stockyards of course!! We tried the Fried Chicken Dinner (tried and true) along with the BAT sandwich (Bacon, Arugula, Tomato!). What a great way to end a lovely evening!
Brooklyn was pretty much wiped out from all the sun and excitement!
Oh, and we had to finish off with Dutch Dreams Ice Cream!! Man, I’m going to miss our neighborhood.
Song of the Day: Mama I’m Coming Home – Ozzy Osbourne
Call it the first of a few sick days ahead of me. Coughing, stuffed nose, headache, body ache, all out exhaustion. Part of it came on Thursday night, I’m sure the 4 hour wait at the airport on Friday night was the final culprit, and then no sleep on Friday night leading into Saturday’s flight home was the clincher. So, being a sick day, I didn’t see much of the kids because I didn’t want them to get sick either!
So, Brooklyn strapped on her Ballerina tutu, grabbed her sister and went out to Mississauga to visit with their cousins the J’s!
As for Amerie, she was just chillin the whole day. She really is getting bigger, more alert, more aware, and she can almost eat a whole rice cracker all by her own self!! Whoot Whoot!
Cherish the Weekends! But wait a minute, these aren’t the usual weekend pictures of my little ninjas that you’re used to! No!
Well, I didn’t cut myself, but I DID have a headache, and I DIDN’T sleep! The perils of travelling on the Eastern Seaboard in the summertime: Thunderstorms and flight delays!
Actually, in my case it was Flight Cancellations!! My Friday night flight home was cancelled, leaving me stranded in Newark NJ for the night. I totally felt like Victor Navorski from “The Terminal”, when I usually feel like George Clooney in “Up in the Air”. Thanks Porter Airlines, Newark Liberty Airport, and Billy Bishop Toronto Airport!! Anyone who says that travelling for work is so glamorous is going to get a punch in the nose.
So, I sat back and had a Grey Goose and Soda and tried to get home for Saturday first thing in the morning.
The storms had already passed through, so the Saturday was clear as a whistle. This is the sight that I got to fly home to!
And waiting for me on the couch was none other than Ninja #1! Cot Dang, I love her so much!
We had to get to the Party City store to load up on loot bags and decorations for someone’s upcoming 3rd birthday party! I think this was Brooklyn’s way of telling me that she’s ready to go to Disneyland already! Patience, young Jedi!
Of course, one afternoon full of shopping and she’s already up to her usual nap tricks!
Oh and Ninja #2…. is it me, or is she getting bigger and bigger again?? I swear, she’s going to be bigger than Brooklyn, and she’s going to bully her older sister into submission!
Cherish the Weekends! And Happy Father’s Day to all the other fathers out there!
This is just about the only time you’ll see Baby Amerie in her rocking chair and NOT crying. She HATES this chair. I’m not sure why, but it could be because she’s mostly in it all the time!
Whenever Brooklyn gets a new sticker book, there is usually stickers EVERYWHERE! And I do mean EVERYWHERE!!
And she usually finds the most odd places to put them as well!
It always impresses me how good she is getting at doing puzzles also. She is definitely following in my footsteps! ;P
Oh and look! I got a footprint for my Father’s Day Present!! I really didn’t want a present this year, these two little Ninjas really are enough! (Ok, not gonna lie, the new Polo duffle bag would have been pretty cool also!)
Lucky for us, the weather was just perfect for PLAYGROUND time! Amerie is still a bit too little to play at this playground, so it was just Brooklyn and I!
Brooklyn loved the time away from her little sister I think as well. All the attention was just on her!
And she took advantage by going on all her favorite things at our favorite playground!
Yes, I’ve got a LOT to worry about in 12 years or so. Dang it.
Oh and look who’s in town! Couisn Jayla is visiting for the next six months! Jayla is only a few months older than Amerie, and she’s definitely bigger than her also! We’ll be seeing a lot of them as the babies get to know each other (and if Amerie stops being a cry baby!).
And this is Cousin Jizelle! Her and Brooklyn are only months apart also! These two together are going to cause some MAJOR trouble! It’ll be great to see these two grow up close together with all the other cousins!
And the girls all got along well right away!
Song of the Day: Out On the Road – Norah Jones (Live on Letterman)
Cherish the Weekends! And I really do wake up screaming that aloud!
Oh and guess WHO is now addicted to the iPad?? That’s right! Baby Amerie has found some cartoons and videos that she’s hooked on!
Early Morning crooked Pigtail Puffs on the Mini Me!
And Brooklyn was rocking her Sleeping Beauty Uniqlo Tee shirt today!
On our trip to our local Costco, I was going to buy this gigantic bear for Brooklyn, but as it turned out, it was cramping her style. So she turned him down!
And then we had Alaskan King Crab Legs for lunch!! GET IN MY BELLY!
Another thing we found out today, Brooklyn LOVES the wind in her hair! We always knew that she liked being in motion from when she was a baby in her swing, but this just reinforced it. She’s definitely going to be a roller coaster kid!
Then again, maybe she just might nap a lot.
After naptime, we had to get going to Uncle John’s 89th Birthday celebration!!
And you guessed it, we ordered the Double LOBSTER!! ‘
Brooklyn got a new sticker book from Auntie Pat.
And Amerie got a big cheek pinch from everyone! I know, I know, life’s not fair.
DOUBLE LOBSTER!! GET IN MY BELLY!
Oh and the evening’s festivities are another story for another night. We were the Last Man Standing though!
Cherish the Weekends continues! And here is the tiniest Ninja eating some rice cereal in the morning! She can barely sit herself up straight in her highchair, but she can eat rice cereal good and fine!
Soon she will learn how to say “GET IN MY BELLY!”
Brooklyn and one of her favorite toys, her Aqua Doodle! Yes, she has better hair than Troy Polamalu right now, but don’t hate on her or her hair.
And the littler Ninja, She’s just chillin on a hot Sunday afternoon with the Air Conditioner on.
Brooklyn has been experimenting with many different dressup looks. This is her Ahmish look.
This is her Simple with Pigtails look.
Still chillin in her exersaucer with her Air Conditioning on.
Oh yah, I decided to mess around in the kitchen and ramp up my Mac and Cheese recipe with Crispy Pancetta, Spicy Chorizo, and Hot dogs added it!
Then you top it with MORE cheese and Italian Bread Crumbs! GET IN MY BELLY!!!!
Song of the Day: Little Broken Hearts – Norah Jones
Cherish the Weekends!! And another busy one was ahead of us today!
Brooklyn started the day off with some mind-exercizing puzzle making! She really is getting darn good at putting these things together.
Amerie started the day off with a nap! (on the bright side, she’s started rice cereal and rice crackers, so she’s starting to sleep for 4-5 hours a night.)
Brooklyn is also starting to pick out her own clothes to wear and she’s learning about matching her outfit colors together. All Pink Everything!
Then that’s usually when the littler one wakes up! Dun Dun Dunnnn!
Being that the weather was going to be above thirty degrees, I finally broke out the first pair of new sneakers for the summer! Presenting the Air Max 95 LE’s! God, I love these shoes.
We had to hit the mall to buy a few things, so Brooklyn decided that she would try on a few hats. This was a definite no-no.
This hat had a chance, but still not completely her.
When she got tired of dressup, she decided to hit Toys R Us. Once she discovered the tricycles, it was a sign that she might already be pre-Birthday shopping (just like her Daddy!)!!!
After a long day of shopping and errands, kid #2 was pooped!
And soon after in the car ride home, kid #1 was just as pooped!
But we still had more to do today!
We were invited to the Annual A Seaton Dream Martini party!
Of course, Miss Brooklyn and Miss Amerie stole the show, and everyone was so amazed at how Brooklyn could eat fruits and vegetables so easily!
And when the music started going, Miss Brooklyn was not hesitant to break out some of her own dance moves!!
Thanks to the good folks at A Seaton Dream for a great party! We’ll definitely look forward to the next one!!
How in the heck do the weekends get so busy??? We had errands on top of errands to run, and luckily it’s been a bit too cool outside for the playground!
So Brooklyn took her magic wand and her Balloon from the birthday party yesterday and decided to cast a spell on EVERYTHING! “Bibbity Bobbity Boo!”
Today’s New Era Fitted comes courtesy of the good folks at COBRA!!
It’s amazing how far Brooklyn’s vocabulary, ability, comprehension, and absorbtion skills are. We still have to remind her every five minutes to use her manners, but hey if that’s the most of our worries, I’m OK with that!
Amerie is just busy with her Side Eye training, and she’s doing quite well with that!
What do you do when you have TWO monkeys like this to handle??
And after all our groceries, errands, and running about, it’s ALWAYS nice to squeeze in a nap here and there! Cherish the Weekends!!
Keep Cherishing the Weekends!! And it was a busy weekend ahead of us!
It’s strange and funny how everything that Brooklyn likes, Amerie DOES NOT! We just started putting Amerie in the Jolly Jumper, and she’ll last for about FIVE minutes before crying to get out of it. She does need to start exercising though, look at those rolls of bread under her thighs!!
Brooklyn, on the other hand, is just being a good big sister. She helps Amerie whenever she can and is always glad to give her sister a push while she’s in the Jolly Jumper!
Lately, Brooklyn has been wanting to play Princess, so she has her magic wand from the Dollar store and her tiara (also from the Dollar store), and she can even say “Bibbity Bobbity Boo!”
Today was a great day to wear my “NINONG KNOWS” Manny Pacquiao tee shirt, in anticipation of his fight coming up on June 9th. Also, we were going to a Filipino Barbeque Birthday Farty!
Amerie got on her party clothes and her teething rings!
And Brooklyn decided to go “casual cool” with her Gap Jean jacket and Polo polo with jean skirt.
The highlight of ANY Filipino Barbeque, the Barbeque Pork sticks!!!
Of course, there was karaoke, Beer, pulutan, rice, and other stuff, but this is really all you need!!
Song of the Day: The Lady Is a Tramp – Ella Fitzgerald
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