Tag Archives: family

Weekend in Pictures: Three if by Sea

Last Sunday, we went out to Seaport Village to fly another kite that we bought Dominic because the other kite had been taken by the wind (original post here). Since this one was bigger, badder and had a different reel, we knew this one would be able to stand what Mother Nature had to offer. Meet Dominic’s new kite, The Red Baron!

We then ventured back into Seaport Village and had cupcakes at our favorite place, Frosted Robin. This time, we had the chance to sample the English Sticky Toffee, German Chocolate and Peanut Butter cupcakes. We washed the sweetness down with some white peach tea and chatted a bit with Sheree, the owner and manager (see my interview with Sheree here).

We ended the day at Joe’s Crab Shack on the Embarcadero, in a building that used to be the San Diego Rowing Club, which was deemed a historic building back in 1979. It’s right on the water, behind the San Diego Convention Center. Dominic enjoyed all of the wall decor and we enjoyed the food and the scenery. We are lucky to live in such a beautiful city like San Diego. Hope you all had a great weekend!

I wore my favorite comfy shoes by Marc Jacobs the whole day.

Hello Little Girl

My niece’s Beatles themed 5th birthday was a success! She looked absolutely adorable in her little outfit. My son had a bit of a cold, but insisted on playing outside with all the kids (as long as it was daylight, it was ok for a little while). The immediate family all had “tour shirts” made by my sister which had the dates and themes of Mei-Lin’s past birthdays. The front was a drawing made by our friend Ted who took an old Beatles cartoon and added an image of Mei-Lin in the middle.

My sister and I must love the “rock and roll” themed birthdays because my son’s first birthday was also a music themed. We ordered invites that looked like concert tickets and all of the immediate family had “backstage passes”.

Two of the food highlights were The Beatles cake (made by my sister’s friend Yolanda) and the mini-hamburger cookies. I’ll leave the cake decorating to the professionals, but I can give you the recipe for the “no bake” mini-hamburger cookies. My sister gave me the recipe verbally, so here is how I would follow it:

No Bake Mini-Hamburger Cookies

1 box vanilla wafer cookies
1 package chocolate covered mint cookies (or grasshopper cookies)
1 package shredded coconut
1 package sesame seeds
Green food coloring
1 tube red gel icing
1 tube yellow gel icing
Clear gel icing (optional)

Prepare the “lettuce” by adding 1/2 cup of shredded coconut to a plastic baggie. Add food coloring to coconut and shake. Set aside.

Prepare the “top buns” by spreading water (but I think clear gel icing would provide better adhesion) to the rounded side of the vanilla wafer and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Set aside.

To assemble the “burgers”: Add red and yellow gel icing to the mint chocolate cookie for the “ketchup” and “mustard” or “cheese”. Sprinkle green coconut for the “lettuce”. Adhere the “top bun”. Add the “bottom bun” by spreading a little bit of icing to the bottom of the chocolate mint cookie. Adhere the flat side of another vanilla wafer cookie.

Make as many as you can!

Outfits: Tour shirts made by Rholnna Jiao (illustration by Ted Meneses)

On Mei-Lin – Apple Bottom girl’s faux leather vest; Old Navy girl’s skinny jeans; Auntie Cyrillynn’s hat (brand unknown); Payless girl’s boots; “My Melody” stuffed doll by Build-A-Bear

On Dominic – Old Navy loose fit toddler jeans and long-sleeved shirt; Converse sneakers; Target knit beanie

Happy Birthday Mei-Lin!

This post is dedicated to my niece Mei-Lin who turns 5 today. She is as dramatic as she is beautiful. One of her older cousins asked her during Thanksgiving if she has any ugly poses. She responded, “I only have pretty poses!” A girl who takes after her auntie. Her party theme this year will be The Beatles. Yes, you read that right (she can sing all the lyrics to “Yellow Submarine”).

Happy Birthday to my pretty little princess!

Images of Thanksgiving

I know my most recent post was about my adventures in boy band land, which I posted right in the middle of my Thanksgiving weekend. It was a post from a few months ago that I kept meaning to put up but just never got around to it. Since I didn’t have my regular computer and just my little Nokia Netbook (no photo editor), I thought it was a good time to post it. Now that I have my regular computer, I am posting images from my Thanksgiving weekend in Las Vegas with my in-laws.

The reason I have a picture of an almost skeletal turkey was because it was the first time we ever had a deep-fried turkey. My mother-in-law bought a Butterball Deep Fryer to see if it’s as good as we have heard. My husband injected each side of the 10 pound turkey with creole butter (seasoning). Then he cut a slit into the left and right breast and inserted two tablespoons of butter in each side. Lastly, he seasoned the outside of the turkey with poultry seasoning and pepper. Then he deep-fried it in just under two gallons of Canola oil for only 40 minutes. The result was the most moist turkey I’ve ever had in my life. It’s no wonder it disappeared so quickly!

The yeast rolls my mother-in-law got were also completely amazing. They come frozen and rise in the oven. Even the next day, they were fantastic with a little bit of melted butter. I didn’t get a picture of them, but she also makes the best yams (made with brown sugar, butter and marshmallows).

The final image is of my son in his new little Thanksgiving outfit. Technically, he should only be wearing the San Diego Chargers gear because my team had the better record last season without reaching the Superbowl. The way my husband and I resolve which of our favorite team’s gear Dominic will wear each year is determined by which team has the better record or the team that goes to the Superbowl (this is until he can pick his own favorite team). My mother-in-law didn’t know we have this little “wager”, so she bought him the little Pittsburgh Steelers track-suit. But he looked too cute, so I’ll let this outfit slide this year. Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

Thankful

It’s a very busy time for friends and family to gather together and celebrate, so my post today will just be about how thankful I am for the many blessings in my life. It’s been a wonderful and eventful year so far, and I need to say thank you to everyone in my life for the encouragement and support they have given me, especially my wonderful husband and beautiful son. I am surrounded by their love every waking moment, which allows me to give it back in abundance.

The only difficult part of this time of year is that I remember my dear father, who I wish was here physically with us to share the holidays. It’s in times like this that my mom misses him dearly, although she knows he is with us in spirit. Like me, I know she thinks about what his reactions to my son and my niece would be as they get older because she is here and able to watch them grow.

So everyone, just take a moment to remember to thank your friends and family for all the love and support they provide. But most of all, thank yourselves for who you are and your contribution to the world we live in.

Have a safe and wonderful holiday. Happy Thanksgiving!

(Photos by Ashlee Espinoza)

Burberry for Babies? Try an Affordable Alternative

I get asked quite a bit where I do my shopping for my son. I bought the cute little Burberry shirt at Bloomies over a year ago (on sale, not for the price pictured). I nearly bought him Diesel jeans that same day (also on sale), then changed my mind. At the time, I thought, “How CUTE! I love Burberry and the prices are a slightly less expensive than clothing for me, so I can dress him in brand names all the time!”

Now that I’ve been a mother for over a year, I see how prices add up quickly for my little one.

So really, how practical is getting high-end brand names for kids? Yes, the clothing is very well made and the styles emulate that of the adults, so the allure to dress your child in the higher end fashions is too tempting. I’ve always said that if I had a daughter that I would have to take on another job just to supplement our wardrobes.

With the way kids grow in these early years, it’s impossible for me to justify purchasing something that is so high cost because it is also something that comes at such a high turnover. Believe me, with the awesome styles out there, I would love to dress my son the way Brad and Angelina dress their kids. But Dominic has already gone through 3 pairs of Converse in his 21 months of existence, not to mention dress shoes and flip-flops or sandals. If he’s going through five pairs of shoes every three months, the cost adds up. And for any family of modest to medium means, it’s just not practical.

Parents should understand and know that there is plenty of great affordable fashion out there for our little ones. The second picture is a recent one from my great aunt’s birthday party. Both outfits for my son and my niece were from H&M and both outfits (including shoes, socks and tights) were a total of $65. Both kids looked fantastic and stylish at a fraction of the cost.

Just as I’m creative with my wardrobe, I’m also as creative with my son’s clothing. I even had to go so far to get him a custom-made Joy Division shirt (seen here, it was only $12 and so worth it). For the clothes that he wears every day, I shop at places like Old Navy, Crazy 8, H&M, A Children’s Place, Gymboree and Pumpkin Patch, but I make sure to be smart about it.

One of my favorite places to get kids clothing is at Target. They have the coolest little t-shirts at prices from $5 to $10. Dominic wears a Run DMC t-shirt from Target and I always get stopped by people asking where did I get that cute little shirt (which was only $5.99). My son is growing at a seemingly exponential rate (he’s predicted to be 6’1″ as an adult because my husband is 6’4″), so the price range is completely pocket-book friendly.

Just to give you an idea of how often Dominic goes through clothing, this is a list of how many times I had to make a sweep of his clothing (which I’m always donating):

Newborn to 3 month clothing, purged after he was 2 months old
3 to 6 month clothing, purged after he was 4 months old
6-9 month clothing, purged after he was 6 months old
9-12 month clothing, purged when he was 10 months old
12-18 month clothing, purged when he was a year old
He is currently wearing 24 months to 3T clothing

I purged a total of a year’s worth of clothing because I was trying to keep up with his growth spurts. Kids are also not the cleanest during those early months, so I tried to have as many onesies available to keep the washings down to one time per week, rather than several times weekly. When you have to purge clothing so often, it really does feel better to give up $5 shirts than $40 ones every 2 to 3 months.

I want my son to have the best of everything that my husband and I have to offer. I’m realizing and learning all the time as a new mother, that cute and stylish things can be found everywhere, that won’t break the bank. I am a self-proclaimed fashionista and I love clothing. As I make smart investments in the things I buy for myself, I will always make smart investments in my son, where it counts the most. So I need to be practical and realize that I need to rely on my creativity when it comes to dressing him. My true investment for him will be the time I spend with him and my unconditional love.

Everyday is Halloween

Well, not really but I like the title of that Ministry song. Here are some images from this past week and weekend that are all things Halloween. The first three below are images from work. One is my team’s winning submission to our company’s pumpkin carving contest. A couple of my direct reports found an image of a pumpkin as a burger, so they ran with the idea by getting all of the In-N-Out accessories to make it truly unique. The second and third pictures are what my husband I wore to work on Friday (I’m in my goth girl outfit again, and Deon is “V for Vendetta”).

These last few pictures are of Halloween night and going “Trick or Treating” with my sister’s family and our kids. My sister, her husband and daughter were dressed as Super Mario Bros (don’t they look awesome?). It was nice to see that our neighbors had an awesome haunted garden. At first my son didn’t want to go in. When his cousin joined him, he practically ran in. There is a great picture of Dominic and Mei-Lin watching a mechanical bride and groom sing “I Got You Babe”.

All in all, it was fun to see our kids go out for the first time together down the very same street we used to go down as kids every Halloween. Hope everyone had a great weekend as well!

Halloween Rocks!

Since the internet at home is still a very unreliable thing (and because my husband is out playing softball for the company team, so I’m left to tend to our son), I’m just going to do a quick post of a couple of pictures of my son’s costume for Halloween. He’s going to be DJ Lance Rock. This little get-up cracked us up all day today. He didn’t want to take it off, so I think we found the perfect costume (the second picture is him running because it was time to put the outfit away until Saturday). Gotta love “Yo Gabba Gabba!”

Stick a Fork In It!

I’m breaking a bit from the fashion posts today to share one of my son’s firsts: we bought him his first utensil set! He’s used a spoon before, but this is Dominic’s very first fork and spoon set and his first “big boy” meal. It’s amazing how fast they grow, so we’re always capturing his firsts.

In the end, Dominic ditched the fork and spoon (and the rest of the meal) to pick up his fruit snacks. Well, we tried.

(And for those who are wondering: yes, that is a Juicy Couture bib. Can’t completely escape fashion, now can I?)

95 Years Young

This past Saturday was my great-aunt’s 95th birthday, Dionisia Bermudez Ancheta, affectionately called “Mamang” by everyone (which is mommy or mother in Ilocano, one of many dialects of the Philippines). Although my son and I both had colds, we still made sure to attend this fun-filled family celebration. Relatives came from Canada and all over America. All of the grandchildren were in charge of different parts of the party. We donated my husband’s time as the DJ and the main birthday cake for the presentation (the fabulous cake pictured above, made by Laruell Olds).

The evening began with a presentation of gifts from all of the great-grandchildren, including my son and my niece (my father is the second cousin of Mamang). They each brought little gifts that were her favorite things that she could use or wear, rather than any large expensive gift that she may not know what to do with. Gifts consisted of crossword and word search books, lotion, romance books, slippers, socks, dentures cleaner and shampoo. Each child placed the gift in a big basket next to Mamang, and handed her a rose. After the presentation of the gifts by the kids came the cake presentation (pictured above, Mamang is in the middle). There were so many people we had to get more than one cake (there are three pictured below, including the cake we had custom made)!

Included below are just a few more pictures from the party: one with all of the great-grandchildren again with Mamang, another of three of my cousins doing a hilarious dance medley (the one pictured was the Lady Gaga portion) and a couple of my son (one with another cousin and the last with my niece) dancing to the music provided by my husband (in the background).