Moments in My Life

I met up with several other mommies for lunch today at Pat & Oscar’s Restaurant at Del Amo Mall.  It was a nice get together.  It has been a while since I saw their kids.  We actually met during the Adult School Parenting Class with Mrs. Harris, may be more than 2 years ago.  Even though we don’t have the same class now, but we still meet up for Mommy’s Night out and sometimes lunch or park date together.  And this time was at Pat & Oscar’s.

We were lucky as I received a coupon for Free Kids Meal (with minimum of $5 purchase) from Pat & Oscar’s this morning and able to print them out before I left home.  Yup, our kids had free meals!

After lunch, we stopped at a nearby pumpkin patch.  This is actually the first time Brandon has visted one.  He didn’t want to go but I told him we had to because I had promised to meet the other mommies there and at least let us stop by to say bye to them.  We didn’t stay too long as it was a bit late and we needed to head home for his nap time.  But for the short moment there we took many pictures.  And here is one to share.

Happy Halloween everyone. Stay safe while trick and treating!!

Backdated 1/18/09.

When we woke up in the morning that day it was late. It was around 10am when we were going out the door without an idea where we were heading to. Hubby suggested we visit Irvine Spectrum which is about 45-50 minutes drive down south. I agreed since I have no other better idea where to go.

A ferris wheel and lots of palm trees at Irvine Spectrum

By the time we got there it was already 11am. My first stop was at the Old Navy store to grab some items on clearance. I got some tee-shirts and a jacket for Brandon. Cheap buy.

Brandon doesn’t have any patience waiting for me to shop, so his Daddy took him out to the fountain area to enjoy. He has this love for fountains.

Enjoying fountain

Brandon requested to ride on the carousel when we walked towards it. It cost $2 for a ride.

Carousel ride

It was past noon time, so we stopped and had lunch at Wahoo Fish Taco, Mexican restaurant.

Nearby the restaurant, there is an ice skating ring set up. Imagine the weather that day was around 80-85 degrees. It must be nice to be on the ice.

Ice skating ring

We walked to Target and shop for a little while. But Brandon was more excited to be outdoor since there are fountains everywhere at this place. It was difficult for me to shop because he didn’t want to be inside. So his Daddy went out with him to the fountain just right outside Target while I finished up my window shopping in Target to see what clearance they have on sale.

It was 1:30pm the time we left. We only finished walking half the outdoor mall. This is a very nice mall to walk around with plenty of good restaurants and shops to wonder around. Brandon didn’t nap in the car on the way back but I managed to get him napping later when we got home.

This morning when we were out and about in the car, my hubby told me that his company has reorganized.  We were about to enter the parking structure of the mall when this conversation took place.

Daddy: Before this reorganization, my sector was called the Space Technology.

Mommy: So now after the reorganization, what is your new sector?

Daddy: Now it is called the Aero-Space-System, is A.S.S. Ass you know.

Mommy: *giggle giggle*
Daddy: *giggle giggle*

When we were leaving the parking structure after an hour and heading home this was the conversation we had.

Brandon: ‘S’ hai mall, moh fun oak kei. (’S’ is at the mall and not following us home)

At first I didn’t understand what he meant. But a second later, I knew immediately he was referring to the A.S.S. we were talking about earlier. My analogy is he thought we were bringing ‘S’ to the mall initially (that why he laughed) and left it at there without bringing it home with us. LOL! Kids

Summer is just around the corner. This is the season when family vacation is a big hit. We have not much plan for it yet. Since our son is not in school, we basically can take our vacation any time of the year. But once he starts school, it will be a different story.

I’ve always known that summer is the time family goes out camping by the lake to enjoy the beautiful nature. We may want to try that one day when Brandon is older. I may have to remind Hubby to get one of those Liquid Force Wakeboards for the water sport if we do go camping by a big lake. It will be fun to see him on one. HAHA … but I think the chances that he will go on, is like almost ZERO as he doesn’t know how to swim. May be we should start him with swimming lessons, should be enough time before our trip to the lake.

After reading my previous post on ‘Sping Break‘, can you guess where we have gone?

That Tuesday Brandon woke up around 9:30am.  Very late by his standard.  Usually his wake up time around 8am to 9am.  Sometimes even before 8am.  Anyway, after he woke up and had his morning milk, I asked him where he wants to go.  Whether to Ikea?  Or where else? 

His answer, “kia!”

So at 11am, we started  our outing to Ikea.  While driving to hop on the freeway, he suddenly changed his mind.  He knows the route we were heading is also to go to Walmart.  So he said, “Woh-mart.”

I asked him again if he really wanted to go to Walmart instead and he kept repeating Woh-mart Woh-mart.  So to Walmart we went.

There is a department in Walmart that has ceiling fan which he likes so much.  We walked around the store and he didn’t let me stop anywhere else until we had seen the ceiling fans.  Then we headed to the photo developing section as there is another fan that is spinning over there.  We stood there for 10 minutes.  Then we went back to the fans section and stayed about 5 more minutes. 

After that, I told him we were heading to the toys department and asked him to say ‘bye’ to the ceiling fans.  He waved bye to every single ceiling fan that is there.  Then we walked to the toys department where he saw some wheels (bicycles/tricycles).  I constantly reminded him not to touch the tyres (he likes to spin them) as he might get his hand dirty.  Let him rid on two tricycles but he still doesn’t know how to paddle. 

Next to this aisle there is a few fish tanks with small fishes, so we stopped by there for another 10 minutes while he checked out the fishes.  I was giving him some grapes and he offered his grapes to the fish but the grape slipped from his finger and rolled under the cabinet. *LOL* Then I told him nicely, the fishes only eat flakes and not grapes.  

Then we bid goodbye to the fishes and walked all the way out and went home.  He was a little hesistant on leaving but I told him it was lunch time and I was hungry.  I thought he would be tired but that day, he didn’t take his afternoon nap and slept a little before 9pm. 

Hubby was asking me if I gave him sugar, I told him not, just the ceiling fans at Woh-mart.

This morning when I woke up, the weather was chilly, only at the high 50s. I checked the weather forecast yesterday and it was supposed to be nice mid 60s. I was crossing my fingers hoping it would get better. When we left our home, a few sprinkles came down. I was so disappointed already.

We arrived at the La Romeria Park at 10am sharp. We dropped by Torrance Bakery to pick up the birthday cake right before we got to the park. MIL, FIL and SIL arrived at the same time as we did. There was no rain but it was cold. I quickly went to pick the tables and immediately set one up for food and another one for the gift as well as the bubble blower. I was busy putting out the food in order while the guests starting to arrive.

Daddy was setting up the bubble blower so the kids had something to play with. But it didn’t a good job as there were not too many bubbles that comes out from the machine. It was supposed to produce 4000 bubbles a minute. I am guessing may be 50 bubbles only per minute.After a few minutes mingling around, we proceeded to the playground area where the kids had the most fun. All kids like the playground. Brandon was running up and down the stairs. Most of the time he prefers to go back up by climbing up the slide instead. No no … wrong way boy.

After about 30 minutes we went back to the picnic area to eat some food. The weather wasn’t kind to us. It was getting colder and no peek of the sun this morning. I’ve invited 3 families from our toddler’s class and another family from my Hubby’s side. I also asked my American family (Kathleen & Anthony) to join us. They came around 11am, just in time for the snack session. I believe there were less than 20 of us all together.

Since the picnic area is underneath the shades, it was much colder than being at the playground. We quickly snacked and then sang the birthday song.

I didn’t really have much time to chit chat with the mothers or my American family. Most of the time I was trying to serve the guests or attending to Brandon’s need. Lucikly, MIL was able to help. She fed Brandon his birthday cake while I have a short chat with Anthony.Overall, it was a good party but just too cold to be outdoor. If I would have known the night before, I might able to change the location to our home instead. But it was too late by the time we got there. We had so much food leftover. I’ll post about them later.

January 25th 2008 

It is best to visit Disneyland today. Why? Because it was after the rain, and there weren’t a lot of people in the parks at all.

This morning we asked Brandon where he would like to go and his answer was … DISNEYLAND!! Well, he didn’t say Disneyland but instead ‘nen‘. The rained stopped so we thought we would just head out and see. When arrived at Disneyland, there was still no rain. Good we thought. I was prepared with a tri-fold umbrella, just in case. It was cold but we all were dressed appropriately so that’s OK!

There were no lines to get inside the parks. Very unusual for this time of the day. We arrived a little before noon.  The last time we went around this time, we qeued for 5 minutes to get in.  Today, there was no need to wait.  Once inside the park on Main Street, it was basically the least crowd I’ve seen.

We went to the Baby Care Center to change Brandon’s diaper and let him do #1 on the children’s potty. We visited this station 3 times within the 2.5 hours we were there. And all the 3 times, he did go on the potty.

Most of the rides were no lines. We went to the Submarine Nemo rides and hope the line was short, but it was not. So we skipped and went to eat our lunch. We found the best spot! Underneath these ceiling fans at the French Market.

While I fed Brandon his fish porridge lunch, Alan went to buy us the Fried Chicken meal. It comes with 3 pcs of chicken, a side salad and french fries. I think the price was $10.99 plus sales tax and Alan got a soda for himself, $2.69 plus sales tax. Alan and I shared this meal.

Brandon enjoyed looking at the fans while we peacefully had our lunch. There’s entertainers playing on the stage too.

And in the middle of our lunch, we saw a familiar icon walking passed outside. During that time I was feeding Brandon, so I told Alan to go take a pictures so I can blog about him. Here is the picture Alan took.

After lunch, I wanted to take the Pirate of the Caribbean’s ride but was afraid Brandon didn’t like it so I had to pass. We parkhopped to California adventure after that and went to the Merry-Go-Around ride. This is Brandon’s favorite ride. I think when he rides this, it goes up and down and has the feeling of being inside an elevator.

Wanted to take him see the ceiling fans inside the Tortillas making company but the ride was closed. So we park hopped back to Disneyland and went to Gibson to enjoy the ice cream. There was no line when I ordered my Chocolate Chip Hot Fudge Sundae for $5.79 plus sales tax. I thought it would be served on a waffle cup but nope, it was on a regular cup only.

It comes with two scoops of vanilla ice-cream, two freshly baked Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chip cookies, topped with whip cream, chocolate morsels, hot fudge and a cherry. I found the cookies weren’t as fresh and I would say this is the best ice-cream I ever had. It was very ordinary. I wish I had the other with waffle cup because their waffle really really crunchy and tasty. Sort of like the love letters.

When I placed my order, the counter behind was preparing my order. Got my ice-cream in less than 1 minute.

Found a table under these ceiling fans. Brandon asked for a few spoons of ice-cream and I gave him very little. While having our ice-cream we saw the crowd in this ice-cream store was increasing. More and more people came in for ice-cream even though it’s kinda cold outside.

We left the parks after ice-cream and it was around 2:30pm. Brandon took his afternoon nap while we were driving back.

When it comes the rainy days, I always have the craving for something cold. I don’t know why but when is cold, I like to have a cup of ice-cream. Crazy huh?

January 24th, 2008

Anyway, on Thursday evening after our dinner, we went to the Del Amo Mall to walk around. A good place to be when is raining outside. Furthermore, after our trip to the restaurant to get our dinner, Brandon was kinda disappointed as he didn’t get to go somewhere there’s fan. So he was fussing on the way back home and I told him we would visit the Mall after dinner. Only then he calmed down.

A promise is a promise. So after dinner, we headed out to the Mall. We parked in the structure and went to Joann to check out some stuff for my cake decorating class. Never would I expect to be shopping for more stuff after every class.

Then we stopped by Brandon’s favorite shop - the Gloria Jean’s. He loves this store so much because it has two ceiling fans that always spinning inside whenever we are there.

We usually pass by this shop without going in.

This evening I craved for something cold so we went in to get a cup of something. While Brandon was gazing upon his favorite item in the shop, I took a quick glance on the menu. Then I decided to get a drink without coffee, just in case if “someone” wanted a sip from it. I was skeptical if this Coffee shop has chiller without coffee, but they do. It is called the UNCoffee Chillers.

We asked for the Strawberry Vanilla UNCoffee Chiller with whip cream. Since we both sharing one cup, we asked for the regular size, $4.75.

It was yummy and sweet. When I think about the cost of this chiller, it is almost the same price as a lunch meal. May be next time I will go with something more healthy like a Jamba Juice instead of this UNCoffee Chiller.

My family always likes to visit Las Vegas once a year for a short vacation. On occasions we like to catch a show there if we can. We have seen the Blueman Group at Luxor and enjoyed the experience very much. We have yet to catch a concert there. CelineDion has been performing at Ceasars Palace, but we have missed seeing her there. But this will be her last year there. It is a shame we missed seeing her.

Beginning May 2008, Cher will take her place in the Ceasar’s lineup. You can catch the Grammy award winner singer in one of the biggest stages around. Ticket for her shows will definitely be a hot item.

Cher started her career in 1965 in the Sonny and Cher duo, and later began her solo career. Her popularity and fame has continued to grow even now. With 25 albums to her credit as well as Emmy awards, Golden Globes, Academy award, she will sure not to disappoint in her performances.

At Team One you can sign up on their mailing list to be the first to know when tickets are available for sale and to get your Cher tickets at Ceasars Palace. Visit their website to learn more about this concert as well as other events.

I was able to attend many trade fairs when I was in the workforce.  Most of the trade fairs I’ve attended required registration at the entrance before going in.  I remember one time at a Real Estate trade fair in Long Beach, there were many lines to register and I was there with my MIL as she wanted to check out the fair too.  She registered as my assistant and when the ID card printer printed her name tag with her position, she was really curious if she would need to provide more information about her ‘job’.  It was just funny to see her attending such a big function as she probably hasn’t seen anything this big ever.  She enjoyed herself much at the trade fair and told me to bring her along for the next one.