Easter Sunday

the morning stayed clear on this joyous day. alleluia - Christ is Risen. the pastors message is "do you have an easter heart?" all the children joined the worship celebrations in the sanctuary. they were divided into 2 teams and worked on a puzzle before the easter egg hunt inside. ariana told me she didnt know all the answers, because "we dont learn about Jesus in the 2nd grade". guess i'll have to enroll her in sunday school. both her and jade (doll) are wearing matching dresses from marshalls with pink bows in their hair. we went to brunch afterwards at a nearby hotel.

ariana had left a note outside for the easter bunny - saying its ok to come to the house while shes at church. ariana ended up finding a bag of toys in my bedroom that i wasnt able to stash away. altho it kept her occupied while i brought out and hid the "real" ones. i put the lalaloopsy & barbie bucket underneath the dining room table. apparently thats where all the lalaloopsies have been living since xmas. (note to bring the train table back in the living room). the other basket of filled with chocolate & sweets was placed in front of her kitchen play area. ariana was talking to grandmommy on the phone walking around the house. i'm pretty sure grandma heard her scream.

Easter Greeting

Good Friday

no school, its a budget cut furlough day. officially its really our first day of spring break. we went to the cemetery to visit my parents and added silk flowers to the vase. ate lunch and then to mall to stop at see's candies to pick up some easter chocolate goodies. ariana is wearing a top from jcpenney. my sister gave it to her for xmas and also one for our niece in florida. auntie has been teasing us why we havent wore it yet, while my niece wore it right away. the weather was finally nice enough in the 70s to don it. we even took a picture by my sisters purple flowers.

Publishing Party

first thing in the morning, the class had their publishing party. each kid wrote a story about an animal and they read their books to their parent. and then everybody celebrated with a toast of apple juice.
it was lightly raining this morning and more expected in the afternoon. i dressed ariana in gymbo cherry all the way sweater dress, tights and boots. after the party, i went to coffee with my sister, helped her bring her car to the shop, and a run to trader joes. it stopped raining and ended up being sunny almost 70 degrees. i knew ariana was going to be hot. i had told her that i was going by what the weatherman said. we have this line "never trust the weatherman". while i was taking her picture, ariana told me that shes going to ask her boyfriend if hes a weatherman or not. and if he is - she cant marry him.

Be Our Guest

this is what i've been up to tonight - playing around on shutterfly. first theiy had extended a promo for a free 8x8 photobook worth $29.99. i had a book saved of joshua graduation pictures, but never got around to ordering it. so basically all i had to do was review it and order it with the coupon code. shutterfly always has a code for a free card (card4u and you pay shipping). i worked on ariana's royal invitation to the new "be our guest" restaurant when we go to disneyworld this summer. remember last year, she caught me off guard - how can we eat at cinderellas castle if we havent received the invitation. i had to hurry up and make one (via shutterfly) and paid extra for express shipping. this year i got a good 3 months jump on it. i tell you - the things we do for our children to make them feel special and all their dreams come true.

Fall for Autumn??

where did our spring go? and its forecasted to rain on thursday. i shouldnt complain considering the weather (snow) hitting the midwestand east coast. i threw this outfit together last minute. luckily i keep her clothes by lines in the drawer - except for dresses. shes wearing gymbo owl outfit from fall for autumn line 2011. with the weather and the fact she has PE, thus the leggings and the gym shoes.

today i ran around with my sister in the morning. starbucks, my moms house and walmart. i was able to score the lalaloopsy mini mermaid dolls exclusively at walmart. i think the easter basket bucket is pretty much filled up. i have never promoted the easter bunny during the holiday. but for some reason, when we got home from church last year - ariana was expecting colorful easter eggs spreaded across the front yard. and when we got inside the house, she started looking around in each room. i pretended that i was changing my clothes in the bedroom to keep her out, but really throwing everything & anything i had purchased since xmas that were hidden in my closet. put the basket on my bed and pulled the covers over it. boy that bunny worked fast. i had thought the basket was good enough, but then ariana really wanted easter eggs too. i kept her occupied, while kuya josh spreaded eggs out in the backyard instead. fast forward to this year - i had no idea where we would be spending easter sunday at. didnt know what church we were going to, nor did i make any brunch reservations. houston texas and chicago were on the map... up until i got sick. we'll be here at home. either way i have been prepared with putting together a basket. its basically everything & anything that i have purchased since xmas (on sale mind you).

Smart & Sweet

ariana wore this outfit on the first day of school (august 2012), but this time with the boots (size 13). its from gymbo smart & sweet line. all her girlfriends really liked the outfit and said she looked like a "highschooler" or something "barbie princess charm school" would wear.

Cheer Competition

 

each cheer session goes for about 11-12 weeks, practice is every friday evening 7 o'clock. theres a competition at the end usually on sunday and their division is usually one of the first ones up. its starts at 8:00, where registration opens up at 7:00, and the girls need to get a rehearsal in. ariana is now in the 7-9 year old group - the cherry blossoms. ariana has to wear a special "stars" vest because she is one of the stunters. infact she is lifted up in 1 of the 3 pyramid groups. guess she's lucky to be one of the smallest girls on the team. the girls took first place again. go cherry blossoms!

Blast from the Past

the student council decided to have another spirit day. this time the theme is "blast from the past". at first the 2nd graders were confused wondering if they had to dress like way back as george washington or abraham lincoln. we told them 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s - basically what your parents or grandparents wore. ariana picked her 50's outfit from one of gymboree halloween lines. she has been bugging me to take it out earlier in the week to try it on. good thing especially since i wasnt home to dress her, and she tremendously helped daddy out in the morning. she wore this to a party before, but never at the school's halloween parade. ariana was so happy to be one of the "fabulous 50's" costume out of the whole school of 900 kids. let's go to the hop!

First Spring Photos

Go figure on the first day of spring - it rains! its also spring portraits day where you pick the landscape background in advance. this year theres one with a pink cherry blossom tree - which was popular with all the girls. with that in mind, i put ariana in a gymbo fairy fashionable top and ponte pants from sunflower smiles. it looks like i dressed her for PE prep day, when actually its media/library day. i only put her in pants because of the weather, and grabbed the gymbo growing flowers raincoat. didnt have time to get the matching rainboots out of the garage though.

Sunflower Smiles

line mixing gymbo - "i love school" from sunflower smiles, and pants from loveable giraffe. luckily there are heart shaped knee pads since she fell during PE. i originally purchased the top in a size 7 for ariana to wear this coming fall (reg price $16.95) and the pants in size 6 ($29.95). (fyi i didnt pay $50 for this outfit.) kuya josh picked her up from school before he went back to SLO. ariana has been complaining that josh left without saying goodbye the last time - while she was at school. tuesday ballet is at 5:45 pm and a 15 minute drive to get to the dance studio. we started getting ready at 5:00 so i could put her hair up in a bun. this is a capezio bodysuit (via zulily).

Jelly the Pug

mondays ariana has dance afterschool, so i have to remember to dress her comfortable and factor in the weather at the same time. this is a jelly the pug dress via zulily. its not the usual jtp dresses out of cotton. this owl dress is from the chloe line collection and out of a cotton jersey type material.

Childrens Fairyland

its actually my birthday - remember i'm the filipino born on an irish holiday "st patricks day". the morning started out by taking ariana to LIKHA pilipino dance workshop, its starting up again every sunday til may. afterwards since we were in oakland, i had a coupon for fairyland expiring next friday. its a storybook themed park of nursery rhymes built in 1950 by lake merritt in oakland. i used to come here when i was little or on fieldtrips. i probably took joshua here about 2 times when he was small. theres talking storybook machines which are activated by a plastic crown-shaped key. it will either recite the nursery rhyme or tell a story. i bet you a key could be found lying around at my moms house that probably still works. ariana is wearing naartjie jie jie dress (2011).

LIKHA Kids

Field Trip

all the second grade classes went on their field trip to see the play/musical of "ramona quimby" put on by theatreworks usa. its about the misadventures of young grade schooler ramona from beverly cleary's childrens book series. it was at chabot college, down the blvd from the school. afterwards the kids ate lunch, and posed for pictures being statues. i wasnt picked to be one of the 5 chaperones. at first ariana was hesitant to go without me, but i requested for her to be with her bff's group and i would buy a ticket. i actually bought 2 tickets and ariana really wanted daddy to come along. he did (with the help of waterworks tears), altho he fell asleep at some parts coming off of working midnights. they said to dress the kids comfortable, and knowing ariana - she is much better off in a dress than pants. this is a gap dress probably from "american in paris" line, black leggings, geox shoes.

Flower Power

its been forecasted to be the warmest day of the week, hitting over 70 degrees. got ariana all dressed in a summer outfit from carters. come to find out - its foggy outside! i quickly put navy blue knee-high socks on her that went up to the lime green capri leggings. gee i hope nobody saw her this morning. as soon as we got to the classroom, i hurried up and rolled the socks down. 

Aqua Pop

ariana suggested we title the blog "aqua pop". funny because i think this is part of gaps colorpop line. they called the shirt "water garden" color though. tuesdays prep is PE right before lunch. its still a bit cold in the mornings, but expected to warm up to almost 70 deg. its weird to still see kids walking to school all bundled up for winter, then complaining they are hot at pickup time.

Smart Girls Rule

yea the rains all gone with temperatures to be in the 60s next week. unfortunately the weatherman forgot to warn us about the high winds reaching up to 25 mph today. i put ariana in gymbo smart girls rule outfit - head to toe. except for the l'amour shoes. i buy coordinating accessories (hair, hats, jewelery, purses), but never think about them until after the fact. ariana got a lot of attention with the cap, and loved the fact the patches matched the one on the polo shirt. some said she looked like a golfer or thought she was wearing a painters beret. on one of my clothing loops, they said she is "so clueless". even some older girls in the bathroom told her they liked her outfit. afterschool i treated her to another manicure. this time she picked "teen pink".

Black Cocoa

oh these weather people. they said it was suppose to rain during the day again, and didnt start pouring til night time. boy are they way off lately. today is suppose to be prep PE, but all the 2nd grade classes have a opera assembly this afternoon. ariana is wearing a hanna anderson polka dot dress "black cocoa", really to go along with the black/brown plaid rainboots. i had bought this dress after the holidays on sale, too bad the black/beige stripe tights are sold out. this dress is a european size 120. it is so comfortable, plus ariana scored it high on the twirl factor scale.

Winter Penguin Plaid

the storm with gusty winds & rain came through in the middle of the night. ariana is wearing gymbo winter penguin plaid dress (size 6) with matching purple tights. she chose to wear the red boots (gymbo homecoming kitty line) over  the purple ugg-like boots, only because it was expected to rain again. and guess what - not a single drop.

Visiting Lolo & Lola

we went to the cemetary, our first time since the funeral. they pick up all flowers every wednesdays, and doubt these will keep another week. she is my biggest supporter through this difficult time for me. always prepared to have a tissue to wipe my tears and by my side - either patting my back or hands on my shoulder. mind you she is only 7 years old, and is trying to grasp and understand a love one passing. when my mom passed away, she realized she only has one grandparent left (byron's mom). she knows my mother is with my dad again, and knows one day when i die - we will all be together again up in heaven. i had said (and she has probably heard it mentioned last week) -  "Lola is in God's hand now". ariana questioned "so does Lola shrink to fit in His hands?" i giggled and began to explain how we are expressing our wholehearted trust in God.

*please bear with me. i realize this blog is usually about cute happy things that ariana is up to, plus about all the cute outfits she is wearing. really my intentions for this blog was for family & friends to go to it once a week or month, and read about what ariana and my family is doing.

Shake it Up

dad is on dayshift this week. its a good thing and a bad thing. great that he will be home right after ariana gets out of school and here at night. but the bad - he's not here to help out in the mornings. meaning i'm on my own in getting up, getting ariana ready, plus back to walking her to school. luckily its not too cold in the mornings and temps expected to reach at least 60 degrees. ariana has dance after school today, they are learning a number for the spring concert. she is wearing a tunic from targets disney D-signed collection. this one is from "shake it up", an outfit rocky wears. leggings are from gap.