Bombay Engagement

It's my niece's engagement party held at Bombay garden restaurant. the wedding will be in Fiji next year august 2014. In a traditional Hindu ceremony, the brides mother applies a tikka (paste) to the grooms forehead. This is a symbol of acceptance into the family and their blessings. luckily the boyfriend isnt marrying into a filipino family, or else he would be jumping through bamboo poles dancing "tinikling". remember, that was byrons initiation to mines. Most of the ladies were donned in beautiful & colorful saris. I never had one made for ariana. She's wearing the red pettiskirt dress from oppsy daisy. It was the closest chiffon dress to a sari. I had purchased this when she was 4 years old and touching the ground. Ariana would play dress up in it during the holidays. Finally an event to wear it to - congratulations Piyal & Bryan!

Gobble Gobble

HAPPY THANKSGIVING ! ariana is on break, joshua is home for good, except byron isnt on vacation this week. as much as we would've of loved to travel to see family in chicago, there is a winter storm messing up all the flights. we are having thanksgiving dinner at home - just the 4 of us. it actually felt great not to hurry up and make a dish, get dressed to drive someplace. it was a pajama day - this one from gymboree last year. at the last minute before dinner, ariana hurried up and changed into a dress. guess she didnt feel comfortable in her turkey gymmies. for the past weeks, i have been attempting to clear off the dining room table and put away lalaloopsy land underneath it. i finally accomplished it, as you will hear joshua saying "i never knew you could eat on this table before". it was short-lived, but my goal is to keep it clean til christmas. ariana is doing an emma-the-elf look, awaiting for her return tonight.

Birthday Bistro

We were hoping for the American girl store (palo alto/san francisco) to open up by her birthday in October. The grand opening was last weekend nov 16. they didn't start doing birthday packages til today, and private room ones later in December. Kinda late to have a party with her girlfriends, so i made reservations for just the 3 of us and Jade. I threw anything pink on - gymbo cupcake bday shirt, pink ruffle skirt, gymbo cupcake knee-hi, with Lelli Kelly shoes. The store was still mad crazy, where alot of kids are on thanksgiving break this week.

Spirit Day

Kids are to wear team or sports uniform for spirit day. Ariana says "cheerleading is a sport". The girls planned it to wear their cheer uniform, putting the hair in a pony tail. Lucky us mom i-message each other to pass on the "memo". Only 2 of the girls were at the line in the morning for a picture. I had asked the teacher to take one of the all 3 girls together. well at least she's dressed for cheer practice tonight.

Heritage Doll

The class is reading "Molly's pilgrim" by Barbara Cohen. Molly has to make a pilgrim doll for school, and the mom makes one dressed in her native clothing. One part of the heritage project is to dress the cardstock doll. Ariana is half Filipino (me) and half African (Byron). She actually has some Native American Indian too. Altho she will say she's more Filipino, only because we do more Filipino things. We made a paper dress with the butterfly sleeves. for the skirt sash we cut a piece of fabric from Ariana's African dress headband. Funny how in the story the mom makes it, because over the weekend all the moms were chatting and sharing ideas on our dolls. One had flags, and another made a fan. At the last minute ariana wanted a prop accessory too - thus the basket purse. We actually weaved it using dead leaves from our lucky plant. 

There was a part asking for a special object unique to your culture. Ariana brought the "aras", what the coin bearer uses in a Filipino wedding. I guess you're suppose to write about it. The teacher let ariana share it with the class anyways. The kids were so interested and asked  a lot of questions. Ariana said "the aras made me popular", and can't wait to use it in her wedding. She didn't leave out her African-American side. She mentioned about "jumping the broom" because that's how slaves tied the knot.

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Woodland Friends

It is definitely fall in the Bay Area. Morning low 50s and reaching the 60s in the afternoon. Partly cloudy til the rain is due in tonight. I was able to switch out her closet little by little - summer dresses out, long sleeve ones in. Sweater dresses are kept folded, where I never put on a hanger so they won't stretch. I chose this one from gymbo woodland friends line. I figure since this is the last week of school in November, I need to let her wear all the fall colored outfits.

Girls Rule

This outfit is a mod podge of everything. The navy shirt is from gymbo smart girl rule line. I originally had a plaid pink blue skirt, but josh said it was too short. Right before she walked out the door - on came the skirt from homecoming kitty. The socks are from a crazy8 bts outfit. Ariana complained about the navy maryjanes being too tight, which explains the last minute gymbo red ones. she has grown out of at least 5 pairs of shoes. they had fit fine in september when school started. her foot isnt getting any longer - its either a size 13.5 or 1. what it is - is her foot getting fuller on top.

Tea Collection

Winter Cheer

From head to toe - ariana is wearing gymbo winter cheer dress. she told me that she's been waiting to wear this. its from last years winter line. don't know why - but the brown items could've fit in with a fall line. 

Long Weekend

it actually started on halloween 12:00 noon. it was a minimum half day at school. friday is one of the districts budget cut (furlough) days. ariana is invited to her classmates birthday party at a glass making shop.