The Adventures of a Calamari Queen

Hello Friends! Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms/mommy figures in the world. I hope you had a wonderful day and that your family and friends celebrated you today! My Hubs and kids spoiled me this weekend. Hubs prepared breakfast and we enjoyed cheesy waffles, eggs and cupcakes! YUM:) Matthew was dedicated at Church today too. He was such a good boy while our Pastor was praying with all the other kids and their families. We then had late lunch together with my In laws (and Auntie/Uncle). It’s my MILs birthday too so we had double celebrations. We ordered food from our local Thai restaurant and we all enjoyed lunch. Food was so good:)

Waiting for Matthew’s dedication. We got there early so the church was still empty. We talked to our Pastor and other families. It’s a mother’s day tradition at our church to have baby dedications. We couldn’t do it last year because of Covid.

Have a great night friends! Going to relax and enjoy my Sunday night:) Take care and stay safe!

Hello Friends! Today, Mia and I had a little tea party at her Preschool in celebration of Mother’s day this Sunday. It was so special with them performing for all of us moms. The teachers set a beautiful table with the kids crafts of flowers and they had chocolates all over. They served tea, strawberry short cake, cookies! Mia said “I love tea party, it’s like somebody’s having a birthday party” HA! We don’t have big plans for this coming Mother’s Day, we are going to have a family dinner because there’s also a birthday celebration in the family. Matthew will be dedicated at our Church in the morning. It will be a busy day! Happy Mothers Day to all the Moms:) We have one of the most important jobs in the world.

Have a great Mother’s Day Weekend Friends! Stay safe

Hi Friends! We had a nice sunny weekend this week, so we did a little walking around our neighborhood and park time with the kids! Had dinner at Chic Fil A and enjoyed some Kdrama at night (Hubs and I finished Love (ft. Marriage and Divorce) Lame ending in my opinion!HA. I’m feeling productive too because I did declutter a part of our master closet. I have to visit the donation center this week to get these bags out of my sight. I was able to read two of my books too! Currently reading a Charlotte Mason book and Last Lecture. We had a relaxing and productive weekend, so that was good!

Have a great and restful Sunday evening friends! Take Care and God bless:)

Hubs and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary earlier this month. We wanted to have dinner at our favorite restaurant but Matthew wasn’t feeling well so we postponed it and just had dinner at home. We still wanted to have a nice yummy meal so Hubs went to Costco to get some King Crab legs and steaks. Delicious!

Time flies so fast for sure! I can’t believe it’s been 14 years already, we’ve been together for 17 years and married for 14 years! We pray that God continue to bless and protect our marriage:)

Today we got to have a playdate with Mia’s friend from school (her BFF Isabella). She was so excited to see her friend and play with her toys!LOL. Matthew went along too but the girls doesn’t want him around!HA. I’m exhausted chasing him around their house and at the park.

My little treat today! HA Starbucks red velvet loaf. My first time to have this as I normally get their lemon loaf. This one is good! I don’t eat the frosting so it isn’t too sweet (just how I like it).

We plan to relax at home for the rest of the afternoon and go to the park again later for another playdate with our neighbor!

I’m excited for the weekend! We have no plans but relaxing at home:)

Take care and be safe friends!

Hi friends! How’s your week going? It’s been a while since I posted. I’ve been busy this month with Mia’s spring break (she’s back to school now), we did a little weekend getaway to celebrate our 14th wedding anniversary. We hosted Easter this year so this month has been a little hectic.

We kept this Easter year simple and less chaotic! I decided not to give any baskets for the kids because I know my In laws will give them Easter goodies. They really don’t need anything and we want to teach them the real meaning of Easter and what Jesus did on the cross for our sake. We joined one Easter egg hunt at Mia’s school though. Kids had fun and got lots of candies!

We had Ham, Potato Augratin, Asparagus, deviled eggs, Carrot cake (baked from scratch by Hubs) for our Easter dinner! YUM:)

Hi Friends! Happy Thursday and last day of March:) I’ve been happy with my meal planning and preparations lately because I truly kept it simple and did not make a big deal out of it lately. I try to cook from scratch most of the time and enjoy takeout/eat out at least once or twice a week. I also double (the portion) of what I cook so we can have left overs too. I don’t do elaborate meals because with young kids I just don’t have the desire and energy to do that:) I do get ready to eat/frozen meals from the store too (Hello Trader Joes frozen meals!) when I don’t want to cook and when it’s just me and the kids and Hubs has a busy day at work.

The kids are used to eating Filipino/America food so most of the time I don’t need to make separate meals for everybody. Our breakfasts are usually the same thing like eggs,toasts/bread,cereal,oatmeal. Lunches are leftovers,sandwiches,”snacky” food like cheese,meat,vegetables,fruits. So for dinner we have some kind of meat/seafood/pasta and roasted veggies and rice. I look online (foodnetwork website most of the time) for simple recipes and my cookbooks for inspirations.

Here are some of the dinners we’ve had these past weeks:

I made this Taiwanese Beef Noodle dish this month, and it was tasty:)

One of my fave filipino dishes is Kare-Kare (Oxtail stew in peanut sauce). The kids don’t eat this so they had meatballs and pasta when Hubs and I devoured this!HA

Happy cooking friends! Stay safe and Take Care:)

Hi Friends! One of our local farm stores had baby chicks and ducks in their store so we decided to bring the kids there because we thought they might like to see them, but NOPE they were not interested! HA. We ended up getting milkshakes at XXX after so the trip would not be a big waste. We liked the milkshake but we didn’t like the price tag of $15 for a large milkshake! I know everybody is talking about “INFLATION” but it is getting ridiculous. We got a sandwich earlier after church and it was $12 per sandwich!:/)

I asked the Hubs to bake Pandesal (Filipino bread roll)for us and it’s so good! Perfect with butter or cheese paired with coffee. Reminds me so much of the Philippines.

Matthew and I have been going out for community walks this week. Spring is finally here because the flowers and trees are blooming all over!

My Big girl enjoying some park time this weekend!

Have a great rest of your weekend friends! Take care and stay safe:)

Hi friends! Happy Sunday:) We had a nice weekend with the In-laws celebrating St. Patricks day and totally enjoying corned beef and cabbage! My DIL prepared most of the meal. Growing up in the Philippines, we normally don’t eat “fresh” corned beef, always in a can!HA.. both are my fave though!

Mia and I had a mommy/daughter time yesterday and we decided to go grocery shopping together! She loves shopping and it’s so fun to listen to her stories,we had Starbucks after (the price of their cake pops are shocking to me!HA). She wanted to get this unicorn headband but I told her she can as long as she pays for it using her savings, she quickly changed her mind!LOL.

Hubs and I had a little lunch date last week (thanks to my In-laws who offered to watch the kids), we decided to eat at our local sushi place and get coffee after!

The kids had fun at the park this week. Mia is so good with the monkey bars now and she loves showing off to us that she can do it “without Daddy’s help”. She’s growing so fast.

I’m still going strong with my “no/low spend month” for myself! A lot of temptations for sure but so far I’m winning! I did shop for the kids and got them basic clothes like onesies for Matthew. He has eczema so I always put him in onesies to prevent him from scratching his belly / legs. It’s getting better but he has flares up still.

Have a great night friends! Going to relax with the family and watch a movie:)

Take care and stay safe!

Hi Friends! It’s been a while since I posted here, with what’s going on around the world I just didn’t feel like sharing what I normally share here. It feels so small compared to what other families are experiencing. I also had doctor and dental visits this past week,thus I just wanted to rest and minimize my time online.

My little family is doing great! Mia had fun celebrating Dr. Seuss this week at her school. She had fun participating, especially in Wacky Wednesday and silly socks day! We had a couple of nice sunny days too, so we’ve been going to parks and the kids love using their scooters.

I’m still doing great with my Low spend month/year. February was good, no unnecessary shopping. This month, Hubs will be buying new sneakers and I’m thinking of getting new exercise clothes because Hubs and I are trying to get back to exercising and proper clothes that support will make a difference when one is active/moving.

This picture is such an encouragement to me when I feel like the world is going crazy and so out of control!

One snowy February day!

Wacky Wednesday at school!

My buddy and I waiting for sister at school!

One of my kids favorite Filipino food! Chicken Adobo:)

I cooked braised short ribs!

We continue to stock our pantry and freezer (we increased our budget) because with prices increasing and shortages, it’s convenient to not go to the grocery all the time.

Have a wonderful Friday night friends! Hubs and I are going to relax and watch Netflix (watching Korean shows tonight). Stay safe and Take care:)

Hi friends! How was your weekend? And Valentines today? We invited my In laws to have HotPot/Shabu Shabu with us yesterday and watch the Superbowl. Hubs and I really don’t follow football but my DIL watches it so we did have it on while we had dinner. I love HotPot, it’s such a fun way to gather family and friends, and have a good night with yummy food! Hubs had fun making dipping sauces for everybody and he nailed it! Good Job Hubs:)

We shopped at Hmart Supermarket, we got lamb,beef, and pork belly. Lots of mushrooms and bokchoy because my DIL loves bokchoy. We had Dungeness crabs too. The prices are so crazy high right now, and I can’t believe how expensive meat is right now. I included the price of the crabs, I swear it doubled this year. $85 for two large crabs.

We had guacamole and chips before dinner. Hubs made puppy chow too and Mia liked it, Matthew not so much!HA

Her Valentines outfit for school. They were encouraged to wear something red and pink. She got lots of goodies from her friends like Stickers, keychain, and cards!

Hubs asked me if he can get me something today and I told him that I don’t really need or want anything! No flowers or gifts. We did exchange cards today:)

I hope you all had a wonderful day friends! God bless and stay safe:)