little explorers

Several weekends ago, we decided to give Caila a treat to mark the beginning of a new schoolyear ahead. Taking advantage of the Entertainer voucher we had, we invited our friends so that their son could also enjoy the experience. So as agreed, we met up at Mirdif City Centre on a Friday morning, purchased the tickets, and the two children entered Little Explorers with their daddies. For almost 2 hours, the kids had a great time with their daddies following them as they explored the 5 zones of the edutainment centre:
     • I discover myself
     • I can do
     • I locate myself
     • All together
     • I experiment

As you can tell, the centre is generally about self-discovery, experimenting and understanding your surroundings.

While they enjoyed themselves at Little Explorer, we (the mommies) and the kids’ baby sisters went window-shopping around the mall. By the time it was 12:30pm, we received a call from the daddies saying that it was time to have lunch and get some rest so we all headed to California Pizza Kitchen where we used another Entertainer voucher. We ordered their Cheeseburger Pizza and Original BBQ Chicken Pizza, two types of pastas (I can’t remember what kind), and drinks.

After a couple of hours when we had our fill, the kids returned to Little Explorers, this time with the mommies accompanying them. Even though our kids had already explored everything earlier, they still couldn’t help trying out all the zones all over again. And it was actually fun for us adults too as we tried them out as well! From time to time, you could hear us say “Ang galing!” or “Ang cute!” and “Ganon pala yun!” and even “Ang saya!”  Seriously, ang galing, ang cute and ang saya talaga!  There were so many things and contraptions to keep the kids busy and entertained.  Here are photos of just some of them.

 

It was a great way to spend the last weekend of the summer vacation…for the kids and parents!

Little Explorers
Mirdif City Centre
Dhs130 per child (with 1 adult) for an All-day Access Pass in the 5 Zones

timings and festivities during eid al adha

image source

As my colleagues and I look forward to enjoying a long Eid holiday (but not as long as the government offices and schools, though), here's some helpful information I found from Gulf News with the timings and festivities that will keep everyone in Dubai busy until Saturday:

Metro Stations:
October 12-14: 5.30am to midnight
October 15-17: 5.30am to 3am (next day)
October 18: 10am to 3am (next day)
October 19: 5.30am to 3am (next day)

Parking: Free during October 13-18, except at the Fish Market parking zone and multi-stories parking

Fireworks: 9pm daily during October 15-18 at Jumeirah Open Beach in Umm Suqueim 2

Malls: 10am-2am daily

Dubai 24 Hours: Dubai Mall, Mall of the Emirates, Deira City Centre, Mirdif City Centre, Dubai Festival City Mall, Oasis Centre, Arabian Centre, and Lamcy Plaza during the first 2 days of Eid Al Adha

Global Village: Open from 4pm to 2am during October 10-19

Dubai Parks: Al Mushrif Park, Al Safa Park, Al Mamar Park, Creek Park, Jumaira Beach Park, Zabeel Park will be open from 9am to 11pm

Eid Mubarak!

congratulations dlsu!

DLSU = 71

UST = 69

Game 3 with overtime

ANIMO LA SALLE!

lace crazy

These finds were bought on a whim while I was walking in Deira City Centre on my way to the metro.

I had no plans of buying anything, nor was I looking for anything in particular, but these just seemed to call out to me as I passed by Jennyfer and Splash.

I guess I'm a girly-girl more than I'd like to admit =)

sophie's rainbow birthday party (the actual party)

In an earlier post, I shared the things we did to make the party fit the theme. However, I wasn’t able to share how the party went. So, here goes…

Since ours was the first event of the day at Chowking, we had enough time to check the set-up and arrange the cakes and cupcakes. Guests began arriving at 10:15am, and by 11:30am, the Chowking host started the program. Sophie’s Ninong Eugz said the opening prayer, everyone sang Happy Birthday, and the games began immediately after.

For the first game, all the kids were each asked to say Happy Birthday Sophieeeeeeee for the longest time possible.

The next game was a team relay, again for the young kids, wherein they had to balance a small object on a spoon in their mouths.

What followed next was a trivia game where 2 teams (men vs. women) had to answer the most questions correctly. The questions were mostly about Sophie and our family; it was fun to know who really knew us and the birthday celebrant. Naturally, since all players were adults, the game was a riot. Puro asaran at kulitan.

with the winners

While waiting for the food buffet to be set-up, the walang kamatayang Bring Me game was played. However, I made sure the items that we asked for were not that common: an insurance card with dental coverage, key-ring with the most keys, mobile phone with the oldest sms, any object that started with the letter S, etc.

Finally, it was time for lunch and Mike Y., another of Sophie’s godfathers, lead the thanksgiving prayer.

During this time, Sophie had fallen asleep, so it was a good time for Hubby and me to eat and mingle with the guests.

When we noticed that most of the guests had had their fill, the host called for another game. This time the kids had to fix up their moms’ hair, and the mom who had the best-looking do (judged by the rest of the guests’ applause) was the winner.

After that game, everyone’s attention was on the birthday celebrant as we all sang Happy Birthday again, helped Sophie blow the candles, say a few words and wishes, and cut the cake.

all of us blowing the candle...except the birthday girl herself

Mama sharing her wishes for Sophie...and the little girl listening closely

Sophie may not be able to remember that day, but as they say, the first birthday is usually for the parents…and I definitely had a good time that day.

mama's visa cancelled

Less than 2 weeks left of her stay in this sandpit because she’s leaving us to go back to the Philippines.

She keeps joking that matatapos na kasi ang kontrata nya at ayaw nyang irenew.

Ang daya mo, Ma! Sabi mo, mageextend ka pa dito.

Paano na yung date natin sa Burj Al Arab?

Hindi mo pa ako tinuturuan magluto ng kare-kare, pakbet, at yung iba mo pang masarap na recipes. Waaaahhhhh!!!!

 

This post tells how we applied for her Residence Visa last year.

sophie's rainbow birthday party (details)

When I decided that Sophie would be having a rainbow-themed party for her first birthday, all I knew was that it would have be colourful, and this could easily be solved by balloons and decorations. As I browsed the internet, I was amazed at all the unique ideas I found to incorporate the actual rainbow theme (and not just colors). And so here are the things I did to make the party over the rainbow…

Her birthday this year fell on a Friday, and since it’s a weekend, I told Hubby that we needed to book the venue months in advance. With the number of friends we would be inviting, Chowking in Al Ghurair was the only choice we had. Their affordable packages (which already included the decorations, host, a few games and prizes) and the big hall sealed the deal for us. The variety of food in their selection were safe picks as well; at least we wouldn’t have to worry if any of our guests wouldn’t be able to stomach the food.

To make sure that the food buffet had a touch of the theme, I prepared the labels myself.  You can see a glimpse of one of the labels in the photo below.

For the cake and cupcakes, I already knew what I wanted them to look like; the only problem was who could actually do them. I sent pictures of the model cake and cupcakes to many cake-makers, but Tita Rina was the only one who assured me that she could actually do the challenging design. All communications were exchanged through messages on Facebook, and on the morning of the party, Hubby and Gabe went to her home to pick up our order, along with the cake stand Tita Rina lent us. The cupcakes looked exactly what I had in mind, but the cake really surpassed my expectations.

The layers were very thick and each color vibrant. A simple design, but perfectly unique just the same. I didn’t have to worry about the taste because they were all so delicious and moist. The layers of the rainbow cake were vanilla-flavored, and the cupcakes were either chocolate or red velvet. The added bonus was the price was very, very reasonable.

Instead of an ordinary guest-book or asking the guests to write messages or wishes on pieces of paper (which majority rarely do, based from experience), we asked them to make their mark on Sophie’s special day by putting their fingerprint on a framed A3 paper with their names. The simple white frame was bought from Ikea, and I got a pack of assorted colored stamp pads from Tchibo.

I’ve been to several events where PartyRock provided the photobooth, and although they’re generally ok, I wasn’t completely satisfied with their backdrops (the background paper where the celebrant’s pictures or event details are printed). So when I booked them for the party, I told them that I would print the backdrops myself. I have to say though, that their understanding and patience was excellent. I was only able to send them Sophie’s photos less than a week before the event. They sent me the sample layout for the photobooth prints a few days later, but it wasn’t until Thursday morning (the day before the party) that I was able to find time to look at it and give my comments. Several messages were exchanged with all sorts of changes I wanted done, until finally I received a layout that I was happy with. And when I apologized for my “kaartehan,” the reply I got was “It’s your right.” Oo nga naman.

PartyRock also supplied our candy buffet. Their original package included the chocolate fountain and 7 varieties of candies and jellies, but they agreed when I asked them to replace the chocolate fountain with 3 more candies. And although the buffet was colourful and pretty by itself, I couldn’t help but add a Candy Buffet poem from a co-n@wie and the internet.

I looked practically everywhere in Dubai for a colourful dress for the birthday girl, but I didn’t find anything that I liked. Then I realized that since everything else would be all sorts of colors, Sophie should stand out…in white. It was at a small stall in Dubai Festival City (sorry, I forgot the name) where I found the perfect white dress that had a pink belt and linings to match her pink shoes and white socks that we bought from Mothercare.

Finally, our attire.  Of course our family needed to be color-coordinated too, but again, it was practically impossible to find nice, decent clothes to fit the rainbow theme. It was only when I realized that if we included the rest of our family (Mama, Ate Ning and Gabe), we could still fit the theme if each of us wore a different colour of the rainbow.

rainbow family

And those are the small things we did to make Sophie's first birthday as colorful and rainbowy as possible.