I have Moved!

I have moved to http://MaMeMiMommy.com 🙂

Yey! Don’t forget to update your WordPress Reader to follow the new address.

Just click Edit on the right side of Blogs I Follow. Enter in the new address and hit the Follow button.

See you there!

Busy working on http://MaMeMiMommy.com 🙂

Story Time with the Pirates at Tutoring Club

Just off the shores of Never Land
A hideaway at sea
Yo Ho! Yo Ho!
Let’s Go! Let’s Go!
A pirate band outwits the plans
of Captain Hook and Smee
Yo Ho! Yo Ho!
Let’s Go! Let’s Go!

Kids, boys especially, are a big fan of pirates and buccaneers, thanks to the ever popular Jake and the Neverland Pirates on TV. When I saw this invite of Storrry Time with Pirrrates, I jumped at it, sure that DA would have a good time. It was originally slated on the 20th of September but due to typhoon Mario’s devastation, it was rescheduled to the 27th.

The place was teeming with kids already when we arrived. While waiting for the program to start, the kids got to do some colouring of pirate artworks.

Avast mateys! There’s one buccaneer! And he turned out to be the storyteller. The story for the day was A Pirate’s Night before Christmas. 86 Days before Christmas, by the way.

The kids started to gather around.

It wasn’t long before they all crowded up close to see the pictures in the book (much to DA’s dismay so he kept saying, “I can’t see! I can’t see!)

The kids look enthralled with the pirate story.

To spice up the whole storytelling activity, these tokens were introduced. Pretending that these were gold-a-blooms or gold coins, those who answer the questions correctly get a coin. These can then be used to buy treasure in the store later on.

Oooh! This caught DA’s attention! He wanted to get one as much as the next kid. He instantly came out of his shell and started shouting answers. “I found a pirate! I found a pirate!”, he’d add.

After the story, there were games for the kids to earn more gold-a-blooms. This one is a game of sequencing, arranging the photos in the sequence of the story. It’s more for the older kids though so we didn’t get to join.

The next game was for everyone so we got all excited again. Hidden all over the room were these photos, we were supposed to collect those that were related to the story. We got 2 more gold-a-blooms from this game.

While everyone was falling in line to buy treasure in the store, we took a moment to have a photo op with these mateys!

There’s the treasure store! Toys, candies, marshmallows were up for grabs. You just had to present your collected gold-a-blooms to exchange. This was so you won’t take the tokens home because Tutoring Club actually uses them as rewards in their tutoring classes.

After all that fun, the sponsors had their turn giving a short message about their products.

About the Sponsors

Tutoring Club Tutoring Club is a skills-based tutoring center that teaches Math, Reading comprehension, grammar and writing composition skills. It has 5 branches all over the metro, namely, Alabang, Banilad Town Center in Cebu, Bonifacio High Street, Rockwell, and San Juan.

SRA! I remember doing these in high school before. Someone always had to get these boxes from the teacher’s room.

JoomaJam Ritmo Learning Lab’s first multimedia, music-driven preschool learning tool for parents and other grown-ups. JoomaJam brings you rockstar-made, educator-approved, kid-friendly songs with fun learning activities! Their bi-lingual CDs feature some of the renowned OPM artists like Gary Valenciano, Jolina Magdangal, Rivermaya, and The Itchyworms.

ZAP With ZAP, you can get 5% – 20% cashback at your favorite establishments all over the metro just by using your mobile phone. You just have to register for free, start earning points and you can then pay with the points you’ve earned. I’ve already signed up and you can use my code CPOLICAN to earn your first 50 points! 🙂

Hearty thanks to these sponsors for making the event possible and to Akiba Cafe for the yummy iced coffee and to The Royal Piccaidlly Restaurant and Cakery for the delectable cupcakes served during the event. Thanks also to Mommy Bloggers Philippines for sharing the invitation.

Till our next pirate adventure! Arrrgggh! See ya chum!

How to Detangle Jewelry

I’ve had this necklace for years but it’s also been years since I’ve last used it. You see, it has a really bad and ugly knot near the pendant that I have tried but failed to detangle. Just recently, I read somewhere that baby powder can actually help do the trick. Judging by the knot, I was doubtful that it would work but it’s still worth a shot. So here goes…

Materials Needed:

• Baby Powder
• Needles
• Tangled Jewellery

I put a little powder onto the knot and used the needles to work on it. It was a good while before I had any progress but progress it was. I found that it was best to lay the jewellery flat on the table and use a needle on each hand to remove the tangles. Work on it as you would shred meat. 🙂

After about 15 minutes, I was able to completely remove the knots! Yahoo! Jewellery saved!

For other brilliant uses of baby powder, I found a Reader’s Digest article on it here.

Yummy Healthy Macaroni Salad

Ingredients: (Clockwise from top left)

• 1 Carrot, grated
• 2 Chicken Breasts, boiled, skin removed, shredded
• 1 Onion, diced
• Lots of Grapes, sliced (around 1/3 kg)
• Cheese, diced (I used the Kraft Eden one)
• 4 Boiled eggs, diced (I had 2 extra because we just love ’em!)
• 400g Salad Macaroni (cooked according to package instructions)
• Mayonnaise (I used Lady’s Choice MayoLite)

The fresh grapes added a touch of sweetness to the salad. I’ve tried raisins before but not everyone in the family liked it. I used to put canned pineapple bits until I found this fresher alternative. Cutting it up into pieces was the hard part though since they were rather small. I don’t have any fancy magic kitchen tools so I just used plain kitchen scissors to do the trick. To make, simply mix all the ingredients. Serve chilled. My kids love this! The great part is that they get some veggie and fruit servings from it when they normally would not take as is. Yum yum yummy! 🙂

Building a #healthierPH with Unilab Foundation

One of the things that I often pray for is good health – good health for me, for my family, and for my dear friends. That small circle however, does not seem to be enough as Unilab Foundation, Unilab’s humanitarian arm, wants to take it a notch (a great notch!) further to include the entire Philippines! Curious as to how the whole country can be rallied to be healthy, I signed up to join the #healthierPH event held last September 16, 2014 at Sentro 1771 in Capitol Commons, Pasig.

This delectable display of food was already waiting for us when we got there.

The place was set up with a touch of techy-ness to keep up with the “social media rockstars” (ahem ahem, I felt so honoured to be referred to as one) who were the guests of the event.

Papers in the form of iPads were ready on the table for taking notes.

On every table, there were these gadget holders (useful for taking selfies!) for us to use. It held the event’s program that was in the form of an iPhone.

These were the key words in our media kit, which we’ll later learn are Unilab Foundation’s programs to help build a #healthierPH.

The program kickstarted with Unilab Foundation’s Executive Director, Rhodora Palomar-Fresnedi giving the opening remarks. She shared that she used to work for various countries but a bigger calling came, and that was to come back home and be of service to her countrymen. Hooray!

How to Build a #healthierPH?

This slide sums up the programs that Unilab Foundation designed to build a healthier Philippines one person and one community at a time.

• Bayanihan Sagad aims to educate and empower the Filipino elderly by promoting active ageing and a healthy lifestyle.
• Project Inclusion seeks to prove by way of a research study that hiring PWDS, particularly those with Autism and Down Syndrome, is the right thing to do because it is good for the business and it is good for the employed PWD.
• Leadership Journey helps train doctors be leaders in their profession so that they can lead patients to better health in their role as department heads, hospital directors, heads of missions, and officers of medical societies
• Play It Forward targets children’s holistic development and aims to significantly improve their physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual well-being through play.
• Ideas Positive is a venue for college students to share their innovative and sustainable ideas which will address health and wellness concerns of their chosen communities, and more importantly, turn those ideas into reality. 

Okay, so How Can We Help?

To build a healthier Philippines, each of us must volunteer and contribute our share. Now before the word volunteer sends you running and making excuses, this concept of volunteerism has adapted with the digital age. Gone is the idea of having to physically be at a certain place to be able to volunteer. We can all volunteer just by clicking our mouses and tapping our keyboards. No extra money to give? No problem. No extra time to spare? No problem! Through the #healthierPH Volunteer Portal, one can share a talent or simply click the share button to volunteer.

During the event, there were 2 laptops there for the guests to create an account. To be able to try the whole process would take a while though so I waited to get home to get my hands on it. I’ll show you a walk through below.

Apart from the Volunteer Portal launch, there was also an Instagram selfie contest during the event. Among the winners were these two lovelies, Mommy Celerhina of Reigning Still

and Kisty of Kisty.net (Oh yes, her hair is really pink! 🙂 )

Oh look, there’s the real social media rockstar getting serious at the event! 🙂 I think he might be having a hard time choosing which activity to volunteer. LOL! 🙂

#healthierPH Volunteer Portal

When I finally got in front of the computer, I went to www.unilabfoundation.org to create an account and see for myself how the whole thing works. To create an account, one can choose to register or use his Facebook account to login. Not wanting to be bothered by a registration form, I chose the latter. Once done, I was shown my profile. There’s my purple girl voluntar (volunteer avatar) at zero points. You can customize the gender and colour of the voluntar by clicking Edit Voluntar on the top right.

Excited to get started, I clicked on the Plus sign on the upper right corner and was shown this page, the Volunteer Project List. This page lists all the current programs where I can volunteer. I simply had to click on the button under the corresponding activity that I wanted to be a part of.

I tried one of the activities with the X2 multiplier, Blog it Forward. I was supposed to blog about the importance of play in a child’s development and submit it in Unilab Foundation’s Facebook page.

After volunteering for that, I went back to my profile. There was a locked/greyed out gift waiting for me. It said that I can only unlock it once I’ve rendered service. Oh, darn!

And so I chose another one, one that does not need to wait. My EQ is low that way. LOL! I chose the simple click and share ones and was immediately rewarded a gift. Yey! 🙂 The item also came with a healthy tip associated with the gift.

After X number of days, I finally finished my the blog assignment. Read about it here. I submitted it and immediately after, the reward reflected in my profile. 2 Chocolates! Yum! 🙂

Wondering what I could do with the items and why my earned points remained zero, I decided to try to Use the items.

As I used up the items, my points increased by 10. The three items (2 chocolates and 1 comfy bed with pillow) totalled to 30 points. Apart from Use, one can also Share the item. I haven’t tried the Share though as I have no more items. I’ll have to volunteer some more to be able to give you some. 🙂 I’m almost halfway through the first level and I can’t wait to reach the next! I’m also excited to be rewarded with uncommon, rare, very rare, ultra rare, super rare, mega rare, and special items (whew!) in the future.  🙂 

In the spirit of volunteerism and of good health, I urge you to try this too. It’s a different and fun way to share our time and our abilities to contribute to a better and healthier Philippines.

The Value of Play

Every night, dear husband would ask DA what he did for the day.

DA would happily reply, “I played!”

This would always lead to the daddy scratching his head, doubting whether the kids were actually learning anything as the days go by.

While play may sound trivial and unimportant, there is more to it than meets the eye.

Play

Everyone seems to know how to play, even babies do. Give them a set of cups and they’ll start tinkering with it, essentially “playing” with it. It’s the way they learn and develop essential lifelong skills. Playing, whether indoors or outdoors, single or in groups, benefits young children by fostering imagination and creativity, problem solving skills, fine and gross motor development, and even social and language skills.

Our Play at Home

These are some of the plays that we do at home. Most of them cost nothing and yet they allow us to reap a good deal of benefits, both for our young kids and for us, as adults.

Phone Conversations One time, just for fun, I held up a mobile phone, pretended to dial, and started an imaginary conversation. DA picked the habit up and has since loved making imaginary conversations as well. We started with “talking” to people he knows, like relatives, so that he has concrete things to say, like “when are you coming to visit?”, “what are you doing today?” As he was introduced to superheroes, Spiderman, Thor, Captain America, and Hulk became his phone buddies. What’s really funny is that he makes realistic expressions and would even laugh as if his phone pal had actually said something funny. Dear husband calls us crazy whenever he hears us doing this but I say we’re just being creative and imaginative. 🙂 

Stacking Cups These are great for babies in developing their fine motor skills as they learn how to pick up the cups. They also help in developing the child’s problem solving skills as he learns how to put them on top of each other. It’s so cute to watch their chubby hands manipulate the cups, willing them to fit. They might get frustrated though if they cannot do it so try to add a little help to keep them going.

Ktichen Fun While I cook in the kitchen, I let the little one do his own play there as well. He’s free to open up the cabinets and drawers and play with the things inside (no sharp utensils, of course). One of the things he came up with is this arrangement of mugs and dishes. I was so amused by it that I just had to take a picture. It’s free play and yet I can see the organization skills already. 

Making a tower of cups is also our play in the kitchen. I showed him where to get the cups and how to stack them up. From time to time, he’d open up the cabinets and get them out to try a balancing act with the cups.

Running Around Every kid’s favourite! 🙂 This physical activity beats being glued to the iPad or TV anytime.

Jenga From time to time, we’d do play as a whole family. This is a good game that can include even the toddlers. While they may still need help, they can already take part in deciding how to keep the stack from falling. They also have a roaring good time when the whole thing falls down!

Playdates We haven’t been to a lot of playdates but those that we’ve been to have been fun. Playing with same-aged kids develops social and language skills among them. We’d sometimes listen to the kids’ conversation and get bewildered but they seem to understand each other well. Issues of sharing (more like non-sharing) of toys would sometimes arise though but we took it as a good teaching opportunity. 

How about you? What sort of play do you do at home with your kids? 🙂

P.S. This is my volunteer work for Unilab Foundation’s project of building a #healthierPH through Play It Forward. 🙂 Read about it here.

Baby Gab’s Pictorial

Whole Pet Kitchen, the first Dog Cafe in the Philippines

When my brothers and I heard of a cafe here in the Metro that caters especially to dogs, we got excited. Our 5-year old Golden Retriever, Buster, has always counted on commercial dog food or kibbles for sustenance and so serving him some real food would surely be a treat! Despite the distance and the traffic, we decided to bring Buster to Whole Pet Kitchen for a whole new natural food eating experience.

Well hidden in the city of San Juan, Whole Pet Kitchen is a small cozy place where your pets are the ones waited on and are served only the finest of foods. Owned and operated by Chef Giannina Gonzalez, daughter of renowned Chef Gene Gonzalez (founder and president of Center for Asian Culinary Studies and owner of Cafe Ysabel), it is the first ever dog cafe and the first natural pet bakery in the Philippines.

The place is really small, with only these 3 tables (2 double tables and 1 single table). It can get crowded really fast when a number of big doggie customers and their companions drop in.

This is the view from the corner. There are refrigerated muffins, desserts and beverages on display. On another rack are the all-natural doggie treats that the kitchen offers. 

Love this colourful board that hangs on one of the walls. Written on it are the specials and bestsellers, complete with cute drawings and artful text.

You can see more of the colourful text and graphics when you’re at the cashier.

These are some of the homemade, all-natural, vet tested, vet-approved treats for our fur-pals that the shop offers.

Mu-mu-muffins! 🙂

Whole Pet Kitchen also offers celebration cakes for our furry friends! What a nice gift to give our pets on their birthdays! It’s all the birthday yumminess and fun, minus the unwanted sugar and salt that human cakes are known for. Whew for that! Their cakes are priced at P680 – P2,098, depending on the size.

Okay, enough of the tour, we’re ready to order. Their simple menu consists of only 2 pages, one for the pet lover and one for the dogs. Here’s the pet lover’s. 

And here’s the one for the dogs. There are 3 savoury delights to choose from:

1. Jacks’s Lasagna (P88) Semolina lasagna sheets, organic VCO, pork liver, beef, carrots, homemade yogurt, swamp cabbage, tomatoes, basil, cheese
2. Grain Free Veggie and Beef Balls (P78) Sweet potato, beef, carrots, green beans, moringa oleifera, organic VCO, turmeric
3. Doggie Risotto of the Month (P78) Brown rice, vegetables, organic VCO, moringa oleifera, homemade lowfat yogurt & turmeric

This is Buster’s (and owner’s) hungry look. :p

While waiting, we met Chef Giannina’s pet Golden Retriever, Jack (from where the name Jack’s Lasagna came from).

Here comes Buster’s food! We ordered the Jack’s Lasagna for him.

Looks yummy!

Nom nom nom!

And he gobbled it all up! It was gone in 60 seconds (or even less!). So we ordered another set for him…

And this is how the human’s food looked. This is the Truffles’ Egg Salad Sammie.

And this is the Lalalasagna.

We had fun watching the other dogs munch their chow too! 🙂 They ordered the Veggie and Beef Balls. Look how dainty the Chih was eating off a spoon! 🙂

With a hungry pet like Buster, it wasn’t long before he wanted more food and was tempted to bite off CP’s sandwich!

Awww, priceless! 🙂

Buster’s second round of Jack’s Lasagna finally came. We sat him on the couch this time and tried to get him to savour his food slowly by giving it from a spoon.

Happy owner and happy dog! 🙂

Trying to savour every piece of that yummy lasagna!

That’s mine! 🙂

Can’t get enough of that yummy goodness!

While we were there, a media man from the European RT Ruptly News Network was also there to catch some videos and do interviews. Wow! International News! Here, DP gets interviewed on how the whole experience at Whole Pet Kitchen was. His answer, it was unique, cool and fun! 

Why?

Because it’s a place for our pets. For a change, they’re not lying on the cold floor eating their food while we eat ours. They get to lounge on the comfy couches too.

Because here, they get the quality food that they deserve but we oftentimes find too troublesome to prepare.

Because here, they meet new friends, just like how their owners meet new ones as well.

Because here, pet owners and their pets get to bond over great food and cozy atmosphere.

Going to Whole Pet Kitchen Dog Cafe truly is a unique and fun experience, not to mention healthy, for pets and pet owners to try. Do be mindful of these reminders though if you are going:

• Pet must be fully vaccinated and free of fleas/parasites
• Pets must not be in heat
• Should pets get aggressive, keep them close to you at all times
• Keep pets on a leash if you are not sure if they are well socialized
• Pets should not pee and poo in the store. Be ready with pick-up bags or diapers.
• Cleaning materials are available at the counter though, use them wisely.
• Do not leave children and pets unattended
• Know your pets’ sensitivities and medical history

P.S. Found the RT Ruptly’s video feature, see it here.

Whole Pet Kitchen
349-D C. M. Recto Street
Barangay Addition Hills
San Juan
TUE-FRI 10AM-6PM
SAT-SUN 9AM-9PM

Home

Kid’s Workshop, every Kid’s Fun Place

We all know how hard it is to shop when our kids are in tow. It doesn’t take long before they start whining, crying, and complaining. I’m tired, I’m hungry, I’m just plain bored! What’s a mom to do but to cut short the shopping escapade to give in to a trip to the toy store or to the arcade or to the ice cream shop.

Wouldn’t it be nice then to be able to just leave them somewhere secure and kid-friendly so the mommies (or the daddies) can actually get some things done?

Well, if ever you’ll be doing your shopping or errands in the Greenhills malls or tyangge, there’s a go-to place called Kid’s Workshop where you can drop your kids off. Located at the 2/F Shoppesville Arcade in Greenhills Shopping Center, beside Netopia, Kid’s Workshop guarantees your kids a grand time while you take your time getting your nails done.

I got an invitation to go and try out Kid’s Workshop for a day to see what’s in store for the kids when we leave them there. The boys and I dropped by one Friday morning to check it out. We went there at around 10:30AM. 2 hours of playtime should be plenty enough, right? 5 hours later, we were still there! I had to (fake) bribe the kids with donuts just to get them to leave!

So what was there that the kids don’t ever want to leave? Come, I’ll show you.

EXPLORE

Kid’s Workshop is a spacious loft-type play area for kids of all ages to explore.

Typical of a playground, there are the usual slides and rides. Apart from those, they also have a wooden bridge, a mini rock climbing wall, a ball pool, and a ship’s steering wheel. 

Here’s the view from the top.

A staff was always there to assist the younger kids so that they can safely play with the facilities.

This curvy slide is such a hit with the kids (and the kids at heart). I totally dig this! 🙂

There’s that boy climbing up the rocks and pretending to be steering Captain Hook’s pirate ship. 

For the girls, there are dollhouses, kitchen playsets, and other girly stuffs. Inside the shelves are also baby toys and books.

These are some of their book collections. The titles are a mix of baby and beginner readers’ books and a mix of english and tagalog titles.

Love these colourful rocking horses.

There are also wooden puzzles for busy hands.

These rides are so cute. There’s also a gas station to “fill ’em up”.

Okay, so maybe kitchen toys are not just for girls.

To keep the older kids preoccupied, there’s also a Playstation set up on the second floor. I wasn’t able to check the game titles though.

Also up on the second floor is the blocks room. There are tables where you can build imaginative creations using colourful blocks.

Look how this boy pours over the books! 🙂

CREATE

Apart from playing, the kids also get to do crafts in Kid’s Workshop. Here, the staff helps DA decorate his pet snake made out of foam boards.

Here, the girls make and decorate this happy looking pet lizard.

LEARN

In Kid’s Workshop, the staffs also facilitate learning activities for the kids. Here, they try to build towers using plastic cups, instilling the concept of balance in young children.

Even this young participant gets to try building a pyramid with the cups.

Here, the staff introduces the concept of playing Bingo to the kids.

INTERACT

According to the staff, they usually get a full house during weekends in the afternoon, with as many as 60 kids teeming the place. Wow! With that many kids, it really is a place to play and learn together with new and old friends alike. Just look at these new friends have their fun.

In case the kids get hungry, they also have a snack bar loaded with biscuit and chips. They can however, bring their own food.

Kids Parties

I also learned that they accept party reservations. Now that’s a fun idea! With so many fun things to do inside, your entertainment will already be taken cared of. You only have to bring the kids and the food. Their party packages start at P11,500 for 30 kids, inclusive of party host, party activities. The kids can even stay after the party for free!

Kids Funclub

This is their membership club that costs only P500 for 1 whole year. These are the perks of being a member:

1. Discount coupons
2. Birthday Treat – 1 free unlimited play which you can use any day of your birth month
3. 15%+5% off on Birthday Parties
4. Early bird discounts and priority bookings
5. 75% off on KidsFunClub Get2Gether ticket. Guests at 50% off.

Rates

• Unlimited Play – P410
• One Hour Play – P300
• Level Up (from 1 hour to Unlimited Play) – P150
• Adult Pass – P50 (for guardians accompanying kids over 4 years old)

Tips

• Bring your own socks. Socks are a must inside. If you forget, you can always just purchase them there – P25 for kids, P30 for adults.
• Bring food and drinks. The kids may get hungry and thirsty from all the playing. Instead of buying inside, you can bring your own and just eat it there (just not inside the play area). There are even others who have fast food delivered there for their kids.
• Bring a guardian. I’d be more comforted if someone’s constantly watching over my child even if there are able staffs inside. It may get chaotic if there are so many kids inside.
• Set a limit with your child. When we were there, all the guardians had trouble convincing the kids to go. To help with this, let them know beforehand that when you come back to fetch them that it’s time to go.

To sum it all up, I love how being in Kid’s Workshop is not all about playing with slides or riding rocking horses but it’s also about learning and socializing too. It’s like going to a preschool where the kids get to do crafts, explore, sing, learn, and play. All these, while I get to do my own “play”, even for a little while. 🙂

Thanks again to Kid’s Workshop for having us and for making our stay truly enjoyable. Till next time!

Kid’s Workshop
2/f Shoppesville Arcade, Greenhills Shopping Center, San Juan
723-0932
0917-599-5324
kidsworkshopghills@gmail.com
http://www.kidsworkshopghills.com