Let It Snow

We are had our first snow yesterday. It's nice to be inside the house and watch the snowfall. We have a wooded lot so everything is quiet and peaceful. When you look out the front lawn, all you will see are trees, very tall trees. Snow is only good when you are indoors. If you're out and about, snow isn't as attractive. Driving during the first few hours of a snowfall isn't for the faint of heart. It is very easy to slip and slide. I'm thankful that I'm driving a 4WD. Coming from a tropical country and living in California, I was not used to driving in the snow.

I remember the first time, I was in Rochester, NY for work training. It was Spring but it still snowed. That was a scary week for me. I've received snow driving tips from everyone in the class which came in handy. The most important tip is to drive SLOWLY and take turns even SLOWER!

Yesterday, we went to the Christmas tree farm which is 5 minutes away, to get our tree. I told dh, "snow or no snow, we will get it". We've been coming to this farm called 'A Quiet Place' for years now. The couple who runs it is very friendly and the guy kinda looks like Santa if he only has his beard a little longer. LOL He didn't raise his prices. I guess he figured that if he did, people will not buy from him. We noticed that there are more trees that aren't tagged this year. Maybe some people want to save and just got their tree from Home Depot.

Christmas is almost here and I need to finish up on my decoration. It is always freezing each year we pick up our tree and this year is no exception. Only this year, we have an added bonus, SNOW!

Family, Exciting News and Whatnot

Well, my dad is recovering very well from his accident which I posted a week or so ago. He had black eyes a couple of days after his accident. It looked like he was beaten up badly. Thank God he did not suffer any concussion. As a result of this, he is having second thoughts on living part of the year in the Philippines. The emergency service in my old country is not the best, it will probably take a long time to get to the hospital because of the traffic. Add to that, the ambulance itself comes from the hospital unlike here in the US where the local fire department has it's own ambulance. I was a bit disappointed since I knew that the dollar will go a long way in the Philippines plus they will have a maid to help my mom with the household chores.

For the exciting news, I learned that my niece will arrive here in the US at the start of the year. Her fiance lives in San Antonio, Texas and they will get married there. I'm already thinking of a Bridal Shower gift for her, maybe the book by Dr. Robin or a sexy lingerie? Hmm, I think I'll give her the book. LOL At least it will help her in the long run.

And for the what not, tonight is the Halloween Trick or Trunk at school. Good thing it's on a Monday, dh will be able to come with us. We already have the Halloween decorations ready. Last year, we only have a little bit of decorations plus the Jack o'Lantern and we were surprised at how elaborate other parents decorated their car trunks. So this year, we are ready. LOL Dh has a scary mask he plans to wear but I warned him that small kids might get scared. We also have a walking hand (think of the one from the Adams Family movie) which was a hit with the kids last year. The new item this year is a bowl with the moving hand. Have you seen those? It's pretty creepy since the hand is made of some soft rubber material. I hope I remember to bring my camera, it'll be loads of fun for sure.

The Vacation to Remember

Summer is over and kids are in school, can you believe it? How was yours? Ours was unforgetable, awesome, great, beautiful, tiring, exciting and wonderful. (I could add more adjectives but I don't want to bore you.)

We had a grand vacation in Europe last June, it lasted for a month and we visited seven countries. It was our 10th year anniversary celebration. We did not have an expensive Honeymoon when we got married. The entire wedding was expensive enough that we did not have any money left to spend for a honeymoon in some exotic place. We went to Washington,D.C. and spent three days doing the tourist stuff. We vowed that we'll have a grand celebration on our 10th anniversary and we started saving towards that goal.

So off we went, dh and I plus the kids. Yes, all four of us since it's not complete without the kids. The cities we visited were: (in Italy) Rome, Florence, Pisa and Venice; (in Switzerland) Luzern and Wengen; (in Germany) Trier, Koln, Prum, Kaiserslautern, Berlin, Hohenswangau and Munich; (in the Netherlands) Sitaard, Volendam, The Hague and Amsterdam; (in Belgium) Brussels and Antwerp and (in Luxembourg) Luxembourg City. We took our time and weren't running around like a chicken with it's head cut off. We had a lot of rests and Gelato! Italy was definitely a 'walking city.' All those delicious pasta dishes were burned off, thank goodness! Switzerland was the most beautiful in all the countries we've visited. I was awestruck with all the natural scenery. These are two countries that we would love to visit again. Anyone want to meet us in Rome someday? :)
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Taking a Short Break

I took a break from blogging for a couple of hours to go to the beach with my family.

The city I live on is on the coast and my house is just 5 minutes away from the closest

beach. It was a perfect day, not too hot and there was a comfortable breeze. Thank you

to those who dropped ECs. I'll return your drops later tonite, I need to finish the Europe vacation slideshow I promised my dh. :)

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Artsy Time

The other day, after Amber came home from summer camp, she and Tyler did some painting. Tyler just painted abstract art (haha) while Amber painted Pikachu from the Pokemon series.

A Fun-Filled Day

Last Friday, we went to New England Six Flags Amusement Park. The last time we were there was two years ago for Intel's Family Day. Dh's company have it every year but we didn't go last year because of a scheduling conflict. This year though, we went with my good friend Lanie and her family. It was a hot day, it felt like it was in the high 80's. Even so, the kids, most specifically, Tyler enjoyed it the most. I just noticed while looking at the photos that I didn't have any of Amber. It was all photos of Tyler this time unlike when we were in Europe were you'll see Amber in almost all of the photos.


There were a lot of rides for small children in the park. For kids smaller than 36 inches, an adult has to ride with them. For most of the rides that we went to, Tyler was tall enough to ride by himself since he's already 40 inches tall

What's Tyler's favorite ride? It was the kiddie rollercoaster. He rode with his dad and dh said that Tyler laughed the whole time. He definitely took after me since I love rollercoasters and have no qualms about riding even the tallest, fastest and scariest ones. Amber meanwhile is like her dad, not too crazy about it. Amber loves the water rides and enjoyed riding the Big Splash with dh. As with any water rides, they got very wet but it was refreshing for a hot day.

Mareng Lanie and I communicated via cellphone all day long. Her husband and son brought their swimsuits and enjoyed the waterpark instead. It's a good thing that they only had to pay one entrance fee for both parks so they had a good deal. We used a coupon from the Luncheables pack and received a $20 discount for the adults and free tickets for the kids. Good deal!