On A Wonderful Day Like Today

Don't grow up too fast kids!

Every so often, we let our kids ride the carousel.... For fifty bucks, it's a priceless childhood experience. :-) Love, love, love that these pictures are able to capture that fond memory.

"Stuff Girls Love" - that's the tagline of Lisa Frank. For those who have a bit of generation gap: :-) About Lisa Frank - Based in Tucson, Arizona, Lisa Frank, Inc. is named for its founder, Lisa Frank, an American pop artist and designer who pioneered an unmistakable aesthetic loved by generations. The distinctive brand celebrates and understands girls and features high quality products in bright, vibrant colors. Today's core products include stationery, craft, seasonal and cosmetic items. Built on a mission to enable young girls to believe in themselves, express individuality through creativity and have fun, Lisa Frank has an extensive fan club base, now boasting over 10,000 Facebook fans. More is available at www.lisafrank.com . In our case, Lisa Frank means fun stickers! Thanks to Ninang Net and Tita Josie for giving Zoe the stickers last April. Now Zoe wants to be an artist! :-)

Sorry for the late post... Just want to document here Zoe's 1st Moving Up Day at her school. They were asked to dress up in the 80's theme so we were very excited! I saw this dress from a department store and bought it immediately. It was initially big for Zoe so I had it repaired to fit Zoe perfectly. I also bought for her red Chuck Taylor rubbershoes, a pair of earrings in the shape of long-playing albums plus net gloves to match. The outfit turned out so nice! When we got to the school, they were asked to wear blue togas and a cap. Picture-taking! The program started on time and Zoe enjoyed every minute of it. She received several awards and we were so proud of her. After the recognition rites, they all removed their togas and the girls danced to several 80's songs. Here's the rest of the family giving all their support to the little girl... ...with gifts to match! Congratulations, Zoe!

For her school's Community of Helpers Day, we dressed up Zoe into a person with a profession that's close to my family's heart. Taking after her Lolo, Lola and my sister, we decided that the most apt job for Zoe was to be a teacher like them! Clad in a brown dress bought from the mall, with matching eyeglasses and white board, Zoe was all set to be a teacher for a day. Serious Teacher Zoe... Wacky Teacher Zoe!!! When she got to the school, everyone was dressed up in their favorite community helper outfit. Many were bakers and doctors. One was a soldier and a couple were nurses. But Zoe was a teacher and was mightly proud about it! I heard from the yaya that the kids had so much fun acting out the part. One baker even brought cupcakes to feed everybody in class! :-) Anyway, when Teacher Zoe got home, they realized that there was one more person who also wants to become a teacher... See Teacher Luigi! :-) Pwede! :-)

...the letters L-U-I & Z-O-E! And of course, with a little help from the letters D-A-D and M-O-M! Happy Birthday kiddos! We love you Zoe and Luigi! More pics to follow!

We prepared a school party for Zoe on her birthday. It's her first time to actually celebrate like this. We got Jollibee spaghetti and hamburger for the kids, plus lootbags and balloons. It was so much fun! Here are the pics. Happy birthday Zoe girl! We love you!

My sister arrived last week from Iloilo for a 2-day visit. She bonded with Zoe and Luigi to the max and it shows in the pictures here. Also, with my sister here, I also realized that Zoe's eyes really look more like hers than mine. Let's compare. Zoe and Tita: Zoe and Mommy: See?

Zoe's final project for Kindermusik before they end the semester is to bring a home-made animal mask. Tough. Tough. Tough. So I asked the little girl what animal she wanted to be and, without batting an eyelash, she said she wanted to be a LION! :-) I immediately (read: hurriedly) worked on our lion project the morning before the class. This is how it turned out. During show and tell time, Zoe got so so excited to come out of hiding and act the part. She said "Grrr!!! Rrrroar! I'm a lion!" ...I'm a proud mama. :-) See the reflection of her lion face in the mirror behind her. Happy. Happy. Happy.

After our boat project in school, the next show-and-tell activity that Zoe had in Kindermusik was to make a pair of home-made binoculars. Well, I thought that since they are in the topic of music, movement and stars, it's apt for her binocular's theme to be STARS. So this is how our binoculars turned out: I used two tissue paper rolls, black gift wrap, glitter glue (from NBS), a red and gold ribbon and then some puffed star stickers which I got from Greenhills. She loved it and I'm so glad.

Does Zoe look like a real angel here? So cute, right? While looking for Free Wordpress themes for my old vinanini wordpress blog (my original blog!), I found this cute thing online. I managed to use one of Zoe's photos and upload it into this angel picture. (Oh, the many enjoyments of blogging and the web!) Speaking of angels, I remember this conversation we had with Zoe a few days ago. Mommy: What would you give to Daddy and Mommy this Christmas, Zoe? Zoe: Magpapakabait na po ako (I'll be a good girl already). Mommy: Why? Hasn't Zoe been good? Zoe: Hindi, si Luigi lang ang mabait. (No, only Luigi has been good). "Paawa" effect pa ha. On the side, I'm giving myself a mental note not to compare the two so as not to bring about sibling rivalry or something to that effect.

For the culminating event for Zoe's Our Time class and also in line with the Halloween celebrations, they were asked to come in their favorite costume. We got Zoe a Little Red Riding Hood outfit from SM and boy did she look so cute on it! :-) Here are some pictures. Little Red Riding Hood Zoe: During class with T. Jeannie: Handing out of the certificates: Goodbye-time: After a couple of Our Time classes, Zoe is now ready to join the Imagine That classes next semester. I'm sure it will be a lot of fun!

...that whenever Zoe sees someone wearing anything with SPONGEBOB on it (whether big or small, be it on a shirt, bag or even on a shoe), she couldn't resist screaming --- "SPONGEBOB!!! SPONGEBOB!!!" As the parent, I sometimes feel guilty how I let her be so ecstatic over a cartoon character. *-* P.S. And do you know how she would answer when asked the name of her teacher in Kindermusik? She'd say "Teacher Jeannie Neutron!!!" Gosh!

I almost forgot to blog about Zoe's classes at Kindermusik (Our Time - Wiggles and Giggles) at Teacher Jeannie and Company. On the first day of classes, I unfortunately left the camera in the car so didn't have pictures to show (tsk, tsk). And so, for the second class held last Saturday, I made sure that I was armed with a cam to capture her moments in schoool. Obviously, Zoe is having a blast in school. Here she is holding her Zig-Zag, practicing her "Wishy, washy, wishy, washy, wee!!!!" Zoe carrying her Wiggles and Giggles bag: We were one of the early birds to arrive in school so Zoe had time to play around the area: Here she is smiling at the camera for Mommy: Zoe getting her star stamps from T. Jeannie: Looking forward to the classes until October!