Munchkin Mommy

Kadiliman ang kailangan upang lubusang makagiliwan ang panonood ng Electric Parade sa Disney’s California Adventure.  Hindi siyempre maaappreciate ang naggagandahang makukulay na mga ilaw ng mga karosa kung tirik na tirik pa ang araw.

Nagsisimula na ang parada nang dumating kami sa isang kalyeng dadaanan nito sa loob ng theme park.  Agad na humanap ng lugar ang aking asawa at si Abby na may kalapitan sa daan.  Pinaupo ng aking asawa si Abby sa kaniyang mga balikat upang makita nitong maigi ang mga karosa. :)

Ako nama’y pumuwesto nang medyo malayo ng kaunti at naghanap ng matutungtungan. :D

Maraming taon  na ang nakalipas nang una akong makapanood ng Electric Parade.  High school pa lamang yata ako noon at wala pang California Adventure noon.  Sa Disneyland pa idinaraos ang parada.

Nakakatuwa na sa ikalawang pagkakataon ay kasama ko na ang aking asawa’t anak sa panood ng parada.

Magkatapat lamang ang California Adventure at Disneyland at mas maagang nagsasara ang California Adventure.  Ito ang kuha ko sa labas ng theme park, bago kami lumipat sa Disneyland para naman habulin ang Fireworks display.

Sa kadiliman lang maaappreciate ang pangitaing ito.

May mga palabas sa kadiliman rin kaming natunghayan sa Disneyland, ang isa ko pang lahok sa Litratong Pinoy.

Maligayang araw at mabuhay! :)

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Halloween isn’t ’til the 31st but a lot of establishments, malls specially, and bookstores like Borders, already had a head start on the Halloween fun.  We kicked-off the Halloween festivities last Saturday at our second favorite mall (our most favorite being the Outlet Mall).

The mall festivities was from 12nn to 2pm.  There were games, arts and crafts, a bounce house for jumping fun and photo op sponsored by the Picture People.  I was initially afraid to dress Abby up in a costume because she might end up being the only child in costume.  I immediately felt relieved as soon as we got to the activity area and saw little princesses, superheroes, furry animals and the like milling around. :D

What’s halloween without candy?

I miss my pamangkins (nephew and neices) back home a lot more than I already do during festivities like this.  I know soon, we’ll be trick or treating together again…here. *wink*

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TGIS!  Thank God, it’s Sabado!  This is the continuation of this entry.

As I was saying, the fun we had on October 18th didn’t end at the pumpkin patch.  Nobody seemed to want to go home yet, after all, the sun was still out!  After spending more than 4 hours at the farm, C and L graciously invited all of us to hang out at their house.  And then it was decided that we will go to Oasis, dubbed the Sunset Capital of Texas to, you must have already guessed, watch and take photos of the sunset!  Reservations were made for 6:45 pm.

In spite of the reservations, we still found ourselves without a table when we got to Oasis.  The place was packed with people!  While waiting for a table, we proceeded to the 2nd floor balcony to enjoy the view of Lake Travis and the sunset.

This was our (Hubby, Abby and me) first real good look at Lake Travis.

Houses on the land surrounding the like must cost a ton of money.  And check out that lone structure towards the upper right hand corner of the photo.

Here’s a closer view!

That’s the house we’re building for our family.  You’re all invited to our house warming.  Yeah, right! Hee hee.  Here’s another palace by the lake…

I was kinda expecting Rapunzel to come out to let her hair down. :D  But there was no sign of her.  Hu hu.  There were a number of speedboats lined up near the shore and there here were jetskiers, too…

Did I manage to take a snapshot of the sunset?  I did but most of them are not worth posting.  I didn’t realize the sun sets so quickly!  The most decent photo I was able to take was this…

See?  I almost missed the sun!  Tsk tsk.  Better luck next time.  I hear the sun will set again anyway.  :P

The sun has already set and yet, there was still no sign of a table for us.

Abby and Lica waiting for a table

It was decided that it might be better if we just had dinner elsewhere, Denny’s, to be exact, where kids eat free on Saturdays. ;)  When we stepped out of Oasis, our ride was already waiting for us…

Ha ha ha!

At Denny’s we were given a private room.  Naks!

There were five tables in that room, one for each of the family in our group.  Seven of the 9 kids got to enjoy a free meal, the other two are still babies so no restaurant food for them. :D  And guess what, our drinks were on the house, too!  Our server explained that he wasn’t exactly very organized when he took our beverage orders, and since we were paying separate checks, it would be too much of a hassle for him to go to each table all over again to find out who drank what. Poor guy.  I hope the cost of drinks won’t be taken out of his paycheck.

That’s about it for our 12-hour lakwatsa.  We have busy but fun days ahead of us.  We have about 3 parties to attend within days of each other plus trick or treating.  You’ll be hearing all about them soon. :D

Have a great weekend!

oOo

Oh yeah, I almost forgot!  I have a personal milestone to share with you.  *wink*

Last Wednesday, the 22nd of October, at the ripe old age of 33, I bought food from a McDonald’s drive thru for the very first time ever.  Hahaha!  I don’t know where my drive thru issues are coming from.  Must be fear of dropping the food or payment.  Or maybe, I really just don’t want to talk to a box.  :D  And you know how a lot of drive thrus back home are so narrow that damage to property is almost expected.  Anyway, Hubby wasn’t with Abby and me that time.  Normally, I’ll just park the car and order from the counter.  But it was raining and I just wanted to get home right away.  To cut a long story short, I did it!  Finally.  Another layer of shelteredness, if there’s even such a word, stripped off of me. :D  Woohoo!

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Liwanag ng haring araw ang bumati sa amin noong magpunta kami sa Sea World noong ika-5 ng Hulyo.  Damang-dama naman talaga ang init ng Tag-Init (Summer) dito sa Texas.  Kaya naman sa makailang punta namin sa Sea World, sa unang pagkakataon ay napagpasyahan naming magbabad sa Lost Lagoon ng Sea World.

Gagamitin ko na ang pagkakataon ito upang mailathala ang mga larawang kinuha namin noong araw na iyon.  Oktubre na at hindi ko pa nailalathala ang marami pang larawan noong Tag-Init!

Panangga sa liwanag ng araw ang pink shades ni Abby.

Hindi ba’t maliwanag pa sa sikat ng araw na magkamukha kaming mag-ina? :P

Talaga namang nagliwanag ang mukha ng mag-ama dala ng kanilang mga ngiti. :)

Sa aming pagtatampisaw sa tubig, disposable waterproof camera ang aming ginamit.  Ito ay natutunan namin sa aming mga kaibigang si Meeya at ang kaniyang asawa nang magkasama kami noong isang taon sa Schlitterbahn.

Narito ang mga kuha mula sa disposable camera.  Pasensya na sa hindi kagandahang quality ng mga larawan.  Pero ipinapangako kong maganda naman ang quality ng mga ngiti! :D

Ang sarap magbabad sa tubig!

Talaga namang nag-enjoy si Abby sa pagangkas sa mga naglalakihang mga salbabida (tube) at sa paglangoy mag-isa (salamat sa life vest!).

Kung minsa’y kumakandong siya sa akin at dalawa kaming nakaupo sa malaking tube.

Walang zoom ang  disposable camera.  Literal na close-up itong kuhang ito dahil talagang kinailangan kong ilapit ang camera kay Abby. :D

Tuwang-tuwang kaming dumaan sa ilalim ng mga sprinklers.

Maliwanag din ang ngiti ng mama na itinuturo ng arrow!  Nakisali sa picture! Hahaha!

Mabuti at nakahiligan ni Abby ang paglangoy.

Malapit na rin namin siyang ienroll sa swim class.

Ilang beses kaming umikot sa languyang ito sakay ng tube o paminsan minsa’y naglalakad sa tubig.

Nang magsawa sa lazy river, lumipat naman kami sa laruan ng mga bata.  At ito ang mga kuha doon…

Kulang ang 27 exposures sa akin.  Dahil bawa’t galaw ni Abby ay gusto kong kunan ng litrato.  Hindi ko tuloy nakuhanan ang wave pool. :D  Next year na lang ulit.  Sarado na ngayon ang Lost Lagoon ng Sea World dahil Fall na. :)

Sana ay naibigan ninyo ang mga larawan.

Mga bagay na nangangailangan at nagbibigay ng liwanag ang isa ko pang lahok sa LP.

Mabuhay!

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Mabuhay, y’all!  How was your weekend?  I hope it was happy and wonderful just like ours.  I’ll go right ahead and tell you all about it. :D  This is a picture heavy entry so I’ll try to talk less. Hee hee.

The highlight of our weekend was our trip to the Elgin Christmas Tree Farm, not to pick out our Christmas Tree, but for the Pumpkin Festival.  Last year, we missed going to a pumpkin patch.  We more than made up for that lost opportunity this year.  We had 6-times the fun because we were with 5 other families (plus our family makes 6!).  It was our first outing with our NFFs (new found friends). ;)  All in all, we were 12 adults and 21 kids.  You can say we had a little barrio fiesta going.  Hahaha!

It took a few minutes for Abby to snap out of a sumpong that came out of nowhere.  She is her mother’s daughter.  Ha!

See what I mean?  How could one not smile when mutant pumpkins abound?  Here’s another pic of my unsmiling lovely daughter with me…

Third time’s a charm so here’s a third photo of an unsmiling Abby.  Hmp!  Sayang ang family picture!

Celebrity sighting at Elgin, Texas!  Here’s the paparazzi!  Hee hee!

Our NFFs are photo enthusiasts, just like me!  And they all have dslrs to show for it.  I’m the only one with a full feature p&s (never forget the “full feature” part!).  I’ve done pretty well in keeping my dslr ache at bay.  But it’s going to be harder to ignore if we were to hang out with our paparazzi friends.  Say it with me, I. Dont. Need.  A. DSlr.  Bwahahaha!  Who am I kidding?!  Seriously, I still have to do hundreds of SPs (sponsored posts) in my working blogs before I can afford a camera upgrade.  Send me your positive vibes, please! :)

Going back to the pumpkin patch, Abby snapped out of her sumpong after I threatened to put her on a bus that’ll take her home she saw the pumpkin painting station.  You can say the price for her smile is $3.  Hee hee.

After she picked out the pumpkin of her choice, she immediately went to work.

From the pumpkin painting station, we headed over to the duck races.

It makes for good arm work-out, I tell you! Hee hee! :P

I don’t recall the day being windy.  But why is my hair such an awful mess?

After so many rounds of duck racing, Abby and Hubby ran off to the trees.

I’m now seriously considering getting a real tree for Christmas.

Thank God, Abby’s almost her normal camera loving self. :)

We had lunch afterwards.  Sausage wraps were dirt cheap at $1.50.  And they’re so good, too!  An ear of corn cost $1.50 as well while a cup of lemonade is $.075.  We only spent $8.50 for lunch!  Between you and me, Hubby had 2 sausage wraps!  Hahaha! :P Our friends Rene and Veron brought some baon of Spam musubi/onigiri (spam and rice wrapped in nori/seaweed) and spaghetti. Yum!

After a filling lunch, the kids went to ride on ponies.  It’s the second week in a row that Abby went pony riding.  That’s another $3 damage to the pocket…Hubby’s pocket. Hahaha!

A trip to the pumpkin patch isn’t complete without a hay ride!

Abby and Lica

Hubby and Jun and some of the other dads reminisced their jeepney riding days with their upong bente singko!

We got down at another area of the farm where there were sand art…

…train rides…

…scarecrows…

…antique tractors…

…a speed boat.

There were picnic tables and a playground, too!

Abby and Hubby played their favorite game where Abby jumps and Hubby catches here.  Abby used a big bundle of hay as her launch pad.

Ang saya-saya ng mag-ama! :)

And to prove to you that our NFFs are real and not just a figment of my imagination, here’s our group picture.

To take this pic, the paparazzi laid down their cameras (5 in all) on a picnic table and set the self-timer to 10 seconds.  Two people got cut off from my shot.  Sorry Edwin and Rene!  Hee hee.

And here’s a pic of the kiddos!

It’s too bad one family left earlier and didn’t get to join the group pic. :)

Our day didn’t end here.  This only accounts for 5 hours of the 12-hour fiesta.  To be continued as always. :)

Have a wonderful week ahead, pumpkins! :D  Cheers!

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