who is the prettiest belle?

no one else but xia!!! :)  

don't you agree?! :P

late post: xia joins our GT outreach party

last dec 2012, we had another charity event as our team christmas party.  we spent the day with the orphans at mc donald's - xia and the kids of our officemates included.  this was our 2nd year and we wish to continue on in the next years to come...  i have blogged about our very first event at jollibee in 2011 here: xia gives back!

i don't want to miss sharing this one (albeit very delayed!) - so that xia will always remember the value of giving and sharing.  she has witnessed it anyway since age 2, so hopefully she will do the same when she can already afford it!

we came early at the venue and since we were early birds, she had the place to herself for a good 20mins :)  

the kids from the precious heritage came as our guests and we welcomed them with food, games, prizes, warm smiles and friendships!  they all surely had fun, and our kids too!!!  

everyone had fun including us!!! it was definitely heart-warming to see the less-privileged kids having the time of their lives :)  they enjoyed the games and we certainly enjoyed their company even just for the mere 3 hrs...     

the highlight of the party was of course the presence of mc do mascots!!!  the kids went really crraazzyyy and guess what, we scrambled with the kids too! hahahaha!  

the party was once again a success!  the kids went home happy with their loot bags and took home goodies like sacks of rice, boxes of noodles and canned goods, candies and some toiletries.  

nothing beats the feeling of making other people (especially kids) happy! we hope to make more and more of them happy in our next GT outreach party.  

 

and to my little one xia, may you value the blessings from God and more so learn the value of sharing such blessings...  may you grab all the chance you can get to be a blessing to others!  

  

how to do cupcakes - the xia way :)

there's quite a lot that i want to write about - i am trying to catch up on blogging about xia's past activities.  so will try to do some prioritization :)  

xia had her 2nd school fieldtrip at enderun college.  she was once again a chef - her summer elective was about cooking too, remember?!  but this time, they had a tour of the culinary school so they had actual experience as to how it is to be a culinary student. 

they made cupcakes with the help of the ate chefs :) 

xia in action here... putting icing topping on the cupcake...  

then putting on some more candies to design...

she's so focused at what she's doing! :)  so into it, look! ;)  

tadah!!!  there's the cutest elmo and cookie monster hehehe... 

xia thinks:  are you really elmo and cookie monster?  hahaha! 

they ended the trip with a group picture.  here are the cutest kids on the block with the ate chef and ms lizel...  they surely had a blast!!!  

and xia is the sweetest... she brought this home for mama to try!!!  it was so delish!  

good job, my dear little chef! :) 

the heat is on! :)

yey, it's our favorite time of the year!  we promise to go swimming and hit the beach more often this time...  

last weekend, we visited the hundred islands in alaminos, pangasinan!  xia and kuya matt had so much fun!!!  

we are all happy to be here (my third trip here actually!) and see one of God's wonders! 

first stop was governor's island where we got to see the best view of the hundred islands. 

we had to go on a trek to get to the top.  xia was game for it but got tired too. good thing papa nene was there to carry her along :)  

went island hopping and took a dip in each island that we went to.  here we are at the marcos island...  the water here is perfect for swimming but had to move to another island when it got crowded and the boats took over the beach...  

xia had the best time, obviously... lambitin kung lambitin haha!  

she kept saying she's a mermaid!  that's my water baby :)  

the boatmen took us next to the lopez island so we can swim more... not as good as the marcos island in terms of sand texture - but this has the best view!  

this has been so far xia's best swimming experience!  we stayed over in this island for more than an hour - swimming and building sandcastles the whole time...  

we stopped by the biggest island - quezon island - for a bit, but did not bother to stay long.  it was teeming with people - it's one of the islands where you can rent cottages / cabanas.  you can also do kayaking here.  

off we went to the children's island next...  but while the water was shallow - hence good for kids swimming - you can hardly walk kasi super mabato!  

good thing we had enough of swimming so the little tot agreed to move on to our next and final stop:  the cave (which unfortunately forgot its name)... 

we all enjoyed the trip!  the long drive was so worth it :)  

cheers to more trips this summer break!!!