Happy Adopt-a-Tree Friends

The school came up with an amazing thing called the Saturday Club.  This is basically a group kids can join for weekly field trips.  It's a neat idea because the students get to be with their teachers in less stressful conditions.  No books.  Just plain fun.
My boys have joined many of these Saturday Club outings, and for me, last weekend's was the best so far.

The teachers brought the kids to the La Mesa Ecopark.  Not only did my little city slickers get the much-needed fresh air and much-wanted nature trek, they also learned more about environmental conservation --a valuable lecture that comes with every EcoPark package.

After the educational tour and talk, the kids finally got their hands dirty with the Ecopark's Adopt-a-Tree Program.  The Treeplanting/Nursery Activity, hands down, was my boys' favorite part of the whole trip.  Oh wait... they kinda liked the Naming Rights that came with planting their own tree, too.  I mean,  MY own tree, right?

When they got home, Miro asked, "Mimi, can we visit our trees when they grow up?"
"Of course!". I said with a smile, holding the Tree Adoption Certificates the Ecopark gave them.  "You do have the adoption papers which give you full visiting rights."
To this, Kenji said, "Yay!  I'm a daddy!

Environmental, enlightening, empowering.
Now wasn't that a well-spent Saturday?

An Angrier Bird Birthday

Angry Birds here, Angry Birds there.
If you were to look up the list of trendiest kiddie party themes in the metro today, these gaming hot-tempered fowls will be perched ever so comfortably at the top most branch.  The theme is overused and abused to near overkill.

So what do you do if you really MUST have the Angry Birds as your child's birthday motif.  Surprisingly... go for the overkill.

The best way to pull off a concept is to the hilt.  And out of the three children's parties my boys went to this month alone, Bash's Birthday Bash was the most Angry Bird-tight.

In this party, decor was key.  I loved how the chairs were even dressed in the same cartoony colors of the popular game.

And there just wasn't any scrimping on the authentic birdy balloons.  Look!  Up in the sky!  It's a bird!  --why, yes... yes, it is.

The cake didn't chirp either.  It hooted!  Hooted an angry hoot!

And the photobooth was eternally flocked by kids delighted with the hefty array of Angry Bird plush caps they had to wear per snap. 

By the way, all the young guests were asked to come in Angry Birds t-shirts.  A dress code!  That splendid show of thematic organization adds a fine feather to your cap, Bash!
On the other hand (or wing), the bubbly 1-year old birthday celebrant wore an Angry Bird costume ALL THROUGHOUT THE DURATION OF THE PARTY.  Now THAT'S dedication to the theme!

No, this isn't him.  It's Miro, gone to the birds. :P

This blog's party tip on overused themes:  Push the limit.  Out of the bunch, be the most memorable.
Don't be Angry.  Be Angrier!

DIY Creative Manipulation

Yes!  My kids have a lot of those!  From Kenji's puppy dog eyes to Miro's well-rehearsed power of reasoning --these guys can manipulate the hell out of you.  Which now makes me wonder if we have politicians in the family tree.

But I digress.

I'm talking about a different kind of manipulation.  Image and Movement Manipulation.  My kids are so into this right now that I really, really have to speed up my support system.  I need to find newer creative programs.  Better technology to match their quick thinking.  So far, their imagination is beating my resources to a pulp.

Here's their latest Mini-Movie Manips.

SPONGEBOND

Now Kenji's Mr. Bender.  He loves bending an existing thing into some kind of childish parody.  He found a 007 gun barrel desktop pattern on the net and quickly hunted for a Spongebob in a tuxedo image.  There's one in an episode where the hilarious talking sponge had to be a fine dining restaurant waiter.  He cleaned that image up.  Got the 2 pictures together.  And then blended the colors seamlessly.  Ooh... and annotated.

ANGRY CLONES

Miro took a different approach.  He's Mr. If-You-Can-Do-It-So-Can-I.  He made these popular Angry Birds images from scratch.  Gave them movement.  Gave them the actual game's play-by-play.  With, of course, matching music.  Upon completion, he was rather smug in saying, "I did that in a few minutes, Mimi!  How long do you think the Angry Birds makers did theirs?"  Ah...

Next step:  Get these boys a better Mac (our old reliable is just too slow for this kind of creative barrage now), and maybe get them into a video game designing camp come summer.

Parental support may be so damn costly... but with this kind of output, I say, worth it.

Going Gaga Over Gargling

My husband and I --we're big on snuggles, cuddles, and smooches.  Even before we got married, and even now many years later.  Being emotionally and physically comfortable with one another has always been the strong foundation of our ultimately cheesy bond.

But, this almost got a little shaky ...on our Wedding Day.

Picture this:  It's the Big Day.  In between make-up, dressing up, prep pictorial, church, one more pictorial, reception, yes, another pictorial --when do we take a mouthwash gargle break?!

Turns out, we didn't need to.  With Colgate Plax!

Colgate Plax gives advanced anti-bacterial protection for longer lasting fresh breath.  How long?  12 HOURS!  With 99.9% of bacteria totally eliminated.  All it takes is one gargling at the start of the day, then it works its magic even when you're too busy 'til night time.  How convenient and comfortable is that!

With Colgate Plax, it would've been like we gargled all throughout our wedding day!  HA!

Ok, that's just a lame, homemade gif.  But the anytime-anywhere freshly-gargled feeling IS genuine.
You can test the real deal with your own photo using the Gloo-Gloo Animation App at the Colgate Plax website.

It shows you exactly how Colgate Plax works for you.  Plus, it's super funny and super share-worthy!  

Just like this crazy gif of 2 freshly-Gloo-Glooed smoochers.  LMAO!

Nickelodeon's Planet Scream of the crop!

"This is the best Halloween ever!!!", Kenji exclaimed as soon as we got in the car to go home.

Those sincere words easily canceled out the 45 minutes we spent lining up at the entrance of the Nickelodeon Planet Scream open grounds gates, the 30 minutes we spent running and hiding out under a tiny awning when the sudden downpour of rain had everyone scampering for cover, the 2 hours we spent standing on wet ground all throughout the Planet Scream event since all the seats were already taken by those who came prepared with umbrellas. 

It was all worth it.  We've been to a number of Halloween events for years and Nickelodeon's was so far the best of the bunch.  Laid out like a fair, the event was packed with activities.

There were food booths.  Kenji wasn't leaving without his pretzels!

There were gigantic photo ops.  Miro just had to have one with Nickelodeon's top Sponge.

There were toy and candy booths where the boys scored treats.

There was the film showing of Spongebob Scaredypants which naturally captivated every kid.

And there was the horror house Scream Room!

While kids went in and out these booths, the show played non-stop on stage.  Spongebob and Patrick had 3 numbers.  REAL dance numbers --with costume changes.  Yeah, I'm talking to you, Chowder!

In the end, wet, sweaty, exhausted, with blisters on our little toes ... we decided as a unit that in all things Halloween this year, Nickelodeon's Planet Scream was definitely worth screaming for. 

Best Halloween to everyone!

Super Mario and Luigi Costumes How-Tos

This, save for the uber complicated hats, would be our easiest homemade costumes to date!  I thank the stars for that.  Originally, Miro wanted to be Ganondorf and Kenji wanted to be Thomas the Tank Engine.  And you know us... we don't buy costumes.  We have a rather masochistic streak.  :P

To get the look of these super gaming icons, most items you can score just about anywhere.

1.  If you can find a worker's jeans jumper, that's half the problem solved.  But my husband loves challenging himself so the jumpers had to be made from scratch.  The big yellow buttons added the cartoonish feel to the pieces.

2.  Red and green long-sleeved shirts.  You can get this from any clothing store.  Ours, we got from the boys' stash of old Filipiniana costumes. :)

3.  Gloves, of course.  These, we had to buy.

4.  Mario and Luigi wore thick worker boots in the game.  Those would be hell painful when the kids do their rounds at Trick or Treat.  So we ditched going by the book here and opted for comfy shoes.  Rule of costuming kids --ok, it's nice to look at, but can your child move in it?

5.  Mustaches --the handiwork of my eyeliner set and crafty hand.

6.  Ah, the hats.  These came in 2 versions.  Yesterday's hats' letter details came out wrong because we were rushing for a Halloween event.  But I did book us for 2 parties this year, and the real big one was the Nickelodeon Planet Scream party.  So we had time to revise when we got home.  Because these hats HAD to look like the REAL thing --Miro demands it!

The challenging part about the hats was the shape.  It was difficult to get the cartoonish bumps that they had on the video game.  Finally, we settled for a page boy hat shape and just added some folds to create bumps on the sides.  Miro gave the finished products a once-over.  Then after a few beats, "Ok, ok... not bad." --Really!

7.  Bring a lot of attitude!  The secret to making a costume work for you is to work with the costume.  My boys were in character the whole time.  In fact, a couple at the Nickelodeon Planet Scream event actually asked Mario and Luigi to pose with their kids for a posterity shot.  Oooh!  Just like celebritiiiiees...  Haha!

Miro and Kenji felt super cool about that.  Authenticity achieved!  Whew!
Have fun making yours!

It's us... Mario and Luigi!

Boy, am I glad I planned 2 Halloween events for the family this year.  Because the first one we went to didn't do it that much for us.  It may have been fabulous for others, but yeah --we weren't huge fans of tedious promo mechanics and dragging activities.  But like I said, that's just us. :)

One cool thing that came out of yesterday though was the massive attention the boys got for coming as Mario and Luigi from the Super Mario legendary video game fame.  Random comments like "Hey, it's Mario!", "Mario!  Luigi!  Here we gooo!", "Mommy, look, it's Mario and Luigi!" really got Miro and Kenji pumped.  Professional photographers took shots of them, too.  Yep, there was my boys' 15 minutes of fame.  Haha!
It was totally worth the sleepless night and panic time my husband and I devoted in crafting the costumes.  Well, my husband worked.  I panicked.  Lol!  Our boys' smiles beaming like beacons while kids all over greeted them excitedly totally washed all that away.

Plus, yesterday gave us one of the coolest family pictures we ever had!  Complete with Alpha in a navy seal harness and little shy Ziva in an army ranger harness.  And me and Jing in dark, huge eyebags.  Happy, Happy Halloween indeed!

Up next... Nickelodeon's Planet Scream!  Wooooooo!