The Adventures of a Calamari Queen

Hi Friends! Hope you are all having a great Friday evening. We are relaxing here and enjoying some take out ramen and watching our usual movie night. Last weekend, we got to visit Leavenworth (hour and half drive from our place). My little family likes to visit at least once a year and we love visiting during the winter months. It is like a hallmark movie set. It is such a magical place. Summer/fall is also fun and we wanted to avoid the crowds during Octoberfest so last weekend was the right time.

The drive going there is always so pretty, especially now with all the fall leaves and their vibrant colors. We always stop at Smallwood’s and get some produce and fun treats (we got pears, apples and different condiments in their store). We always eat at the german sausage restaurant and get bratwurst. Also a must stop for us is the Christmas store and buy ornaments to add to our Christmas tree this year.

I baked a simple pear tart from the pears we got at Smallwood’s. It’s not very pretty (HA) but it was decent enough that we ate it all (we paired it with vanilla ice cream).

Have a great weekend friends!

Hello Everyone! It’s been a while since I’ve blogged. I’ve been wanting to blog but my laptop stopped working and we got busy this summer traveling to Hawaii and visited the Philippines (last time I visited was 2019), so I neglected the blog. I really wanted to continue here and share our little lives here in Washington State. We spent our summer months between Hawaii and Philippines and it was a blast! It was a lot of traveling especially for the kids but it was worth it to see my family and friends. Last time I visited was pre covid (2018), so I was looking forward to seeing my family and showing the kids my hometown. So much has changed (the traffic was so bad) and the weather was ridiculously hot and miserable!HA.

We stayed in the Philippines for 3 weeks, and the kids got to see my side of the family. They got to meet their cousins for the first time! It was special for the kids to hangout with them because they don’t have first cousins here in the U.S! We also had a Jollibee birthday for the kids (one month advanced bday celebrations) because I wanted the kids to experience a Jollibee party, we do have Jollibee here in our state but I don’t think they have birthday celebrations like in Philippines.

Hubs didn’t join us for our Philippines trip, it was just me and the kids. After our Hawaii trip he was back to work and took care of the house!HA. Thanks Hubs!

Thank You God that we get to travel and see our families and friends. I’m grateful that we were all healthy especially the kids!

Hi friends! Been a while since I posted here. Things are going well here (thank God). Just doing the usual family life, homeschooling, housework, etc. The holidays and new year (with my family visiting) was such a busy time for us that I needed to slow down. We had a road trip and visited Vancouver, Canada before the year ends. It was fun, it was more of a food trip really! I loved Robson street area for the shopping and MUJI store. Makes me think of Japan.

Our little New years eve celebration!

We also visited Ocean Shores last month! My little family likes to visit there a couple of times a year.

We had a little mommy-daughter date at the Cinderella ballet show.

Crazy hair day at Church! My daughter participated as she likes to do something crazy to her hair!

We watched and enjoyed the Seahawks superbowl win!

Valentines cards the kids made!

Mediterranean Dinner with Hubs!

It’s winter break this week for us, so it will be a little more relaxed. No travel plans, just staying local.

Have a great night and take care friends! Stay warm.

Hi Friends! Happy Saturday! We did errands today like sending packages to families and buying Christmas gifts for teachers. We were sick last week, but we’re good now, so it was nice to get out and do some errands. We joined some of our Co-Op families and watched the Nutcracker in Seattle this week. We’ve watched it before, but it was just fun to do it this holiday season. We enjoyed it and had a great time.

Ramen and Poke before movie night at home. It’s been cold and rainy these past days. Lots of flooding and evacuation in some parts of the state.

We also had a get together with our friends. It’s always fun to catch up and share meals!

The kids are wanting new bikes, we are considering getting them for Christmas.

Have a great rest of your weekend friends. Tomorrow, we plan to go to Church and relax at home. Stay safe!

Hi Friends! It’s been a cold and windy weekend here, so we’ve been staying most of the time here (Hubs took the kids outside for exercise!), while I watched our current Kdrama show (Dynamite Kiss) and a little house cleaning. Last week, we visited our favorite Christmas tree farm to pick our fresh tree. We’ve been coming to this farm for the last 3 years, we just love it because it’s so cozy and convenient for families because they provided a hay ride to tour the farm and free drinks like cider and hot cocoa.

We decided on this noble fir. It smells good and is just the perfect size for our living room.

Here is the final tree! Looks so pretty and we love it:) We have minimal Christmas decors this year. We got 3 new ornaments this year (one from Yellowstone park and 2 from the Christmas tree farm). Aside from the real tree, we got a real wreath to hang on the front door. I will buy poinsettias for our everyday table and side table this week and that would be it.

Have a good evening friends! Enjoy the rest of the weekend:)

Hello Friends! I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family/loved ones and enjoyed delicious food. We had the usual Turkey and side dishes. Me and my sis are not turkey fans so we made some filipino dishes like Caldereta (filipino style beef stew) and Turkey adobo. My Dad in Law and Hubs liked the adobo. He suggested that we should make it again next year.

Hubs homemade rolls, which were a big hit last night!

Thanksgiving is kinda over here, although I know some people will still be getting together and celebrating this weekend. For us, we plan to get our Christmas tree tomorrow (this weekend) and have our stockings out. I plan to keep our decorations simple this year, and will have to focus on the real reason for the season and that’s the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. Thank You God for all your blessings and grace to us!

We did some shopping today at an asian department store and the kids wanted to check out a Five below store. It is far from our house but we didn’t have anything planned so we gave in. It was a fun little adventure:)

I hope you have a safe and great rest of your week!

Hi Friends! It’s been a long time since I got here on the blog. We’ve had a busy August (2 week road trip to Idaho, Montana, Wyoming) visiting Yellowstone and Glacier National Park. I will try to share this week about that summer road trip. It was fun! With back to school for both kids, taking care of the house and family, it was just too hectic for me!

We had a late birthday celebration for Mia and a fall family get together this month with my Hubs extended family. It was such a fun weekend surrounded with family and friends!

Mia and friends had a craft party, and enjoyed chic-fil-a and cake!

A little selfie after the party!HA. It’s so pretty outside right now, Fall is showing off:)

Family get together…

Matthew and his burnt bun…

s’mores time..

I hope you had a great and restful weekend friends! Take care:)

Hi Friends! July is over, going to the Zoo was one of our bucket list items this summer and we decided to visit this past weekend. The parking was terrible though, what do you expect it’s summer time and it was a nice sunny day. We got to see most of the animals, except from the Polar Bears that were hiding because it’s too hot for them. The zoo keeper said rainy days, or colder, or in the mornings are much better to visit if you want to see the bears. I enjoyed the aquarium and the animal show the most. So fun to watch animals do tricks and perform!

We got sushi for dinner (it was really good) and the kids had burgers!

It was a fun day with my little family. Thank God that we get to do this before the summer ends.

Take care friends! Stay cool:)

Hi Friends! A couple of days ago, we spent the day at our local lake! This is one of the reasons I love our location because we have easy access to a decent one. They also have a big playground with swings, and a zipline for the kids. We stopped at our local Safeway to get food from their deli to make it easier for me! HA! Lots of family and kids camp groups were swimming and kayaking this day. So it was fun for me to people watch while the kids build sand castles! It was one hot sunny day, so we had ice cream to compensate:)

Have a wonderful day! Take care and stay cool:)

Hi Friends! June was a little hectic here so I wasn’t able to spend time here. Summer is finally here, we are enjoying the weather (80’s) most of the time. We are doing things locally like visit our local beaches, parks, zoo. We had fun watching fireworks last night after we had our 4th of July dinner with family. I hope you had wonderful weekend friends!

Some pictures I took in the month of June:

Our strawberry plants did so well this year, we had a lot of sweet strawberries we enjoyed together with vanilla ice cream!

Grilling season time! I grilled fish and pork belly. We do this a lot growing up in the Phillipines.

Our farmers market officially opened! We got some flowers and fruits.

One of Mia’s friend will be spending her summer in China and before her family left, we invited them for an afternoon tea party!

Lots of park time!

We got to visit a “Rose Exhibit” in the mall, the pic is not giving the Roses justice! HA, so many kinds of roses out there!

Hubs planted this 3 years ago, and they’re doing well!I love the color:)

Visited the nursery couple of times.

Enjoying a summer afternoon.

Frozen yogurt treat!YUM!

Have a great weekend friends! We are going to the beach this afternoon to enjoy the warm day.

Take care and stay safe!