The Adventures of a Calamari Queen

Hi Friends! This weekend we had fun celebrating Matthew’s birthday. We had a simple family dinner with my In laws. We surprised the kids at Playtorium (indoor playground) and lunch at Red Robbin last Saturday. It was a fun filled day event of playtime, shopping for gifts, and dinosaur ballon!

Friday night, we stopped by at Costco to get his birthday cake (we ordered some dinosaur cake toppers at amazon!He was amazed by it!HA). It was a simple and special celebration of our little miracle! Thank You God for blessing us with Matthew.

Birthday boy having a meltdown at Costco parking because he saw some of the halloween costumes and we will not get him any of them.

Stopping at Chic fil a for dinner!

It’s been years since we had Red Robbin. We had one in our area before but Costco bought the area so lots of shops closed and moved to the neighboring cities.

Dinner with the family. We had Prime rib roast, crab cakes, roast veggies! I wasn’t able to use my “pretty” plates and transfer the veggies to a nicer container!HA..Ooopppsss…

Enjoying some of his gifts this morning!

Have a great Monday night friends! Take care and stay safe.

Hi Friends! We were suppose to have a “movie at the park” in our neighborhood but it rained the whole day so they had to postpone it! Oh well! It was a productive day with homeschooling and house chores today so this weekend should be a little more relaxed. Friday nights we normally do take out and have a family movie time (the kids picked Rio tonight). They’re always looking forward to some popcorn and treats!

Feels like a Fall day! Hubs started using the fireplace this week.

Sushi for us and Ramen for the kids tonight.

Movie treats!

Earlier this week, we did enjoy a nice sunny day at Bellevue Park. This is always such a busy park and parking is limited! We are glad we got to visit this time. We had burgers at Shake Shack after!

YUM!

Eating out now days can be so pricey! We decided to share a milk shake and plenty of water!HA

Every time my sisters visit Washington state we always go to this coffee shop! We don’t have this in our neighborhood so I got to try their caramel macchiato (thanks Hubs) for the first time, and I did like it! This was located inside the mall (after our shake shack dinner).

We had my In laws over last Sunday and we had pizza and wings!

Yesterday Hubs boss’s boss offered us Door dash, we picked our Local Ram restaurant to get dinner. It was such a nice gesture, and I appreciated it because I didn’t have to cook diner:)

They wanted to be “twins” today!HA

I finished this Chinese drama (it’s on Viki ), my Chinese friend recommended this actor and thinks I will like him!HA, She is so right:) I did enjoy this show “The Oath of Love”. Xiao Zhan is now my favorite Chinese actor!HA

Anyways, I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! Stay safe and take care:)

Hello Friends! Summer is almost over (I can see some of our community trees are changing/falling leaves already). We had a great summer, we visited Hawaii last month and it was a blast! We always have a great time with family there. We enjoyed a lot of poke, shave iced, and malasadas!HA. Our favorite part of course are the white, powdery sand beaches of HI. We just don’t have that here in PNW, so it’s one thing I’m looking forward to enjoy when in HI.

Lots of grilled meats from a Korean restaurant that we visited!

Kids loved swimming at Sheraton pool!

Poke and tuna belly from Fresh Catch!

Shrimp scampi from Giovannis!

Family Tradition is visiting Roys at least once when we go visit HI!

Sheraton Waikiki Pool

We ate a lot of Loco Moco on this trip!HA. Loco Moco from Liliha Bakery Cafe:)

I watched the show Love after Divorce in Netflix, so I was excited to see Ricky (one of the cast members) having coffee in Kona cafe!HA

Walking around Waikiki one morning!

The rest of August will be spent at home and getting ready for the school year/homeschooling! I’m looking forward to Fall and getting our lives a little more “cozy” HA!

Take Care friends!

Hello friends! How was your June?! I’ve been missing in action here because June was physically and mentally exhausting to me. We’ve had doctors, dental, dermatologist appointments for both Hubs and I, plus Hubs had to go to Texas for work and I had to play single mom with the kids:) Thankful to my In laws because they did help me when Hubs was away.

We had a great Father’s Day celebration at home. Hubs gifted my DIL A5 Hokkaido Wagyu ribeye steak from Japan. It was expensive but Hubs wanted to treat DIL and Fathers day happens once a year! We enjoyed it but majority of the family preferred the normal ribeye steaks!

Hubs convinced me to travel one hour to try the “best fish sauce chicken wings” in our state!HA! Tiktok influencer made us do it. It was great so we are happy it was worth the two hour trip. Spontaneous road trip for some chicken wings is fun:)

My In laws offered to be with the kids a couple of times so we got to have some lunch dates and we got to try restaurants that we’ve always wanted to visit.

We’ve been to the beach a couple of times and the kids had fun playing in the sand! We are 20 minutes away from a state park/beach so we try to go when the weather is nice.

Visited the farmers market two weekends in a row! I love the farmers market but goodness it’s so pricey. A popsicle is like $6 (of course the kids want it every time), a small pastry is $8! Oh boy!

Mia is really into legos, I got her this roller skate this week!

Mia was craving ramen despite the summer weather!HA ..

Play dough morning!

Hubs planted these flowers last year (clearance from Home depot) and they are finally blooming!SO pretty

Another beach day!

That’s mostly our June friends! We plan to go to the beach this July and just enjoy the weather outside.

Have a great rest of your night friends. Happy 4th of July tomorrow!

Take Care and Stay Safe:)

Hi Friends! Last month we went to New York city to visit my sister and see the city again after our last visit 5 years ago! New York will always have a special place for us because this is where Hubs and I got married 16 years ago. We didn’t have a lot of things planned for this trip except for visiting the American Girl doll store for Mia. She was so excited to be there, we bought her two dolls with us so we could have their hair “fixed” because their hair was a disaster. Thanks to my sister who spoiled Mia so she could have her dolls experience the “Salon” treatment at the store!HA

We did enjoy the usual spots like Central Park, Bryant Park, Rockefeller Center, etc!

In our last full day, we went back to the American Girl store to have lunch at their cafe! It was closed already when we finished with the salon experience. Mia really wanted to try dining in their cafe, the food was OK! Nothing special, Mia had fun dining with the dolls though:)

Going back home to Seattle, our Delta crew invited the kids to visit the cockpit and Mia was so amazed! That was a special experience for the kids!

Till Next time NYC!

Hi Friends! Happy Mother’s day to all the Mothers, especially to my Mama back home in the Philippines! I hope that you are celebrated today and always! We had a simple dinner at home with my family (together with my In laws today. It was nice just to hangout and enjoy good food. We had steaks and seafoods like lobster, crab cakes, and shrimp potstickers. My DIL baked a chocolate cake because we are also celebrating a late birthday for him and my Mom In law!

We attended Church this morning, and had take out for lunch. Restaurants around the area were really busy, but we had to stop at our local Korean market because Hubs was craving green onion kimchi.HA. We had take out like Poke , siomai, japchae for lunch!

A little family/Mothers day selfie!

Mothers day lunch!

Kids making cards for Nana and Papa!

We had Burrata and prosciutto for appetizers, we also had Japaleno stuffed crabmeat! This is our usual order whenever we go to our favorite Italian restaurant.

The biggest lobster I’ve ever prepared! HA

Love steaks! So juicy and tender, melts in your mouth!

Thanks to my Family for all the goodies! I told Hubs I want consumable treats over things. I appreciate your generosity and thoughtfulness. Thank you God for the gift of motherhood:)

Have a wonderful Sunday evening friends! Take Care and Stay Safe:)

Hi Friends! I hope your week is going great:) I’m in my “Simplifying my life Era” HA!, I’ve been decluttering and on a low spend journey (just me not my family) for almost 3 years now and I think there’s improvements (my closet is not overwhelming me anymore!) The kids toys and clothes are somewhat manageable now but there are still areas of my family life that I want to simplify, like our meals at home. I want to prepare simple meals (but healthyISH!). I don’t expect us to go unprocessed and organic, home cook 100% here! That’s not what I see happening. Let’s be real!

I like shopping at Trader Joes. I think they are affordable and have lots of fun treats. The problem is I get carried away and end up buying junky food that my family eats! I plan to share my groceries shopping/meal plans here to help me be intentional with what I get/prepare. I hope you get to join me!

Simple Meals that I’ve prepared so far for the family:

Shrimp Tacos

Eggplant Salad

Oven Baked Chicken Teriyaki

Baked French Toast/ Bacon/Pickle cucumber! I had pork belly and rice!

Fried Fish!

Steak and Black bean noodle

My Trader Joes Haul! Mix of produce and processed treats..I also got pretty flowers ($4),not bad Trader Joes!

Our breakfasts are usually toast/pancakes/eggs/cereals.

Lunches are usually sandwiches/cheese/crackers/snack type food/leftovers

Here’s to simplifying family meals friends! Have a great Evening and Stay Safe:) Take Care!

Hi Friends, this weekend we visited Great Wolf Lodge here in our state. It was part of the kids Christmas gifts. We got a decent price so we decided to take it, especially since Mia has been asking when are we visiting the water park again! So we surprised the kids and they were really excited! We’ve been here before so we kinda knew what to expect, etc. We didn’t like the restaurant food before so for dinner we tried a restaurant near the resort (Burger Claim, food was great!).

Mia enjoyed the big rides so much and Matthew wanted to try it but due to the height limit, we will have to wait until he is taller!HA! We visited the arcade and get to check out some of their games.

We stopped by Dutch Bros before we headed home!We really like their coffees and the super friendly baristas but this time, they messed up Hubs drink! Oh well! We still love Dutch Bros though!

Jollibee (a Filipino fastfood) had a 2nd location 45 minutes from Great Wolf Lodge, so we stopped by for a late lunch! My kids love their spaghetti and chicken joy! The Hubs does not like Jollibee at all! He ordered another dish at the nearby Hawaiian restaurant. HA

Have a great night friends! STay safe and Take Care:)

Hi Friends! Earlier this month, we celebrated our 16th wedding Anniversary! Hubs and I got married in New York, one spring Saturday afternoon! We thank God for all the blessings and guidance in our relationship! We went out for dinner to celebrate at Prime Steakhouse in Redmond while my In laws watched the kids:) Dinner was great! We indulged a little and got steaks/lobster/Foie gras/steak tartare!

We didn’t give any gifts to each other, as we have travel plans in the coming months!HA.

Have a wonderful rest of your evening friends! Take Care and Stay Safe!

Hi Friends! I’ve been off here for a while. The kids had spring break and Hubs was out of town last week (he’s back now). We’ve been sick (.cough/colds/runny noses) and just starting to feeling normal now. During the break, we went to Seattle and visited the Pacific Science Center! Kids had great time, our favorite was the laser show and the dinosaur exhibit:) We really want to take the kids to places like this for experiences. They love to explore and discover things, Washington state has a lot of places like museums, science centers, and exhibits I’ve noticed.

Lots of park time, play dough, games and we even watched the Kung Fu Panda 4 movie! We don’t go to the movies often because it’s really expensive now (smallest popcorn is $9) and kids/matinee is like $8-9! HA. I wanted to surprise the kids while Daddy was away. It was worth it:)

I hope you are having a great week friends! Take Care and stay safe!