amori's birthday trip to the vancouver aquarium

on her real birthday, aldo and i took the day off to be with her - and treated her to a trip to the aquarium! at first we thought she'd be disinterested and bored in an hour or two but lo and behold, she loved the whole place and stayed alert and interested the whole afternoon!

we saw the beluga whales (which, to my surprise, are quite flabby - kind of like what your tummy looks like after giving birth LOL),





watched Spinnaker and Laverne jump really high into the air,



saw different jellyfish, anemone, fish, and a really big sea turtle!

on our way out we passed by the gift shop where amori picked out the newest member of our family, Shelley the sea turtle.





amori really is a little girl now - where did my floppy cooing baby go???

duck, duck, goose!

one day amori started saying "quack, quack, quack" when she saw the rubber ducky in the tub, and the stuffed ducky she had in her crib. which qualifies as the very first sound/name-connection she made. thus, the rubber ducky theme.

papa made her invitation



and thank you cards... he even included the lyrics to ernie's "rubber ducky" song hehehe.



i made the cake... well at least half of it. i got a sheet cake and placed the duck on it, frosted it to make it look like a duck, and squiggled the "happy 1st birthday amori". oh and put the candle on it too. LOL.



we spent a good 3 hours at Michael's putting together a perfect loot bucket - and happily found squeaky rubber duckies, ducky soaps, and a wooden basket to make up a bath bucket.

we had the party at amori's godparents' backyard. they had maya's wading pool set-up, and we brought the giant rubber ducky.





we had burgers hot off the grill, salad, pasta, booze, chips, and a bucket full of drinks. too bad we all forgot to take photos of the food, drinks, and decorations!

it sort of felt like our wedding - it was over before we knew it! after the cake was sliced and eaten, and 3 other kids had blown the candle - everyone started saying bye-bye.







and then there we were, all the important people in amori's happy and eventful life.





the wading pool, the sun, and the giant ducky were too much to resist for amori and maya so in they went.... which later on, became bath time! we dunked them into the pool - clothes, diapers, and all... and they had the best time ever.







to be honest, before the party i was feeling kind of low because amori wasn't having a grand 1st birthday celebration that's the norm in manila. i had no hundred-people-to-invite list, no caterer that needed to be hired, or a dozen tables of 10 to worry about.

in the end - celebrating with everyone that mattered, decorating and deciding on details, and painstakingly making my daughter's own birthday cake (never in a million years would i have thought i'd make half a cake!) - are apparently all it takes to celebrate a year of parenthood! thank God we didn't have an en grande party - imagine all the loot buckets i would have had to make! LOL.

complete party photos are here.

Rubber Ducky, Amori is ONE!

A year ago today, a little blessing came into our lives.

july 12, 2006

july 12, 2007

Happy 1st birthday AMORI!!!

Sunday's the big day... and rubber ducky, it is! =)

go fish

aldo got hooked on (no pun intended) fishing a few years back, and is still quite passionate about it til now. to date, he has 3 fishing lines, a float tube, a whole toolbox worth of lines, sinkers, and tools, and a rather professional-looking fishing gear bag that converts into a seat. last summer he only made it out to the lake once after amori was born, but this year he hopes to get out there more. we were at buntzen lake last week and there were quite a number fishing. since we had to stop for lunch at the lake while on yet-another bike ride, he quite enthusiastically and happily explained to me the basics of fishing once again - plus the importance of getting the right fishing tackle to attract the right kind of fish. it's quite interesting actually. maybe before the summer ends we'll go on a fishing trip so all these fishing lectures aldo loves giving me will be put into practice.

buntzen lake

it was canada's birthday last weekend. =)

so what better way to spend the extra days off than to go to Buntzen Lake for a bike ride. (what's more canadian than joining all the granola-crunching hikers and bikers in the mountain/lake reservoir ey?!)

uh-oh, bears and cougars???

it was a great trail - challenging is the best word for it. it went uphill and downhill, so off and on the bike i went. LOL. (if there were a quitters exit i would have taken it but heck, there was none.)



we made the mistake of going on one of the hiking trails. thirty minutes into it, we looked ahead and it seemed impossible to finish the whole thing with amori's chariot in tow so we just went back the same way we came.

amori was such a great sport thru the whole trail - she even fell asleep on the way back despite the heat and the fact that she was in the chariot for more than 2 hours!

downward dog - baby edition

amori's downward dog peekaboo.... bet you can't do that! LOL.