Busy day for me as this time, Chris and I hosted dinner for the family at our place.
I cooked Adobo, Ginisang Munggo and Grilled Dory Fish. My Tita Ma brought Morcon. For dessert, I prepared Fruit Salad.
We recently bought a Hulahoop so we asked Patrick to play it in front of us…he’s good :).
Another night of eating and hanging out. Chris and I are very happy to have our kapamilyas visit us. Thanks guys for coming!
It was a rainy Tuesday yesterday but that didn’t stop us from going out and enjoying the day.
Here are some snippets of the places we went to:
Early morning mass at Mary Mackillop Chapel in North Sydney.
I love their altar. I’m so fond of seeing an “alive” Jesus in a church’s altar (such as Christ the King in Pasig). That’s also one of the reasons why the Husband and I got married in National Shrine of the Sacred Heart in San Antonio Village Makati—I really wanted to get married in a church where the Jesus in the altar is “alive” and not a cruxified one.
Since Mary Mackillop was near my cuzin Ayie’s workplace, she invited us to meet her and she treated us breakfast (thanks Ayie!) at Tropicana Cafe.
From there, we went to Circular Quay to take the ferry going to Manly Beach. Such bad weather yesterday but we still enjoyed taking photos and going in and out of the shops.
And we also enjoyed our lunch–steak!!!
Our last stop was at Westfield Parramatta for some shopping.
It was also yesterday that the Bakasyonistas got to ride the train and ferry. It’s nothing new with my mom and my Tita Cyn, but it was my Dad’s first time and I think he enjoyed it.
Yesterday was a big day for our family as we celebrated the 80th birthday of my Grandmother, simply called Mama by all.
We were so glad we were blessed with a beautiful weather. We transformed our Tita Bess’ garden into a party venue. The table-and-chair ensemble was completed with beautiful flower centerpieces by our Tita Edith.
Inside the house, there were splashes of pink everywhere—yes, like a debut! hehe. It was beautiful.
Guests arrived at around 5pm, and so the eating started. Our buffet consisted of the following: Pork Asado, Giant Prawns, Grilled Salmon, Pork Binagoongan, Beef Calderata Pork BBQ, Palabok, Empanadas, Fried Rice, Stir-Fried Vegetables and Green Salad.
For dessert, we had Fruit Platter, Cassava Cake and Mama’s Birthday Cake.
We had the singing of “Happy Birthday” and blowing of the cake in time for dessert.
After that, we invited all the guests to come in and watch an Audio-Visual Presentation we prepared for Mama. It was a collection of her photos journaling her journey as a woman. After the presentation was over, we showed a video of Michelle, one of my cuzins in America greeting Mama on her special day.
Mama loved it…and the family and guests loved it.
At the end of the visual-presentation, we had a very special message to Mama.
There really is just one Mama in our life. She is the force that inspires and moves us. She is the reason why we are all here, alive and enjoying life. We love her and we will always be grateful for her presence in our lives.
The guests were given a simple token of appreciation before they left the party.
Some family photos:
Zurbano Clan
The Cuzins Crew (missing Dominic, Michelle and Dianne)
Mama with her daughters: Tessie, Marlene, Cynthia and Bess
Mama with her grandchildren Dennis, Ivy, Clare, Ayie, Rachel, Lawrence and Patrick and grandchildren-in-law Chris and Terese
Mama with her sons-in-law Lito, Raul and Andy.
Thank yous:
This celebration was a team effort of everyone who gave a hand in making the party a success.
Tita Bess and family for hosting the event, making their home the venue for the party.
Tita Edith and family for venue styling.
Tita Tess (my mom) and family for the sponsoring the balloons and souvenirs.
Tita Cyn and Tita Ma and their respective families for the party preps.
The food was abundant and it wouldn’t have been if not for everyone pitching in to cook: Grilled Salmon and Pork by Tita Bess, Asado by Tita Ma, Kalderata by Tita Cyn, Binagoongan by me, Palabok by Tita Edith M, Stir-fried veggies by Tita Edith B, Empanadas from the Marcelinos.
For the creative stuff, thanks to Chris for being responsible for the banners and “thank you” tags for the souvenirs, and for coming up with a beautiful AVP. Thank you too for covering the event that resulted to wonderful photographs.
To all our friends who came, thank you very very much. You made our preps for the party worth it by joining us in celebrating Mama’s special day.
Wanting to take a break from cooking breakfast and spending some quiet time alone with the Husband, I surprised him with a “Good morning Baby, breakfast time at McDo!!!” this morning.
I ordered the usual: 2 Sausage McMuffin Meal and an order of Hotcakes. When I got our orders, I immediately noticed the new packaging of Hotcakes–they’re now using paper, as in cardboard.
I don’t know when McDonald’s started using cardboard for their Hotcakes packaging (we seldom eat McDonald’s nowadays even if we just live across the street from it) but I’m glad to see that they finally made the change.
And for the first time, I ordered coffee from McDonald’s and I’m surprised that I like it. I like the taste of their coffee so much I didn’t finish drinking it inside the resto but instead brought it with me to the shops while I do grocery. Take note that it’s a Latte too–I’m never fond of Lattes. I wouldn’t mind buying their coffee from now on.
Last night being a Friday, we had Seafood Night at the Balilo’s place.
We had Fish and Calamari Rings…
Prawns…
and lots and lots of Chips.
