The Nutcracker at the Fox Theatre

Today we took Miss J and Mr. Z to the Fox Theater for the Atlanta Ballet's Nutcracker show...

Ah.. It was such a great experience for both of them and myself. It was the first time for me to visit the Fox theater. What an amazing theater!! I was so in awe for the beauty of the architecture and details of the building. I didn't know about the history of the Fox until to read it from their website. It makes the experience of the show even more magical. The history that has been preserved through time makes me feel like we have been transformed to the different time.

The show is no doubt fun and captivating. This will surely be one of our holiday activity from now on. Maybe next year I might invest in a better seat. :) I wasn't sure how they will do with such a long show.. So I purchased the cheapest seat. To my surprise, we were almost at the front row but to the left of the theater. I guess next year we can try to get a seat on the middle section of the theater.

Miss J and Mr. Z got to enjoy the musician during the intermission on the front row.

Photo Friday: English Tea on the high sea

Sometimes (or most of the time) the best experience we have had during our traveling is when we didn't plan for.. This is one of the case. During our cruise trip on Carnival, after we had checked the kids in for their kiddie program, we walked around and stumbled upon the English tea at the cigar room. Typically, we probably wouldn't pay attention or have enough interest to go check them out ourselves. But the setting and the little pieces of pastries were calling our name. We sat down and enjoyed our little quiet time san kids in the afternoon over the sea.. Ah.. That's what I call 'vacation'...

Check out other Photo Friday participants around the world at Delicious Baby.

It's CHRISTmas!!!

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate!

Last night we had a small Christmas eve dinner with friends. Nothing big just us and their family. It's my first Christmas eve dinner that I cooked and prepared everything myself. I'm pretty proud of myself. Bonus for a small gathering is everyone gets to eat at the dining room.. Ah.. What a treat!

Santa has arrived in Atlanta at 11pm. Look what he brought with him to the Q house!


I was so touched this morning as we woke up to Christmas day. Miss J and Mr. Z saw what Santa brought for them and the first thing Miss J said was.. 'We have to pray to God and thanks him for Jesus'. That's what Christmas is all about!!!!

Someone was asking for American Girls and guessed she has been good!


A bit OCD??? Mr. Z lined up his toy in a perfect line. That's just how he likes it.

Wordless Wednesday: Merry Christmas

Check out other WW participants at WW Hub or 5 Minutes for mom.

Fun day at I.N.K

After a whole day of doing nothing yesterday, I felt horribly guilty so I decided to take the kids out on the cold day. We headed North to I.N.K. - it's the kid's hand-on museum that kids get a chance to pretend to live like us adults. There are multiple rooms to recreate the real world ranging from grocery store, bank, doctor office, restaurant, salon and many more. It's not too far from our house and we have our reciprocal membership that we got from Chattanooga so we got in for free.

It is a small museum but is packed full of things for kids to do and run around. It was actually my first time but Miss J has been there a couple times with her school field trip and Mr. Z had been there once as well. So they actually showed me where things are.

Mr. Z didn't waste anytime and ran straight to the train section. If I didn't force him to come with us to other rooms or station, he would probably spend his whole afternoon there.

Then we backtracked to the mail room. We stopped to send mail to Santa. Hopefully it's not too late. :) After that, we headed to the back room that has the airplane. What a cool room!!! I love it as much as the kid. How often do I get to sit on the small plane like that..


Miss J couldn't get enough of the ATM machine. That's the girl after my own heart! She knows where the money is. :) They gave us the real ATM card that works with Suntrust machine. She got to enter the code, select language, select transaction type.. The only exception is it doesn't give out any money.

After a while, I just let them play on their own.. They didn't seem to want to leave so I had to round them up and promise a return trip with daddy. After all, we don't have to pay for the fee so we can go back as often as we would like. What a fun day we had!!

Holiday Parties

Ah.. Till the season.. This year it seems we have been busier than usual. Maybe because we stay in town instead of heading South to the land of Mickey and Minnie.

Last week we had Miss J's holiday party at school. It was nice to get to see other parents and see how she is in the class. Her teacher is amazing. We were on the mad dash to finish 3 crafting project and 1 snack. It was quite accomplishments for us to make 2 ornaments and one goodie bag home.

Then the next night we had Mr. Z's holiday party at his Pre-K school. His class performed 3 songs.. It was so adorable. They sang, danced and enjoyed the party. Mr. Z, however, didn't really like to sing in front of a large audiences. He did dance when they sang Rudolph though.. Here is my little Rudolph..


We also attended our first playdate with my local mom group. Typically, I had to work so I hardly join in the playdate. But I was able to clear my schedule to take them to Ginger Bread cookie decorating playdate. My friend is an amazing baker!! She can do the kind of cookies that you don't want to eat but just to look at. We had fun on our sugar binge and decorating.


Then last night, we planned to take them to see Magical Night of Light at Lake Lanier. However, the traffic was so bad we had to improvise. Instead, we headed to McD for a fun dinner out and went to see the light at John Creeks area (which is free). So we will probably try the Magical Night of Light later and plan our trip better to avoid the traffic.


Whew.. It has been a really busy week so I'm sure y'all can relate and forgive me for not updating my blog more often.

Photo Friday: Christmas in Disney World

Last year, we went to Disney World - Magic Kingdom on Christmas. It was a really great experience for all of us. We started the day bright and early and ended the night late into the next day.. Miss J and Mr. Z were a great troopers. They didn't complain and stayed all the way till we got on the boat ride back to the parking lot. The weather couldn't be more different than in Atlanta. We got to walk around in short and t-shirt.. You can even spot Miss J in her tank top. :)

The park was still busy. It was beautifully decorated as to be expected from Disney. We also got to enjoy some snow on the Main Street at night.. Ah.. White Christmas in Orlando.

We did bring a few presents for them to open on Christmas day. We had our family dinner from Publix but it was still as good as home made meal. Overall, it was a fun experience but I love to spend my Christmas at home. So I will save Disney trip on other occasion from now on.

Check out other Photo Friday participants around the world at Delicious Baby.

Wordless Wednesday: Just Follow Us

Check out other WW participants at WW Hub or 5 Minutes for mom.

A Day in The City

I would like to think that we are the 'City' people living in the suburb of Atlanta. But the reaction of my kids when we drove to midtown made me realized that we are far from city people.


Mr. Z: "Mommy, look at that tall building!!"

Miss J: "Daddy, look at that sign!!"

Mr. Z: "Mommy! Daddy! Look!!!"


This conversation went on and on almost as soon as we approached midtown. I guess we haven't been to downtown often enough.


This past weekend we had a little adventure to midtown. I wanted to get the Nutcracker tickets. I have learned from my friend and just noticed how expensive Ticket Master charged for the "Convenient Fee" I decided to make a day trip and went down to the Fox Theatre ourselves and buy our tickets in person.


We parked our car at IKEA and took a free shuttle bus to the Marta station. Then we got on the Marta to the North Avenue station. This was probably one of the highlighted for Mr. Z. We could have driven down there and park somewhere but then where is the fun. The Marta station isn't that far from the theatre just a short walk. It wouldn't be so bad. After we got our tickets, we headed back to IKEA and had lunch.


Typically, we don't have much luck in checking them in at IKEA playland. They have very limited space but that day we were lucky. So we were able to walk around with no kids and .. well, I don't know if it's good or bad because we were able to pick up a few stuffs for our house.


I have found one of my favorite thing this season - Non Breakable Christmas Ornaments!!! I love it. When you have kids, I think it's a must in every household. It looks just like glass ornaments but it doesn't break when they drop it on the floor.

Saturday Fun

Oh.. It has been a while since I have updated my blog. No excuse here. Just plain busy and laziness.

We had a great Thanksgiving with our friends from our small group bible study. They cooked up a great turkey every year. This year I was rather disappointed in the Black Friday deals. We didn't wake up in the early morning to get anything in particular. I found a couple deals that I was able to get after we slowly moved our behind out of the house..

This past weekend had been busy but it will get even busier next weekend.

We started off with Mr. Z's classmate's birthday party at the Stars & Strikes - our local bowling alley. It was fun to see Mr. Z attempting to throw the bowling ball. In the beginning, he got it stuck on the lane a couple times but after a while he was able to manage to get a couple strikes. Not bad for a 4 years old boy! I also had fun talking to other moms. We had a couple families who live in the same neighborhood. After we got talking we found out that our hubbies are more alike than we would like to admit.. One thing leads to another and now we are planning LoTR party! Gotta get on Google to do some research now. I have to prepare myself for the trivia game.

Sunday was our usual routine - church, lunch, bible study and dinner. We went to the mall at lunch today. It was busy.. So I guess we all try our best to help with our economy. We gave in and let them ride the carrousel. I love the carrousel at this mall. Since the upgrade at the foodcourt, it makes it even more family-friendly with several small tables for little kids.

So how was your weekend?

Photo Hunt: Reflection

Join in the Photo Hunt or check out other participants at tnchick.com

Wordless Wednesday: Family Vacation

Check out other WW participants at WW Hub or 5 Minutes for mom.

Photo Hunt: Ruined

The poor snow man after only a day in Atlanta last year snow surprise.

Join in the Photo Hunt or check out other participants at tnchick.com

Photo Friday: James Bond Island

On our trip back to Thailand several years ago.. way before we had Mr. Z, we went to Phuket and Phang-Nga for a short visit. It was before the tradegy of Tsunami hit Thailand. I haven't been back since but I have heard that everything is now back to normal. The trip was my first trip to visit Phuket myself.. I know.. Shame on me even though I lived in Thailand for over half my life but I have yet to fully experience what my birth country has to offer.

The trip started at Phuket resort and we hired a tour guide (since we also traveled with Mr. Rojo's parents) to take us to James Bond Island. It was named James Bond Island because one of the Bonds movie was shoot here.. I'm not the die-hard 007 fan so I couldn't really tell which one. I don't know if Miss J will remember any of the trip but it was one of the fun trip. We rode on the small engine boat. It was just a bit bigger than a canoe with seats for probably 10 people. We also made a quick stop at the Floating Fishing Village for lunch. I wish we could have stayed longer. I couldn't wait to bring Mr. Z back there one day.

Check out other Photo Friday participants around the world at Delicious Baby.

A Good Day in Destin

Our last day at Destin was a GOOD Day indeed. We woke up to a sunny day. The weather was still a bit cooler than we would love to. But no problem, we could just spend the morning heading down to Seaside and got some lunch before beach time. After breakfast, we got ready and headed out for an adventure. We headed East past Destin and took the scenic route.

It was such a nice and leisure drive along the Route 98. We truly felt like we had been transported to a different time. The little cottages along the beach with different beautiful cotton candy colors lined up along the way. The contrast of the bright blue sky and the green turcoise ocean was memorizing..

After a quick drive by in Seaside, we headed back to our condo in Fort Walton Beach. The kids couldn't wait to head down to the pool. The water was definitely coldddddd.. That didn't stop them from jumping in and out of the pool. We warmed ourselves up with frequent visits to the hot tub. Ah.. Warm and relaxing tub with no one else there. Then we rode on the tube along the lazy river a few times. Then we headed out to the beach for some sand and sea...

Miss J was busy building her masterpiece but ended up spending most of her time catching and riding wave in the ocean. It took a bit of encouragment and convincing to get her into the ocean but once she was in.. It took a lot more to get her out.

Mr. Z on the other hand didn't really want to go into the water at all. He spent most of the afternoon by the beach building his fort or castle or house.. hmm.. I couldn't tell. After seeing how much fun Miss J had in the water, he had a change of heart and joined us. I didn't know how long we were there but it was long enough that my kids started to turn prune.. So it was a queue for us to head back and had dinner. Ah.. A great day in paradise indeed!!!

Wordless Wednesday: The View

The oceanfront view from our balcony during our Destin trip.

Check out other WW participants at WW Hub or 5 Minutes for mom.

Rain Rain Go Away

During our trip to Destin, we got rained in for a couple days. What to do when you planned a beach vacation but no sun? Luckily, there are things to see around Destin that we could do.

When we arrived, we just took the opportunity to drive around (even in the rain). It was so easy to drive around Destin. You can't get lost.. There is pretty much one main highway that go through Destin from Fort Walton Beach. I was so impressed with the emptiness of the street. I have heard about the traffic during the high season so I'm glad we didn't have to go through that.

The next day was much better. When we woke up, there was no rain. So we didn't waste any second and headed down to the beach. Armed with beach toys, Miss J and Mr. Z started building their own masterpiece. The water was too cold to get in so we just enjoyed the quiet and relaxing time by the beach. I was surprised to see people on the beach. We thought we were the only family in the whole building. Seriously, there was only one car when we arrived on our parking level. Well, we didn't get to spend that much time there because after about an hour the cloud moved in and the shower started. Guess it was time to go sighseeing.

We got back to our room and headed out to check out Baytowne Wharf Village after lunch. It was stilll quite early so there weren't that many people there. I think it would be nice to go there at night. It was a nice outdoor shopping/entertainment plaza with several shops and restaurants. I love that they thought about family with small children because they have one of the super cool playground. It was really big playground with separate area for small kids. The ground are made of recycle tire so it was so crushy to walk on. We literally had to drag them out from the playground.

We also checked out the boardwalk that leads to the dock. It was off season so the boat ride wasn't in operation. It was a really long boardwalk though. It was especially long when it was windy and cold and we were extremely under-dress. I highly recommend doing this for kids who have high energy. :) Mr. Z did run all the way to the end. On the way back, I think he used up all his energy so Mr. Rojo had to come to the rescue. After the boardwalk, I couldn't help but stopped by a few shops. I hope that all these shops and restaurants will survive the economy downturn. The whole village is a really nice place to just walk around, let kids run wild in the playgroun, sit back and enjoy a great outdoor.

Next stop on our agenda that day was to get my Hard Rock Cafe pin. We stopped by Destin Commons which wasn't far from Baytowne Wharf Village. It was yet another outdoor shopping mall. But this one is much bigger than Baytowne Wharf Village. I think Baytowne is more for eat and drink. But Destin Commons is more for shop and shop. After I got my pin, we walked around and checked out a few stores. Then we got on a free tram ride around the property. It was a nice treat for Mr. Z. Then it was a quick break for me and Mr. Rojo. We let them play at the outdoor play area. It was a really cute play area with various sea creatures and a lighthouse.

Before we knew it was time to wrap up and headed back. We stopped by Publix for a quick grocery run and I made Taco for dinner. It was such a nice day even with a cloudy weather. And we didn't even hit all the must-do attractions like Tracks or the Okaloosa Island Pier.. I can say that Destin is one of my (our) favorite destination now.

Photo Hunt: Together

A family that drinks together, stays together? Ok.. Maybe a family that cruises together, stays together. :)

Join in the Photo Hunt or check out other participants at tnchick.com

Photo Friday: Little Bavarian in the South

Even though we are thousand miles away from the real German towns, we have a little piece of the Bavarian town nearby in Helen, GA. It is a little town hidden in the North Georgia Mountain with a unique character. But don't blink when you drive through it as you might miss this town. :)

We went there early this year for our anniversary turned to family weekend getaway. We rent a cabin not too far from town. The kids loved the cabin so much that they are still talking about going back there. There are so many things to do in or around Helen. I also don't want to set up high expectation here. I mean for people who live in Europe this is probably nothing like what they have there. But I think it's a great quick getaway for us to see something different. Plus the people there are so nice!

Check out other Photo Friday participants around the world at Delicious Baby.

Oh..The Food We Ate

On our trip to Destin, we had sampled a couple restaurants that are on the Must-Eat list. (Don't you love that list? Must-Eat..Who can resist a must-eat list.) With trying to do a budget travel that doesn't compromise the experience, I planned our trip down to the hours.. Yup.. I'm crazy that way. Asked Mr. Rojo. I had a spreadsheet on what we would do and eat each day. Well, I like to know the plan but we didn't necessarily stick to the plan. In order to save some doughs, we plan to eat out during lunch and cook our own dinner at the condo. I chose easy meal for dinner like Hamburger Helper, Taco Dinner Kit and Publix Chicken on my menu.

On the first day, we arrived later than we thought. So the lunch was McD along the way. Then dinner was Publix chicken. Nice and easy plus with a long drive from GA we didn't want to bother with cranky kids in the restaurant.

Our first stop on the list was McGuire Irish Pub. We went there right before lunch so we didn't have to wait at all. The first thing you will notice when you walk in is thousands of dollar bills on the ceiling, on the wall and everywhere else around the restaurant. It is a tradition started with friends of the owner gave him the dollar bill and signed his name. The owner then put it up on the wall. And one by one now they have almost half a million bills on their wall. Amazing!

The food was amazing! I had cornbeef and cabbage.. Oh. It was so yummy and huge. I didn't think I could finish it but I did! The cabbage had sweet taste the compliment with the cornbeef perfectly. Mr. Rojo got Fish and Chips.. By far I think it was the best Fish and Chips I have had. It was crispy enough but not too hard. The breading was perfectly... Yum-O... Also make sure you pay attention when you ready to freshen up and head to the bathroom. See the sign? Better read before heading to the Men room or you thought.

The next morning, we went a bit further toward Seaside and stopped by the famous Donut Hole. The food was great and the donuts was even better. After a big plate of brunch and a full dozen donuts, we were ready to roll and check out seaside.. Check back later for posts on what we did in Destin and beyond!

Wordless Wednesday: The Pumpkin Witch

My first pumpkin carving that's worth showing. Ok.. Not the real first pumpking carving but the first one that is really not a 3 triangle pumpkin face. I think I'm doing pretty alright. What do you think?

Check out other WW participants at WW Hub or 5 Minutes for mom.

Little piece of paradise in Destin

Ok.. Technically, we stayed at Fort Walton Beach which is about 10 minutes drive from Destin. Last week, we packed up the kids, the cooler, the car and armed with DVD movies and headed down to Destin, FL. This place has been on my to-do list for a really long time. I wanted it all.. I wanted to stay in a nice place with ocean-front view. I wanted to spend as less money as possible. I wanted to enjoy and relax by the pool... Could that be done? Well, we did it.

I started off by checking on TripAdvisor.com. This is a great site with a lot of local and real travelers input. I learned about a brand, spankling new condo that recently opened in April called 'Waterscape'. It has everything I am looking for.

An ocean-front property.. checked!

A to-die-for pools for the kids and kids-at-heart adults.. checked!

A great gym with great view for Mr. Rojo.. checked!

A room with kitchen and great decoration.. checked! (ok.. I'm shallow that way. I want to stay in a nice place)

A reasonable rate that we can afford.. checked!

I waited untill a couple weeks leading up to our planned vacation to book because I knew that we were going during the off season so there were plenty of rooms available. Sure enough, I was able to snag a 2br/2.5bt condo with the best view for the same price as 1br/1bt condo if I would have booked it 1 month ago. There were so many rooms available from various resources. I checked VRBO, Resort Quest and a few other rental companies.

I decided to go with Resort Quest because of their reputation and extras like free tickets to local attraction. The checking-in process couldn't be easier. We arrived about an hour earlier than check-in time and they let us check in right away. After we picked up the keys and card, we were ready to unload to our new home in the next few days.

The condo has 6 floors and we were on the 5th floor with a great ocean view. We were so close that we could hear the sound of the wave every night.. Ah.. Heaven! It was unfortunate that we got rained in 2 days during our stays. But we still managed to get around town and checked out other stuffs around Destin area. (that will be another post)

It was fortunate that we chose to go during an off-season in Destin. We practically owned the whole pool and the whole floor.. It felt like we were at our own beach house that was really really big! There were little traffic and no wait to eat at the restaurant. The beach was not crowd. We truly enjoyed having the piece of the paradise all to ourselves here.

So stay tune for more to come in detail at Destin..

Photo Hunt: Blue

Where else can you paint your house this blue except in Seaside - the picturesque seaside town near Destin.

This is my first time to participate in Photo Hunt. Leave a message to say 'hi'!

Join in the Photo Hunt or check out other participants at tnchick.com

Photo Friday: Ruinas De Sao Paulo

This photo could have been taken in anywhere in Europe. But the truth is this ruin is in Macau - The Asia Sin City. It's amazing how history has different trace of how small our world is. This is part of the old ruin of St. Paul church in Macau. We visited here during our trip to Hong Kong and Macau in 2007. It was one of the fun and crazy trip for us. With 6 children and probably 15 adults, I felt like we just flew by this amazing city.

Macau has a lot of Portugal influence as we can see it throughout the city. The food, the architechture, the culture.. A small city but very big personality. It's called 'Las Vegas of Asia' for a good reason. They have several big casinos throughout the city. One big difference I would say is the smoking. This is not by any mean a family-friendly city. The casinos are full of smokers. The restaurants mostly have no separate rooms for non-smoking. You pretty much have to walk pass the smoke-filled room to the corner of the restaurant.

However, the other aspect of the city is amazing. It's a great city to walk around and learn about Macau history. So I will think a family with older kids would really appreciate learning how East culture meet West culture and co-exist nicely.

Check out other Photo Friday participants around the world at Delicious Baby.