Aloha Friday

It's Friday and I want to take it easy in blogging. Plus it's Good Friday so today my question will be something about Easter.

What's your family tradition for Easter?

For us, we haven't established any tradition that we do it years after years yet. But one thing for sure, we attend church for Easter service and probably do Easter Eggs hunt with the kids. Last year we did it with a few friends but this year might be just our family. Then we will probably have a family lunch and dinner and take time to reflect this day.

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Say Hi to Java

It's Spring and I love it. It's time to go out and enjoy what North Georgia mountains have to offer. But not only that, we are welcoming our newest family member to our home last night. Java is a Jack Russel Terrier Mix that looks more like a mini-Lab than Terrier. He is such a good boy. We picked him up from the shelter yesterday in Canton. He is 9 weeks old so he is just a baby.

He fell asleep on the way home but soon woke up to a quick stop at PetsMart. We picked up a crate, toys and food for him. Then we headed home. He went to sleep almost as soon as we settled down. No waking up in the middle of the night. Mr. Rojo woke up early to take him out and walk him.

The kids love him already. But we have to watch out for Mr. Z. He might not know how to handle such a puppy yet. :)

Thomas Train Birthday Party!

This weekend we had Mr. Z's 4th Birthday party. Of course, it has to be Thomas The Tank Engine Birthday party. It was an eventful day because if you have heard we had severe storm (Tornado watch) in our area. So right before the party, there were rain, hails and strong wind. We did actually had to run down to the basement for a few minutes. A good Tornado drill for our family. But eventually, the storm passed and the sky was as clear as a Spring day.

The planning for his birthday was easy.

Location

At our home. I planned for about 10-15 kids so I know that we can handle it in our house. Plus it's free of charge.

Invitation

I have used eVite for Miss J on her birthday and I think that will be my invitation from now on. It's cheap (free) and it saves the environment and it's easy to use. What not to love about that.

Food

Pizza, fruit salad, chex mix, choc covered pretzel and juice.

Cake

Can't have a Thomas birthday without Thomas cake. I resourced to my old friend, Publix. But I feel so bad for all the parents since this cake is a real buster. It can get to their face and the color will stay for a bit. Nothing a good wash with soap can't clean. I have to put a note that Mr. Rojo reminds me that I swear that I won't order this cake last year. Oh! well, I have such a short memory. So now I will put it in writing that next year I will order different cake. It just looks so adorable! But the cake is way too big..

Activities

I'm not into planning games for them. I just laid out several train tracks. The kids were too busy to do anything else. We had wooden track, lego track, battery operated track and also remote control train. Plenty of trains for everyone.

I also laid out the train shape wood that kids can color and put the stick-on magnet to bring home as a magnet for their fridge.

After the cake we also had Thomas Pinata. It was a big hit for everyone. Eventhough, the strings didn't work quite well. We just poke it out for the candies. Again, sorry parents for too much sugar! :)

Party Favors

I bought blue paper bag from Michael's and filled it with whistle that I put Thomas sticker on, Thomas pencil that we got from Thailand, paddle ball with train picture, a few candies in train wrapper. Then they will get to add candies from pinata and also their train magnet.

It was fun planning this party and I think we had fun eventhough it was stressful at time with the severe weather news on the background. :)

I am not sure how many more Thomas The Tank Engine birthday we will have. Guess it might be for a while...

Five Finds for Friday - Cruising

TGIF.. everyone!

This Friday I can't help but talk about planning for a cruise. As I recently just got an email reminder from my cruise agency company for the rest of the balance on my cruise. During the process of planning this cruise, I have found several sites that are very helpful during my process. Here are my Five Find for Friday this week.

1) Cruise Critic - An amazing website and active message boards with load of information. Here from this website that I learn that people do cruise religiously! The information section is well organized. Best of all, the message board is full of active cruisers who are willing to share their wealth of information and answer any questions.

2) Cruise Compete - This site is like a Lending Tree of cruise booking. You submit your itenerary and they will send to cruise agencies who will respond with their quote. Even if you don't feel like spend a large sum of your money to someone you have never met, this is still a good site to get your baseline and shop around with travel agent company.

3) Cruise Mates - Another online cruise information and community. You can never have too much information when it comes to plan your vacation.

4) Fodors - The destination guide website that provides information not only for land travel but cruise travel as well. It's good to find out what other activities you can do at the port of call. If you are more adventurous you might even find it more interesting than follow typical port excursions.

5) Expedia - I didn't use expedia at this trip because I have no need to find airline flight or hotel. But if you are the DIY type and plan to book your flight and hotel seperately then this is a site worth looking. But keep in mind that most travel agency will handle all your travel arrangement together which might be better choice and less headache.

Well, hope this will be helpful on your next cruise planning. Enjoy cruising!

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Aloha Friday

Finally, it's another Friday that I'm looking forward too. It will be busy day and busy weekend for us but we will live. :) Here is my question for this week.

How much time do you spend in reading blog per day? (be honest here now.. :) )

For me, I think Mr. Rojo will say too much time to count. I will say about 5-6 hours a day. It's addictive..

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Can I ride?

Today I stumble upon a great blog on Intelligent Travel about the great suitcase just for kid. Trunki - Part suitcase, part toy.. what not to love. Basically, it's a suitcase that your kid can ride on it instead of just pull it. It's the mix of ride-on toy and suitcase. I have to put this on my must-buy list for our cruise. Seeing that there will be a long line to get on a cruise, this will help entertain them for a while. Plus, we have bi-annual trip to Thailand so it will be a big help at the airport.

There are 2 colors for the original Trunki which created by British designer. And they even have a name for each color. How cute!! When I checked on the UK site, there are more designs but I guess for the US customer we will have to wait. Or you can order online and pay for the shipping for the second generation of this design.

So I checked out on Amazon and found the price here:
=> Trunki - Trixie Pink $39.84 for Pink color
=> Trunki - Terrance Blue $34 for Blue color

Well, there will be a test run soon. So more report to follow..