I'm Back

I hope that all of you are doing well and are enjoying the summer.  My family and I are having a blast.  I took a brief break from blogging because my family and I were on our annual vacation to Oahu for 10 beautiful days.  Even though we have only been back for 2 days we miss being there already. At the end of the next few posts or so I will giving you a glimpse of what we did while we were in Oahu.  A week ago today this evening I went out to dinner with my tea swap friends.  We usually go out for tea when we meet up, but this time we met up for dinner at a Chinese restaurant.

Look at all the delicious food that we ordered.

I was kidding around and asked that we order bitter melon.  We did order it.  I was surprised that all of them like bitter melon like I do.  All the food was super ono, but my favorite was the stuffed fried egg plant.  Each year when we meet we surprise each other with a handmade gifts.  I purchased a tea pot and with the help of my hubby made tea cup. 

I put two tea bags in the cup, tea cookies, and included a tea bag rest with their gift.

I put everything is a bag and attached a tag with a special message for each of them on the back.

Here is a close up picture of the tag.

This is from Brenda.  She made us each a cute pouch, a pin, and ordered a magnet for us with pictures from our tea gather last year.

This is from Dori. Inside the boxes are yummy goodies and the bag with the tea bags has a beautiful tea bag rest.

This is from Fran.  She gave each of China from her grandma, a beautiful succulent, and a handmade tea pot with mocha inside.

Last but not least this is from Melanie.  Look at all the cool stuff that she put in the box.

I love all the creative and thoughtful gifts from each of them.  I am grateful to each of them for taking time to meet up with me while I was visiting.  We keep in touch during the year, but it is always more fun to chat in person.  As promised here are a few pictures from our vacation.  This is our view from the balcony of our hotel.

We had the opportunity to visit the Iolani Palace.  The tour of the palace was amazing.

We also got to visit the Sentate building which was pretty cool.

The entry was in one of the episodes of Hawaii 5-0, one of my favorite TV shows.

One last picture for today is the onolicious breakfast that I ate twice from McDonalds- spam, eggs, sausage, and rice.  One of the times I had Kona coffee and guava pie too.  It would be nice to be in Oahu once again enjoying my HI style breakfast sitting on our balcony enjoying the beautiful view. 

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a wonderful weekend!

My Hubby's Birthday

My hubby celebrated his birthday this week.  My kids and I took him out to eat twice and each of us made a card for him.

As you can see both of my kids like to draw.  They take after my hubby. Last Sunday we took him out to a Hawaiian restaurant.

He ordered a combo plate which included stew, fried chicken, fried rice, and a mac salad.  I ordered oxtail soup.  My son ordered saimin and my son ordered fried noodles.  The best part was the dessert.  We had a piece of Haupia (coconut) Moha cake

and a piece of the Paradise cake.

Before we went home we purchased a few loaves of rainbow bread.  Here is a picture of it with and without the spread. 

Isn't it pretty?  (Sorry I took a bite of the bread before I took a picture of it.)  Unfortunately the bread tastes just like white bread.  We thought it would have tasted like the Paradise cake. This week on Thursday we took my hubby to a local burger place.  It serves gourmet burgers with a  variety of patties- turkey, beef, chicken, chorizo, lamb, salmon, and a few others.

We ordered the party box which included 16 burgers. Yes, you read it right 16 burgers.  :)  We ordered chicken, beef, salmon, turkey, and beef.  They are between the size of a mini burger and a happy meal burger.

We figured that by time each of us ordered two mini burgers, fries, and a drink the bill would have come pretty close to how much we paid for the party box.   Actually the party box is a little cheaper. Just a side note before I end.  I am going to take a brief break from blogging, but I will be back soon.  (Don't worry eveything is okay.) Stay tune for more fun posts soon.  Thanks for stopping by!  Have a good weekend!

Celebrate and Some Cuteness

Hope that everyone is having a wonderful summer so far. Today I will be sharing what I made and received for the May Secret Sister Swap.  Yes I am a little behind in posting about that swap.  The theme of the swap was "Celebrate."  This is the card that I received from Jenn.

Check out all the balloons that she took time to put on the card. For the swap I was asked to make a card for Jayne.  I made her a graduation card.

Before ending this post I wanted to share with you a few pictures of the latest collection of Disney products that my daughter and I collected.  I will have to say that this is the most pricey collection that we have since we bought a whole box of

Out of the box we were able to get two complete sets and one chaser.  We are super excited to have the collection and a chaser.

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great weekend!

Dinner with Rita and an Ice Cream Event

For those that live in SoCal I hope that you are staying cool.  It has sure been pretty hot lately.  I love the weather in the evening especially yesterday when there was a nice draft.  During the summer is when I often like to catch up with different friends.  This week I had dinner with my good friend Rita.  We celebrated my belated birthday and celebrated her birthday.  I made this card for her.

I had fun making a bow for it with my bow punch from SU.  This is how it looks before I put the bow on. 

Here is a picture of the two of us together enjoying our Mexican food.

Before I end I wanted to share with you some pictures of the Tokidoki event that my daughter and I have been going to for the past month at Kiddos Creamery.  The first week they had a goodie bag for the first 50 people. We lined up for 3 hours to receive it as well as two pins. Here is a picture of the line.  It even curved through the hallway and probably up the stairs.

For the following weeks after we got a pin for purchasing ice cream. Check out their cute cups,

counter,

and decorations.

Each week they had special flavors that coordinate with the character on the pin that they were giving out.  All the flavors were super yummy!

This week is the final week of the event.  My daughter and I are happy that we were able to collect all the pins. 

If you live in the Los Angeles area be sure to check out Kiddos Creamery for some yummy ice.  If you go this week there is a slim chance that they may still have this week's pin.  I heard though that they usually run out by the end of the day each Saturday.  Have  a great week! 

Father's Day

I hope that everyone had a memorable time celebrating Father's Day over the weekend honoring the different great male figures in your lives.  Father's Day always has a bit of sadness for my family and I because my hubby's dad and our grandfathers are no longer with us.  We thank the Lord for all the great memories of them and are grateful that one day we will see them again.  In honor of Father's Day I made these tuxs and wrote a message on the back for each of the gifts that we gave to different family members and friends.

I made the buttons using candy dots that I colored using a Sharpie.

Here is a picture of my sisters and I with my dad during our Father's Day dinner.

Here is one with my hubby and my BIL's with my dad.

This one is a picture of my dad and I on Father's Day at church. 

During the week my family and I went to visit my FIL's gravesite.  I purchased two balloons to represent my kids.  I added a ribbon on the one that is supposed to be my daughter.

Both of them made a card for him.

Thanks for stopping by!  Stay cool!

Thank You Gifts

Work is officially over for the year.  It has sure been a busy and stressful one.  I praise God for bring me through it in one piece and for some time off.  As "thank you" gifts for my co-workers I purchased ice cream erasers and put googly eyes on them, drew a mouth, and put a magnet on the back.

I put each of them in mini zip lock bag and put a label that I stamped ice creams on and wrote "Have a great summer!"

I gave a "tropical themed" gifts to the secretaries.

In some of the cups I put a "mound" candy bar that I wrote "Thanks a mound! on a label.

For my daughter's teacher I decorated a clip board as her "thank you" gift.

It was very relaxing and fun making the gifts.  Thanks for stopping by.  Have a wonderful week!

Some Fun Flowers and Yummy Donuts

It was sure a busy week.  I am very thankful that it's the weekend.  Today I will sharing with you two flowers that I made using bows from Stampin Up.  The first flower that I made is using the bow punch that I put on a tag for a friend's belated Mother's Day gift.

The second one was made using the bow die that I put on a "thank you" card for another friend.

It has sure been fun using the bow die and bow punch to make the flowers.  I can't wait to have time to make other flowers using the bows.  Before I end I wanted to share some donuts with you from California Adventure. My hubby and I shared the Spider Man one in honor of National Donut Day yesterday. It was one the best donut I have ever eaten.  It is a glaze donut with frosting and bits of peppermint.

The Hulk one sure look good but much too big to even share.

Have a great weekend!  Thanks for stopping by!