Mother's Day

Spending the day with my family on this special day, is the greatest gift of all. 

Taking care of our elderly loved ones

There will will come a point in our lives for us to decide how do we give back to our parents as they get older , weaker and frail that they can  not make any decisions for themselves or are too high strung to realize that they need our help.

Being exposed to the geriatric population for twenty years and counting as a profession has made it easier for me to accept and learn the difficulties that lie ahead for our parents " Golden Years". 

Determining the time we need and the financial aspect of giving back to our parents plays a big role.

How much time can you spare on top of what your daily routine has been juggling around with a family of five? That alone just goes to say we really have to practice efficient time management.

How well do your parents understand their medical condition? Do they feel that they can still do the things they used to do? At what point do we , as their children, intervene and be the medical proxy.

1. When to help out? When we start noticing signs of weakness, losing balance, sudden onset of  confusion, forgetfulness, difficulty walking, doing household chores.

2. It maybe time to get a general work up from the primary care physician and request for lab works, to see if the signs you are noticing could be a prelude to a undermining disease or infection. ( often times, urinary tract infection could be a reason why they have the signs listed above)

3. If they are capable enough of writing up a living will and advance directives, you will be empowering your parents or significant other in making that decision for themselves and it will be less of a headache on your end to decide on what needs to be done when the time comes that they can not make their own decisions. ( eg,. Do they want external life support?, feeding tube, artificial means of breathing?, intubation? ) Even as an adult, it is advisable as long as you are knowledgeable enough, to write up your own living will and advance directives. 

Spiderman birthday party

Moving forward to 2015

Letting go is the hardest endeavor a person has to do. But if you think about it, sometimes, we do have some baggage, that will forever be a part of you no matter what. It's up to us to decide if we want to set things straight and let go of the past and move forward to the future and build your own memories. It's easy to write about it, but doing the actual letting go won't be. 

Where do we start? Or should I say how? Pschying yourself up that everything has it's reason, is a good way to start. We all won't be here, if the past never happened. We would never know if things happened differently, it will turn out the same way. We won't be the better person that we are now if things didn't happen the way it should be. People get hurt, no matter what the case may be. No one can escape the fact that we all have feelings. The pain should always be a learning experience. 

No instructions, just instinct

Having a family doesn't come with instructions. It's all up to us to decipher and make our own little conclusions as to how it's supposed to be. One has to stay calm, and the other can panic all they want in any situation. A 103 fever for my 17 month old gave us the scare. My husband kept saying he was so nervous about how hot our son is. I, on the other hand, have been panicking inside, but I had to stay calm and stay positive about the situation. It is hard, but, if both of us were getting anxious,my son would end up in the emergency room and get poked with unnecessary intravenous that will forever traumatize us, as a family. 

Road Trip from New Jersey to I-95 South

Our family of 5 including our 9 month old baby boy, went on a road trip for spring break 2014 to  Outerbanks, N.C., Orlando and to Savannah. It was pretty much a 2 month preparation.
Here are some money saving tips, so your family vacation won't empty out your wallet :)

Booking the hotels through expedia.com a month and a half prior to date will save you a couple of hundreds. I recommend a hotel that has a breakfast buffet, (embassysuites.com) so you can have brunch at the same time and you will have more time to roam around.
Booked a mini van through budget.com You will save more if you choose " local rates". I needed a minivan, cause our 7 seater SUV, will be to cramped up from all of our stuff. With the mini van, I had enough leg space, while taking care of our baby  in the back seat !
Bought the theme park tickets through disney.com and universal.com on the week before  the travel, so we can skip the long lines at the parks and the credit card bill will reflect for the following month :)
Bring packs of bottled water, juice and soda.. and snacks. You are allowed to bring it inside the theme parks anyways... And you won't have to spend $8 for soda !
Ponchos !! you can definitely get it from local dollar stores instead of paying $7 for one. It will definitely be of great use.. Which we actually did use for 2 days, due to scattered showers in Orlando.
Stop by the Visitor Centers for all your destinations, you can easily get some coupons for Trolley tours which we used Oglethorpetrolleytours.com in Savannah, GA. Wrights Brothers museum discounts in Outerbanks, and Gatorland discounts.

For the kids entertainment.. And the parents sanity .. Here's a list of things I found helpful for our travel.

1. portable DVD player for the backseat.. And don't forget to rent a couple DVD's from redbox which is available all over. It was really convenient to find several gas stations along the way.
2. Tablets, iPods , diary of a wimpy kid book series.
3. During the trip, we asked our 10 & 9 y/o boys to have electronic free time and played a game of searching for license plates we rarely see in the east coast.
4. Frisbee for the beach
5. Flashlights/ wands for the theme parks and was used for ghost crab hunting at night on the beach of Outerbanks.

Overall, our trip was not stressful as I thought it would possibly be, with all preparations ahead of time you will enjoy your trip one day at a time!

First Birthday Party Ideas

The baby of our family will be turning 1 in 4 months.. I am already getting a head start in planning his first birthday celebration. I know he wont remember a single bit of this significant milestone, but I still want it to be as memorable as it could possibly be.

I have been showing some ideas to my husband, who thinks its pretty cool, were planning it early. He even pitched in the idea of a carnival themed party, so we can have cotton candy to snack on.

one thing for sure, its going to be outdoors cause its in July. A backyard party is great! - no struggle to disinfect and clean up the house. 

Jacob's Minecraft party

My boys have been so obssessed with the Minecraft game for a while now.. Jacob requested to have a Minecraft themed party to celebrate his 9th birthday... 

"Ghast Piñata"

18" x 18" box

white tissue paper

glue

filled with chocolates, toys, rubberband looms, candies, and paper fillers.

"enderman head"

18x18 box

black & purple construction paper

glue

"Creeper Balloons"

green balloons

sharpie

"Minecraft Cupcakes"

Go to printable minecraft cupcake toppers.

popsicle sticks

glue

Creeper Pail - for the utensils

Creeper Goody bags

Creeper water bottle- printable minecraft water bottle labels.

little bundle of joy

Have been in hiatus for awhile., was busy with the addition of our 3rd child. For every life changing experience, we learn to adapt in every possible way .. And hoping on the side to get back to the usual routine. Having a baby after almost 8 years, sets you back a little, but makes you an expert! La lot of worries during the conception, due to high risk issues, but less worries when the baby arrives. Less worries about the babies cries, reflexes and developmental milestones.

It's a lot of fun and stress at the same time,  but it's all worth it, in my opinion. Having a family...and 3 boys, gives me a reason to live :)

Princess Jasmine Birthday Cake

Princess Jasmine as requested by the birthday girl, Sahana, who turned 3. There were only limited choices for Princess Jasmine., this is the best one i got.

Jason's Star Wars cake

thanks to the williams sonoma star wars cookie cutter., i was able to use it to cut it out using marshmallow fondant. I was planning to use sugar sheets for the black color., however, its tough to cut the small pieces., i used the black fondant instead.

Thanksgiving Dessert

Once in a while., we break away from the norms of thanksgiving dessert... my family had the pleasure of enjoying Brooklyn's finest cheesecake from Junior's and a flavorful array of french macaroons from Ladureè in NYC.. no plane tickets needed to get the authentic french specialty :)

Jodi's Birthday Cake

Inspired by her favorite character.., had to watch a couple of the shows to come up with this idea. It was a lot of fun to create this birthday cake.

Mango Cake

This surprise birthday cake was courtesy of my co-workers who got it from Red Ribbon bake shop in Jersey City. Its flavored perfectly right., the mango filling and icing is not that sweet. Pair it with some earl grey tea- and it is heaven !

birthday cake :)

bite size ! just perfect :)

Halloween Treat !

Was going over some photos and i saw this one worth sharing. It was served as a snack on a birthday party for my sons' classmate. Gave kudos to the host for coming up with such a cool treat ! It can be a finger food or a cupcake topper.

Supplies needed :
toothpicks
white chocolate covered mini pretzels
eyes ( either edible or not- just make sure you take note of it upon serving)
mini marshmallows


1. layer it up- moisten marshmallows to attach the eyes on the pretzels.

2. secure the pretzels ( at least 3) with marshmallows on top and bottom.. to keep them from falling off.

3. then- serve!

enjoy !

Birthday Month

Ever wonder how ironic life is.. ? i love to make cakes and cupcakes for my family, friends, and my event planners- but, i cant seem to get an idea of what will i make for myself on my special day. I only have a day left .. and i still dont have the slightest idea on what to create.. push come to shove, i will probably get a cake from Carlos Bakery or Magnolia's in the city.. So many choices.. i actually received a request for some cupcakes for this saturday, but,, i politely had to say no., just because I wanted to give myself a break from baking on my birthday :) Well i guess, that answers my question. Ugh! Funny to think that i had to pour my typing skills first before figuring out why i havent come up with a cake idea for me....

Fall Cupcake Wars

We had a fundraising at work today. I made the mummy cupcake, orange creature with the note that " eyes not edible " and a fall theme cupcake topper. The sale was a success :)

Linda's Chocolate Cake Recipe

2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cup All purpose flour
1 3/4 tsp baking powder
1 3/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup Dutch process cocoa
2 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

mix dry ingredients then add in wet ingredients. bake at 350• for 23 mins, makes 24 cupcakes.
place in ref overnight covered with plastic wrap then decorate with vanilla buttercream frosting :)
Im thanking my bff Michelle's mom, Tita Linda, for sharing the best chocolate cake recipe :)

mummy cupcakes

a chocolate cupcake covered in marshmallow fondant - i think this will work for halloween ?