We got some new crayons to try out, and give a review on. What fun it is to write on this blog!
Ready to unbox!
Here they are, Primomo Washable Crayons made in Japan!
So, the crayons are supposed to be non-toxic, worry-free, and keeps hands clean. They are also washable, easy to hold, scented, and erasable. Time to put it in a test!
My daughter immediately drew a rainbow and some figures. She first asked me if they were donuts. And yes, they smell good!
She can hold it anyway she wants, but since she knows how to hold a pencil, she first found it funny to hold inside the ring. But she did well here!
Now, for the eraser test.
Red crayon sample.Eraser sample. The eraser came with the crayons, but I have not tried if you can use any type of eraser, though.
It got erased, right? Though I have not yet done it fully. I think I could have erased it more.
The product looks really safe to use and non-toxic. I also liked the texture of the crayon itself, and you won’t feel sticky after using it. Some crayons would have residue on your hands or paper after you use them.
Although, I think this crayon is just for the beginner child only. I don’t think this would work well in your adult colouring books because you might not control the grip well. This is a good product for your young child as he discovers and strengthens his fine motor skills by colouring.
Get these super safe crayons for your little ones at these branches. Available at selected Fully Booked or Toys R Us branches (click link for full list then pull down Primomo menu). It is also available online through Lazada.ph.
Who doesn’t want the best and the cleanest for their little ones?
Germs are everywhere. Chemicals kill germs. But some chemicals harm the environment. Good thing people are now turning to organic.
And what better product to turn organic is baby wipes. I am sure whether for our babies or for ourselves, we’d always want a pack handy. We checked out Kokopax to find which baby wipes work best.
It has no paraben, no alcohol, no harsh chemicals. We’re sure it’s safe for the little ones.
The material is sturdy and strong, and does not produce excess fiber or himulmol.
Has sizes for big and small hands. It has an extra large size for those tougher stains.
Sanitizes everything in a whip, literally. I am one who is very OC on the eating table, so I make sure tables and chairs or high chairs, especially those used by my kid are clean. My kid always has a pack of wipes in her bag and uses it to wipe her hands before and after eating.
100% biodegradable. And this is the best part for me. Organic baby wipes loves the environment as much as our babies.
Sold? You can get them from these stores.
Thanks for letting us experience these great wipes! Will sure to look for this when our stash runs out.
The very first Manila Workshop-organized workshop I attended was with my husband! Real ways to be a WAHM workshop in 2013, which was well attended even by non-moms (husbands and singles). Photo credit: Manila Workshops Facebook Page (www.facebook.com/manilaworkshops).
For my husband and I, learning opportunities outside the academe are highly regarded. We both invest in attending workshops, masterclasses (in my case as a classical singer), seminars, and the like.
One of the greatest discoveries we had was Manila Workshops, which has currently a strong lineup of workshop topics, workshop series, which caters to almost everyone already. Their passionate leader, Ginger Arboleda, and her great team, curates and creates these learning opportunities that are not commonly found in the regular university classroom, with the aim to create entrepreneurs out of all of us, and ignite the love for learning.
Here’s why I think you should attend their workshops, too:
1, Unique topics. They have every topic you can think of. Current workshops include topics like make up, calligraphy, storytelling, modelling, design, apart from their usual workshops for work at home people and entrepreneurship. They offer an overall alternative classroom learning experience.
2. Intimate set-up. Who wants a classroom type venue? They hold workshops in co-working spaces or convention centers. And they physical set up of their workshops invite a learning feel everytime.
3. Credible speakers. They invite credible speakers in the workshops, some of them I am able to get in touch with even after the workshop.
4. Reasonable workshop fees. Their fees are reasonable for the value you’ll be getting from the workshops.
5. Network opportunity. I love meeting and making new connections in every event I am in. Attending workshops will widen your network of future clients and collaborators.
I believe in what they can offer, that’s why I also promote chosen workshops over at my blog (see my right sidebar?).
Curious about their current offerings? Follow their social media accounts (Facebook: Manila Workshops, Twitter: @manilaworkshops, Instagram: manilaworkshops) and subscribe to their newsletter to know more about our future events (go to Manila Workshops’ website and subscribe).
My dot com celebrated its first year last week! Happy Anniversary touringkitty.com!
This blog has definitely brought me to places. But since I got busier, I only choose the events I will attend and blog about. And this one should not be missed, especially that this is for my darling daughter.
Which parent would not have heard of Sofia the First? Doc McStuffins? or Jake the Neverland Pirate? I’m sure almost all of us did. They’re all characters from Disney Junior, one of the more popular cable channels for children. And their Manila and Cebu fans had the privilege to see them in person this April!
For Ariadne, totally.
And so, even if it’s in a far off place (called the end station of the MRT), we headed to SM North Edsa’s The Block early on April 10th which is the scheduled media launch, at 10:00AM.
We got a wee bit early, so we had a chance to have breakfast and freshen up before the mall opened. Yes, we were THAT early, haha.
Here are some photos I took during the media launch.
The blogger kids waiting for the event to start. Front row complimentary seats with their blogger mommas.Caught in the act! Denise’s P and my little A dancing (more like jumping) to the beat during the program’s ice breaker.
The much-awaited entrance of the Disney Junior characters! Caught a short video of it.
Here are the stars of the show, not one but three! Jake the Neverland Pirate, Sofia the First, and Doc McStuffins!Mommy Bloggers at Disney Junior Meet and Greet: Em of Touringkitty, Denise of Bebengisms, and Kat of Petite Momma’s World. Aka PAs of these three cute little bunnies, A, P, and V.Brought my mom along, who was so eager to either carry our stuff or carry the little one. Thanks, Mom!And we got to bring home this loot bag filled to the brim!
Thanks, Disney Junior and Toy Kingdom, for making this possible.
Were you able to catch the meet and greet, too? Share your experience.
My husband and I, in another rare moment, had our date night watching a fun (and funny) musical last month.
And we have proof! Thanks for taking this photo of us. (Courtesy: Into the Woods-Preview Night)
It was the Press Preview of Into the Woods, a musical by Stephen Sondheim, last February 20.
The setting was a giveaway, an outdoor venue called the Kasalikasan Garden. It got a bit cloudy in the afternoon, and we were hoping it won’t rain. Good thing it didn’t. The shawl was of help. It got a little chilly later in the evening. WARNING: Bring anti-mosquito lotions or patches, and don’t wear shorts. Seriously. =)
Given that it was outdoors, the challenge I thought of was the microphones, and that single keyboard to accompany the singers. It went well, nevertheless.
It was really great to see familiar faces in the cast (and in the crowd, too). My friends from the UP College of Music and former choirmates of my husband, were part of the cast. Awesome to see friends take part in productions I cover for this blog.
Here are some photos of the Press Preview last February 20. Credits: Upstart Productions.
Onyl Torres, my husband’s former choirmate at the Ateneo, played the Steward…and then some, such as being propsman.Kay Balajadia-Liggayu played the Stepmother of Cinderella. The funny trio here is comprised of Kay and real life sisters. Justine and Jill Pena, who play stepsisters of Cinderella.These two are plain funny! Juliene Mendoza (Cinderella’s Prince), and George Schulze (Rapunzel’s Prince).Charley Magalit played Rapunzel, and her high notes soared as high as Rapunzel’s tower! We worked together in San Andres B in 2013. We’re both Bechie Babies (our collective name for students of our dear voice professor, Ma. Cecilia “Bechie” Valena).The general plot of the story went around these three characters. The Witch, ably played by Rachel Alejandro, Lorenz Martinez (Baker), and Gemini Quintos (Baker’s Wife).
Can’t get enough of the photos? Then you should watch the production. They’re extending the run until March 22!
Congratulations to the cast, staff, and crew of the production!
GOOD NEWS! Hear ye, hear ye.
By popular demand, Upstart Production’s INTO THE WOODS will be extending their run for one more weekend! Make sure to catch them under the stars at BGC’s Kasalikasan Gardens! A special discount of 20% will be given to early bird reservations, bulk buyers, senior citizens and students for the MARCH 22 show! Offer is until March 15, 2015 only.
You may call/ text the following number for inquiries.
Charley Magalit 0977- 210 6113
Zarina Anne De Asis 0917-579 9828
Kay Balajadia-Liggayu 0917- 417 2362
INTO THE WOODS. February 21, 22, 28, March 1, 7, 8, 14, 15, 21, 22. All shows start 6:00 PM. Tickets available at Ticketworld (891-9999).
Presented by Bonifacio Global City, AVIVA Global Marine Corporation, and OLX Philippines. In cooperation with The Picasso Boutique Residences and Plana Forma. Also brought to you by Interaksyon.com, Image Nation Photography, Mac Cosmetics, Lulu Swing Shoes, Citrusnap, Chalk, Metro Magazine, and Stanley Ong Photography.
In life, there are things that are not really learned in school. Like entering married life. We read books about marriage, and there are just so many.
This book came my way just in time for our seventh anniversary which we celebrate this November. The perpetual learner that I am, I needed a refresher.
I can’t believe it’s been seven years already of being married. It seemed like only yesterday! My husband and I know each other for half of my life, been married to him for more than a quarter of it, and now taking care of our little angel who is turning five this year.
What a ride, a bumpy but happy one so far. And this book served as a great reminder of the vows we’ve made for each other on that most wonderful day of our lives.
The author, Viviene Bigornia takes us on her own journey as a wife and how she has nurtured it through the Lord. I liked that the book is Bible-based and God-centered, two important things in our married and family life.
The book is simple, easy to read, and informative. A lot of good-to-know information are written. Scriptures help you reflect on what God wants a wife to be to her husband. I also like that it had reflection pages at the end of each chapter, and that it encourages you to reflect and express yourself.
Whether you are single and preparing for marriage, a newlywed, or “veteran” wife, this book is a great read and a great reminder that we, wives, are God’s gift, and to be a perfect gift to our husbands, we must also prepare ourselves in all aspects.
Want to get your own copy? Touringkitty readers are being treated to a 15% off! From P395 to P335. Send teacher_viviene@yahoo.com an email with the subject line 15%OFF. This will be up until the end of February. And it’s free shipping! Perfect Valentines Day gift.
Click the photo to get a $10 credit in Educents.com!
For a homeschooling mom on the go like I am, I always look online for ideas, resources, and materials that would best fit my daughter.
Recently, I found a site which caters to just what I need: different subject areas, worksheets, lesson plans, books, even supplies, all in one website!
Educents was founded in 2013 by Kate and Kaitlyn, who are passionate about education. They believe that everyone should have access to education, and are offering really affordable yet quality products in their website.
According to their website, since its launch in April, 2013, Educents has saved educators over $15 million dollars and has helped more than 130,000 teachers, homeschoolers and parents gain access to affordable educational materials.
I tried it out myself, and here’s what I can say about the site:
1. Easy to navigate. Who does not love a website so easy to navigate? Clear, concise, and clean website. Easy to understand tabs, and you can even filter materials to your desired grade level. See example below:
See my shopping cart? I already got Snow Kids Color by Code because it’s FREE!
2. Different subject areas, in one site. I don’t have to browse different sites because I can get math, science, and art resources from this site alone.
3. Deals, deals, DEALS! Don’t we all love the words discount and free? You will often see them on the website.
4. They have a blog where you can read how the products, materials, and worksheets are actually used, and more teaching and learning tips. I was able to use one of their products–the Peekapak Homeschool Gratitude Curriculum and my daughter enjoyed reading and learning from the book (though we chose to read from the laptop at first). Get it FREE, only four days left! Sign up now.
Whether you are homeschooling or not, and looking for ways to teach your child at home, Educents makes education accessible, for fewer cents.
Sign up via this link and get $10 in credit to spend in the website! How does that sound to you?
“We aspire to provide affordable education to everyone. That’s the idea behind Educents. Imagine the possibilities.”
Being condominium dwellers ourselves, food delivery is the next best thing to making our own food. Apart from the usual fast food delivery services, we always seek restaurants which delivery home-loved freshly cooked foods.
You can order through their hotline, but Mommy Bloggers Philippines had their members try this service online. So, they gave us vouchers!
It took me quite a while to choose a restaurant, because (1) not all stores deliver in your location and (2) not all stores accept vouchers. Luckily, one store does, Gerry’s Grill in Macapagal Avenue!
Ordering online was easy:
1. Choose your location.
2. Choose the restaurant that delivers to your location.
3. Place your orders. The cart will prompt you whether you have reached their minimum order bill. Check out what I got:
They accept vouchers, and has a small delivery fee!
4. For the remainder of the amount, I paid it upon delivery.
Fresh food at our doorstep! Gerry’s Grill Chopsuey and Crispy Squidheads.
How would I describe their service?
Fast. Well, it really could have been faster if it were not a busy season like today was. It took the order about an hour and a half.
Fresh. Steaming hot, fresh food right at your doorstep, order placed with a touch of your fingertips (they have a phone application as well).
Favorite. Some of my favorite brands all in one place, without searching or memorizing all those hotlines. Here’s proof:
I ordered Yellow Cab last week. Unfortunately the vouchers were not accepted for this restaurant.
How could Food Panda be improved?
1. Vouchers should be accepted in all restaurants. They could be given as gifts, too!
2. More branches so that more restaurants can deliver to a wider location.
3. They should feed back 15 minutes after a customer has not received confirmation. I emailed them 30 minutes after placing my order because I did not receive any confirmation yet, but they were quick to reply.
Overall, it is a good service, so you should try it out as well.
For months, we’ve been talking about how to celebrate. Should we eat out? Watch a movie, a concert? Do we bring our daughter with us? Do we leave her with my mom and sister?
So, we finally decided on having lunch together with our little girl and brought her back home where my mom and sister will take care of her. The Schatzis were off to another date night: at Music Museum!
We rarely had official date nights. The last probably was this one, which I also blogged about. And it was last January! And we watched a concert as well, featuring my colleagues from the UP College of Music, and our Ninong Mark Carpio, who was also part of the Kilyawan@20 concert.
It’s safe to say that my husband and I bond well all these years because of food and music.
As we arrived Greenhills really early, we decided to look for something to eat. A light meal would do. The few minutes of walking around brought us to Wafu for some Japanese cuisine. We had these:
Wafu Salmon Sashimi. Fresh and yummy.California Roll. Just enough to fill our tummy.What’s Japanese without Ramen? We split into two so we both got just enough.
And for these three, our bill was only less than P800! Pretty good deal. Must note, though, that prices do not include service charge and local tax. The less than P800 included them both already. The first two dishes were smaller servings, thus, priced less.
My view. The restaurant has a high ceiling (which I really like). I heard there’s Teppanyaki. Must try soon!
Now, off to the main event: Kilyawan’s 20th Anniversary Concert!
My husband and I were in for a treat–pure a cappella goodness, not just a cappella, but popular music, beat boxing, microphones, sung by seven fine gentlemen with amazing voices and a great repertoire. You’d be thinking if they do this regularly. Well, they used to, but now, unfortunately, not anymore.
These seven were originally part of the Kilyawan Boys Choir, which started 20 years ago as Claret Boys Choir. These used-to-be boy sopranos have staged concerts and won important competitions both here and abroad.
Their conductor, Mark Carpio (yes, the choirmaster of the Madz, no less!) actually SANG in the concert (save for one song he conducted with the Kilyawan Male Choir). And for those who missed it, his solo of “Time Will Reveal” brought the house down!
Their repertoire included mostly pop songs. Older songs include Nearness of you, Shout, Change the world, Moondance (Buble fan here, and Sir Mark sang the solo!), as well as newer songs like This Love, the Madagascar theme song Move it, and OPM hits Kapag Tumibok and Puso and Bakit Ngayon ka lang and Christmas songs, too. The other choirs of the Consortium of Voices–Kilyawan Male Choir and Voces Aurorae also performed that night.
To think they’ve not sung as a group for quite some time, they did an amazing job. This same group won the Category Prize back in 2008, for the Popcappella Category of the World Choir Games in Austria. And who would have thought, these used to be boy sopranos are now successful professionals and family men.
Definitely the star of the show, Ninong Mark! We’ve been telling him to sing more. Looking forward to the next!Some Madz members watched as well, supporting our Choirmaster.
More photos can be found in this link, story and snippets by Nicco Valenzuela.
To the Kilyawan core group (ER, Rhett, Rem, Jaymee–who definitely brought most of the comic relief!, Dado, Punky, and Sir Mark), and to the Consortium of Voices, congratulations for 20 years of wonderful music. You are an inspiration to many, including our own choir, who is always in awe when we get to sing together during Madz et al performances. Big congratulations also to Teacher Hazel Copiaco, the group’s manager, who’ve been the group’s second mother all those 20 years! We wish you many more years of music (and hopefully, a repeat of this concert!).
And to the love of my life, thank you for saying yes to watch this! Thank you for the love, thoughtfulness, kindness, and respect you always show and selflessly give all these years. Ariadne and I treasure you so much! Looking forward to many more blissful years together with our little one (and the future little ones God will give us).
We started bringing Aria to play areas when she turned one, exactly on her first birthday. Since then, we’ve enrolled her to different play groups once in a while.
Now that she’s four, she’s more active, ever wanting to discover and do more things physically. She loves running, climbing, jumping you’d think she’s a boy. But she’s not.
Anyway, we recently discovered a play area that is not just an ordinary play area. Activities were happening every 15 minutes or so, that the kids were not only playing by themselves, but also learning and having fun with other kids!
Kid’s Workshop is like a hole in the wall in Shoppesville Arcade in Greenhills. I do not frequent the place, so I’ve not known this until we were invited to visit last month. Unfortunately, Aria had weeks of cough and colds, so we had to always reschedule, until we weren’t able to make it on September. But the Kids Workshop team had been very accommodating to us (special thanks to Ms. Glenda, who unfortunately we weren’t able to meet that day), we were still able to visit a couple of weeks ago.
It was a Saturday, before lunchtime, when my daughter and I got to Greenhills. I made sure she’s eaten a snack before she plays, because knowing her, she could have hours of fun in a play area. I was actually surprised that it was not just a play area, but the kids, with the help of activity facilitators, they:
did storytelling,had some art activities (this you pay separately),…had games…and even more games!
The activities were great breaks from the usual play, which ran every after 15 minutes or so. Aria got to try out the many stations of this 100 square meter area:
She had fun riding the horse.Slide! Her favourite.Rock climbing + my left hand caught on frame!Super Aria! They had these capes on the racks for their Superheroes party in the same afternoon.Mini-library and kitchen area. Lots of books!
Aria got to try an art activity as well. Along with my sister (in photo), they made this:
Aria’s interpretation of a bug! What colourful one!
So, if you’re looking for a place where you can let your kids play safely (and maybe while you can do your shopping or pampering), visit Kid’s Workshop. Along with their very helpful and nice team of teacher guides, plus their safe equipment and facilities (they have CCTVs installed and a clear system of registering your child and fetcher), kids and parents will have a wonderful and enjoyable time.
Thanks, Kid’s Workshop! Looking forward to our next visit.
Visit their website and Facebook to learn more about their upcoming events, rates, and activities.
