The Nutcracker at the Fox Theatre

December 28, 2008 By 4 Comments


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.

Filed Under: Activities, Family Tagged With: , , ,

Photo Friday: English Tea on the high sea

December 26, 2008 By 2 Comments

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.
Filed Under: Carnival Cruise, Cruising Tagged With:

It’s CHRISTmas!!!

December 25, 2008 By 2 Comments

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.

Filed Under: Family Tagged With:

Wordless Wednesday: Merry Christmas

December 24, 2008 By 3 Comments

Check out other WW participants at WW Hub or 5 Minutes for mom.
Filed Under: Family Tagged With:

Fun day at I.N.K

December 24, 2008 By Leave a Comment

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!!

Filed Under: Activities, Family, Travel in North America Tagged With: , ,

Holiday Parties

December 22, 2008 By Leave a Comment

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.

Filed Under: Family Tagged With:

Photo Friday: Christmas in Disney World

December 19, 2008 By 5 Comments

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.
Filed Under: Attractions/Museums, Travel in North America, Walt Disney World Tagged With: ,

Wordless Wednesday: Just Follow Us

December 17, 2008 By 2 Comments

Check out other WW participants at WW Hub or 5 Minutes for mom.
Filed Under: Family

A Day in The City

December 15, 2008 By 2 Comments

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.

Filed Under: Activities, Family Tagged With: , ,

Saturday Fun

December 8, 2008 By 1 Comment
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?
Filed Under: Activities, Family