Weekend Love: Bake Date with Mommy Maggie Musings

If you follow me in Instagram, you probably know what days of the week are my favorite. Yes, like (if not by ALL) most working parents, it is always the weekend - FRIDAY NIGHT, SATURDAYS AND SUNDAYS.

I love the weekends not only because I get to forget about work temporarily. I love the weekends because I value my family the most. And these are the days of the week I can find the perfect reason to just devote my full time to them (well, that isn't always true but I would like to believe only they own my weekends).

I also love the weekends because those are the days I can reconnect with my passions. I can make time for this blog. And arrange playdates not only for the little kid's enjoyment but for my own as well. Just like two Saturdays ago when we went on an impromptu bake date with one of the bloggers I used to stalk now turned mommy friend, Maggie, and her little cutiepie Lucas.

Maggie and I have been talking about this bake date since the husband gifted me with a gas oven last Christmas. She is one of the experienced bakers that I personally know so I usually turn to her instant baking advice when I need them. As this was an impromptu bake date though, we did not have a baking plan. But it still turned out to be super fun. Not only for me, but to the little girl who surprised me that day.

My normally shy (especially to people new to her) little miss was extra cooperative and chatty that day. She asked Maggie if she can take a look at her making the royal icing (all by herself) and pulled a chair on her own (I think she temporarily forgot that she wasn't at home) when Tita Maggie gave her permission to.

Another good thing about playdates like this is while waiting for our end product to bake and set, Mags and I had the chance to chat about parenting ups and downs, exchange work dilemmas, talk about our the series that we are currently addicted too (thanks for the Suits reco Mags and Mike, we are now hooked!). It's always great to touch base with somebody who can relate to my daily wows and woes as a working parent.

Thanks Mags and Mike for letting us make a mess at your place. We are definitely looking forward to more weekends like this. And I hope this time with more of our baking blogger friends as well (Erl? Maqui? Sha? Mars? Pepper).

Weekend # 6 - Lazy Saturday, Busy Sunday

Can you believe it? We're almost halfway through February.

And we still have not packed away our Christmas lights out on the front. (waiting for next Christmas na yata, ano beb?)

But the good thing is, we're finally enjoying lazy weekends (errrr, Saturdays for now) again with our little missy. And she's just a few weeks away from summer vacation. Happy. Happy. Well, recently she's back to throwing the weekend question first thing in the morning - Monday and the first thing you hear is -- "weekend na ba, Mommy?" but she still claims she's happy to be in school 5 times a week so I don't really feel anxious when she badgers me with that question.

Honestly, there are still struggles in school. But I am more relaxed now, having been assured by her class adviser that she's coping well. We were just advised to do more follow through of her lessons at home. Ate Inday's been doing a great job on that especially with the math assignments. I come home to pages that are already finished. I just have to check them. And most of the time, yes they would be answered correctly anyways so the little miss gets to have an extra hour or two to spend on tickle/giggle time with me. 

started our Saturday morning with some sun and a scooter trip
(and some imagination gone wild too - the scooter became a school bus, a van, then all sorts of transportation)

Lately, I seem to have more stories of me and the hubs to unload than of the little miss. So I've been more active over at my personal blog than here. But I'm hoping to get the mommy blogger groove back since I'm taking some time off with marathon training for now (next race we're eyeing is Milo in July then a big race and our 2nd marathon come December). I have more time to focus on mommy duties once again. I honestly miss those times. Although, having spent almost 6 months running regularly, I most likely will still spend at least 30 minutes to an hour every other day running around our village just to loosen the nerves up before plunging myself into domestic duties. 

Anyways, having said that, let me just dump in here photos that I took last weekend. I am most active in instagram of late and I must admit, it's the easiest way of documenting the milestones of the day. It is on weekends that I take a lot of photos and it's probably best to share them here as well since not every one in my family or circle of friends are active there. So anyways, here goes:

when the heat in our lawn became unbearable, she went in and immediately grabbed this little project from me and started sewing. 

she ended up making her dad an advance valentine's card

made him very happy by finally showing him she can write his name without  our help
(Trivia: The first 2 words she learned to spell independently were the word LOVE and my first name)

took a few hours off our lazy Saturday to attend Nica's birthday in the little miss's Happy Place
she surely had fun as evidenced by her joining the kiddie games without our prodding.
she's really learning to come out of her shell now. YIPPEEEEE!

didn't forget to draw something memorable from the birthday (she drew a hamburger and of us going to the party)

Unfortunately, we ended the night with an allergic rhinitis attack so the following day I was a lonely mommy at the mommy blogger meet up that mommy blogger friend Maqui and Maggie organized (shout outs to you Aimee, Pepper, Em, Erlaine, Dew, Sha). Although I was feeling a little off having no kid to chase around (when everyone had one), I thought it turned out to be quite a breather for me. I had a chance to really sit down and chat with almost each one of the girls (I would have been the winner of the most chatty award last Sunday if we had one, don't you think so girls?). The highlight of our day was when funny mommy behind the blog MOMMY FLEUR dropped by. We were all starstricken! Yay (sorry no pictures to show though but you can hop over to her blog).

So it was a mix of lazy and busy for our household last weekend. This weekend my family is visiting so it's going to be a hectic one. But the good kind. Hope you week is going great as great can be!