Barely There Make Up

How lovely is this product? I am happy with my Chanel Vita Lumierre though which gives me this effect on my skin but if I find a product that is a fraction of a price that is as good as Chanel's Vital Lumierre, count me in.

Dine In For Two

The other nigh, the husband suggested that we try M&S Dine In For Two for £10. So, after a bit of Christmas shopping at Milton Keynes' new shopping hub MK1 Shopping Park, we dropped by Marks and Spencer which, fortunately, has a branch in the shopping park.  Aside from M&S, the park also boasts of branches from H&M, River Island, Topshop, BHS and Primark.

The promotion consists of One main dish, one side dish, dessert and a bottle of one enough for two people but for our case, more than enough for 2 adults and a 4 year old. 

For our main dish, we had the chicken dish which I forgot the name but still remember how good it tasted, new baby potatoes and herb for side dish and Belgian chocolate souffle. We are not wine drinkers so we opted for the non alcoholic alternative.

Overall, it was a very good meal, the chicken was tasty (even the 4 year old loved it which she had with rice), the potatoes with herb were lovely and the chocolate souffle melted in our mouths.

Would I have it again? I would. Would I recommend to a friend? I definitely would.

The Second Birthday Party

I could not remember why I chose Minnie Mouse as the theme for Ava's second birthday party. All I remember was that I got obsessed with everything Minnie like I was obsessed with everything Strawberry Shortcake on her first birthday.

Since I still did not know anybody back then who can make bespoke cakes, I just got shop bought cakes and cupcakes and personalized them with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cake toppers which I think did the job.

The giveaways were melamine cups bought online that I filled with sweets .

I got blue and red balloons representing Mickey Mouse clubhouse colors.

Krispy Kremes

And the little girl was dressed in this with Minnie Mouse headband ears.

Fatima

On our tenth wedding anniversary, we did a little pilgrimage to Fatima in Portugal. We feel as a couple, that it is the best celebration we could ever do having been blessed with a baby after the image of Our Lady of Fatima visited our house back in the UK. 

It was a wonderful and solemn experience which I would love to do all over again in the future.

This very tree is where the three little shepherds would wait for our Lady's apparition during that time. Beside it is a chapel which holds Our Lady of Fatima's image. 

We did hear mass in the cathedral which was said in Portuguese. We do not understand a word of Portuguese but sort of understood in a way as it is the same mass we as Catholics attend every Sunday in our own churches all over the world.

And we lit some candles, too.

A pilgrimage to Fatima where we heard mass in their cathedral on our 10th wedding anniversary is for me, the most fitting way to celebrate it. We capped it off with room service back in our hotel room.

The First Birthday Party

I have been planning her first birthday party way before she was born. I knew I wanted a princess theme complete with castles and pink balloons but when the time came to celebrate my little girls first birthday party, I was by then obsessed with Strawberry Shortcake. How strange. 

So as the story goes, we had a Strawberry Shortcake theme. I had the invites, tarpaulin and lootbags shipped from the Philippines because personalized party stuff here in the UK can cost you an arm and a leg.

The personalized CD invites with Nursery songs in it.

The invites for the adults made and printed by the husband.

The lootbags / giveaways

The tags.

The tarpaulin.

The prizes for the games.

The delicious all Filipino food catering.

It was one first birthday party that was well attended. We all had fun, probably the adults more than the birthday celebrant herself.

To read about her Christening party, click  here.

Sweets Buffet

I am so excited to make a sweets buffet for the little girl's 4th birthday party. 

This is my inspiration.

image

This is what I have done so far.

Made a few pompoms, washed and cleaned the glass bottles for the beverages and printed and labelled the sweets jar.

There are still a lot of things to do but I am more excited than anything else.

Watching Murray

I am not a lover of sports and Tennis is the only sport that I can say I can sit through, watch and enjoy so it is no surprise that one of my dreams is to watch a grand slam and the one nearest to me is the grand slam of all grand slam, Wimbledon. Unfortunately though, it is so difficult to get tickets. There are two ways, one is to queque from the night before to get tickets for the next day and second is to join a public ballot where you apply by 31st of December from the year before and succesful applicants are randomly chosen by a computerized selection process. Both are very taxing, the former physically exhausting and the latter, mentally. So I have not done either of the two despite the fact that we are only an hours drive from Wimbledon.

Imagine my surprise when the husband told me he got us tickets for the ATP World Tour Tennis Finals featuring the top eight in the Male category which would include Nadal, Jokovich, Murray and Federer.

The thing was you cannot choose which one you are going to watch as you can just purchase tickets randomly online which was a lot easier to get hold of compared to Wimbledon. 

The night before, the husband checked online and we learned that Andy Murray is playing on our alloted time. I was thrilled as he just won Gold in the recently concluded London Olympics and also won the US Open. Also, I was really impressed with  how he played against Federer in Wimbledon last June.

After the Olympics, this was another thing ticked off my bucket list - to watch a professional Tennis match.

The husband got us the nearest seats he could find. This is perfect view.

Andy getting himself ready.

It was a great game and we really enjoyed it even the little girl who said she is now a fan of Andy.

He played agains Berdych, by the way.

All photos taken with an iPhone 4s.