Seven Days of Dinner, Oct. 30-Nov. 5

My parents have come to visit, which is a real treat for the whole family. The kids get doting grandparents, Alfie and I get trusted (and free) babysitters -- and I get a cook. While she's here, my mother usually takes over kitchen duty, which I love, because her food is awesome, and which she loves, because she's usually too busy to cook in the Philippines, and she likes to cook. So my Seven Days for Dinner posts will be taking a temporary hiatus while my mom plans the meals. I may decide to do some posts listing the dishes she actually prepared, but for now, I'll leave you with several mouthwatering dishes I'm hoping she will prepare:

* Arroz a la Cubana with rice (actually, we'll probably have rice with every meal since that's how people do it in the Philippines!)
* Roast chicken
* Paella Valenciana
* Sauteed cabbage and mushrooms with garlic
* Salmon Teriyaki
* Chicken adobo
* Chicken fetuccine
* Chicken chuletas
* Chicken chow mein
* Chicken croquettes
* Pork fried rice
* Pork chorizo and garlic fried rice
* Spanish omelette
* Menudo
* Pork lumpia
* Spaghetti bolognese

Ahhh... my happiness levels (and cholesterol levels) are rising already. This is bonggamom, signing off kitchen duty for the next few weeks. See you soon!

Halloween Costumewatch 2011: The Pea

This year, The Pea and her best friend decided to wear matching costumes for Halloween. After lots of flipping through catalogs and flip-flopping over choices (the most notable being the one that left me with two yards of leopard-print cloth and cemented my own decision to be a cavewoman this year), they chose characters from Alice in Wonderland: the Mad Hatter and the Cheshire Cat. Sort of. Here's what the costumes look like:

Halloween Costumewatch 2011: Alfie

Alfie is the only one in the family who is somewhat grumpy indifferent less than enthusiastic about dressing up for Halloween. He does it because he knows the kids like it; once they leave home I doubt if I'll be able to persuade him to go anywhere near a costume. Oh well, just like childhood, I have to enjoy Alfie's costume era while it lasts.

Since the kids were born, Alfie has only had two costumes: a skeleton and Jack Sparrow. Every year he's either one or the other, so this is quite an unusual year in that Alfie has three Halloween costumes to choose from. First is a werewolf costume from Pottery Barn Teen:


It was given to us to review, and I chose it for Alfie because I thought he'd enjoy the warmth it would provide as we went trick-or-treating on Halloween night. It's just a headpiece and gloves, so he can wear it with regular clothing and take it off really easily.

Alfie's second choice is a devil bathrobe costume that I bought for the annual PTA auction party. The theme was a pajama party, and Alfie didn't want to go in just any old boring pair of pajamas. We thought of Wee Willie Winkie, in his nightcap and gown, so I went on eBay and found one from a UK site. I bid and won.... but horror of horrors, when it arrived, it was just the cap! No gown. Apparently the term "Fancy Dress" in the phrase "Wee Willie Winkie Night Cap Fancy Dress" meant "Costume", not "and gown". I should have known it was too good to be true, but with just one week left, I had to move on to Plan B. I found a devil smoking jacket and convinced Alfie he'd look cool if we left the horns off and cut the tail out and he could go as Hugh Hefner.

(By the way, that is not my husband. I don't have a photo of him wearing the costume, because if he decides not to wear it then I can try to resell it as "New, Never Worn").


But Alfie still wasn't sure about the Hugh Hefner thing, so in the end he decided to wear his own pajamas, along with the nightcap, and take along his very own Teddy. Except he never got to wear it, because 3Po got sick and Alfie had to stay home with him.

Which costume will Alfie ultimately pick for Halloween night? Who knows?

Halloween Costumewatch 2011: Bonggamom

I've had many Halloween costumes over the years (many in a single year, even), and I've enjoyed wearing them all, but I must confess that I'm really looking forward to wearing this year's costume. I've always loved cavewoman costumes; in fact, the first Halloween costume I wore as an adult was a cavewoman costume. I wore it to a grad school costume party and I paid $60 to rent it for the week. Every Halloween since then, I've looked around for cavewoman costumes, but couldn't really find one that I liked. There's not much variation in the cut (I don't think there were many fashion designers in the stone age), but all the materials looked thin and cheap.

Halloween Costumewatch 2011: 3Po

Next up on Halloween Costumewatch is 3Po. He decided to be a ninja this year, which is awesome, because a couple of years ago my sister gave us her kids' old ninja outfits. It has been many years since I have been able to force convince my kids to wear the Halloween costumes I want them to wear, so these ninja outfits have been sitting in storage, just in case, and I was about to give them away. Fortunately I didn't, and one of them fit 3Po just right.

Halloween Costumewatch 2011: Jammy

In past years I've done blog posts about how I've decorated the house up for Halloween, but this year, for the first time in almost 10 years, I haven't done much decorating inside the house. Other than a few candles, tablecloth runners and wall hangings, I decided to focus on the front yard. Okay, it's a lot more than most households ever do, but if you've seen the inside of our home in past years you'll agree it's looking pretty bare. Since I don't have anything photo-worthy inside the house to blog about (I'll post photos of our front yard soon), I've decided to showcase what each of us is wearing for Halloween, starting with Jammy.

31 Days osf Pink: Week 2 & Week 3 Recap

I said it last year, and I'll say it again: Where did the time go? October has just flown by! I can't believe we're in the last week of October already. I've got blog commitment, work projects and volunteer assignments piling up, three Halloween parties to plan, home remodeling projects to manage..... I'm having palpitations just thinking about it all. No, wait -- those palpitations are because I'm all clogged up and can't breathe. Of all the times to come down with a cold.

Seven Days of Dinner, Oct. 23-29

When you're planning the week's dinner menu, it really helps if you're not sick with a cold and the thought of slaving away over a hot stove is enough to make your heart palpitate even more than it's palpitating already. This week I think I'm going to take it easy, get some takeout, and rely on simmering pots of soup to get me through. No doubt my kids will be excited at the prospect of school pizza, PBJ and cereal for lunch this week! I've deliberately left off three nights this week because my parents are arriving for a visit this Friday, and I look forward to relinquishing control of the kitchen and letting my mom take over.

How to Dress for a Pajama Party

Last night our PTA hosted an auction party to raise funds for the kids' school. It's an annual, adults-only event, and every year the party has a different theme. This year's theme was PJ Party, so more people than usual came in costume. Dressing for a pajama party has got to be the easiest thing ever: just put on your regular PJ's, or a tshirt and sweatpants, and you're good to go. You don't even have to get undressed after the party; just kick off your shoes and fall into bed.

Is anybody left out there?

Remember Harold Camping? He predicted the end of the world would come on May 21, 2011. Obviously, it didn't happen. So Harold Camping backtracked and said what he meant was, the spiritual end of the world happened on May 21. The real, true, pinky-swear end end of the world would happen on October 21, 2011.

Just so you know, I scheduled this post in advance. I scheduled it to post at 1 minute past midnight on October 22, 2011. I wanted to give old Harold's prophecy a chance to come true, all through October 21, down to the last second. Right now my family and I are sleeping peacefully in our beds. Or we've just been snuffed out, along with the rest of the universe. Then again, if this posted and you're reading this, then we definitely are sleeping peacefully in our beds.

Hmmmm... Harold, whaddup? Since you didn't put up The Bible Guarantees It billboards all over the place this time, perhaps you'll escape some ridicule. Or perhaps you meant Oct. 21, 2011 on the Ethiopian calendar? That would mean the next real, true, pinky-swear end end of the world is actually on June 28, 2019 according to the Gregorian calendar.

Perhaps I'll schedule another Doomsday Predictions Are Stupid post on June 28, 2019.