Earth Hour

Last night we tried to do our part for earth hour. We made sure all our lights were out and computers, video games and tv's were turned off. To "celebrate" earth hour, Hannah wanted to go on a little nature walk so we had a little sunset stroll through the park in Euge's neighbourhood. As we walked through the neighbourhood it was nice to see a few houses taking part in the hour as well as we could see little candles lit through the windows of the neighbour's houses. When we got home Hannah wanted to play a board game but since we had no games we opted for "Where's Waldo?" by flashlight. We found him a couple of times but then Benjo got a little too excited and started hogging the book to try and find him too. I'm glad that we were able to do out part.. as Hannah always has a bad habit of leaving the tv or the light on, she told me this morning that she'll make sure she turns everything off before she leaves the room. If none of you were able to take part this year, I strongly urge you to try for next. Not only is it a great way to bring awareness to the environment but a wonderful way to spend quality time with your family as well.

I'm a little scared. My 16-yr old cousin was late coming to our house today because he's taking driving lessons... I don't know if I should take that as a sign that it's time for me to get my driver's license... That's all I have to say about that... I still don't think I'm ready to talk about it...

Easter Weekend

Our easter weekend started off with an all- shrimp dim sum brunch on Good Friday. I don't know if it was that because I was only eating shrimp, but I could not eat as much as I normally do when we go to dim sum! We paid a little visit to Lola's grave after lunch (she did pass last year Good Friday)and then headed to the Taguibao home for some donut dessert. As usual Benjo only ate the chocolate on the donuts! When we headed back to Markham that evening, we had to make a detour to pick up some St. Andrew's fish and chips. Cause well what's Good friday without fish and chips?! I think it's pretty much been a Cruzada household tradition to get fish and chips every Good Friday. If you're ever in the McCowan and Ellesmere area and feel like some fish and chips, I highly recommand you go to St. Andrew's. They say that Good Friday is their busiest day and that day you could tell since CP 24 was broadcasting live from the place!! I totally wanted to take a picture of my meal but forgot as I was way too excited to have my fish and chips. Saturday was grocery day as stores would be closed on Sunday. Since I'm back on my diet come Monday, Euge was busy preparing our lunch/dinners of fish for the week when he got home from work. And this Easter Sunday, the Halili family decided to do something different... we ordered in!! With the popeye's chicken and pizza, I couldn't complain. I figured since I'll be starting that diet, I might as well eat all the junk while I still could! The kids of course were loaded with sugar and chocolate. But Euge made it a point to get the Hannah and Benjo little toys that they could use, not just candy and chocolate. Benjo loved his Diego bug catcher kit as he was "catching bugs" all day long. Hannah, I think she liked her HM CD board game, it was hard to tell as the girls stopped playing the game and just listened to the CD and danced! I also have to point out that we had Selena's Guitar Hero on ALL DAY LONG. Yes, I was the one that started and got everyone playing. I think one day when the kids are at school and everyone is at work, Auntie Marie will even try a song or two! All in all, it was a nice long weekend spending it with my loved ones.

"Monkey Train/Hardlaser Punkaceratops"

I used to get a little annoyed when I'd have to pack all of my stuff for a weekend in Scarborough. Its not that I don't like going there... I get coffee and breakfast made every morning, Euge and I are almost guaranteed a baby-sitter should we want to go out, and I get a break from all the chaos from everyone in the house at Markham. I just hated that it would take so much, packing stuff for the kids for the weekend, every weekend. But lately, I don't seem to mind at all. What I've really been looking forward to on the weekend... is to rock!!!! I am a RockBand fanatic. When Benjoe is busy playing with his grandpa, I'll sneak downstairs to the basement and go on my tour. Last night I was the last one to go to bed as I was rockin' and rollin' to the the early morning. My character, Donna, has gone to 22 of the 43 cities. My other character, rc the drummer, has only been to 5 cities. I've got 2 bands. The first band is Monkey Train, with Euge on the drums, me on the guitar and Hannah as the lead singer. (Somtimes when the words go too fast she'll just hum to the tone and tempo!) That's Euge there hiding behind Benjoe in the first picture! My other band is Hardlaser Punkaceratops with Hannah on drums and me on the guitar. We always put it on easy, so our manager doesn't want to send us on a tour. My addiction is getting pretty bad. When I'm out and I hear a song from the game I want to go home and play. I may have to skip next weekend in Scarborough just to break my habit. But that's only if I can manage to stay away. After all, it is a long weekend and that means an extra day of rocking on!!

As promised, here are some of the pictures I've taken with my new camera. They're mostly of the kids, mainly of Benjoe hamming it up! I can't wait til I figure out how to use the other shooting modes on the thing. I think I might have to go for a record with the most blogs for one day. Blogger police... you know you're out there... just be proud!!!

"Off the hook!"

In case you have never been to our house, or well ever met my daughter... there's always something Hannah Montana going on at our house. Whether the girls are watching the show, playing the Wii or DS game, there's something. (For instance, I got the CD playing on the computer as I type... no I'm not working out!:-P) But anyway, of course Benjoe is into it too. He knows the words to the songs (Once I figure out how to put up videos on this thing, not to mention capture it on my camera, I'll post it up too!) and knows the little giggle at the end of the opening credits for the show. But this is what he learned from one of the episodes. How to be "OFF THE HOOK!" And generally, he really is off the hook! Ok, this blog is a little lame but if you ever get to see the episode, you'll see that it really is quite funny and cute. Heck, next time you're at my house, I'll play the episode for you! I can never get too much Hannah Montana!!

My New Toy

Say hello to my new toy!! My new Canon Power Shot SD870IS. I gotta say I love income tax time because tax time=tax refund. Yes, the refund will go towards bill payments and my upcoming trips this year, but how could I not treat myself to something! Ok, so I had to take a picture of my camera with my phone, but how else was I going to show you my new toy?! I'm very excited to use it, but the 2.5 hours its taking to charge the battery feels like an eternity... so I had to blog before I started posting the pics. Maybe it will ease the time. So to the blogger police, hopefully I'll be blogging a little bit more so I can do things with these pictures. But if I don't... its probably because I'm having way too much fun playing with my new toy!

Snow day

This past weekend we had big plans for the snow storm... we went to Buffalo!! On Friday, Rachel (Siccion) along with her bridesmaids and I went for a day trip shopping excursion south of the border. We knew there was a big storm brewing but we went anyway. Our first stop was everybody's favourite TARGET. I stocked up on everything Hannah Montana for the girl and was thisclose to coming home with a big down Hannah Montana comforter as well. I just didn't know what the other girls would say if I brought it home, so I didn't! On to Walden Galleria to stock up on Bath and Body works and of course to Cheescake Factory for some lunch. I know it was Friday during Lent but I could not help but to order the meatloaf. I'm glad that I ordered the lunch size as I barely finished that portion. Finally on to the outlets at Niagara to do some power shopping as we didn't want to get home too late due to the weather. I picked up some pj's for Benjoe and a couple of t-shirts for Euge and a Coach purse for RS' birthday. Of course I picked up a purse for myself as it was the only thing I really got for myself. And with the deal I got on the purses, it was definitely worth the drive through the snow!

Happy Birthday Selena!

I still remember the day that she was brought home. My sister had to go out and buy diapers or something and I was left to watch the new baby in the home! They had put her in the stroller as Selena's crib was not yet up. And all i remember from the day is just staring at this new baby in our house, not knowing whether I should pick her up or not. And now look at her today. She's grown into quite the young lady! I can't believe she's 12 already! Happy Birthday, Selena!

I know, I know.. it's been awhile. But this week has been crazy as we all caught that nasty stomach flu that's been going around. We all got it. Me, Hannah, Benjoe and Euge. It hasn't been pretty. We've been living off corn soup and ginger ale all week. Even Benjoe was lucky enough to have ginger ale, or as he calls it "coffee!" I'm taking one more day off, so I can detox our bedroom. Get rid of those germs on our bedsheets! Yes, naturally we passed it on to the other occupants of the house. Poor Rayanne, out of all of us that got sick she was the only one to miss the toilet and got it all over the carpet in the hallway! Sorry to Renn and Eric, I would have helped you guys clean it up, but after a week of picking up after people getting sick, I thought it was fair that it wasn't one of my kids I didn't have to pick up after for once! But like i said, today is dedicated to clean bedsheets!