My Lazada Live Experience with Fisher Price

Hello everyone! It's finally June and it's my birthday month. Soon, we're pretty much halfway through 2019. Time is zooming by so fast again, don't you think? 

Anyway, let me backtrack a bit and tell you about my first ever experience doing Lazada Live. I guess everyone all know what Lazada is as today's world is all about online shopping and basically doing everything and anything online. Before I had my twins, I remember attending an event where moms and (then, this momma to be) were asked to stand up and share two of their guilty pleasures. Mine was a no brainer -- chips and carbs. These are still my guilty pleasures till today, actually. Well, most moms mentioned "online shopping" and in my mind, I was like.. "What?!" Back then, I felt uncomfortable trusting online sellers with my money...worst, my credit card details. I had a million and one questions then like "what if the item was fake?", "what if no item gets delivered?", "what if I want to return it?" With all these hesitations, needless to say, I wasn't really a big fan of online shopping here in Manila..before. Yes, before... before I had my twins and I had to be home 24/7 for them. Before I realized that I am not getting anything done for being stuck at home. Before I did my first successful purchase and realized that the online shopping world was pretty neat. Before I discovered that I can actually score deals and get products online that I don't think I'll ever get or find in a mall.

From being a mom, I've learned to make the most of technology to help me get things done. I literally planned my twins' birthday party with the help of online suppliers and retailers. From the time they were born, I have been purchasing all sorts of items from diapers to wet wipes, from baby carriers to their feeding bottles all online. I turned into that kind of Mom who would stay up till midnight to be one of the first to snag the best deals during big online sales.

So, when I was invited to guest in one of Lazada Live's shows for Fisher Price, it was definitely a big YES YES YES for me! Okay, well maybe one tiny fear was that I am deathly afraid to be in front of the camera. Big shocker there, huh? For someone who talks and writes a lot, I'm still more comfortable being behind the scenes. However, I'm also not the kind who chickens out so Lazada Live guesting, here we go!

Franny Mommy Favorites : Books by Learning Adventures

It's been a while since I've shared with you one of my twins' favorite things as I've been too coped up with my yaya woes, had to prepare for our back to back staycation and family trip, dealt with each one of us (even the twins) falling sick, then there's work and everything else in between. Finally, I got a teeny bit of breathing time so let's do some mommy chat, shall we?

During the 1st birthday of my twins, they were blessed to have received a lot (and I really meant..a LOT) of presents from their aunties, uncles and relatives. Of course, kids being kids, they were soooo happy to open all of their presents and I really had to find ways to manage this by allowing them to play with only one to two toys at a given period of time. You see, if you allow them to play with all the toys at the same time, chances are, they'd get tired of it quickly and you'd be left with nothing else to keep them busy and entertained. Thus, I've been spending all these months rotating the gifts, allowing them to choose 1-2 toys each and keeping the rest and when I sense that they're starting to get tired of a particular toy, then I reintroduce a new toy. So far, I think it's working as I have managed to keep them entertained all these time.

Apart from toys, my twins have received books from some of their guests and this was how we have actually started to include story time as part of their bedtime routine. In fact, they love reading so much that L, for instance, would wake me up in the morning to ask me to read to her AGAIN and AGAIN...and AGAIN. It's interesting to see how varied their personalities are. J is really more into toys most especially building blocks and cars. He can hold on to this toy truck all day and night. He likes to read but his attention span is shorter so he prefers picture books over those that has real stories in them.


L, on the other hand, is my little bookworm. She would quietly sit in one corner of the room while flipping through the pages of her books. She's so adorable! I love watching her do this and it's amazing how she can really hold the book right side up ever since. Whenever her Gwammy (my mom) would be in the room, she would asked to be carried to the book cabinet for her to choose a book. I also noticed that she has her favorite books which she loves reading over and over again.

#FrannyCooks : Creamy Hungarian Sausage Pasta in Clara Ole Red Pesto Sauce

Among all the recipes that I can make, I think pasta is one of my favorite. Apart from the fact that I love to eat pasta, it's also so easy to make. All you need to do is to cook the noodles as per the instruction on the package, add in your choice of ingredients and tadah! You get a delicious plate of pasta that never fails to hit the right spot too.

A few years back, I discovered the wonders of deli sausages. Since I always have a very short time frame to make dinner, I would normally pop by the nearest grocery and buy my choice of deli sausages be it Hungarian, Bratwurst or Kielbasa and I'd take these home, chop it into bite-size slices and add it into my pasta dish. The beauty about it is it's actually cooked so you don't have to grill or pan-fry it for a long period of time which as we know can make your pasta noodles soggy if you expose it to heat for long. 

Singapore Airlines' Book the Cook for Kids

Let's take a quick trip down memory lane. Well okay, it wasn't that long ago but it sure feels like it. This photo below was taken almost 2 years ago on-board Singapore Airlines on our last flight out of Singapore heading to Manila when we decided to relocate back home for good. I was a little more than 3 months pregnant with my twins then but to be honest I just looked really bloated and chubs and my baby bump clearly showed itself about two months after that.

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Birthday surprise up in the air -- this is one of the many reasons why I love flying @singaporeair ✈️ aside from the comfy seats, the amazing entertainment library and good food, they have the best in-flight service too. Yesterday, our flight attendants surprised me with a birthday cake and a specially made card! Thanks to @maddawg_world for tipping them off too. It was one of the best flights of my life as we were moved to the front row giving us so much leg space, I was given a pair of their limited edition bears and lastly, this birthday surprise! 🎂 Thank you Singapore Airlines! 🙌🏻 * * * #singapore #makansg #eatpraylove #instafoodie #sgfood #singaporefood #burpple #singaporeinsider #foodiesg #foodstagram #foodiesofig #whati8today #vsco #foodporn #foodcoma #igsg #foodiechats #sgeats #kaintuloggang #thektg #stfoodtrending #eatingforthree #singaporeairlines #inflightfeed #upintheair #angsinsg #pftravels #birthday

A post shared by Frances Ang (@frannywanny) on May 31, 2017 at 6:19pm PDT

Anyway, it was probably one of the best flights that I've had in my life. From the time we got the VIP check-in as we got Business Class seats and me being pregnant to the delicious hot dishes at the lounge and to the full Business Class experience complete with the super comfy seat, our personalized Book the Cook meals and their birthday surprise for me! It was indeed a memorable flight. I still have the pair of SIA boy and girl bears that they gave me which was like a foretelling of what the genders of my twins will be which we found out 2 weeks after the said flight.

In my many years of blogging here, I'm never the type to blog using press releases and stock photos as I really want to share my personal experience about every single thing that I have wrote about. However, this one was just too awesome to let it pass or to just be given a social media feature.

Japanese BBQ All You Can at Gyu-Kaku, Shangri-la Mall

One thing that I noticed when I first relocated back home was the growing popularity of eat-all-you-can Korean BBQ restaurants and they're priced really affordable too! It seems like every mall would have long queues leading to these restaurants that offer a buffet of Korean bbq meats and cooked dishes for less than P500 only. Before I left the country, the buffet has been on a rise and it came to a point when hotel buffets and restaurant buffets are charging fees somewhat close to each other. Classy interiors, impressive buffet line-up, that was the food trend back in 2012.

Filipino love to eat. There's no denying there and this is probably why buffets and eat-all-you-can promotion will always be well received by the eating public. Anyway, I remembered my first eat-all-you-can KBBQ experience. I was close to my delivery date then thus I was literally heavily pregnant with my twins and we entered this popular Korean restaurant where we were led to the second floor dining area. One thing I noticed was how the flooring was so slippery that I was so scared to slip and hurt my babies inside. The tables were also really sticky and oily and sadly, there wasn't a single interesting item on the buffet table not to mention the meats were obviously of lower quality. Needless to say, that first experience was enough reason for us to stay away from dining at all the famous eat-all-you-can barbecue restaurants for a year. That and well, being new parents of twins didn't really gave us the luxury of time for pretty much their first year of life.

Over the recent holiday, Paul and I, together with our twins, headed to Shangri-la Mall to dine at Gyu-Kaku with some of our food-loving friends. They recently launched their eat all you can promotion and one thing that made this the exception to the rule is that we are familiar with Gyu-Kaku having dined at their Singapore outlet located across IKEA Alexandra. They're serving Japanese-style bbq majority of which is beef as the name gyu means beef in Japanese.  Also, Gyu-Kaku is definitely one of your upscale Japanese barbecue restaurants so you are assured of getting good quality meat in every order.

For only P799 (for adults) and P599 (for kids 3ft and above), you get to choose from a wide selection of appetizers, salads, soup, meats, side dishes and of course, dessert. I was actually so glad that they have dessert as a lot of restaurants running these type of promotion normally would omit dessert out of the menu.

Home Care Talk : Best Ever Joy Dishwashing Liquid

I got to admit, I'm not really good in doing household chores. In fact, I really had to learn things that hard way when Paul and I relocated to the Lion City a few years ago. With no helper with us, we were pretty much left to do things on our own. It was hard at first. We've dealt with stressful days, mishaps, burnt food, ruined clothes and more. Eventually, we got the hang of things and learned some tricks here and there.

By the time Paul and I decided to get our own condo unit, we got our designated household assignments down pat. He took care of the laundry -- washing, drying, ironing, the works! He became so good at it that he even have his own washing/ironing schedule done on a weekly basis. As for me, I took care of anything in the kitchen. Cooking, preparing Paul's breakfast and lunch to be brought to work, cleaning every single corner of the kitchen, doing the grocery and dishwashing.

Given my very OCD nature, you can just imagine the things I'd do to keep our kitchen super clean. Every day, I'd make sure that after I cook, I would wash all my pots, pans, utensils and dishes. I'd also scrub our gas range and walls to ensure that no oil splatter is left untouched overnight. Even our fridge gets a good scrub regularly and this also includes the oven, the rice cooker and basically everything that I use on a daily basis. Our kitchen in Singapore was my sanctuary. I enjoyed cooking and trying new recipes there as you can see in this link. Every night, after dinner, I'd happily take on the responsibility of washing our dishes. For me, it's my way to de-stress and my time to think and reflect. Also, I really make sure that our plates are grease-free and squeaky clean.

TEN-riffic Deal at Tenya Tempura Tendon

Today marks the 12th day of being yaya-less. Well, Yaya M was scheduled to come back yesterday and we have agreed on that. Then suddenly, she could hardly be reached almost all day yesterday and just managed to call me late in the afternoon to tell me that she wasn't able to get a bus ticket because the ticketing office was already closed (well, duh..). I had to do multiple deep breaths to hold my peace and patience as my MIL even called to tell me to just take it easy and be patient with her. Don't get me wrong, I rarely get mad at any of our staff or helper but I really do value agreements and word of honor. I just don't get how some people can make promises which they'll eventually break later on. So. Not. Cool.

Luckily, my twins are much bigger now and they can play on their own. They can also take simple instructions so we still can have a bit of breathing time here and there. Paul and I have also attempted to go to the mall without a single nanny and we have survived. Physically exhausted but very happy inside as we got to spend more time with out kids. Even when Yaya M was still around, Paul and I would take the kids to the mall to eat and play just so they won't feel too restless at home. During one of those mall days, we decided to satisfy my craving for tempura and perfectly so, we spotted Tenya Tempura Tendon at SM Megamall!