Feb-riendship Day

I started the love month far from the arms of the man I love (naks!) but I spent it with my best friends Phoebe and Hya. It was September 2011 when I last saw Hya and Cha, but seeing her last Friday felt like September 2011 was only yesterday. You know how we screamed at each other like real friends do. No pretensions!

L-R: Phoebe, Marianne and Hya :)

We had our first dinner at Yellow Cab (I LOVE ITS SPAGHETTI!!!!).

And then our second dinner was at Banapple. :)

I'll see you again soon, two ladies! :)

♥,

Marianne

Photo Bootylicious!

I enjoy photo booths like a little girl enjoying her paper dolls! Though some may find it ordinary or a usual scene on parties, I appreciate taking time in front of the camera and goofing around with people you want to have fun photos with regardless of how many other guests are looking at you while they wait for their turn. It's F-U-N! And my favorite part is, getting the hard copies to display them at home or at work. Remember my posts about Photo Booty? See how I evolved in a year!

Sharing you now my photo booth memories during Nei Nei's Christening party last Saturday. PS: I have lots and I want to post them all!

Super friends!

Temptation Island: ODK!

Pao and I with JC the PHOTOGRAPHER! Naks!

Phoebe and Kimmie, two of my closest-est-est friends in college and in life.

Mamai and Papao! :)

You might have noticed that all of us were wearing almost the same shade--yep! That's the theme: fuchsia pink for girls and purple for the guys. My dress even matched the background of the photo template, so Barney-ish and we like it!

For now I'm still waiting for the photos from JC! Can't wait to write good things about it, plus Mika's birthday celebration at Tides last Friday night. :)

♥,

Marianne

Spice Girls and Boy Bands

Happy birthday, Lottie! <3

One of the few best girl friends I adore and love for life celebrated her birthday with us, her equally adorable and lovable friends!

It was a spontaneous night because she just finalized celebrating her birthday after work hours but we did not mind the late notice. It's actually the exciting part of her birthday... at least for me! I was on my way to Tin's baby shower when Maro aka Lottie called and invited me and Paolo. I badly wanted to see her and the rest of the gang for I haven't seen them since the year started. I eagerly said yes, regardless of the place and time. There are risks I'm willing to take for my dear friendship (you must know I always make it a point to get a good sleep for at least eight hours)and this is one of those risks, all for the love of the birthday girl.

Happily, her night was spent in a not-so-far-away bistro called Cabizzera in Congressional Avenue. I immediately met Paolo after the baby shower, sent his mom home and headed straight to where they are. I'm surprised to see the girls complete! Mika, check! Ailyn, check! Johnson followed, check! Plus the ever humorous boyfriends Mark, Monte and our other friend, Raymund. They were singing their lungs out and even I did not miss the opportunity to have them hear my beautiful voice. Haha!

Spice Girls - Baby, Sporty, Posh, Scary and Ginger.

I wanted to call the girls Spice Girls that night. Let me explain: I'm Baby because I'm the youngest, Maro is Sporty because she's a varsity back in HS, Mika is Posh because she loves Victoria Beckham, Johnson is Scary because he's the fiercest(!!!) and Ailyn is Ginger because she's got a beautiful voice. Perfect? Perfect!

The boy band--from A1 to Westlife to NSYNC to Backstreet Boys!

The main reason why I called us girls Spice Girls is because of these men! They kept on singing the late 90s hits popularized by the boy bands and they were very serious about it! So adorable! The birthday girl's boyfriend sang A1's Like A Rose which perfectly fits for her name, Mary Rose. Aww!

MMM with lipsticks! ♥

Spice Girls and boy bands less Ailyn and Johnsy!

I hope I justified my blog post title well! But wait, there's more! We've only just begun. The group left Cabizzera past 12 midnight and wanted to spend the night longer. The best way? Coffee or tea! We couldn't decide on where to stay so we let Johnson take the lead. He's very concerned about Maro going back to her apartment in Makati so we drove our way to The Fort, thinking Serenitea's still open. We walked our way to Starbucks instead while the boys opted for a heavy meal called McDonald's!

An (almost) empty street.

I love this trio shot of us taken by Mikabee. I tried to edit this in black and white and I also find it cute:

I hope The Fort will look like this forever. No flyovers! Just a wide, open street with generous pedestrian lanes and modern buildings and establishments with obedient and well-disciplined people. In a place like this, you can bravely put your camera on timer mode and leave it somewhere to have a COMPLETE group shot. Well, we actually did this!

'Yun nga lang, malabo pa din!

Frap, iced or hot? : )

Thank you, Maro, for such a great night! As usual, I had fun being with you! Our rekindled friendship is one of the many, many, many best things I'm thankful for. Let me share your touching message for me on that same day, "Thank u mar! God knows how thankful and lucky I am to have u as my friend! Labuy! :*..." Well, girl, I feel the same way!

Happy birthday and I love you! :)

♥,

Marianne

P.S. Thanks, Mika, for emailing me the photos! :*

Holiday Hangover

Cheers to 2012, everyone! Here's my first ever blog post for this new year. I got so busy over the holidays, barely had time to visit Superloved and post new entries. And since the Yuletide spirit is still with us, I'm rolling all the happenings (from Christmas parties to birthdays to reunions, etc) this recent holiday in a single post. But prepare yourselves for a real photo-loaded story, I tried to cut the number of images but.. it was hard. Enjoy reading! :)

Tropang Logbi Christmas Party 

The same college barkada Paolo and I share celebrated Christmas last December 17 at Garahe 25. It's a big  group mostly composed of boys so don't expect to see some gift-giving activities for boys hate giving presents! :P The party poured beers however. Add sexy girls who promote beers.. it was really fun, at least for them. But seriously, it was a fun night. Year-end party plan did not push through, though.

Monthly Period Christmas Dinner

We had the North Park in TriNoma all by ourselves last December 19. We did not reserve for exclusivity but we loved the fact that the place was not too crowded because it was a Monday night. We exchanged gifts and gave my friends some cheapo presents but I'm so happy they liked it.

Yang Chow overload! And dim sum and noodles and all Chinese goodies! So yummy!

Mia gave me a 5-piece brush set from Charm. Yay! :)

"Our future is so bright, we must wear sunglasses!"

Exclusive for Monthly Period. ♥

We had numerous Christmas parties in the past, add grade school and high school parties to that, but this one's really memorable! It was the night we became friends with our dearest Lovi Poe, too! And this dinner did not involve drinking alcohol. I am so proud of ourselves for we put career first and fought alcoholic temptation. Yeah!

Mark's & Irene's Birthday-Slash-Christmas-Slash-Reunion-With-Grade-School-And-High-School-Friends-Party

Whew! This epic party happens every 21st day of December of the year. If it's true that the world would end this year, then you will know where we are and who we are with. :P And after two years of not bringing Paolo with me, I finally brought him back at the Pelayo's residence this time. Shocking for him to see my friends grow bigger... and better!

With the "outstanding" birthday boy, Mark!

With the birthday girl, Irene, and Toto and Kay: my friends since 1993!

My high school bffs and our bfs! So cute!

As usual, this annual epic party is awesome! I also skipped alcohol that night (and drank milk tea with Mika instead) because I learned my lesson the day after I drank with Tropang Logbi people. I almost puked on the third night of Simbang Gabi! Told myself to continue fighting that kind of temptation until I complete the novena Mass and hey, it was a success!

Christmas 2011

The best people to spend Christmas with: FAMILY. Never, ever fails. Happier this time, too, because our dearest Mama Nene (my Dad's sister, in peach top), went home from Taiwan to spend the holidays with us. Our cousins from Cavite also took a trip up north to celebrate Christmas with us.

Made these for Noche Buena!

My gift for my lucky baby monita! And greetings from Hello Kitty too!

Dedma sa gulo ng garahe. Paolo came to celebrate Christmas with us! We look like cousins already.

The girls with Mama. :)

I got half of my Christmas wishlist this year! Thank you to those who surprised me with presents! But what made my Christmas the happiest is being with my family and my boyfriend. Not a single thing can ever compare to what I feel when I'm with them. <3

My Mom's 50th Birthday

Our golden wonder woman turned 50 two days after Christmas. I took a leave from work to help my Mom prepare her much-awaited birthday party. I'm also proud to tell you that it was me and my elder sister, Ate Mai, who threw this party for her with my dad's and younger sister's support! Seeing her happy is priceless!

Cupcakes from Blushing Cupcakes!

We do not have enough photos because we got so busy that night. And another highlight of Mom's party is the attendance of Paolo's family! My family finally met his mom and his siblings at home! Such a wonderful occasion! Now I want them to be friends on Facebook. :P

2012 NEW YEAR'S EVE

The last day of Yuletide celebration is the first day of the year. Life's like this, so the best thing to deal with this irony is to be with your family. For 2012, we had the "Shining, Shimmering" theme. Just in case you did not notice, we wore something with sequins, glitters, lights and anything glowing!

I LOVE YOU.

Jai ho! I pouted and found out I was wearing a mask.

My baby girl Reesha gave me the sweetest kiss!

Some of the girls in the family!

The cute kids and proud titas!  

I hosted our new year's eve party and the kids had a severe hangover on the day of January first! They all woke me up at 10 in the morning and demanded me to throw games for them. I made some cupcakes for them instead because I'm suffering from sore throat. The smile on their faces while dancing Teach Me How To Dougie and Super Bass (the ONLY songs we played that eve) and while playing parlor games like paper dance, stop dance, bring me, simon says, trip to jerusalem reminded me of the true meaning of Christmas for children.

***

Again, happy holidays and let's cheer to this fresh, new year! I promise to post a follow-up blog entry for 2012, my to-dos, goals to achieve and resolution-like ideas to make me a better person this year. Aaaaand keep posted, Superloved's birthday is fast approaching. This blog is turning one this month!

♥,