Our Oli’s Uncommon Cents Giveaway ended two weeks ago + without further ado here is the list of our winners chosen by no less than the book author herself, Deb! {Drum roll}
1st Place – who won the $20 Amazon Gift Certificate
Chantelle
Runners-up – who each won a copy of Oli’s Uncommon Cents books
Mommy Rubz
Gerilen Elinessete
Liza
Congratulations guys + do wait for my e-mail confirmation so you can supply me with mailing details. Just don’t forget to respond to the e-mail withing 48 hours, right? Thanks so much + I do hope you watch out for more interesting giveaways here. 🙂
the little man’s baby clothes bin, which we have then re-purposed to hold most of his toys + books
Little toddlers are great accumulators of stuff, won’t you agree? My little man is only three but you cannot imagine how many toys, books, among other things, he’s collected {or, erm, I collected for him!} over that span of time. Where he gets the energy to go through each item + scatter them in the living room each day also baffles me! It was a good thing he often agrees to arrange these things after play, but in some occasions, he won’t just listen + mum has to tidy his play area all over again! I know he is still a tad little to be a stickler to cleanliness at this stage, although he can have his moments, but it was never too early to teach him a thing or two about keeping even just his little work space spic-and-span, won’t you agree? I would love for him to get used to keeping things in order so he can carry the habit when he is all grown-up! So how do we keep things in our homes in order while making our little tots happy to play with their stuff + all? Here are a few of my thoughts:
to get rid of unnecessary clutter delegate a place for all your child stuff, it can be a shelf in the corner of the room, or a big box when he cans stash his toys + books after play
make cleaning up his toys fun by making a game out of it. maybe you can try basketball + shoot hoops using his box as the ring + his toys as the balls! just make sure to not include those breakable ones, right? 😉
you can also encourage him to clean up after each play by counting each toy while they make their way onto the shelf or the box, that way you not only make it fun for him but educational, too!
it will be ideal if you can hire a green carpet cleaning new york-based to clean up your carpet for you, but to veer off the carpet-cleaning altogether you might want to put a protector on your carpet or discourage little ones from bringing liquid or anything that might spill onto your immaculate carpet, in the first place. Maybe you can also designate the carpet somewhere the kids do not frequent.
Cleaning up after all the clutter have accumulated, say after a week or two, for example, might be a lot tiring, so you might as well practice clearing up counter-tops or purging the pantry or the study table of clutter daily, that way not many trash + stuff will accumulate + you will only have to set aside a few minutes of your time each day to do the task. 🙂
Try practicing this for a week + see how your home turn spic-and-span in a matter of days. Let me know how it goes, right? 😉
I did mention in a previous post that we are to attend my inaanak’s {godchild} birthday celebration last Wednesday. It was a good thing the sun is unusually up + we managed to leave the house + arrived earlier to the party place. It was to be held at my friend, Amy’s house. We used to frequent this house when we were in College, together with my friends Sharon, Meia, Jhapon, + Jackie. + I was actually delighted when I managed to locate the place with asking only for a few directions. It has been a decade or so since I was last here, but seeing the place now makes me feel like it was only yesterday! 🙂
photo op with the birthday girl + cousin, Ali
The little man + I were one of the first people to arrive. The party is not on until 5 that afternoon + we arrived about half past 4pm, I guess. Jared was shy + quiet when we arrived but after a little getting used to + upon seeing his ate‘s familiar face, my little tot warmed up + was all over the place in no time ~ he was climbing up + down the stairs + was smiling at me up from behind the 2nd floor bannister! He has also stolen a dozen kisses from the shy little girl, Ali, Amy’s niece, by the time I was finished eating my food! 😀
Blessy blowing her birthday candle!
Blessy turned 10 that day + my friend, who was in the country for a vacation {she works abroad + was only here for a longer vacation}. I love the simple celebration she has thrown in to mark this special milestone in her not-so-little girl’s life, for the food served on the table, down to the colorful balloon decors! The little man actually managed to pop two of those balloons because he was overly excited to check them out! But what I really loved the most is the chance to catch up + bond again with friends that I have known for a very long time. 🙂
lookie! i was wearing a matching outfit with the birthday girl! 🙂
Not long after our friend, Sharon {who has just got off from her new work}, arrived with her Papa + her litttle one, Patrick, in tow! Our boys have known each other from our previous meet-ups + was running all over the place in no time at all! They were having a little party of their own!
Happiness is really being together with friends that you seem to have know all my life + if only I live nearer I’d probably drop by too often, so that the little man will also have a lot of playmates to have fun with! For the good food + the good conversations, + a trip down memory lane, not to mention all the fun the little man had, I wish we can go to a celebration like this everyday!
To my inaanak, happy birthday Blessy, I wish you all the best + may you grow up to the the person that God designed for you to be. Jared + I love you very much! 😀
