Mommy eats : Rustic Mornings

I am not from Marikina, but I love Marikina (my neighbor City), especially because it is home to some good hole in the wall restaurants.

Last Saturday morning, I had breakfast with my son and my parents at Rustic Mornings by Isabelo.  I have been itching to eat there for the longest time!  It was just recently that my family and I got ourselves acquainted with the numerous restaurants that abound in our neighboring city.  It is such a shame that we only did this now, but better late than never as they say!

Entering Rustic Mornings, I was pleased with what I saw.  I loved it's quirkiness and the feeling of being away from the mall or any commercial establishment.  I felt at home.

At 8:30am, the place was quite full and we were lucky that we were able to secure a place inside the air conditioned dining area.  Not that I did not mind eating in the garden, but my mom isn't a huge fan of Al Fresco dining.  I suggest that if you are planning to eat here, better call in advance to make a reservation.

I was happily surprised that there were a number of kids that were dining, too!  Literally, every table had a child or two.  I only wished that they will add more high chairs because there was only one available, and it was already taken when we came.  I hope they will think of adding a couple more since the place is getting more popular, and kids like eating too, you know. Since we did not have a high chair, I had to chase my son once in a while, who would get down his chair and try to go outside.  He loved exploring the place and pointing at the fishes in the small pond in the garden.

Now moving on to the food!  The menu had the usual breakfast offerings - Omelettes, pancakes, sandwiches, etc. They also have pasta and pizza.  We ordered the All meat and Country omelettes and Buttermilk Pancakes.   The Omelettes were quite good and filling that we were not able to eat Lunch anymore! The Buttermilk Pancakes that I ordered for my son was just average.  They were fluffy, alright, but the pancakes were buttery oily (if there's such a term) and I am not a fan of crispy pancakes.  It also lacked the buttermilk flavor that I was looking for.  Well on second thought, nothing beats Pancake House's Pancakes.  The brewed coffee was also a let down.  I'm a sucker for coffee and was not quite happy with it. On my next visit, I'd skip the pancakes and brewed coffee.

Despite a few disappointments, our overall dining experience was still a pleasant one. We loved the ambiance, food was pretty good (the omelettes), service was fast, and there is ample parking space. We would definitely eat here again!

Rustic Mornings' Menu

  Foods are reasonably priced.  You'd spend an average of P200-400 per person.

 We ordered the Meat Lovers omelette, buttermilk pancakes, coffee and the Country Style omelette.  The Omelettes came with home made ciabatta, while the Buttermilk Pancakes came with free brewed coffee.

    Entrance to the air conditioned dining area.

Vintage bicycles.

Al Fresco dining.

Airconditioned dining area

My son exploring the grounds.

Parking space.

Restaurant hours: 8am-4pm. No reservations required

Address :#11 Isabelo Mendoza St. San Roque, Marikina City
(02) 5106914 . (02) 6812461 . 0917 7005810

   

Wise buys: Books for less

I rarely buy new books for my son because they are pretty expensive and knowing that he still does not know yet how to properly handle a book, I opt to scour for pre loved ones.  I love Dr.Seuss and the Berenstains and so does my little boy!  I'm just so happy that I get to find these in bookstores that sell second hand/old edition books! The books I have purchased were priced between P50-P99 depending on the author and condition of the book.  Majority of the books that I have bought were either still as good as new or just had some slight signs of use.  

I am just one happy book shopping momma!  Now, I hope I can get a hand on Eric Carle's books!

Kid friendly restaurants

Ever since I became a mom of an active toddler, I have become very picky where we eat.  My number one requirement is that the restaurant needs to have a decent and safe high chair.  With decent I mean, clean and not some beat up and dirty looking chair. I like the rubbermaid ones, which I just clean with wipes before Rocco sits.  High chair safety is very important as well.   Not all restaurants that have high chairs are safe (and kid friendly).  I am particularly referring to high chairs found in Chinese restaurants that do not have safety harnesses.  What is up with that?  I just don't get it.  Those chairs are not kid friendly.  They can just easily fall off from those chairs!

So anyway, enough of my ranting about high chairs.  Let's go to the real purpose of this post.  Kid friendly restaurants.  I love eating at restaurants operated by the GRCI group (owners of PF Chang's. IHOP, CPK, etc)  because they also think of their small customers from their kiddie meals, plastic straw cups and activity sheets.  The same goes for Pancake House, Friday's, Burgoo, Chili's and Conti's that offer kiddie meals.

A plus will be establishments that also have kiddie nooks or play areas to keep the kids busy.  So far the restaurants/ coffee shops that we have been to are: Maple in Shangri-la Mall, Mary Grace in Greenbelt and Stacy's in Capitol Hills. I hope more restaurants will follow suit!

Maple, Shangri-la

My son taking advantage of the kiddie nook while we wait for our orders to arrive.

Maple's kiddie meal

Stacy's kiddie corner

My son and hubby playing with the blocks at Stacy's.

PF Chang's kiddie menu and activity sheet.

PF Chang's plastic tumbler that goes with every kiddie meal.

On accent walls and my sudden obsession with stenciled walls

Ever since we had our room re-painted and repositioned our bedroom furniture to give way to our new TV, I have been thinking of what to do with our accent wall.  I hate staring at that blank terra cotta wall and I cannot take it anymore!  Then the other day, I came across one of my friend's picture (in Facebook) of her house and I just adored its' interior design! I immediately sent her a message and told her how I loved her home!  She was quick to share that they hired an ID and also referred me to several blogs that inspired her home.  KM Interior Design Manila did an fabulous job!  I fell in love with her home's stenciled walls and I felt that was the answer to my miserable blank wall!

I am totally hooked and am so obsessed in stenciling our bedroom wall ASAP.  By the way, don't you just love Pinterest?  I love the pegs that I find there and I just need to narrow down on the stencil that I want that will be appropriate for our room.  I really cannot wait and I hope I complete this DIY project before the month ends!

     The blank wall will finally have a life!

     Photos above are from KM Interior Design Manila Facebook page.

    My Pinterest peg.  I'm leaning towards this design so that our room will not look too cramped.

    Another Pinterest Peg from Cuttingedgestencils.com

Toddler School: My son's Summer class experience

Even before I gave birth to Vito, I was already planning to have Rocco attend Summer School.  I pictured it to be our time together since I knew that I would be busy taking care of a new baby.  Things did take a different direction (with Vito passing away at 33 weeks) and accompanying Rocco to Summer School last May was part of the healing process.  I got to divert my attention and focused my energy on Rocco.

I enrolled Rocco in the Integrated School for Young Children (ISYC) in Marikina in their Summer Program.   I was looking for a school in my area (Antipolo/ Marikina) and came across a couple of good reviews on ISYC.  I visited their website, called the school and scheduled a school tour.  What I initially liked was that the I was able to directly speak to one of the school owners, teacher Leah who was very accommodating.  

During my visit, I was pretty surprised that they are not located in some old house or building that was converted into a school.  ISYC has a two-storey building equipped with a mini outdoor playground, and a pretty big multi-purpose hall.  All classrooms are air conditioned.  They have ample security and yayas to assist the children. Teacher Leah had us briefly observe one of the Toddler Class as well. On the same day,  we signed up for their Summer Playgroup Class.  The total fee was P5,500 covering a total of  eight sessions every M-W-F (the last day was a culminating activity for all the Summer classes) for three weeks from 9am to 10:30am.  The fee was reasonable comparing it to what I used to pay when Rocco was going to Gymboree, which was around 4k for a once a week class for 4 weeks.   Teacher to student ratio is 1:5, and the child needs to be accompanied by one adult.  Majority of their graduates would be going to Ateneo and Miriam, which is a good indication of the quality of education that they have.

On the first day of school, Teacher Leah provided us with the Syllabus, as well as the schedule that we would follow throughout the program. They had free play, circle time (singing and dancing), activities focused on shape recognition and story telling time.  I think I was the one more excited for Rocco to go to school than he was.   I also never imagined that it was going to be a little challenging.  There were good and bad days.  There were days when he would cry because he didn't want to stay inside the classroom or would want to eat his snack or he didn't want to do the activity.  But we were able to surpass those, thank God! 

The culminating activity, which was held on their last day, was a testament that he did somehow enjoy going to school and was ready to showcase the things he learned.  I was one proud momma (even if he was the only one who refused to sit down while performing), beaming with pride with what my little boy accomplished. I was secretly stopping tears from falling.  They were handed their certificates of attendance and we were each given a clear book containing all their artworks and a music CD that contained all of the songs that they sang in class.

I was satisfied with Rocco's summer experience in ISYC and am looking forward to enrolling him in their Toddler class when he turns three next year. I was informed though that I should apply as early as December since the classes get filled up easily.  The tuition fee is at 75k, which I think is one of the highest here in our area, but looking at their facilities and the quality of education, it is fairly reasonable.  Now it's time to start saving!

Outdoor Playgound

First day of school: Rocco loved jumping on the trampoline.

First day of school: Rocco playing with the letters.

Free play

Teacher Michelle had to give an impromptu snack time.

One of Rocco's artworks.

Free play.  Teach Michelle just taking solo pictures of the kids because it was impossible to get a decent class picture.

Practicing the day before their culminating activity.

ISYC Summer Culminating Activity

Far right: there goes my son who refused to sit down :) 

My son performing, standing ;)

ISYC website:  http://isyc.com.ph/

Yabu found me!

Look what found its way to Yabu's SM Aura wall!  It's my 2011 post on their very first branch in SM Megamall.  Thanks to my aunt for letting me know and for sending me a picture!  

I'm a sucker for anything Katsu and Yabu just satisfies my cravings.  My hubby and I are huge fans of this resto that there was a time wherein we ate in their Magnolia branch every weekend!  

Toddler activity: Color recognition

Since Rocco is already familiar with the alphabet and numbers, I thought it would be a good start to do color recognition.  My first attempt was to use a couple of bins containing blocks of the same color, but that didn't catch my son's attention.  For this activity, I just printed the different shapes and cut out exactly the same shapes so that Rocco could start matching the shapes and their corresponding colors. I placed it on a clear plastic so that we could use it over and over again. So far so good.  Every time he sees the clear book, he would immediately start matching the shapes and colors. We still need to work on articulation, though.  But that's ok, teaching does require a lot of practice and patience.