Japan Society J-Cation

On Saturday me and the girls went to the 2012 Japan Society J-Cation. I must say it was an amazing event! The place was breathtaking, it had tons of fun activities and great yummy food.

We participated on workshops, a Game Show and even sang a little bit of Karaoke. I must say that the Japan Society did an amazing job. And on May 5/6 they will be having an Open House that we are sure to come by again.  If you are in the NYC area, please check them out.

Here are some pictures of the event.

Halloween Party!

Yesterday was our Second Annual Toro-Vivoni Family Halloween Party and today my energies where completely depleted. So I took the day to contemplate on the mess, clear only part of it, and leave the other part for tomorrow.  I also did laundry and asked my daughters to refrain from any loud noises. The sound of silence is so intoxicatingly delicious.

This may all sound like nonsense, but I feel like this month has crept up on me and has left me all loopy. The plans I had for this month are only half way completed and I am a bit disappointed, but I decided to get back on track with the Halloween Party.  Getting the house all decorated, making all the Halloween Food, getting the kids all sugared up.

What I did not expect was to have so many kids in the house and all with such a Sugar Rush that made my night turn into a blur. Screams of delight filled the house, kids running and laughing and playing. And, did I mention SCREAMING?

The menu included Halloween Themed Mac n' Cheese, Mummy Hot Dogs, Chocolate Cupcakes with Purple Marshmallow Filling, and Orange Vanilla Frosting with Halloween Sprinkles, We had chocolate cookies with Halloween shapes, Tomato, cheese and Olive Aliens, Apple-Almond Monster mouths, Rotten Apple Juice with Gummy Worms inside (all taken from Disney's Family Fun Magazine, plus Halloween Oreo's, and Chips, and regular Juice and Water. But after all that I realized that there was not enough food and too much sugary stuff so we ended up ordering Chinese Food from the restaurant of the parent's of two of the kids in the party.

My cousin in law brought over some masks to give to the kids to decorate and she brought some foam paper and some foam stickers and I gave them markers, and glue and they had a blast making their masks.  Then they played Hedbandz Game and ran around some more and finished watching a movie.  Just a few minutes before midnight the house was empty, except us who live in it on a daily basis and all was quiet again. We snuggled into bed and said our good nights.

Here are some pics from the party, I hope you enjoy them.

Bloody Footprints

Mummy Hotdogs

Cupcakes, Cookies and Breadstick Bones

Spider Web

Making Masks

Rotten Apple Juice with Gummy Worms

More Snaks

My oldest with her mask

My little one and her mask

So how was your Halloween? Did you make a party at home as well? How do you like to celebrate?

Japanese Love Day 5 - Amazing Sense of Humor!

Today I continue with Japan week, as we all know Japan is going through a very difficult time right now and I am dedicating this week to all the things I love about Japan. Because I am a firm believer of the Law of Attraction and how good thoughts when they come with good emotions tend to attract good things. The opposite is also true so I always try my best to eradicate from my mind bad thoughts especially if they come with bad emotions.
I want to send good thoughts and good vibrations to Japan, because I want them to recover from this as soon as possible and I want the best for them so I'm dedicating today to Japan's amazing sense of humor.
If you go and do a search for Japanese Pranks or Japanese Game Shows you will find tons of videos. What is so special of Japanese Pranks and Game Shows is that many times they can be very extreme. Things that you would never imagine someone to be willing to do. They are very unique.
I have a hard time explaining as there are many different kinds but I am going to share with you a few videos so you can see what I mean.

This is a video of some pranks that are made by large crowds of people, it is very funny to see how a single man can be walking down an alley when a HUGE crowd of people come running his way. Most people see the crowd and scream away freaking out! It's Hilarious!

The next video is a compilation of various random pranks. It's very funny how in the beginning they have like a stuffed animal that roars. People come close to it and they scream in fear when they hear the roar. Also there are other ones with a fake Snow avalanche and people think this huge snow ball is going to crush them and it's just a very light weight huge white ball

They also have some hilarious Game Shows. There is even a show called I Survived A Japanese Game Show where they get some Americans to go to Japan and compete in these over the top Game Shows. What I love about Japanese Game Shows is that they are not afraid get out there, do crazy stunts, get dirty and have people laugh at them. You can tell that it is something that will never be seen in American Game Shows that are not kid related. I guess Japanese game shows can be similar to the Children Game shows like Double Dare back in the day, with lots of Physical Challenges.

So tell me what do you like about Japan? I love so many things about Japan and I encourage you to find the amazing of this wonderful country and share it with the world and please donate what you can to help our Japanese brothers because we are all family in this world. You can go to Japan Society to find ways to help.

Japanese Love Day 3 - Anime & Manga

Most of have certainly grown up with Anime, at least I did. In Puerto Rico when I was a little girl we used to watch many animated cartoons from Japan, like Candy Candy, Mazinger Z, Dragon Ball Z among others. Every generation has at least one Anime that they remember growing up with.
Now my children, especially Gaby is growing up with Anime and Manga as well. Manga is the Japanese Comic Books and Anime is the animated cartoon. My cousin/sister Karla is also a big fan of Anime and Manga. She is currently living in Germany as her husband is stationed in the Army there. We were talking the other day and she told me that her daily routine includes reading some stories in Manga.com My husband and I when we were teenagers and dating we would also watch a lot of these Japanese Animations and would go to Japanese activities where animation was the main theme.
Today I would like to share with you my daughter's two favorite Anime cartoon series. Pani Poni Dash and Lucky Star. I must say that my daughter discovered these through Yucheng and she can spend hours on end watching these videos, and she has even learned a little bit of Japanese as a result. She likes to see the videos in Japanese with English subtitles and sometimes they have Romaji and English Subtitles which is great for learning the correct pronunciation of the Japanese words.
Gaby can sing the intro and ending songs of these shows flawlessly, it impresses me so much. She will also get some catch phrases from the show and say them over and over and over...

Pani Poni Dash! is a show about a ten year old teacher of a High School Class. It is very funny and the characters are very cute.

Then Lucky Star is about a group of girls that are friends and enjoy Anime and video games.

Well, here are my daughter's two obsessions at the moment, hope you enjoy them. And Anime and Manga are other reasons why we Love Japan so much, and as promised here's a link to another webpage you can go to if you'd like to contribute to helping Japan get the things they need at this very difficult time.

So what do you love about Japan? Did you grow up watching Anime? What series do you remember? Please share!

Friends Forever

Today I was reading The Rules of Life by Richard Templar and it read, "Someone once said that a real friend is someone you can  be having a conversation with as she gets on a plane, you don't see her for ten years, and when she arrives back you carry on the conversation as she gets off the plane like a moment hasn't passed." That premise made me think of my friends and how our friendship is exactly that.
For years I complained how I didn't have any friends and how all my friend's had abandoned me in one way or another, until two years ago that I finally was able to reconnect with a few old friends that I had not seen in more than ten years, and our friendship continued just like the statement suggested, as if not a moment had passed.
I have also made a few new friends since I've moved to NYC and I must say that we do not need to see each other every day to care and know that we are cherished and valued as friends. I am proud to call them my friends.
Today I am doubly blessed because not only do I get the chance to hang out with one of my new BFF's at my Wednesday Writing Group, but I get to go and pick up at the airport one of my BFF's since I was 12 y/o and get to have her a whole week to myself.
I am thankful for having my childhood best friends still be part of my life, for having some wonderful new friendships that I have made here in NYC and for all the loved ones that I only know through the internet, but that they are equally loved and cherished. To all of you I send a big hug and know that I'm blessed to have you be part of my life. I LOVE YOU!

Take the time to think about the people that you are grateful to call your friends. Do something nice for them today!

Looking for Beautiful Things

Today I did something I have never done before. I sat on the couch with a copy of InStyle magazine. A magazine that those who know me personally would never catch me reading, EVER. But here I am, with a full year free subscription to this style mag courtesy of my boss' wife without her knowledge. You see, my boss told me to pay for his wife's subscriptions to House Beautiful and InStyle Magazine. He gave me the renewal form and told me to make a check and mail it out, just like I do with all his bills. I noticed that both magazines had a "Holiday Special. Renew Today and get two subscriptions for the price of one. One for you and one for a friend. Just fill out your friend's information and we will send them a gift subscription at no extra cost to you." Perfect. I second guessed myself for a few seconds and proceeded to give myself a free gift on her behalf.

I Love Magazines. I have tons of magazines in my home. Waiting to be read or weeded out. I subscribe to Oprah, and Parents and Family Circle, Latina, Us Weekly, etc. and most of them I got for free. I only pay for Oprah magazine as she is an inspiration and role model for me. But InStyle magazine is not one to catch my attention normally. I am not into fashion and mostly wear jeans, black sneakers or boots, and a plain shirt that I buy in every color of the rainbow so as to give the impression that I wear something different every day, even though is the same exact thing just in a different color. So why InStyle? First of all it was free and second of all I remembered the words of my boss saying "My wife is into fashion, she is always wearing whatever is in Style" and a vision of his wife came into my head and how beautiful she is and how it would be nice if I looked as beautiful and fashionable as her.

Today I opened my mailbox and saw my first issue of InStyle magazine, and this magazine is HUGE. It's 500 pages of mostly pictures. As I stared at the cover and felt the weight in my arms I remembered something I read in a book about how surrounding yourself with beautiful things attracts beautiful things to you. So I carried the mag home sat in the couch and went on a scavenger hunt for beautiful things. I remembered the pile of about 100 magazines I have hidden under a table and how I have vowed to weed through them only tearing out the articles I'm interested in and recycling the rest, and thought that if only I weeded out the magazine as soon as I looked at it the first time, I would have no need to go back and check it a second time saving me the hassle. So I did, I tore out through the magazine pulling out only the pictures of things that I thought were beautiful so I can make my own beautiful things book and attract all things beautiful to myself back.

Are there any quirky things you do to make yourself feel more pretty?

It's Groundhog Day!

Today is Groundhog Day. Groundhog Day is celebrated in the United States and Canada. According to folklore, if it is cloudy when a groundhog emerges from its burrow on this day, it will leave the burrow, signifying that winter will soon end. If on the other hand, it is sunny, the groundhog will supposedly see its shadow and retreat back into its burrow, and winter will continue for six more weeks. The largest Groundhog Day celebration is held in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. Groundhog Day, already a widely recognized and popular tradition, received worldwide attention as a result of the 1993 film of the same name, Groundhog Day, which was set in Punxsutawney and featured Punxsutawney Phil.

I saw the movie Groundhog Day back in 1993 when I was 18 and it was the first time I ever heard of the holiday. I was born and raised in Puerto Rico and didn't experience an actual winter there, so I only associated the day with the movie, it was a day where we had a chance to re-do things over and over until we got them right.  It wasn’t until I moved to NYC from PR that I started to look forward to Groundhog Day in the hopes of an early spring, especially this year since we’ve had more snow than I’ve ever seen in my life.  

For most of us Groundhog Day comes and goes unnoticed; we go by our days like always. But this year I propose to make it special, send some Groundhog Day e-cards, get some fun printables with the kids and make it a family movie night and watch Groundhog Day with Bill Murray it’s PG and very funny.  Maybe this could become a fun family tradition to observe with your family, whether you live in a 4 season city or not.