Two of our home-all-day projects:

Preparing our table for Easter (why not be early?!) and sock puppets

Friday was the moving up day and the last day of school for us. The program was the typical great ideas rather taken over by an audience of preschoolers and their over-proud parents and relatives :o)
Each child was called up to receive awards, that a parent pinned on them while the teacher spoke about the highlights of having that child in class while a few pictures were projected.


Grace got "Fantastic Reader" and "Bright Thinker"


Jasmin's were "Glowing Behavior" and "Fantastic Listener." Jasmin was pretty pleased, but the loud organized chaos was getting to her, so she had to help make sure she had a smile on!

The first song Jasmin refused to participate, but when it came time for her class song, she was better ready, having been fortified with some chips.
And, of course, not much would have kept her from getting to dress up as a blue fairy (butterfly actually)!Grace's class song required them to each be animals. Mommy was glad when the notice came that they had changed Grace's costume from a giraffe to a panda as parents had to supply the costume!

We've had a great year of interacting with school, but we are all quite happy to be enjoying lots of time at home together now. That has been a bit less than anticipated as both girls are currently on medication for bronchitis (Jasmin - again!) and a UTI (Grace).

We finally made it to the Mall of Asia! Once the largest mall in Asia, then only in the Philippines, and now not even that! But still, it is quite the mall. We walked tons and didn't see most of it.

It is March Break for Faith Academy, so we took the day off yesterday and tagged along with Alli's family (the girls' best friend) to the Science Discovery Center there. It was small - we covered it easily in 2 hours - but we had fun.
Right inside the door was a "bug mat." projected bugs scurry around the foliage, scattering to hide from stomping feet and scurrying after fruit pieces that randomly show up. The goal is to "gather" the fruit pieces with your shadow and guide them to the traps so you can catch bugs.
An unfortunately popular exhibit section was "grossology" - all about the gross stuff your body has/does. Alli and grace enjoyed pumping this guy full of coke till he burped...

In that section was a game show testing your grossology knowledge. The adults of the party were not sure whether to laugh or cry that they scored high :0)


The girls tried the holodecks, but lost interest really quickly when they didn't know what to do. Daddy had to show them how, and then got taken up with testing his soccer goalie skills.

Most popular of all was the talking fish. An amusing or boring job depending on how you look at it for someone to wait to answer visitors' questions to a projected fish. Whoever it was, did an excellent job though - the girls' kept returning over and over again and peals of laughter continually came from its coral cave!

For lunch, we ate at the surprisingly small food court overlooking a...
...skating rink! Grace and Jasmin spent a lot of time with their noses pressed to the glass watching the skaters (and asking when they could skate!). We had heard about this rink, but I couldn't quite figure out how one could come prepared to skate when it is nearly always around 30 C outside!
Mommy and Daddy were surprised at how cheap it was - even comparably cheaper than in Canada as the price includs compulsory skate rental and an all day pass to the ice. If we ever make it back to this mall, it will be to skate.

After lunch and a bit of shopping, most of the gang headed outside to the bay front where there were a few play areas for kids. Mommy and Daddy went to find a plastic sieve. Ironically, we couldn't find one! So after walking kilometers (I seriously wouldn't be surprised if we really did!), we gave up and joined them on the waterfront.

At that point, the playground lost their interest, and instead we took oodles of odd pictures focused around this pole....

Needless to say, we arrived home wonderfully tired and headed straight to bed! At least the girls got to anyway.

There was an earthquake here yesterday. We had just finished supper - still sitting at the table - when I felt a rumble through the floor. Since we live high in a teenage-dense building, that's not much to take notice of. But when you then have the sensation of swaying and the door starts rattling... well, you notice it. It was actually a 5.7 earthquake, but Manila only felt it as a 3, so it is hardly even worth mentioning for most people here. I guess we fit right in as the girls played on blithely and Michael said he wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't brought it to his attention!

Well, we had a Sunday to catch our breath from traveling, and then we dove back into life in Manila, and have been tumbled along since then trying to catch up with all that happened while we were gone. I think we've finally caught up with it all!

The girls gave Mommy a sweet few days last week as they tackled the serious business of making up for all the play their animals had missed - they hardly came to Mommy for anything except food! But since they caught up... suddenly they need Mommy to play with them or at least help them find something to do again. Which has been a fine juggling act as Mommy was not yet caught up with her things.

Just when we are about caught up with work, the girls' preschool is finishing the year next week, so there is plenty of extra things going on: Grace is going to be a panda, so we've had to hunt for good costume clothes, new songs to practice, etc. We'll be glad to be finished, but the girls will then feel the pinch of their best friend having moved back to Canada while we were away, and Mommy won't have those convenient mornings of uninterrupted work... adjustment for us all.

Grace and Jasmin soon made friends with these twin girls. One of their favorite quiet-after-lunch-time activities was "fishing" for the little fish in the front yard...
At first it was all about getting the fish to nibble on their fingers, but it soon became trying to catch one. Why the fish didn't die of fright or why they still came to their fingers, no adult there knew :)

Thursday we finally tried out the free kayaks. We easily made it to Monkey island again, but the monkeys are so well trained to the tour boats, that they didn't show themselves for us on a kayak. The girls were pretty disappointed, but the adventure of kayaking made up for it. We were out all morning, so despite being coated with sunscreen, Daddy and especially Mommy burnt their arms and legs. The girls though, escaped this misery - having been slowly turning beautifully brown all week, they were well protected.
This meant we hung out after lunch without our bag at Juniper Tree until after 3 before taking back the kayak. So we got lots of talking and ping pong in, reminding us of when we met (we played ping pong and talked a lot then too!

Friday it rained in the morning, so it was a natural down day. We still went over to Juniper Tree, but it also wasn't buzzing with activity like the rest of the week. So, a nice quiet day to end with.

We noticed Grace is recognizing the importance friends and leave-taking much more now: she took time to say goodbye to everyone she had met on her own initiative, and expressed her sadness of having made new friends that she wouldn't likely see again. A cost of this lifestyle choice of ours. How do we teach them well how to grow strong through it and still remain able to love and be loved? Something I also need to learn!

Who knew those emergency information cards on planes could be so absorbing?
Every time we have flown with the girls they have spent a good 15 minutes to half an hour pouring over them and, of course, asking tons of questions!

The week of long days of sun, sand, sea, and friends finally caught up with the girls and they slept in the taxi to the airport, on the plane, and in the taxi to our home! Jasmin made her "cocoon" with the blanket to sleep in her seat. She was quite tickled with the static effect of hair standing on end caused by her rustling around before falling asleep.

On the way from the airport to our house, the girls began talking of all their teddies that they'd left at home: how they were so hungry they could hear them crying already, etc. So as soon as we got in the door...

they made a fantastic mess saying hello to all their toys (this is just the beginning of it)...

We had a great holiday, and are glad to find that this place of ours is home to us for now.

Today, we had the fortune of running into some former colleagues of ours at another place just done the beach from us. Where they are staying is teeming with kids. (It is actually where we wanted to stay but it was booked full.) With a few inquiries and connections, we have been invited to eat there, and use the facilities as if we were guests! This is wonderful for the girls - a pool, play room, playground, and lots of playmates, AND the beach!
Grace was quick to ask for a hold of the baby brother...
This morning we were invited to join a boat trip to and around Monkey Island. What a fantastic trip! First stop, we fed quite tame monkeys.
Daddy got scratched by an aggressive male coming for the free fruit, but it was a neat experience to be so close to monkeys of all ages and sizes - even a nursing baby. Grace was startled but quite proud of the fact that one young one jumped on her back and did a back flip off her, and Mommy became the perch for another curious unafraid one.
The next bit of the journey was just as memorable, as a school of flying fish kept pace with the boat, jumping/flying rhythmically beside us often enough for even the youngest to catch sight of them. (Sadly too fast to catch on camera though - happened to be during the roughest part of the water as well.)
The next stop was a rockier beach where the kids found great delight in seeing who could make the biggest splash…
Grace and Jasmin were quite disappointed that their efforts to throw this huge rock in didn't make a huge splash because they couldn't through it far enough into the water!
This afternoon was spent with new friends on the beach, in the pool, in the play room, on the play ground… After supper Jasmin was almost too tired to walk back to our place, but Grace we had to pull away promising a quick return in the morning!

Have you ever seen or heard of this?Kite flying from a pole…

This beach is long and touted as pristine. I believe it - I have never seen so many shells on one beach, nor encountered so many alive sea creatures outside of an aquarium!Mommy was all curious and excited to explore, track, encounter, and study all sorts of new critters, but Grace and Jasmin are of the opinion than skittering crabs on the sand and live fish in the water with them is creepy rather than fascinating. Grace we can convince to watch and learn, but Jasmin insists on being carried or at least wearing shoes!

All the same, Jasmin couldn't resist the delight of wonderful fine sand for castle cake building, nor Grace the waves and water beckoning.

We spent our first whole day on the beach. Mommy tried to enforce an after lunch rest time, but other than being horizontal instead of vertical, there wasn't much resting that went on! Of course, that meant an early bed time and sleep sure came quickly!

This is where we are now:
Blue Beach on Dolphin Bay. Our journey here was a bit stressful as we attempted to come by bus to a place we had never been to, nor anyone we knew! Knowing Thai would have made a BIG difference to the experience! We made it here safely though; the only major hiccup was losing Sticker Lambie, Grace's favourite teddy.After a heartfelt cry and a comforting talk of adoption and replacement, she was over the loss. In fact, when Mommy mentioned it the next day, she was trying to comfort Mommy!
Breakfast is served latish here, so the girls have time to play before breakfast. One quick evening walk and that first morning they had quite an array of shells to play with!

And this is sweet -

the night before Grace had been restless (she slept on the bus) so we let her sit up by the window under the curtain to read their Bible. In the morning Jasmin insisted in having her turn!

Last week we were in Bangkok for meetings. Mommy was rather apprehensive about how it would go as this was a working trip and not arranged with kids in mind. Thankfully all went well. Again, we are deeply thankful for such adaptable sunny kids. Even though they were the only kids in the hotel (quite literally!) and had a brand new to them Thai babysitter for much of the week, it went smoother than when we have meetings in Manila and they are staying at home with familiar Ate Bubbles!
They enjoyed the extra attention of the staff and attendees as the only children, especially with their job of ringing the bell to usher people back into the meetings after break times. There was a pool, of course, a fun new sleeping arrangement, and the joy of being allowed to make a mess and have it "magically" tied up every day.
Jasmin had almost as much fun taking pictures of their 'playmates' as she did actually playing with them - which she did everywhere we took them. An excellent activity in the many different situations they had to wait for Mommy and Daddy.
Thankfully the breakfast provided was a buffet with lots of fresh fruit (and even salad!), so Jasmin was able to eat well, without being constantly excluded from something yummy that would be bad for her.

All told, although Daddy was really busy and often rather stressed, it was a good week for us all. We are glad to now be on holiday on the beach now though!

A catch up post:

The girls got an unexpected day with their best friend Alli, when her mom stopped in to drop off some clothes for the girls. She offered to take them back to play on the playground at Alli's school with Alli after school. We were all thrilled that it worked out really well. I am amazed every time how Grace and Jasmin have no problems going off with friends without us - and how well they do while they are gone! In this case, a very good thing, as there is little chance of playing with Alli otherwise, as she lives nearly an hour away (across the city).
The girls had to show off their new dresses of course:
Jasmin is quite the dancer. We are hoping to find her a ballet or some other dance class through the home school at our church come June.