Weekend Afternoons

Lately we have been bike riding-Scott and Greg go on a long ride.  Ashley and I work on riding without her training wheels and then we walk/run as Ryan rides his bike.  Ashley sometimes will stop chasing Ryan, put her hands on her hips, and say "Mommy, he's TOO fast!"  I keep telling her that when she learns to ride hers that we can ALL ride together.  We have sidewalks in our neighborhood but they are very cracked and uneven so we have to pick places without too much traffic and ride in the bike/motorcycle lane on the side of the road-sometimes a trick to ride, watch, and keep little ones safe.

Then usually we are all hot and sweaty when we get home so we swim afterwards!

International Food funny

 I freely admit that I cheat with pie crust-At home, I always bought the pre-made ones in the freezer section of the grocery store!  Well they don't have those here.  My family is funny!  The kids love frittata-basically quiche without any crust that you mix up and bake in an oven safe skillet.  It is super easy.  Greg says it is weird to eat quiche without crust!  I have tried making the dough myself and it was ok but not great.  My pie baking brother in law, Chris, says that I need to keep trying because it gets easier the more you do it.  I am obviously not there yet!  My helper bought some pre-made dough stuff-all the writing on the package was in some foreign language so I don't know what its intended use was but it didn't taste great either!

I was happy to find this alternative in the freezer section at the grocery store this week and bought 2 for us to try.  The kids were not crazy about the ham in it.  Greg thought it was very good though.  I had a really good laugh though when I turned the box over-AFTER buying it-and realized that the instructions were in French.  Thankfully between the high school and college memories of French class, the pictures, and the fact that my oven here has a Celsius and Fahrenheit conversion chart on it I did ok getting it cooked!

Pictures of Ashley

I bought Ashley this dress here in the Philippines at the American Women's Club Bazaar.  At the booth where I bought it I met the lady and her mother who make the dresses.  It is a favorite of mine (even though it is not PINK) so I wanted to have her picture made in it.

Can't believe how grown up she is getting!  I took her last week for her official interview at Brent and have now signed the letter accepting her space in Kindergarten for the fall.  We have been telling her for what seems like a LONG time that when she was 5 she could go to Brent.  Now we have had to change that and explain that she will go after our summer trip home to Grammy's so that she won't get up the day after her birthday and be mad at me for not letting her go to school!  It is going to be VERY quiet and strange walking home from the bus stop all by myself in the fall!  However, I am so glad that we are blessed here with a great school for all 3 kids to go to and that she is excited about joining the boys there.

Visit from a friend

We were VERY excited to hear that Scott's teacher from last year was coming to Manila with her family for a visit.  She had lunch with her class today in the atrium.  They have moved to another international school in Asia and we may get to see them this summer!  The whole class from last year was happy to see her!  Great to see you Mrs. Richmond!

Danielle was a huge help to me and someone that I always could email with my "dumb American" questions as we were getting settled in here-friends are a HUGE blessing from God!

Ryan's crazy hair

 In case you missed this on facebook-Ryan's hair does crazy things at night!  He is the king of cowlicks-I have tried combing his hair both ways and all of it does not want to go either way!  We laugh at his hair quite a bit and Greg said to him one morning that we should take a picture like this because his hair looks like he stuck his finger in an electrical socket!!!!

NO I did not let him go to school looking like this!

 No Ryan's were harmed/electrocuted in the taking of these pictures!!!!

Valentines Day

They do not make as big a deal of Valentine's Day here as in the States.  I sent candy in with the kids to all of their classes but they do not usually make (since it is hard to find them to buy) cards to exchange with classmates.  In the afternoon, Ashley and I went to one of the women's group charities to see the children do a valentines talent show for us-tons of singing and dancing and karaoke-of course!

 Ashley enjoyed making cards!

 My beautiful flowers from Greg!!!  So glad I married him and that he is my valentine!

 Heart notes that Ryan made for us

 Notes and lollipops that Ashley made us at school!

 My pinterest valentine pancakes-they were a big hit!

One other fun treat-the Krispy Kreme has had a sign about these out front of the store for WEEKS and they finally came in-we all enjoyed one and shared the rest with Mr. Gally, our driver for his family and Ms. Dali, our helper for her family.

Our recent day trip to Bataan Nuclear Power Plant

Greg was off last Friday so we took all 3 kids out of school and drove to Bataan-took about 5 1/2 hours to get there (more on our stop later) and 4 1/2 hours to get home with a stop for dinner and Friday night traffic.  It was a great day trip.  Below are some pictures from the trip there

 Baguio is a city much farther north in the Philippines

 There was a lot of bridge and road construction

 carabao beside the road

 beautiful scenery

 Sign below says World War 2 First Line of Defense Monument

 The reason it took us longer to get there was that Ashley got carsick on the road about 2 1/2 hours from home.  Thankfully we found a gas station, bought paper towels, got some extra water, and bought her a t-shirt that became her "new green dress" that she got to wear for the rest of the day!

We had been wanting to visit this nuclear power plant and they allow tours in hopes of teaching about nuclear power and its safety and efficiency and how it would help the Philippines need for more energy sources.  It is fully functional but has NEVER run-which is why it is safe to tour-because of fear of safety issues after the Chernobyl nuclear accident

 

 This pipe is so big around that our hands didn't meet with all 5 of us stretching around it!

 The air lock you go through before seeing the reactor-no they do not close you in

 The crane that goes out over the reactor-thought it was VERY cool that the tour guide let us climb on it

 The reactor itself

 Ryan closed the air lock door

 The plants control room

One VERY large turbine


 view out of the plant window

 We visited the beach there too and we just had to put our toes in the water for a few minutes!

 We also visited the Pawikan Conservation Center nearby.  People from here go out at night and dig up turtle eggs after the mother lays them and returns to the ocean.  They bring them back to the conservation center and place them in a sand nest, care for the babies when they hatch, and then return the babies to the ocean. 

 We got to see 3 larger turtles (all bigger than dinner plates) in this turtle shaped pond

 The boys are looking at a large model of the life cycle of the turtle

 Scott and Ryan are in the nesting area

 egg shells from the 74 baby turtles that they released the night before we came!!!!  We were sad not to get to see any of the baby turtles but they gather eggs and release babies at night to give added protection from predators

 They told us we could pet the turtles just to keep hands away from their mouths

 The silver bowl is a bowl of fish they brought out for the kids to feed to the turtles

 Greg helping Ashley feel one of the turtle flippers

 On the way back to Manila-below is rice that has been harvested drying on the road

You never know what you might see on the road

 a nipa hut with chickens, a dog, and a couple of children in front of it