They were little when we came to Manila

2nd post of the day- June 2011-Waving standing in our container that would be shipped to Manila

 Above the kids are sitting in their special built by Great Grandaddy Cook adirondack chairs!  The kids are Scott-age 8, Ryan-age 6, and Ashley-age 3

Below Ashley and Ryan are looking at her baby ladybugs that she had gotten for her birthday-that accidentally went to storage by mistake!

Below-August 2011

This row is Aug 2012 

Here is March 2013-Now Ryan is 8, Ashley is almost 5, and Scott is almost 10-hard for us to believe!

 

Ryan's Laser Tag Party

 My baking helper-she helped me mix up and clean the beaters after making Ryan's cupcakes-not pictured, Greg who was holding the beater and licked clean the 2nd one!

 

 Above-Ryan, Chase, Scott, Daniel, and Gabby armed and dangerous!

During the break between games, Ryan opened his presents

 After another game of laser tag, we had lunch at Chili's

 As we were sitting and eating I REALLY enjoyed our kids and Ryan's friends.  They were all very nice and had a great time together.  They are at a really good stage where we can do so many fun things!

 My little helper was putting out napkins and delivering cupcakes to the table

   Yummy chocolate cupcakes with icing and Angry Bird decorations.  After singing and cupcakes the boys all played wii together!  It was a SUPER fun party celebrating Ryan turning 8!

Ashley's ballet recital

 Even more excited than for ballet pictures because I told her she could wear eye shadow too!  In her costume upstairs in the theater!  Below with some of her classmates and teacher

 There was a television upstairs outside their dressing room so the girls could watch the performance while they waited their turn to go on stage.

 All the dancers were onstage at the beginning for the singing of the national anthem-you can only see about half of them in the picture

 I took lots of pictures so that Ashley could see.  We also have purchased a dvd-I bet Ashley will wear it out watching it.  Below, the dancer up on the male dancer's shoulder is Ashley's teacher.

 Below in the blue is Teacher Maan again

 I asked Ashley which costumes were her very favorite ones and was surprised when she said the blue sailor ones below-they are cute but I was just surprised that she chose these when there were several pink ones to choose from!

 This is Ashley's class-the Radiant Rubies.  Below picture she is in the front row

 Below she is dancing in the back row

 Hilariously-this is how she spent about half of her time on the stage, trying to see us!  When she finally found us she was so busy waving that she missed her cue to get up and continue her dance!

 We had told her about the tradition of dancers getting flowers and she helped me choose the ones she wanted earlier in the day and I had shown her how to carry them, but in the below picture, the bunch of flowers with a skirt below is Ashley!

 Don't know why her tongue was stuck out here!

This is Ashley's section of ALL the dancers on the stage again at the end of the performance!

 Some pictures in the theater lobby before changing clothes and heading home-finally!  We had left home for the practice at 3:30 because it was far from our house and through a part of Manila with a lot of traffic.  The performance was from 7-9 and it was about 10:30 when we got home that night!

 So proud of our sweet little girl and enjoyed and laughed at her dance!

 We have been enjoying her pretty flowers and I got her a shirt from her ballet school which she immediately wanted to put on!