A Day Social my Mother would have gone on

The International Women's Group I belong to has day and evening socials and this was a recently advertised one.  I would like to see this place-have driven by it and it is rather unusual looking but it doesn't work with our schedule that day.

I said that my mother would want me to go because we used to tease her about reading the obituaries in the paper-of people she didn't even know!  She worked at a funeral home for a while-in the office and just in general would probably have thought this an extremely interesting trip!  Maybe I'll get to go another time! 


Let's start the day social activities in 2012 with a classic!!!
Join guide Ivan of Old Manila Walks to discover the most peculiar cemetery of the Philippines! Where else do you have laundry hanging out of mausoleums?
Itinerary
Event: A Chinese Cemetery Walk
Date: Tuesday February 28
Departure time: 07:30am sharp (gathering starts at 7:00 am)
Meeting place: 202 Dalumban Street (Marika's house)
Start tour: 9:00 am (We will meet our guide at the Chong Hock Tong Temple inside the Cemetery grounds)
Cost: php 650 for the guided tour
Bring: Camera, sun lotion, water, snack
Wear: Comfortable clothes and shoes

***Well now you have your laugh of the day!

Relaxing Part of the Weekend

Saturday morning, Greg left for a 2 week business trip to Australia-we all wanted to hide in his suitcases and join him!  We had fun talking on skype with Katie and Jodi and Maggie Saturday morning and spent most of the day playing up in the playroom.  I have my scrapbook table up there and enjoyed working on Ashley's baby book-it may actually be finished before she turns 4!

We bowled on the wii together in the afternoon, ate supper, and then went out for a night swim.  It was dark-even though it was only 6:00.  The kids enjoy any excuse to turn on the light inside the pool.  Scott is doing swim club at school this semester and they have been using fins so I had bought a pair of fins.  All 3 had great fun trying out the fins!  They fit Scott-but won't for long.  They fit Ryan too but won't last much longer on him-his shoe size is only a half to one size smaller than Scott's.  They were big on Ashley but she could keep them on.  Scott was thrilled that wearing the fins he could beat me in a race the length of the pool.

We could see the moon from the deep end of the pool.  If you were in the shallow end, the playroom window was obscuring your view.  Ashley had seen the moon and then swam to the shallow end and asked me where the moon had gone???????  It was a fun evening.

Sunday, we went to church in the morning and all rested in the afternoon.  I have already heard several times "I miss Daddy!"  so pray for us that this time goes by quickly.  Greg returns on Saturday night, March 10th-which is Ryan's 7th birthday-can't believe he is getting so big!

More Pictures of our day in Makati-see previous post for more info and pics

 The end of our time at the Children's Museum-the kids wanted to go back through the body room and out the big mouth

 Ashley decided to be brave in the ocean room and wear the octopus hat herself!

 Ashley and Scott as octopus-es???

 All 3 wearing fish hats

 Playing on the playground outside the children's museum

 The outside of the helicopter fixed for kids to play on

 This is the American Embassy-very close to the children's museum-Greg and I want to take the kids here for a tour sometime

 This is Manila Bay-you used to be able to walk beside it for a long way but one of the big storms since we arrived in July flooded a lot of this area so now most of it is blocked off for re-construction.

 Winnie the Pooh on a jeepney

 There was a Hard Rock Cafe store that you could enter without going in the mall-we went in there and bought Greg a t-shirt for his collection and then went up to the 3rd floor to the actual restaurant to eat lunch.

Here we all are-the kids thought the guitars on the walls were cool and the pictures of all the musicians but they loved their hamburgers and mac and cheese and the chocolate mousse we had for dessert.  It was a fun but long day out!  I will post tomorrow about our relaxing Saturday and Sunday at home!  Hope you all had a fun weekend!

A Big Day in Makati-part 1

Makati is a suburb near us-it really is only about 30 minutes away but in traffic can take up to an hour or more.  When we go to Makati for something we try to make a day out of it so it isn't a wasted trip.  Greg had a training class for work in Makati yesterday afternoon.  The boys were out of school and Ashley had a field trip to the Museo Pambata-the children's museum that we visited just a few days after getting here in July.

The boys and I joined her on her field trip and had a great time!  There were some new things to the museum-the most exciting were some fish and octopus hats-the pictures are hilarious!  Then afterwards I had big plans for the rest of the day.  We were going to see the Coconut Palace-the official residence of the Vice-President of the Philippines-used mostly for official business, eat lunch at the Makati Hard Rock Cafe, and visit the Ayala Museum which has some art and mostly items related to Philippine history.  Due to traffic, we didn't get to do all I had planned but had a couple of fun surprises along the way.  See pictures of our day below.



Ashley sitting with some of her friends listening to the beginning of the tour.

 Ashley with a jeepney in the museum

 The music room

 In the ocean room-the fish and octopus hats were some of the boys favorite things-Ashley wouldn't wear them the first time through the room.  I asked if she wanted mommy to wear one and of course she said yes-the nutty things we do for our children.  When we went back after our official tour, she was braver.

 Ryan-left and Scott-right

 Yes I am the one in the burgundy octopus hat

 This average rainfall per year is OVER 16 feet of rain!

 Ryan was very proud of himself for putting this puzzle together

 Ashley was playing with the rice in this box

 The body room-Ryan trying to stuff the intestines back into this guy

 Ashley's friend, Yanna, examining her fingerprints

 Ashley working on the body puzzle

 This was hilarious to me-This is the room that has several market stalls-Ashley was in the rice stall-no the rice doesn't come out-otherwise it would always be all over the floor!

 This is Ashley's friend Yanna again-don't you LOVE her boots.  Her mom, Magic, and her younger brother are in the picture too.

 The firehats were just a little too big for the little girls!

More schoolchildren in aqua and yellow uniforms on a tour of the museum

 We saw this band playing as we left the mall of asia

 Scott on his skates-one of the few times he wasn't hanging on the wall-we had 2 hours to kill at the mall that was very near where Greg's class was.  The boys asked to ice skate and it turned out to be a lot of fun for them!  Ashley and I enjoyed watching them and seeing some really good skaters too!

 Ryan skating

 Write this date down-we saw a pile of snow in Manila!

 The zamboni was nearly as cool as getting to skate.

 Ryan and Scott having their picture made while skating

 making their way around the rink

 Getting ready to skate

 Our lunch place-before we skated-don't know why the pictures got reversed in order-oops!

kids outside the cafe