Off to Stepford...

Dressed to the nines (sort of), in our Stepford Wives attire, we drove TWO HOURS (!!!!) to Tagaytay, to Sonya's Garden for Zhar's Despedida de Soltera. This is a traditional send-off party that the bride's family gives to formally acknowledge that they are "giving away" their daughter to the groom's family. Literally, despedida de soltera means "saying goodbye to being single".

Here we are, in a surprisingly passable family pic. FINALLY! Actually I *insisted* we take a family pic BEFORE the kids got all sweaty and gross and removed their hats and jackets. No way was I going to let them get away from these scrapbooker's little hands, hahahaha!

There was a harpist who strummed beautifully on her huge harp

We also had Zhar's cousin, Anna, dance a couple of numbers. Anna is a yoga instructor from New York, but she danced wonderful Hawaiian interpretations of love songs (traditional wedding songs I think?). When she was introducing her first number, she said "Aloha" and probably almost fell when our whole table responded with an enthusiastic ALO-O-O-O-O-HA! Hehehehe. We went to school in Hawaii ya? *wink wink*




More pics from Stepford land:

Here are Rod and Zhar:

And pretty maids all in a row:

Can I just say what a STRESSFUL weekend this has been?!?!? The baptism was yesterday, and this morning, I was up bright and early to park my arse on the parlor chair to have my hair fixed for the Soltera. But the !@%^&*@#$ hairdresser didn't listen to me!!! Grrr! I wanted a flip at the ends of my hair, but she just did my entire HEAD in curls!!! Sigh! Oh well. At least most of it was covered with a hat!

And thank goodness I had opted OUT of getting in a DRESS. I was the smartest one out there in the sweltering heat in some plaid pants and a white fitted blouse. Instant Stepford-iness, if you ask me! I was comfy, especially during the 2-hour ride to Sonya's garden! The kids (and Japa, actually) were dressed care of Children's Place, hehehe. Can you BELIEVE that Japa fit in a boys size 14?!?!? Sigh! What is this world coming to???