It's Mother's Day!

This is me holding my Mother's Day gift:


Yup, an iPhone! Whoohooo!

I think I was making Japa edgy because I didn't rip apart the package first thing in the morning. Well, we woke up at 850 am and we decided to catch the 930 mass. Yeah. Hahahaha! But we made it in TIME! Whoohooo! Anyway, the packaging of my gift was pretty great! Totally creative, especially for Japa if you ask me. The pics are still in the camera; but I'll be scrapping those sometime soon, hehehehe.

After mass, I had my Mother's Day breakfast at Starbucks with the kiddos (sans Ranger) and Papa. It was relaxing and fun, with the kids eager to tell stories of what's been going on in their lives. Yes, we see them everyday, but for the past several days, they've been sleeping over at Apitong. Peace and quiet at home, but God only knows what a madhouse it probably is over at Lai's house! Bwahahaha!

After mass we headed over to Ayala where the kids spent a good part of the afternoon just cuddling the new puppies:




And here's the biggest "kid" of them all, playing with the puppies' mom:


Dinner was at some Japanese restaurant where we ate 'til we were stuffed!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all the moms out there!

Last Day in Hong Kong

I stayed up late to pack our bags. I woke up early today to pack our bags. :) We let the kids sleep in, since we got home late for the first time during our entire stay in Hong Kong.

Breakfast was McDonald's, as usual. Only this was, Japa didn't check the bags and we ALL got Egg McMuffins which we did NOT want!!! Grrrrrr!

We had lunch at our "regular" restaurant for the last time.....and finally took a photo just so we would remember the name. I mean, we had been eating most of our meals here for the past 6 days, lunch or dinner. And none of us knew the name of the place, hehehehe. So, for posterity's sake:



With all our bags packed, we stopped by the Concierge to pick up the laser tubes that were ordered by the Columbarium. And we were surprised by the size! At least it was light! So....we figured that it was best if Japa would take all the bags to the airport via taxi. When all the bags and the crate were loaded, I noticed some space in the middle of the back seat. I told Rogan to squeeze in there, heheehhe. That's at least one boy who would NOT be a liability on the MTR (I'm talking about having to constantly keep in him in my sights just so he wouldn't get into trouble or some other such thing).

We finally got to the airport. The kids rode FREE on the Airport Express train, so we saved some money there :) Japa was first in line in the Business Class line, flashing the Premier Elite card. Whew! Thank goodness for that one. The lady was verrrrry nice, helping Japa check in the crate at the oversized package section AND giving us ALL seats in the upper deck!!! Which meant that we got Business Class seating! Whoohoohooo!!!!

Here are a few pics of us enjoying our seats before take off:




Uneventful flight, with Ranger nodding off in his uber comfy seat before take off. Raine didn't throw up, and we were one of the first ones off the plane. We claimed our bags, paid a minor amount for the laser tube in the crate and went off.

We dropped off Raine and Raegan in LaVista because they were going to sleep with Zhar; Rod had left for the States yesterday.

And finally, finally, FINALLY. We got home. Ahhhhhh. Nothing like your OWN bed!!!

Girls' Time and Boys' Time

After having breakfast at McDonald's, we went our separate ways:

{GIRLS' TIME}

We went to Mongkok so that the girls could see what Hong Kong shopping was like. That it wasn't all department stores and fixed prices. Of course, the first store we went to, Bossini, was where the girls had fun shopping, hehehehe. They picked out shirts and jackets and were happy.

Mongkok showed them the stalls and stalls lined up on the streets. And the bargaining! Coach Jana taught them that they could chop off as much as 60% off the asking price of the vendors! Even *I* was surprised that we could go that low; I guess I was so used to shopping with Mom, who'd go only so low with her bargaining skills :) Apparently, prices were dropping because most of the goods were coming from China.

After shopping for a few more things, we passed by Park N Shop to get lunch. At 3 pm. Hehehehe. Yup, the girls got a chance to "live" the life of a Hong Kong shopper: going without lunch because there were still so many stalls to go to. :)

After a lovely lunch of char siu pork and roasted duck and rice that left us fully satisfied, we rested a bit before hitting the pool. Yeah right. It was *still* freezing water in the darn pool, despite the warmer temperatures outside! Sheesh! The ONLY reason why I ventured into the water was because the girls were playing with their new camera that could take UNDERWATER shots! Look how COOL this is:


All I did here was to hit Auto Levels in Photoshop and our skin tones were highlighted a bit. Otherwise, the pic was clear as day! Is that cool or what!

After the cold pool, the steam room was a WELCOME treat! We stayed in the steam room for probably close to an hour. Japa said that he heard us all the way to the gym, we were laughing and chatting up a storm! Hahahaha!

{BOYS' TIME}

When we left McDonald's, the boys went back to the hotel. And Rogan literally pooped up a storm. Our toilet overflowed and Japa had to call Housekeeping in a major way! Hehehehe. Ugh. Thank goodness us girls weren't there to witness the grossness of it all! Ewww.

The boys took a short dip in the cold pool as well; they couldn't stay that long since Ranger's lips were turning purple. They also had a much-needed stay in the steam room, long enough for Ranger's body to heat up.

{DINNER}

We found out that there was a Toys R Us by the Tsuen Wan station. So we walked aaaaaaalllll the way there. It took us about 15 minutes of straight walking and by the time we got to the Discovery Park Mall, we were hungry! After a short stop at the toy store that didn't yield a Star Wars Lego set, we proceeded to the food court.

And oh my goodness, was it totally authentically CHINESE! Everything was in Chinese, with the exception of McDonald's and KFC! After settling the kids onto tables and chairs, we bravely lined up for our food. Thank goodness the cashier could understand what we wanted. Sort of. Hehehehe. Obviously, we stuck to the "safe" staples of pork char siu, roasted duck and chicken. Everything with rice, of course.

And were we FULL by the time we were done! I regret not taking a pic of our food though, since everyone dug in when the food was set on the table. We were that famished! :)

{SCRAPS}

After dinner, I hurried everyone home because I needed to do 2-weeks' worth of layouts to qualify for the incentive over at Weeds and Wildflowers Designs. And I made the deadline, barely!





TTFN! I still need to pack! We're finally going home tomorrow!

Squeezing in Some Educational Time

What's a trip to Hong Kong without a trip to.....the HK Science Museum? :) It opened at 1 pm, so in the morning, we all trooped to Ocean Terminal to Toys R Us to get some prizes for the kids for swimming well.

Apparently, Raegan seems to be getting too old for toys; she couldn't for the life of her figure out what she wanted to get. She finally settled on some huge bubble thing. I have a feeling she just grabbed it just for the heck of getting something. At least it wasn't expensive; Raegan knew she was in for some clothes shopping this trip.

Raine picked out a dancing mat thingy, the one that you hook up to your TV and has some songs that you dance to while stepping on arrows on the mat. Ranger was content with a small Lego Star Wars toy. Not that he'd assemble it himself, but he's been Star Wars-crazed recently!

Rogan, on the other hand, had a huuuuuuuuuge problem: he couldn't figure out what Star Wars toy to get! And of COURSE he was looking at the huge expensive ones! Sigh! He really really REALLY wanted the AT-TE Walker, it was the second most expensive one of the bunch! Aaargh!


We told him this was going to be partly a prize and a birthday gift (his birthday's coming up in June) to which he quickly agreed to. Boy, let me tell you, he could NOT wait to get his hands on this thing! :)

Ranger freaked out when he realized we had to leave all the toys at the store just so we wouldn't have to carry everything around when we went to the HK Science Museum. It took some major convincing to do, but he grudgingly agreed to let go of his "prize". Hehehehe.

And so we walked and walked and walked. And walked some more. Apparently, I had told Japa the WRONG information. I totally thought the Science Museum was the Planetarium...which was why we took our sweet time over lunch since we thought that the museum was next to Ocean Terminal.

Was I majorly wrong! We were on the OTHER side!!! And so, after walking for a little bit over an HOUR through the HK Theater of the Arts and the Avenue of the Stars (which, by the way, looks very very clean and new, with this awesome glass encased deck with a whole view of the Harbor!!!) and a playground where the kids spent some 15 minutes playing, we arrived at the HK Science Museum.

Whew!

This dinosaur skeleton (a Lufengosaur) greeted us at the museum lobby. It was pretty big; skinny, but big. Very cool. I asked Japa to take lots of photos because I have a few dinosaur kits that I can use, hehehehe.

When we got there, we were a bit dismayed to see lines and lines of school kids outside the museum! Ack! We thought we'd have a quiet and pleasant stay inside the museum!

So we started at the lowest floor since most of the school kids rushed to go up to the topmost floor. Good thing, too! At the bottom floor, we enjoyed solving some puzzles. Rogan even refused to move to another station until he had at least tried to do the puzzle! :) I know we spent a LOT of time in that puzzle area!

Then it was off to the World of Mirrors where we had so much fun laughing at ourselves as we went in front of mirrors that changed our shapes and heights. There were some freaky mirrors too, that seemed to cut off our bodies!

There was this cool capsule room that proved that people's perception of time differ when placed in the dark. Even Ranger had a try at it, he wasn't scared of the dark!

With so many things to do in the museum, I could probably fill a whole album with photos! By the time we were done (taking our sweet time doing all the different things), about 4 hours or so had passed. Now THAT was money truly well spent! :)

Pulling Suitcases

What a day. It started at 4 am, when we got up to get ready for our 8 am flight. We met Coach Jana at the airport and lined up for what seemed like hours just to get through immigration! Sheesh! I have NO idea what the hold up was, but that line was looooong!

We got through and I must admit I sort of dumped Rogan and Raine on Coach; I was so hungry I couldn't wait to get inside the lounge where I could eat! I left some money with the kids so that they could have some juice with their sausage and rice, and so that Coach could get some breakfast as well. Raegan and I went to the lounge; it was her turn this trip since on the last trip through NAIA, Raine was the lucky person to go with me to the lounge.

I hurriedly ate some arroz caldo so that we could sit with the kids and Coach before we were called to board. Told you I felt guilty! But hey, at least I was full, hehehe. We boarded the plane and although we had bulkhead seats, we were waaaaaay over at the back of the plane. Not good if you have a daughter like Raine who has a tendency to barf due to motion sickness. Uh huh.

How far back you ask? If the plane was up to row 115, maybe less, we were at 85. So of COURSE I had Raine drink her Bonamine to prevent her from feeling dizzy! Luckily, she was able to control herself and didn't even feel dizzy. And this was at the BACK of the plane! I was so proud of her! hehehehe.

We landed, got our bags and went on the train to get to our hotel. Luckily, the Airport Express has a promo until May where the kids travel for FREE!!! Yay! Gotta love that word! We went down at Tsing Yi, crossed to the Yellow Line, and after 3 stops, crossed to the Red Line, heading to Tsuen Wan.

We got off at Tai Wo Hau and proceeded to lug our suitcases all over the streets. Yup, the streets. We started to walk from the station to the hotel (a few blocks away). Then we got to the bottom of a footbridge that wound itself all the way up and across the streets. Ooookay. At least there was a RAMP that allowed us to pull our suitcases up the footbridge!!! And thank goodness for the person who invented the 4-wheeler suitcases; although it wasn't exactly a cinch to use up the ramp, it made life sooo much easier! Poor Rogan had to contend with a suitcase while the girls each had a roller. I had the other suitcase and the humongo duffle bag that had all their swimming stuff in it. Sigh!

Our rooms weren't ready so we left everything at the concierge and went to search for lunch. Across the hotel, on the ground floor of a building, was this obscure place with noodles and rice dishes. We were SO there! We remembered this place from last November when we were here for Mantas as well.

And boy, were we all hungry! The act of pulling those suitcases was reason enough, I think! These pics are evidence enough:






And no, the pictures aren't ruined. That's STEAM from the food that you see rising from the dishes!

Girls Out at the Parlor

The nail parlor, that is. It was time to go to Le Charmant since the nail in my middle finger snapped. It was irritating me so much that I cut and filed it....to the edge of my finger bed. Yuck! So because it was an unsightly thing to behold, a trip to the nail salon had to be made.

I had Raegan come along to try out the nail wrap for her bitten-nails. I was thinking that the wrap would help her grow her nails and help her avoid biting them. Besides, the nail wrap makes your nails hard, it'll be difficult to nibble at them, hehehehe.

Raine's eyes lit up when she heard we were going to the parlor (didn't matter what kind of parlor it was, just as long as it was a kikay thing), and she practically begged to come with us.

So, with both girls in tow, we got to Le Charmant. Pictures are worth a thousand words, so:



The pic above shows Raegan's hands, nicely wrapped and french-tipped. With nail art, to boot, since her manicurist had so much fun doing her nails! Hehehehe.

I have yet to take a photo of Raine's lavender nails. They came out really nice and girly. Trust me, that was the best option since she wanted PURPLE, i.e., eggplant (!!!) colored nails! I told her to choose an age-appropriate color or go colorless; her manicurist I guess felt a little bit sorry for Raine, so she brought out the lavender colored nail polish :)'

Before they dropped me off at the office, I told the girls not to be too conscious of the nail polish on their hands, especially during swimming! God forbid that they wouldn't touch the wall hard enough because they might ruin their nails, hahahahaha!

Scrap Happy Post

It was a hot hot HOT Sunday! Sheesh! Blistering hot! It just HURT to step outside! Ugh!

We all woke up late, so scratch the plans to go to mass in the morning. We did have a late breakfast, at around 10, which was nice since we were all present at the table. Chit chatting, we almost lost track of the time and had to scramble to get showered and dressed for lunch at Ayala.

Now Japa and I know the trick to having the kids avoid huge lunches at his house on Sundays: late breakfasts! LOL! All of us were surprised that the kids ate just a little bit for lunch. Some rice, a little bit of steak, and that was it! Whoa! It's never happened in the history of all their meals at Ayala! Bwahaahahahha!

The kids with Japa took up yaya badminton in the front yard. Don't know how they did it, but like I said, it was sweltering outside! Blech!




Like our homemade "net"? Hahahahaha! A nylon rope, for pete's sake! Oh well. Anything to keep them active and having fun during this seemingly loooooong (and hot!) summer!

At 4 pm, we attended mass. And yes, it was hot hot HOT in church! Man oh man! And good thing I was listening attentively to the homily because the priest mentioned that it was Divine Intervention Sunday today. Note to myself: look up Sister Faustina and read up on her.

Anyway, the priest said that those who say confession today and attend mass (or was it receive Holy Communion?) will receive an indulgence. That sat me up straight and I quickly whispered to Raegan that we had to attend confession since we missed Easter Sunday mass last week. Raine of course, trailed us and went to confession too. I should have told Rogan to go with us too, darn it! Oh well. Next time. :) As it was, the girls and I stayed well after mass since the line for confession was soooo long! And did I mention that it was hot? Hehehehe.

Ok, talking about scraps, I was quite the productive scrapper today:

AT THE SPORTS SCHOOL

NOODLES AND DUMPLINGS

SINGAPORE-BOUND

Can you tell I've on yet another album? Hehehehe.

A Take on Straw Hair

We went to Monte Vista for the 1st birthday party of Yana. Although it was hot, at least it didn't rain, nor was the sun blazing hot on that day. And with 4 kids, plus the 4 kids of Lai, we had some MAJOR presence at the party, especially during the games! Hahahahaha! Story of our lives......at least, until the kids are too old and/or when they figure out that they're too old for birthday parties of toddlers!

The funniest game during the party had the kids make straw hair. Partnered up, one kid had to put as much straw (literally, DRINKING straws) into the hair of his/her partner. At the end of the timed event, the group with the most straw strands would win. Here are the hilarious pics of the kids, and you'll know what I mean when I say that I was lauging my head off during the game:




That's straw hair, literally! Hahahaha!

At the party, I had some delish dessert - mango sago in cream. Yes, very yummy, especially since it was very cold, but as soon as I finished a bowl of it, I regretted it, lol. I could FEEL the cream running through my veins, clogging up arteries. Blech! And it filled me up so much that I could barely enjoy the rest of the food! :( That will teach me to eat dessert first, hehehe.

Sigh. It's time to really start a diet in a major way. The problem is that there aren't any diet plans here. I want to be able to try the Nutrisystem plan (I think Roc has done this and has lost a of weight while she was on it, right Roc?), or even better, the Nutrisystem Diabetic meal plan, to control sugar intake.

The plan looks pretty yummy; of COURSE I checked out the food for each meal. And hey, they have snacks! Hehehe. Everything looks good, but I'm just a bit concerned on the sodium intake. I've read somewhere that low sugar foods sometimes have their sodium levels upped to make up for the lack of taste that less sugar gives the food. I think it would help if there was a breakdown of food components for each meal or entree, just like the ones we see on food labels.

I love the fact that you don't have to count calories. The system counts it for you. The danger though, could lie in the fact we can add grocery items. They suggest some items, but what if the dieter decides to substitute chocolate or some other high-calorie alternative? It'll be a waste of money, food and time obviously, but still. I DO like the fact that we can add to their food with salads and yogurt and cottage cheese and stuff, which gives me a feeling of being more in control.

Ok. Now to find if such a system exists here at home so I can really start my diet. And yes, Japs. With exercise :)

Oh, I uploaded one page today.

SKIPPING GRADUATION

TTFN!

Getting Back Into the Swing of Things

Or at least, trying to. Woke up reeeeaaaalllly late. Like 1030 late! That's not normal for me. I did wake up around 630 am; I downloaded some scrapping stuff and ended up going back to bed. For a few more hours, hehehe.

After a few hours at work, I went home to enjoy some peace and quiet before the kids got home. I gave the boys their Lego Star Wars and they crammed themselves into a corner of the room to work on it. Rather, Rogan crammed himself into a corner and quickly got lost in his own world of spaceships and droids. Ranger kept going up to his Kuya and asking, "Is it done yet?" Bwahahahahaha!

To quiet his brother, Rogan shoved a few pieces of legos into Ranger's hands and told him to work on it. Here's what the little boy came up with:


Yup, he did that all by himself! I didn't know that these droids had to be put together. I assumed they were all in once piece, lol. I guess not. Since when did Lego toys get so complicated? Sheesh!

Raine was busy finishing her Little Women book, so that she could start on The Wizard of Oz, the book that we brought home for her. It came in this pretty hard bound cover, and had some illustrations in it.

I am SOOOOO happy that the kids are finally getting into reading. Slowly, but surely. I hope. Crossing my fingers that the trend continues. The trick is, I think, not to force them into it, obviously, but to have them CHOOSE what books they want to read.

Raegan was busy with her still-new Guitar Hero on the DS.

Yup, getting into the swing of normal things. :) It's good to be home!

In Singapore

I am finally showered and all CLEAN after a pretty long day! Ahhhhhhh!

The day started at 445 am, when our alarm went off. A quick shower, a dash of ironing for the hair, a quick Mcdonald's breakfast courtesy of Elizza and Reese, and we were all off for Clark Air Base...in Pampanga....for our flight to Singapore.

What airline? Tiger Airways, a Singapore-based airline that offers el cheapo fairs! As in! The fare I paid for BOTH Raegan and myself were still less than what we would have paid for on Philippine Airlines for EACH of us! So now tell me WHY wouldn't we drive the hour and a half to the airport?!?! Hehehe. Soooooo worth it!

The catch for the cheap fares? No food on the plane. Not too bad actually, since we did eat before the flight. And since we were up early, Lai and I were fast asleep for a good part of the flight. Raegan and Reese were yacking up a storm, reading and playing their DS games the whooooole time!

Here are Raegan and Reese just before boarding the plane. Good thing I had my handy dandy cellphone camera on hand. And yes, I insisted they stop and smile, hahahahaha!


Here we are at the Singapore BUDGET terminal airport. Take a look on the lower left corner of the photo. It clearly shows the word BUDGET terminal, hehehehe. What, like this is a lower-class (well it actually is) level of terminal?!?! Gasp, gasp! Bwahahahaha! It's just so....so.....so un-sosy like you know? :)


{FUNNY HOTEL STORY}

From the airport, we hail a taxi. Our driver spends probably 5 whole minutes leafing through a book of maps. Then we speed off, and he starts punching in the address of our hotel in his GPS. While driving. He asks me to call the hotel, and I do, so he can ask for directions. He talks while driving. A manual car WITH a stick shift! He literally needed THREE hands!!! Sheesh!

Anyhoo, we get to a sort of residential area with big white structures. Apparently they were the British Army barracks way before. There are some buildings in one part of the camp that the Singaporean Army still use. Anyway, it was an okay-looking area, and we finally got to the hotel.

I swear, as we were driving up to the front of the hotel, I heard Reese say, "YIKES!" Bwahahahahhaa! I am laughing as I type this up! That remarked totally made me laugh and it was EXACTLY what we were thinking, only that she said it out loud!

It wasn't the greatest looking hotel, that's for sure. And we were MIGHTILY RELIEVED that we had the wrong hotel. Sort of. We were dropped off at the old wing; our rooms were in the new wing. The lobby was much much MUCH better, and the rooms were pretty decent.

I guess it's hard for US if OUR kids have been used to the standards of Mamalyn! Haaaaaaay! I swear, I'm going to hold true to my promise - er, threat! - of booking a really rinky dinky room for us to stay in during one of our trips! Hmp!

This next photo shows our FIRST meal in Singapore.


Man, were we sooo hungry! It was Yoshinoya for us, at Compass Point, some mall near the hotel.

Here's a fave pic:


Raegan totally enjoying her dinner of noodles with dumpling......at the food court on the highest level of Compass Point. That bowl right there was a mere S$4! What a meal, eh? Hehehehe.

A Morning Walk and an Afternoon Assessment

The older kids were at swimming training, and Japa soon followed to bike around the village. After scrapping a bit and downloading, I decided to go power-walking in LaVi. Sort of. But when I had made the decision to get up, the rain poured. As in huge raindrops, and pouring in SHEETS! Whoa! It's the summertime, Mother Nature!!!

After an hour or so, the rain finally stopped. Ranger was in his couch potato position, looking like he was going to spend the entire DAY in bed just watching TV. I finally coaxed him to get up and get dressed, purportedly to visit Bric, hehehe.

So off we went to LaVi, and I was able to persuade Bang to come with Bric in tow.

The half hour of walking was pretty good, and I worked up a sweat in no time. I guess those Office Aerobics classes did some good, hehehe. I did miss them the last week when I was sick, that's for sure.

Bang and I kept up a pretty good pace, I thought, although my heart wasn't exacty pounding from the exertion. It was enough pushing the kids in their strollers, especially during the constant upward ramp in the route that Bang had us do. Whew!

And Bric sure entertained us the WHOLE TIME, talking non-stop round trip during the entire half hour. He had a continuous monologue going, lol!


Here's their photo when we got home. I fished out a couple of juice packs from my bag and gave it to them. I asked them if they were tired and they resoundingly said "YES"! Bang and I looked at each other and laughed, THEY were tired?!?! All they did was sit there in their strollers! LOL!

And thirsty---boy, did they chug that juice down like THEY had done all the walking!

In the afternoon, while Japa took the girls to the parlor to have a summer hair cut, I took the boys to have an assessment done for Filipino. Kind of like Kumon, in a way, I guess. Ranger apparently, wasn't all that ready to be enrolled in the program. He was still conversing in English during the entire assessment, hehehehe!

Rogan probably fits perfectly in their target market: older, can read, and refuses to understand Filipino. Truly his father's bane, hehehe. He knew a few basic words, but it was obvious that he needed a lot of work on developing his vocabulary. In Filipino.

I wish I had a ready photo of the girls with their new hairdos. They looked adorable with the shorter hair! Of course, it was all nice and fixed since they came from the parlor. Crossing my fingers that they'd be able to fix their hair like this everyday! Yeah right. Here's hoping that they'd at least ATTEMPT to fix their hair the way it should be fixed! :)

Homemade Tattoos

When the kids woke up this morning, it was to find some homemade tattoos, i.e, from Papa's markers, on various parts of their bodies. Rogan had a Philippine flag on his arm, Raegan a flower, colored in with red. But Raine's was the best one of all. Papa told her that he tried drawing on her arm or tummy, but because she was moving so much while she was asleep, he had to settle on making his mark here:

The red lips were drawn on Raine's back, the only place Papa could reach without ruining his drawing, hahahahahha!


Her homemade tattoo is on her lower back, just above her arse, bwahahahaha! She was spinning around trying to look for her tattoo; I had to take a photo of it just so she could see it!

After the day at the office, I *SO* needed to veg out.....by scrapping! And boy, a day off from scrapping sure can recharge the creative mojo!

EGG HUNTING

ON TIPPY TOES

THE WATER SPRINKLERS

DS BOYS

Yes! That's a bunch of pages done, whoohooo!

PTC x 4

And the PTCs start. Hehehe.

PTC 1 was Ranger, at 830. No problems, good grades. Ranger was writing better, pressing on the pencil more than before. His assessment test scores were pretty good, too. He just needs more practice using his motor skills, like cutting with scissors, coloring within the lines, etc.

PTC 2 was Rogan, with Teacher Erika squeezing me in since her parents cancelled for the next time slot. Rogan had pretty good grades, too, mostly As, a few Bs. Like in Filipino, hehehehe. To be expected! He was a messy student, requiring a whole garbage bag to himself to clean out his locker! Ack!

PTC 3 was Raine. Last of the kids with Teacher Tess. For now. Hoping that Teacher Tess will still be in school when Ranger reaches the 2nd grade! She was excited that Raine almost got a perfect score in her Math exam! She was the one who told Raine to take it easy and make sure she went back to check her answers. All As was all I could see on Raine's report card.

PTC4 - finally!!! - was Raegan. I rushed up the stairs since I was a few minutes late already. By this time, I was lugging more than a foot-worth of report cards and projects from the first 3 kids. I dumped everything outside the Grade 4 door and went in. Teacher Nez was all praises for Raegan, nothing else. She is so funny, and obviously oh-so-loves her class very much! Wishing she'd go on to Grade 5 with them, but it looks like she's staying on at Grade 4. At least Rogan gets to have her this coming school year.

Teacher Nez was returing to me Raegan's painting that was displayed in the lobby of the UP Theater during the Year End Program, and I asked her if she wanted to have it. She looked at me like she couldn't believe I said that, and I told her that I'm sure Raegan would want her to have it, too. Hesitantly, she took it and then with a big smile, she said thank you and that she was going to hang it in her room, hehehehe.

Here's the "famed" painting. Teacher Nez pointed out to me that Raegan's trademark is that flower at the bottom. Most of her artwork has this flower, albeit in different colors and different sizes, but it's there to be found. :) Cool. Gotta watch out for that and see if I can spot the "hidden flower". Hehehehe.

Year-End Presentation

It's been a looooooong day! Mostly because of the kids' Year-End Presentation. This year, it was held at the UP Theater and the poor kids had to wait backstage for TWO whole hours before they actually came up on stage! Call time was at 330 pm, but because of the awarding of the Intelligence Awards, it seemed like forever before the program proper actually started!

We had the following awardees:

Linguistic Intelligence - Alexander Lacson. I nominated him for his awesome little book, 12 Little Things That We Can Do For Our Country (or something like that).

Logical-Mathematical Intelligence - John Gokongwei, Jr. The big guy wasn't there, but his daughter, Robina, was there to accept the award.

Spatial Intelligence - Rey Paz Contreras. He was an interesting man, a sculptor who uses his ability to help set up a community-based art training program. But he seemed to talk forever, and I know I had a catnap during his speech.

Musical Intelligence - Chin Chin Gutierrez. She was a beautiful lady, inside AND out. She spole in a lilting voice and advocated for a cleaner environment, mainly for our children's benefit. However, her aceptance speech was a tad bit too long when she took the mike and performed an indigenous song. It was a beautiful, local lullaby, though, and Chin CHin sang it with grace, accompanied by body movements of a bird, I think it was.

Interpersonal Intelligence - Cecilio Pedro. Yes, the guy behind Hapee Toothpaste. I nominated him as well. I texted Bang and she mentioned that Papa Ces was in Taiwan with Boydee! Hehehe. Cecilio accepted the award in a pre-taped segment, which was pretty cool :) and short and sweet!

Intrapersonal Intelligence - Gamaliel James Auste. He founded the Cancer Warriors, which concentrates on raising funds for the Filipino child who has cancer. He's a young guy and he's already done so much!

Naturalist Intelligence - Illac Angelo Diaz. Loooove his first name, and hey, his face and body weren't too bad either! LOL! This guy helps the urban poor build low cost houses, cheap and fast.

Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence - Noele Wenceslao, Janet Belarmino, and Karino Dayondon. Collectively known as the Filipino Women Mt Everest Team, they were the first female team to reach the summit in 2007. I don't know why they weren't there to accept the award, but I know that they visited the school sometime during the schoolyear.

And so finally, we come to the program proper. Entitled Batang Pinoy, Batang Bayani, the whole program was Filipino-based. It featured native instruments and local Filipino artists, all of whom were just awesome in their performances! They sang with the kids and really connected with them. They must have spent some time practicing with the kiddos because everything went perfectly!

Rogan was funny in his cameo "solo" as an OFW. He posed in the center in this weird position, we were all laughing at him, he was so cute! Hehehehe.

Rogan was the first of our kids to "perform". In quotation marks. Practically ALL the boys in his class were up stage, banging at the native instruments, hahahahaha. Probably to get them out of the way as the girls danced. Rogan and his gang were having the time of their life though, as they laughed, banged, swayed, banged, and sang....as they banged on their instruments!

Raine was next to come on stage. She didn't dance though and was in the background playing some instrument. I later learned that the music teachers were very particular in choosing who were going to play the instruments because that was the accompaniment to the UP Chorale's song. Ooookay.

Four numbers later, Ranger came out in his Superhero costume. All the kids were just darling in their outfits! Ranger danced with gusto and it was so obvious that he was having so much fun onstage! Good thing, too, because when we left the car to go into the theater, he had just woken up and was NOT in the greatest of moods!

Another four numbers away, Raine was up. She didn't dance though and was in the background playing some instrument. I later learned that the music teachers were very particular in choosing who were going to play the instruments because that was the accompaniement to the UP Chorale's song. Ok. Next year I should tell her to NOT do the instruments so I can see her onstage. Of course, with her size, it was easy to spot her, hehehe. Take note of her sandals, below. She spied that in Tita Zhar's room and knew IMMEDIATELY that it would go well with her costume!

Right after Raine, was Raegan's class. The best for last? Most likely. In the past few programs of the school, it seems that Raegan's class has always been the finale. Yes, they were pretty organized and GOOD! :) I barely saw Raegan as she was running all over the stage during their entire number! Ahhhh, the disadvantage of being one of the tallest ones in the class. She was holding on to several pieces of cloth that the class used to simulate waves or something. In the end, the pieces were fit together to form the flag. And Raegan was BEHIND the cloth helping to hold everything together! Hehehehe.

Very good program, and when it was all over, it was time to collect the kids. Raegan and her class were apparently bawling because they would miss each other over the summer. Even the boys were crying, as well as Teacher Nez! They were that close. You would think they wouldn't see each other after a few months! Hehehehe.