PIRATE PARTY!

Pirates of the Palms!

The Palms Country Club put on a SWEET pirate party. Everything about it was over the top and a little extra! When we arrived they gave us our treasure map and a bag to collect our "loot". We went on a treasure hunt through out the club.  The kids favorite was digging for "pesos" in the sand bar. 

Syd rocked "pirate chick", Tate bore a little skin and the crowd went crazy (I think they might just be in love with American boys and it wouldn't matter what he was wearing.) Emmy was her busy, cute self but we wised up and brought the Norma-nator along. I love this country.

Good news of the night...no bribing the treats away from the kids this year.  A couple attempts at trying their treats and the loot was left for the helpers!

Down Right Spooky

 Yes, they do celebrate Halloween here but there is no "Happy" about it.  When we have taken our kids trick or treating in the past, we always avoid the gory homes, you know, so the kids can sleep at night. I don't think we will have that luxury here.We have seen some pretty creepy things going down in the hood preparing for the awaited DAY of Halloween. They trick or treat from 3:00-5:00, it is the only day of they year they open up our village to the public. Trick or Treater's only come to your house if it is decorated, kind of funny. We were advised this year to be spectators and than make a decision if we would like join next year. Are you kidding me? "We feed tigers raw chickens from our jeepney Pal!"

 

And the winner is.....
(In effort to make the holiday holy)

Beach'n It

Subic Bay (Camayan Beach Resort)

 There are a few reasons I love these quick beach getaways....

1. The kids are so darn happy! Something so easy, like the anticipation of a wave hitting the shore makes them scream with delight!

2. No hurry! It is such a great relaxing family activity, even our fireball Emmy can't do too much damage while at the beach.

3.  Our road trips to the beach usually bring something out of the ordinary. This trip, it was feeding monkeys from our car.

4. Wow! Besides the beautiful beaches there is amazing scenery.

Let's Be Honest

We have been  pretty good at taking advantage of exploring our new country.  I would say the only thing that has made our "fun family trips" some times border line miserable,  would be this one......

We are spectacles as it already is but when blondie number 3 pulls her classic "throw down" stunt of   screaming in public, it only makes the stares that much worse. I thought this picture  below was a classic....Emmy getting her picture taken and of course, was not about to hand out any smiles.

 

She has her moments of cuteness, thank goodness for Trent and his patience! I will try to remember these parts of our trips and not her licking Gatorade off of the stadium seats.

Yes Way!

 While it may not have been the most humane place we have ever visited it was definitely one of the more memorable! I wont bore you with the amateur  things like photo shoots and feeding young tigers from a baby bottle. Let me jump right to the good stuff, feeding mature tigers raw meat with nothing but chicken wire to protect us.....Okay, so maybe not chicken wire but I am sure it was no super high gauge steel either. 

 We opted out of the family photo shoot when we saw that "baby" was tied down with a small chain. I feel like Trent and I were the only ones that were border line up tight about being surrounded by tigers that seemed agitated to be alive.  And that was just the "Pre-tiger Safari" waiting area.

 Our sweet riding machine, Sydney tried to make it look good by striking a pose.   I could feel my heart start thumping  when they shut us in our cage. Even though Trent looks like he is playing it cool here, he gave me the "Are we being loser parents look?" When they started smashing raw chicken up against our flimsy barrier I gave Trent the "YES smile!"

I was not even using any special zoom lens. That's how close the tigers really were! I had to pretend I was not scared for the kids sake but I am pretty sure I will never be able to listen to Eye of the Tiger with out getting the creepy shakes. I know it sounds dramatic, only because it was.

They had taken us around to a whole bunch of animal exhibits that were nothing short of bizarre. Croco Loco was another favorite stop on our journey where you could stop and feed the crocs. Some of the other exhibits were retired greyhounds, some mangy looking camels, albino oxen and a couple of poodles that looked like what most would probably refer to as mutts. I am not much of an animal rights activist or anything but most of the animals we saw did not look quite right. Things like, ostriches missing almost all their feathers, sharing a pen with some wild pigs. They named that section "The Savannah".  Some of it was a little disturbing to see but it surly did not get in the way of us having a good time and making some great memories!

Back Yardigans

What a clever title I have come up with! Hmmm....not really, but here are a few shots of our back yard and our little banana bread eating punks.  Right now it is considered the rainy season. It usually rains for a few minutes every other day.  It is kind of strange because I keep expecting it to cool off here, especially when I walk in to a store and see Christmas decor. Trent has really missed the fall weather. I told him "Cheer up! It's the end of October, go for a swim, work on your tan, chill on a floaty while you sip your Diet Coke"........FALL SHMALL!

This one is our little fish. She can have her swim suit on faster than I can ask her about her day at school. I am amazed at the progress she has made with her swimming in the short time we have lived here.

Hoops

Filipinos have such a drive to "please". We talked about getting a basket ball stand and before we knew it, they came up with this"home made" beauty.

It kind of looks a little ghetto but they are so proud of their work. Thanks guys!

 

Jon-a-non!

JONATHON

Tate loves this guy!  I am sure he probably cringed on the day we showed up with our load of babies. But I will always be grateful for how kind and good he is with our children. Tate follows him around every where, broom in hand. Jonathon always stays busy, I think we might have the cleanest drive way on our street. Even though his job is "Security" he is a great babysitter, yard keeper and friend. He also introduced us to his wife Norma! Who we love.

Emmy and "JONANON!"

I thought they saw their kids every few months....It has been 3 YEARS since Jonathon has seen his 9 year old daughter and four year old son! They are going home for a visit next week....YEAH!

We celebrated his thirty fifth birthday this week. He requested banana bread? I could not bring myself to putting candles in a loaf of bread so we made banana cake. Happy Birthday Jon-a-non!

Such a Savage!

Trent joined a Filipino basket ball team through work. I don't know why but for some reason it makes me laugh to think of Trent with these little Asian, basketball crazed, fellers throw'n down some hoops. When I went to his first game I was shocked at how big some of these "little" Filipinos actually are! Basket ball is the number one sport here and they take it very serious. They gave Trent number 23.....No pressure!

His fans can get pretty thirsty. My favorite part of going to Trent's game, beside seeing him in his red cuteness, is watching his number one fan (Tate) wear a permanent smile. He thinks his Daddy  is JORDAN!

Nold

We have not had a lot of success here as far as finding a family driver! I know, it kind of sounds funny to say "driver" but it is more a matter of survival. We are now on our FIFTH driver and currently looking for our SIXTH! Darn! Let me give you a run down of the boys so far; I also wanted to point out that the Filipinos are way into nick names. I told them they can just call me "Cool Mam J."

Odie-Temporary driver/Semi shady character/Dirty mouth(or at least that's what they tell me...I always said I wanted the kids to pick  Tagalog!) Bonus, because he did not have seat belts he would take twine and tie the kids to the seat. Awesome!
Neilman/ NEIL-Totally cute and Temporary. We offered him a job but could not pay him enough to stay....hmmm....I wonder if it was Emmie's high pitch squeal? No way.
Arnold/ARNIE-half empty kind of feller, "My life is bad", "This is such hard work" etc. You are killing me! Really the dude did not make much effort with the kids or anything else....bye, bye.
Monroe-Lover of women and men! No problems except for that he lost my keys, his phone and his way in general.
Arnold/NOLD-Temporary until he finds a "better job" Well at least he is honest! He is very kind and though he struggles driving a manual he has killer good skills when it comes to driving in Makati. He is very sweet with the kids. I am pretty sure I could bench press him...I always like to see the size of his dinner plate because I am not sure where the food goes?

This is our Arnold or "NOLD" as he likes to be called!

Have I mentioned that these guys are way into posing? And high fives. All I can think about when they hold their hand up to give me five is "I know you did not wash your hands with soap because I have yet to find any, while in a public bathroom!" Aaahhh!

Clorox Wet Wipe?

Tates preschool had there first field trip to the Manila Children's Museum! (Maybe a step up from Chuckee Cheese and about as clean). All I could think about was, "I would do a back flip for a bottle of sanitizer". The kids loved it and that's all that matters....Right?

They had a little section on the human anatomy. I begged Emmy not to go inside, the only exit was to crawl yourself through intestines. The highlight was the giant bum that you pushed to hear a very real sounding toot! I might of found that more fascinating than the kids.

 Tate's cute teachers.....

 Class mates on the Asian express! Look how our little American Blondy sticks out!