Caribbean Water Park

Today was a National Heroes' Day here in the Philippines which means it was a public holiday, yay. The sun was hot and Monday's are one of the days Ryan doesn't work the night before so he's awake and ready to play. We've been wanting to take the kids swimming and test out our new underwater case for our video camera but haven't found that perfect day. Today was that day. Both girls had been run down over the weekend with a fever and after 3 days of being pent up at home we were all ready to have some real fun.
We decided to go the Caribbean. It's a water park close to our house with a couple really fast water slides, a nice baby pool and then a big pool where both the older kids can barely touch so they feel comfortable playing around. We rented a little hut, took with us a bucket of KFC with a load of rice and we were ready for anything. I thought that since it was perfect outside and it being a holiday it would be packed but there weren't many people there at all. Maybe the hot sun was too threatening to the Filipino's and there hatred of a sun tan? For us it was perfect. Lots of room in the water and not a big audience everywhere we drifted.

We did it all. Both Brayden and Sydney LOVED the big waterslides. I was a little nervous at first because I had heard from numerous people that they are so fast. Well... they were SO fast and totally filled my kids need for speed. I couldn't believe how brave Brayden was, he couldn't get up those stairs fast enough. At one point I was next in line and just looking over the edge to make sure the person in front of me was out of the way and Brayden runs from the stairs, through the line and seriously dives in front of my and whips down the slide even before I could figure out what just happened. My kid is a total budder!
We decided against taking Maddy down the big waterslides but we did take her down the little mini one in the baby pool. She loves the water just as much as the other two! Ryan also had a lot of opportunities to play with the new underwater case spying on everyone from beneath the surface.

I made this quick little summary of our adventures today at the pool that Ryan captured for us. Enjoy!

Boiled Banana's

It was Filipino Day at SCB (The School for Creative Beginners) and so each of the kids were assigned something Filipino. Brayden was asked to bring 5 pieces of pork BBQ (pork kabob in a different style marinade) along with 5 pandasal buns. Sydney was supposed to bring 10 pieces of agogo (a type of popsicle) but unfortunately she wasn't in a sharing mood and kept them all in her lunch box instead of giving them to her teachers. Madison's class was to bring 10 pieces of boiled saba banana's.
"Boiled banana's!?" I asked confused, "what are boiled banana's?" Teacher Summer explained to me that I needed to go out and buy saba banana's to boil.
"Saba banana's!?" I asked confused, "what are saba banana's?" Again Teacher Summer tried to explain what a saba banana looks like. It didn't take too long before she told me that all I had to do was go to the market and tell them I needed the banana's that I boil and they would know what I was talking about.
Okay! Easy. I can do that. "SO, how do you boil them, in their skins?" I often wonder to myself how often these teachers laugh at me behind my back... off topic a bit but an example of why they might laugh at me: The other day I was helping Sydney with her homework. There was a picture of something and then a few different letters beside the picture. She was to listen to the name of the picture and then choose the letter which started the word. Well she completed all but 2 because I had no idea what the pictures were of! One was a fruit I was sure started with an 'A' but couldn't be sure so we left it blank and the other was a coconut which after Teacher Tina pointed out that fact seemed obvious. All I could do was leave her homework unfinished with question marks next to the pictures because as a 30 year old white lady, I'm not smart enough to complete it.
Alright, back on topic. How do you boil saba banana's? In their skins of course for 30-45 minutes. I doubted! But I was obedient so that if they didn't turn out there was someone else to blame. I boiled them for 30 minutes and cracked one of the extra open and it was rock hard! Could not stick my fork into it so in they went for another 30 minutes. I tasted it. It was like a potato, taste and texture. I dipped it in loads of sugar and it wasn't so bad.

SO! Filipino day 2010, success! I have learned how to boil banana's and Brayden came home telling me that the Philippine national food is PIG and they call it Lechon. It's always comforting to know he's listening!

Runner's Road Block's

Well I really wanted to share with everyone what I have to dodge on my morning runs! It's the worst right now because of rainy season and they are everywhere! Unavoidable while driving. Ryan really does try to weave in and out of the them trying to get across the road like the game Frogger but only because he's afraid of the juices squirting him. I'm thankful for that since I'm probably the one who would have to treat the 'juice' stains on the pants!

Biker Babe

Well, the progression on Scoot has been coming along smoothly since we got back to Bacolod. Ryan has been using his talent to piece by piece swap the old, rusty, broken equipment with new, shiny and working replacements. For me even just by looking at it i've been able to notice some of the small changes like the nice new tires and the sparkling new air filter. I'm aware that there has been so much more going on with this bike then just those 2 changes because Ryan keeps having to run out mid work to find a new part which he explains before jumping on his bike and taking off.
I have to admit that I'm really excited for it to be completed and I can take it out for quick trips to the grocery store when I'm only picking up a few things. Maybe we could get 'his' and 'hers' license plates so that if we go out cruising together everyone will know that Ryan's taken.
I got to take it out for a quick ride around the sub division this afternoon which was great. Unfortunately the brakes aren't working so I couldn't go too fast and really have that wind blowing through my hair!

After I was done Ryan took it out with the three kids in tow before parking it back in the driveway. The kids just LOVE riding on Scoot.

Racing Mother Nature

So we are well into rainy season here in the Philippines and as much as it can suck at times, life goes on. There are some things that are very convient... we NEVER have to water the garden ourselves, the kids get a bath while riding their bikes and people tend to stay indoors so the malls and I think that my umbrella is SO cute that I love any excuse to use it. Of course there are things that are annoying too... the way jeepney drivers seem to forget how to drive as soon as that first rain drop hits the windshield, the squished frogs I have to hurdle over on my runs and having to carry a purse big enough to fit my umbrella.
I think that we've been fairly lucky since we've been back. The rains have hit almost everyday but only briefly and not during a time where the whole day is ruined. It's usually early in the morning or in the evening. This gives us most of the day to go about our business with the occasional afternoon bike ride in the rain. Unfortunately for the guys trying to build the basketball court behind our house are finding it difficult coming to work everyday to spend the entire morning bailing water out of their construction site by hand using buckets and tossing the water into the empty lot beside them.
Yesterday morning Brayden noticed that there were 'hundreds and hundreds of worker guys' out back and they were getting ready to lay the cement. I'm pretty sure that they would have had more then enough time to get the cement in and laid all nice and smooth IF they used a cement truck. Unfortunately these guys spent most of the morning sifting sand in preparations to mix it with the water. They would then fill a sack with the sifted sand and walk it to the mini cement mixers and pour it in. It would follow with another guy close behind with a huge bucket filled with water and he would then pour that into the mixer until that bit of cement was ready to be poured and they would tip the mixer over and they would smooth it out.

They were at this all day. In the early evening the dark gray storm clouds started to roll in while these guys are setting up their lights getting ready to work right through. Then the lightening storm starts and the pre-storm winds are picking up, the coconut trees are blowing and you just know it's about to flash flood but they are still out there working as hard as ever trying to get their cement all laid! The rains start pouring and their lights are swaying and flickering like it's a huge electrical hazzard and they are still right there under these flickering lights getting the cement laid. When I went to bed last night the rains and fizzled out into a light shower and the poor worker guys were still going at it. I have no idea what time they finished but this morning when I woke up there were only a few of them left out there smoothing the cement and eating their breakfast. Hopefully they all get their deserved rest after last night. I just felt so sorry for them working as hard as they could as the lightening lit up the sky and inevitable rains were on their way!

So I'm 30

Well nothing too much going on around these parts this past week other my birthday. I've now entered into the 30's or as I would like to refer to them as my PRIME years. I have heard that some people had a difficult time dealing with the face that they were now 30 for me it's just all the same. Not to brag or anything but I feel like i've done pretty good for myself in these past 30 years. Played a lot of sports, seen a lot of the world, enjoyed what I took in school and what i've done with it, made quite the amazing family and learned so much about what it means for me to be happy. I don't know if feeling like you've accomplished a lot makes reaching such a milestone so much more enjoyable but as far as I can figure if the first 30 years got me this far I can't wait to see where I am in another 30!

My Half Filipino's

Last Friday and a few more days this month the kids have to wear tradition Filipino clothes to school. Every kid in the school does and they all pretty much look the same with only slight variation in coloured skirts or the type of top worn for the girls. The boys wear red katipunero pants with a white shirt and a red handkerchief tied around their necks. It's always nice to see the kids getting excited about doing something different and learning about something new. Brayden's class learned a Filipino song (which he didn't because we were away for the past month) and they got to sing it to another class. It was the funniest thing to hear Brayden try to sing the song in the car on the way from school that day. It reminded me of when I was a little kid and would pretend I knew how to speak chinese and just make these wacky vowel sounding noises. I seriously thought that if someone heard me they would wonder how in the world I knew how to speak Chinese... well that was Brayden on the way home from school Friday. Singing away and completely believing in himself that he knew exactly what he was saying and figured that I was quite impressed with his sudden skills.
Unfortunately when we were shopping for their outfits we couldn't really find anything Maddy's size so she got shoved into the same size smalls that Sydney is in but I think it turned out quite well, don't you!? OH! Brayden's little outfit is missing his read handkerchief which totally makes the outfit.... next week.

All On His Own

We took the training wheels off Brayden's bike in February because one of the wheels broke off and we figured that at 5 1/2 years old he'd be ready to start riding with just the two wheels. Unfortunately because his training wheels were so uneven he had no idea how to balance, he kept leaning to the right side like he had to before the training wheels busted. He quickly got discouraged and the bike got put aside in the garage. We tried bribing him by telling him that he can't learn to ride a motorbike until he can ride on two wheels but nothing would get him back on the bike. When we went home to Canada finally seeing his cousins all riding on their two wheeled bikes gave Brayden the motivation to bring the bike out of the garage and back onto the street. In Brayden fashion he didn't want an audience and so just started trying on his own. If Ryan went out to help he would stop and shy away. Brayden decided to use our driveway as a ramp to give him the speed to get started and got used to balancing while speeding down the ramp. Once he was confident enough he would pedal a little bit. Well, I'm proud to say that after 4 days of being back home he has taught himself how to ride his bike and is, understandably, very very happy!

Vacation's Over

Well yesterday the kids had their first day back to school since our month long vacation. They officially started school before we left for Canada but I didn't have the chance to get a photo of the three together in uniform so here it is... my super good lookin' kids!

Waterton Day Trip

On one of our last days in Canada we visited Waterton National Park with some family. The started out really nice and so we headed to the lake and played around there throwing rocks in the water and making splashes. We found a nice spot in the campground sheltered by the trees where we ate a yummy wind-free picnic lunch in the warm sun.

After lunch we headed up to Cameron Lake. The kids got to ride in the back of Grandpa's jeep which they loved all snuggled under a blanket to keep them warm since Grandpa's jeep only had the soft top on. It was so pretty up there being surrounded by all the green tree's and some snow still on the mountains. We drove through some cold cold rain to get there so there weren't too many people out on the lake when we got there which made it that much more peaceful.

After Cameron Lake we had to take the drive to the Prince of Wales hotel and the famous roller coaster road on the way to Red Rock Canyon which the kids loved. It had been too long since we've been to Waterton because we only made it past one of the hills when Ryan turned into the side of to turn around instead of speed up for more. Thankfully he corrected the mistake and we were able to fully enjoy our tummies being flipped!

Zoo Time

Ryan went on motorbike trip with the Beattie dudes for a week and while he was off having the best of times the kids had some fun of their own at the zoo. I've done some great zoo's (Singapore Zoo, Australia Zoo) which make the Calgary zoo pretty lame so I wasn't too thrilled but it turned out to be a really great time. We saw lots of animals and didn't even have time to finish the zoo before they closed. I thought instead of just posting a tonne of pictures in a line I'd try out a slide show so.... here is our day at the zoo: