visita iglesia 2012

visita iglesia this year was done with a different group this time. i know its tradition to do it with my BFFs (even shared our experience here) and i know too that one friend is disappointed but i can't help it :( i am so sorry. i invited them but they wouldn't join us. one, because it starts at 7 in the morning and 2, the other one needs to go to work. yep, work on a holy thursday. people depended on her.

anyway, for the first time in the 6+ years that we are married, husband, together with the girls, joined me. husband is a christian and visita iglesia is not one of their practices. it is also a first for the girls. we joined husband's fraternity brods together with their family. its one big group! it is their tradition too to do it together annually and followed by a lunch at the UP atrium, which their fraternity developed (and continuously developing). anyway, husband thought its going to be fun joining the group and so we did.

i am glad we did this together. this is meaningful for me especially since i am a Catholic. visita iglesia makes me remember and reconnect with God. this is one way to show the girls about Jesus and what He went through. remember, one of the goals this year is to let God be known to them. they now know that when we are at church, we pray. i let raya look at the pictures/painting/stained glass window so that she will have a visual picture of what i am talking about. they may not YET fully understand this, but at least this is a start.

it was a hot day. but we enjoyed it. time for reflection, camaraderie and family. kids asked us to buy whatever they see cos there were a lot of vendors selling goodies especially at this time of year. we just bought them cotton candy, corn cobs and ice cream. we had lunch, picnic style, after the visita iglesia. this they enjoyed the most.

some brought their tables and chairs

we brought our mats and malong and placed it under a tree for shade

ice cream to beat the heat

husband teaching the girls to throw rock at the water

playing badminton

thank God for such a day like this!



keeping 'em busy

i am trying to keep my girls busy so that they won't get bored over the summer. its a bit difficult because i have no helper right now and so i  do the cooking and other household chores aside from taking care of them.

i really want to keep them out of the tv and when the opportunity arises, i engage them into doing something whenever i can. one of the advantages of having no helper is that the kids are always with me and we do almost all things together even the chores.  its one way to teach responsibility. such as fixing the bed, putting their slippers/shoes in the shoe rack, dirty cups in the sink, hanging wet clothes, and water the plants. they also help with the grocery and in the laundry shopw whenever i go there.

start them early learning about business ;)

one activity that we love to do is to bake or make something such as pastillas, brownies, pizza and cookies.

when i am doing something that they can't help, i try not to turn on the tv. i let them browse through their things and let them do or play with whatever they choose. 

read books, learning to read





building bocks

drawing on paper

drawing on the laptop

since raya is still high on her performance during her moving up day we sing and dance to the songs "we're all in this together" (from the movie high school musical), "da coconut nut" (by smokey mountain, and "yesterday's dream". its fun. she's actually the one "teaching" us since she claims she is the only one among the family who "knows" the steps =) we also play pretend of teacher and student wherein i am the teacher and she and rob are the students. i teach syllables to raya and shapes to rob ;) and when the opportunity calls it, we go out and play ball or go to the park.

or rob walks the nighbor's dogs ;)

and this is just on weekdays. its a whole lot more (and fun) when daddy is around on weekends!

first taste of summerr

oh yeah, summer has just begun in our household. kids got a surprise when they woke up this morning. daddy has inflated their pool last night. and now this...

they're so happy. even when they were cold, lips purple and teeth chattering, they still wouldn't get out. HEHE. had to force them though. we don't want them to catch cold. they love the water. hmmm, might as well enroll them in swimming class this summer.

again, i love saturdays like this!

summer is here!

summer is here and yes, it has begun! aside from allowing raya (robin is still on sched) to sleep a bit late at night, she can eat chips and iced tea (on moderation) on weekdays. and ofcourse wake up late. aahhh, the best part. hehe! she can also watch her favorite cds, for the most part, its BEN10. i am not sure if i totally like BEN10. he is a typical cynical boy so me and hubby kinda want her to limit watching it since we don't want her to be like BEN10. good thing is that BEN10 is a "superhero" and so he saves people in danger. so in a way its ok. but not too much of it. what i do is i try to re-introduce other classic shows such as cinderalla, sleeping beauty and high school musical 1-3 and shrek. she likes shrek and find it funny. good! she also like sleeping beauty wherein the beast "was a bad prince at first and then he became good" and that "his friend belle helps him because other people hurt him". at least she learns from this and thats what we want. i let raya and robin watch high school musical so they can learn how to sing and dance. robin dances. but raya doesn't show any interest. uh-oh! but i want her to be interested! especially in cheerleading &/or dancing! ok fine, i won't force it on my kids just because its my frustation! hehe. so let them discover for themselves! ;)

for the meantime lets all enjoy summer! woot! woot!