Caracol

I'm still not sure what the event was called or what it was all about but Alan dragged us to go see this local "Mardi Gras" parade just around the corner of our place. We live in a quite hip area for once! :)

When we got there, it had already started and tons of people were parading around. Looked like they sent representatives from the Barangays to do a parade. The differences in effort level that they put in their costumes were quite vast and let's just say it was not Mardi Gras quality.... nonetheless, the kids had fun and it was a fun time out. Cody and I even joined the parade at some point and had to get off the parade to wave to Daddy and Tyler!!

Cody hitching a ride with Daddy

Watching the parade

So much more fun watching it from the side of the road(low effort group)

Medium effort

And wayyy more fun if you just walk in front of parade!! (high effort group)

And for Manila who seem to have a high number of transvestites(just from observation), it was a total field day for them!! They seem so completely in their element sashaying in their costumes and performing their dance!! :)

Philippines International Pyromusical Competition

This weekend, Alan took Tyler and I for a treat to see the PIPC at Manila Bay. Others warned us about the crazy crowd that will be there. We decided that we can take it but for precaution, we decided to leave Cody at home with our yaya.

Anyways, the crowd was indeed CRAZY!! But luckily we got the more expensive seats, so we were spared from the mob! As we waited for the fireworks to start, Tyler was very much entertained by some lion and dragon dance as well as the fire dancers!!

This weekend, the competitors were China and France. China went first. It was phenomenal!! I love fireworks, so for me, it was just soooooo beautiful!! Even Tyler was cheering and shouting. And then it was France's turn. Maybe because we were so blown away by the first performance, we found that the french fireworks lacked of oomph.. and was a little too clinical. Too much symmetry even for me!!! But it was great nonetheless!!

Now, it's really going to be really hard for me to be impressed with just any July 4th fireworks show!!

Before the start of the show

Photos from our crappy camera can never do fireworks justice!!

Pool Party

The kids had a holiday today to celebrate Edsa Day. So, to make sure they are not in the house driving the mothers crazy, we had a pool party. It was just a few of us and after the pool, we went to have tacos at Pari's house. :)

You can tell Tyler is so popular among his friends!! ha!!!

Tyler loading his ammo

Cody gets a chance for a soak too!!

Tyler's dorky dance

While sorting out pictures and videos of the kids, i found this one of Tyler. I am seriously not sure why Tyler's always wearing only underwear whenever a video of him is taken!!! haha!!

This video was taken back in December 2010! And it's obvious he comes from a family devoid of dancing talents!!

Indian lunch with the girls (and Alan)

A few of us took a Indian cooking class a few months back. Since then, my pack of spice that we got from the class has been sitting on my shelf begging to be used. So, this week, i decided to have a Indian lunch. Strangely enough, i'm not sure i've actually cooked a whole Indian meal on my own even though it's one of my favorite food!

Because some of us found the task of cooking Indian food a little daunting, we decided to cook one dish each. Rina and I even cooked together for moral support(which was a good thing!!!). We also asked our local Indian, Pari to contribute a dish. So here was the menu:

Vegetable Bryani ( Rina and I)
Chicken Makhani (Rina and I)
Saag Paneer (Irene)
Bhindi Masala (me)
Dhal (Pari)
Naan (Pari)

And to make it proper, i even invited our teacher over for lunch to critique and the end result was, it was pretty darn good! And Rina and I, who sweated over the most complicated bryani dish, were most relieved that the bryani turned out even though we overcooked it at the beginning stage!!! :) We definitely need a simplified Bryani dish!

Enjoying our yummy Indian food!

Just Cody

Just some recent pictures of Cody doing his own thing. He is starting to behave like a big boy. His favorite thing is riding the twister car like a maniac around the house with crazy manuevering and silly grin on his face! He still doesn't eat or talk much but he is getting a hang of his sign language to help us understand what he wants like more, all done, help, eat, please etc.

We think he says "Tyler" but it's not that often yet.

I find Cody extremely funny as he has the most comical expressions like his infamous "beautiful eyes" and his cheeky smile that makes you forget that you're angry with him!!

Cody ran off with someone's stroller!

Funny expression!

Err... help...

Picking  up leaves, another favorite activity of Cody

Monkeys in the making!

I still fondly remember when i was a child, i used to spend hours climbing trees and pretend that they were houses etc (and no, we don't ACTUALLY live on trees in Malaysia!!). So, i always try to get Tyler to climb trees but he's never been interested.

However this week, he was finally willing and was having lots of fun with this friends pretending that they were on pirate ships and stuff.. see.. it helps with their imagination!!!

Here are some pictures of the kids:

Art in the Park

We are quite lucky that we live right by a really cool park. This weekend, they had Art in the Park. It was more of an adult event though the children did like the sculpture stuff.

Surprisingly Tyler also loved the live performance of some music and sat thru the whole thing! Wow!!

Bouncy sculptures

Tyler calls this Stegasaurus

Tyler showing Julius art can be fun too!

Some funky art on the tree in the park

Tyler's first movie theater experience

I've been wanting to take Tyler for a movie for quite some time but never got to do it. So, this weekend, after getting a few friends to agree to go with us, we were on to watch Tangled!

Turned out it was a 3-D version of the show! Now, how is Tyler going to go back to watching boring 2-D will be interesting. I'm not sure he got the whole 3-D thing as he refused to wear the 3-D glasses all the time. But i did convince him that if he wears it, the picture comes out. And he did try to catch a few things that were "floating" to him! Quite cute!

Tyler (and his friends in the background)

Huh??!!

Our first movie together!

Factories and Fishes

Tyler had yet another school trip. This time to visit 2 factories and somewhere to feed fishes and ride boats.

The first factory we visited was an instant noodle factory who had a ridiculous no-picture policy. How can you possible stop parents from taking pictures of their cute children with your lovely mascot? Just to show you how impossible, here's a proof!

ha!!

Next we went to a Gardenia Bread Factory. Tyler had fun posing with some more mascots and fun things. See, if you just provide some place to take pictures, nobody would be interested in taking pictures of your actual manufacturing technology!!

Tyler and Gardenia Bread slice

Tyler had fun pushing the itty bitty stroller

If only he eats like this in real life!!

Lastly, we went to Nuvali which was a eating area with lots of restaurants. It had place to feed fishes and ride boats. As it was wayyy past lunch time, i decided to forgo the boat ride and went straight for lunch. But after lunch, we still had some time to feed some fishes. But i think these fishes are a little too happy!!

Over populated, maybe??

Tyler feeding the frenzy fishes!!

It was a sight of wonder!!

Tyler and Ryu

Ryu is one of Tyler's friend whom he enjoys fooling around with a lot! I remember he was the first person Tyler had ever said "Hi" to!! It was just lovely to hear him greet Ryu - "Hi Ryu!!!" at the top of his voice!!

They both love to terrorize the park by riding their bikes at top speeds and you will never get a straight face if you were going to take a picture of them together!!!