In early October, we went with our dad to Dumaguete to be a part of a church service there. They were celebrating the purchase of land. We ended up staying at a resort that we have been to several times, and each time hung out at the tree and took plenty of pics. You may recognize the tree;) Oh yeah, the first pic was taken with our Ate Ruthie. We took her out to Marco Polo for her birthday.

Jess has never been one to be up in the tree. He likes to stay near the ground. He was being a little model and wanting me to keep taking pics. I love it when the kids want pics. Usually they get so tired of Mom saying, "Stop, now smile".

Now we are being silly, acting like monkeys....

The drive to Dumaguete from Cebu (and vice versa) is really beautiful. We stopped several times just getting pics from the side of the road...however not all of them turned out. Here are a few of our favorites.....

Filipino Birthday Parties and Beach Day

We don't go to many birthday parties here, especially when done at McDonald's. However, the boys couldn't pass up an invite to their really good friend's 8th birthday....Peter!

Instead of Happy Meals, we have chicken and spaghetti at McDonald's parties. Jamin opted out for an order of french fries instead;)

On this Friday (Sept 28th), I wanted to really get out of the house. Doing homeschool all week tends to keep us inside....getting cabin fever. It's been raining all week also. So seeing sunshine as soon as we woke up this day, I decided that we hurry and do our basic lessons (math, language, spelling) and then head for the beach. Jamin and Jesse didn't complain one bit! It's been a long time since we've taken the time to spend the day (as a family) together on the beach and at the beach resort that we are a member at. Last year, we bought a membership (which is really cheap by the way), and then only went one time that year. Isn't that sad?

When we arrived, it was high tide, but we didn't mind. We stayed and had a blast. Here is what we came upon as soon as we got to the beach. There was only one jellyfish, thank goodness. The rest of the pics were just taken throughout the day. After the beach, we headed for the pools there.

Manila trip with the Allen's

Would you believe that we've been here in the Philippines for 5 years now? Man, time flies. Every year, if schedules allow, we try to meet up with the Allen family. This year, we met in Manila and had a great time together. My good friend, Joanna, has made a little tribute to our last 5 years together (mostly pics of the kids). If you get a chance, go to the link section on the left hand side of our blog, click on Allenupdate, and look at her blog about the kids. There are some really cute pics of all 4 of the kids since we've been here.

One afternoon, we went to the mall to watch Evan Almighty......before doing so, while dads were paying for the tickets, the kids found something interesting on the floor.....Moving dots...and moving fish/stars. They totally had a blast stepping on the dots. Watch the video to see what we are talking about.

Good friends, Joanna Allen and Connie. See the carousel behind us? All of our kids (except Jamin) were riding that at the time.

We also visited a museum while in Manila. At first, we thought it was kind of cheesy. When we arrived, they had to turn on all the lights and fans. No one had been there but us. We ended up having a really good time, and enjoyed several of the exhibits....especially the mirrors.
Check out videos below.

One of our favorite treats is Krispy Kremes (only found in Manila). While there, an employee asked if the kids wanted to go behind the scenes and see how donuts were made. Of course our kids took them up on the idea. They had to wear the protective hats of course, but enjoyed getting to make their own chocolate dipped with sprinkles donut. Right before the tour, both of my boys had already had 2 glazed donuts (first pic below), and were fully high on sugar. The chocolate donut took them over the top.....but it was worth it;)

Here is a pic of Jesse eating corn at Chili's, which happens to be Jamin's favorite eating place. We went to as many American eating places as we could while in Manila......we call it "Little America"

To end our 4 day stay in Manila, we took the kids ice skating (a first for them). Jesse attempted to skate, but ended up hugging the wall. After 5 minutes of getting real personal with the wall, he decided that ice skating wasn't his cup of tea. However, Jamin absolutely loved it. We had bought an all day pass, not realizing that we would use it. Jamin went back for a 2nd try after lunch. He said that he rated his experience up there with Disneyworld and Six Flags. It sure was cheaper than those two;) Oh yeah, Robert graciously volunteered to skate with the boys because Connie likes it on the outside of the rink better. He had only skated a couple of times in his life, yet he looked like a pro. Check out the video of Jamin skating below....

Jamin and Carly were the brave ones!