Chinese Lantern Project for Kids

We had a lot of fun today making our Chinese lantern in celebrating Chinese New Year.  Mavi and I did this years ago, and I think he would love to do this again, and of course for Vito to experience.

Holiday Homecoming Part II

The highlights of our stay at my parents house were the New Year's celebration and our island beach escapade. 

It is a tradition in our family to gather  and celebrate all together on New Year’s eve.  It was Mavi’s first time to party with his grandparents, uncles and aunties.. and cousins!  (Sorry can’t post family pictures for privacy :D)

Seeing a whole roasted pig for the first time.

I was teaching him how to light a sparkler!

And the little boy so interested with this horn.

After the New Year, we headed out to an island beach resort which is 4 hrs drive from home.  I really wanted Mavi to experience how we enjoy the beach in the Philippines. It’s not just about swimming in the water but doing lots of play and island adventure as well.

Making sandcastle :)

Island hopping with cousin

Beach

  

Starfish!

Cave!

 

Riding in front of the fishing boat is so much compared to being inside.  Mavi with my not so little brother.

 

Early morning walk at the beach, finding dead corals, shells and hermit crabs!

                   

Oh we are missing all of these already!! 

My son suffered separation anxiety for awhile. But I comforted him that we’ll have lots of family adventures here as well once it is springtime. I know its different with other families and relatives around, but we can’t do anything about it since they’re millions miles away from us. I love it that Mavi appreciated the trip, that he was able to appreciate the presence of other family  members and felt the love that they have for him (and his brother). 

Now I can’t wait to go back! LOL

Holiday Homecoming Part I

As you all know, family and I went home last month to celebrate Christmas and New Year with the family in our homeland.  I've always wanted Mavi to experience how it's like to celebrate the holidays at home, to be with grandparents, cousins and relatives and to enjoy the local sights and festivities.

So allow me to share some pictures from our trip. First stop, the in-laws!

Zoocobia
We always visit the zoo whenever we go places. And we’re so lucky that there’s a new zoo located near my in-laws place.  Because we were considered as “VIP”, we get to have our own tour guide and had a close encounter with most of the animals in the zoo. 

Here we get to….

Hold a parrot

   

Get lost in the Garden Maze

          

Go Carting

Feed the ostrich

 

Feed the monkey

 

Feed a camel, goat, and donkey

And see in person the animal that produces one of the most expensive coffees in the world, the wild civet. 

Sky Ranch
We love that there was a night carnival in town!  First time for Mavi to be out at night (not in the cold), and enjoying the carnival ride!

Dinosaur Island
Saving the best for last, we visited the newly established Dinosaur Island, just a few minutes from the in-law’s place.  Mavi's obsessed with dinosaurs and he was ecstatic upon arrival!

The Dinosaur Island is right in the middle of a rainforest, and that dinosaur statues were so impressive! It's like an outdoor museum of dinosaurs, and even if their animation and sound effects were limited, Mavi and the entire had a wonderful time viewing the elect... dinosaurs.

Aside from these sights, we get to visit relatives as well. After celebrating Christmas at my in-laws house, we travelled again for a day via a domestic flight going to my folk’s house to spend the New Year. Pictures coming up for Part II!

12 Practical Life Christmas Activities: On the 4th day…

Allowing kids to help you set up your Nativity Set, and offer a little prayer afterwards :)

12 Practical Life Activities: On the 3rd day…

Create window decors just like these snowman window banners! They looked so cute hanging in the kitchen window :)

12 Practical Life Christmas Activities: On the 2nd day…

Writing Christmas cards to family and friends!

Mavi has to prepare at least 10 cards, so we’re doing 2 cards a day and he loves it!  He uses different coloured pens, and would add glitters and stickers too!

Have fun!

12 Practical Life Christmas Activities: On the 1st day..

Helping Mommy putting up the Christmas Tree. 

 

                         

Happy first day of December!

Our Looong Weekend

Hello everyone! How was your weekend? As I mentioned earlier, our little family went to the city center to “supposedly” watch the parade in celebration of the St. Patrick’s Day.  But look! We can see nothing but sea of green leprechaun hats! LOL.  The parade has already started by the time we arrived and we couldn’t get a decent spot to at least view the parade float.

So we ended walking around, and view the people celebrating LOL. 

 

At home, we did a few crafts.. we made a rainbow using our fingers.  It was a total hit!

And we also made a flag... Ireland’s flag.  I attached this to a stick and we place it on our veranda.

 

On Mother’s Day (UK and Ireland), we went to the park to play football.  You see, we do a lot of outdoor activities but I don’t usually bring a camera when we play outside... but I realize that I should bring at least our P&S so I can capture precious moments such as these:

 

Then today is a holiday, so we started our Blue Series for reading.  I forgot to mention that my son has started reading (not pretend) a few weeks ago.  He can read... mostly CVC words.  And I’m happy to say that since he knows “how to do it” already, it’s easier for him this time to blend the letters in the blue series. 

For reading, I borrowed books from the library and am happy to say that they have an amazing collection of reading books for preschoolers.  Currently we’re using this books.  We’re using the Reading Corner Phonics set for grade 1 and at times would include those from grade 2 now that we’re beginning the blue series.

New week.. fresh start! We’re doing Before FIAR this week:  Goodnight Moon.

Happy Monday!

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