Family visiting!

We were all very excited to have Jon's Uncle Rick, Aunty Edna and Cousin C come to visit. Here is the LONDON family skyping with Grandpa in PERTH while sitting on our sofa in MANILA!

We hadn't seen them since M was one year old. It was lovely to introduce 'Grandma Heather's brother and family' to M as our now four year old, and J and L for the first time -- and vice versa!

Jon took them to the American Memorial gardens for some WWII history

Then home for a swim. Uncle Rick used a white towel after the pool. J must have particularly noticed because when we talked about the high points of the day at bedtime tonight, J said she really liked swimming with Uncle White Towel.

Time for a quick photo before departing for the aiport - a 19 hour visit that we thoroughly enjoyed!

A Thursday

 

It wasn't the best start to the day - the girls discovered with joy that their bedroom door wasn't locked and decided to pay us a visit at 5.45am before any of us were awake. So the baby didn't feed, and neither parent was particularly chipper about how the day started. But one look at these faces and its hard to stay (too) cranky for long :-)

M and J were playing 'hiding from the thunder' and decided under the piano was as good a place as any. There was no thunder. Sun was shining. But its fun to play :-)

Good morning mama! I know I didn't nurse and you ended up having to pump against your strong preference, but look at my adorable face!

Co Minh is a piano teacher but she does singing, theory, piano, percussion, and rhythm. M is loving her music lessons (and would LOOOOOVE to play the drums). They are J's music lessons too, but for some reason J took to 'making fish food' from playdough and then 'throwing it to the fish'. Mama was the fish.

 

Our Gorgeous J

WHAT a girl! Hilarious, delicious, nurturing, and clever. We love our J so much!

Our Beautiful M

So we just noticed that L has featured quite heavily of late :-) Here's our beautiful M. She is larger than life. SO many smiles and so much excitement for just about everything. We love this creative, kind, thoughtful, FUN girl!

Our lovely L

Such a precious little girl. Here she is in one of our favorite photos. Now, our tiny little newborn is rolling over, sitting up, and clapping her hands. And melting our hearts, which she has always done :-)

L clapping

L can roll

L loves to kick!

Party Time!

The girls were invited to a party for friend K today. It was a dinosaur-themed party. One of the fun games was 'excavating' 'dinosaurs' from a chunk of 'rock'. There was SO much gluten-free party food -- the girls loved it :-)

 

It was so lovely to see K's new baby brother - only one week old :-) Our little baby looks quite big next to him; she's certainly no longer a newborn!

 

Yep. She's definitely growing :-)

Saturday is 'Family Date' Day

Every Saturday, Jon takes the girls on a 'family date'. Sometimes together, sometimes one after the other. Occasionally with Mum and Eliana :-) It is almost always to Greenbelt for a Pinkberry (strawberry!), then to feed the fish, and finally to the toy store. Just to look :-) 

When Jemima goes quiet in the car on the way home we pretty much know what's happened :-)

We love visitors :-)

Dr Aunty Jazzy came to visit - and share a book with the girls about the Human Body

And then Lovely Lola, back from the UK. Hurrah!

Mum really enjoyed the adult conversation and the girls loved being visited. They also had a great time as usual with Teacher Rizzy and Teacher Erika, both of whom come to our home for 'school'. We love it when people come! 

Farewell Ate Lin

So sad for us, but so happy for Ate Lin - finally getting to go and live with her husband! Two weeks ago we had a 'Despidida' - a going away party - before she left Manila.

We each said a little something about Ate Lin and did 'cheers!', which the girls LOVE

And the girls got to help prepare and wrap gifts for Ate - and then give them to her :-)

Our last night with Ate Lin. A lovely night. We have many wonderful memories of Ate Lin and are so glad we got to share more than a year with her.

Typhoon Glenda

Yesterday was a day of no electricity, wild wind, some rain, and Dad home. We are so grateful to be very protected in our village, but the storm was devastating for many others in Manila... http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-07-16/an-thousands-evacauted-as-typhoon-rammasun-closes-in-on-manila/5600234

 

This was after crews had cleaned the streets of large branches so cars could get through

We watched the action from the lanai. It got a good deal messier as the storm progressed