Kids are coming!

I can hardly wait...



P.S. Thanks to Meyan's blog for introducing me to Daisypath.com.

Whatever happened to March?

I blinked. And March was gone.

How funny that life can suddenly speed up and just like that, the blog gets de-prioritized. I guess Holy Week took up more time than its actual 7 days.

This image is my favorite from March. Tyrone and Annika walking on the beach in Surfers Paradise, on our way to body surf. We spent 11 beautiful days in Oz - great bonding time with T and the kids.

The pix are all here. Multiply has the best photo uploading software, so now I am uploading photos there rather than Kodak Gallery.

I'll post more about Oz when I have time this weekend...

Annika's 10th Birthday

Annika's Birthday Party last January 19 was a dance party. Dance obviously is not one of my passions, so I'll quote from Tessa's Inquirer column of Sunday, February 24, to describe it:

"The freedom of expression in dance is liberating. I’m so hooked on the series, “So You Think You Can Dance.” In fact, for my eldest daughter Annika’s tenth birthday party, we chose a dance theme. As she enters her pre-teen years, Annika and I have started enjoying more girly activities together.

As with any party, preparations start with the invitation itself. Talented graphics couple Norman and Mye Cruz of Adworks (tel. 688-0085 or e-mail adworksgrfx@yahoo.com) artistically creates both the invitations and the giveaways; always perfectly done despite the limited time I give them. This creative duo does everything from wedding invitations, baptisms, birthdays and debuts. For an artistic twist to your own invitations, check out Adworks and have a really personalized and wonderful memento made.

Once the invitations and giveaways are settled, my next appointment is at Cupcakes by Sonja (tel. 856-0308 or e-mail at socampo77@mac.com) in Serendra. For two birthdays in a row, Sonja Ocampo has made Annika’s cake along with a smaller version for Athena. And so all the kids get a bite of the delicious cake, there are matching cupcakes for all to enjoy.

And what’s a dance party without dancers! Dance sport champion Ednah Ledesma, one of the world’s best ballroom dancers, was our very special performer. Ednah had training in almost all dance varieties from ballet, jazz and hip-hop, but not ballroom, until entering the sport in 1997. Her performance was graciously captivating.

To date, Ednah has won over 5 major titles, including the championship in the prestigious Senior Latin Division of the Blackpool Competition in 2005. To those in the know, this is considered the Holy Grail of Dance Sports, held annually in England.

At the Ginajane Grey Dance Show last year, Ednah did a Latin Tango number with her partner Cecil Go. In her own show last month at the Music Museum, she showed off her skills accompanied by other dance sport champions. Entitled “Adventures of Dancing with The Champions 2,” the show’s theme was Hollywood Silver Screen musical scores. The show featured celebrity guest performer Regine Tolentino reprising the role of Catherine Zeta Jones in Chicago.

After watching the highly entertaining show, I congratulated my Assumptionista friend and Dance Sport Champion Anna Marie Periquet for her action-packed samba with heart-stopping stunts, performed to the theme of Mission Impossible. She was so kind to reprise her act for Annika’s party at Bykes Café, along with Ednah’s Catwoman number and a special Cheetah Girls dance by Margie dela Rama.

To those who want to venture into the exciting world of dance, Ednah gives lessons at Studio 116 at 116 Building, V.A. Rufino Street, Legaspi Village, Makati City (tel. 813-1549 or 0917-628-2477). I will be taking lessons soon, but honestly, I am just excited to try on a Catwoman costume and other outfits.

Adding to the high-energy at Annika’s party was the break dancing of the hip-hop group, All-Stars. These international champions can spin on their heads, balance with one hand and defy gravity all together!

The girls at the party were also interested in Nail Art, a digital airbrush painting by Creative Party & Balloon Design. All girly parties should get this feature. Call Cory Marquez at 0917-624-2679 or e-mail creative_party_design@yahoo.com to ask about her other party activities."

I sure wish Annika would take up underwater hockey. Then I'd have more to write about!

From the Mouths of Babes

Children, it is said, cannot lie. T and I got a huge kick out of Annika's English test, which we just got last night.

In Section B, the test asks her to write a sentence for the preposition "after."

Her answer: My Mom always comes home one hour after the time she said [she would].

T and I could only tell Annika, that's so true!

Being the wanna-be editor that I am, of course I also went through the test and cringed at the grammatically challenged portions (like the rule redundancy "Follow grammar, spelling, capitalization and punctuation rules in spelling.")

My favorite "gotcha" in this test though has to be:

6. The Titanic sank because it sailed towards an enormous iceberg.

If it worked for the Golden Arches...

It was Saturday, January 19, Annika's 10th birthday, and she was working hard on a drawing. She said she had just gotten an idea - that Shakey's pizza parlors should have roofs shaped like giant pizzas.

I said if she wrote a short note to her grandma Marixi, then I would send the note onwards.

I kinda liked the drawing though, so I scanned it first. The details are amazing. There's a parking lot, with just one car slot empty. There's even a drive thru, and the car going through has a doggie in the window.

Annika is a smart one.

New Year in Bora

We welcomed 2008 in Boracay. New Year's in Bora is something we've never done before. In April 2007, I was able to book two rooms at newly opened Discovery Shores, thanks to C, the wife of the owner and also an old friend from high school. With that we decided that we would, for the first time in a decade, not spend New Year's Eve in Tagaytay.

We flew down a few days after Christmas and were greeted by perfect sunny weather. The sand in Boracay is perfect for sculpting. This little mermaid is something I've been carving from Boracay sands since the early 80's when I first visited the island. Annika was happy to be my little helper.

Tyrone's own sand castle had all the anime effects imaginable, as well as some perfectly formed sand cannonballs. All the kids loved the water and even Athena had her first chance to go wading at night.

This was also Athena's first trip to Boracay and she really enjoyed just swimming in the beach and in the pool, and also jumping around the resort - this video from when we were waiting for the New Year's Eve fireworks. That was a fantastic sight, as all the resorts along the 7-km. long beach put up their separate displays. The result was a barrage worthy of a war zone.

Among the hordes of people on the island, we somehow managed to meet other Prietos. So a dinner was planned and it turned out that each of the six branches of children of Lolo Bibilo and Lola Chucha Prieto were represented:

Bianca and Karla (2nd from R), representing Tita Peachie; Tessa, representing Poplex; Nanette, representing Tita Bettina; Jane, representing Tito Raffy; Anito, representing Tito Mauro; and Martin, representing Tito Jaime.

Now that's serendipity!

Finally done ... the Christmas Blog

It took a lot of arm-twisting, bribes and cajoling but finally I finished our Christmas blog, which can be found here.

Oddly enough the younger kids were quite enthusiastic about the project, as soon as they had been bribed with enough rewards for sitting down in front of their computers and typing out something.

T and B came in last, pushing their submission deadlines. B wrote a beauty though - it's so rewarding for a parent to read good stuff that a child has to say.

It's amazing that we've got our Christmas letters on the site dating back from 1994. Reading through it all is getting to be an exercise in archeology!

Pilgrimage to Palau

Palau is first and foremost about sharks. Sharks in Blue Corner, sharks in Ulong Channel, sharks in Siaes Corner, sharks everywhere.

But this year, it was so much more.

This year, the mantas put on the show to end all shows:



(More manta videos are here and here. And here is a great shark video from Blue Corner.)

But the best part of Palau this year was just the people we were with - as usual, Tita Mary, but now also Tita Jojo Castro and her niece, Kimie, Rommel and Cris Hinlo, Gigi Santos, and Tessa and Annika. As usual, the crew of Capt. Ken was fantastic, Sixsei, Eddie, Richard and Chetra the chef.

In a day or so, I'll find the time to load up all the pictures to Kodak Gallery.