Happy New Year Everybody!

Ice skating in the Philippines

This Sunday we tried our luck Ice skating. Rueben enjoyed it so much that he did not want to leave. The kids are always asking when it is going to snow here, guess they really miss those (very occasional) snowy winters in Belgium!

 

Ice skating 1

Happy Birthday Tatay!

Tatay celebrated his birthday today in our house. We had a great dinner with lot’s of Tatay’s most favorite Filipino dishes (most of which he had cooked himself.

Treb was there as well, it was also his Birthday.

Happy Birthday Treb and Tatay!

Family portrait

Yesterday we were shopping in the Filinvest shopping Mall, and decided that it was time to take a family portrait again. It was some time since we took one.

Visiting Pagsanjan Falls

This Sunday we visited Pagsanjan falls, about 2 hours drive south of Makati. Nanay and Tatay agreed to join us. For them it had been over 30 years since they had visited the place.

The falls themselves are a 30 meter high waterfall an hours boat trip up the river from the town of Pagsanjan. Two very skilled boatmen take you in a bangka up the river. It involves a lot of hard labour from their part, as the at several points have to literally push you up the rapids. For that reason there are only two people allowed per bangka.

Along the way there is a lot of beautiful scenery to take in, and you very quickly have the idea that you are in a completely different world. We saw lots of smaller waterfalls, wild monkeys, and peddled through deep ravines, with cliffs on both sides going up over 100 meters.

The place was also used to shoot scenes from the 1979 movie Apocalypse Now.

Below a short movie clip from our decent down the river. Unfortunately we couldn´t film the most spectacular bit where we went on a raft under the big waterfall, as our camera would surely not had survived that.

Vacation for Rueben (& Papa)

Rueben just had a 10 day holiday. Today was the second day he was back to school. Papa came over from Vienna for the holiday. We were supposed to go out for some beach, but due to not all roads being cleared up we decided to just stay at home.

Oma visiting Hillsborough

Oma arrived on Saturday morning, after a good flight from Amsterdam. Of course she was curious to see the construction site of our new house so we took her there on Sunday.

Raven's Ballet lesson

Raven has joined a ballet school. Here below you see some footage of the second lesson, she had Saturday 11 July.

Rueben's new school

Here is a video of Rueben in his new school. It was taken early in the morning on Monday, and it was his fourth day going to school. He did not really felt like playing at the playground, but that was only when the camera was running as soon afterwards he went and played with the other kids.

Rueben's first karate lesson

Second day in our new house

Had a nice saturday in our new house. First Rueben was really excited about his new Karate class. It was a small group of about 8 kids differing in age from 6 till 13 (I guess). It was held outdoor in the multi purpose hall of Jan Jose village. Below are some pictures of it.



Also shot a small Video of the kids playing in the pool.

First day in our new house!

Finally we arrived in our new house in Pacific Malayan village. The first couple of days we spent at Tatay and Nanay's house so Rueben could play with Treb, and Raven with Jersey.



We Arrived in manila on Sunday at 00:20, which was about 45 minutes earlier as anticipated, so we were quite happy. Also the weather had improved, as the day before apparently there was massive flooding in Manila, which would have made our trip from the airport a multi hour affair instead of the 20 minutes it took us today.

On sunday we went to the "biggest toy store in the world" (at least so it seemed to Rueben) to make up for the lack of toy packing ability (4 times 20 KG really does not allow for much toys when you are flying).

Then on Monday we visited the Southville international school, where Rueben made a test, and was straight admitted into the second grade.

Tuesday we went and had a look at the construction of our new house. Really not much to see yet. We briefly looked at the community pool. Rueben was so disappointed that we did not take his swimming clothes (for future reference, the last picture shows his unhappy face).



Wednesday we had a look at Eurocampus as we found out this German/French school had started an English section last year. The school was beautiful with a nicely equipped campus. He would be able to do so much sports here. Unfortunately the commute would take us at least half an hour one-way every day, and this might even be more as the construction of the sky way phase 2 is now in full swing, and only is expected to be finished May 2011. Although the shortest way would not lead us over the skyway, it would make traffic heavier in other parts of the city.

Thursday Tatay took Rueben and Raven swimming in the pool of Lozada, the famous Philippine Olympic swimmer.

And Friday was the day we transferred to Maripaz's house.

Weekend at Paul and Dee

We spent the weekend of May 3 at Paul and Dee's new house in Doorn. Dee had a nice BBQ prepared, and the kids loved playing in the garden. I shot a short video:

Rueben got a new bike

Oma gave Rueben a new bike, because his old one was really to small. He took to it immediately.

We spent the easter weekend at Opa's in Nunspeet. We arrived on Saturday morning and left again on Monday. The weather was perfect. rueben got a new bike from Oma, which we picked up on the way in amersfoort, and Rueben has been cycling in the forest. It went really well.



Opa also organized an easter egg hunt:

Our Christmas Holiday in California

These are the pictures from our California holiday.

Christmas Greetings

Rueben and Raven have been watching youtube this afternoon. These were their favourite videos:

Rueben's kleuterschool organised grandparents day November 23. Opa and Oma from Holland came over to watch his performance.

Skiing in Switzerland