Christmas in Boracay

Boracay , Philippines

Boracay for Christmas was really one of the most beautiful places that we could have picked to go to for Christmas. If we couldn’t be with family, then we should be somewhere fun. This place had just about everything we asked for!

First, I just want to say, we stayed at a great place called Boracay Beach Club. It was at Station 1, which is a calmer part of the beach. It was not directly on the beach, but it was still only about a 2 minute walk across the street. The hotel also has a restaurant directly on the beach with chairs dedicated to people staying at the hotel.

Day 1 – just bumming at the beach

Day 2 – cliff jumping and lunch at Ariel's Point (also owned and run by the same people who own the hotel).

Gabby was the first one to take the leap …

Hannah started off on the lower one and then graduated to the higher ones.

I hate heights, but finally took the plunge too.

Jonathan also did a couple of jumps.

This is where the first jumps took place ... a much lower level.

Yup, this the "lowest board".

Jamie

Hannah

Gabby

Day 3 – (Christmas Eve)

Hanging out at the Beach

Hannah wants to do some stand up paddle boarding – convinces Jonathan to go out with her. At first we watch Jonathan out there for 5 minutes and then he calls out for Hannah to come out and try it. Hannah is a pro. She is up, balancing and paddling from the outset. Amazing.

Day 4 – (Christmas Day)

Jonathan takes a 3 hours scuba class and has a 1 hour dive

The girls and I get massages on the beach – total cost USD$24.

These are just some pictures from the day.

Day 5

More beach time

Day 6 – Last day

ATV tour

Great views of the island.

Aviary

We tried to do helmet diving. This is when you put a 20 pound yellow dome made out of iron on your shoulders and attempt to breathe under water. We thought that it would be alternative to scuba diving since the girls were too young to do that. We took a boat out to the diving platform. We then got to sit on this platform for 25minutes while the crew ate lunch. I then got sea sick, and took the next boat ride back to shore. Jonathan and the girls stayed and tried to dive. Gabby had a cold and couldn’t regulate her ears due to a cold and came right back up. Hannah freaked out when she touched the bottom and came right back up. Jonathan was the only one who really succeeded with this. But since the girls came up so

quickly, he did so too. This was a complete failure.

Day 7 – Going Home

These were on Boracay Island.

Had to take a car to the boat. Took the boat to the small airport.

Took the 30 seat plane to Manilla.

Pictures from the Iphone just after take off.

Took a cab from the domestic terminal to the international terminal in Manila.

See the Jeepney on the left?

Stood in line for an hour. Check in, tried to go through immigration, stepped out of line to fill out more paperwork. Found out that it takes 750 pesos to get out the country – per person ; It is only USD$20. The problem was, no one knew it was going to cost that much. 3 hour wait until the 2 hour flight.

We did make it to HK. After the plane had gotten to the gate, the man behind us got on his phone and started yelling at the person on the other end. This did NOT sit with with Jonathan, as we were in the very back of the plane and had to listen to the guy yell in Cantonese. After getting off the plane, going through immigration, we got to find our loud friend again at the baggage carousal. I immediately moved the the other side of the area, got our backpacks, got on the airport express and were home about 30 minutes later.

It was an awesome trip. I'm not sure how we are going to top it for next year!

January 2011

I am starting a resolution to update it at least once a week. I realize that it is Feb 1 ... but as most of you know, I beat to my own drummer.

So this is the goings on around here:

We got to see a friend from home a few weeks ago. It was great to catch up and find out what is going on with his family back home. He was extremely busy, which is always a good sign for business and the economy.

We have signed the girls up for some more sports and social things. Hannah is swimming at the Y on Mondays. This is going very well. She has figured out how to do butterfly correctly. She knows that her arms are suppose to come out of the water … a little late, I know.

Gabby really wanted to do some more gymnastics when were looking at the schedule listings. Instead, she decided to go with Rock wall climbing. She is learning to tie knots and really how it’s done. It is pretty cool to watch her climb as high as she does!

We are also going to try to join Girl Guides, which is like Girl Scouts. They meet at a school around us, so this should be easy enough to get to. We are also going to join an all girls 12 & under rugby team. I’m not sure how well the girls will do, but they will at least meet some more people and get more energy out.

School is moving right along. I FINALLY figured out that Fulton County math books are online. So, I am going through that to make sure that Hannah is able to do the chapters in that book. We are also doing the same thing with Science.

Gabby is doing on Singapore Math. That stuff is HARD!!! She has a lot of algebra problems that I can do, just can’t explain. The other subjects seem to be going right along.

We are still hanging with the homeschool group. We are enjoying our “mapping the world” co-op.

These are some pictures of the DaVinci exhibition at the Science Museum.

We have had mostly ups, but there have been some down times too. Hannah continues to struggle with wanting to go back home and wanting to stay here. She misses her friends, but also enjoys her friends here.

Gabby has had a bit more of a difficult time. She is not getting along with some of the other kids here. I know that she contributes to the problem, but I also know that it is not all her fault. Once again, I am finding that I have to tread very lightly when it comes to disciplining Gabby and listening to both sides of the story. I feel as though others are quick to blame and that is one of the down falls of homeschooling.

Jonathan is still running. He is planning on running the “Around the Island 40 miler” in early April. He has started to train by doing some long run followed by a shorter run later in the day. He is also going to expand to swimming this summer. I think that he plans on doing some swim/run races later on in the summer.

As for me, I seem to be plugging along. I am finding new things to laugh at daily. I am also relearning all the stuff I forgot that I learned year ago. Now, I can watch “Are you smarter than a 5^th grader” and get at least 90% of all the question correct.

Christmas

We were suppose to have Christmas on the morning of the 21st. The girls emailed Santa and told him that we were going to the Philippines and asked him to bring our presents early. Santa cooperated, Jonathan did not. He was so excited to give the girls their presents from us, that he came home from work on Thursday and asked if we could give them their gifts. How could I say no? He was so excited to give it to them.

Oh my Gosh, you got us our own Kindle's?

The socks from Grandma were also a HUGE hit!

Homeschooling

Homeschooling is going pretty well. We finished our math for the year. (Don't worry, we are now reviewing and moving on to the next year later this month.) We continue to do spelling and social studies daily. They do some workbooks that include geography, language arts, logical thinking and math word problems.

Since I suck at writing and really stunk it up in English, I struggled with finding a writing program for the girls. I didn't feel like they were getting enough writing exposure from just the workbooks. Another mom suggested "Institutes for Excellence in Writing". I really like the program. The program is taught on DVD and has some printable pages that go with it. The girls are learning to outline the important fact and then re-write what they have read in their own words. We are starting our third week of this, and it is moving along nicely.

We continue to also meet with our co-op and do "Mapping the World with Art" which is a program by Ellen McHenry. It is a pretty awesome course. The girls have drawn Europe, South American and they are now going to work on Central American when we start back up in a couple of weeks.

Here are some pictures from our homes school adventures:

Hannah has made a cookie of Africa

A walk on Lamma Island

Hannah ice skating with her friend Charlotte (who just went back to the States)

Gabby and Dinah

At Hong Kong Park with friends


One of the issues that I think that I do ok with as a parent is, recognizing both the good and the bad traits my daughters have. Hopefully in doing so, I can minimize the bad, and accentuate the good. The girls have had some conflicts with some of the kids in the home school group. I'm not really sure how to deal with this. When they are in school, there is a teacher, assistant principal or principal to be the neutral party in the situation and listen to both sides of the story and be objective when conflicts arise. Now, we, the parents have are put into that position. I personally don't think that we can be that neutral party that is needed to get to the root of the problem. I'm not sure of the solution, but I'm open to all suggestions. Right now, for us, the right thing to do is to remove ourselves from some activities. Hopefully this will make each meeting a better one when we do finally get together.

Gabby's worm

Wednesday's are our day to meet with our homeschooling group. On this particular Wednesday, we did our "Mapping the World" co-op and then we went to the top of the "Peak" to the park. Usually the kids just run around and the mom's sit and just chat. This particular day, it was BEAUTIFUL! The sun was out, there was a slight breeze and the sky was cloud free. As we sat and talked about music, we were visited by this friend.

Some of you that were around when Gabby was a small toddler will remember that she used to collect worms from the back yard and put them in a small plastic purse and carry them around with her all day. Some things never change.

 

 

 

Old Friends

Sometimes, just seeing a friend can really lift your spirits.

 
 
 

Halloween

Halloween

Halloween was very low key here. We did find an ally that had a ton of cool decorations, but not really a whole lot of other things. We got the girls costumes from the US and had my mom ship them. They were a huge hit. We went trick or treating at a friends apartment that has 30 floors and 3 towers.