Three day weekend! Yay!!!!!!!!!!

Monday is the Foundation Day celebration of the city where I work so it's a non-working holiday for offices in the area. Cool!

I've already planned to do the school run on Monday which I am looking forward to -- got to have a talk with the school administrator but I don't want to get into that right now. Then have a long nap with the kids after school. On a Monday. Wow. (It's so much nicer to be on holiday when everyone else has to go to school or work, isn't it?

A run at the Zara sale this lunchtime (new shoes!), a night out with my girlfriends at work tonight plus three whole days with no work. What more can I ask for?

Have a good weekend everybody!

School Tales

Pictures finally saved in my laptop.

Here's my little girl on her first day of school. Doesn't she look adorable in her uniform? The hubby and I took a half day off from work for two days so we could bring the kids to school and stay until they got off.

It wasn't hard to wake her in the morning (thank goodness). School is a twenty minute drive away (if there's no traffic) so they will have to get up at 6:30 at the latest to give time for breakfast and any tantrums (we've had two so far) before my mom or dad drives them to school before 7:30 to make the 8 am time. Have I mentioned I've got saints for parents??? :D

I had a lump in my throat as I watched her showing off her school uniform to her grandparents. I couldn't believe my baby girl is old enough to go to school. My husband says he suddenly felt old as we drove into the parking lot and, together with the other parents, trooped to the school entrance with Faith and her tiny backpack and snack bag.

The school was filled with parents and nannies anxious to see how their little ones are going to fare on their first day. That day, only the nursery and pre-nursery students were in school -- it was probably less chaotic than if all the levels went in on the same day since they were only allowing parents and nannies to stay outside the rooms during the first week.

As expected, there were kids who wouldn't let go of their parents' hand and others who insisted their parents/nannies stay inside the room. One child kept going outside the room asking for his nanny. A few kids kept bursting into tears.

Faith was a little trooper though. When we brought her inside the classroom, she went with her teacher and started playing with the toys. Her daddy and I stayed outside the glass windows, alternately recording and taking pictures. It was pretty obvious she was enjoying herself. I knew we could've left her without issues but my husband and I both stayed until they were dismissed. I think it was much harder for me than for her. She came out of class out happily carrying a pink balloon, chattering in the car the whole time.

Here they are on the second day of school all dressed and ready to go. It's been three weeks since school started and I was so happy to learn that Joshua always brings his sister to her room before going to his. Okay, gushing. I know. Can't help it. Sorry. It's a proud mommy moment for me. *sniff*

Now that school's started, routines have changed a bit. We now spend a chunk of time during weekends to go over Joshua's lessons. They don't have daily homework yet but I go over their weekly bulletins and plans for next week and try to prepare both of them for future lessons. I'm trying to manage my schedule so I can still go boxing twice a week and be home early enough for the kids.

I've also heard from my mom that Faith has a habit of walking around in class and not paying attention. Oh dear. But I'm not too worried. YET.

I mean, c'mon, it's her first time in school and for someone who more or less plays all day long, it would be hard to just sit still with all those toys and interesting things around. Like the teacher's bell (her favorite - teacher had to eventually keep it where she couldn't reach it), or the toy bowling pins, and the different colored balls in the baskets. And before my dear hubby pins this on me, no, I DON'T have a short attention span.

I wanted to post about the kids' first week of school but I don't have the pictures loaded in my laptop yet so I decided to hold off until I have them.

Last Friday's traffic was just terrible -- I left the mall (just 5 minutes away from the office) after shopping for groceries at 7pm and was still on the road at 10. I hadn't been feeling well the past week and my cough was definitely acting up by the time we reached home at 10:30. My work commute is just crazy. I hate, hate, hate driving! It was not a good start to the weekend.

We had a lovely visit from my good friend Lisa and her daughter Lara who are on vacation from Austin, Texas. It was a play date for the kids who hadn't seen each other in two years. It made me wish we lived close to each other so the kids can play together more often.

The weekend passed by in a blur. The heat was unbearable despite the on and off drizzles. I was busy preparing the kids' stuff for school (books labeled and wrapped in plastic cover), Father's Day cards and presents prepared, family gathering and all that.

It's lunchtime on another blah Monday. The coffee hasn't gotten rid of my headache, I was kept up half the night by my cough and I find myself feeling too sluggish to go boxing yet again.

I hope your week's starting off better than mine is. In the meantime, gonna go grab some lunch and the copy of People's hottest bachelors for 2007. Sue me. I need a pick me up.

Just last week my co-workers and I were talking about our childhood and how we grew up without computers and Wii and playstations. And how my co-worker's 7 year old is the unbeatable CounterStrike champion in their neighborhood.

Things were a lot simpler then. As soon as we woke up from our afternoon naps, my sister and I were out of the house, playing with whatever struck our fancy (mostly removing the leaves from my mom's fern plants and scattering them around) and fighting with each other, of course, at which point our grandaunt would come out, break us up and make us go inside. Then we'd fight over who cheated at jacks or pick up sticks.

Summer was something to look forward to as we were usually with our cousins in the province where we would play the more traditional Filipino games like patintero or just play tag or hide and seek. Or just race up and down the pigsty which was located on top of a hill and where you get a view of the river on the other side if you didn't mind the muck and the stink.

In grade school, it was not unusual to see groups of girls sprawled in the corridors during breaks playing chinese jackstones and jacks, and as we got older, chinese garter. I once sprained my ankle playing this game in our back yard while trying to jump over the garter which was raised to shoulder length -- and I was already a freshman in college.

The streets outside our neighborhood would usually fill with children at around 4 pm and wouldn't empty until nightfall. Nowadays, it's quiet apart from the people sweeping fallen leaves off the front of their houses. There's the occasional nanny taking a child out for a walk in a stroller but no more children playing on the streets.

So yesterday, I thought up a quick game of hide and seek in the afternoon with my brother, husband and the two kids. And I learned the impossibility of keeping a three year old quiet while hiding. Faith kept giggling which is why I immediately found her and her dad hiding behind the coconut tree in the yard. And she couldn't keep quiet even when I held a hand over her mouth while hiding with my brother behind a wooden chair, prompting me to push her into view so her dad could see her. I crept over to where Joshua had previously hidden which was fortunate for me because Faith pointed out my previous hiding place to her dad gleefully. Cripes! I guess I have my work cut out teaching her the basics of playing hide and seek. We ended up throwing a frisbee around for the rest of the afternoon.

I know it's naive of me to think that my children will be able to resist the lure of computer games. Joshua is already fascinated with computers and using paint and playing Super Mario. I can't keep them from technology. But I also realize it's my role to teach them they don't have to be indoors all the time. That it's possible to have fun without high tech toys and gadgets and tv.

So call me a killjoy but I'm definitely holding off from getting a playstation or a Wii. And I'll be happy if Joshua remains ignorant of Counter Strike for the meantime.

I saw the third installment of Pirates of the Carribean last weekend and frankly, I don't know what all the fuss is about. I should've listened to my instincts and skipped the movie altogether. But since it was an opportunity for a movie date with the hubby, off we went Sunday afternoon to see it.

What's wrong with it? First, it was an hour and a half too long in my opinion. When I start squirming in my seat and looking at my watch to check how much time is left during a movie, then it's taking much too long to get to the good part. I actually asked my husband if we could go about two thirds into the movie and I was only half kidding.

Second, maybe it's just me but I couldn't even follow the plot about halfway into the movie. There were too many instances of characters switching ships and getting captured and switching ships again that it gets boring after a while. And can somebody tell me what the big build up of Calypso is all about? All that hoopla and then she just turns into a giant mound of crabs --- hellooooo??!!!!

I couldn't even get interested for the sake of the eye candy. Johnny Depp, though he was a bit funny (and walked funny too), isn't really my type. Forget Orlando Bloom, he's prettier than Keira Knightly who mysteriously developed sword fighting skills and is good enough to fight *gasp* burly pirates and British soldiers.

Plus call me fastidious but one other thing I don't like about pirate movies is the dirt factor. It's just gross, ick and yuck. Johnny Depp has seriously big pores on his nose.

So Pirates 2 won the awards at the MTV Movie awards. Go figure. I still think it's one sequel too many.