Mom had been giving me zucchini from her garden. I have been using it for sauteeing and even added it to my tinola, as well as quiche (like omelet), The kids love it, as it does not really impart any flavor. Here the kids are grating the zucchini for Zucchini Bread. Very much like Banana bread but without flavor and smell. They pretty much eat whatever I place on the table, especially when I say so, with a threatening voice (I couple it with a lecture on how important vegetable is to their body).

Posted by Hello

I have been getting Patrick interested in cooking. He was so excited when he successfully flipped a pancake.I wish I could elicit the same enthusiasm for cooking/baking in my stepdaughter.

Posted by Hello

Skowhegan Fair

Ana, me and the kids went to the fair. It was Friday, and the forecast was that it had a 60% chance of raining that day, but the next day would be raining (it was the last day of the fair). So we took a chance.



Due to lack of foresight, our budget only enabled us to buy sodas and fried dough, and then let the kids have two rides. We were short of $1 to get the kids ride-all-you-can bands. Well, next time we will know better.



The carnival was so inferior to those which we have been used to. The rides are quite few, and the ground was small. They had the octopus, the viking, the mouse, titanic, etc., which could all be found in the carnival near CCP in Manila. They don't have the really giant rides like the water slide, roller coaster, iceland, etc. But the kids enjoyed anyway. Babawi na lang kami pagbakasyon sa PInas.

One week ago, Mom asked if I wanted to harvest some string beans, as she herself had harvested what they needed. I said yes, and so me and the kids harvested the "string beans" which I discovered to be the Philippines' "baguio beans" (not the sitao). 

We were supposed to go to Popham Beach, but when we got there at 11am, the beach was already full! So we went looking for a map to see whether there were other beaches around (it was a 2-hour travel and we did not want to waste the trip). We ended up (at 1 pm) with Boothbay Harbor.

There was a park of some sort surrounding the beach. The day was quite gloomy by the time we got there. Not much sun...

The beach itself was rocky, the waters a bit murky (and cold....brrrr).

Good thing that later the sun came out. Still, the water was cold. I tried hard to recall how, as a child, I enjoyed outings so much and tried my best to entertain me in an unusual/uncommon environment. No matter how unpleasant the surrounding was, I kept myself busy with building castles, trying to learn how to swim, collecting shells/rocks/corals. I hoped these kids enjoyed. WEll, they said they did, when I asked them when we got home. And I thanked Gary for taking the time (and spending the money) to bring us there. Then I told him, next year, we would go to Popham Beach at an earlier time; probably leave the house at 6am. 

Last SAturday we attempted to pick raspberries, along with Dad and Mom and Shannon and Ann.

We tried...putting the berries into a bucket tied to our hips to keep our hands free...

It was quite hard to find ripe berries...

Soon, quite discouraged, we decided to stop. Instead we visited again that big tree near the old cemetery...



Posted by Hello

The rest of the morning while I did chores, the kids busied themselves preparing for make-believe play (wet market/carinderia) using leaves and flowers for food. So after I placed the used dishes in the dishwasher I went out to play with them. I was the customer.

Here they were preparing "tacos" and "hotdog sandwich" for me.

The kids were making KULIT to me to play with them this morning...I was too busy doing household chores so I made them hang the laundry.

The kids helped in weeding the vegetable garden...After 10 minutes of pulling weed, Ben was asking whether they could stop working...haha! I helped them by loosing the soil and the weeds then I just asked them to pick up the weeds, place them in a bucket then throw away into the field...
 

The boys went toward the cows...maybe they missed the animals so much...

WE were traversing the path from Mom's house back to ours, through the woods. The kids were wearing their "ninja" outfit...As Gary says, there's never a boring day when you have kids...

This is the bow that Grandpa made for Patrick. He also made one for Ben. That was last Monday, when Gary and I went to Portland to file my AOS and EAD application.

These two just wanted to pose in front of the cam so I let them...

Swimming on a hot day

It was sunny, but the wind was a bit blowing so it makes the day colder. The water in the pool was icy cold! It took us getting used to the tempreature gradually before we can submerge.

Kids were still apprehensive to get in the water...

Juliana was the first to dare get in it. AT first she was wearing the usual 2-pc bathing suit. Then she decided it was too cold, went back into the house, got into shorts and tops with long sleeves, wishing these would warm her, but no luck. 

Public Playground

We went to the Athens Fairgrounds to join the STick-Horse Show (I had no pre-conceived notion about it save for children using a stick-horse). It was so boring. I thought there would also be rides and exciting shows, but there was none. So we proceeded to the public playground. It was a very hot day.

Last day of school

The K class sang for the opening number of the Talent Show. It was the last day of school and students from every level presented a talent of some sort (although personally I wouldn't call some of them a talent. In the Philippines, when a kid shows off her/his talent, most often, the audience would be captivated. Here I was mostly disgusted, (Talent ba yun?) but the rest of the audience clapped and cheered in encouraging the children. I was wondering whether the presentors were just making a BS out of the whole thing...)

Helping in the Garden

Kids: While waiting for Grandma to arrive to teach us how to plant potatoes, we helped Mama attend to her flower goarden. 


You should see Mama's Hardin...we also helped in planting potatoes, picking up rocks from the veggie garden and throwing them into a drainage pit.

We took a break while Mama prepared lunch.

They played ball in the freshly-mowed lawn (Gary mowed the lawn yesterday). 

We finally evacuated the living room!

Kids: We were all excited to move upstairs to our newly-finished (not totally finished, though) rooms. Papa asked us to pick up our clutter from the living room, leaving out the trash and bringing them up to our own rooms...

The living room suddenly looked so big and roomy.

Papa had to supervise us because we tended to throw away our tinker toys and pencils and crayons (especially Ben!)...



Mama: Now we finally evacuated the living room. It will be the next working area as we start the work downstairs. But that won't happen anytime soon. We still have some finishing touches to do upstairs. 

Ben's bedroom

B: Papa and Mama have finished my room too! BUT...I had to sleep tonight at Patrick's room because Mama and Papa are not yet done with J's room...so she gets to sleep tonight in MY ROOM! ( :( )...

B: Papa had already placed my computer in my room (actually at present, this computer I share with J because Papa has no moneoy yet to buy me my own computer...

J: Finally I have my own bed now! [ not this one! This is B's...mine is already on the other room (shown above)]...... And I will have to sleep in the other bedroom alone...

P: This is great! I have my own room now, and my computer is here too! Really really cool...especially that Papa has fixed my computer...now I can play my new Rayman 2, and actually read the text there! (It was blurry in Mama's computer where I first installed it)... 

Patrick's Bedroom

Kids: We were all excited to sleep for the first time in our bedroom! Well, technicall it is just Patrick's room, as his was finished first. So all our beds were put there for the meantime.

J: I had to sleep on the floor because Daddy has not made me my bed yet. He will tomorrow, he said...

Goodnight, Mama, Papa! 

Online Scrapbooking

Wish we had this system to do "scrapbooking" online as soon as we stepped on this land...Anyway, there are still a lot of exciting things going on...we can fill this up in no time, I guess...