diner party Pilipinas style

We've gone native in lots of ways having lived in SE Asia for over two years now. We prefer Vietnamese Pho over TGI Fridays chips and salsa, we bring our own toilet paper where ever we go, and we serve whole fish to our out-of-town dinner guests.

This is sweet and sour Lapu Lapu. We served it with steamed rice as well as vegetable and pork lumpia (Filipino egg rolls). This is my favorite fish dish that Cora makes. We just slice off the fillets or if I'm eating alone in the kitchen, as I often do; I sit and pick all the delicious fish off the bone. The sauce is made with fresh ginger and onions and it's simply delicious. Amazingly, the girls love this meal too. Addie has a bit of trouble looking at her dinner's open mouth and pointy teeth. Not so much that it prevents her from shoveling down forkfuls of the fish.

Cora loves making this dish too because while we may serve this to guests for dinner, we haven't gone totally native. Cora gets to eat the heads for her meal. Apparently the cheeks and eyes are the best part.

We're still not there folks. She can have her cheeks and eyes.

no class with kids

I miss fixing up our house in Arlington. When the home you are living in isn't your own, it seems silly to decorate and do anything permanent. So we haven't, in general, done much in the way of decorating. We've tried to make our apartment in Manila our own with the artwork that Justin brings home from his travels. We have a great frame shop that we've used to get all our artwork framed. Here is our latest framing of the artwork Justin brought home from Vietnam. I really like the way they turned out.If you think we're getting classy, think again. Here is what our living room looked like on Sunday. This is just a few feet away from the cool artwork. No class in our house. All kids.

grown-up museum

We hit that "what-do-we-do-today?" lull on Sunday morning. That feeling that makes you just want to curl up on the couch with a book and drink tea all day or just lie on the floor and snooze. Sadly, neither of those two scenarios are options for Sunday afternoons at our house with two busy little girls. Justin made the executive decision that we were headed to the Pambansang Museo ng Pilipinas (Philippine National Museum).

Adelaide was initially distraught that we were going to a museum. When we explained that it wasn't the Children's Museum she was OK with the outing. We were the only people at the museum on this fine Sunday afternoon. We had two tour guides who directed us from one exhibit to the next. Addie was thrilled to enter each room. She oohed and aahed over some of the ship wreckage pots and the big cannons. She loved it. This statue was, no doubt, her favorite because it's a Daddy with Addie on his back. Bella was thrilled to be barefoot since the hard wood floors were so slippery she kept slipping in her shoes. She ran around straining to be released from our grips most of the tour. By the end her little feet were black and she was hungry. It was a really nice afternoon at the museum. The girls were well behaved and the outing got us out of our Sunday morning lull.We knowingly made the mistake of heading to the Balikbayan Handicrafts store on the way home from the museum. We had some time to kill before dinner and neither Justin or I had been to the huge warehouse store that houses tons of local handicrafts and furniture all made in the Philippines. We quickly walked through the store and decided it would be best for me to come back alone to purchase any souvenirs for our home. The girls got a thrill out of the Buddhas. Bella kept putting her finger in their smiling mouths and making a growling/chomping noise that we make for toys at home that are eating her fingers. Kind of like a Cookie Monster noise. It's hilarious with her little raspy deep voice of hers. Onward home we went so as to not accidentally break something in the store!

words to live by

"Spiders. Are NOT funny." - Adelaide Rose, age 3

Imagine this or that

I'm notorious for being oblivious to the obvious (is that a tongue twister or what?). Or I guess you can say I'm not "in the know". We've lived here for over two years now and it takes another Mom at school to inform me of this great indoor play area in MY neighborhood called, Imagine That!

We are sending Adelaide to school four days a week now because, well frankly, she gets bored on the days she's at home and I find it really hard to come up creative activities that I can do with both girls. Usually, I come up with something educational and creative for Addie, but it just doesn't work for Arabella.

For example, the other day we were making letters out of PlayDough, using an alphabet book for Addie's guide. It was over Bella's head and she very quickly got bored squishing the PlayDough in her hands. I got tired of telling her not to put the dough in her mouth and eventually having to pick wet slimy bits of PlayDough off her tongue. Addie ended up irritated that our activity kept getting interrupted and Bella runs off to get into something more age appropriate. Really, it's just sort of how it goes around here and it's mostly unavoidable to have one child get bored with our play. I try to tailor the activity for both girls. I'm not a teacher, just a Mom, so I do my best.

Anyhow, it's nice when Addie is at school doing her thing and I know she's having a good time. I get to focus on my youngest daughter for a little while. We play a lot at the playground. She loves it and so do I most days. Some days I don't want to play in the muggy, muddy, hot, playground. Imagine That! was a nice alternative.I'm still not sure if we are going to get an unlimited package ($80/month it was $6/hour). I have no idea if that's cheap compared to the places in the States.

Bella loved it. I loved that it was clean and air conditioned. They disinfect with Lysol and Mr. Muscle every evening. The play area was creative and bursting with opportunity for imaginative play. They offer classes like Kindermusic, which would be great for our little music lover.

I absolutely cherish the time I have alone with both my girls. It's such a special time to have our own laughs, games, and snuggles. It's really where the relationship grows. This place was a great find for us, albeit a little late on my part!

The Garment Project after

I'm really excited to post the after pictures of the trench coat my lovely seamstress, Ann, restructured for me. Do you remember the before post?

The blazer is still a work in progress-see below.Here is the before photo of the trench coat (good God the hair!) I was super excited to take home the awesome results of the trench coat project. Too bad I have this awesome coat in the Manila heat. No problem, it will chill in my closet until we are in cooler temperatures.We had to sacrifice the long sleeves due to the way it was attached to the body of the jacket. It was unavoidable. I'm not that sad because the three quarter length sleeve still looks nice and the belted sleeve can be pushed up to accentuate the gather at the shoulder (which turned out heavenly, I might add). Plus a long sleeved blouse/sweater peaking out of the sleeve will look kind of cool and layered anyway. I forgot to photograph the back of the coat which has a great vent and pleat at the length of the coat. We kept all the traditional trench coat features and the original belts. I'm in love with how it turned out.

Still having a bit of trouble buttoning it on the opposite side since it's a men's coat. I finally figured it out.The labor for the restructure was about $60 (which includes whatever Ann's business gets off the top-not dirt cheap but eons cheaper than what it would have cost me in the States). That means for about $72.50 I have a cool custom made trench coat with a great story behind it. The story is the best part. I'd like to think that somewhere in Vancouver, WA the middle-aged man who used to wear this London Towne trench coat to work who's wife finally cleaned out their hall closet and threw it in the pile for the Salvation Army; would be happy to know that I'm getting some good use out of his old coat. It's way cuter now!*I'd like to add a little thank you note to my husband, who took the pictures of me as he laughed at how excited the new jacket made me. I know he couldn't care less about clothing or the thrill of finding an old garment for cheap and restructuring it; but he humored me for the photos and I might add that the first photo he took was the best after all. I kept pestering him to turn off the flash and stand here, No, stand there, now focus it on me...nag, nag, nag. In the end, his photo was the best. Sorry, honey...I love you.

back to Manila

We had a great time (albeit exhausting-but that just goes with the territory of traveling with small children-I get this and still, every time we vacation, I am surprised at the amount of time it takes Justin and I to recover from the weekend). The island of Bohol and the Bee Farm were everything we had hoped it would be. The food was luscious, the views spectacular, the Tarsiers adorable, and the beaches were amazing.

There's an early flight and a late flight from Bohol to Manila. Justin and I were praising our parental insight to have scheduled the early flight on Monday so we could get back home and decompress for the afternoon. Frankly, we had done everything the farm had to offer for a family with children and Justin and I would probably have collapsed if we had to chase after our little monkey's for another day in Bohol. Off to the airport we went on the 8AM shuttle for our 10:30AM flight. There was plenty of wait time in the tiny little airport.

Bella immediately began her entertainment hour for all the Filipinos waiting for their flight. She started dancing to the music the small band of blind musicians were playing. The little musical troop's music lifted the spirits of everyone in the room. Bella wandered (with Justin or I a few feet behind her-we took shifts) from one person to another; giving high fives, smiling coyly, being pet by lots of Filipino Lolas (Grandmas) or running away as they reached out to touch her, which would just make everyone laugh.Waiting in the airport for the little flights back to Manila tends to be my least favorite part of our vacations in the Philippines. This wait turned out to be really pleasant, as waits go. It was almost a family reunion in that little room and people watching is an art form I like to practice in these situations. I met a sweet older Filipino woman who was visiting family in Bohol for a wedding. She has been living outside of Seattle for the past twenty years as a nun. She helps the Filipinos who are immigrating to the States (there are 60,000 Filipinos in Washington!). She also spent some years teaching. When she found out I was a Pacific Lutheran University grad she told me of a time her congregation rented Harstad Hall for a seminar they were having. I lived in Harstad Hall as a freshman. It's a small, small world.

People are mostly curious about our family; why we live in Manila, how long we've been there, do we like the Philippines, was the baby born in the Philippines, how old are the girls? These questions are annoying in Manila but for some reason when we get to the other islands in the Philippines I love talking to the locals (whether they are from Manila or not). I can feel their genuine interest when they ask me these things? Arabella's outgoing nature right now, at the age of no fear, opens up lots of conversations with people. It helped out wait go by in the airport.I am constantly surprised at the evolution of what has become comfortable, acceptable, and normal for us after living in the Philippines. Two years ago I felt a lot of anxiety associated with being in a tight space, using a filthy CR, being stared at for an hour; and forget ever taking a boat ride with my children. Now I am relieved to find a CR in the airport with its lack of toilet seats and toilet paper, crowds of staring eyes are fine, and watch me take my kids on a tiny little banka to a tiny little island. It's safe to say I've gone global.The girls were great for our flight back to Manila. It's just 1/20th the amount of travel time the girls have done so it's a piece of cake. Many people on the hour long flight were video taping the lift-off and landing, giggling with excitement as the plane lifted into the air. Our girls could have been in the Jeep the way they were business-as-usual. They settled in, held our hands during lift off, watched Barney on the DVD player, and snacked on crackers, just like the little seasoned travelers they have become.

Home sweet home came soon after.