Yohooo!  We’ve just came back from our six-day vacation in Barcelona with lots of pictures.  Last night, M transferred the pictures to the PC and we enjoyed watching them + reminiscing.  We stayed up late coz of it!  We had to weed out unnecessary ones to save some disk space as each pic has a size of about 6MB.   Sometimes the viewer freezes, which makes me think we need to speed up xp, aw no, we’re using Windows 7 already!

Anyway, Barcelona was amazing! I felt like being in the Philippines, seeing signs that I would see back home and the food… well, let’s say it was food heaven for me.  I was finally able to eat sea foods again and discovered choricitos (obviously it means mini chorizos)! Well, it makes sense, having been colonized by Spain for 333 years, we adapted a lot of their language, food, and ways.

Sharing a little of the thousand pics we have!

this is for my dad, who loves to read his “periodico” everyday, that was before online news came about.

it would have been nice to see what’s inside La Boqueria Market. unfortunately, it was closed when we came.

Casa Batllo by Antonio Gaudi.

Placa de Catalunya.

Sagrada Familia by Gaudi.

The Columbus Monument at Port Vell.

and this is the yummy little goodness they call choricitos!

I ate Paella thrice and ate plenty of sea foods!  Six days weren’t enough to try all the food. teehee! (:

And it was because of this adorable niño (M’s nephew), who celebrated his 1st birthday that we came to Barcelona, the rest were just extras.

I guess this will be a yearly activity for us. The kids especially the little girl enjoys it a lot, and she’s good at picking pumpkins. hehe Actually, she got a little carried away and bought lots of pumpkin to last us for a …. month? I’ve been browsing the net like crazy for different recipes using pumpkin for the past hours.

Anyway, I’m sharing some pics here which I hope won’t give you an eye sore from all the orange-y colors! (:

After going through entrance room, everyone is greeted with a sand pit with toys and this is where our little Adie spent most of his time. Caity, had a blast with the other bigger kids climbing and jumping on piles of hay, and walking through the pumpkin and Jerusalem artichoke maze and most of all, choosing pumpkins to be brought home! There were also cows, sheep and chickens to pet. Ahhh, too many things to do for kids there. I’m glad it was a warm day.

So here’s our harvest which doesn’t include the two big ones that we’ll give to the school.

It will be a busy week for me cooking PUMPKINS!!!  That is, if the kids will me.  They’re quite attached to it and treat it like toys. But they willingly gave me two green ones for baking tonight. :/

I’m curious if its easy to grow this plant. I should have asked the farmer and offered him famous cigars in exchange for useful information. Hmmm… I would love to try planting this next year.

We’re back in Prague! It’s been five days since we returned from our vacation in the Philippines. It was a short three-week visit, the shortest of all the vacations I had there; I usually stay there for three months.

It was short but well-spent. We got to see beautiful places, none of us got sick, and all the planning I did went smoothly except for some minor glitches that turned to our advantage. Mother’s Day was spent in my uncle’s place in Silay where they prepared lots of yummy Negrense food! I had my birthday in Boracay with the whole gang (Dad, Mom and my sister included); my pretty niece flew in from Cebu and we were able to visit the local scenic spots in Negros. Then M and I had our three days Palawan escapade without the kids; gazillion thanks to my sister Carey for taking care of the kids while we were away! We went to see the Underground River, which was recently named as one of the new 7 wonders of the world; we even managed to do the Honda Bay island hopping before we flew to Manila. We also toured Corregidor Island for a day.

Afternoon feast @ my uncle’s place on Mother’s Day.

Mother’s Day dinner @ a thai resto.

Birthday in Boracay.

The gang @ Boracay.

@ Pacific Shores, Talisay City, Negros Occidental.

Our happy family. (:

Going inside the Underground River in Palawan.

@ the Underground River, Palawan.

@ Pandan Island, Palawan.

@ Corregidor Island.

@ Corregidor Island.

All in all, it was really a fun time spent with my loved ones, and I‘m sure my family was glad to have us around and have enjoyed the company of the two adorable kids. M also had a lovely time seeing Philippines’ beauty; he got to eat to his heart’s content all the delicious seafood, mangoes, coconuts, etc. which he was prohibited to eat the last time we were there because he developed some skin disease after their Mt. Apo climb. It was a well-deserved treat for him!

Most importantly, I am fortunate that my parents are still around and are still very much healthy; they’re the reason why I make sure we go home as often as we can despite the travel/vacation expenses. With the four of us, travelling can really be costly. The kids’ fare cost about 75% that of the adult. Whew! We could have used the money to invest in some income-generating project or buy gold coins, but nothing is more important than being with the people we love!

We had a pleasant two days last weekend.  Summer decided to stick around (it should be coz according to the calendar, its still SUMMER!) and we took advantage of that.  It was a mix of fun, nature, relaxation and lots of sun!

Saturday
The family joined the Pohádkový Les in Butovice.  Both M and I were clueless what’s it all about.  M thought it was a walk in the forest where you pass by fairytale creatures/characters. We were looking for an activity outdoor coz of the nice weather and this one sounded interesting.

We had to pay an entrance fee of about $3 each except for little Adie.  As soon as we got inside the fenced area, all the fun stuff for the kids greeted us.  There were FREE pony rides, face painting, bouncy castles, painting, drawing, coloring, balloons, and lots of other free goodies (lollipops, bracelets, cookies) handed out to the kids as we walked along the street. Unfortunately our Caity was in a sour mood and didn’t want to participate in any of those.  She refused to have her faced painted, refused to have her picture taken with Winnie the Pooh and Piglet, refused to color…. it was all NO for her. But she asked for a cotton candy which we had to pay. Geeez! I guess she doesn’t like free stuff. Haha!

It turned out that the kids have to do some challenges or obstacle games along the walk in the “forest”.  I thought it would be a quiet walk, enjoying nature but heh! it tired us out!  We had to follow the trail of the game, line up in queues, hike down then up under the heat of the sun.  Kafoy!!!  My tongue was sticking out after we successfully finished the challenge in about 3-4 hours!  It was too much of a walk for small kids.  M had to carry Caity on his shoulder at the middle of the game.  Unfortunately, Caity didn’t do the first challenge, so she didn’t get any prize at the end.  What was the prize, we had no idea.  Being able to finish it was enough for us.  Caity obliged to pose with Winnie the Pooh & Piglet later, but it was forced. She had a grumpy look! Anyway, she got to ride the pony on our way out, and that sealed her time there with happiness.

1. first challenge, bow & arrow. 2. caity picking coins from the bucket.
3. fishing (the woman looks like she’s wearing Cherokee scrubs). 4. lining up for Caity’s turn. Do you see Snow White?

The kids were still full of energy when we got home so we took them out with their bikes, and they enjoyed going on the sloped concrete ground right outside our home. If that wasn’t enough, Caity asked to go to the playground, where she had fun in the tunnel slide.  We went home past 7.  It was a long day but fun-filled.

Sunday

It was more relaxed.  After going to church and a little shopping, we went to the “beach” named Machovo Jezero (or translated in English, Macha Lake) .  Okay it was the closest you can call a beach in Czech Republic.  Macha Lake is actually a man-made lake which was developed into a beach with imported sand.  Many people flock there especially during warm days.  When we were there,  teenagers arrived in throngs and it was even getting late.  You can just imagine how crowded it is on peak times.

It was almost 4 in the afternoon when we got there, not bad coz the sun wasn’t that painful on the skin anymore.  The kids slept along the way, their little bodies recharged for what was to come. As soon as they saw the sand and water, they just scrambled to it.  M and I had time to relax while watching them play.  He even fell asleep lying there in the sand.

You can tell the kids had an awesome time, right?

Thank you Lord for these beautiful moments spent with the family!

I’ll be posting more pics of Caity in her blog. (:

I was silent for sometime because of this:

Yeah! We went on weekend to Wolfgangsee, a lake in Upper Austria that lies mostly within the state of Salzburg (think Sound of Music!).  We were actually supposed to go to St. Gilgen but we got there past 7 in the evening with no accommodations. M just randomly called hotels and pension houses for any vacant rooms. After what seemed like a dozen tries, we luckily found a room in Wolfgangsee.  Whew!  It was a blessing in disguise, coz our pension house was sitting near the centre and we also found an open beach nearby in a camping site.  It wasn’t crowded, and the water is shallow enough even for little Adie to wade on.

Pardon me, but we’re taking advantage and savoring the last summer days with real summer warmth outdoors.  Plus I have tons to prepare for Caity’s 4th birthday this weekend and next week, our lives will change dramatically (well, mostly MY life) as our little girl will start preschool. We haven’t gone shopping yet for her school stuff.

Anyways, I hope you’re having fun days as well where ever you are!