The kids woke up at 6am and got ready for their first day of school! They were both very excited to see friends at school and anxious to see what this school year brings.
First day of Middle School in 5th grade
Ready for Kindergarten
In December my sister informed me that she was expecting a baby at the beginning of August. Then a week later she found out that she was carrying TWINS!
On July 16 my sister gave birth to two healthy little girls
Ruby Nilalei (baby #1) weighed in at 5 pounds 6 ounces and 18 inches
Goldyn Makana (baby #2) weighed in at 6 pounds 8 ounces and 19.5 inches
Ruby & Goldyn at 2 weeks old. Now my parents have 12 grandchildren with 6 girls and 6 boys…4 of them being twins
After years of not being able to get pregnant we decided to do “In Vitro Fertilization” . It wasn’t something I thought we would do in the Philippines, until we found Kato Repro Biotech Center. Kato was very professional and high-tech — overall we were very impressed. Our first appointment with them was in August and the last appointment was in December. Everything was really easy for us without any complications and we were successful on the first attempt (the doctor had quoted a 33% chance of success in our case). It was a great experience and the final result was our baby boy Blake!
Blake arrived at 4:10am on June 26 and weighed in at 7 pounds 13 ounces and 20 3/4 inches long
My sister was at the hospital with us until 4am when she then had to leave to catch her flight back to USA…she missed meeting her new nephew by 10 minutes!
Although we had been up for nearly 24 hours, we were so happy to meet our new son
Just over 36 hours old and we are ready to go home
Kalani and Mason couldn’t wait to go to the hospital to meet Blake and hold him
Now we have the 3 Amigos!
They may not grow up to look alike, but they start off as newborns looking like siblings (From left to right: Kalani, Mason, Blake)
Blake is now 1month old weighing in at 10 pounds 3.5 ounces and 22 inches
More photos of Blake here.
Kalani is now into middle school! She had a wonderful time at the elementary school at International School Manila. She was able to participate in music, art, PE, computers, etc. during the school day. She also had after school activities throughout the year of circus skills, painting & drawing, Minecraft, gymnastics and “Children’s Music Theater.” Elementary school also has “Sports Day” and also “International Day” for all of the kids to participate in. She has made wonderful friends through school and is looking forward to advancing to middle school.
Crazy Hair Day
Gymnastics unit performance for PE
Learning about fractions
Children’s Musical Theater is only for 4th graders. Kalani got to be one of the narrators for the play “Ibong Adarna”
Sports Day for pre-school to 4th grade…everyone wearing a custom made class T-shirt
The field is all set-up for the kids to run around, play as a team and have fun
Working together to get out of the human knot
She is pretty good at stilts
Having fun cooling off with her classmates
Ready for swimming relays
Kalani with some of her classmates
Over 80 countries were represented in the elementary school this school year
Kalani had a fabulous teacher from Ireland for 4th grade and had wonderful classmates. Here they are on International Day.
The “Pink Panthers” have now moved on from 4th grade to Middle School!
The last country we visited during spring break was Brunei. We were excited to visit this country since the only cousins from the Philippines that we had not met yet live in Brunei and we were anxious to meet them. Matt booked us a wonderful tour guide through Viator. Esjay was a great fit for our family and easy to work with, and without her I don’t know how we would have gotten around since there are NO taxis in Brunei. We only had 2.5 days in Brunei and at first the kids were done traveling, but they had a wonderful time meeting our cousins and seeing the sites of Brunei.
Day 1
Our flight arrived in Brunei around midnight from Manila
We spent our first afternoon swimming with our cousins at the Radisson Hotel pool
Royal Regalia Museum, where you can see things that the Sultan has used; like this chariot that is about 50 years old
Brunei has proboscis monkeys in the wild; along with other animals that we were fortunate enough to see
We visited a water village that we had to take a “water taxi” to reach. There was a home that was open to tourists and it was interesting to see how people live at this water village
From the water village we took a boat to try to find some wild animals. Our boat driver spotted this crocodile.
We also found these monkeys near the water edge. We also found proboscis monkeys and a lizard, but they were too far for a clear photo.
Esjay, our tour guide, was well prepared and brought along binoculars that Mason loved using
Day 2
We also got to tour around a Mosque that the current Sultan had built. It caught me a bit off guard when the men wouldn’t even acknowledge me or the kids while there.
In order to tour the mosque we had to dress appropriately and remove our shoes
Our tour guide drove us around Brunei and told us how the country/government functions. This is a subsidized government home.
At the Polo Club there is an elephant kept there. We were told that the elephant belongs to the Sultan’s sister.
Our last night we stayed at the Empire Resort and it was spectacular. The kids didn’t want to leave.
Matt took Kalani kayaking for the first time in one of the pools of the Empire while Mason and I hung out at the kids pool/playground.
Our family in Brunei stayed with us at the airport while we waited to board our plane. We LOVED being with them and getting to know them better…Family is what it’s all about!
More photos of Brunei here.
