Christmas Vaca

Star Wars Cuddles

Reindeer ears

Manila Christmas traffic

Pretty clouds

 

Walking his doggy
 Wildflour brekkie

 More french toast, yes please

 Bike stand

Brining a turkey

 Christmas lights

 Christmas toy play 

 

 Cooking with Gingy

 Mall play 

New Years Eve Tomahawk

 Watching the bell drop

Cheese plate and cards against humanity

New Hair

My two Ali boys

Behind the Scenes

I have been working in the Press Section of the Embassy here in Manila for almost two years and I can say without a doubt it is the most interesting job I have ever had. I have had so many interesting assignments and learned so much from some really talented people. 
As you all know from your avid reading of this blog that President Obama recently came to town. I had the opportunity to work on several aspects of his visit but the most interesting one was a Behind the Scenes video on how the Embassy supported the President in Manila. 
The video was filmed and edited by someone with a lot of talent and it was pretty exciting to be able to help. I got to select the people in the video and arrange all the filming.  I even had the opportunity to be in it myself! Now if only I could have asked to be filmed at the beginning of the day before the tired eyes and frizzy hair kicked in.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/12/31/west-wing-week-112016-or-us-mission-manila  

Dear Santa

Dear Santa, 
We left you some cookies and milk. We ate all the carrots to there are some cucumbers and an apple for the reindeer. We have been very good all day today and are ready to open all of our presents!
Love, 
Adam and Malcolm

Guess what, Santa and his reindeers ate up everything! Adam was so excited. Malcolm was excited as well but was also ready to get to his present.

The boys wasted no time opening up their presents!

After Santa’s presents we took a break for some yummy breakfast.

Then it was on to all the rest of the presents from family. The boys are so lucky to have so many people who love them. They are even luckier that these people send so many wonderful gifts.

Malcolm does an adorable Wow! for every present he opens, whetherh it be a plane, a truck or shoes. It’s so cute. Here are sandals from Grandma Gerth that got an extra special woooow!

Daddy got a calendar from Adam and Malcolm with….pictures of Adam and Malcolm of course!

Adam was so cute helping Malcolm open his presents. He actually really helped instead of just opening it for him. And I’m so proud of both boys for (mostly) sharing their presents.

Rocket legos from Aunt Das and Uncle Nooj! Big hit. More on this later.

This book from Grandma Gertch is now Malcolm’s favorite. He looooves it!

This doghouse from the Leys is one of Adam’s favorites! He now has so many “pets” on his bed to sleep with.

Kindles for the boys from Aunt Das and Uncle Nooj…probably too much excitement right here!

We called family to wish them a Merry Christmas!

Then we immediately built our lego rocket and it has remained built depsite daily play!

Aunt Sandra, Uncle Shawn, Roman and Isla sent the boys art supplies and these awesome paper rolls. This has since became our favorite spot in the house and the boys are constantly hanging out here.

We cooked a turkey to bring to our friends house for a fun Christmas party!

A great day! Merry Christmas!!

Manila Hotel

Adam’s school is on winter break so the boys have been entertaining each other at home. When the winter camp offered a field trip to the Manila Hotel which is right by the Embassy I signed them up and I left work early to meet them over there.

Some quick history about the Manila Hotel, it’s the oldest hotel in Manila. During his tenure as the Military Advisory of the Philippine Commonwealth the penthouse served as the residence of General Douglas MacArthur right before World War II. During World War II, the hotel was occupied by Japanese troops, and the Japanese flag was flown above the walls for the entirety of the war. During the Battle of the Liberation of Manila the hotel was set on fire by the Japanese. The shell of the building survived the blaze and the structure was later reconstructed. 

You can take a tour of the penthouse that General MacArthur stayed in, but this was not that kind of field trip. It was Malcolm’s first field trip and he was pretty excited.

Especially when he saw this huge gingerbread house covered in macaroons.

And the boy’s friend Victoria was there which made it even better.

We started on our tour of their winter wonderland and the first thing we saw was this horse carousel. Adam was super excited, except he kept asking why it didn’t move. We may have gotten a little spoiled in the U.S.

We watched Arthur Christmas a super cute British Christmas movie that both boys love. Then it was time for lunch. Both boys were soooooo excited when they saw this spread! It was their first ‘tea party’ and they loved every minute of it. Malcolm spent most of the lunch picking candy off the tray for his pile of candies.

We stopped by work to pick up daddy and headed home for our Christmas vacation! 

Rockin' Holiday Show

Adam’s school had a holiday show on his last day of school. Randy and I took off from work and headed over. The first song up was a rock song they wrote themselves! 

Adam was so excited to see us he ran towards us and gave us big hugs.

Next up a performance from Stomp.

Adam is so lucky to have such amazing teachers and a wonderful school.  Malcolm will start there January 4 and I’m so excited to have them share such a wonderful school.

Faking it

Every year there is one store in Manila that sells real Christmas trees. Every year they have way too many. Until this year. This year they ran out of trees right away and didn’t get any more in.  So we had to go to plan B. Luckily we live in a country where they sell fake Christmas trees everywhere and we were able to get one to hang all of our ornaments on.

Adam was so into it this year. He actually hung a lot of the ornaments himself. It was cute watching him, he hung about five on each branch.

Malcolm lost interest early on and amused himself with the lights.

Merry Christmas!!

Rockets and Cupcakes

Adam’s birthday this year was on a Sunday. It made it pretty special that we could have his birthday party on his actual birthday!

We started first thing in the morning with some presents and what better present for a boy about to have a space party than some rocket ships! We started with this awesome one from Hape. It has a detachable rocket ship top and so many cool little parts. Best part, it only took me 20 minutes to assemble and only had 4 screws! 

It was a huge success!

Then we moved onto the next present. Another rocket ship and of course the plastic one was the winner. It always is. Randy always makes fun of me because I always choose beautiful wooden toys that look nice all over the house and the plastic ones Randy chooses are always the fan favorite!

Here is the lone wooden spaceship….but before you get all teary eyed this has been played with a lot since then. Just not as much as the plastic one.

Then it was time to get ready for Adam’s space party. What made this more fun this year was how into the planning of the party Adam was.  He just told me that he still two weeks later plays with his friends downstairs Space Party. When I asked him what that entails he said he makes things for the space party like rockets and planets.  I think that means the party was a success!

First up we made planets from paper lanterns. I then tried to build a rocket but it was a huge pinterest fail. Adam still loved trying though!

Lots of balloons of course!

Cupcakes and cake!

Adam insisted on putting every cupcake topper in. When I asked why they were all on the side he replied he didn’t want to poke the sprinkles. Fair enough.

Even our cake had some space flair!

On to the food. What better than rocket sandwiches. This is pure nutrition right here folks. But hey, you only turn four once!

Next we have the hit of the party. Let me tell you, if you want children to eat fruit put it on a skewer with marshmallows! Adam helped make these and loved it!

Here is my favorite decoration for the party. I was able to get all this material for under 10 bucks and have someone sew an awesome solar system for under 10 dollars! It’s currently living in the boys room and is still a big hit.

We also had purples flowers everywhere! Adam and Malcolm walked to the flower market with me the day before and Adam picked all his own flowers! 

Two days before the party we headed out for a walk. On our way out of the buidling we noticed there was a space party in the lobby of our building with an amazing rocket! I took it as a sign that these people were meant to build us a rocket! I invited myself to the party and found the talented people who had made the rocket and asked if they could build us one in two days. They said yes! Only in the Philippines people!

Malcolm was definitely the rocket’s biggest fan. He spent half the day inside this rocket!

We played games of course!

Then it came time to try to herd all the kids for a group photo. I promised everyone that cake would be right after to incentivize!

As Randy always says, moving toddlers is like herding snakes. I’m not sure where he got this metaphor? euphamism? or why he thinks herding snakes is a thing? But he is right. It is like herding slippery wriggly snakes. Oh wait, I think I just got it.

Close enough or as close as we’re going to get. Whichever way you look at it, still pretty cute!

Then it was cake time!  This is the first birthday where Adam got that you make a make a wish before you blows out the candles!

Everybody enjoyed!

Here are the ladies who makes all of our parties possible! Ates Emma, Maria and Sahlee! Having a party for 20 kids would be a much more exhausting feat without these three ladies helping!

When is my birthday? Don’t worry people, Malcolm has adopted this Porsche as his own.

Happy Birthday Adam!! We love you!!

To my 4 year old!

Dear Adam, 
I never thought I would be lucky enough to have a son like you. Over the past year you have gone from my baby to a full on little boy who I love to spend time with.  Don’t get me wrong, I always loved being with you, but it’s changed so much from the days when I would trying to get through a day of errands before you got hungry or tired to having you in the backseat keeping me entertained as we go on day of errands. 
You are so matter of fact and so smart.  You either have me on the ground laughing or wondering how I am being corrected by a four year old, again. You love to cuddle and watching the sun set from mommy and daddy’s bed. You are finally at the age that when daddy is traveling for work you can sleep in mommy’s bed and go back to your own bed when daddy gets home. Your favorite food just might be carrots and cucumbers, oh and edamame.  But if given the choice I’m sure you would pick a marshmallow over carrots. Oh you also love miso soup. 
It is never a dull moment with you.  You are so smart and comprehend so much! You really have the capacity to outsmart me and I am terrified for your High School years when you will run circles around me. I have to watch everything I say because you listen and pick up on everything! You’ve even started listening and asking about words in a song. You ask questions on every page of a book these days, which makes bedtime a long process but I love hearing what you ask.  Daddy told me you asked the other day why a stuffed monkey in a book was made to look like a real monkey. I don’t know if this is what most four year olds ask but I think it’s amazing that you picked up on that. I think that also might mean you are a realist. 
Your school had an outreach this past week where children from an orphanage came to spend the day with your class. Every child was asked to bring a small wrapped toy. We wrapped your present together and I explained that this present was for someone who doesn’t have a lot of toys and who might not get anything else for Christmas. Your immediate response was – ‘But Santa will bring a present, I’m not Santa.’ It broke my heart in equal measures that you were so sure about Santa that you really truly believed that he brings every child a present (when does that blind faith end? I just might cry that day) and also that these children you were seeing don’t have that luxury of that blind faith. 
You helped me wrap the present and came home that day full of excitement about how you gave your present to a child who doesn’t have toys at home. When I asked if there were more toys that you might like to give from your own collection, you replied that you don’t need the farm puzzle anymore because you have the space puzzle, which prompted you to remember that your friend borrowed your dinosaur puzzle all those months ago and has had it a long time (yes, Grandma Gertch…I know you said we would never get that puzzle back). 
You have best friends that you love, current favorites are Ben, Victoria and Tyler but you always seem to be making new friends. When your friends tell you that they love you, your response is – but they’re not my mom! I don’t know where you got this adorable idea that only your mom tells you I love you, but I love it! 
You are also empathetic and understand when I explain that you should invite kids to play with you and your friends even if they are shy and other kids are not playing with them. When I asked  you how you would feel if you weren’t invited to play you immediately answered sad and you have never left Oscar out of a game since. 
You love school and love your teachers Teacher Maureen, Teacher Carol and Teacher Sofia all love you and always tell me what an engaged and enthusiastic student you are. You are learning to write letters and put letters together. When we sound out words you can figure out what they spell. You also are very into adding numbers together and have recently learned to count to 60! You love classical music, especially the dramatic pieces played loudly. 
You play with Malcolm all the time and although you often want whatever toy Malcolm has and vice versa you are learning to share and be a good big brother and have so much fun together. Your current favorite activity is to race across the living room from side to side with little Malcolm running along as fast as he can behind you. 
Your favorite superhero is Batman and your favorite color is still purple. Whenever there is a choice you unfailingly choose purple. You are so loyal to purple I can only hope that you love your future wife as much as you love the color purple. She will be one lucky lady! I hope that are never embarrassed that purple is your favorite color. 
You are such a unique little boy, confident yet cautious, intelligent and hy-STE-ri-cal, sensitive and daring, loving and strong. 
I love you, 
Mom
               The flowers for Adam’s party were purple, picked by the Birthday boy himself.