Our baby is now a lady . . .

Our little princess is now five years old! She's growing to be a fine young lady and we are so proud of her achievement not just in school but as a big sister to her younger brother as well. I wish Mikaila all the best and happiness in life. Mommy and Daddy will always be here for you. We love you very much!

Summer is here ! ! !

Inspite of the heavy rains last week, summer is officially here! See how the kids enjoyed playing in their inflatable pool to cool off a hot afternoon . . .

Mikaila's Recognition Day . . .

Last Sunday, March 29, was the first recognition day of Mikaila. How time flies really fast. I could still remember those days when Kaila wouldn't want to be left alone inside the classroom. Her days when she wouldn't mingle with her classmates. When teacher Liza could barely hear her voice when she answers. All of these thoughts are just from the past. We've seen how Mikaila have been transformed to an active student as she is now. She performs on special events, she participates in classroom activities, she mingles with her classmates and now her voice can be heard all over their classroom especially when they are singing. :)

I can say that we are successful and we have achieved our objective for Mikaila's schooling. That is to develop her social skills and be confident of herself. It didn't happen overnight and we've seen the little developments every parent-teacher conference. I am really grateful how teacher Liza handled every child in her class and how she made them what they are now. I'm sure all the parents are happy with the achievements of our kids and we are looking forward for the next schoolyear of our kids.

Here are some pictures I have taken last Sunday :

Mikaila before the awarding ceremony . . .

Mikaila and JM . . .

Mikaila with her classmates . . .

Mikaila and Mommy marching down . . .

Mikaila and Mommy while waiting for the award . . .

One proud mommy !

Mikaila showing off her award . . .

Mikaila's Award . . .

Mikaila with Wacks . . .

The naughty JM . . .

Rainy days on Summer . . .

Today is supposed to be the practice for Kaila's recognition day on Sunday. I just got a text message from Teacher Liza that there will be no more practice since it's still raining. The heavy rains actually started last night and it's still raining up to now. I hope the weather the gets better in time for the recognition day on Sunday. Ummm . . . how come we're having rainy days on a summer month?

4th quarter performance . . .

As mentioned in my earlier post, we had the 4th parent-teacher conference last Friday. The result of the 4th quarter exam was given already and I'm so happy and proud of Mikaila. She got high scores in all of her exams even though we didn't have a single review session at home. Here are the results :

Science - 95%

Civics and Culture - 100%

Language - 95%

Reading - 92%

Math - 87%

Their recognition day will be on March 29 at 9am. We don't know yet the award Kaila will get. They'll have a practice on Thursday and that's when the awardees will be announced.

Final Exams . . .

This week is Mikaila's final exams for this school year. I decided not to have a review with her so that we can see what she has really learned from school. Their exams will be until Thursday and they won't have classes on Friday. Friday and Saturday is the final parent-teacher conference. Since we'll be on leave this Friday we have confirmed our schedule for the parent-teacher conference on the same day as well. I'm excited to see the result of Kaila's exams. I hope she'll get good grades even without any review at home. It's two more days to go for Kaila. Good luck Ate Kaila!

Kaila . . . the cheer dancer . . .

Last Saturday, February 21, was the family day in St. John's Wort Montessori School. We were not able to attend the other activities in the morning because both kids were asleep until 11am. I did not bother to wake them up because Kaila will be performing in the afternoon for the cheerdance competition. I don't want any tantrums in the afternoon cause she might not be able to perform in the competition.

We had enough time to prepare and Kaila gamely posed for pictures before we left the house. We went to the school just in time for the cheerdance competition. The highschool and elementary students performed first and the preschool was the finale. I was so anxious and excited at the same time. When it was their time to perform, we were proud parents because Kaila performed well. Here are some pictures taken during the event:

Our New Passport . . .

has arrived last Friday, February 13. I was not on my desk when our receptionist called me. She called one of my officemates and asked where am I. My officemate asked our receptionist if I have the bouquet of flowers already and she volunteered herself to get it. Unfortunately for her it was our passport which was delivered.

Since we have our new passports already, it's time to move on to our major project for Q1.

3rd Quarter Performance . . .

Last Friday, I went to Kaila's school right after office since we are on an early knock off every Friday. I was there just in time for my appointment of 5pm. Teacher Liza will be discussing with me Kaila's performance for the third quarter. Initially, the test results were showed and explained to me. I was so relieved and proud at the same time cause Kaila got high grades again even without a decent review at home. he he he . . . All the books were sent home during the Christmas break but we were not able to review even for a day. We were all busy during the holidays. We only had a review just a day before each exam. Kaila wouldn't even participate during our reviews cause it seems she knows it very well already.

Next items to be discussed was Kaila's performance in school activities. Her report card shows a great improvement as compared to the first quarter. From a crying baby to a performing kid during the Christmas presentation and a very competitive kid during the sports fest. Both Teacher Liza and I was so happy for Kaila's improvement. I can say that we have already achieved our goal for this year which is to improve Kaila's social skills.

We are looking forward to the next school activity which is the Family Day. It will be the culmination of the Sports Fest wherein parents will also participate in the games plus there will be a cheering competition.

Here are the test results of Kaila:

94% in READING . . .

96% in LANGUAGE

96% in MATH

100% in SCIENCE

Another 100% in CIVICS and CULTURE

Keep up the good work Kaila! Mommy and Daddy are so proud of you! We love you!

St. John's Wort Montessori Sports Fest '09

Last January 28 to 30 was St. John's Wort Montessori's sports fest. I attended the first day so that I could witness the parade of colors. The students were divided into four teams and each team has a color designation. Kaila was in team RED. I was so excited to see her in her jerseys. Plus, it'll be my first time to see my little girl to play actively. The first time I saw her join the game I was so anxious and nervous at the same time. I was thinking if she will really run and follow the other rules of the game. I was so happy and proud of my daughter! ! ! They won in most of the games. Here are some pictures taken during the event :

Kaila in her jersey . . .

Waiting for the parade of colors . . .

With classmate Naomi . . .

Waiting for the opening ceremony . . .

Pass the ball game . . .

Pass and shoot the ball ( smile pa before maglaro )

Still have time to pose . . .

Another game . . .

Kaila looks to tired already . . .

Slumber Party '09

The pre-school department of St. John's Wort Montessori had their annual slumber party last Friday, January 23. As usual, JM joined her Ate Kaila in her school activity but they stayed in separate rooms this time. Both kids enjoyed the activity as they have their stories to tell. Here are some pictures taken by our yaya since we left the two kids in school as the letter to parents indicate that the activity is strictly for the kids only.

Kai and JM in their pajamas . . .

Storytelling time . . .

See how behave JM is . . . :)

JM in his sleeping mat . . .

Ate Kaila with her classmates . . .

The two kids playing with their flashlight while waiting for mommy and daddy

School Activities . . .

With barely two months to go before the school year ends, Kaila has a lot of school activities coming up. Here's the line up of activities :

Jan 19 to 23 - 3rd Quarterly Exams

Jan 23 - Slumber Party

Jan 29 to 30 - Sports Fest

Feb 4 - Tea Party

Feb 21 - Family Day

I'm not sure what will be the exact activities on those days but I'm sure it'll be a lot of fun for the kids. Hopefully I can attend to all these activities.

Passport Update . . .

Last week, I received an e-mail from my officemate about the expiration of the green passport. According to the e-mail, all passport ( of course this excludes the maroon passport already ) will expire by January 2010. My passport and Kaila's passport will expire on July 2011. But since it is still the green passport it will expire on 2010 already. Without confirming if this is true or not, I immediately applied for the renewal of our passport through the DFA Passport Direct. I've already experienced their services when I got JM's passport and the renewal of hubby's passport last year. I am very satisfied that's why I got them again even though the price is more than double the normal processing in DFA.

I applied last Friday and they already picked-up the documents early this morning. I got a text from them even before 8am this morning confirming if I have the complete requirements already. Good thing that I immediately photocopied our passports first thing in the morning. The representative checked our requirements and it was ok. I already paid the fee of P1,300 each and the receipt was issued as well. Our appearance will be on the 31st which is a Saturday. No need to take a leave from work. Issuance will be after two weeks from the date of our appearance.

You might be thinking why am I in a hurry to renew our passport? Well, this is a part of that "something" which I'm currently working on that I mentioned in my prior post.

An afternoon in EK . . .

Sunday morning, Kaila is still under observation if she'll get better. Luckily, she doesn't have fever anymore although she vomits from time to time. She doesn't want to eat and drink anything. So, hubby and I discussed that we'll just see Kaila's condition in the afternoon if we'll still push through with the EK trip. We have free tickets given my cousin and it's the last day to use the ticket. Hubby reported to work while me and the kids stayed home. Kaila insisted that she's ok already and we can go to EK. I informed hubby that the kids wanted to push through with the EK trip. So, I started to prepare our stuffs so that we can leave by the time hubby gets home from work. I think we were able to leave the house at almost 4pm already.

When we arrived, there were a lot of people and the parking was full. It took us quite a while before we were able to park the car. Since our ticket is just for the entrance and unlimited carousel ride, we upgraded it to ride-all-you-can and added P250 each for the adults and P170 for the kids. We barely had pictures that day because Kaila was not in the mood since she's not that feeling well. Here are just a few of our pictures:

JM in the carousel . . .

Ate Kaila in the carousel . . .

Daddy and Kaila in the choo choo train . . .

Mommy and JM in the choo choo train . . .

Ate Kaila with Corduroy . . .

Daddy's little girl . . . she's not feeling well already . . .

Bye wizard . . . See you again . . .

We immediately went home right after the fireworks display at around 8pm. Kaila was not feeling well and still doesn't want to eat anything. We hope that Kaila gets better soon.