Simon's First Sagala

Yesterday was Simon's first Sagala or Santacruzan. He was an escort to our neighbor's cute and witty daughter. The president of the homeowner's assocation invited all kids for this year's Sagala. In our 'lane', most of the neighbors' kids joined in including Simon.

Sagala or Santacruzan or Flores De Mayo is an annual parade held in the month of May in honor of the finding of the Holy Cross by Queen Helena, mother of Constantine the Great. The procession starts with the small angels or young girls bearing the letters of the words "Ave Maria" and ends with the town's Reyna Elena, usually the prettiest of all the participants. Almost every community and town hold this every year so getting caught up in traffic because of the parade is already normal.

I'm proud of my little boy who had shown enthusiasm for this event. Being it a parade, I was concerned that he might want to go home after walking a few blocks. I said that I would not force him to finish the parade at all if his feet were aching or if he did not want to walk anymore. But he was cheery all the way through and seemed to have enjoyed the attention. 

Meanwhile, I got busy taking pictures of the beautiful girls in their gowns. Below are some of my favorites. I just took a shot of the gowns instead of the girls. Please click on the collage for a more detailed view.

Aren't these gowns the cutest?

Linking this up to Monday Mellow Yellows, Ruby Tuesday 2 and ABC Wednesday.

Finally, A Guitar for Basti

Finally, after a few months of waiting, Basti got his guitar. Hubby bought it and brought it home last month. The two younger kids were as excited as he is to play the guitar, but Simon said he wanted drums instead. :) That is so not possible in this quiet neighborhood.

Anyway, Basti's guitar comes with a tuner and I think a connector for an amplifier. In the future, we might consider buying him an amplifier, perhaps in particular an aguilar amp at Guitar Center. But that is of course, if he's really into guitar playing like his cousin who has formed a band with his friends. Right now, all he needs is to learn how to play the guitar. My oldest niece came over for a week and taught strumming techniques and how to tune the guitar. We also enrolled him for formal guitar lessons at a newly-formed school in the neighborhood, for two hours every Saturday. I'm glad Basti has his guitar now. It keeps him off from the computer sometimes and made his summer days less boring. Once ge got together with his cousins, it would also be a great bonding activity for them to play the guitar together.

Cars Themed Party

A few months back, hubby attended a Cars themed party with my youngest, Simon. I wasn't able to post about it because I can't find where hubby uploaded the photos from his cellphone. While I was deleting photos and files that had been backed up already  (memory running low), I found it on the other drives. So timely. :)

We've watched the movie Cars but we're not a big fan of it. There were movies we've watched so many times that the kids have already memorized the lines. But not Cars, we watched each installment of the movie series only once or twice but that's it. We can't say we don't like it, we do. It's just not our favorite. Maybe it's because we are not really that into cars, automobiles and the likes. We have motion sickness, (lol). And we can't tell a brand or type of automobile from the other. We wouldn't even know what a 2 post lift is. My brothers and my nephew would know though, because that's what brings them closer together, the love of cars. They even taught each other how to drive.

Having said that, I still think that a Cars themed party is great. Though we're not a fan of the movie, the Cars themed party are colorful and fun. And toy cars bring joy to kids of all ages. The color red is full of life and that's the main color in Cars themed party.
 

 

Simon had so much fun during this birthday party of hubby's officemate's son. :D He had a tattoo on his face when he came home and brought lots of goodies from the party. They also had fun posing at the photo booth with his papa.

Me, I can't take my eyes off these cake-shaped towels. Exquisitely packaged, don't you think? These are beautiful and unique take-home thank you gifts for the guests. 

This post is linked to Orange You Glad It's Friday.
Hope you all are having a great weekend!

Fly Fishing

I've recently come across the term 'fly fishing' in one of the blogs that I visited. I looked for more information on fly fishing here in the Philippines but I did not find anything much. I thought being in a country blessed with so much bodies of water, we would have a lot of fly fishers here. I found some articles and forum threads  on sport fishing and a couple or two blog posts on lake water fishing for bass mouth. It is a not as big as a sport here as it is in the United States, where as soon as you Google "Fly Fishing 101", it will come up with websites of organizations of fly fishers in almost every town, every county and every state. I guess it has something to do with the fact that we have so many fishermen here and that fishing is regarded as a means of livelihood, rather than a recreation or a sport. There are some, though, that are into this hobby, but I bet they don't fish for a living. Sports fishing are offered as one of the activities in some beach resorts in the country.

Things I'll Never Do in This Lifetime: Go Horseback Riding

Horseback riding is something that I'll never do in this lifetime -- among other things. Sad? I'd say yes in a heartbeat. When I was younger (like two and a half decades younger, lol), I read pocketbooks upon pocketbooks of romance novels where the heroine is a fragile lady who got stranded somewhere, saved and fell in love with a man, who naturally, can ride a horse. He is either a cowboy, a lord/baron/etc, or a ranch owner. You may have read one of these romance novels, if you were my age. I don't see much of these novels anymore in the bookstores. 

For a time when I was a teenager, I daydreamt of riding a horse and getting to look like Mikee Cojuangco at least once in this lifetime. I dreamt of  sitting proud at the back of  a horse or galloping away in my equestrian clothes, english tall boots, helmet and all.  Ah, those beautiful equestrians, how can they make horse riding look so easy? And how can they still look beautiful with all that sweat and heat? 

When I finally got a chance to ride a horse, I could not muster the courage to do so,  I'm too scared. And when told myself that I WILL ride a horse in this lifetime, even without the beautiful equestrian clothing, I can't anymore. Because I have slipped disc, which is not life threatening right now, but could be, if I fall. I can't afford to fall or even risk falling. 

Oh, well, maybe in the next lifetime. But still, every now and then, I still look at some equestrians and equestrian clothes online. A few decades ago we only see photos of them on magazines. I still dream sometimes of  riding a horse, but  you know, the spirit is willing but the body is not. :D