Singing Again

PC1/9/3/5
At Makati. Renz ripping out the wrapper from one of his presents.


Renz and Sandra in front of the tree.


All four in front of the tree.


Renz appears to be a host introducing a beauty contestant. No, actually both of them are singing "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus".

It's Christmas

Some playing at the porch.

Tito Ludel came with the 2 kids. Here's tito messing up the hair of Renz.

Here's everybody with Jess taking the pic. Notice Jing-jing's pa-pogi effect.

Finally, we decided to wrap up and leave at 10:30am. The kids were becoming restless to open their presents at home.

The kids, all smiles at home with the unopened gifts displayed. The lighted Christmas Tree almost toppled as Sandra was pulling the gifts from underneath.

Assembling Renz's new toy - the car set tracks.


I joined the two tables for the car set tracks. These will be joined until the end of the vacation. Don't know if the cars will last that long though. Here's our version of the assembled set.


Here's Renz going wild over the Yellow "Let's Go" Car that Karen managed to run.

We were supposed to go to Makati for their Christmas Party but I was too tired and fatigued to drive. I guess the effects of the late night swimming last Friday and the Pampanga long drive was taking its toll on me. My legs felt like lead and I wasn't feeling well enough to stay up late for the games and the drive from Makati afterwards.

Singing

We decided to leave the house at 11am, water the plants and go to Pampanga for a late lunch at 2pm. The timing was right! Not much traffic on the road of 105 kilometers from Binan to Pampanga. Whew! Here's our lunch. Yup, those are raw greens - Mustard (mustasa) leaves to be exact. We had buro for the leaves, fried hito, batchoy, dinuguan and a special pineapple pata. We also had melon juice for drinks.


The Mustard leaves with buro is something we Kapampangans love to eat and I'm amazed at DH's liking this as well. And she has this style of wrapping the buro with the raw (yes, bitter) mustard leaves like it were a real exotic delicacy. She's fun to watch too when she does it.


Later in the night, we had some singing. They have a new Extreme Magic Sing machine and a new TV at the house and so Renz, Sandra and I hammed it up.
Here's Renz so overjoyed with his singing.


Here's Sandra and Renz with their duet of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus and A-B-C-D. Heck, they even got the highest score of 99 for Twinkle!

New Strap

Woke up late today after that night swimming. The kids too woke up late. The munsci kids had their Christmas party yesterday. DH, Sandra, Renz and I went today to SM Southmall. Me, to pickup the new wrist strap I ordered for my Casio swim watch a week ago and to buy another padlock. Just on a whim, I looked at the literature of the packaging. I put the dials at 0-0-0 and whala, it reset! To put on a new code, just follow the instrucions:

The new strap for the watch cost me Php250. Yah, just a strap. It's an original replacement though. I guess these rubber straps are tough. The old one was torn coz I unintentionally shoved it into some protruding object. With a couple of pieces of duct tape holding it together, it isn't funny anymore. I'll be more careful with this one. Got a fnew technique for wearing and unwearing the strap so it doesn't get yanked so much. There may not be a ready strap available the next time around. I was about to buy that "knee" book but Php350 was still too much for me.

I thought of and tried a new knee exercise today. The idea is to flex the front quads while in a sitting position. The cue to this exercise is to push out the foot foward even if it's planted on the ground. The knee should be vertically ahead of the planted foot. If the foot gets ahead of the knee and push out, I get the exact pain I'm trying to avoid. It's an isometric exercise where you flex for 10 seconds and then rest. I think the flexing of the muscles around (above the knee actually) also strengthens the knee itself.

Sandra had her eyeglasses fixed by The Optical Shop for free. The top side of the lens popped out of its frame and now it's back in.

Christmas Party at Greenspring Resort Pansol

I left early today at the office to fetch DH and Weng at the office. As I was rushing out the office, I was pissed off when my newly bought locker padlock reset itself as I fumbled with it. Damn! That pretty much screwed my afternoon. Anyway I reached DH's office and we left there at almost 5pm already. What a traffic jam it was at Calamba coming out from the expressway! We were dismayed that the shortcut we knew at Zafra motors was closed! There was a new sign saying 'Do Not Enter' with an enforcer directing traffic. And we had no recourse but to go to Crossing and to the natioal road on the way to Pansol. Aargh! Apparently that shortcut has now become just an exit during rush hours. The road to Villa Morales was the shortcut entry and we should've followed the rest of the vehicles entering there.

We were headed to GreenSpring Resort but the map didn't seem correct. There was a guide there who mistakenly pointed us to a 'public' GreenSpring. But then the owner said that there's a 'private' GreenSpring and that's where we were headed.

We reached to the right place before 7pm. Almost immediately we donned suits and went swimming. There were a couple singing at the videoke machine. The pool area is small. It even had a slide. The deepest end probly rose to 5.5 feet at its deepest. My eggbeating worked really well. I was wondering though why I seemed to float and tread much more easily there. Probly the depth. I had no difficulty getting BOTH HANDS (not arms yet) out of the water where waterline was at the wrists. Outstretched arms with thumbs up were easy. I could even do this "spurting fountain" with the hands.

At around 8:30pm we had dinner. Here we are with our outfits still dripping wet. I didn't towel off. I just put on a shirt.

We had a great dinner: Inihaw na Tilapia, Ginataang lamang-loob, Itlog na Maalat, Lechong Manok, Tomatoes, Mangoes and Eggplant (where's the bagoong?). Really mouth-watering was the Barbecued Pork Liempo and hotdogs which smelled soooh goood even when we were swimming. And we all had these - kamayan-style.

With Emma J. As usual, I ate a lot - and that was a mistake for further swimming. They also had Gin with Milo drink. Interesting.

That's Ronnie the event organizer and Weng.

Here's a bigger group there. That's Perry in the red. We had a rather lengthy discussion on, what else, military outfits and weapons.

After the dinner, we got back to the pool. I burped and felt good but I just had eaten too much. The consequence? I felt full and I grew tired fast. So my notion that "I could tread forever" was shattered. I could still eggbeater. There was no pain in the knees or hips. But I grew tired easily coz some or all of the following:
  1. I was too full. Swimming and a full stomach just don't mix. Time and time again I need to remind myself of that.
  2. The water was too warm for my taste. I could feel my hair and my head getting cold with the cool night air but the body remains warm. Maybe the warm water made me more tired than usual.
  3. I was already tired. Plus the fact that it was already late made me sleepy. I was already yawning. So that was a sign.
With all that, here's my learning: Swim first, eat little, swim again, eat more (assuming there's still some left) before going home. No alcohol.

We finished and showered at 11pm. The resort had 4 guest rooms so there was no problem getting showers. The group had games. They had this 'Pinoy Henyo' game where you really need to ask the right questions to guess the word on the paper pasted on your forehead. Corz, DH doesn't watch this show and had a hard time asking the right questions to guess correctly. We went home earlier than the rest at 12am with Weng and Perry.

Cold but no Tomas

Gosh it was cold today. Easterly winds were strong and I thought we'd have a typhoon in "Tomas". Luckily it wasn't strong enough. But the overcast skies yesterday were enough to chill the pool water.

I just learned a new workout session after a brief warm-up. It goes like this:
  1. At the deep end, tread for 5 to 10 minutes using the eggbeater kick.
  2. From the deep end, start to move to the shallow end with a heads-up breast.
  3. Continue moving towards the shallow end using sidestroke or elemback (or you could be a little more flexible here).
  4. Upon reaching the shallow end, reverse using a heads-up breast.
  5. After gaining a little speed, continue with a fierce polo freestyle.
  6. Upon reaching the deep end, do the eggbeater treading again.
The above sequence ensures active-rest and is a good way to build conditioning. There's no point at all in the workout where the feet plant on the ground to really rest. Because of the continuous workout, there was no stopping that made the body feel the cold. Actually I almost decided to wear the rash guard today. With this kind of a workout, I may not need it as much.

After a long time of working out alone, there was a lad there today who I thought was one of the kids who had advanced coaching last summmer. He did the usual, free and breast. He must've been wondering what the heck it was I was doing.

Renz's Christmas Cantata

No workout today. We (DH, Tita Gay and I) attended Renz's Christmas Cantata at school today after which I took DH to her office. There were many parents but I thought there were more parents the years before during his ates' times. But we wanted our presence and support felt by the little guy and so we were there. Renz's class came in 8th in the order of presentation, so we managed to see the other numbers as well. They were all good. I thought the grade 6 medley was very good. Of course, the most applauded and well attended were the pre-schoolers and the kindergartens.

Here's a pic while the kids were waiting at the classroom. It was a loooong wait. That's DH and Tita Gay in the background.


Renz's performance was A-ok! The guy CAN dance. Here's a shot of the group doing the "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus". I didn't have time to get still pics of the dance and so I just took "still" shots from the video.


Here's a series of Renz's pics. These too were taken from the videos and pasted together.


I thought Renz's class presentation was very short though - so 10-bits. The song was just one stanza and the other parents were a little disappointed. Ah well, at least I managed to get most of it on video, including the funny incident that happened on the way to the stage. Later in the evening, the ates' had a blast watching the videos. Here's a sample video clip.




Maybe it's the mefenamic acid I took or is it the Taheebo tea? Anyway, the pain I had in my right knee went away. For a couple of days now, I've been taking the My-Marvel Taheebo tea, so that MAY be it.

I didn't linger too long after "serving" at the Office Christmas Party. Well, there wasn't much to do at serving coz this year, they decided to have the employees line up instead at the booth - for good measure. I thought it was faster that way. I hope this "serving" can be archived already. It pretty much lost it's novelty. Besides, I've got enough aprons and Santa Claus hats already. Oh, Ate Flor again gave me a bottle of wine this year. Thanx Ate Flor! Here's the group at the party. All arms are on the table. Does this group look bored to you?


Painful Lunges

PC1/8/9/5
30 minutes of eggbeaters at noon. There was no water when I got there. I only realized it after I've slopped on the sunscreen and opened the shower knob - no water. Luckily there was a generator and someone put it on.

I made the eggbeater session interesting by moving with some laps of elemback, side and headsup breast. Today, I was thinking. Maybe there's ought be a swimming stroke where the eggbeater kick is utilized. I've described this in a previous post where I felt like a spider crawling across its web. The arms scull alternatingly pretty much like in the dog paddle. The legs however do not flutter kick but rather do alternate breaststroke kicks. It feels like 'walking' in the water. It's very slow, but still, it's cool! Hmmm, what if I just call it the "Spider Crawl" or the "DJ Spinner"?

I'm still unsure how to correct this, but when I don't use my arms to scull and just use the legs to eggbeater, I move backwards. Like today, I put my arms on my hips while I eggbeater. I eventually hit the wall with my back.

I felt a little depressed yesterday coz of the persistent pain in my right knee. I couldn't manage lunges anymore as it can become painful past the vertical/ perpendicular. My strong hunch is my weight. And so, I'm officially embarking on a redux program starting... Today! The program will be simple and will be as follows:
  1. In the morning it's "No swim, no eats".
  2. Stay with veggies.
  3. Nothing after 6pm.
I'm trying to keep it simple so it's easy to follow. Wish me luck!

Tomorrow's Christmas Party at the office so parking's been moved to the greenfield since today. In recent years, the party's been pretty much so-so. Same old managers 'serving', it's become a bore. There are no departmental presentations, nothing - just paid talents. I mostly yawn in the entire thing that I'm thinking of skipping it this year.

Worm and Spider

Yesterday:
More Gift-Buying
Kids wanted to go back to Southmall buy more gifts (for teachers and classmates this time). As for me, I bought a small combination padlock for my locker at the office. Some shmuck must've stolen the padlock that I left on top of my locker and I need to replace that with something similar. I also bought a new pair of workgloves (leather and denims made) since the pair given by Nette had deteriorated. Later, I went to Casio to order a new strap for my swim watch. Hope they have it in stock after I call in two weeks. Duct tape's holding my watch as of this moment.

Renz, Sandra and I mostly stayed thereafter at the Book Sale and I chanced upon Renz engrossed in a book he was 'reading'. There were many people there and somehow Renz found a tiny space to seat himself. Looks like we have a little bookworm here.


Today:
Renz was shouting today asking to take a picture of a spider he found in front.


Later Sandra gave a gift (coming from the 4 of them) as an anniversary gift.

I Could Tread Forever!

That's how I felt before I got out of the pool today.

Today after arriving at the pool, I immediately noticed that the water surface was high. I couldn't even see the thick blue marker on the wall anymore. That's about the maximum height that the water gets. YES! The water itself though wasn't any clearer than last week. And the smell of chlorine, ugh! I saw clumps of chlorine powder clinging to the walls already. Still, I felt excited that the water will be deeper today to practice the eggbeater kick.

So, I started with my first drill, Lap Eggbeater with Kickboard. After a little while it gets boring though. Also, my foot and ankle seem to strain a bit. It's probly coz I'm rushing to the other end of the pool's length to get it over with. At least it sufficiently stretched the ankles' ligaments though. Then I went to the Stationary Eggbeater with Kickboard. This got a little boring too that I wanted to throw the kickboard! I certainly felt that I didn't need it.

The Lap Eggbeater without a Kickboard is really easy especially since the body is assisted by the sculling of the arms. Somehow though, I think it kinda puts the body in a more clumsy position as compared to the vertical eggbeater. The Stationary Eggbeater without the Kickboard is the more challenging and interesting. Like I said before, you could really get crazy with it. The water was beyond my nose (near my eyes) at the deepend. With my strongest eggbeater and arm sculling, the highest I could muster was my shoulders and part of upper arms showing. This morning, I did 10 minutes straight of this stationary eggbeater. YES!

In the morning at the office was the teambuilding activities held at the greenfield. Wow. Totally exhausting - especially the group sack race. There were three events.

  1. Obstacle Course - With partners tied at the ankle, go under a line and around a chair. We had to squat really low to clear the ropeline. The inside and backside of my thighs were fried!
  2. Move the balls across - Needs strategy to move balls in a pail across a "river".
  3. Group Sack Race. The team performs the sack race inside a giant sack moves to get a flag from three trees.
Actually, I was super amazed at my stamina in the sack race. I was able to keep up really well with the rest of my team and we won! After the race, the others who were much much younger than me just had to sit and rest. Me, I just got a drink of water and rested while standing. I was really surprised at myself. The activity exhausted everyone. Some pics:





After a very long wait, free Jollibee lunch came courtesy of the boss. The motorcycle delivery guy even drove his bike to the greenfield. I just grabbed my share and took off to the pool for a short noontime workout.

I even forgot to put on sunscreen before the shower in my rush. Anyways, I still put on after the shower - and the stuff sticks to the skin inspite of being wet. Luckily, at the end of the pool a small palm was giving shade and that's were I did almost half an hour of eggbeatering! Wow! Drills I could do are:

  1. Both arms stretched sideways.
  2. Raising the pointy finger of both hands out of the water.
  3. Raising one hand up to the wrist while the other sculls.
  4. Saluting with one hand while the other sculls.
Stuff that I tried and still couldn't do:
  1. Putting one hand at the back or on top of the head.
  2. Raising both hands out of the water.
Maybe next time I'll try at least raising one arm.
Later in the afternoon, the insides and backsides of both thighs were still sore.

A Dramatic Talk

Finally, I got to deliver the Kawasaki Girl speech today. I modified it a little and retitled it as "A Christmas Ride with my Kawasaki Girl" It was a hit! And I loved preparing and delivering it. AG Bobbie gave a nice feedback to my speech. The text and the pics used in the speech may be seen here.

As in previous speeches, the most liked about my speech delivery were the eye contact, gestures, body movement and the voice. In tonight's speech I felt I grabbed the audience really well. All eyes were on me and my eyes on EACH of them. I thought I'd be awkward with my props (pictures of Sandra at age 2 and 10) and a sample vial. Well, the vial didn't go too great as I pulled it out of my pocket as though it was a business card. I should've laid it down on the table with the pics.

Bobbie's evaluation reflected what I thought the audience felt in my Dramatic Talk. I particularly liked what she wrote on my manual as she completed her evaluation. It read "It is my honor to put my name in a champion's manual." Wow. That was SO very nice. Thanx Bobbie! Here's a shot of Bobbie giving me the token I should've received at the October Midyear Conference at Antipolo. Photo courtesy of Gil B.


Gosh, my arms look so massive in this picture.

Today was actually NXP's Christmas Party at their parking lot. I wasn't sure if the Toastmasters meeting will push through, but apparently I learned from the guard that the Club were expecting us, the guest evaluators. With the band playing (SpongeCola) in the parking lot, it was tough to find parking! I recognized an ex-officemate Neleus S.G. coming over and nonchalantly asked him if he was leaving so I could take his slot. He wasn't. But ever so kind, he offered to move his car a bit so I could move in. That was when he finally recognized me. He was so surprised to see me there! He pointed out to me some more available parking.

Luckily I found a spot right behind the cafeteria side. Another ex-officemate I bumped into was George S. He immediately recognized me and I quickly patted him on the shoulder as we passed each other.

See all my Toastmasters Speeches online here!

Gift-Buying

After getting Sandra's report card from LaCo, we went to Southmall to buy presents for the 2 little ones. So we had an early lunch at the ever reliable food court. There didn't seem to be too many people today. I thought with the bonus and the season and all, the foodcourt would've been packed. But then, I'm not complaining.


Then we went over to Toy Kingdom. Sandra took her quite a while to pick her presents. Renz on the other hand decided on a train. We had the train tested but the staff were hesitant to assemble all the tracks since it would take more space. So we just had the train's motor tested. Okay, fine. Later we saw a 2-car track set and said that we could use rechargeable AA batteries for the 2 cars instead rather than a D battery for the train. The tracks of the 2-car set were more colorful and the cars would even go up a bridge. It was a bit pricey at P369, but I actually liked it too. It's one of the showcased toys so I assume it was a bestseller. Renz was easily persuaded to get the 2-car track set instead. The set looked sturdier and the box even smaller.


Later, little Renz was really dissapointed when we told him that the gifts won't be opened til Christmas day. That was until he realized that even the ates' gifts were not opened. Just to make sure that he doesn't always gets distracted by his new toy for Christmas, we started gift-wrapping the toys and the ates' cellphones still in their boxes. That'll keep their minds on other things until it's time to open the presents.

Random Shots

Renz had his Boy Scout Day camp today. Luckily it did't rain.



Later in the day, there was a slight drizzle but that didn't dampen the spirits of Sandra and Renz to play outside. Without a small umbrella, Renz had to content himself with a fan.



What might these bright circles be? This a shot of the Superkalan with the nice burning glow of season-dried mango wood fuel. This wood came from the felled trees at RnR after Milenyo. What's cookin'? Spicy Chicken Neck!


My, Whose hands are these? Would you know?

Eggbeater, here I come!

I'm so happy I decided to go to the pool today instead of getting early at the office. Yeah, the water's become worse, more turbid, but what the heck. Something inside told me that today is D-Day. And I was right, I am getting the hang of the eggbeater kick. Yup, I'm getting into the groove.

First Drill
After a brief warmup, I started the session with Eggbeater Laps with kickboard. I did 2 laps today. I also remembered to keep the kickboard high so the legs sink and won't surface while eggbeatering. The time to finish a lap is VERY slow. Today, I felt the groove of a real breaststroke kick but from alternating kicks. The ideas behind this drill are:
  1. Become comfortable and familiar with the sensation of alternating breaststroke kicks instead of the usual "frog-style" of simultaneous kicking.
  2. Build up the needed stamina. Any new activity will definitely be exhausting at first whether that's a new dance step for dancers, a new sport or exercise. The improved conditioning will make the body more receptive of the new activity.
  3. This drill has a definite start and end (bounded by space). You start the drill at one end, turn back at the other end and come back. Compare this with a freestanding drill where you don't have a clue when to stop. When tired? When distracted? Looking at watch?
Second Drill
My second drill with the kickboard is attempt an eggbeater in a vertical position which I call Stationary Eggbeater with Kickboard. This entails holding one end of the kickboard with both hands. The kickboard lays flat on the water. I'd also lean the other end of the kickboard against the wall for stability - that way the kickboard doesn't move around much. This freestanding drill will create the opportunity to eggbeater the legs without worrying about the hands. I think people do the eggbeater differently as a poster pointed out in her reply to my query:
"I don't think anyone's kick looks exactly the same as anyone else's, so don't worry about exact form. Just feel comfortable and make sure it's not painful on your knees."
The dynamics of handling the water with the legs are many plus our bodies have structural quirks and will move differently to achieve the same thing. And that is to create lift and allow the body to tread water.

Third Drill
Next drill I did was a Lap Eggbeater without Kickboard. As I found out today, these are fun to do. Since I was doing laps without a kickboard, the body was more naturally vertical. I also did them at the pool's deepend which unfortunately was not deep enough. So a length here was just 12.5 meters. To perform this drill, do wide eggbeater kicks. They need to be wide and the pump-down action of the leg starts from a hurdle stretch position.

With this drill I had to describe the sensations I got:
  1. Like a spider walking / crawling on its web. It actually felt funny.
  2. Like I was suspended and was walking in water.
  3. The style of sculling of the arms felt like I was a Rap DJ spinning or "scratching" records on a turntable. The right hand was turning the "record" clockwise and the lefthand counterclockwise. It felt so cool!
WP, SS and CG swimmers are right. It feels like you could eggbeater for hours! WP = Water Polo, SS = Synchronized Swimming, CG = Coast Guard. It felt painless for me and time seem to whizzed by while I did 4 laps across the deepend. Ow! I feeeel good! Tana-nana-nana-nah! (<-James Brown ditty).

Fourth Drill
This is the actual treading. It is Stationary Eggbeater without Kickboard. Here, you can go fancy with the arms. Do regular sculling and then make the sculling lighter. Stretch the arms sideways flat on the water. Point pointy finger up from surface. Palms up/down resting on the surface. Hands on hips. The possibilities are endless until as one poster said, you could lift a metal chair with both hands over your head.

Slower but Better Backstroke

Yuck, the water is more turbid today than the previous days. But I thought I don't need to submerge my head as I'm practicing eggbeaters and backstroke.
On eggbeaters, it's funny coz someone replied to a question I posted. His reply on my query for a eggbeater drill is this.

"I used to play a lot of water polo, the easiest way to explain it is imagine you are on a exercise bike with the peddles at a ten to two (clockface angle) position and carry out the cycling action with your knees and feet cycling at the ten to two angle. You should be able with this Cycling (Eggbeater Action) to raise both arms out of the water and keep your head steady as you carry out the kicking motion under the water. Practise makes perfect, but keep the image of being on the exercise bike in your mind."
Today, there was an instance that I thought I was doing this and I floated. Not as high as I wanted to though, but it felt a little more natural than the previous days. But it doesn't seem to be powerful enought and it's not the action I see in the videos. Anyway, I'll try again in upcoming practice sessions.

Now, I'm doing a very slow (I think) backstroke. I guess that's okay if only to get the technique right. It's slow and I'm breathing well - not randomly sinking. The only times that I get water up the nose is when water splashes as I raise an arm at recovery.

A Better Backstroke, Renz's 5th!

Again, I brought the kickboard. It's just a hassle lugging it around everytime, but I still need it to familiarize with the eggbeater kick without getting too tired. So today, I did 3 lengths of eggbeaters. I just remember not to put the kickboard too low in the water coz it raises the hips and the legs too much towards the surface. So keep the kickboard close to the surface and the legs go down deep thus simulating more the depth of a correct eggbeater.

I wasn't sure if the short eggbeater (let's call it eb, okay?) was correct. But I did float, even without the kickboard. I floated but had to use the arms to scull. Now, that isn't the end which I had in mind. My goal is to eventaully raise the arms out of the water.

At the final phase of today's workout, I attempted a backstroke. Immediately, I felt a sharp pain in my right knee which I was bending. And so, rather than bend my knee and whip out the foot, I focused on kicking with the whole leg as a unit. This meant kicking more from the hips. The result was better. I managed to finish almost the entire length. Nice. I need to keep on just straightening up the legs more when kicking.

Che didn't go to school today coz her left eye was swollen shut when she woke up - like Manny Pacquiao peppered her eye with a dozen jabs. Initially we thought it was an insect bite. But the swelling didn't subside even after using an ice pack. I asked our company doctor and he suggested anti-allergy medz Celestamine and Mefenamic for the pain. I called this up to Che and the swelling gradually disappeared.

Later in the day, we had a salo-salo for Renz's birthday. I believe Renz hinted on wanting a Jollibee meal. And so, we had a Jollibee treat (spaghetti and chickenjoy bucket), Chowking Pancit Canton, some lumpiang shanghai and a Rocky Road cake from Red Ribbon.


Here's Renz with the gang.


Renz's wearing a party hat (Sandy Cheeks from Spongebob Squarepants) from another JB birthday party.


Karen just had to take a hold of Renz who was about to blow his candle WHILE the girls were still singing Happy Birthday! Notice Sandra's improvised microphone.


The guy just LOVES being the center of attention in this pic.


Here's what became of the chickenjoy bucket after we were done with the chicken.


Renz was so 'ganado' for a pictorial this time. I guess, he was so proud of what he made out of the bucket.