Zach turned 6!

We can't believe how fast these kids are growing!!! Zach had his birthday this week, and we had a great time celebrating as a family. He was pretty excited about the presents part of the party. :)

He got Marble Race 2 from us, some big bouncy balls and little cars from Papa and Grandma Jackson, and a cool build your own robot kit from Grandpa and Gram Hagen. Fun times!

He also got a hand-made journal from Mikayla. I love this picture of her explaining to him how to use it.
We got each of the kids one of these bouncy balls from my parents so they could have fun on them together (and they were cheap :) ). As you can see, they were a hit.
I love their expressions here. :)
A few days after our family celebration, we went up to the wakeboarding place to celebrate with our new friends, Reuben and Sheril and their 2 kids, Takiah and Zeph (ages 4 and 5 months). We all went to some hot springs and enjoyed some cake and swimming together.The Birthday BoyZach is pretty excited about the present from Takiah - a kit where you can make and paint your own plaster trucks! He is very excited.

We had a great time hanging out with Reuben and Sheril and their kids, and we were so glad that they were able to help us celebrate Zach's birthday.

FYI

Just wanted to let you know that I added something new on our blog - "What posts do you want to see?" I added labels to most of the posts since we moved down here to Bicol in February 2007 and a few of the posts prior to that as well. So if you have something in particular you are looking for, you can just click on the right label, and it will pull up those posts. So if all you want to see is pics of our kids (who could blame you? :) ), then you can just see those, but if you are looking for pics of what we do here, you can click on "Our Work" to see those posts.

Happy surfing! :)

Fun Times

Ok, after all that depressing stuff in the last couple of posts, it is high time to have some fun! The kids about went stir crazy in the hospital and guest units while we were all recovering from that virus so they were incredibly excited about going to stay up in Aritao for the 11 days that Steve and I were in Singapore for my wrist surgery. They stayed with family friends Markus and Sarah Rosvik and their 2 little ones, Levi and Emma. As you can see from the pics below, the kids had a BLAST. (And surprisingly enough, Sarah said that it went really well and she would even consider doing it again!) They definitely had their hands full with 5 little ones ("bathtime seemed never ending...then there were SO MANY teeth to brush!"). Sarah emailed us daily with updates and even pics of the kids and how they were doing; those were wonderful to get. It made it so much easier being apart from them knowing they were having so much fun.

Here is a pic of a picnic. :)

There is a lot of grass and wide-open spaces to run, dozens of trees to climb and even a trampoline! Artiao is one of our kids' favorite places in the world.

I can only imagine how exciting meal times were. I love the expression on Levi's face in this one - and you do kind of wonder if there will be an "after" picture for after Ben finishes trying to pour his water. :)

Now, you have to keep in mind that Markus and Sarah live in the province as well so there are no McDonalds to run to for supper or any instant meal options available. So not only was she taking care of 5 kids, she had to cook from scratch for them as well - I think she deserves some kind of award for sure!!!

Here is a pic of the pizza that Mikayla made "all by herself". I am just guessing here that she did require at least some help. Looks good though!

When the kids 1st arrived up there, they were still recovering from the virus and the upper respiratory infection the boys both got. So the boys had to do nebulizer treatments 3x a day right off the bat. Here they are enjoying some TV time during the boys' treatments.

Uncle Markus celebrated his birthday while our kids were up there. Nothing like a few extra kids around to help you celebrate!
Ben and Emma had a bit of a love/hate relationship. Sarah said that sometimes they wanted to do everything together, other times they were at each other. I love the expression on Emma's face in this one. :)
Play Doh time!!! Check out Ben's very impressive purple snake.
This picture of Mikayla looks so peaceful...hope they had a few moments of peace in the midst of all the chaos! Ok, I am going to leave you with a few pics of Ben. Markus is an excellent photographer, and it looks like Ben enjoyed hamming it up for the camera. Loved these pics - thanks for taking them, Markus!
"Thank you" just doesn't seem to be enough to express our heart-felt gratitude to Markus and Sarah and their family for the sacrifices they made to watch our kids during that time. The kids had so much fun, and Steve and I weren't worried about them so we were able to focus on the task at hand (no pun intended :) ), recovering from my wrist surgery. We are so thankful for all they did to love on our kids and make them feel secure during that time. THANK YOU!!!