A fiesta and the big 4-0

This year, I turned 40. Getting older and hopefully getting better and wiser, but I'm not so sure.

We spent the weekend in Baler, which celebrated its town fiesta on the same day. Patron saint is San Luis Obispo, thus the name Luisa (tempered by the Maria in front). For a while I thought we wouldn't be able to go home, no thanks to supertyphoon Egay. Surprisingly though, the weekend was relatively calm, and Ben and I were able to watch the parade on Sunday (19th) morning. It was a bit of a disappointment. I thought there were going to be street dancing and stuff, but it was mostly just people parading with a few floats of Little Miss Baler runners-up and winner and bands from the different school. Still I think Ben enjoyed it. After the parade, we passed the day basically doing nothing, just relaxing, then we had spaghetti in the evening for long life. It was nothing major, but I felt that I really had a great birthday celebration.

Like I always say, it's always good to go home to Baler, and this trip, the roads notwithstanding, was worth it. I would've wanted to stay longer, but work and school called us back to Manila. Here are some photos to share:

Ben with Abraham and Gabriel, two of his friends in Baler

One of the bands...

And Ben looks on...

I have no idea...

Kids in costume...

Ben and his Lolo Emon doing one of their favorite pastimes

That's me with Papa and Ben

Ben and me under the lateris tree

Gaming on the computer

Ben with his Ate Jackie and Ate Roxanne

Family Day

Last July 28 was Family Day at Claret's Child Study Center. It was a half day of program and games for Ben, so Auntie Iring and I went with him. Their class sang one song, and then all the CSC children sang another song together. I tried to videotape it but my videocamera was running out of battery, and the video taken with the cellphone is too small (I need a new digital camera with a video taking function to it). Besides, Ben, being one of the taller kids, was relegated to the back again so it was difficult to get to him with the camera. Still I did take some pictures which I'm sharing below.

The children also made little paper necklaces for their parents with a heart pendant and one of the pictures show me (looking horrible as usual--why oh why oh why!) with Ben after he put the necklace on me. It's really sweet and touching to see him running towards me to give me his little gift. Last year, it was a card. Anyway, here are some pics:

Ben with his Teacher Caei and classmate Yvonne

That's Ben in the last row, almost center

That's me and Ben after he gave me the necklace

That's him in the last row, 2nd from the left after they finished singing "I Won't Last A Day Without You."

And here's the video from the cellphone of them singing I Won't Last A Day Without You. It's not complete, because my knees started to hurt from kneeling and it's quite blurry, but I thought I'd upload it anyway. Again, Ben is the second kid from the left on the last row.