Birthday Boys!

Ethan's birthday was October 2, Adams' birthday is on October 18, and Tyler's birthday was September 4...so we had a birthday party for all of them after Grandpa and Grandma arrived. 

Tyler turned 13...we now have three teenagers in the house!  Ethan turned 16 and can't wait to drive!  Adams will be 9...he hopes one day he will "catch up" to his brothers and sisters!
 

Happy Birthday to all our boys!

New School year

Finally school year 2010-2011 let out for this family!  After a year of so many changes and then interruption after interruption in our school year, it just felt great to be done! 

 When we left the island in February unexpectedly we had to leave behind all of our school books.  We then spent time in Puerto Princesa with family and friends.  Took a two week trip to Manila to finish up our visas and spend more time with family and friends.  Then back to Puerto and a move to a new house.  We loved the vacation away from school and of course, we loved spending time with everyone...wouldn’t trade that for all the school time in the world.  But amazingly it was two months before the kids were reunited with their long lost books!  Now it was mid-April and we were only halfway through our school year!  We sure had a lot of ground to cover.

Lada provided us the perfect place to accomplish that task.  No interruptions and plenty of time to complete assignments.  So from mid-April until the end of August the kids worked hard on completing their school year...and now we can say with much excitement, “We have finished the task set before us and have done well!”  Such a good feeling!

Needless to say though, that didn’t give us much of a break before the next school year had to begin.  In May I spent many hours on-line ordering curriculum for the coming school year.  I had it all sent to my mom in Alaska who packed it all up for us in three large boxes to be sent by slow boat to the Philippines.  It takes two months for these boxes to reach us, but for a set price the rather large boxes can be as heavy as you can manage.  So they get full of school books and various other treasures from family and friends at home.  My mom sent the boxes in June and sure enough by the end of August they arrived!  So much excitement for boxes full of school books!

Ann Marie and I sorted books and organized binders to get ready for the next school year.  And then we were off and running!   School year 2011-2012 has officially begun for the Veldstra family...

Ann Marie is a Senior this year!  A sense of accomplishment is such a great feeling!  She told me that in Sierra Leone she never dreamed she would ever have the opportunity to graduate from high school!

Ethan is in 10^th grade and realizing the challenges of High school!  So much school work and not near enough free time, but he works hard to get it all done.

Tyler is now a teenager and in Junior High!  Pre-Algebra and a Drafting class are among his favorites! 

Kailee is in 5^th grade.  She is a voracious reader and loves to try out new words all the time!

Alyssum is in 4^th grade and loves her new Language Arts book this year! 

 

Adams is in 2^nd grade and has become quite the good reader and story writer.  He has such a great imagination!

Our house is always so busy with plenty of learning through books and life experiences!

A Visit from Home

Hard to believe it has been over a month ago since Pastor Jonathan came to visit us.  He surprised Steve one day with a text asking if we had plans for the following week and then asked if he could come on over for a short visit.  Steve at first said, "Sure, we would love to have you!", and then, "Are you serious?"  Knowing Jonathan we knew he was serious!  So we excitedly made plans to meet him in Puerto Princesa and spend our time there with him.

We met him at the airport Wednesday afternoon  and spent a few relaxing days at a hotel.  The hotel has a wonderful pool which the kids spent many hours enjoying!

We really enjoyed Jonathan’s visit...so good to talk and laugh with someone from home.  Being able to talk face to face is so valuable.  We have been so discouraged the last few months and lonely that we had kind of lost the right perspective.  It was time to find it again!

We stayed at a nice hotel in Puerto Princesa and felt really spoiled!  What a treat!  It was certainly a great place to relax and be refreshed!  Also, someone paid for all of us to get a few new clothes, so we spent a morning shopping for everyone.  The kids had so much fun picking out new things!  Ethan and Tyler had a great time with Jonathan and getting his opinion!  

 

We are so thankful for the time he spent with all of us!

Braid Locs

Ann Marie decided to have braid locs put in her hair again.  We did these quite a few years ago when she first came to us from Sierra Leone.  At that time I was unfamiliar with braiding African hair and took too big of sections for each braid so the locs got too big.  We eventually took them out....that was a lot of work!  Since then we have done extensions, straightened her hair, and various other hairstyles.  They all look great, but are difficult to do on your own.  So with leaving home in the very near future Ann Marie decided she needed a hairstyle she could manage herself since she will no longer be living with her hairdresser!  Braid locs need maintenance, but most of the time is a fairly simple style. 

So I braided, braided, and braided some more!  Over two weeks, 28 hours, and 557 braids later...we were done!!  The braids are so tiny this time!  Each braid is about the size of a piece of thin yarn.  Because of the small size of the braid each individual braid does a ringlet at the end. 

As her hair grows every couple months we use a latch hook to loop the braid through the new growth to extend the braid.  So this should make the hair keep growing longer and longer.  We are hoping this is something she will be able to do herself or easily have anyone help her with.  The style looks great on her!  Ann Marie you are so beautiful!!

Mainit Falls

Steve and Ethan, Tyler, Kailee, Alyssum, and Adams enjoyed half a day at the Mainit Falls and Hot Springs.  It is only a few kilometers from our house, down a dusty dirt road.  But a very beautiful place hidden away!

The kids would go from hot spring pools to the waterfall to cool off.  The hot springs have a sulfur smell...the kids said it smelled like hard-boiled eggs.

They enjoyed these hot pools, but definitely had the most fun in the waterfall!  Hopefully we will get to do this outing again while we are still staying here at Lada.

Creepy Crawlies

This gecko among others has found our house to be his home.  This one plus two buddies of his hide behind the refrigerator during the day and come out at night to hunt insects.  They certainly keep the cockroaches under control.  Check out this link on the gecko of the Philippines. (click on word gecko)

Interesting "pulsating caterpillar".  We don't have any idea what it is called, but it sure is one of God's unique creatures!

This HUGE spider was found right outside our house.  I don't have any idea what kind of spider this is.  It was so big that we could easily see its mandibles working on lunch!

And only one person was brave enough to put their hand close enough so we could have a reference of how big this spider really is!

Brave Ann Marie!

The tropics certainly has its fair share of creepy crawlies!  That takes some getting used to for this Alaskan family!  Just today we found a snake skin in the bathroom.  Now that's a first for us!  We've seen several snakes, but always outside.  We are hoping that snake only stayed long enough to shed its skin and then left because we make too much noise.

Fruits and Veggies!

One of the wonderful things about staying here at Lada is the great market in town every Monday!  It is kind of a fair like atmosphere each Monday morning with so many stalls of people selling fresh produce, fresh meat, cooked food, clothes, shoes, and whatever else one might need.  We have to get there early in the morning in order to get enough meat...the best cuts are bought first! 

Then we fill Steve's back pack several times with fruit and vegetables!!  A variety of bananas, mangoes, pineapple, and local fruit.  The pineapple was in season for a couple months and so inexpensive!  We made so many things with pineapple!  Pineapple upside down cake, pancakes with pineapple, and of course lots of fruit salad with all the fruit!

Pineapple upside-down cake

Mmm so delicious, homemade mango jam

Vegetables are plentiful as well!  Tomatoes, a variety of peppers, squash, eggplant, potatoes, carrots, cucumbers, and avocados.  We enjoy seeing the variety of produce that comes and goes with the seasons.  Avocados are now in season and are so inexpensive.  We love homemade guacamole. 

Homemade tortillas

Ann Marie's specialty...English muffins

So many of the foods we enjoyed at home we have to make by hand here.  A little time consuming, but we enjoy them even more that way!