Meanderings in Manila

Max's school has been celebrating Halloween the entire week. Imagine...5 days of dress up. Where else do they do that but in the Philippines?? The big day was today when they had their Halloween party.
At the beginning of the school morning they had story time and then sang songs. The teachers put on a great act and the children really enjoyed it.

What a great costume!

There is always dancing in the Philippines!

The founder/owner/director/music teacher of the school. A fantastic lady!

Afterwards we went trick or treating. We offered to car pool on set of kids and there were 1 -2 other cars. Our car is a monstrosity....a Ford expedition with two full rows of seating in the back. An American SUV at it's very best! The reason I said that we could drive was so that Max could be in his car seat. Not one other child had a car seat. They just sit on the laps of their nanny's. And so we rolled - 6 kids - 1 car seat - Filipino style.

There were three houses to stop at on the list (ours included). All three houses were in Dasma and the last one was in South Forbes. When we reached the first house I knew that I hadn't really prepared enough. A gorgeous house with a small pool in front (that most likely wasn't even really their pool, just an added feature of their house....and an addition koi pond. The house was amazing. There was music playing for the kids - huge bags of treats with juice boxes for everyone. Shit. I just wrapped up little gift bags with a few things inside. The children are two for goodness sakes. How much candy do they need??? Talk about feeling like an under achiever!!!

Of course it was me and all of the yayas!

trick or treat!

Zeny (Max's yaya) and Max

Then we went to our house. The children loved Callie! Fantastic I thought. The other house didn't have a dog. We'll really stand out to the children. Ummmmm.....not. The next house that we went to was about five times the size of ours. They had five helpers dressed up in costumes with three chairs on the entry way. On each of the chairs there was a dressed up dog. They didn't hand out good bags. Nope. There were goodie BUCKETS of candy. One for each child. Not only that but there was a helper serving the drinks on a tray to all of the children. Crap - I was outdone again!!!!

Hello little two year old boy, would you like a bucket that has 115 (no joke) pieces of candy???

Sorry Callie - you were definitely out done........this time!

The fourth house was the one that was holding the Halloween party for the children. It was even bigger than the previous house ( and of course they had their own koi pond as well). The back yard was HUGE. Anyone that lives in the villages of Makati knows how special it is to have a yard. These people didn't just have a back yard - it was like their very own park. The had a swing set, play house, trampoline, cotton candy machine, and soooooooo much food.

Only a 25% of their yard. I had such yard envy.

I have never seen anything like this. I was totally unprepared for the extravagance of it all. I am so glad that I didn't host the Halloween party. It would of been a huge disappointment. I need to learn how to roll Filipino style. Maybe by next year I will have it down pat........most likely not.

Max had his first "night out" at school last Friday. Class was held from 3 30-6 30pm with storytelling, flashlights (the sun sets here around 5 45pm. It's like being back in Boston during the winter!), dancing, and of course marshmallows.

I wasn't sure how Max was going to handle the change in schedule and if he was going to be a bit afraid being in the dark. He handled it beautifully though and not a single tear was shed. He really seemed to enjoy himself. The rooms were decorated with both the teacher's and the student's artwork and they had a lot of fun activities.

Some photos: