Twins are so cute!

Independance Day in the Philippines was June 12th.  On June 13th, they had a small celebration at IRRI and the school the twins are going to had a small performance in it.  So they were just so cute, you have to see them!

I told them I wanted a picture.

Then I told them I wanted a picture with them smiling and loving each other. . . this is what I got!

I never can get them both looking at the camera!

It was so sunny and they were facing the wrong way, as in, the sun was right in their eyes!

Here is the cute video of their song!

Evan is now a teen - 13!!!!

Evan is now a teenager. . . HOW??  WHEN??  WHAT???  He's such a good kid!  He enjoys playing video games, minecraft, reading, magic, playing with friends, pokemon, and science!  He is fun to talk with and is growing up so fast!

Of course we gave him some gifts!

Brayden made him an activity page.  This is him explaining it.  He really loves Evan and always tries to make things Evan might like.

He wanted this set of Slytherin stationery set. . . it's pretty cool.  Not sure when he will ever use it, but come on, it's Harry Potter stuff!

Pokemon Moon cards. . . 

Cool carved Dragon Mask.

He also got to dowload Minecraft on the computer so he can play with his friends.  Yeah, we decided 13 was a good age.  He also got some money and gift cards from Grandparents.  Thank you!!

 For his birthday, we had French Toast & Lasagna for his food choices.

However, each year for his cake, he makes some crazy requests!  If you look back you will see some of his requests come to life.  This year, he is SO OLD, he didn't have a 3D request to make!  So I made him this Ultimate Banana Split Ice Cream cake!

We had to hurry to place the candles, light them, sing to him, blow them out and slice the cake before it started to melt!  Only takes a few minutes in the Philippines for things to melt!

Here is a look at the layers.  Oreo crumb bottom followed by: fudge, mint ice cream, cake, strawberries, banana's, cookies and cream ice cream, brownies, strawberries, bananas, chocolate ice cream, whip cream and of course, cherries on top!!  Yeah, it was pretty good!

The next day, we all went to Manila with a couple of his friends, to an escape room!  Of course we had to pick sherlock holmes mystery room and a rebel resistant space room.  Evan chose the Sherlock Holmes one since he loves sherlock holmes!

Josh and I took Brayden and the twins with us into the Rebel Resistance room. . . we got out in 30.08!!  We almost got a t-shirt!  We probably should have!  The electronics in the room wasn't working, so some of the clues didn't come when they were suppose to.  The moderator lady finally came in and said, "did you do such and such?"  Of course we had, so she delivered the message herself. . . Totally would have been out in 26 minutes if she would have actually been watching when we did certain things!!  We had fun anyway, and enjoyed solving the mystery!  Brayden was great at finding all the things hidden around the room and the twins loved trying out all the combinations on the lock!  We hope to try another one soon and hopefully have all the electronics working this time!!

Of course we totally beat these boys!!  They got out of the Sherlock room at about 45 min.  They got to dress in character and loved every minute of "going it alone!" I won't let Evan tell me too much about that room as I'm hoping to go try to solve it myself one day.  We will see! Overall, we had fun and can't wait to go try our hand at another mystery room soon!

Happy birthday Evan!!  We love you and hope you enjoyed everything about your birthday!  Good Luck with the coming year!!

Corregidor, WW2 American Cemetery, and shopping!

After the Beach, it was time for some History!!  We made it to Manila and went on a tour of the old part of the city, Intramuros.

We rode on a carriage, much better than walking!  The temperature finally jumped up and it was a hot day!

The Quintessential carriage driver!!!

The oldest church in Manila!  It's ceilings were intricate, what we thought was carvings, but turned out to be paintings!!  It was really cool.  It looked 3D and was really hard to believe until we could see it up close on the column and walls.  It was really well done!

The front of the church building was beautiful in it's intricacies, and I loved the purple!!  It dates back to the time when the Spanish ruled in the Philippines.

 View from Rizal park outer wall.  To learn what Rizal park is, click here!

So the bombs are all old diffused ones, but my kids found that over the next few days there was a lot of decommissioned amo to climb all over!

This is one of the best head in a cut out I've gotten of my kids!  They were so cute!

Thinking statues.  Great place for kids to pose. . . 

I think one of my favorite tours and places we went to was our trip to Corregidor.  It was such a remarkable place!  The buildings like the one below are what was left after the whole island was basically decimated by bombs during the war.  

It's basically a small island in the middle of Manila bay.  My pictures show a lot of greenery, but after the war, there wasn't vegetation left!  They used a helicopter to seed the island with different vegetation and being the philippines, it grew quickly!  It was really something to see.

Bombed out buildings were everywhere.  These were some of the Barracks on the island.

If you look closely, you can see the tile still up for a shower or bathroom of sorts. . . 

This was one of the gun sites.  The guns can swivel and shoot in different directions.

This is one of the largest guns on the island.  It was up on a high point, and could shoot all the way to the ocean, in the picture under it.  It's barrel weighs like 50 tons or something outrageous like that!

 

 There was this bomb crater next to the gun. . . 

And this bunker just on the other side of the driveway area.  The American's placed many bunkers like this one all around the island.  I will show you pictures of the Japanese bunkers a bit later.

We had a great lunch at this lighthouse area.  It was pretty high up, and the stairs were crazy, but the kids thought it was cool!

This is at the memorial on the island.  It shows a Filipino and an American helping each other.

This is another memorial area.  

 Inside the museum we found different planes and other artifacts. 

This is the actual flag that was raised by General MacArthur when Corregidor was back in American/Filipino hands.

General MacArthur stood on this spot and promised to come back and retake the island.  It took him a couple of years to fulfill that promise.

This is a Japanese bunker.  They were really hard to find and were deep, holding many Japanese soldiers.

The hole in the rock over there is where the Japanese would hide for a water attack.

This is the tunnel that the American's went into for safety.  It was dug out with many offshoots of tunnels where people would live since the houses and barracks had all been destroyed.

 I do look forward to going back to Corregidor again, with more family!  It was difficult to remember all the history and I hope to see it all again.  It was really a nice tour.

Good Friday in Manila is a ghost town.  NOTHING is open.  Malls are closed, restaurants are closed, almost COMPLETE shutdown of the city!!  However, the American ww2 cemetery was open!!  So we went there! 

I love it each time we get to go.  It's a great place to visit.  Really humbling.

Also, thank goodness for Texas Roadhouse!!!  They were also open on Good Friday!  We had this beautiful sunset outside the restaurant window!  It was truly beautiful!

Now for shopping.  How did I NOT get pictures????  We went to Greenhills and shopped for a few hours for souvenirs.  Grandma Debbie and Grandpa Cobb got some really great things and had a great time!  Next time I go I will try to remember to snap a few shots of this place!!