my nieces' birthdays

every year, my family anticipates more celebrations after the christmas season because January marks both of my nieces', pat & nick, birthdays.

this time their birthdays were celebrated separately at their exact birth dates. normally, we would combine their birthday celebrations into 1 day. nick wanted to have a party whilst pat wanted to go swimming.

ok, pat's was first. her birthday falls every 13th of January. that saturday, we went to the grotto vista resort in bulacan. whenever our family plans to go swimming, grotto vista was always the only option. well, it is huge, cheap, clean & not that far from qc & honestly, we don't know where else to go so there's nothing much to choose from. anyway, dad was left at home while all of us excluding a few of our cousins, sam & tylord, went to the resort noon of the 13th. it was rayne's 2nd time. rayne's first time to swim there was posted here. my good friend alex fortunately caught up to join us for pat's big day. the don antonio folks followed in the afternoon & brought more food.

spent most of the time using my videocam, officially. i dipped rayne in the kid's pool for a few minutes only coz she was obviously freezing from the chilly water & the air's cool breeze. most of us adults swam as night fell & when there were lesser people in the pool. we went home before 10pm so we spent almost 12 hours there.

january 21st was nick's day. i promised to treat her to this newly-built fun ranch at the back of the tiendesitas in libis. so after eating merienda at her party at home, all of us headed out to libis around 3 in the afternoon. i had never been to the fun ranch. i just happen to drive by the area to work & i just assumed that nick would love it & favorably, she did! this time i made sure i took pictures whilst ofcourse, taping the event using my handycam. the folks at don antonio didn't miss to join us as well or else nick would've been devastated. she's pretty close with her folks from her dad's side.

anyway, the entrance for all the kids were P350 for unlimited hours & that did not exempt my 1 yr old & my bro's 2 yr old. for yaya's/adult guidance for kids more than 3 yrs, there's a fee of P100. the playpen was so huge hundreds of kids plus their yaya's can fit in although the area looked like a warzone to that effect. you're lucky if you don't get bumped by groups of running & shouting kids! so we had to secure every area we put rayne in to play or else she'd get stepped on! well, there's a secluded play area for her age but 'ya know, we wanted her to get familiarized w/ the whole area. though being the kids' day, the whole experience was awesome! we ate at the big red barn across the play area where a magic show was held as well. my daughter took a break & rested while we ate. after dinner, all the kids plus us ofcourse, headed back to the play area. around 9pm, we all decided to go to the tiendesitas. nick & ate anna rode the 'calesa' that strolled around the area. i bought a cool hand bag, my bro got this skull figurine, sam got shoes & nick bought tiny crabs & other shell fishes to add in her new aquarium. she's so inlove w/ all kinds of animals that she shyly asked all her guests to buy her any kind of pet to her birthday party. she got 2 rabbits, 2 birds (not sure what kind), fishes & 1 puppy which still needs to feed from her mom.

i would recommend the fun ranch to all the families who want their kids to actually have fun. there's also a spa for your kids at one corner of the ranch! there's a face painting stall nearby the spa & the artists' works were very admirable. one stall sells candy apple which you wouldn't see in most places in the philippines. a few celebrities showed up with their kids so i would say that the fun ranch has class as well! there are 2 rides in the middle one of which is a carousel & charges P50 per ride. i'd definitely bring my daughter back there.

we went home, all exhausted, before 11pm.