Filipino food we miss...!

famous adobo dish

fresh lumpia, Maarten's favorite!!

yummy kaldereta

delicious kare-kare

palabok, Menchie's favorite

fish dish relleno

mouthwatering halo-halo...soo good especially during hot months

and last but not least, leche flan (which we actually don't have to miss, because Menchie makes a VERY good one too :-)...

Dinner with friends from Malaysia

We recently had dinner with Sinnathamby and Joan from Malaysia who were visiting the Holy Land. Maarten stayed with them during his trip to Malaysia in 2002. They were so nice and hospitable to him. Joan is one of the children of the Hand of the Cause of God, Mr. Featherstone, and the aunt of our friends Su-Yin and Mei-Ling. It was nice to have them over at home, and we hope to visit them in Malaysia some day.

Visit to the Most Great Prison...

Our visits to the Bahá’í Holy Places for this year have come to an end...the last of which is at the Most Great Prison in Akka.

Auntie May's Birthday...

It was auntie May's birthday last Monday. There was a dinner organized by oom Martijn where family and friends brought delicious food. Here are some photos of the evening...

Happy birthday!

our family shot

auntie May sharing with us her trip to South Africa and Malawi

while auntie May was talking, she was also showing us lots of pictures from her trip. This one is with actor William Macy where she worked with him in the film called 'The Deal'.

saying goodbye to Carmel at the end of the evening

happy auntie with oom

Mommy teaching dance...

Last week, mommy started teaching dance to some daughters of the families in our community, age ranges from 9 to 13 years old. She thought of doing this not only because she misses dancing a lot and get herself fit with all the warm-ups and dance moves, but also to know these young people better, share her time with them and just enjoy and have fun. It is nice to know that the girls enjoyed the first session that they came back for the second class yesterday afternoon. By the way, mommy is teaching modern jazz, this she learned when she joined the dance workshop in her university. Hopefully the class will resume after summer when most of the families are back from their vacation.

the girls with mommy

Front row L-R: Amelia Mohajer, Sahar Yazdani, Bahia Burias, Nesar Safajou, Nadia Ru and me. Back row L-R: Yasmeen Ru, Munis Safajou and Angela Mohajer. Not in the picture are Negar Parsa and Alisha Butle who couldn't make it for this session.

What I love to play these days...

slide

necklace

bracelets

baby dolls...


...and water...!

Enna Marie goes to Rose Garden class

Enna-Marie has recently joined the Rose Garden class. This class is being handled by the moms with 18 months to 3 years old children. There is a lesson being taught each week, songs that everyone sings and enjoys, and snacks to partake. She knows most of the older kids so it was not so difficult to mingle with them. In this session, auntie Svetlana was the teacher and she taught them about the virtue obedience.

auntie Minoo and baby Rumi joined us in this particular session

Enna-Marie seems enjoying...

Singing "make me fearless"...

She is recording in her brain the actions and lyrics of this song

crafts making that is related to the lesson of the day

Yah, I can do this...!

full of concentration...as you can see there are three pictures of the children doing household chores in the middle and a quote about obedience on top. The colorful stickers added beauty to the artwork.

snacks time

Singing time again before we all go home...

My friends Layla and Carmel singing happily (and seriously!)...

Visit at Zichron Ya'akov

Zichron Ya'akov, founded by Romanian immigrants in 1882 on the southern slopes of Mount Carmel, 33km/21mi south of Haifa, is now one of Israel's most important towns. The growing of vines and almond-trees was introduced by Baron Edmond de Rothschild in 1887, and a bottle factory was established at Nahsholim, 9km/6mi west. The settlers showed their gratitude by naming the village and its synagogue, built in 1885 at the expense of the Rothschild family, after Edmond de Rothschild's father Jacob (James)...(information taken from one of the sites available).

we started our stroll in this street finding a good place to eat lunch

we ended up at this place Cucina Bar, an Italian restaurant

Enna-Marie staring at the other kids

what's for lunch mom?

Menchie ordered this delicious Greek salad...

...and Maarten had Ricardo pasta...also very good!

after lunch we continued strolling and saw this store with a small garden. These are some of the ornaments.

very colorful!

angel and froggy ornaments

flower shot turned out good

you can find jewelries, paintings and some ceramics in this art shop

ornaments hanging on the wall

handmade birds for sale in one of the stores. Enna-Marie will for sure like one of these in our balcony.

a mailman statue

mama trying to smile while Enna-Marie is getting crancky and tired

a unique decor in one of the stores

of course we had ice-cream (mango and watermelon) on this very sunny day...yum!

our dear princess has fallen asleep on our way back to Haifa