Lalovaea Visit

I went to visit the old house at Lalovaea today. I was hoping that Neta and her husband had an umu ready for toonai but no such luck. So I had to make my own luck and bought an umu from the Fugalei market, some wahoo, mamoe and some koko samoa. My kind of lunch! When we left Samoa Neta didn't have any kids but not three years later, she has 2 kids with another on the way. The house at Lalovaea is looking very old & tired and should be repaired or demolished soon.

Amataga, me and Neta's son Kevin in the faletaavale

Alofa and her brother Amataga

Kaga Makangka on the stairs in Mama's house

Neta with her pepe fou

Neta's eldest son, Kevin

Happy Valentines Daddy

Maddy made this for you at school today :)

Power Goes Out

Due to the storms that hit Oklahoma a few days ago, we experienced very strong winds all day yesterday and last night. Our power went out around 8.30ish for a little while. Maddy and I were reading his book at the time and decided to take this video :) We are fine by the way!

Happy Birthday Aunty Mona

Wishing you a happy and joyful birthday :)

Miss you heaps, love Rach, Matt & Maddy xxx

Happy Birthday Uncle Lloyd

Lloyd is the big one standing next to Mum LOL

Happy 40th birthday bro, Love Us xox

Happy Birthday Cousin Micah!

Have fun on your birthday, eat lots of yummy goodies and hope you get lots of pressies too.

Love always, Uncle Matt, Aunty Rach and Cuzzie Maddy xox

My b'day muffin cake

So much for Maddy helping me out with my blueberry muffin cake LOL I had to do it all myself, but that's ok, I purchased a ready-to-make mixture that only needed water added LOL Yup, my kind of baking. We had no icing nor b'day candles but that's ok, we will make do with the sprinkles.

I spent the morning volunteering at Maddy's school library for an hour then cleaned up the house before Maddy got home from school around 12.45pm. We watched a movie together (Space Chimps) then I made the muffin cake. On Wednesday I get to spoil myself by getting my hair done (long overdue) and a spa treatment (manicure and pedicure). Thanks Daddy & Maddy :)

Thanks for the birthday wishes family and friends :o)

Happy Birthday Mommy!

Dear Mommy,

On your birthday, Maddy and I would like to:

Wish you a very happy birthday and. . .

Hope you have a great day and. . .

Thank you for putting up with us when we don't what we should and. . .

Promise you we'll try harder to help out more and. . .

Think you are the best mommy in the world and

Love you for always looking after and being there for us!

~Daddy and Maddy

Team Photos

Today we went to Thoreau Middle school for Maddy's basketball photos and individual ones too. I ordered one 5x7 and one 8x10 for our photo collection. I took a few of my own but they didn't turn out very well - I think I've buggered up the settings on the camera again LOL.

When we got home, we decided to take a walk up the road to the store to buy a few supplies. We stopped off at Office Depot to buy some poster paper and felt tip pens for Maddy's school project, bank some checks, visit the dollar store, and then we wondered over to Noodles Company for afternoon brunch.

Enjoying his favorite pasta dish - 'house marinara'

Maddy Bakes Cookies

School Closed Today

Due to the snow and ice storm yesterday and last night, all schools in VA and DC were closed today. Guess who was happy about that? Just as well because we both slept in today and when I woke up to check the news around 7.30am, notices were posted across the top of the tv screen announcing the closures.

It looked like the building manager had people shoveling snow off the footpath early this morning, as it was all cleared up. It's suppose to improve tommorrow (touchwood) and then I hear by Monday next week, we are expecting more storms. As long as the power doesn't go off, we are fine.

It's Finally Snowing

Snow fight with Daddy before he left for the airport

The snow was not deep enough for a snow angel

Farewell Dinner at Mango Mike's

This was our first time at Mango Mikes Caribbean Restaurant and what a lovely experience it was. It reminded me of dining out at Coconuts beach resort with it's palm trees, aquarium, sand, and exotic island menu as well as a relaxing atmosphere.

The Mango Island potions (drinks) were something to remember as well as the food selection which I must say was very tasty. Dom and Rosie tried the "puka puka" which consisted of coconut rum, myers, pineapple and mango juice, while Sakib and Kelly had pena colada's. I just stuck to my baileys irish coffee and cream LOL.

The kids enjoyed being seated in front of a big aquarium and while we sat and chatted and enjoyed our meals, when it ended, it was sad to say goodbye to Sakib, Kelly and Khalil. They are moving to Ecuador in March and will be there for at least 2 and 1/2 years.

Maddy with Mo Mo and Pichachu

Khalil, Nino and Maddy

Matt, Domenico, Sakib, Maddy, Rosie, Kelly, Nino and Khalil

Game #5

Inbounds the ball to Sammy who scores one for the team

Rebounds

Nearly makes a shot

Dribbles and hands it off to Sammy who scores another for the team

Defending (or eye-balling his opponent LOL) and Intercepts a pass

To Nanna and Papa

Mo Mo and Picachu

Madison brought home two classroom mascots, Mo Mo and Picachu on Friday to spend the week with us. He was also given a writing journal to take pictures and document things he does throughout the week with his special friends. This is all part of creative writing at home.

He's already had breakfast with his special friends and has taken them along to watch him play basketball as well. Tommorrow we will be taking them with us to dinner, to farewell Matt's friend Sakib and family, who are moving to Ecuador. Monday and Tuesday are teacher conference days, so Maddy, his friends and I will be seeing Daddy off at the airport Tuesday morning.

I'll post a copy of his journal once it's completed :)

Scrapbooking

Den activities are part of the Cub Scouts requirements and at tonights Tiger Den meeting, Maddy and his Daddy made a scrapbook page from photos we took at Seaworld in Orlando Florida a year ago. Matt said he put it together all by himself and was very proud of how it turned out.

Since Maddy likes doing arts and crafts, I might just get him to do a few more, especially of our trip to Rarotonga, Lagi and Tollys wedding, Grandma's visit last year, and a few about our weekend visits to several places around DC.

Maddy in Action - 3rd Game

Warming up before the game

Rebounding

Even though they lost this game, they played a good game overall especially on defence. We have more videos of Maddy in action but because the files are too large, they were taking too long to upload - will try to keep them shorter next time.

Tiger Den Skit

Each den had to perform a skit for this months pack meeting and the Tiger Den did a skit on "Emergency Broadcast System"

Happy New Year

Hope everyone had a fun and safe start to the New Year. Ours was very quiet but nice. Maddy spent the day enjoying his new Christmas pressies, especially his D-Rex, PSP portable and Basketball bean chair - I need to get another one or two of those for his room so when his friends come over to play games, we have extra seating - thanks cuzzie Micah - his chair is cool!

Maddy's D-Rex is an interactive dinosaur who attacks, guards and has over 100 sounds and expressions. Sorry about the side view - Maddy wouldn't let me record him again so I had to use this one LOL

Happy Birthday Daddy!

We celebrated Daddy's birthday with a yummy cooked lunch of chicken wings, potato salad, rice and chocolate cake with ice cream for dessert. Since Daddy hasn't been well and unable to walk for the past two weeks, we decided a nice home cooked lunch would suffice. I hope he enjoyed it as much as we did :)

Merry Christmas

Presents Galore!

Thank you to our family and friends that have sent Christmas presents for Maddy and Us. As you can see from the picture, we can't fit anymore under the tree. I couldn't resist opening up Aunty Mona's package from Hawaii as it had some yummy goodies that I wanted to eat right away LOL The rest will be left for Christmas Day for Maddy to unwrap.

Hope everyone has a safe and Happy Christmas and New Years.

(One thing we haven't quite finished is decorating the tree as I can't seem to find the rest of our decorations LOL)

"I wonder what's in this box"

Our Advent Calendar (Thanks Nanna)

They Won!

The Black Knights Basketball team won their first game on Saturday, 6 - 4 and what a great game it was. No scores are taken but Daddy and I were keeping count anyway. The first half of the hour was spent on skills testing like running relays and dribbling skills and the second half was the game. They played for six minutes each quarter and did quite well. Maddy came off the bench on the second and last quarter and had a good game, defending and passing the ball to his team mates. It was nice to see all the parents there cheering their children on.

Aunty Lu and Uncle Steve from Connecticut arrived that afternoon too and came to watch the game as well. Uncle Steve had a meeting in DC so they spent the weekend with us. We went bowling Sunday afternoon and then had dinner at Sakura - Japanese Hibachi Cooking Restaurant - YUMMY.

I forgot to take the camera with me so no pictures were taken but when I get a chance, I'll take one of Maddy in his uniform.

More Basketball Training

Third week of practice and the boys are improving on their basketball skills. Tonight they practiced their dribbling, bounce passing and shooting and ended the night with a scrimage. Their first game is on Dec 13th - not sure who against but we will find out at next weeks practice. Their team name is Black Knights and they will be receiving their uniforms next week.

Dribbling Practice

Bounce Pass Practice

Defence Practice

Scrimage

Thanksgiving Dinner

Last Thursday, we spent Thanksgiving with the Palombo Family at their apartment in DC. They cooked up a feast which consisted of turkey, stuffing, green salad, green beans with cheese sauce and mashed potato and gravy. Juice, water and red wine was also served, which made the meal even more delicious lol.

We provided dessert - pumpkin pie, pecan pie and apple pie (yum) with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream lol what a FEAST! Matt couldn't even fit dessert in and had to wait till we got home to enjoy it. I was able to eat one slice of apple pie with a scoop of ice cream, and that was about it.

Maddy and Nikolino spent the entire time laughing and playing x-box games (Madagascar) while we sat around enjoying our wine and each other's company. Nikolino also has a younger brother, Dominico Jnr (1 mth old) but he was fast asleep in the bedroom most of the time.

Basketball Practice

Dribbling Practice

Shooting Practice (1)

Shooting Practice (2)

Raingutter Regatta

Tonight, the Boy Scouts had their Raingutter Regatta boat race at Maddy's school. This is the first time he has ever participated in something like this. He and his Dad were given a small wooden boat, to put together and paint any way they wanted. Maddy chose a silver spray paint for the base of the boat and decorated his sail with lots of different stickers. He also painted a dragon on the top and signed his name.

The tigers started their race around 6.45 pm. Maddy won his first race but lost his second. He still had fun though and did really well, blowing his boat along with a straw. He won the next three races and almost won the last one. He came 2nd overall and was presented a medal as his prize. All the other boys did really well too and were given medals and ribbons for participating. Well Done Tiger Scouts!

I forgot to take the camera (unlike me) so had to use Daddy's phone to take pictures and videos of his races. You might need to tilt your head slightly to the right for the video though LOL

Practicing before the race

2nd Race

Receiving his Medal

Bowling Birthday

Maddy was invited to Jason's birthday at the Bowling Alley in Annandale today. Jason is Maddy's friend from his 3rd Level Swimming class. Talk about a competitive bunch, these boys were gunning for each other and wanted to win, especially Maddy LOL. He did really well considering the last time he played was when he was 4 1/2 years of age with his Daddy's family in New Zealand.

Check out Maddy's cool slide moves LOL

Pizza Time

Jason with his cool chocolate chip cookie birthday cake and bowling pin signed by all his friends

Scouting for Food

This morning the Boy Scouts got together to collect canned foods for the local foodbank. Last weekend was spent delivering the plastic bags around the neighborhood, and today was spent collecting them. The three Tiger Cub Scouts that turned up were Maddy, Gregory and Zachary. They did really well in walking around and checking the porches of every house in the area we were assigned, and collected lots of bags for the Foodbank.

We tagged along to help out and make sure the boys were safe. It was hard to keep up with them especially when they ran from house to house.

All-in-all it was great to be able to take part in a community service like this. Well done Boy Scouts!!

Heritage Festival 2008

The Heritage festival was held last night in the school gym. All grades performed various songs from different countries and there were a few individual performances as well. There was also a fashion show where students showed off their national costumes and a food tasting part where parents and students made food from their home countries for everyone to taste. Maddy didn't want to wear an ie faitaga and shirt to represent Samoa, so we put him in jeans and a top and he joined his class in singing "Come Little Children" and "Let Freedom Ring." We video'd both songs but they are just too long to post here - they sounded beautiful too :)

Dentist Time

Maddy had to have one of his top front teeth removed because the gum around it was infected. It was almost ready to fall out anyway, but because a white small 'pimple like spot' kept re-appearing above his tooth, on the gum, it was hurting everytime Maddy brushed his teeth. The Dentist said the gum around the tooth was infected. He suggested to remove the tooth altogether so the infection can heal.

Maddy was very brave and said it didn't hurt a bit. They did numb the area though but by just watching how the Dentist extracted it, had me squirming.

They also cleaned his teeth and found a few cavities which will need fillings. I also had my teeth cleaned and will need to go in for a deep root cleaning in a few weeks. Not looking forward to that as I'm sure it's going to hurt!!! ... I hate going to the Dentist LOL.

$2 from the Tooth Fairy

Trick-O-Treat

Trick O Treat

Smell my feet

Give me something

Good to eat

Maddy, the Red Ninja

Maddy, Danny (Darth Vadar), Michael (Black Ninja) and Danny's Sister

Maddy and Ashley

Halloween Parade

Maddy the Red Ninja

Halloween Parade @ School, Friday, Oct 31st.