JARON'S FIRST GYMNASTICS MEET ON THE ISM GYMNASTICS TEAM
Jaron was sooooo excited to get on the ISM gymnastics team this year and has been practicing like crazy all over the house. She's been practicing splits, cartwheels, handstands and her new routines constantly. Well, finally she had her first go at real competition - being judged and scored. We think (as proud parents) that she did great, but she learned all the little things that can bring down a final score really quickly. She really was a good sport and did her very best at everything. So check out the pictures below:

On the vault...

Team members all lined up by height.

On the beam...

And a very nice score to finish!

Floor exercises...

The uneven bars...

And a 4th place ribbon to boot for her performance on the beam! Congrats Jaron on completing your first gymnastics meet!

I have to say we're not exactly sure what is going on here with two normally adversarial sisters giving each other piggy back rides and smiling together, but we think it might be some kind of conspiracy to try and kill their parents by way of heart attack or some kind of shock induced sudden death experience!

Some cute pictures of Stevii - this one with her friend, Megan in the background. See how happy she is to finally have her braces off after all these years? I really should scan in the "before" picture and you will see the reason why she had braces in the first place. She started orthodontic work in 2nd grade!

A dark and edgy, but beautiful picture, nonetheless.

HAPPY 10TH BIRTHDAY, JARON!!!!

A jungle party again this year, 10 ten-year-olds descended upon the house for a sleepover! They decorated cupcakes and Jaron even organized her own games (and left a hurricane in her wake).

Oh, forgot to factor in the candle weight factor with cupcakes...
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Movie time and then sleepy time (well several hours later anyway)...

And the next morning, still on a sugar high from ingesting multiple cans of soda and handfuls of candy, the girls hit the backyard pool! Happy Birthday, Jaron! Can you believe our baby is now 10?!

TENNIS

Tennis is a curious thing. It must be practiced for regularly, prepared for mentally and most of all celebrated frequently. A time or two, the Rockwell Tennis team has found occasion to celebrate together - mostly the celebrations entail food and wine but it's oh so much more than that! It's a lifestyle!*

* Really this statement has just been put here for effect and does not necessarily reflect the views and/or the convictions of anyone pictured above.

And then of course we must celebrate our mental survival after each respective tournament...

In order to properly bond with each other we must experience the cultures of the different team members. This time we bond with Japanese food!

Top row (left to right): Joan (Scotty) from Australia and PNG, Diane from Canada, Julie from Texas, Sachie from Japan
Bottom row: Mizuho from Japan, me from everywhere, Celia from the Philippines, Yoshie from Japan and Naoko from Japan.

Taking the obligatory team photo just before our tournament at Celebrity Sports Club.

Our next team shot before the tournament at Palms Country Club.

And then the candid photos! Here's Naoko!

Akemi looks so beautiful like this!

Me, Yoshie and Joan (Scotty) with our most serious faces...

Sachiee after a hard game...

Yoshie and Diane, dazed and confused by our scores...why didn't we win?

ANZA BALL
Here we are at the ANZA (Australia-New Zealand Association) Ball, an annual event, held at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza. The theme this year was Bollywood, so everyone decked out in formals and/or Saris. Here are a bunch of us in our garb...Left to right: Michelle R., Lori, Cecily, Me, Melissa, Camilla and ??

A close up of Michelle, Cecily and I so you can see our (mostly their) Indian detail. In my defense, I DO have a bindi between my eyebrows and my nose is pierced which is a lot more than I can say for most of the people there! haha
Barry and I had won a free night stay at a corner suite at a previous event here so we stayed overnight with a beautiful balcony view of Manila Bay and a delicious buffet breakfast in the morning!

Barry and I. This is Barry's first Tuxedo ever! What a milestone! Isn't he a cute penguin? Not very Bollywood, but they still let him in (not that I'm so bollywood myself, but I DO have a bindi and nose ring - so there!).

Middle School Band Concert

You can just barely make out Stevii in the middle there with her oboe in front of her face and her head just peeking above the music stand. She's slightly to the left of the tuba or french horn or whatever that large gold instrument is called.

Davis "struggling with his large instrument after the concert is over. Oh how the promises to practice at the beginning of the year have fallen short...but no surprise. They both still seem to enjoy the new band teacher this year and all is well. We only hear complaints about piano, which they are so brutally "forced" to take. Funny thing though, how they practice without even being asked and at the most inopportune times - like while people are trying to watch a favorite show on TV (in the same room as the piano) or carry on an interesting conversation.

Jaron's music concert at International School. Here she is dressed to do the Samba!

WITH A BOY!!!

And some other international music selections...this was really quite interesting as each grade sang songs from different countries. It was all presented in the form of a game show where "contestants" had to guess the country based on hints given in the songs...really clever!