The Amazing Mall Race

MALL RACE ON A SUNDAY.. whoa!!!

Can you imagine having a mall activity on a Sunday? hahaha. Sunday means there would be a lot of people, especially on the ground floor. But I guess that's one exciting part of it.

07April2013 was the date of our third activity - The Amazing Mall Race! We held it in Trinoma Mall. We were divided into three groups of 3:
           Green Team: Ate Ria, Jervin and Trevor
           Orange Team: Abel, Tracy and Kooky
           Pink Team: Jois, Tricia and Dabz

 
We all met and started at the Starbucks at the ground floor (near J.Co). Once we were given the set of clues and materials - all teams first strategized. Answered the clues first and then left to start the "race".
                                      

Some of the clues are easy - it's just a matter of looking for them. But some were not, good thing Trevor was very observant of the surrounding. He was able to see the items that had no obvious answer.

   

The Green Team

               

What are team hated the most was the "COBWEB" part. We like went around the mall for one more round. We were thinking either it is a design inside the store or a product the store sells with a web design. Then suddenly we saw it in the middle of the ground floor - so big! hahaha

                                           

There was a part where ate Ria even told a saleslady that she would buy all the items we were taking picture - the zebra printed items. The saleslady asked us for what, then I said it is just for a game. Then she said it is not allowed. So Ate Ria intimidated her. Go Ate Ria!!!

At Collezione, we knew it was not allowed to take photos of the items. So without any planning, we understood each other, Ate Ria and I. Trevor was outside waiting. What Ate Ria did was to get clothes to fit. While all saleslady were busy attending to her; I openned my camera and acted like I was just texting. Then I clicked; and there you go - stolen shot!

                                                 

The security guards - at first Trevor was saying that we do it later. I agreed since it was like just an additional 2 points. But later I thought that since there are a lot of them wondering around; I decided to just get stolen shots of all guards I see around. There was no instructions that all members of the team or even just a member of the team must be with the guard.                                                    

One funny experience with the guard thing is that I saw one inside Kenny Rogers and getting his takeout.

After we are all done, we all met up at Food Choices - near Army Navy. Our judges tallied the points. And Orange team won! We ended up at second place.

                                         

 Judging time...

 

The Judges

 

The winners - ORANGE TEAM!!!

 

                                                   

The Pink Team

This activity was new to us; but it was very fun. Team work. Competitive. Imagine..even in a mall activity we heckled each other. hahaha. Every time we bump in to another team, we would tell them: "hey, bakit niyo kami sinusundan"... hahaha

                                          

                                                                 With the DRIVER...

What if the whole mall was included in the race? I bet we would be so so so exhausted!!!

There are plans of another one - but this time it would be the next level already.

 Tata for now!

Our way in celebrating Easter!!!

THE CHRIST HAS RISEN!!!

EASTER SUNDAY! This day not all makes us celebrate Jesus' resurrection from the dead, but also time for our family gathering. Easter is a Christian festival and holiday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day after his crucifixion at Calvary as described in the New Testament.

Since we were little kids (me and my cousins), we always look forward for this day. But we always start the day by hearing mass. Come afternoon, we all go to our of our aunts house for our Easter Family gathering.

It has been our tradition that we have make-your-own halo-halo for merienda before we go hunting. Some of my cousins would even use big tumblers and fill it with just sago, crushed ice, sugar and milk. I also select what to put in mine - there are few things I don't like in my halo-halo. One big reason why we love to eat halo-halo is because of the summer heat.

After all have settled, and everybody is there, we always have our annual picture taking first. It is usually us, the kids, who are in the picture. Traditionally, parents took our pictures with us arranged according to age. But through the years, we also had the "Ladder photo".

(Photo: courtesy of Troy Monsod)

 

These picture takings always takes us 30 minutes to finish since we love heckling each other. That's one way we show how we are close with each other.

 (Photo: courtesy of Troy Monsod)

This year, we are not complete in the picture taking since the Asuncions are in Canada, Ate Trina is in Singapore, Ate Ria and Kuya Abel were still biking their way to Tierra Bella (hahahaha) and Kuya Travis has a gig somewhere. And oh, Tricia is somewhere too.

But nevertheless, we still had the "by age" and the "ladder" photos. Including Kat and Jessica.

                                       

(Photo: courtesy of Troy Monsod)

After the photo sessions, it was egg hunting time. Usually, our parents let the small kids first in searching. Yes, there are small kids participating - they are the nephews and nieces of Kat and Abel, my nieces in my dad's side, and of course Tristan and Tripp!!!

(Photos: courtesy of Mom)

I think there was a total of more than 1000 eggs; and we had to look for around 40+ eggs each. Take note, we adult-kids still are part of he hunting.

                                         
                                                                                       (Photo: courtesy of Mom)
 

After we all have searched for our eggs - it was time to open them!!! Inside these eggs are candies and also PAPERS!!! These are vey important papers - since they are one of the things we look forward to. It contains tag numbers for the prizes; some are money prize. Our parents are the ones who prepare these eggs - they buy the candies and the prizes.

After we have collected all our candies from the eggs and also the prize tags, next up was to claim them from the moms.

                                          

                                          

                                                                (Photos: courtesy of Mom)

There are times after we all have claimed our prizes we do trade with each other. Yeah, we knew how to make deals already during our younger years! hahaha

                                           
                                                                    (Photo: courtesy of Mom)

Our celebration doesn't end with the halo-halo and the egg hunting, it ends with a feast - DINNER!!! I do call it a feast because of the great food. This year, Uncle Jesse prepared a chicken-ala-bonchon!!! And it was delicious!!! It was also matched with the great fresh lumpia... yummy!!! I was so full that night...

 

Tata for now!

THE WAY WE SPEND OUR SUMMER - The Asuncion way!!!!

SUMMER!!! That means the start of our Asuncion family activities. Now, it's called all-year-round-activity since planned activities will extend after summer. These activities are of all sort activities - relays, outing, sports, family bonding, and the likes - as long as we are all together having fun and spending quality time with each other.


We started these having these activities since I was a kid - and until now, me being at the age of 31, has never stopped. I can say all these activities are the things that make us closer with each other. That's why we are a one big happy family!!!

March 28, 2013 marked our first activity - Visita Iglesia. It has been our tradition that we go to seven churches during Holy Thursday.

Just a brief information for you guys. The Seven Churches Visitation, also known as Visita Iglesia, is a pious Roman Catholic Lenten tradition by attempting to visit seven churches or religious sites. Traditionally observed on Maundy Thursday, it is commonly practised during any day of the Holy Week. (Source: Wikipedia)

                                        

In the Philippines, the tradition is known as Visita Iglesia (English: Church Visit). The general practise is to visit seven churches either on Holy Thursday or Good Friday and recite the Stations of the Cross in them. The pious would double the number of churches to fourteen, while the infirm and elderly usually visit only one or a handful. Until the 1970s, people recited all fourteen stations in one church. (Source: Wikipedia)

Originally, the custom was to visit a single church and pray before the Blessed Sacrament placed in the Altar of Repose after the Rite of Transfer on Holy Thursday. Tradition holds that the number of churches multiplied because there were seven churches in pre-War Intramuros. (Source: Wikipedia)

The practise of visiting seven churches is ultimately rooted in visiting the seven churches of Rome which was initiated by Pope Boniface VIII. There are no set of prayers given by the Church except to pray for the intentions of the Pope and recite the Our Father, Hail Mary and Gloria Patri. People have instead opted to pray the Stations of the Cross, the recitation of which is liturgically proper to Good Friday. (Source: Wikipedia)

In our family, we try to make each year different. We try to visit different churches every year. This year, we went around Fairview area. It was my mom who suggested for this year's activity - she researched churches near our area. We recited the New Way of the Cross in each church - two stations per church. We took turns in reciting each station. At every church we visited, I did notice that there are a lot of Filipino who follows this tradition - even to the Churches we thought would not be visited.

Here are the list of 7 Churches we visited, in order of visit:
1. St. Peter Parish

             

2. Parish of Saint Benedict

             

3. Our Lady of the Sacred Heart

                   

4. Cathedral Shrine of the Good Shepherd

                 (Photo grabbed from the internet)

5. Divine Savior Parish

                   

6. Ascension of Our Lord Parish

                   

7. Mary the Queen Parish

                   

When I was young, my mom told me that for every new church I go to, I should pray one Our Father, 3 Hail Marys and 1 Glory be; and then make three wishes and wait for it to come true.

We all started at St. Peter Parish since it is like a halfway point. I was with Mom, Dad, my brother JC, Auntie Shiony, Kooky, Auntie Boots, Trevor, Tracy and Tricia. Then Ate Ria and Kuya Abel met us up at the Cathedral Shrine of the Good Shepherd. After that, we made a quick stopover at our house to drink water and have a bathroom break - and also met up Uncle Trennie there. Then we headed to the next churches.

One thing we love about Visita Iglesia is the food - the all sorts of food and snacks you get to buy outside the church. Just to name a few - puto bumbong, bibingka, sweet corn, and nuts are some just.
 

After all churches, we headed for Pearl Drive in East Fairview along Commonwealth Avenue. At first, we had difficulty in deciding where to eat dinner. Majority of us wanted Shakey's but it was full. We ended up in Toni's Grill, since it can accommodate all of us. It was all our first time to eat there - and I can say the food tasted great. It was worth it.

While waiting for our food to be served, Auntie Shiony handed us calendar of events and also the mechanics for our third activity.

Tata for now!