Memorial Day weekend backyard campout - pics at twilight

We had been meaning to purchase a cheap dome tent for our family for some time now.  The last one I had was a 3-man dome tent I purchased in 1987, which my wife and I used for some years during the early years of our marriage, then it got old and smelly and more or less dry-rotten.  Finally, about a week ago, my wife picked up a Coleman Rosewood 4-person dome tent at Target at a very good price with the intent of using it on occasion for camping, but also setting it up in our back yard for our daughter to play in it. Here's a link to the tent on Amazon.com:  http://www.amazon.com/Coleman-Rosewood-4-person-Dome-Newest/product-reviews/B00891M334

Here in the States we have an annual national holiday called Memorial Day, which mainly honors military who have given their lives for their country, veterans who have passed away, or police/firefighters etc. in service of community, and the 3-day holiday weekend also unofficially starts off our summer.   This year, tomorrow, Monday May 28, is Memorial Day.   When our daughter finally discovered the still-packaged tent sitting in its bag in our garage the Friday proceeding Memorial Day,  she immediately got really excited and wanted to know when I would set up the tent.  So yesterday (Saturday),  she helped me to set up the dome tent in our back yard, which didn't take us very long at all.  We had it completed in the afternoon, but it got really hot and humid outside just like in the  Philippines (about 92 degrees F or 33 degrees C), so it was too hot for us to go inside and play since it was in the direct sun.    I promised her that we would have a little camp-out in our back yard last night, which we did.  My wife got her new camera out and documented certain highlights of our little father/daughter outing, which are shown below.   My wife decided to enjoy a quiet evening in the cool aircon of the house (with an original plan to watch a Pinoy movies, but she later decided to surf the internet and watch TV), while we explorers were outside "roughing it" in the humidity and heat and mosquitoes.

When the sun started to set, I built a little impromptu fire ring in our back yard, and gathered up some sticks to build a "tipi" style structure that would make a small but intense and well-aerated fire.  With some good kindling from dry bark, it lit up quickly and soon we had a roaring fire.

My wife wanted to mention to my readers from the Philippines and outside of the U.S. what "Smores" are, and she laid out the ingredients to show.   They're actually spelled "S'mores", which is a contraction of "some mores", as in "I want some more of those".    S'mores are a campfire dessert often made at overnight campouts for kids.   You take a graham cracker to make a top and bottom like a sandwich, then put a marshmallow on the end of a stick carved to a point with a knife (or a long metal fork) and roast it over the campfire until it is blackened on the outside and hot and gooey on the inside.  Then, the partially melted marshmallow is put between the two graham crackers,  with a piece of Hershey's chocolate  put on top of the blackened marshmallow so that the chocolate will melt.   The whole thing is eaten like a little sandwich, with the top and bottom layers being graham crackers. 

My daughter and I intended to use a little lantern inside the tent to read, but by the time we were in the tent, it was already about 10:15 PM, and we both had a very active, hot and sweaty day.   Before we knew it we were both out like a light, slumbering away in our sleeping bags.   We had a good night's sleep, as it had cooled down a bit from the hot humid day, and 3e enjoyed our little "long-distance" camping trip a few footsteps away from the house.  Here are the photos; all of which were taken by my wife before she got run off by the mosquitoes!

Bring on the night!

Gimme Shelter

Checking out the new tent... backyard camping

Coleman Rosewood tent at twilight

A quickly constructed fire ring and fire

Twilight through the trees

Burnin' like a flame

Nothing like a hot fire to warm yourself up during 91 F/ 32 C weather

The 3 ingredients for S'mores

Dome tent illuminated by fluorescent lantern

Magic lantern

Contemplating the fluorescent lantern

Soft sleeping bag - pretending to be asleep inside the tent

Cool photographs from Cebu City, Philippines - the perspective of an 8-year old photographer

During our last trip to the Philippines in July and August 2011, my wife and daughter and I stayed for a large part of the time at my wife's parents' place in a subdivision in Cebu.  While staying at her Lolo and Lola's house, our daughter (almost 8 years old at the time) developed a real bond with her Lolo and Lola's helper.  We had been to the Philippines in 2008 when our daughter was almost 5 and she also had the opportunity to meet this young lady back then, but I doubt her memories from that trip are so distinct and lasting.  This time, she became a true buddy with her Lolo and Lola's helper, and referred to her as "Ate" (pronounced "Ah-teh"), which is the Filipino word for older sister. 

Our daughter and her Ate had a mid-morning ritual of walking a few blocks together down to a sari-sari to get a little treat.  A sari sari is a small shop selling various foods and convenience items that in most cases is usually open-air and quite accessible from the street or sidewalk.  Sari-saris can be found anywhere in the Philippines,  from rural to urban to suburban settings, and are found in residential areas just as frequently (or perhaps even more often) as in commercial settings.   During these walks, her Ate would bring along an umbrella to shield themselves from the sun, and the two of them would have great fun walking together and smiling and giggling,  stopping sometimes to meet and talk to friends of her Ate (who were usually other helpers).  They truly had fun together.  These were unique experiences for our daughter, because in the States we don't have sari-sari stores (we have some similar but not exactly like this), we don't typically use an umbrella unless it rains, we don't have helpers, and the architecture of houses and the plants/trees are quite different from back home.  And then there is the much different selection of treats and goodies available at a Philippine sari-sari!  Our daughter tried a variety of Magnolia ice cream drumsticks, some Mentos different than the ones we have in the U.S., etc.

One one or maybe more occasions, our daughter brought her camera along on these walks, and took some really interesting photos from the perspective of an almost 8-year-old Filipina-American who was developing an appreciation of both the fascinating differences and similarities between her own familiar world back in the states and those within this little microcosm of a small subdivision of Cebu.   Armed with a camera and a smile, and free from her parents for a short while with the gracious help and interpretation of the Visayan language of her Ate, she had some experiences that  truly made an impression on her and for which she'll have lasting memories.  The photographs speak volumes about the pure wonder and innocence of a child, her physical height above sidewalk/street level, her interests and things that she deemed important or fantastic or notable.   And the photographs show the love and kindness of her Ate who, although not a blood relative, took care of her just like a little sister, both of them communicating and enjoying each other's company despite   more than a few barriers and challenges in the dialogue between English and Visayan. 

Here are some samples of the (many) photos our daughter took from their walks together; only one was not taken by our daughter:

One of Ate's friends in Cebu City

"Ate" in her Joe Cool Snoopy shirt

"Ate" upholding the shade

"Ate" with some of her friends in Cebu

In the sari-sari (the only picture not taken by our daughter, but by her "Ate")

Garbage dumping fine:  500 pesos

Philippine papayas

Fridges inside the sari-sari (I'll take the one on the left, please)

Lonely trike (Cebu City)

A mama (or maybe a helper) shielding the baby with an umbrella (Cebu City)

Bananas hangin' high

Sweet wrought iron gate design pattern (note the bubbles)! (Cebu City)

The infamous "business end" of a dog (Cebu City)

Another interesting gate design (Cebu City)

House and truck - cool roofing tiles! (Cebu City)

Fat-bottomed tree (Cebu City)

Multicab pickup truck (Cebu City)

Pedicab driver with gloves and biking sleeves (Cebu City)

Pedicab driver picking up passengers (Cebu City)

Taxi cab driver hangin' out (Cebu City)

Trike trekkers carrying a load (Cebu City)

Camansi fruits on tree in Cebu

Gate and wall around a house (Cebu City)- hey, isn't that those trike guys down the street?

Water storage tower in Cebu