Sugar and Spice

It was the Castenares twins 11th birthday last Friday, so I had a handful of lunchmates for the day - eight, to be exact. Good thing that all of us managed to fit into my car (which seems to be shrinking a little more every day)!

They'd actually invited us to their birthday photo session at Circle C, but plans had to be quickly readjusted because well, people are people and life is life and sometimes the snow comes down in June... We ended up on an impromptu trip to the UP Campus (lots of green, lots of sights to see, lots of cheap places to eat) instead.


First stop, the UP Church of the Holy Sacrifice, which fascinated everyone, and a little catechism lesson through a mini-tour of a Catholic church. Surprisingly, their favorite "part" of it all was the face-to-face encounter with Jesus in the Real Presence of the Blessed Sacrament - they listened, and allowed Him to speak into their young hearts. And He had something special to say to most of them.

And then of course, a snack that turned into quite a meal - although they'd eaten before we left, they were still hungry (bottomless stomachs!). To work it all off, I took them to the lagoon and amphitheater area behind Quezon Hall where they had their fill of trees and green grass and nature until, as girls (both big and small) are wont to do, they started to want more, more, and more (more food, more time spent, more food...) At least their intended photo session pushed through, courtesy of the normally photographically-challenged Ate Honey, and I must admit that I had a lot of fun taking their pictures. So much fun that, after taking them back to the Center, I had to lie down and recover from an afternoon of exhaustion before leaving for an out of town trip! Thankfully, I will (probably?) never be mother to eight kids, and thank God I only had to deal with little girls of sugar and spice and everything nice...