Dizon-Caro Family

Rottnest Island

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 06:25:04 -0000

Our term break getaway to Rottnest Island, one of the famous islands in WA. We took a day trip to the island last 17th July. It was a birthday gift to Nanay and Nique. (will add more photos

Art Chronicles of Nira

Fri, 7 Aug 2009 00:15:25 -0000

Art blog of Nira. This is since she started attending Kidogo Art School in

jimbo

Fri, 7 Aug 2009 00:10:02 -0000

Tatay's personal

Kardinya Primary Edu Dance

Thu, 6 Aug 2009 10:42:05 -0000

The kids participated in the School's educational dance concert last 22 June 2009. We definitely enjoyed it, we hope you'll enjoy this too. We'll try to upload a video soon.

Eagle Players' visit

Thu, 6 Aug 2009 10:19:03 -0000

West Coast Eagles Players Beau Wilkes and Daniel Kerr visited Hungry Jacks in Spearwood to give autographs and prizes to fans. Well, we don't understand the game but we see them in the news. It's a rare opportunity, I'm sure those signed posters and football will come in handy in the future, so we joined the crowd. :)

Geraldton Getaway

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 13:04:54 -0000

It was an inevitable promise to the kids for their Term 2 school holidays. We drove up North last Saturday. Our first destination was the Pinnacles Desert in Cervantes, about 300 kilometres from Perth. It took us around 3 hours to get there. Lot of things to see including wild kangaroos, some as tall as our van. We actually sideswiped one. Luckily, the roo and us (well, our car) were fine. Another 3 hours and 300 kilometres up North is Geraldton. It is a nice small city and we said that we could bear to live in such a small city despite the absence of the big malls. :D We all enjoyed it. The trip is a sort of a gift also for Dei and Nique.

Family Photos

Thu, 4 Jun 2009 06:01:26 -0000

Our latest family

Kardinya Open Night

Wed, 3 Jun 2009 01:48:33 -0000

Open Night at Kardinya last 9 September 2008. Nique is in Year 1 under Mrs. Swan, Nira's in Pre-Primary under Mrs. Norton while Nel is in Kindy under Mrs. Knight. They have excellent teachers as you can see in their

Nique and Nira keeps fit to support Heart Foundation of Australia

Mon, 25 May 2009 11:56:00 -0000

Nique and Nira are very active in school--physically and academically.

Recently, they have been presented another opportunity to show what they can do even at their young age--support the Heart Foundation of Australia. The Foundation is raising funds for the research of the cure for most heart diseases by educating children to be active and have a healthy heart.

We would appreciate if you could support either or both Nique and/or Nira. It would mean a big thing for them. If you are not able to support them financially, we would appreciate that you forward this appeal to your friends.

Many thanks and God bless! Please click on the images if you would like to support Nique and/or Nira.

Lilo Dance

Wed, 6 May 2009 14:11:56 -0000

Nel and Nira enjoying a Lilo and Stitch soundtrack. Nel was over 2 years old while Nira was 4. This was taken by Nique at our second home in Samsen District, where our second home was. We used to live in a condominium unit in Banglumpoo near Khao San

Nel is 5

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 07:24:10 -0000

Today, we celebrated Nel’s birthday and she’s a very happy young lady.

Nel was born in the Philippines and she’s the only daughter whose birth I was never able to witness. I was in Australia when Nel was born. There were lots of complications during that time. She could have been born in Australia, however, when the visa of my family was approved there was a possibility that Dei will not be allowed to travel since she’s about a little over 12 weeks before her due. So, we had to wait for her to give birth before she could come over. I reckon also that even if she’s able to travel, it might be complicated since this is our first time outside the Philippines. I was still adjusting to the life in a first world country.

When it was time for my family to travel Down Under, they weren’t able to bring Nel because Dei was only allowed to bring two children. I could only afford their return ticket to Australia and the cost of me fetching them in the Philippines would have given me tremendous f...

Eighth Anniversary

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 07:27:13 -0000

Note: Our apologies as this is a long delayed post. Was quite busy these past few months.

It seems like yesterday when I walked the aisle wondering when my bride will arrive. We had to appease the presiding priest that my bride is just running late. She’s not running away from the wedding. It’s certainly the most memorable day of our married life and it literally became the climax of our exciting almost four-year relationship.

It will be our eighth wedding anniversary this 30 January. I’m ambivalent about our wedding day—happy that we finally tied the knot, a bit sad that it didn’t turn out that well for my beloved bride. But it made us look forward to our anniversaries and look forward to a year when we’ll be able to ‘start’ all over again. I told Lorie that I would want to marry her again on our tenth anniversary, on our terms, as we planned it—a garden wedding, with a well coordinated video and photo coverage, and yes a good wedding coordinator.

This early we have already identi...

The Wheel of Perth

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 06:49:40 -0000

This is the first night that the Wheel of Perth opened. It's a big Ferris' Wheel similar to the eye of London. However, this is the smallest of its kind in the world, even smaller than the one in Singapore. Nevertheless, it gave local and international tourists to give Perth a go whenever they visit. These photos were taken by my Nokia

Nira's Art

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 05:13:43 -0000

These are Nira's Art projects at Kidogo Art School in Fremantle. We decided to enroll her after a little prodding from her pre-primary teacher, Mrs. Norton. Nira is an excellent artist and she always shows it even she's casually scribbling. Her teacher is forward looking that she sees Nira snaring an Art scholarship in High School. If we're staying here, that might come to pass, so why not give in to the possibility. I've set up a blog for Nira, you can visit it at http://niraart.wordpress.com

Christmas 2008

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 05:39:12 -0000

The Christmas of 2007 was the first for us here in Perth. It is also a first for my family that we’ve invited friends to come over. It was a house warming of sort as it is our first time to have a house "so big." As you all know, the biggest house we have had before coming here is a one bedroom house/condominium unit, the biggest of which was in Bangkok (barely bigger than our Project 6 condominium unit).

Here in Perth, we have a four bedroom duplex unit—ample room for about 30 to 40 guests (well as long as they will not stay overnight!). Last Christmas, however, we opted to return to our traditional way of celebrating Christmas—a very intimate family celebration.

One thing that made this Christmas celebration unique from our usual ones is that we opted to have a drive by the City to see the Christmas lights. The kids enjoyed it.

The regular routine of our Christmas celebration was the Noche Buena dinner, which we always do as soon as the clock strikes midnight. This is the time we p...

Bahay...

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 15:15:42 -0000

I've never been in-loved with a property so gorgeous. There's a cliche that it is free to dream, and dream I did--for almost a day.

A few years back when I had a good paying (but contractual job) in the Philippines, we decided to take the leap of faith and buy a condominium unit in Manila, we were able to sustain the payments for almost half a year and then 'recession' came to us very early. The Project money has yet to come that we had to be 'endorsed' to the government so we will still receive some salary albeit way down the rate that we used to receive. We lost close to PhP86,000.00 in deposit and monthly payments despite our fervent plea to the agent for help to recoup even a part of it.

So, please indulge if I dream a bit especially in prosperous Aussie.

The property I'm referring to has the following specifications:

This home is one not to miss viewing if you want to buy a quality property. The owners have sourced products from all over to make this home stand out from...

8th Wedding Anniversary

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 01:47:05 -0000

It wasn't that grand but it was made special by relatives and friends. Lucky number eight! onto 9 years of more happy days together.

Preparing for Primary School

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 03:18:36 -0000

Last Tuesday, I collected the kids' school materials. It was a bit convenient here that you could buy school supplies from one supplier. Of course, you have a choice of buying outside but it is very stressful as it is a long list.

Nel is specially excited as she's moving from Kindy to Pre-primary. Nira is also excited as she's moving to the 'big school' which is just next door (the formal primary school, she will be in Year 1 when school starts in February). Our big girl, Nique, will be in Year 2.

Super!

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 02:59:36 -0000

If there's a superhero in the family, it's Lorie. She's currently the family's breadwinner, cook, teacher, source of emotional strength and more. To the real super of the family!

Cooking it up with the Caro kids!

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 04:55:01 -0000

Nique, Nira and Nel tries to bake some cup cake with the guidance of their mom. Nique is trying to imitate her favorite

Scary thought

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 22:40:29 -0000

Got a little shaken yesterday as our neighbour paid a visit to our house. Well, he was not violent or anything but the news he brought gave me a little chill. Their house was broken into in broad daylight and with her wife inside. His wife was OK but did not notice that the burglary was happening until she came out of the living room, 'everything's gone' as our neighbour recalled. The husband was out for work and he checked whether our house was also broken into. Thank God, there was nothing unusual in the house and yes, there was no burglary. But we might go back to the routine of bringing the kids with us while I drive Lorie to work--hard work but might be necessary. Statistically, Australia is a safe place but our chances of being 'singled out' is increased because of our color sometimes but, of course, my faith is on God with regard to the protection of my family and property.

Hanging out

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 03:47:31 -0000

This was taken in Bangkok, Thailand. We were in Siam Discovery Centre. I think I was using the Project's digital

Nique's Birthday Party

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 06:30:14 -0000

Nique celebrated her 7th Birthday at Jungle Gym in Willeton, WA. Her classmates in Year 1 attended along with our Filipino family friends. Nique and her guests had a ball including her sister. They enjoyed the facilities. Elaine was kind enough to take most of these photos. The kids parents were also kind enough to hang out. It is a custom here in Australia that a kid's party is a kid's party, so if the parents don't receive any food or something, they wouldn't mind. But we treated the parents to some good old Filipino cuisine. Lorie sure rocked the house with her special Filipino recipes--Spring rolls, spaghetti and forgot the others.

Our second car

Tue, 3 Jun 2008 06:22:27 -0000

Mommy's arrival, sort of, made it more of a must. We were planning to buy a second car, Lorie thought a second car will be better to the kids as they will have more leg room and be more safe even if we travel in highways. God is good, we did get a 'new' car. This is the biggest and the first time we got a car under 10 year old. We were able to get a 2001 Kia Carnival LS.

Visitor

Tue, 3 Jun 2008 06:18:39 -0000

The application was a miracle in itself and it was nice to see that the one of the beneficiaries of that miracle has finally arrived. Mommy arrived Perth about 20 minutes early from her scheduled arrival. She also breezed through immigration without any hitch. I almost wasn't able to see her because of her small stature but it was good I was able to spot her as soon as she exited the arrival area.

Here's Mommy when she got out of the immigration area.

A friend of mine accompanied during Mommy's arrival, Francis San Juan. And here's the photo he took when we finally got out of the airport.

ANZAC 2008 Commemoration

Fri, 2 May 2008 06:15:41 -0000

ANZAC Day Commemoration. John (Edwards, my supervisor) also hosted a traditional 'gunshot' breakfast. The breakfast consist of a rhum and a biscuit (ANZAC biscuit). This is our first ANZAC Day in