I tried putting up pictures tonight from our visitors, Judy and Elaine last week but for some reason my connection was being slow. I will try again soon. We had a great time with them and hope that they enjoyed their stay as much as we enjoyed keeping them! I met them at the airport late Wednesday evening and they left here around 11pm on Saturday to catch a flight for the next leg of their trip. We had two busy days of sightseeing followed by a relaxing day visiting a local artist and some pool time with the kids. We ended the weekend at Prima Towers revolving restaurant with wonderful views of the shipping harbor and city skyline at night!


Other than that we have been sick around here! Kenton came home from soccer on Saturday with a fever and a headache and I finally thought he was better today and tried taking him to school. He made it half way there before complaining again of a headache and he didn't look well. Ethan started with the fever tonight and is refusing medicine - this could be a long night so I'd better close and get some sleep while I can!!!

Sticks of Fire in Paper Bags

Currently being celebrated in Singapore is the Lantern Festival (or Mooncake Festival or Mid Autumn Festival.)

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The following excerpt is from "Living In Singapore - A Reference Guide" by the American Association of Singapore.

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"The Chinese believe that in the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar (Sept or Oct) the moon is at its biggest and brightest of the year. The Mid-Autumn Festival began more than 2000 years ago to celebrate the autumn harvest. Years later when China was ruled by the tyrannical Mongols, a legend tells how, on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, secret messages detailing plans of a revolt to overthrow the Mongol dynasty were placed in mooncakes and distributed among the people. The revolt was successful and the Mongols were defeated. Mooncakes filled with bean paste, lotus seed paste, traditional duck egg yolks and other delicacies are eaten to commemorate this legend. Paper lanterns of all colors, shapes and sizes are also popular. Children have fun parading with these bright lanterns in the evening, harking back to the historic event when lanterns were lit to signal the start of the uprising. A beautiful display of Chinese lanterns at the Chinese Garden in Jurong is held for a few weeks during this festival time."

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Last weekend Ryan and I took the twins down to the pool at our condo and they got to eat mooncake and march around the pool in a parade with these paper lanterns that contained burning birthday candles. We figure we will be the first Westerners ever to start their paper lanterns on fire and the Chinese are going to be tsk - tsk'ing us that they have been celebrating this festival for centuries without any of THEIR children starting a fire! We instructed the twins that should their lanterns catch fire they were to throw them into the pool...:)

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Last night Ryan, Kenton, and I (LONG story as to why Kaitlyn wasn't with us) went to the Chinese Gardens to view all the lanterns that they have there. They were quite pretty and we had a great time walking around. It's a little bit like a carnival back home with street performers and rides.

It took much convincing but we finally talked Kenton into getting this edible mouse made out of sugar. This man had a spinner that would point at various Chinese animals that represent luck or good fortune. He would than make the animal out of a sugar syrup that would quickly cool and harden into a candy.
These snakes, reptiles, and bugs are all hand made out of banana leafs. While I found them a little ugly it was interesting watching the man who was making them. A lot of work goes into each one
The Chinese pagoda which is a centerpiece to the gardens was lit with many lanterns.
Here is the man who was making the above confections. I believe that in this picture he's working on a magpie. Each creation was very detailed considering it was made by dribbling hot syrup out of a spoon!

Old, New, Red, and Blue...AGAIN!!!

Old Truck.
New Car.
Red Truck.
Blue Car.
Shiny and Bright.
Dull and Brown.
Day on the highway.
Night on the town.
Dirty Car.
Clean Car.
Nice Car.
Mean Car.
Drive Fast, fast, fast.
Drive nice and slow.
Cars ride high.
Cars ride low.
Tires are big.
Tires are small.
Piles of tires short and tall.
Wheels rolling on the ground.
Cars and trucks drive all around.
Beep, Beep!

-Ethan's current favorite book (which we can all recite in our sleep!)

Improvising

I tend to be an "inside the box" thinker. If I'm baking something and I don't have the EXACT ingredients and amounts I'm usually stuck. Enter "Singapore." A box of angel food cake mix was accidentally bought last week instead of a normal white cake mix that was needed. Since it's a pain to return anything I decided to try a recipe that was on the back on the box "Easy Raspberry Trifle." Now, I haven't owned an angel food cake pan in YEARS due to the fact that angel food cakes are usually relatively inexpensive already made from the bakery. So my first thought is, "I can't make this." Then I realize that there are directions to bake angel food cake in loaf pans...imagine that! I never knew! So I set out to round up the ingredients. Three grocery stores later I have finally found raspberry yogurt - although not in the amount specified. Than I remember that it's a trifle and it probably doesn't matter if all the ingredients are exact... I had to make another trip down to Orchard Road (hour by MRT) to get the frozen raspberries because I DO NOT plan ahead enough to have the provisioner pick them up for me. I got home to realize that I hadn't bought enough - once again probably doesn't really matter. (Although I did find an unopened package that I forgot I had in the freezer! Oops!) One more quick trip to yet another grocery store to find raspberry Jello and I'm ready to roll! Never at any time did I think to make the whole thing STRAWBERRY instead of raspberry since the ingredients would have been readily available...


It's currently in the fridge "chilling" or whatever a trifle does to set up and it will soon be ready to eat...YUM!!


Anyone want to join us???

Three Kids For Sale...

Tomorrow is another day...tomorrow is another day...

Let's just say that it's been a stressful last couple of weeks and this has become my mantra. Only tomorrow hasn't proven to be much better than today yet.

But I did manage to get two cute pictures of my boys eating orange slices....

The following scene added a few more grey hairs to my head...

You are looking at an inch of water on the balcony off the master bedroom. Since there is no height difference between the balcony and my bedroom I'm sure you can assume what happened. Notice that you can see each individual floor board - that's not what it's supposed to look like.... I employed the twins to start bailing water while I tried and tried to get a plumber who works after the hour of 5pm. I did find one, very grumpy, not happy to help plumber who took care of the drain problem...

You will have to click on this pic to be able to read what all Kaitlyn wrote. Have fun deciphering what her "reading rules" are!

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Last but not least, our helper Lovel helped Kenton to catch a gecko who was wandering the house tonight. They put it in a plastic bag and after awhile I felt bad for the little guy and made Kenton release him outside. I have a video of it that I will post some day FAR in the future when I can extract it from the camera... His tail fell off in the capturing process (which is a defense mechanism) and Kenton claimed he held the tail for awhile before it was disposed of...

Kaylee

This picture showed up in my inbox a few days ago:)

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This promises to be a fantastic day - all three kids have been up since 5am and are CRABBY!! Thankfully two of them are heading off to school where someone else gets to deal with them for a few hours. The littlest one will just be put back to bed when we get home from taking the twins to school....

I'm glad it's Friday and Ryan will be home soon!

Announcing...

Brett Matthew Schneider

6 lbs 3 oz

September 2, 2008

Congratulations Matthew, Katie, and Lauren!! We wish we could come and visit little Brett but we will just have to enjoy him from afar! Can't wait to see him at Christmas!

Someone Owes Me Some Money...