The Madness That Is Called Halloween

If you click on this picture and make it bigger you can see the hair glitter! She didn't care so much what she was as long as it included hair glitter:) BTW: you will notice further on that Kenton wore a different costume to school than he wore out Trick or Treating. Who knows why!!

Our unprofessional pumpkin!
This is the front gate to our apartment.
One of my friends who lives on the main road of the neighborhood said she had at least 3100 trick or treaters before she got tired and closed up.

This kid made us laugh! Word on the street is that his tactic worked and he got a lot of candy:)

I figured since the locals can take pictures of my kids I can take pictures of theirs! This 4 month old was dressed up as Dracula.

A lot of the adults were dressed up while they were taking their kids around.

This year we had a pirate and an angel. We would have also had a pumpkin but Ethan was home sick.

While we were taking this picture my neighbor kept saying, "Come on, guys, Smile!" Her 10 year old (the one behind the Scream mask) said, "I AM smiling!" =P

The courtyard of the Primary School.

Kaitlyn and Maya getting ready for the Halloween parade around school.

Kenton and Sophia listening to a story before the parade and Halloween party.

When you watch this video listen to the noise level. Also watch the cat on the roof!

*********************************************************

Quick Ethan update. His fever broke yesterday but than he started throwing up and has diarrhea. I'm thinking that he picked up another virus when I had him into the 24 clinic a few days ago - there were kids throwing up all over the place... BUT, overall he's doing better and is acting more like himself.

Gotta Love It!

Stop and Smell the Flowers

I took this picture a few weeks ago - the flower does not belong on that plant but I needed a good background to photograph it against. We have a tree that we walk by each day that drops these amazing little flowers - the picture does not do the flower justice by any stretch. They remind me of a flower made out of icing for cakes with a bright yellow food dye added to the middle!

***********************

Ethan's sick AGAIN! I guess his four hour nap yesterday should have warned me that something was coming on...in fact it briefly crossed my mind when I went to get him up that maybe he was sick. He was fine until the middle of the night when he spiked a fever.

***********************

He's a hard kid to get medicine into! The twins would always slurp it down (how could a kid not like a medicine that tastes like pure sugar?) but E spits it back out and now says, "YUCKY!" I've tried to get creative today by adding it to a smoothie and Gatorade but he takes a few sips and makes a face. SIGH!

He came up to me the other day and said, "HUG!" and than kissed my knee:)

************************

ONLY 9 MORE DAYS UNTIL BETTY AND TINA ARE HERE!

Deepavali and Little India

On Monday Singapore observed Deepavali with a public holiday. According to my trusty book, "Handbook For Expatriates Working and Living in Singapore" by Goh Kheng Chuan,

"Deepavali, or the Festival of Lights, is celebrated by the Hindus and Sikhs to mark the victory of light over darkness and of good over evil. It is also believed that departed souls descend to the earth during this time. Celebrations of Deepavali vary from group to group among the Hindus and Sikhs. For the northern Indians, Deepavali marks the beginning of a New Year."

A week and a half ago I went with the twins on a field trip to Little India where they learned a little bit of the Indian culture.
********************************************************************

Walking Home From School

There is shop after shop of "yellow gold" jewelry. Interestingly enough these are usually right next to pawn shops. Some of the older Indians invest in the yellow gold during prosperous times and sell it off to the pawn shops during harder times.
Trinity and Kaitlyn were my charges for the trip. Trinity is part of a boy/girl twin set, too!

Eating our food at a traditional Indian restaurant

An Indian market

A henna artist at work

These floral garlands are used to decorate statues for worship or just to decorate a home. They are made of real flowers.

We were all given a little henna flower drawing... It lasts about 3 days before fading.

Pumpkin Patch

Kenton and his friend William find their pumpkins
************************************************************

The following pictures are of the scenes from "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" that were painted by one of the mom's at school. They were on the walls surrounding the "pumpkin patch". I have to say that I was pretty impressed!

Kaitlyn and our neighbor Jack.

Kaitlyn and her friend Madalyn

Ethan had fun picking up pumpkins and throwing them.

Both classes got to listen to professional actors read a story and than act out a Halloween story. This particular guy was really fun to watch...he had most of the adults full attention!

Kaitlyn fell asleep last night on the couch waiting for Ryan to call.
Kenton talked Lovel into playing a game of chess with him.

Overheard...

Ethan:

"Mom, Mom...WATCH!"

He throws his stuffed monkey in the air and yells,

"AWESOME!"

Throws it again...

"OH, NICE!"

And again...

"AWWW MAN!"

Gotta love having older siblings around to help expand the vocabulary!!

************************************************
Ethan recently discovered Kenton's "Cars" race track that was a Christmas gift last year and that Kenton hasn't really ever played with. Well, let me tell you, Ethan has played with it enough today that he's more than made up for Kenton's lack of use! It's kind of cool, actually, because you turn it on and it launches the cars around the track (being a girl I never had such things growing up!) Ethan is a huge "Cars" fan and loves "Queen!" The track has four different cars and Ethan HAD to carry ALL FOUR down to the pumpkin patch today... It was more than his little hands could possibly carry so we had some issues but eventually I strapped him into the wagon so he could at least hold them in his lap!

Speaking of the pumpkin patch we were able to pick out a pumpkin to carve along with a few of the really little ones to put in a bowl on the table for fall decoration. It was a mad rush to find a pumpkin that was carvable before someone else got to it...made it a little hard to get into the spirit of things! We also were able to pick up bulk bags of Halloween candy for next Friday. A local shipping company donated the shipping so that the school was able to obtain the candy at cost. I OF COURSE picked up Reese's Peanut Butter Cups which you can not get here=P

Those are not for passing out to the kids!!!!

Have a great weekend!

BIG...SNAILS!

Meet a Singapore Snail...

And just to give you a reference point for how big this snail actually is...

Usually these snails are seen only at

night but THIS one was lurking around in the middle of the day!

Lauren and Brett

Sounds like little Lauren thinks she has a life-size doll! Katie told me the other day that she keeps finding Brett completely undressed - diaper and all - by Lauren:)

Sweet Moments

It's amazing how quickly children learn! Ethan's vocabulary is expanding every day and he's telling us more and more what he wants.

Last night when I put him to bed he smiled at me and said, "Pray!"

So I said our bedtime prayer.

Next thing I heard from him was a snatch of "Jesus Loves Me" which we sing every night after bedtime prayers. He always smiles from ear to ear while I sing that to him!

So Sweet that you wonder sometimes why they have to grow up:)

Can't Afford The Ferrari Anymore, Honey!

The following was a headline this morning on Yahoo! Singapore news. Somehow I am having a hard time feeling bad...

"SYDNEY (AFP) - - Luxury car dealer Normal Elkordi has never seen it this bad -- financial high-flyers feeling the pinch of the global economic meltdown scrambling to sell their Ferraris for a loss.

'We're not talking Holdens or Fords here, we're talking Aston Martins, we're talking Ferraris,' he told AFP. "I've never seen it like this before."

As anxiety grips world financial markets and stock prices crash, the Sydney-based dealer is seeing increasing numbers of young executives come into his showroom, hoping to offload their near-new prestige autos."

For full article please click http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20081013/tls-finance-banking-asia-luxury-cars-aeafa1b.html

A Light Hearted Commentary in the Face of Depressing Financial News

When it rains outside...well, you may as well jump in the pool since you are going to be wet anyway! It's been raining most afternoons the past week and the kids wanted to swim so we thought, "why not?" Usually there is lightening involved which keeps us out of the pool but today there were no thunder storms in sight:)



Speaking of thunder storms I got to do one of my most favorite things in the world yesterday afternoon...I got to sit and listen to a storm rolling in for about 30 minutes. That ranks right up there with sitting next to a rushing mountain stream with a good book, listening to the crash of waves on a beach, walking through leaves in the Fall, and watching a good snow fall from the warmth of my own home! Those things bring a delight to my soul that I could never explain!!



Some of you may remember that I tried making cut out cookies last Spring for Easter. I couldn't keep the dough cold enough to put onto the cookie sheet after cutting them out. I tried again only this time with pumpkins. The dough went into the freezer for 30 minutes prior to cutting them out and both air cons in the living room and the fan were turned on to cool the room down to the max. The family was complaining about the cold until I told them what I was up to! I used the kitchen table which is directly under one of those air cons and managed to turn out beautiful, perfect pumpkin sugar cookies that the twins will decorate when they get home from school tomorrow. Can you tell I'm excited? You have to learn to adjust to the heat and humidity here and that's one more case of "I CONQUERED!!"



After having been off the past week for Fall Break the twins head back to school tomorrow...for one day! They have Tuesday and Wednesday off for Parent/Teacher conferences with school on Thursday and a field trip on Friday. Some times I wonder what I'm paying for with all these days off/fun days?



A little Ethan update:



He's been keeping us completely entertained these days by repeating most of what we say. Sometimes it's hysterical to hear something you said come out of an almost two year old's mouth! And sometimes you say, "Oops!" He was running around today saying, "But!" I don't think that he was referring to his bum but one never knows!



He woke up from a nap yesterday and asked for a neighbor of ours who had been playing with him at the pool..."Where's...Gabby?" It MELTED her heart to hear him say her name!



We were getting ready to go out for supper tonight when he said, "But, raining!" I couldn't believe that he was able to process that it had been raining earlier and that we usually don't go out in the rain. In fact we usually tell him, "No, you can't go out and play because it's raining."



He says "Buck-ick" for bucket and "Blank-ing" for blanket. Tonight he told me "I stink-ing" for "I am stinky!" Time for potty training:) The other day in the pool he had his "buck-ick" and "shobel" (shovel) and was stirring water around saying, "I...cooking!" I think he has heard that one before from our helper when he bugs her for a glass of milk...



He's really good at saying "thank you" without any prompting. The twins could actually learn something from him...!



He also says, "Awe-some!" No idea where he picked that up from!

**********************************************

One advantage to living half way across the world??? You don't have to hear or see the "distress" the media kicks up in times like these:)



HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEK and enjoy your FALL weather for me! Roast a marshmallow around a bonfire, too:)

16th Day of School Picture

I forgot to get a "First Day of First Grade" picture so I finally got one...on the 16th day of school! Oops!

Guilt and A Challenge

Have you taken time recently to just sit and watch your children playing? Have you taken time to sit and LISTEN to your spouse without talking about yourself? Have you thanked God for your health and the food, shelter, and clothes that you have? I mean REALLY thanked Him?

The past few days I have been reading of a journey that a woman about my age started on a little over a year ago and ended in late July. A woman who left behind a spouse and a little boy and who was very ill for the last 10 months or so of her life. A woman who would have given anything to have another day where she felt good enough to be a mom and a wife.

And it made me feel guilty.

Guilty that I haven't taken the time recently to sit and play games with the twins. Guilty that it annoys me when Ethan brings the same book to me over and over to be read. Guilty that while Ryan sits and tells me about his day I am thinking of all the things I want to tell him about MY day. Guilty that I spend so much time thinking about what's bad in life that I fail to notice all that is good.

If that were my lot in life, to die young, what type of legacy would I be leaving my three children and my husband? And why do I tend to take them for granted when none of us are guaranteed our next breath? Will I be able to glorify God even when the road gets steep and seems impossible to continue on?

I challenged myself today to play a game or two with the twins, to read Ethan a book as many times as he wants it read, to get into the pool and swim with them instead of watching from the side. I challenged myself to FEEL the sunshine and the breeze and the health surging through my body, to not take every breath for granted. And to praise God for the blessing to be able to do all this!

If I haven't said it lately I'm thankful for my family and all my friends! I'm thankful that I have been given another day to show my family how much I love them! I'm thankful for the food on my table, the shelter over my head, and the clothes on my back! And most of all I'm thankful that Jesus died for me that I can have a hope of life beyond this world!

Bintan, Indonesia

I guess I should update you on Ethan -he's better. His fever broke Sunday evening so he and I were able to join Ryan and the twins for our little vacation. We weren't going to be able to get our money back so if his fever would have continued Ethan and I would have stayed home.

***********

Eating lunch poolside
Kaitlyn was not happy at Ryan - can you tell? :)

Ethan was literally rolling around in the sand! He would also take handfuls of sand and dump it on top of his head...so different than the twins at that same age! We have pictures of them trying to AVOID the sand. He also really liked the waves once he got used to them.

On Monday we had been at the beach for about 15 minutes when it started pouring rain. Ryan and I were relatively dry under our little shelter so we decided to try to ride it out. Here is a view looking down the beach while it was raining...
And here is the same view when it's not raining!
The kids didn't mind being all wet and sandy so we let them play in the rain. It beat being cooped up in the hotel room, anyway! I love sitting and listening to the rain:)
Our room
There are all kinds of activities to do if you get tired of the beach and pools. One of them is taking an ATV tour. Ethan had fun sitting on top of the ATV and pretending that he was actually moving! Besides this there was kayaking, jet skiing, skiing, wake boarding, ping pong, pool, board games, a kid's club, and bike riding. Since we were there for such a short time we didn't do much except the pool and the beach. The twins on Monday while it was raining went to the kids club for a few activities.