I'm In Love...

With a strip of white sandy beach, water so clear you can see the bottom, a refreshing breeze, Rest and Relaxation!

A place where you can relax on your balcony while the baby naps,
Or where you can enjoy a sea side massage!
Or you can spend your R & R time lounging in the sand listening to the waves crashing on the shore!
And for the more adventuresome, there's always face painting at the Kid's Club!

I have been finding Ethan in (yes, I said IN) the sink in the downstairs bathroom! He likes to climb in there and mess around with toothbrushes...GROSS, I know!!


Family Photo taken by our company last weekend.
My three boys:)

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Today was UN day at school. Each student was to come dressed in a costume that represents either their home country or the country where they have spent the most amount of time. It was fun to see all the different costumes when I went to pick up the twins from school. Since we didn't have anything and don't own a sewing machine the twins were stuck with wearing what they wore for Fourth of July - red, white, and blue shirts. They put on a Primary school concert which I unfortunately had to miss since Ethan is still sick.

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Speaking of Ethan he is still sick. Hopefully he will be feeling better soon as we leave on Sunday for a short two night trip to Bintan, Indonesia for Fall Break. I took him into the doctor so that we could get a prescription for suppository fever relievers. He's refusing anything by mouth and what is available over the counter back home is only available by RX here. The prescription was written on a pad of paper that is usually supplied by drug reps! So different than the prescription pads doctors back home use!

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The twins are off of school for the next week so we are taking a mini vacation to Indonesia leaving on Sunday after church. Ryan needs to be back at work on Wednesday so it will be short but we are looking forward to our time off! We'll take a ferry (about 1 hour ride, I think) to Indonesia and than take a transfer ride from the dock straight to our beachside resort. Stay tuned for pictures middle to end of next week!

I was finally able to post a few pictures from last week when Judy and Elaine were here. Enjoy:)

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After we spent an hour in the revolving restaurant Elaine discovered that the views were just as good out the bathroom windows...
We found a snowman in Singapore! Didn't do much to make us feel cooler but of course we had to have our picture taken.

This is by FAR my most favorite place in Singapore - the Orchid Garden at the Botanical Gardens. I may try taking the kids back there to ATTEMPT at a Christmas card picture. It is so pretty there and it's away from the noise of the city.


This is a view of the shipping yards from Prima revolving restaurant. It's amazing to watch the huge cranes at work moving containers off of the ships.


I am hoping to go back to this place sometime. We saw it from the window of our cab and than walked by it the next day. It's an old church called Chijmes that has now been turned into shops and restaurants.
We found the neatest little shop on Arab street. This lady makes slippers of the tiniest beads you have ever seen. I don't remember for sure but I believe that one pair of slippers takes around 30 days to make. She said that it's an ancient Chinese art that she learned to keep it alive. One pair of slippers cost around S$900.

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I have a few more pictures to post but I was having trouble with them...hope that everyone is having a great week! Ours has gone by unbelievably fast!!

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???