Need New Name For Blog!

If there is anyone left who is still reading this blog: I need suggestions for a new name.

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We had a great, relaxing two and a half weeks down in Forrest and are now settled into our temporary housing up in Elgin. Lord willing we are here for only 2 weeks before we move into our "permanent" house. The kids and I checked in on Saturday night and Ryan arrived from Singapore at 7:00am this morning. He took Kaitlyn and Ethan to church while I stayed home with Kenton - after a second trip to the doctor this evening he's finally on antibiotics for strep. After church Ryan rested up while I ran out to stock up on a few groceries and to get a few things for supper. After an early supper we headed out to drive by the house and spent some time at a park before heading to Ryan's parents to grab a few things from our air shipment. They are kindly storing all 20 boxes until we close on the house in a week and a half! By the time we left there Ethan was sick so when we took Kenton back in on our way home we also had E checked out - he has an ear infection and a sinus infection. Poor guy! At 12:00am everyone but the mom is safely tucked into bed and sleeping.

Off to bed I go!

Goodbye Singapore!

In about 30 minutes we head to the airport. The twins are ready for the flight and have been asking for the past hour if it's time to leave yet. They don't have the same fear of flying as their mother, thankfully! Ethan has a horrible diaper rash so I'm hoping that we don't have too much trouble on the flight. Cream and Motrin helped him fall asleep for his nap. We all woke up early this morning. Ryan took Lovel to her agency because we've run into a major problem with getting her to Norway and I took the kids and met Karen and her two kids one last time at the pool. Before we left Kenton and another neighbor boy, Levi, were running around playing with a cockroach...YUCK! Since then we all took showers and finished up our packing. Kaitlyn was asking about plans for later this week and it was very surreal to look at my calendar and see Singapore activities and US activities all planned for the same week. We are looking forward to getting our trip started (and me to getting it over with!) and meeting up with my parents in LA. We get the straight through flight from here to LA and then we will be spending Monday night there before flying out Tuesday morning for Chicago.

Looking forward to seeing everyone soon!

Wacky Hair Day

Kenton and his friend Grant on a recent play date after school. Grant has a twin sister Gracie who is a friend of Kaitlyn's. They came in January and are both in Kaitlyn's class.

Recently the twins had wacky hair day at school. This day goes along with a book they read in school, "Stephanie's Ponytail." They all have fun with this:) I tried suggesting wackier hair for Kenton but had to settle as this is the most he would do. Still wacky!

Kaitlyn was fighting me as she had a different style in mind. She and Gracie were going to match but I didn't think it was wacky enough. She ended up being voted wackiest hair in the class so I guess mom was right after all:)

Ethan

Ethan's been an expert on giving us sad looks lately! So I finally grabbed the camera this morning and snapped a quick picture. It's a little blurry but it shows his lower lip out and the sad eyes! He wanted Kaitlyn's DS and I had told him no:)

Not quite as sad anymore but not yet happy!

I will post more from the twins' parties at school but I this was one of my favorite pictures from the day! In a sea of white and navy school uniforms sits a little boy with a bright red shirt. Now, from the looks of things you would think he's being a REAL good listener! The truth is that he stayed like that for about the amount of time it took me to take the picture and then he was off creating chaos and havoc everywhere he went!

I came home one day at noon to find that he had fallen asleep in the chair rather than in his bed upstairs. Guess he wanted a change of scenery. Please don't pay attention to the fact that he is still in his PJ's and its noon!

Our budding tattoo artist! He had even managed to draw on the bottom of his feet. Thankfully it was all with dry erase marker which came off very easily. That was something to be thankful for!

Last Day of School

Today was the last day of school and was very bittersweet; looking forward to new experiences and saying goodbye to special friends. Kenton and his friend Jack walked to school together for the last time.

Kaitlyn and her good friend Sophie

Getting ready to head out to the door for the last day of First Grade! So hard to believe that they are ready for Second Grade and that they are 7!! Where does the time go? (Ethan obviously isn't included in what I just said!)

Kait and Sophie watch as the buses leave. Sophie is also leaving SAS and heading to Austin, TX. She and Kaitlyn had one last play date before we all head out.

Kaitlyn and Sophia getting one last ice cream from the ice cream man who sits outside the back gate. When we first moved here the twins were asking for ice cream every day after school so I quickly made the rule that no ice cream until Fridays and ONLY if they didn't throw tantrums on me walking to and from school. For only S$1.00 you get some good ice cream!

Buses lined up and ready to leave. I have posted a video below of this final farewell - it was fun!

Kenton saying good-bye to Mrs. Coole

Looking at the playground, covered playground (underneath circle building), and the rooftop playground. Behind me is the back gate where a guard stands to let you in and out.

The primary division of SAS

In front of SAS - the administration offices

Kate is one of Ethan's playgroup friends. She loves wearing her winter hat so much that they have a picture of her on the beach in the sand with it on! So cute!

Jack, Kenton, and Charan enjoying "stoplights" after the pizza and fruit.

Tyler, Ryan, Kenton, Charan, and John-Paul

Gracie, Kaitlyn, Orla, and ? (need to ask Kait!) The PTA sponsored pizza party on the last day of school for the primary students is always a hit!

Kenton's class on the last day of first grade

**WARNING** Turn your speakers down before starting this clip as it's quite loud! As the first buses start leaving SAS they all start blaring their horns while the spectators all clap and cheer until the last bus is gone. All the teachers are lined up along with parents and students and wave at the kids on the buses until the last bus is gone. It may sound like chaos to the untrained ear but to a sentimental mom who's not ready to let go it was quite emotional! Enjoy!

MRT Mishap

I guess I get to leave Singapore with a bang! I had lunch this morning at DeliFrance at Causeway Point Mall with a friend, Julie and then hopped on the MRT to find some answers to our Lovel dilemma. Not too far into the trip I closed my eyes for a few minutes - and opened them an hour later to find myself in a stopped and deserted train at the end of the line! I had missed my stop by about 4 stops so instead of going back on the next train I decided to find a cab instead. I was a little miffed that no one including the conductor bothered to wake me up. When I woke up he was well on his way out the door! I guess I'm officially a "local" to be able to sleep on the MRT!!!

On a different note things are moving along for our move. After spending a relaxing day on Sunday (church, naps, and pool) we hit the ground running this morning. I worked on paperwork before heading to lunch with Julie. After the hour long MRT ride I spent another 45 minutes at the Ministry of Manpower finding out how Ryan can cancel Lovel's work pass. (She's in Singapore under my name so we were concerned he wouldn't be able to cancel her pass.) Then I headed in a taxi over to Paragon shopping center on Orchard Road, picked up Melissa T, headed home, dropped off things, and walked down to school to pick up the twins. The evening has been spent sorting things for the movers and getting our air shipment ready. They come Wednesday morning to pack that up.

Since apparently I am tired, I'm heading to bed! Good Night!

Phuket

Finally I have the pictures ready to post of Phuket. Click HERE to view the slideshow. Please note that since I haven't had a lot of time there may be misspellings, blurry pictures, and a few doubles.

Enjoy!