More Halloween Fun

Yesterday after the party, Elyse received a package from Aunt Lisel. In it was this great Halloween shirt. It arrived just in time. I put it on Elyse right away. Elyse also wanted to wear her ruby red slippers (that were 3 sizes two small) around the apartment. She had to walk around on her tip toes. It looked like she was wearing high heels.

Today I went to a women's conference at my church so Toby and Elyse spent Halloween together. He dressed her up in her Dorthy outfit. She looks so cute.

Toby and Elyse went off for some adventures in the rain. Perhaps down the yellow brick road in her ruby red boots?

Halloween Party

Today Elyse and I headed over to Pierce's house for a Halloween Party. We had a wonderful time.

Here are some of the kids at the party.

Elyse chilling on the couch with her popcorn and Pierce.

There were a bunch of activities for the kids to do. One of them was painting a mini-pumpkin. Elyse liked it until the paint got on her hands.

Elyse's friend Violet. Look at the concentration on her face!

The kids also got to decorate cookies and cupcakes. Checkout Elyse's creations:

Elyse had a great time with her friends and after a healthy lunch of cupcakes, cookies, and popcorn, we headed home. Thanks Camille and Pierce for such a great party.

Pumpkin Update

Our pumpkin began to grow stuff after just 2 days. I went to light the candle last night and saw white fuzzy stuff around the inside. Needless to say, it went down the trash shoot. It was fun while it lasted :)

Elyse's Humor

Elyse has been telling "jokes" lately. She asks if certain things eat boo-boos for example: Mommy eat boo-boos? Elbow eat boo-boos? etc. She thinks it's funny. Here she is at dinner making her "jokes."

P.S. Her hair is crazy because I just quickly put it up so it wouldn't get in her mac n' cheese.

Carving the Pumpkin

Today we decided to carve our pumpkin. (I hope it lasts until Saturday, if not that's ok) Elyse really wasn't that into the whole process since it meant getting her hands messy, but she did help a bit. I would get the seeds out and then she would get them off my hand into the bowl. She also scraped the inside of the pumpkin a bit with a spoon. When it came to the design of the jack-o-lantern, it was all Elyse. She told me the shape of each part of the face. She also said she wanted crazy eyes and two teeth in the pumpkin's "happy face." After all the carving I roasted the seeds and everyone enjoyed those.

I Like It!

Yesterday Elyse and I made Halloween cupcakes. Elyse helped pour in the ingredients, mix in the sprinkles, prepare the cupcake pans, ice the cup cakes, and, of course, clean the spoon.

Today we went to a supermarket that caters to expats to get our orange pumpkins. It wasn't a pumpkin patch, but it was as close as we were going to get in Singapore. I can't wait to roast the pumpkin seeds- yum!

Package

Yesterday we got a package full of Halloween goodies form my mom. There was Halloween cake mix and frosting, plates, napkins, a Halloween fun food book, stickers and all this fun stuff for Elyse:

Today I decided it would be a fun craft to make the box that all of the Halloween stuff came in into a little house. Elyse helped me figure out where to place the door and then taped and colored the front of it. I asked what type of building she wanted it to be and she said "Sophie's House," so that's what it became. Thanks for the Halloween Package Mom!!

Fish Tickles

Yesterday, on Megan's final full day we went down to Orchard to go to the Fish Spa since the one Sentosa was closed.

This is Megan putting her feet into the medium size fish tank.

Since she was the only one in, the fish swarmed to her.

She then tried the big fish, but didn't last long since it ticked too much.

While Megan finished her fish spa, Elyse and I got a snack and then headed to the Forum and a kids play area there. Megan met up with us to have lunch and we then headed home.

Today I wasn't feeling well, so Megan took Elyse to Gymboree. While I took a 2 hour nap :) Elyse and Megan got to hang out with Gymbo the clown and learn about cars, planes, and buses. Some good quality Aunt/Niece time. Then, unfortunately, Megan headed off to the airport. Her time here went by so quickly. I am so glad that she was able to come visit and look forward to seeing her again, whenever that might be.

ECP!!!

On Monday Toby had another day off (yippee!) So we decided to head to the East Coast Park and check out the beach. When we got there we drove around a bit trying to find an area without "improvements" going on and settled on a small stretch of beach.

Elyse was ready for the sand. She took off here shoes and stepped on the beach... and then hesitated... and then took tentative steps until it was all ok. She seemed to like it.

As she got closer to the water she began to slow down. Although the waves weren't very big, she wasn't so sure about the water coming towards her toes.

Elyse played in the sand for awhile while the adults took turns playing with her. Elyse and I had great time covering her feet up with sand.

After awhile Elyse got in the water and was fine (for a little bit) as long as Mommy was holding her.

The morning was cut a bit short by the big storm clouds rolling in. After we got dry and changed, the rain began to fall and then us being all dry was short lived since we had to run to the car. The beach was fine overall and I think we will go back, I just wish it was cleaner, I know that's weird to say in Singapore, but there was trash in the water and I even got "kicked" by a shoe. Perhaps we need to try a different part of the beach.

Tree Top Walk

Last Friday Toby took the day off and we were invited to join Megan and her friend Cat on a hike in MacRitchie Reservoir. Cat has a 2 1/2 year old and a 3 1/2 year old, so I figured the hike would be fine for Elyse as well. It turns out the hike was to the Tree Top Walk. I had heard that this was not a very easy climb, so I was interested how we would do.

Cat had some "inside connections" so we were able to park closer in, which helped a lot. She also brought a back pack for Elyse to ride in. Elyse lasted all of 10 seconds in it. She would have rather been on Daddy's shoulders, walking herself, or been carried my Mommy than go in that backpack. Elyse found a huge leaf and was using it as an umbrella in the picture.

The hike was on a few different surfaces. It started out on rocks/dirt and then went to pavement, then to wooden steps, the bridge, more wooden steps, pavement, and then back to the dirt and rocks.

The Tree Top Walk itself was a suspension bridge at the tops of the tree. It was pretty darn cool.

This is Elyse's new "smile."

After the bridge, it was time to get back to where we started, which ment a lot of stairs. This picture only shows part of the stairs we had to go down.

In the middle of the trek down we stopped and had a picnic lunch and were able to refuel. There were many more steps to attack.

Overall the hike was great. We were in the middle of a jungle and it was beautiful weather. The kids did great for their age. They made it (with a little help from the adults). I would recommend this hike if you could leave the young ones at home.

Fun With Megan

Last Wednesday Toby's older sister Megan came to visit us. We have been having a great showing her around our new home. Here Elyse and Megan are planning out our days.
We of course took Megan across the street to the Chinese Gardens.

This a a little playground in the middle of the garden.

On the night of the Lantern Festival, we got a babysitter for Elyse and then Megan and I went down to Chinatown. We ate at a place that was recommended to me by a local called Da Dong. Very good food and Megan got to taste some Chili Crab.

After dinner we met up with some friends to walk around Chinatown. As we were walking we heard drums and followed the sound and saw a lantern processional. This picture is a bit blurry, but the street is packed with people and their lanterns

I had brought a couple of lanterns so Megan and I joined in for a bit (when it thinned out a bit).

We then headed over to Little India and saw the streets decorated for Deepavali. (forgot to upload photos, but you can see last years pix here. Also at the end of Camille's post you can see pictures of our night.)

Another day the three of us headed to the Singapore River area. Megan got to see some of the symbols of Singapore like the Merlion, the Espalande, and the Flyer. In Clarke Quay the water fountains got turned back on so Elyse played in those for awhile. She started a trend because soon there were many other kids playing along with her. We ended the day by eating at one of the many restaurants on Boat Quay.

Today we left Elyse with a babysitter and headed for Sentosa. Two of the things that we wanted to do, the Cable Car and the Fish Spa, were under renovation which was a bummer, but we had fun anyway.

We started out on the luge and then walked along the beach. We then head back to the luge for a second ride. When we got there Megan realized that she lost her ticket, so I went on the skyride (chairlift) and luge by myself.


After my ride we headed to the Southern Most Point of Continental Asia (not so sure if this is accurate) and then had some lunch.

By this time we need to get home since I had an appointment. The day was good, but a whirlwind.

So, Megan has been here a week and has one more week to go. We have much more to show her and might even head to Malaysia for the day. (sorry if this post is poorly written, but I am a bit tired...)

1 Year

One year ago we landed in Singapore. If you haven't heard, or don't remember our trip, you can read about it here. It was not the best trip to say the least, but since then we have had a much better experience. We started out in a hotel room and moved to a 3 room apartment. We arrived not knowing much about Singapore, now have explored much of the island and have learned a lot of its history. We arrived not really knowing anyone and have now established some close friends. It has definitely has been an adventure. I am so glad we have had this experience. We are still not sure when our time will end here, but until then I am glad to call Singapore home.