Catch Up

In attempt to catch up on some of the things that have been happening, here are some random pictures from the past few weeks.

The girls love to dress up. It's not uncommon for them to be draped with jewelry or layered in multiple outfits.

Elyse and I had a movie night after Anastasia went to sleep. I'm not sure why Elyse was making this face, but this is the best picture I got from her.

I would like to start a once a month tradition of doing something special at night with Elyse and then when Anastasia is older, both girls. This month we watched Winnie the Pooh the movie and then next time we might have a game night or swim at night.

Anastasia copies a lot of what Elyse does. In this picture Elyse is showing me her painted nails, so Anastasia had to show me her nails too. (I'm not sure why this photo is turned- I can't get it the other way)

When Toby is away we try and Skype with him as often as possible. Sometimes the girls sit for less than a minute and then go off and do their own thing and other times they are more engaged. This time they were in rare form and were running around putting on a show for their dad.

Hopefully I'll get totally caught up with the blog soon :)

A Walk With Anastasia Joy

About a week ago Anastasia and I went on a walk around Jurong Lake and into the Chinese Gardens. It was fun to spend some time with my youngest daughter.

In the middle of our walk Anastasia stopped and posed like this "asking" me to take her picture. This is her smile- you will see it in other pictures as well.

 

Anastasia likes carrying around umbrellas. If she isn't walking with it she likes to hold it on her lap in the stroller.

Look at the fountain Mommy!

I asked Anastasia to smile and this is what I got:

Mommy and daughter:

When we arrived at the Chinese Garden they were setting up for Chinese New Year. Anastasia loved all of the decorations going up.

Year of the Dragon

This is a random photo I know, but this is the first time I noticed that the bathrooms at the CHinese Gardens are decorated with toilet seats.

Sky Gym

Elyse has been taking gymnastics at Sky Gym  for about 4 months now and she loves it. I get to watch her (until I have to take Anastasia out for a walk) and she always has a smile on her face. The last time she went I attempted to get pictures. Let me rephrase that...I got pictures, but I had to take them through a glass window or in poor lighting or at the same time a 19 month old was hanging on me.

Here are some them. Although they aren't the best, you can get a general idea of what she does (and by the way... she picked out her outfit that day).

Dancing Girls

I have been meaning to post these clips for awhile. I love how my girls dance. I also think it's funny how in one video Elyse gets up to turn off the music because she couldn't hear the TV. I LOVE watching my girls dance (did I say that already). It always brings a smile to my face. I hope it brings one to your too.

Homework

Elyse had her first homework assignment- Chinese numbers 1-10.

 She is at the stage where homework is fun. We'll see how long that lasts.

Her school uniform for gym Fridays.

 She is not a fan of shorts and so this morning it took a bit of coaxing (to put it mildly) to get her to put them on. I hope that after she saw everyone else at school wearing them she won't put up a fight next Friday.

 Anastasia wanted her picture taken too.

The New and Improved Bird Park

We headed out to the Bird Park with our friends to check out the new water play area. We only saw a few birds before we spent the rest of the morning playing on the playground and water.

Does the Christmas Tree next to the water park seems a little out of place?

We started at the play ground...

SWINGS!

And then switched to the water...

Elyse and Sofia loved running and then throwing themselves down into the water.

Not sure what Elyse was saying, but I liked how she was positioned in the water.

 Elyse and Sofia. They were going so fast down this slide it was hard to capture them both in the picture.

We went early enough that we had the place to ourselves for a little while. I liked the water park- it's a smaller version of the one at the zoo- and would come back just to play here again. We had a great day rediscovering the Bird Park.

Good Bye Song

This is the song they sing at the end of each day at Elyse's school. She started before I turned on the camera, but you get the idea. Also check out her back up dancer :)

K1

First Day of K1 at JCCK

I took Elyse to school today. She was up early and ready to go.

We took the "big bus" (#240) to her school and waited in line to get checked in. Behind us in line was a boy from her class last year which happens to be in her class this year too.

Elyse knew exactly what to do and where to go. We were met at her classroom (Patience) by her teacher Mrs. Tham. She went right in and hardly looked back.

After school she rode the bus home where I had a celebratory McDonalds lunch waiting for her. She was so happy and energized and can't wait to go back tomorrow :)

Adventures with Our Guests

Despite traveling for a day and arriving early in the morning, Claire and Jeff were ready to explore Singapore. (I think I would have been ready to sleep) We decided to take them to the Singapore Flyer to get an overview of the city. After the Flyer we walked down by the floating platform and to the Esplanade. I wanted to take them to a hawker centre there, but it was closed so we settled on some gold ole western food. I didn't get any pictures, but Claire blogged about it here.

After we got back it was time for naps and some fingernail painting:

Jeff and Claire left the next day but came back with Jack and Jan for Christmas. On one of the days we headed out to Chinatown and then another day we went to the Botanic Gardens. We had a great time wandering around and seeing the beautiful flowers.

I challenged ELyse to find the orchid that she would like to have named after her (becasue they do have famous orchids like- the Laura Bush and the Nelson Mandela). She chose a purple one (some how I didn't get a picture). This is the one I would call the Jennifer Marie:

This one is the Claire Louisa:

Here are some other pictures for our time among the flowers:

 Elyse took this picture:

 Anastasia liked pulling the hood of the stroller down:

After the Orchid Garden we parted ways. Toby and Jack took the girls home while the rest of us continued to Little India. We had some great food and then wandered around.

At the restraunt I ask for the bathrrom and they pointed me toward the kitchen. I had to walk though the kitchen to the bathroom. As I waited to use it, I took some pictures of the alleyway outside:

 I think this is someone's house. Notice the man in the top right window.

That night Claire and Jeff headed back to CO, but Jack and Jan were able to stay another day. We took them to the Logos Hope docked at VivoCity and then hung out before heading back home.

We love visitors and are always sad to see them go. I am so thankful for email and skype so we can keep in touch with our family all over the world.