Way Back in May...

Way back in May Eric and Kristen came out to visit. I documented their first day here, but then got a bit behind...

So, on their second day we got Mary to watch the girls and headed out to the Singapore River area. We started out walking along Boat Quay (trying to avoid all the aggressive restaurant owners) and went to the Merlion.


The Merlion was turned into a hotel room for a few months and we were able to make the last tour to check out the room. During the day it was open to the public, but at night people actually got to spend the night. Although we didn't stay the night, we were able to get up close and personal with the Symbol of Singapore.



The view next to the Merlion:


After the Merlion, we went back to Boat Quay for dinner along the river and then went for a boat ride to Clarke Quay.

We walked around Clarke Quay and found the Turkish Ice Cream Man. I had seen him when he was in Chinatown but never got any ice cream. Now he is in Clarke Quay and entertaining all his patrons. Once the ice cream is in the cup he does tricks and things. Eric enjoyed it...

Toby just wanted his dessert.
It was fun showing my brother and sister-in-law around one of my favorite areas in Singapore.

Stamps

Enough said.

Anastasia at IMM

Today I took Anastasia to the water area at IMM for the first time. She had a great time. She played in the fountains and wasn't afraid to follow me through the water.

When we first got there she was fascinated with water flowing through a pinwheel:





Her favorite part way have been touching the lights that looked like buttons:
After the water area we played for a bit on the playground.
Good times!

National Day Celebration

Tomorrow is Singapore's 46th Birthday. To celebrate National Day Elyse's school had a party that parents could attend. I thought this would be great and decided to go.

I left Anastasia at home with Mary and took Elyse to school on the bus. Unfortunately the day did not start well. Once Elyse realized that she had to be with her class first instead of me, the tears flowed. I guess she calmed down in her class, but once she saw me again, she cried. I was able to stand by her for a little while, but then she had to go one way and I the other so she started crying again.

Her class was playing games, but she was still crying. I was beginning to think this was a bad idea and contemplated leaving. The teachers would come up to me and assure me that she is fine at school normally.

Would I ever be able to watch Elyse do anything?!!!?

After a little while Elyse calmed down and decided it was ok that I wasn't by her the entire time. See her read puffy eyes:


After games, the kids went back to their classrooms for a snack and then it was time to sing. Here is Elyse's class being led back into the main hall:

Teacher Sarah singing:
In the hall it was a bit chaotic, but a controlled chaos. There were so many kids since the AM and PM sessions were there together. It was easy to spot Elyse in the crowd though.

She sang and danced through all the the songs celebrating Singapore.

During the pledge the kids stood perfectly still with their hands at their sides:

More songs and then flags were passed out. I really though someone was going to get an eye poked out with all of the crazy preschoolers waving flags, but everyone seemed ok.



After school I decided to take Elyse out for lunch. We rode on a double-decker bus to the mall. She was super excited about it.

Overall it was a good day (I wasn't so sure it was going to be at the beginning...) and it gives me hope that I can watch Elyse participate in activities- although at dinner Elyse told me she likes playing games when we aren't watching. Oh Well... HAPPY BIRTHDAY SINGAPORE!

Date Night at the ArtScience Museum

Toby and I had a date night last Saturday. We decided to go check out the relatively new ArtScience Museum by the Marina Bay Sands Hotel.

Before we headed to the museum we stopped by the camera shop and bought another lens for my camera. I bought a lens that complements my kit lens. This one lets me zoom in extra close. Here I am testing it out. Isn't he dreamy...


So after the lens shop we headed to the museum. They had a exhibit on Dali and Van Gogh. In the Van Gogh exhibit you couldn't take pictures but here are some from the Dali exhibit.

I never really knew what surrealism was. Here is the museum's description:
Basically it's nonsense turned into art.

Dali is one strange character, but we got a little bit of insight into his creations with this guide:
I'm not so sure why he was obsessed with the "hard outside, soft inside" concept, but it was everywhere and in very weird situations.

To enter the exhibit you went through this mist with a projection of Dali on it. It was a weird feeling walking through it. I guess it just set the stage for what we were about to see.

Here are just a few art pieces we saw:





At the end, the museum had all these clocks on a wall across from mirror that made them look like this:

I am glad we saw the exhibit and it confirmed that Dali was crazy.

Elyse's Build-a-Bear Party

For Elyse's birthday we decided to have a Build-a-Bear Party. We thought this would be easy- no decorations to buy, function room to book, and only a cake to bake. It did turn out to be very easy and fun, but the one thing I had to do, bake the cake, did not turn out so well. I wasn't thinking and put the cake on the car hood and went to buckle A in her car seat when there was a huge crash. This is what happened to the cake:

Luckily the mall we were going to had a bakery open and Toby went to get another cake.

When the guests arrived the "party host" got them in a circle to play a game.

The game was rock/paper/scissors. In the picture the kids are doing "scissors." They were divided into 2 teams and then played against each other. They had fun. Look at Elyse's face in this picture.

After the game, they formed a train and "chugged" around the store to the different stations.

After they picked out their bear, or cat, or monkey, or dog (Elyse picked a bear)... the "chugged" to the next station.

They got to pick out the animal's heart. With the hearts they made wishes on it and put it in their animal. each kid also got a second heart that they put birthday wishes on to give to Elyse. Elyse's bear has 10 hearts inside it. At this point they also named their animal. Elyse called hers Snow and gave the name Toto to Anastasia's bear.

After the naming and the placing of the heart, it was time to stuff...

Stitch...

and "wash"...

Finally it was time to pick out the outfit. Don't they all look great!? (Anastasia and Miriam wouldn't stay still long enough to be in the picture)

Cake time!

After cake, Elyse gave out all the animals and in return she got hugs and kisses.

This is what Anastasia was doing while this was going on (she loved hanging out with Justin and Glenton):