Bird Park

Today us three girls went to the Jurong Bird Park. It had just stopped raining when we left our apartment, so I thought it wouldn't be crowded yet (even on a public holiday). I was wrong. A few tour groups had already shown up -it was packed, but I convinced Elyse to go away from the big groups and we had most of the exhibits to ourselves. Elyse really liked looking at the owls. We went through that exhibit 3 times.

Despite mosquito bites, a screaming baby, running to the potty for false alarms, the humidity, and hardly seeing any birds, Elyse had a great time and, after we got home, I looked back on our day and decided it was a morning well spent.

As we entered the park:

Although we were at the Bird Park, they were handing out these tiger masks from the zoo.

Elyse really wanted this big drink. It became her lunch since she decided not to eat her $5 hot dog.

As we were leaving Elyse asked if I could take her picture by the flamingo.

Halloween

The day before Halloween we went to a party. It was supposed to be at the Custer's house but poor Kaelan got HFMD so Camille offered up her house. Thanks Camille! Elyse dressed up as a princess, Anastasia was a ladybug and Toby dressed up as Thomas.

I was a Chinese lady.

Camille had baked some cookies for kids to decorate. They sure liked the icing!

Camille's condo had some organized Halloween fun so these are the kids ready to go out. Pierce was a racecar driver, Caleb was Buzz, and Levi was Woody.

When we got to the festivities there was some confusion on what was going on, but after awhile the organizer got the kids into 3 groups and had them search for their trick-or-treating spots around the condo grounds. So instead of going to people's houses, kids stopped by the Ti chi garden and the tennis courts :) Adults were at each spot (10 places total) to hand out candy.

Here Elyse is waiting her turn.

A hot a sweaty Halloween night. Just a little different from the Trick-or-Treating I remember growing up.

Anastasia fell asleep during the trick-or-treating.

The best part:

Thanks again Camille for having us over to your condo.

5 Months

Yesterday Anastasia turned 5 Months old. She is a happy girl who loves to smile at anyone who will look her way. Her sister loves making her laugh. Anastasia is very aware of her surroundings and takes things in. I love it how we will be sitting on the couch and she will spot Toby across the room and her face will light up. She has almost out grown the swing which means soon there will have to be a new way to get her to take long naps in the afternoon. Trouble.

Here the girls are in the matching outfits Grammy and Gramps gave them.

Anastasia has been rolling for a month or so now, but it is usually on the sly or when I don't have my camera handy. I finally got a video of her rolling and you can hear Elyse cheering her on in the background.

Newbie

The last few days I have felt like I did when I was new to Singapore. Taking time to explore and try new things. After being here for 2 years I guess I was in a rut, but that has changed. Yesterday I walked around our neighborhood and rediscovered playgrounds, dessert shops, gardens, and stores. (I was looking for a video rental places, but couldn't find it, but had a great walk anyway). I even had a drink in a bag for the first time! (not my picture)

Then today I went on a MOPS outing to a new area. This is the first time I took the MRT with both kids to a place over three stops away. The outing was at the Urban Redevelopment Authority. In the gallery area they had huge 3D maps of Singapore. There was another hands-on section, but unfortunately it was closed, so we hung around the maps for a while.

This map was of the Marina Bay area. Elyse had fun finding the Singapore Flyer and other landmarks.

This map had the entire island of Singapore and all of the condos on it. Plus it had future development as well. We found our condo. It's right by the 2 little people on the map in the Jurong Lake District.

Sentosa and Harbour Front (where Elyse went to Gymboree):

Since the other part was closed we headed across the street to the hawker center and got some fresh juice (something else I haven't done in awhile) and chatted with our friends.

I would love to go back to see the rest of the gallery and spend more time looking at the maps. Hooray to new adventures!

Carving the Pumpkin

Yesterday we carved the pumpkin we got at the pumpkin patch. Elyse helped by taking out some of the seeds and then told us how she wanted it to be carved. She wanted crazy triangle eyes, a square nose and a surprised mouth. As Toby carved the pumpkin, Elyse helped me roasted the seeds -yum!

When Toby was done, we took the jack-o-lantern to the darkest room of the house, the bathroom, and put a candle inside of it. Elyse had fun trying to blow out the candle.

I think it's funny that Elyse said "hmmm" after each time she tried to blow it out as if saying "somethings not right here."

Pumpkin Patch

Today we went to the "pumpkin patch" at the Singapore American School. Instead of pumpkins spread out in a field or in a nursery, they were spread out on a basketball court. These pumpkins traveled all the way from the USA. Elyse wore her Cinderella dress and had a good time picking out a pumpkin.

I really like this picture of Elyse:

After picking out a tiny pumpkin (more like a gourd) she got to paint it.

At home we had a picture taking session. (As you can see Elyse changed into another dress.)

The Girls

Here are just some pictures of the girls.

Anastasia rolls, but not consistently yet. She spends a lot of time like this (half roll):

Silly girl playing dress up.

She posed like this all by herself.

Elyse took this pictures. It was better than all of the ones I took.