The First Day of Kindergarten

On the first day of school we were all up early and ready to go. Toby decided to go into work late so he could see Elyse off for her first day of Kindergarten. I am so glad he was there to drive since I was nervous about getting to school on time and then navigating the parking lot.

I love this picture:

Here we go...

Elyse looks sad in this picture, but she's not. I'm not sure what's going on. Anyway...

We got to school early and brought Elyse to the gym where we waiting for her teacher to bring her to class.

 Elyse and Mrs. Young off to class.

We helped Elyse figure out where to put her lunch and her back pack and then she found her desk.

Elyse's class. There are only 14 kids in her class right now. This small class size is one reason I wanted to send her to Cypress Christian.

After the kids were settled we said all the pledges and prayed for our kids. The kids started the day and the parents were invited to a "boo-boo" blueberry muffin party to meet other kindergarten parents and cry if need be. ;)

After school I picked up Elyse and asked how school was. She said she had a good day and loves school. We celebrated the first day of school with ice cream sundaes. When I put chocolate sauce on her ice cream Elyse said something to the effect of "Oh, I think I've seen this before..." poor deprived child seeing chocolate sauce for the first time at home at the age of 5 ;)

Since the first day, Elyse continues to like school. She is very tired at night, but I think it's getting a little better.

Here are a few pictures I took yesterday after being in school for a week. (I think the plaid skirt is so cute.)

The Day Before...

The day before Elyse's first day of Kindergarten (at Cypress Christian School) was very eventful. It began by visiting the Willertons and meeting their brand new baby Isaac. We then headed to lunch at one of Elyse's favorite places- KFC and then went to meet her teacher. When we arrived to Elyse's classroom we were the first ones there which gave us an opportunity to talk to her teacher one-on-one and get a picture.

Elyse's teacher is Mrs. Young and has been teaching kindergarten for a few years at CCS.

Elyse was not one bit nervous and found her desk easily. On her desk were some Starburst which was a nice bonus. After taking in the scene, I had Elyse practice finding her classroom from the front of the school. She had no problem.

After visiting school we headed home. Anastasia fell asleep in the car so I took this opportunity to get a treat with Elyse while A slept. We went to Sonic and had some ice cream.

Once A woke up we were home and I told Elyse she could watch a movie. She chose Madagascar 2. Prior to the movie Elyse received some flowers from Aunt Pat and Uncle Don for her first day of Kindergarten.

This is Elyse's flower pose

And of course Anastasia had to do it too.

The movie was followed by a rousing game of Hide-and-seek.

It was quite a busy day. Tomorrow our lives change. I realized that I will only see Elyse about 4 or 5 hours each day counting travel to and from school. That may sound like a lot but if you factor in driving and dinner and baths and homework and everything else it's not much time at all :(

I am excited for Elyse and I know she will do great, I am going to just have to adjust and then celebrate the fact that Elyse is bringing us into the next phase of our lives.

Until tomorrow...

Flash Back: Date Night

Way back in March Toby and I had a date night. We decided to spend it by the water. We went to the Sentosa Boardwalk for dinner and then went to Sentosa for the Crane Show.

 When Singapore does something they try and be the best, that doesn't change even with Animatronic Cranes ;)

The Crane show was basically a light show about 2 robotic cranes that fall in love and then turn into real birds. It's all set to music. If you happen to be on Sentosa it's an interesting sight. We got there early (like an hour) just because we happened to be there and all we wanted to do was hung to together so why not wait together for a crane show? 

People had begun filling up the seats purposefully an hour+ ahead of time. I couldn't believe how early people got there (it might have been a couple of tour groups) To entertain themselves, the groups were singing old Chinese songs. The guy next to me was cheering them on in Chinese and I could understand it thanks to Elyse and her cheering at school.

Princess Camp

I know I am soooooooo far behind in blog posts, but I thought I would share this video of Elyse dancing before really catching up on things.

I was looking for a camp Elyse could participate in this summer and found a Princess Dance Camp. Two days a week Elyse get to hang out with other girls, dance, do a craft and dress up. She seems to really like it (even if the dancing confuses her a little bit).

Adjustments

So far I think our "reentry" has gone relatively smoothly. Jet lag is over and now regular fatigue has begun, but so far I've only had one break down and that didn't last long ;) Besides the "normal" adjustments that come with moving (ie figuring out the neighborhood and the grocery stores, etc.) there are some small cultural stuff that I have had to adjust to. Here are just a few:

• Driving on the other side of the car and road
• Getting free refills (the first time I went to get a free refill I felt like I was doing something wrong)
• Saying "to go" rather than "take away" and "light ice" instead of "less ice" for my drink
• Driving everywhere
• Do you know it takes like 10 extra minutes to get your kids in and out of a car? I feel like I'm late everywhere I go!
• People asking if you need help in a store
• Did you know that the land of plenty does not have some of the American stuff that is carried in Singapore? True story.
• Cleaning my own house.

I'm sure there is going to be a lot more things, but for now this is the beginning of the list and I"m sure I'll have another breakdown so if you see me in the cereal aisle crying in front of the bazillion types of Cheerios don't stare ;) Thanks.

Ode to Singapore

 Singapore has been and will be a great part of our lives. Here are just a few things I will miss about Singapore:

• The public transportation
• The people
• Having a maid/babysitter come every week
• The variety of food and restaurants
• The zoo
• The Singapore River
• Feeling safe walking around at night
• Being able to have one wardrobe they entire year
• Meeting people from all over the world
• MOPS
• My book club
• Having an "Ex-Pat" package
• Having a great pool just downstairs
• McDonald's delivery for those crazy days
• All the fun things to do
• Being able to walk to the store, the park, anywhere...
• No natural disasters
• Not having to listen to political campaigns for a year before an election
• Exploring a new country
• Being able to travel around Asia easily
• The great doctors we had
• All the places to take the kids
• The red and green lights in the parking garages
• The red and green indicators on bathroom doors (no having to look under the stall for feet :) )
• The different Ethnic areas 
• No gum to step in on the street

Thank you Singapore for a great 3 1/2 years! We will miss you!

Bye Singapore

After our day at Universal Studios we put the girls to bed, packed and then tried to get some sleep before our 2 am flight.

We woke the girls up around 11:30 (Anastasia was still asleep as we picked her up from her crib and set her on our bed) and headed off to the airport.

Breakfast at 1 am?

We boarded and left Singapore bound for Houston with a layover in Moscow.  The girls did pretty well for the flight especially since it was in the middle of the night. The flight was packed but luckily Anastasia fell asleep on Toby so there was an extra seat for Elyse to lie down and sleep. Toby and I slept a bit ourselves.

In Moscow we had just enough time to go through security grab a snack and then get back on the plane.

On the Moscow-Houston flight there was a lot of room on the plane so got to stretch out a bit. This again helped with the sleeping. Elyse watched movies and then slept about 6 hours and then Anastasia was as good as a 2 year old could be on a 12 hour flight. We crashed that night. Elyse was up on and off throughout the night and so was Anastasia, but after that night they both did well sleeping.

The next day (Mother's Day) We found a playground and then got me a phone. A good start to our life in Texas.

The girls crashed for afternoon naps.

The "backyard" of our temporary apartment.