Are you ready for some football?

Flag football, that is. 

Graham has been out front refreshing his football skills the past few days anticipating the start of football season here in Singapore. 

Considering we are from Texas, football is like breathing. 

Everyone does it.  

In Singapore when you say football "they" automatically think soccer.  So you can imagine the football scene here is not quite the hoopla it is back in Texas.  We are just thankful we have it!

Football here starts at 2nd grade and is flag until middle school.  I LOVE that part.  I don't have to worry about tackle until we get back to Texas.  Sorry, Coach Kenny...you will have to get him ready for tackle!  Since Graham is only in first, they are letting him play up with the second graders.

Graham and Brian out practicing running the ball and how to hold the ball.

Graham has also improved quite a bit on his throwing skills.  He can throw a pretty good spiral.  I guess throwing the football in the pool this summer really helped.

Just a little randomness...for my birthday I received a new camera.

I absolutely love it!!!  I am still learning how to use it but I love these 2 pictures.

Ballet for Bryce

Layne chose soccer. 

Bryce chose ballet! 

Is is really that surprising?  I didn't think so either. 

However, they are both doing thier respective activity with the same little girl, Riley. 

In all honesty, it is rather nice being able to do one on one activity with each of the girls.  For most of their life they have done everything together.  I think it is a nice break from all the togetherness and they get to explore their individuality.  I actually get to give all my attention to one person instead of splitting it between 2 or 3 kids.

Here is Bryce all dressed and ready to catch a taxi to ballet class. 

Here are Bryce and Riley getting warmed up for class.

Compared to ballet back home in Texas, it was definitely different.  It was much more structured and disciplined.  Bryce liked it for the most part and wants to go back. 
Hopefully, at the next class she gets a pink sticker instead of purple...that purple sticker almost derailed the entire experience. 

Soccer Sensation

Soccer has started and Layne is all geared up and ready to score some goals.  She has been asking to play for awhile now so we tried a soccer class through the Arsenal league here in Singapore.  It is skills based with alot of drills and skill building.  She loved it.

Here she is all ready and excited to head out.  Luckily, I remembered to bring all of Graham's old soccer gear.  We were so fortunate that it all fit...even the shoes!

She paid attention almost the entire time and followed directions very well.

  

She looks like such a big girl in this picture!

She is practicing dribbling the ball to the goal and shooting it in!  She came home telling her brother she scored 2 goals.  He, of course, told her no she didn't that it was just a practice.  Big brothers can be mean!

Layne was so proud that her ball went all the way to the other side and she was able to "stop" the ball.

Did anyone notice Bryce missing from the pictures????

She opted out.  She said she would do ballet on Tuesday...

Love is in the air...

I took the girls to the zoo today.  It was just our 2nd time to go and boy were we surprised at all the lovin' going on at the zoo.  There are parrots that greet you at the entrance and they are there to entice you to take pictures.  However , the birds had other things on their mind.

I had to tell the girls that the birds were just hugging and kissing.  The funny thing is that the next stop was the otters and guess what?  Love was in the air there as well!

With this just being our 2nd trip to the zoo, there were still so many animals that we had not seen yet.  We made it to the Elephant show and the girls really enjoyed it. 

We also went to the Fragile Forest.  I cannot wait to take Graham to this section of the zoo.  It is all open/free range and the animals are in touching distance.  It was amazing.

Here is a sloth and her baby attached to her tummy.  The girls wanted to touch her so badly.  Of course, we refrained but it was so tempting.

These animals were not quite as cute but still so neat to be able to see up close.  Bryce was a little apprehensive but Layne kept telling her the zoo trained them to be friendly!  Such sweet sisters.

The ring tailed Lemurs were one of my favorites.  They were everywhere.  This one was just lounging around as we walked by.

Of course we topped off the day with some ice cream and a carousel ride right after we saw orangutans.

First

This has been a week full of firsts!  Graham had his first Open House at his new school, Singapore American School (SAS).  It was quite the event as the school houses Pre-K to 12th grade so the campus was quite busy with kids and their parents. 


Here is Graham meeting his first grade teacher for the first time.  She seems to very nurturing and caring.  Her name is Ms. Analu and she is from Brazil.  His school has quite the international flavor among the teachers as well as the students.  Although it is an American school it is very diverse with children from all over the globe.

His classroom is quite large and Graham was very excited to see that they each get a pillow in their chairs and a huge umbrella.  Each classroom also has a teaching assistant.  This is how I knew we were not in public schools anymore...what a dream that would have been when I was teaching.

After meeting with his teacher SAS had ice cream and popsicles for the kids.  So, of course, Graham and especially Bryce and Layne wanted to partake in that event.




Here is Graham on the first morning of his first day of first grade!  He was super excited to wear his uniform and looked very handsome.

So this year, I did not get to take Graham to school on his first day.  All the kids ride school buses and the school really encourages the kids to start riding the bus the first day to get use to the routine.  So I did.  BTW the school buses here are NOTHING like the buses in Texas.  Every seat has a seatbelt and seem to be quite plush compared to the big yellow bus at home.  He catches the bus at 6:40 AM.  It is still dark here until about 7:00 am.  I am sure it will take some time to get use to but this morning went well.  Also, in the morning kids from Pre-K to 12th grade all ride the bus at the same time in the morning.  Of course that makes me nervous but I am sure it will be fine as well.  Each bus has an assistant or "auntie" as they call it here to manage all the kids.

I sit here anxiously waiting for his arrival home this afternoon @ 3:40 to see how his first bus ride went as well as his first day of first grade!

Hello Birdy!

 Graham will be starting school soon so we are trying to cram in as much of the sites as possible before our schedule becomes more fixed.  So, today we ventured to the Jurong Bird Park.   The  kids were very excited to see all the different birds.

Here is Graham feeding a lorie.

He got the hang of it pretty quickly and the birds began to flock to him.

Bryce and Layne along with their friend, Megan, did not want anything to do with the birds.  The birds were pretty loud and aggressive.  One bird even landed on Layne's head and it sent her into tears.

They preferred the flamingo pond

and the mechanical rides.

On a side note, I must say today we encountered something interesting.  We were at the Bird Park with a friend and her 3 girls when a group of locals/tourists came up to Bryce and wanted to take a picture with her.  Of course, Bryce ate it up but when they went to take a picture with Layne she would have nothing to do with them.  So, back to Bryce they went.  They wanted to touch her face and her hair it was like they never saw an American girl before.  It was bizarre!  Mary told me it happens quite often to her girls.  The locals/tourists even tried to pick up Mary's youngest.  Bizarre, is all I can say!

Doffings and Deans