It's not all glamorous!

Pneumonia found us in Singapore.  So, although I blog about all the fun things we do here it's not all glamorous.

I really hoped and prayed that with the warm weather all year round that we would see the last of the "lung" issues we have had in the past with Bryce. 

I was wrong.  Pneumonia  not only found Bryce but put her in hospital for a couple of days. 

Fortunately for us the medical care here in Singapore is excellent so I was never worried that she was not going to be taken care of.  The doctors and nurses were very thorough and professional.
I often found myself referring to our stay there as a hotel instead of a hospital.

I just hope we never have to return to the hospital again for an extended stay.  I am pretty sure we would all much rather lead a glamorous life than a hospital life.

The High Life

Singapore had yet another public holiday and what better way to spend the day off but by heading straight to Marina Bay Sands.   Check out the link.  It shows just how spectacular this place is and all the amenities. 

View our from hotel room.  44 floors up.

The big attraction here at least for kids is the top floor.  57 floors into the sky.

But the biggest hit of all was the infinity pool.  It is heavenly.  At first glance the kids were afraid to get to close.  They worried about falling over the edge.  We walked the entire deck and they still were not convinced of the safety.

However, it did not take long before they all put on their swimsuits and headed straight for the edge.  Graham and Layne loved it.  Bryce was feeling under the weather so she was not getting in the pool no matter how enticing it all looked. She preferred to soak up the sun on the lounge chair.

My hope for the day was to get a nice shot of all 3 kids in the pool with the Singapore skyline in the background for a Christmas card.  It did not happen...3 kids with 3 different agendas.  They are to busy living the high life to stop for pictures.  Oh well, I tried.  At least they had fun.

Modge Podge

November is half over and I am not sure where it has all gone.  This is a busy time for everyone as the holidays approach.  For some reason I feel like the time will go by even faster as the new year comes upon us.

Graham had a field trip to Little India to celebrate Deepavalli~the Festival of Lights.  It was quite an experience.  The  students got to experience Indian food, Indian shops, a temple and the wet market.  It was a jammed pack day full of new experiences.

This is a view of the shops as you enter...CROWDED with people and items.

Graham and 2 of his classmates at the market.

Temple

While Graham was in Little India, my parents and the girls took a field trip of their own to the Botanical Gardens to feed the swans.  It was quite a hot day so we lasted until lunch time.  Then headed off the Chili's for a quick bite.  My parents flew half way around the world for Chili's!  Crazy, I know but the girls love it and so do I!

Halloween

We kicked off Halloween this year with a party at Graham's school.  This was a first for Graham because in Texas the public schools in our area did not celebrate Halloween.  Halloween had always been a home holiday but not this year.  SAS had a full blown party with a parade of costumes, food, games and music.  It was very enjoyable.  Luckily, Graham does not get scared of costumes because some of the costumes were a little gory.

Graham decided he wanted to be Mario from the video games.  Thankfully my parents were in Singapore and brought one from home because I never saw one in the stores here.  His costume was a big hit.  All his classmates wanted to pull his moustache off so we opted to keep it off most of the party.

Graham's 1st grade class...everyone dressed up including his teacher!

On Sunday, an American friend of ours organized the first ever Halloween and Trick or Treating in our condos.  It was a HUGE success!  We have just over 160 units and I would say over 75% participated in the event.  For most of the people it was their first experience to trick or treat.

It was definitely a different experience to trick or treat in Singapore.  We did not have to worry about crossing roads and cars zooming by, no trekking across large neighborhoods with complaining children about being tired on the way home, and the ease of "knowing" everyone. Plus, they got to trick or treat barefoot.  They would never do that back in Texas.  I am not sure my kids, especially the girls, will even know how to wear shoes when we come for a visit in December.  The girls don't even wear shoes in school. 

However, my kids are chocolate fanatics.  Chocolate type candies are not the main treat.  It is just too hot here for most people to keep chocolate...it melts quickly and quite expensive.  Any chocolate we get always goes straight to the freezer.  Also, no gum.  It's against the law.  They don't sell it in the stores.  Although the kids know this they were still bummed.

When all the trick or treating was done the kids watched The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and drifted off to sleep...

Mario, Belle, and Aerial

Bryce was telling her friend, Riley, who was quite frightened at first by all the scary costumes, to never give up so they could get the candy.  It was very sweet.

Girls helping daddy pass out candy to the big kids.

Preschool Presentations

Bryce and Layne had a mini presentation at their school that they did for the parents.  It was a few songs in English and Mandarin that they performed.  The girls insisted on wearing their fancy pink dresses for the performance.  I was very proud of how well they did and Nona, Grandad, Daddy and Graham all got to watch.

Sentosa with Nona and Grandad

My parents are here visiting in Singapore.  The kids are so happy to have them here because

1.  they brought lots of goodies

2.  the kids get away with alot more

3.  we get to do fun stuff like go to Sentosa.

It took a few days for my parents to get over jet lag but as soon as they did we headed out to Sentosa.  We decided to take cable cars over from Mt. Faber.  They absolutely loved it even though there was a haze in the sky from some burning being done in Malaysia.

Looking down from the cable cars

Then we headed to Underwater World once we got into Sentosa.  It was a small aquarium but the kids still enjoyed seeing all the sea animals.  The tunnel was the big hit.  They wanted to surf through the tunnel multiple times.

Port Dickson, Malaysia

We took the kids on their first Asian vacation this past weekend.  Graham had a few extra days off so we packed up the car and headed to Port Dickson, Malaysia and stayed at The Avillion Resort.  It was about a 4 hour drive and overall a great first holiday to get us started on venturing out to the other parts of the world.  Now that we got our first trip under our belts I am ready to start booking trips and see this part of the world while we are here in Singapore.

Bryce enjoying the view.

Layne relaxing on the balcony.

Graham relaxing with his PSP.

 The resort was very nice and family friendly.  We stayed in the water chalets.  The kids thought it was neat to be "in" the water.  We could hear the waves while we slept.  It was very peaceful.

 Graham and Bryce enjoyed the music and getting to be apart of it.  Howeve, Layne was shy and did not want to partake.  She snuck in afterwards when the men left.

 They also had a cooking class for the kids every afternoon.  This particular afternoon they made pizza.  It was actually very delicious.

 The kids really enjoyed the Petting farm.  It was full of rabbits, roosters, peacocks, turtles, and guniea pigs.

Graham and April the rooster.  The girls wanted nothing to do with the rooster.

Layne loved the bunnies the most.

 They were able to bathe the bunnies and cradle the bunnies in towels after they were done.  Bryce especially loved holding the bunny like a baby...that is until it wriggled out of her arms.

 Tumasek Beach was a huge success.  They loved the ocean, bulding sand castles, looking for shells and digging for crabs.

 Their FAVORITE part was all the swimming they did.  The water slide was a huge success.  They never wanted to leave it.  According to Graham, Bryce was the best at sliding because she was the fastest.  She would shoot down that slide so fast, I thought she would fly off.  Luckily, she never did.  We even did some night swimming.  It was fun to have the enormous pools almost to ourselves at night.

So, we can check Port Dickson, Malaysia off of our travel list.  Next stop is Bali, Indonesia during Thanksgiving break!