The Adventures of the Shuster Boys

Furano, Hokkaido

2012-01-23T22:17:00.001-08:00

We got up at 4am to catch the 430 am bus to the airport... Met Loren there and flew up from Tokyo to Asahikawa. It was a mini blizzard when we got here and the boys were happy to play several hours in the snow.

They got geared up for the ski equipment and then we headed to the hot springs. Day 1 of ski lessons, Ike was not so happy after the morning session, probably because he was hungry but then jumped right back in. Today apparently in the afternoon session they are already hitting the ski slopes. Here is a short video of Nate yesterday at the end of his lesson, skiing already, my fingers were frozen taking this shot...

Today I went to the little town and managed to get some fruits like strawberries and apples as well as some salmon jerky and dried persimmon. The town in very small... but lot's of Royce Chocolate stores around... Am debating whether to hit the ski school tomorrow or read Steve Job's biography...

Oh I thought I had another hour to lie down and read before picking up the boys from ski school BUT I was looking at the Singapore time on my mac clock!

Tokyo Day 5

2012-01-21T04:34:00.000-08:00

It is still grey today... and rainy.... but we braved it to head to Ginza to the toy store. Thought the boys would be more interested in some of the Japanese toys but no... they went straight for Ninja Go... well lego and somewhat japanese....They have been quite good in their routine of wake up, homework, bagel, then head out... today we took the train and then headed back, they built their lego while I even got a mini nap! :)We found from the train to our hotel a closed alleyway with many restaurants (we have always been freezing above ground!) so for dinner we went to one that grilled fish... it had large fish bones hanging and seemed smoked, can't decide if they are plastic or real?Ordered the boys sashimi, which they protested (again... they wanted salmon) but then when they had it (raw mackeral, some white fish and tuna), they loved it... some miso soup, edamame and rice and we were set. Bernie I think prefered his chicken liver skewers... Here is nate using chopsticks, I think it must be something that clicks in the brain at age 7.... today suddenly he could even feed ike sashimi!The boys have been alternating a night at our room and a night at Zeda's... tomorrow we wake up at 4:30 to head to haneda... and join up with loren on the flight to furano... all packed and on to the next leg... skiing and the hot springs for me...

Back to Disneyland - Day 4

2012-01-21T04:26:00.000-08:00

Oh Disneysea had a great water show as we were leaving and some fireworks. Next time I think we will stay at the disney hotels so catch the fireworks though the week we are here there are no night firework shows.The boys voted for disneyland for the last day as they didn't think that highly of disneysea and didn't want to go to the Tower of Terror again... Ike bought a new pooh bear as his old one is grey... he took a long time (several days) to choose and used his red packet money. In the end he chose one that was fuzzy. It snowed in the morning and ike was happily catching snowflakes in his mouth, every morning we head out to the place for a bagel. I did head back to the supermarket and bought a supply of carrots... the pic of ike with big cheeks was him chewing on the carrots. I've also got tomatoes and anything more reasonably priced!It wasn't too pleasant in the rain and we watched almost every indoor disney show there is to watch. Am all disneyed out.

Disney Sea - Day 3

2012-01-21T04:20:00.000-08:00

The bus trip took and hour from the hotel to the park... pics are all mixed up as I am toggling between my handphone (easy upload to the blog) and the camera.... Disneysea was a colder day... cloudy... we did an interesting 20,000 leagues under the sea but no one wanted to go on the ride to the center of the earth with me. So we did a nice Mermaid's lagoon (a small jellyfish up and down ride - good preparation for Tower of Terror!) as well as the docile blowfish race, very cute space for younger kids. Then saw a 3D movie with the crazy genie but in Japanese... no one wanted to do the ride with loops and unfortunately for nate, the indiana jones ride was closed! We did watch one outdoor show which was quite fun but cold... and did the Tower of Terror... I liked it, it was quite good but poor nate was so terrified that he was crying at the end of the ride. It was another hour back... We tried a new place for dinner, chicken skewer place. Everytime the kids start off unadventurous but end up liking the food. Will need to get them to a shabu shabu place!

Disneyland Day 2

2012-01-21T04:13:00.000-08:00

This day we took the 10am bus (there are only 3 buses)... and got there by 10:30... not bad... we then did the other side of disneyland... had nice weather, no wind, clear skies, too bad thunder mountain was closed as well as the haunted house... but did splash mountain twice... as well as pirates of the carribean.

Disneyland Day 1

2012-01-21T04:10:00.000-08:00

We woke up at 7 am... and decided to catch the 7:30 bus to disneyland, after all it takes an hour and we were told the park opens at 9... also had to update our passes from a 1 day pass to a 4 day pass. We get there in 30 minutes!!!! and its freeeeeeeeezing. Luckily we could duck into the disney hotel and the kids watched cinderella for an hour. The park opens at 10 in the winter.... so we joined the queues at 9:30 and the boys were rolling themselves up into a ball. After the 30 mins of cold... we headed first to Pooh's honeyland and got that ride over with, before working backwards and the left side of the park map (disciplined strategy)...Got on the 3:30 bus and headed back, both boys passed out... we took a hot bath together and then slowly warmed up to heading out for dinner with Zeda. Tried this Japanese pizza / pasta place and then the boys did a bit of coloring... got our cold weather supplies from Zeda....

Tokyo... here we come...

2012-01-21T04:04:00.000-08:00

Decided not to travel at midnight with two boys... so we left the house at about 630am and took the day flight to tokyo. The boys had a good time watching movies and playing games and then passed out about an hour before landing... and got their first taste of cold... by the time we got off the plane, through immigration, toilet.... we see a guy taking our bags somewhere else! luckily we managed to get him... we didn't have to wait long for the bus but it was a 2 hour ride in and although it was 5pm it was dark.After check in we ventured out to get a meal and found a nice sushi place with an english menu, also found a supermarket but the prices were atrocious. Got some strawberries... but nothing else as the boys were bored... oh so many nice japanese things to see and they just wanted to head home. Decided to add more layers the next morning....

Tennis lesson with Jake

2012-01-21T03:59:00.000-08:00

Jake likes to join us at the tennis court but isn't much use in picking up balls except the one he wants to catch, he is actually slowing down these days....

R2D2

2012-01-21T03:57:00.000-08:00

We came home from dinner one night to find a pile of soft toys on half the bed, then found that ike was underneath it... could not figure out what was going on... but found ike under the pile... the next morning nate said, when Ike was asleep he piled up all the toys on him!Here is loren with R2D2 from a friend... we put it in the boys room. Ike woke up in the morning and was scared so he woke nate up... its quite a cute robot, they should just make him into a vacuum cleaner, this one beeps and plays tag. At the Ginza toy store today, we found umbrella's shaped like light sabers...

Jake's heaven

2012-01-14T00:28:00.001-08:00

If jake died, his heaven would be a tennis court and a ball thrower or a automated ball shooter. Today he joined the boys at their tennis lesson but needs training to pick up balls as he sticks to his one ball. He is getting older though as he now needs a break in between....

Got the blogger app so doing this on the tennis court but I think the app is messing up my title...

Back in Singapore...

2012-01-09T03:15:00.001-08:00

I've set up playdates, Chinese tutors and tennis lessons... here is pasqui and elizabetta over for a playdate, they are making their own pizzas....

Lots to do this week, as the art stage (art fair) is here and we head off to Japan on monday next week, good news that bernie can join us and today we also got hotel confirmation to our first choice hotel in Furano...

Pictures of KL

2012-01-09T03:09:00.000-08:00

At the tennis clinic, ikey liked eating nasi lemak, even if it was spicy, I think he will be a chef or taster... he likes to try all types of tastes (he is sitting with me and says, no durian). We also managed to go to see ama and uncle kok swee at the nilai gravesite and got to see many cousins back from the UK.

I didn't manage to take a picture of Loren taking Terry's new porsche for a spin... Loren joined us over the new year weekend.

Lego exhibition and Legoland Malaysia!!!!

2012-01-09T03:06:00.000-08:00

We went to visit the legoland exhibition at Bangsar Village and then I have also bought the annual passes to legoland that will open later this year...

Some short clips

2012-01-09T02:59:00.000-08:00

Here is Ike at Pulai Springs acting like a shark and building uncle Terry's muscles, I only took the last 3 throws but he must have gone like 20 times....

Ike on the slide in Uncle Terry's home....

KL December 2011

2012-01-09T02:51:00.000-08:00

Once we arrived in KL, the boys jumped out of the car and ran in to build the police station lego... now they have also managed to find online the police station lego animated series on youtube, its quite funny!

Here is a picture of us trying to test whether kites can conduct electricity, recreating Benjamin Franklin's experiment... well actually we chose a bad day to fly kites. I taught the kids to count how long it takes between lightning and thunder... and whether a storm was getting further or closer, in our case we had to dash to the car....

It rained for about another week, we stayed for 2, the second week was nice and hot and sunny. The kids are staring at the butterfly pupae that is emerging at the science center and the many play centers we went to until I found a well kept secret... that KL has one of the best tennis clinics and its close to our house (and even closer to Terry's new house, which will take about 3 years to complete).

Pulai Springs

2012-01-09T02:40:00.000-08:00

We started the holiday by heading to Johor's Pulai Spring on Xmas Eve, encountered a lot of traffic at the border and pulai springs is another Malaysian resort that looks good on the web but is a bit run down. I thought the pool with large rocks embedded would be a nice spot for them to swim but they ended up getting small cuts. The slide was rather fun...

The coffee house was so-so but the chinese restaurant was really good. The breakfast buffet was not great... so we ventured out to the coffee shops, it was really nice to see that here in Malaysia there are still restaurants where there were chinese and malay hawkers in one place, actually its the first time I've seen it, whereas I heard my mom describe this of KL when it was more common and while I was growing up it became non-existent.

Loren headed back to Singapore and we all crammed into Terry's car to head back to KL (this is wei-wei asleep at the back of the car), we checked out the new outlet place that is built by Woodbury Common's outlet near NY and marvel at the fact that they are building hotel rooms there to feed to the casino's in Singapore...

I've also been playing around with the Google statistics and people that visit this site, I didn't realise so many people read this blog (well more than the 4 people who are my original audience)...

Various Pictures

2012-01-09T02:36:00.000-08:00

Here is Loren's sketch of Ike done through a sketch program... and a van we encountered that grew grass on its roof! Here is Ike building his small lego figurine while we have a snack, Nate attended a science birthday party and Ike and I, took a bus down orchard road in search of winter clothing for our ski trip... we reached Centerpoint and it started pouring... it took us about 20 mins to get a cab back to where nate's birthday party was... Ike did like the bus ride...

Today I tried riding the bus ride home, it was really pleasant. I also managed to help an old lady up and down the bus. I think I will do this more often and be more green though the aircon was so cold, I turn my pashmina into a head wrap.

The holidays have begun!

2011-12-26T06:13:00.000-08:00

I need to see why my iphone won't load up the new pictures but we left for Pulai Springs in Johor on Saturday to meet up with Terry and family. The 4 boys were happy to be together even in the cold swimming pool... Mom had just gotten back from Penang only to rush to Johor and then is now in Singapore to get her long term visa (instead of getting a limited stay of 3 months a year). She flies back to KL tomorrow. We drove back up to KL today after 2 full days in Johor.

As soon as the boys got here they started building a lego set and jumping into the pool. Since they napped in the car on the drive back, their batteries were fully recharged. Here is a picture of Nate taken by a friend, he has just lost the tooth next to his two front teeth and the one next to it on the other side is also wobbly.

Here is a picture of Pistol going after the bone from Morton's....

Ike in school

2011-12-18T04:51:00.000-08:00

Had the parent teacher conference this week, Ike is progressing well though he is a child that needs to know what the parameters are so that he doesn't get into trouble or then he could test the boundaries...

The other day he surprised me with bopomofo, and reciting the whole chinese sound alphabet. He can also write it if the teacher says a sentence... now to get his english reading and phonics in place. I agreed with the boys today that over these holidays, they will both have homework, Nate needs to improve his handwriting and Ike to get used to homework...

I realise also that the school has not taught Ike, a leftie how to write so that his hands don't become so tired. Will have to speak to the teachers about that.

We had our hannuka party this weekend and I"ll have to post the pictures. Ike was not happy that he could not open the presents after his shower and had to wait, so he ran away from home! well anyway stayed around the compound.... He is also getting quite good on the bike without his trainer wheels.

I have now ordered some stuff online for the ski trip... I guess they will pick up skiing v fast and I will be left eating their snow dust....

Holidays in 2 weeks

2011-12-11T05:14:00.000-08:00

oh oh oh.... not ho ho ho.... the boys break for school holidays on the 23rd of dec, the jewish school semester ended today... the boys will be off for 5 weeks.

Here are some pictures from the jewish school, I think nate made a dreidel (which he said broke) and ike made an oil holder... I now know why the boys are so eager for jewish school on sundays.... they have really evil snack time food!!

Here are pictures of me using the Art outreach program material on Huang Yao and doing a session at Ike's class.

Both boys have a bit of a cough, everyone seems to be down with some sort of bug.

Almost school semester end...

2011-12-08T04:02:00.002-08:00

We are nearing the end of semester now... then the boys are off for 5 weeks... (scary!). We have 2 days booked in at a place called Pulai Springs where Terry and his family will be joining us as well. Then we will likely head up to KL.... mid Jan I will take the boys to tokyo for a few days and then loren will join us up in hokkaido for some skiing.

Loren has been away for almost 10 days in sydney, he says its the coldest summer in ages. He did manage to get some off season ski wear for us and will be home tomorrow. yay!

I just got over a BIG bad cold and I think the chinese medicine and acupuncture is working...

I bought some markers for the boys and here is Ike drawing on our glass door that separates the kitchen from the back area. Ike making finger puppets out of his raspberries and as loren was away, I took them to sentosa beach, something we used to do alot of when loren used to travel alot...

Perfect day

2011-12-08T04:02:00.001-08:00

The orchid show was in town and as part of the event they opened up one of the two large glass houses that was built out in the Marina bay sands area. I finally got to see a baobab tree and here they are also known as bottle trees.

I took the boys to see it as well after their school and we encountered a singing flower.

Feeling Tardy

2011-11-26T20:47:00.000-08:00

Dao has been on her month long break... 2 more weeks to go till she comes back... we are all missing her! We've finally got our act together for the January holiday and Chinese New Year break for the boys, too bad we aren't heading to Whistler but are going to Japan instead, we're going to a place called Furano and it had a good writeup from the Financial Times, I decided to also take the boys to Tokyo Disneyland and Seaworld but its going to be COLD!

I think I will buy those Lands End booties for myself and the boys, also would like one of those stores or labels that can tell me at what temperature would I need what type of clothing.... brrrrr. Furano is a rather small and quaint town, loren will get nice skiing as its supposedly great powder and many natural trails, there is no ski school but I can sign the boys up for about 4 hours a day, then we can do maybe a jet snow ski, tabagoning or build a snowman... or just hang out at the onsen! Though Loren will have to take them to the boys side...

Here is Ike on his field trip, he was rather anxious a few days before, preparing his hat and bag. I sometimes wonder if he wasn't entirely properly attached as he worries about alot of things like what if I don't pick him up from school...

Turbans and Kippas

2011-11-13T05:28:00.000-08:00

The boys were off to jewish school today, its quite cute how they put on their kippa before going, this blue and orange one that ike really likes was knitted by Dao. Here they are doing their jewish homework. Since Dao has joined us and cooked us Thai food galore, we all seem to have put on a bit more weight.

Here is Ike in a turban from an app called a turbanizer.

After Jewish school today, we had lunch with friends that broke the news to us... they are leaving singapore :(

What did I do with my free morning, I zipped off to get some plants and pots to replace the ones that are presently planted in our front area. This is because the area gets very little light and its impossible to sustain any herbs that I initially intended. Even the rather hardy lime and lemon tree want more sunlight. So I will slowly substitute that area with ginger plants. I tried to pick up some orchids as well from the orchid wholesaler but he is at the orchid show... and his worker said the prices there are more expensive. Aiya.

Since its been raining so much, the kids have been watching alot of star wars and they have not been exercising so much. Poor doggies too!

Too many sites!

2011-11-13T05:21:00.000-08:00

I have been hanging out on facebook more often, I still have not figured out how to upload photos from my phone to facebook... and am deciding whether I should have facebook suck up blog postings from here and upload it there directly or I should just leave this alone as my facebook page is mine... do I put up family stuff? do I put up my work stuff? and now loren is pushing to support Google+, I can barely keep up with this blog as it is!

I've been up and down Malaysia about 3 times in the past month, I attended by uncle's funeral, then another weekend attended the Malaysian Art Fair and this week I got back from my friend, Pearl's hen night and wedding. Dao has also left for a month holiday to Thailand (she hasn't been back for 5 years). Loren is going to start traveling alot.

Ike's handwriting has improved alot, here are the boys drying up at a pool where we went for a BBQ last week, this couple had lived in Turkey before and gave them turkish towels to dry up! Now I wish I got more, since they are better to use than towels. But then again, we've got alot of stuff.

Back to life, back to reality

2011-10-17T06:17:00.000-07:00

After our month break... here are some recent photo's, we got the boys bicycles for their birthday's they have been riding them everyday around our compound... Here is Loren with his noogler hat... after his first day at work and ike trying to play the recorder... I think I should push him for music, he seems to be interested....

For the boys...

2011-10-07T11:53:00.000-07:00

There was a really ugly pimento at the market that we painted at the art retreat.... the one with the zombie is my quick sketch and I could not help myself so I added the words in Chinese "Zombie Here I Come...", hope the boys will like it in relation to their favourite game, plants and zombies...

On the hike and trip, I picked up rocks, shells, seeds etc for the boys... and loren bought rock looking chocolates... wonder which they will like better?

Some pics from Ike's teacher

2011-10-07T10:38:00.000-07:00

Today is the last day of our holiday... we head back to singapore tomorrow... Back to reality... Ike's class teacher posts at the end of the week, photo's of what they have been up to...

Below is the link to some of the exhibition clips we have uploaded to YouTube...
http://www.youtube.com/user/huangyaofoundation

Ikey lost his first tooth!

2011-09-05T07:01:00.000-07:00

Ike's first tooth dropped off today in school!! He only turned 5 and is losing his teeth? his gums are growing quite large that there are gaps showing in his milk teeth. He said there was no blood and it had been wobbly for about 2 weeks.

Our baby is growing up!

The boy's birthday

2011-09-05T06:56:00.000-07:00

Here is Nate, Ike and Jude having a Milo Dinosaur before the toy store opened... Zeda and Bubbi got the boys a huge ninjago set.

Yesterday, after Jewish school, Nate and Ike had their birthday party at a football pitch, Loren had organised everything and it was lovely, especially since I didn't have to do anything but mix and mingle. I also did a bad job of taking more pictures.

I got the boy's football uniforms in China...

Summer 2011 - Part 5

2011-08-31T06:37:00.000-07:00

With more people streaming in, including loren and my brother and his family, we moved to Somerset in Xuhui (hmm wonder if this is part of my refugee gene?). The boys were very happy to see loren and so were my nephews. The 4 boys played really nicely together and also went to several places that are recommended for kids, the Science Museum was large and we couldn't even cover it all.

Here are some pictures of the exhibition set up... After that it was fast and furious, the exhibition was rather intense and we had a good response from the citizens of Shanghai. The boys came home with mom and loren, while I stayed on for a digital exhibition and conference in Guiyang. Am glad to be home now and am glad the boys start school tomorrow!

Summer 2011 - Part 4

2011-08-31T06:31:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I didn't take more photo's!!! Here is Nate next to Humpty Dumpty at Tianzi Fang.

We moved to Lanson Place at Xintiandi when bubbi arrived. More UNO matches as we were supposed to be hit by a BIG typhoon. In the end it wasn't that big... we were near a movie theatre so we caught a Chinese animation movie (bad and very forgetteable) and bub's took the boys to see smurf. We also saw the transformers as well.

There was also a Din Tai Fong nearby and we had our fill of chicken dumplings, not to mention very large peaches. The weather although with rain and wind was still rather HOT.

Summer 2011 - Part 3

2011-08-31T06:25:00.000-07:00

As I try to get the boys more into the world of art and behind the scenes... I take them to the museum when we hand over some of the paintings and books, here they are taking the string, making it long and then playing fishing over the stair way balcony to the guard of the museum below.

I also got to catch up with old friends and my cousin, here is my friend who hosts a luxury show interviewing my cousin, Boon Yong about his store. Watching the process of filming was very interesting but a bit unnerving. By the time I had to do it on the exhibition opening day, I think I was rambling, hopefully it was edited to make me sound somewhat intelligent!

Summer 2011 - Part 2

2011-08-31T06:18:00.000-07:00

We went to suzhou via the bullet train and was there within 45 minutes... we met up with our most closest relatives, ie my granddad's younger brother's son... and also Yang Ping and her kids, who are classmates with Nate and Ike. The weather was still very hot.... we barely made it to the park... there we met a woman releasing fish and water snails that were destined for the frying pan into the lake. One of the fish that was set free kept swimming back.

Summer 2011 - part 1

2011-08-31T06:07:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the long period of non posting! I need to get more tech savvy and figure out how to get VPN especially in China. I can't get into blogger at all!

I guess our summer can be described according to the number of places we stayed at... we got there on July 10 and stayed near the YK Pao school in a serviced apartment in Jing An area. As the boys went to summer school for 3 weeks, we stayed in this 2 BR place for about 3.5 weeks. My Aunt Melissa came from Houston and stayed with us as well.

We played alot of UNO with the boys. It was really quite hot and some days we walked to the school and other days it was just too hot so we took a cab. When we walked, we would get the local soy milk on the way and buy lots of peaches. It was peach season and we gorged everyday on peaches.

On the first day, Ike was very shy, I stayed with him in class for 30 mins then he was getting into his orator mode... I found he could speak quite a lot of Chinese! The kids went to many places in Shanghai and put on a performance at the end of 3 weeks.

House move

2011-07-05T07:25:00.001-07:00

So its been a stressful 2 weeks of house move when the house isn't entirely ready... its quite nice but its not easy unpacking when work still needs to be done. Jin has helped organised my home with many plastic containers and storage with labels! Mom is also a great unpacker... now that olivia is gone, I have to look through everything and have now gotten rid of old bedsheets, towels and other stuff... but we still have so much stuff... how come???

Today we pasted alot of the space theme stickers in their room and it looks good, the kids had fun doing it too, will need to take some pictures to post.

The boys have made several friends here and the pool is large but warm! We've gone swimming alot and ike is learning to go to the deep end to touch the floor. Will need to organise swim and tennis lessons when we return in September. I am quite happy to bring home my staghorn fern from the school but I can't quite hang it up here yet as my airwell for my orchids aren't quite ready yet. I went worm digging again at the school plot and am amazed how much worms they have... I have just added to our plots and hope they multiply!

This is a drawing nate did with the theme, my glass room, he is starting to think dimensionally. We are almost ready for shanghai... their clothes are packed, mine too, passports and visa's in place and airtix... I apparently have 14 interviews already lined up. I have been to busy to be worried about that.

Sentosa with meera

2011-06-21T04:34:00.000-07:00

Meera was back for the summer holidays and we got to spend an afternoon with her... we went to the wave pool, where nate now gets up on his knees, apparently he is not allowed to stand up yet... he said he tried the segway in China and wanted to do it again... I really wanted to try it too but Ike didn't want to so I was with him.... one day! I will get to ride the segway...

Digging for worms

2011-06-21T04:31:00.000-07:00

So there are alot of worms in the plot of land at the kids school, we put in a few worms and now every where I dig up we can find at least 4.... nice! So I got the boys to dig up some worms for me after a rainy night for my new garden patch. The new worms must be extremely happy as they have alot of horse manure to curl around.

I took this large pandan plant from the new home to my friend's place.... for the singaporean readers... the taxi men were very envious of my large bunch of pandan! :)

Drawing by nate

2011-06-21T04:29:00.000-07:00

A teacher that was looking for a child's drawing had one submitted by nate and the title was "My glass house". She shared nate's drawing with me and says he is starting to think in three dimension as well as figuring out how to put himself in the middle of this three dimensional space.

Swimming at Marina Bay Sands

2011-06-21T04:22:00.000-07:00

Aunty Shook Fun was in town with Uncle Terry and they stayed at the Sand's Casino hotel, the boys finally got to experience swimming at the top of the "ship" like structure, the view from here is rather magnificent. On a clear day like the day we were there, we could see into the indonesian islands... The government is building alot at the water catchment area and that is what that wave like building is...

Ike's activities in class

2011-06-10T05:41:00.000-07:00

We just got back from another evening at Jack-Jack's. The boys were really playing rough with Uncle Aidan and they are passed out now, flat out passed out. Its nice that they get some rough tumble time and also some male influence, like Uncle Aidan teaches nate that he is not to hit someone unannounced from behind, that is not fair play.

I managed to put in some seeds into the garden before ike started whining... and Jakes was in heaven as well playing catch ball.

Aileen was so kind to figure out the color thing for me, like what colors look better on me and I have part of my wardrobe right and the colors for me though are not colors I am naturally drawn to.

They movers have brought boxes over and we will be starting to pack, pack, pack.

Talk at Nate's class

2011-06-09T02:58:00.000-07:00

I made these bookmark invites for the kids and my nephews to hand out to their friends, they can be used as a bookmark (recycle-able) and gives the information for the exhibition. Since we don't have a title for the exhibition, I managed to kind of "get away with it" on this format.

I thought I might as well speak to Nate's class about Niubizi the character since we are handing out these cards... it was a big hit, I started by explaining and drawing the different generations from Nate up to Huang Yao... and then writing our names (one kid asked how come you are all Huang's), then I tried explaining how long ago the 1930s was and what China was like then and why NBZ was created... (almost lost my audience) and then I said here is the way to draw it and said in Chinese, one big circle for the head and if a kid raised their hand they could tell me what that meant, two for eyebrows, 3 dots, 4 hairs and 5 small circles.

Then we had the kids come up to dot the eyes and mouth and one child said the birthday boy should do it, so we had many funny faces and I then showed how to draw one's emotions and we did a sad face, an angry face, a happy face and a googly face... to big laughter....

The name since involved the military strategy from the romance of the three kingdoms captivated them for a while... and we ended with Nate handing out a bookmark to each of his friends and his teachers.

Now the kindergarden wants me to do not only Ike's class but the whole kindergarden! which means I need to print more of these bookmarks! by the way the design of the bookmark is made to look crumply... otherwise it was too "boring" said the designer... and the teacher when she saw the cartoon and the caption, roared out laughing.

Gardening....

2011-06-09T01:02:00.000-07:00

Here is a new vege garden I am building for a friend that stays close to us, they have a little boy, jack jack that loves following nate and ike around, when nate and ike ate apple with skin on, so did he... which he apparently never does.

JJ's dad is a large irish person who likes boxing so when we go there... nate and ike don on boxing gloves and have a go at each other and JJ's dad. Then they go to the trampoline and box each other, then they take these large foam sticks and hit each other and then this large tractor tyre that is meant for hitting... am not sure what it is about testosterone but they like doing this and want to go back for more.

I also take Jake and Pistol and they have a good time running through the large yard that JJ has. Me? I get served a glass of wine and garden away! :)

Have been thinking about what smallish trees to put in our new place... at this point in time I am thinking of pomegranate for its symbolism and the area is shaded and I do want a tree that is fruiting... and a lemon tree.... I plan to have lime shrubs and lots of herbs.

Ike's year end performance

2011-06-03T01:07:00.000-07:00

The DVD will soon be out.... so grandparents will all get a copy sent to them. Today Ike performed a mexican dance. Quite cute... he seems to be less shy on stage and seems to always be paired with this Italian girl, Vittoria! He reminded us often to pack his white shirt and jeans a few days earlier...

Nate comes home today on the 10:15pm flight, they should be boarding their flight from BJ now-ish....

Nate and his China trip buddy

2011-05-29T18:13:00.000-07:00

Here are two pictures, there was another one of nate eating dinner at their home with chopsticks!! Looks like he had a great weekend. I had a dream that he came home and asked to be sent to boarding school cos it was so much more fun!

This is his buddy whom he shared a dorm room with and got to go stay at their home over the weekend. His parents were nice enough to send pictures and videos.

Kids at this school go to boarding on sunday and leave back to their families on friday. Sounds similar to the british boarding schools. Anyway, 5 more days till they get home!!

Ike misses him but refuses to admit it.

Nate on weekend homestay

2011-05-29T18:06:00.000-07:00

Here is the video of one of his activities. Am not sure why blogger is not allowing me to upload photos. Will upload them on another post.

This is what one of the teacher's wrote on an email to us...

"I was able to spend a little time with Nate last night after he arrived back at school. He was very happy! and had a great time. I am so proud of him as the home stay didn't seem to be an issue for him - didn't show any fear. :-) Yes, they treated him very well and took him out to the Aquarium, and another place(sorry, can't remember right now) :-) that we will not visit this trip. They also bought him some gifts that he is enjoying."

Nate away for a week

2011-05-28T03:54:00.001-07:00

We managed to speak to the homestay parent that nate is with and they were visiting the aquarium when we called, he said he was happy and having a great time. The homestay mom said they like him alot and he has been quite manja with them or close with them but won't hold their hand or let her bathe him. They said they took lots of pictures so they will send that on to me soon. Nate did want to speak to ike but ike was at jonas' house.

Having ike as a single child is quite easy to manage, it really is that 2 kids are more than double the work. Ike has also been so well behaved. Today at his brain class, the teacher said he can't tell between trip, tripping and tripped, not the meaning but just catching the sound, so they will be training his ears to hear better. This not catching of different tones may explain why he can't tell the difference and as such affects his sentence formation.

Am chugging along with the art project. Our exhibition date in Shanghai is now fixed for August 13 where we will debut my granddad's "return" and his artworks. On the August 26 we will debut the digital cartoon exhibition of Huang Yao and a few of his 1930s friends, if all goes well here we will roll it out to several other animation festivals in China then outside of China. So its busy busy busy. I keep another blog on www.huangyao.org, but you'll have to find the english button and its not that updated as it needs to go through translation before uploading.

Nate & Ike update

2011-05-23T06:24:00.000-07:00

Sorry no pictures this posting.... just an update on Nate and his trip and ike's day without nate....

So I could not get a hold of the 2 teachers nor the parent I know on the trip, so I call the dorm mom to check if he's there, she says oh he is so happy l and playing so nicely and passing out all the gifts he brought... when I said hello, his first sentence was so cheerful then he broke up crying and sobbing till he couldn't breathe nor talk! I guess his emotions took over and he realised how far he was from home and wanted me to go to BJ (well one other sentence among all that sobbing). He did wake up early this morning (at 5 am and once at 2 am thinking it was 5 am), so he was over tired and probably so much adrenaline from all the excitement.

Nate also dropped another tooth yesterday and the tooth fairy brought him some RMB before his trip.

Ike... well his teachers said he likes having long chats with them and debates! They say his speech is equivalent to the girls in his class, there are other boys that are way behind him. I asked the teacher for an update to see whether any of the neuroscience training he has been getting is working.... it could just be maturation as well.... here's what his teacher wrote...

"Ike's development for the last 5 weeks, we noticed improvement in his fine motor skills, such as cutting, colouring, writing, drawing etc. He is beginning to find it a joy to do drawing with his peers. However, his favorite activity is still to chat or debate with others. From our interaction, Ike's is always very logical and reflective in his thoughts and ideas. He is always able to make connection and recall events to such details. We did not find any problem with his speech and expression."

So I asked Ike how come he doesn't talk to his friends, why always talking to adults... and he says... well his friends can't explain where wind comes from and "I always have so many questions!". Today, his chinese tutor took him out for an outing and she said they had a great time, he slept in her arms in the MRT, she took him to a place where they could look at arts and crafts and also clothes and toys, he got more animal kaiser cards and wanted a shirt with a certain print, it was only in adult size though. He then apparently had long conversations in Chinese and impressed shop owners as well. I think I need a secret camera following him.

The kids are booked for chinese summer school in Shanghai for 3 weeks in July with YK Pao and I think I found a nice service 2BR apartment with pool and kids area and tennis, about 1.3km from their school (apparently 15 min walk thru the shortcuts) and close to the french concession with a Cantonese restaurant, a pizza restaurant and a japanese restaurant downstairs!

Now to book the flights and visa's......

Greenschool Bali

2011-05-16T18:29:00.001-07:00

This school was on our way to our next destination, so we thought we would drop in and take their tour. Its been featured on TED and the structures of the school is entirely made of bamboo, its quite impressive that their toilets are also built to have the waste recycled...

Its really worth a tour this place! We may send the kids for a week on their next break...

Desa Seni

2011-05-16T18:17:00.000-07:00

Am a bit frustrated with blogger, it doesn't allow me to upload pictures unless I create a post and then view it and then edit it, then I can upload images... grrr.

Anyway here is a really special place in Bali... highly recommended. The owners have created a slice of what my heaven would look like, the rooms are old indonesian homes of various designs refurbished, then clustered to be like a little kampung (village). They then have edible plots of land everywhere and a full yoga schedule and an art gallery. They also have two very friendly dogs that came to stay in our room...

They were very creative in using coconuts to line the beds (from the heavy rains) and did not do companion planting as their chilli oil to deter pests would burn the herbs... Bali sure has a sophisticated eco system of plant eating bugs.

We didn't stay in this 2 storey house but when we come back with the kids and grandparents... doesn't it just look like a malay version of hansel and gretel? even the approach to the house, one wanders and then suddenly there is this place...

A busy month

2011-05-16T06:08:00.000-07:00

It has been a crazy month, starting with the Shanghai Art Museum curators in town, then a week's break and then I headed to China for 2 weeks and then a week back before a nice week with loren in Bali. Hopefully now, I will be in town for some time as we are entering the last leg of renovations at VDR. Hopefully we get the place before the kids break for summer. it is scheduled that we can move in by mid June.

I got some good news that Ike has also been accepted into YK Pao for summer school and so that will make my life alot easier, now to find a service apartment. Tomorrow is Wesak day and its a public holiday, I plan to take the boys to the National Museum as they have a large interactive exhibit for kids.

Nate is off to a 2 week trip to China with his friends. I went for the briefing today, he will be assigned a buddy and as the school is so large, every class is assigned one friend from Singapore. His best friend, Makoh will be going too and he seems excited about it. He will have to do alot of things for himself though.

They get to visit a number of places in the mornings and in the afternoons, they join in the classes and then the activities as well and stay in the dorm, though the dorm is a room with 2 beds, so he and his assigned buddy are in the room. On the weekend he goes home with his assigned buddy as well. I have a standby China visa, incase I have to fly up there!

UNO

2011-04-13T06:43:00.000-07:00

Here is nate playing with my iphone cameral function... he really wants to go on the organised school trip to China, so we have signed him up for it, its 2 weeks with another 15 kids. Parents can go too but am waiting to see what my schedule looks like. I may join depending on my schedule. Oh my baby is growing up!

Today I introduced the boys to UNO, they really liked it, except that Nate threw a big tantrum that lasted more than 30 minutes why he could not get 1 last game before book and bed time. This is rather rare of him, maybe he was really tired today?

So porpor brush up your UNO skills!

Ninja Boys

2011-04-12T05:46:00.000-07:00

Here's a short clip of the boy's dressed up as ninja's... they have recently got into Ninja-Go, lego's latest figurines. This is the first time they have asked me to sign them up for wushu lessons and willingly put on these wushu uniforms.

Ooops, I uploded the clip of them running through the new water park that is here, their ninja clip was a bit too violent!

I was away in KL last week to host the research director of the Shanghai Art Museum, although it was intense, it was also quite fun, I got to see many of my granddad's original paintings as usually we only deal with the digital images. Then in Singapore, we got the curator's tour of the Bienalle and I got to meet the director of the Mori Museum as well!

That night we took her to watch the Lion King, which I still enjoyed even though its my third time. I bought the CD for the car and the kids seem to love it alot, they are totally quiet and mesmerized listening to the music. Their schedules are now so packed, they have started their brainfit classes, which the first module is listening and they rewire the brain's listening patterns, which is quite important for ike who sometimes has difficulty differentiating sounds.

Ikey Long Legs

2011-03-31T01:17:00.000-07:00

Recently, I've noticed that Ike's legs have gotten rather long and thin... he's always had rather chubby and short legs, I think he's gone through a growth spurt. He is starting to look really coordinated and fast on the soccer pitch!

We've got the results to their "brain fitness", they scored in the average region with a bit of weakness in listening so we've signed them up for some listening classes, I think for Ike it would be quite good as he still get ANIMAL and AMINAL and a few other words confused...

Long haired boys

2011-03-20T23:58:00.000-07:00

I have been waiting for the boys to request a hair cut.... but they have yet to ask, there seems like just too much to do, like play than to get a haircut, so lets see how long it grows out to... oooh I should forward the pictures of Ike's passport photo's they look so much like loren.

Nate is home today as he had a fever last night and woke up with a rash on his stomach, his immunity must be down. Ike seems so much more independant these days too and his legs seem to have lengthened. I am hoping that their summer camp school in Shanghai will revert soon with a spot for Ike.

I spoke to Nate's chinese teacher today who said he is doing well but there are just nuances that are going to be hard to explain to someone who doesn't grow up in China... and so she wants to reduce the expectation bar for him in Chinese class. I am taking him to watch a chinese speech contest on thursday. Hopefully he will be interested to try for it next year.

One of the pics is nate making hammentaschens....

Happenings...

2011-02-28T20:22:00.000-08:00

Not much going on since bubbi left... the boys are going about their daily routine but seem to like to wrestle alot, am tempted to find a wrestling class for them. Yesterday we played paper aeroplanes and running races after their chinese tutor... today I am taking them for some neuroscience based tests, lets see what their brains are doing!

The Chinese tutor is a judge at this year's speech contest, she is planning to take Nate there to observe and maybe train him up for next years contest, his looks will probably be to our advantage.

I am trying to find another activity for ike on sundays, he now is not into rugby because its "muddy". Nots sure when he was so particular esp. when he was a baby he liked all the gooey gooey things. Here he is looking quite grown up now in his swimmers and he is sorting through the ABC's in his head, he has a very good memory as well.

The below link is to pictures from Phuket... bubbi on a water buffalo!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=273753&id=698141471e

Phuket 2011

2011-02-21T23:43:00.000-08:00

I have been very tardy in upkeeping the posts... our phuket trip was really full on... we left KL on the second day of CNY and on the third day we were in Phuket. We got to see Wei Han, Wei Yi and Wei Jin there as they were holidaying with Boon Yong, Boon Tee and Tuayi and Yizhang.

The daily routine was more or less, breakfast, homework, pool time, more pool time.... we took some days out of the Marriott holiday park to go to the water park... or a Thai life tour where the kids saw how rubber was tapped and made into sheets, bubbi even got on a water buffalo! We also had elephant rides and one day we went to a small island with many fish to snorkel. It was however overrun with tourists. Nothing like the more space and relaxed atmosphere of paradise of the east coast of malaysia. I got a day off an went to dive with Manta Rays that were in the region.

Here are some craft things that the kids did with Marcia. Ike also painted a batik shirt for himself, well actually bubbi and I had more fun then him filling in the colors....

Was a nice and relaxing holiday then the kids still had a week off where they went on playdates or other kids came to "Marcia's Museum Outing". Am glad to report the kids are now back in school.

CNY 2011

2011-02-04T03:51:00.000-08:00

So here are some pictures of bubbi giving out red packets as she gets tea served to her.... I forgot to take pictures at the temple where our somewhat large clan gathered.... bubbi tried to figure out who was who among the relatives of my granddad and his 22 kids... and then extended cousins etc... here is bubbi the gambler taking on my uncle...

KL is hot again

2011-02-01T21:07:00.000-08:00

The rain finally stopped and the sun is out again and KL is back to the usual hot hot time at Chinese New Year.

Today we went to see Ama at her grave and had a picnic there then we headed to the Royal Malaysian Airforce Museum where they allow the kids to ride in the older helicopters and aircraft they had. Here is Bubbi still alive and brave enough to get into a grounded helicopter.

The water park is the reopened outdoor area of the science center. Gong Xi Fa Cai!!

Annie and Jude's birthday

2011-02-01T20:27:00.000-08:00

Here is a picture from annie and jude's party where they were playing bite the biscuit. It rained from that saturday all the way till monday and ike didn't go to rugby though nate went to sunday school. His Jewish school teacher says he is doing well in class. We drove to KL on monday and it rained non stop!

Loren is arriving today as its Chinese New Year eve, the boys have about 10 CNY sayings pat down now! Everyone is debating on how we are not tigerish mom's enough....

Rugby and Football uniforms

2011-01-24T01:21:00.000-08:00

Actually I am still unsure if there is a difference in what they wear as when I got to the store, we printed their names and the person said, what number would they like, I always thought there were fixed numbers for different players in different positions but I guess not, nate chose 20 and ike 21.

Here is ike in his first rugby class, the sun beats down hard on this field and if it rains alot then the field is very muddy. I need to come more prepared, ie with snack bar, tonnes of water, hats and maybe a big umbrella, which would be helpful in rain as well.

I got a good chinese teacher, she is much more patient with the boys than me and also knows how to help them. She's kindly also said that she'll spend time with the kids on the weekend (for free!) to just speak and no writing type homework. Maybe shop or an outdoor activity. I thought that was very nice of her.

Am quite glad they are liking their extra curriculur activities!

The boys are growing up...

2011-01-19T05:35:00.000-08:00

whether we feed them or not... Nate sleeps in quite a bit as well and seems to have a growth spurt. One of his front tooth has dropped out, the one that he bumped years ago and turned a shade of grey. I think his gums have grow too and just in time as the adult front tooth will need space to come out, wonder if he will look bugsy... He's really good at monkey bars as well.

Ike seems to be enjoying his art class but a bit reluctant to go to to rugby (doesn't want to get muddy). Here is a chinese new year painting he did recently and a drawing of the monk in the Journey to the West (though it looks more like Sun Wukong to me). Here are some red pepper sculptures I saw at the contemporary art show in singapore, how nice they would look in my herb garden?

More photos from Ike in school

2011-01-19T05:23:00.000-08:00

Ike has quite a distinctive way of drawing people. There is the head, two large googly eyes, a rectangular body and stick hands and legs. Its quite consistent everytime he draws a person. For those who recognise the blue jacket with the teddy bear on the side, its from roots and its made for a 2 year old. Nate used it alot and now ike loves it. He barely fits into it and it has kind of stretched to its max. Here he is with his book order, a lego book that bubbi has paid for. He is using it for show and tell.

Sentosa Beach

2011-01-09T02:15:00.000-08:00

We decided to go to Sentosa Beach today with Nate's classmate, Li Yi. His mom was quite brave and went to the rocky part to pick out edible sea snails. We didn't bring them home to eat though.... The boys played with the snails for a long time, observing them come out of their shells, wiggle about and cling on to rocks or how they slid along the rocks...

Then here is ike with a broccoli sticking out of his mouth.

Ike in class this week

2011-01-09T02:12:00.000-08:00

Here are pictures from Ike's class this week. He is doing alot more show and tell sessions. They often talk about their toys, here is ike with his latest fixation, his giraffe.

They are learning about Journey to the West and the Monkey god.

Photos from this week

2011-01-09T02:09:00.000-08:00

We have harvested the beans in the school some are being dried in one of the classes and then they can run an activity to peel it. We will be taking down the beans.

Here is the picture that dehdeh's husband did but it has the reflection of me taking a picture of it.

I have signed up the boys for a saturday and here is nate at his football class... ike went to art class and painted a painting of a fire truck, which we have not seen yet.

Olivia is back!!!

2011-01-06T18:47:00.000-08:00

Olivia arrived back from her break in the Philippines and the boys are very happy. Yuli seems happy to work for us and I think we have a nice base of a happy household, the two kids love deh deh and yuli who seems to be less of an aunt and more like a big sister.

Here is Ike hugging the big bear that olivia brought back. While I was working outside their room, I heard Ike say, "mama mama" so I went in and realised he wasn't calling me but Ike was playing with his little pooh bear meeting his mom... olivia also brought back a sketch done by her husband of nate when he was much younger, but it looks so much like ike! I will post that picture another time.

I took the boys to a new museum / art gallery (I think art galleries are now opening up "museums") and here are the boys "posing".

Sentosa Island

2011-01-04T02:30:00.001-08:00

Meera was in town and we headed to Sentosa Island, we went to the beach for a bit then cycling and then to the luge. It started to rain quite heavily but stopped by the time it was our turn.

We went again on Saturday with dada and he took them to do the wave board. Nate fell off his scooter and had quite a big bump on his head. Here are short clips of the boys doing body surfing. Ike held on for more than 2+minutes before wiping out... Nate managed to get on his knees.

Junko's boys

2010-12-29T02:54:00.000-08:00

Ed and Junko were here along with their 2 boy, Jay (age 8) and Jack (age 5), well 4 boys who like each other, its almost like those boy stories that one reads about of a group of young boys on an island or something, well I can say they are very energy sapping. We took them to the zoo (almost outgrown), cycling... that wasn't bad... swimming (couldn't do cos Jack had stubbed his toe and half came off), bowling at the american club (the side bars are cool), phew. Luckily I did get time with Junko to go shopping and we all got a meal in while the boys were playing B-blades at home.

Here are two video shots of the boys who are very energetic. These monkey bars are at the new place we bought. I found a little plot of land that I could start a community garden... :)

Holidays are still not over!

2010-12-29T02:31:00.000-08:00

4 more days to go and the kids go back to school!!!! woo hoo... well I have not had much time to come up for air and update this blog. Nate had his rash resurface and alternative eyes swell up, its quite manageable now and fading away, along with a nasty mean looking rash, here are the kids in the "salt cave", a room filled with salt and they pipe in salted air as well which is like being by a beach actually. His rash went down but I kept his appointment with the skin doctor anyway. I need to restart him on the Chinese doctor as the immune booster massages kept him and ike free of illnesses (and in school!!!). Here is Ike trying to make a snow angel.

Here is Edward my cousin's son in his army fatigues. I am grateful that he comes over to play with the boys even if its Mario brothers...

So the conclusion of this holiday with the boys is that I will need to plan the next long stretches alot better... well bubbi is here for CNY! yay!

More KL photos

2010-12-22T03:48:00.000-08:00

Hmmm, it was really easy to upload the videos, I think I will try to take more videos! Here are the kids burning paper up to heaven or hell for the ancestors and the family reunion lunch.

We did some clay activities as well and here are some of the thing that we ended up making. Ike likes turtles, snails, sheep and recently lady's fingers cos the little white seeds inside resemble icky fish eyeballs...

And Jake playing football (did I post this already??)

KL dec 2010

2010-12-22T03:40:00.000-08:00

The kids had their last day of school on Friday and we decided to skip the Christmas school performance and head to KL instead. We were there for about 6 days... here is nate in a ball over the water, I went with him on the first round, its quite hard to balance inside the ball and it gets quite warm as well.

This is the first time all the cousin's played so well together. We tried to get them to sleep in the same room but that didn't quite work out yet. We had a reunion year end dinner at my granddad's temple in KL and caden and chloe were there too which made managing the boys alot easier.

It is rainy season now in KL so the weather cools down alot. There is alot of break-ins as well in my brother's neighbourhood and luckily his home does not face a slope where people can climb in. They put in gantries last year as there were neighbours robbed as they were gardening outside their home!

Venus the frog

2010-12-12T22:12:00.000-08:00

One of the school projects, the kids have to take pictures of their activities with Venus the frog. Although nate really seemed to want to do this project.... when it got to the writing part, he got distracted by his new B Blades and his friend staying over... so short entries for Venus!

Blast from the past....

2010-12-12T22:02:00.000-08:00

More Ike pictures

2010-12-11T03:46:00.000-08:00

Here is ike in class.... the gardening class mom plucked the sunflowers and the kids got to harvest the seeds. Too bad the seeds didn't develop fully such that we could grow them again. Other mom's teaching the kids to make christmas decorations.

Took the boys to the beach today and at one point we could see the rain come it, it didn't rain very hard where we were. Ike at one point came up and asked... what are lips for... I missed my opportunity to say for kissing, instead I say to keep your saliva in... then he said what is our body for? and I said to come to earth and learn something and with that he ran off into the ocean. I guess you could feed kids anything and they will believe it? We had a little fruit picnic at the beach and its interesting to observe other parents who won't let their kids play in the rain... One more week of school and we head to KL for a few days...

More photo's

2010-12-05T20:49:00.000-08:00

Ike's class and their trip to the zoo. Ike likes his small backpack for his field trips.

Venus the frog

2010-12-02T03:48:00.000-08:00

This is Venus the frog... he is nate's school project, each child gets Venus for 4 days and has to write about their activities with Venus in a book. Venus has been with Makoh to Japan!! on a horse with Nora and all sorts of other experiences... It lit the candles with the boys for hanukka and is now perched on top of the hanukka presents next to buddha and under the chinese words stuck all over our walls that nate has to learn for his chinese...

Now if I can get a picture of olivia kissing the frog in hopes of a prince or maybe I should find a venus flytrap for the parody...

Gardening classes at CNIS

2010-12-02T03:42:00.000-08:00

So I have restarted the gardening classes at CNIS, this time... I have more parental support, I managed to get a few mom's and each will take a class or two during the week and each class has a plot. The plot's will hopefully go back to the classes and hopefully we don't have too much plants dying in this process.

I originally wanted Nate and Ike's classes but so did several mom's from that class so I got P2 and P4. It was nice to hear the appreciation from the teachers and to see the kids enjoy the session though it was rather chaotic at times.

Its always funny to see the kids go ewe when they encounter a worm or when they see me pick veges from the garden and just eat it. The P2 class picked their own young Bak Choy sprouts... not sure if their parents would let them eat it! The P4 class found all sorts of creatures in their plot... from a big hibernating bug to earthworms. Sadly as part of the process, the kids have to pull out some plants and the tomatos were just starting to flower.

I heard from another class that the sunflower seeds got plucked and was an activity for one of the younger classes. I am happy the garden gets used!

Loren and Hanukka presentation at CNIS

2010-12-02T03:18:00.000-08:00

Here is Loren making a 20 min presentation in K2 and P1a, nate and ike's class. He prepared a few nights before by looking through youtube's sesame street and hanukka, did one on the macabees and the miracle of the oil. The menorah, kippas, dreidels and our wedding gift of a 1000 year old oil lamp from Israel came in handy for the presentation, the latkes were a hit too.

We had a PTA meeting before that, that was rather discouraging so this presentation with the kids and their attentiveness and interest (ike's googly eyes at dada) made the day alot better. Many kids asked many good questions, I wished I bought enough dreidels for each of them.

Ike's class in preparation for the Hanukkah talk actually did some coloring and printed out the hebrew characters on the dreidel. Loren taught the kids how to play with the dreidel and the kids followed him in the lighting of the candles. Was very nice.

Caterpillar died and teacher reviews

2010-11-24T17:13:00.000-08:00

oh so sad, the tiny guy we found when he was a quarter of an inch and made it to about an inch and then he kaputted!

I had the teacher reviews and for ike, he is now confirmed a leftie, he is the only leftie in a class of 20. He is progressing well but lacks the confidence to speak up in show and tell. Maybe cos nate does many things for him he tries to wriggle out of being compared or to do them? He does however veer toward adult company and can talk alot in english (lacking confidence in chinese) and the teachers notice he pulls his arms up to his chest whenever he is nervous.

As for Nate, I have another review today with the homeroom teacher but the review with his chinese teacher was quite good, he is doing well, he likes chinese spelling and to date has had only perfect scores which I need to tell him that making mistakes are good too as you learn alot more there. His handwriting is still rather poor but when it comes to spelling he knows an extra stroke makes the character different so he is very careful and neat there. hmmm.

The boys have picked out their hanukka presents and are counting down... I find pistol and jake often in the boys room, sleeping there at night, since their door isn't closed... sneaky!

Nearing the end of 2010!

2010-11-22T06:15:00.000-08:00

I can't believe its year end, the weather gives no clues and its already end november! We brought the caterpillar home over the weekend to observe and boy is that caterpillar a big eater and then a big poo maker. By sunday, its eating capabilities slowed down alot and then it wasn't moving and then furry bits fell off, we thought its head dropped off. We thought it died... but instead it molted to become a bigger. fluffier caterpillar.

If I am successful in uploading a video clip, its of jake playing football with us. Nate is very into his football and loves it, we practice everyday. To think I signed him up for lessons in South Africa and he absolutely hated it. Edward came by today as he was out from camp and he has his head shaven for national service.

Nate has been doing well in both his chinese and english spellings and here are some of ike's drawings. Ike's quite adamant about his favourite things like giraffes, snails, the color green, his pooh bear (soft things) and the gingerbread man.

Run up to hanukka 2010

2010-11-17T21:21:00.000-08:00

Its that time of the year again. The boys have picked out their 8 presents and we have got 4 of them so far.... they keep them in a basket and stare longingly at the packaging till hanukka comes....

I got a nice break and went to HKG with a girlfriend last friday, we got back on monday. We had a very civilised time shopping, eating and most important sleeping and not needing to get out of bed till we felt like it. We had only adult company and it was a really nice break.

In the meantime.... ike had a chocolate croissant with dada when nate went to sunday school, ike slept with dada as he had a bit of croup and peed on my side of the bed and here he is doing a show and tell of a teeny tiny caterpillar that we got from the school garden.

Harvests

2010-11-11T01:04:00.000-08:00

We are having daily harvests at the garden now which is really nice, not big harvests so I think I will start passing them on to the teachers. Ike's old chinese teacher at K1 got the beans and lady's fingers, since she has been here fm China, she has not had lady's fingers!

Here are pictures of nate cutting the ladies fingers and our small crop today. I now have a mom photographing the garden :). She sent me this cute picture of Ikey.

Our long bean patch and cucumber patch have been attacked by aphids. I wish I could buy a box of baby preying mantis or baby ladybugs here and set them loose! Get the predators going against the pests... I saw a few cute small lizards hunting for butterflies in the garden too.

Yuli our new helper has joined us today, she is indonesian and speaks only chinese to the boys, so far so good for day 1.

Diwali 2010

2010-11-07T18:26:00.000-08:00

This week was a long weekend... it was the diwali festival of light. The kids and I started off with the movie Megamind with one of Nate's friends from school, Liyi. The boys had an active weekend, we headed to the botanical gardens, took the dogs for a long walk at fort canning, they went with loren to the mushroom play place where nate did the obstacle course, we also went to the library to borrow books, a friend's home for diwali and they went with loren to look at scooters. Uncle Oliver was in town as well, he had not seen nate since nate was 1! Loren and I managed to catch that new movie on Facebook as well.

I managed to get some time off too when loren took the boys. I got to bring my cousin Jin to see the place we bought and her thoughts on how we renovate. We could not see the actual unit as the seller is still in it but I managed to get a viewing at a unit that is being rented out. This week is lawyers and paperwork.

Here is ike painting his diwali candle holder and nate on the obstacle course. Our wall in the apartment is pasted with all the words nate (chinese words) and ike (ABCs) need to learn.

Halloween 2010

2010-10-30T05:18:00.000-07:00

Here are the boys dressed for halloween in school. As I write this, they are at some other community going trick or treating. Tomorrow the apartment block next to ours will be having their halloween.

I had a nice day to myself today as loren said he will take the boys out... just the boys... So I went to sentosa on my own, got a bike and rode around, I really feel like going diving again but the waters here aren't great, the aquarium is about as close as I get to fishies... I then went to a spa for a massage, read my book, lounged at their nice pool... ahhhhh.

GCC harvest

2010-10-30T05:14:00.000-07:00

The goldhill community club had a harvest on Friday afternoon, I took the boys after school and they got to run around the japanese garden that they are trying to build, they got to pluck veges from the ground, see what tall corn plants look like and also how banana's are harvested.

They were given nets to try and catch butterflies too. I had very yummy rojak, and vietnamese vegetarian roles.... shiokadoo!

Garden in the school

2010-10-30T05:12:00.000-07:00

is coming along quite nicely. I am still trying to get a dinosaur for the front area that looks rather prehistoric anyway. I may have to have bubbi bring over a dino topiary wire if my efforts fail to get a dino here!

So the colorful tyres are part of the gardening club, which vinisha is running... the sunflowers are our patch, I think i didn't fertilise them enough in the early stages so they are still rather stunted. I am building the kids a maze as well and that will probably take some time before it looks anything like a maze.

Week 8 at school

2010-10-22T01:42:00.000-07:00

Today was international day, it was nice to see alot more parents participate in making it a special day for the kids, there were quite a number of tables and different countries represented, including Canada, didn't realise there were so many canadians in the school.

Ike decided to dress up as superman for international day, of course the parent feels a bit out of place and other parents probably either feel embarased for me or think what a moron I must be (actually most had a good laugh)... ike on the other hand thinks he is cool and all his friends think he is cool and wish they could come in superhero as well.

Nate was a Zulu boy again, dressed in a grass skirt. The kids showed us what they have been learning or doing the semester todate.

Here are some pics of our week, we were in the botanical gardens with Jin, Caden and Aunty Melissa. The mural with the animals is the first wall that is painted at the school, am very pleased with the way the herb garden is turning the space into more usable space and as we expand from there, we are now building a maze as well for the kids.

Lilliput

2010-10-13T07:16:00.000-07:00

I took the boys to lilliput after school today, Caden joined us there after his gym class, which was around the corner. It is a tacky mini golf place but nate really likes it since he attended his friend's birthday party there. Ike is too young to play but he anyway fell asleep. He must have been tired as he was woken up by thunder and lightning the night before and spent an hour trying to sneak into my bed.

Here is ike asleep in a meditating pose, well it was kind of a meditation pose till his head tilted over. The picture is from last week's wushu extra curriculur. Nate is now taking Claymation and Soccer, Ike does soccer too but usually is sapped by the heat at about the half time zone. He came home from soccer yesterday wanting a haircut saying his longish hair was just to hot for his brain.

Nate's homework has increased alot, he gets chinese homework every monday, wed and friday, last friday he brought back reading homework due today and then on monday he gets a pile of english and math homework due on friday!!! Not sure I can keep up!!! Ike likes to draw while nate and I do homework, oh and jewish school he gets some as well but I can't really help him out there. Here is Nate doing his english reading on the floor before we set up the homework table.

Here is Ike's chosen birthday present from Uncle Peter. The garden picture if of the beans growing and our major compost pit....
am quite happy with the garden as it is being used alot more now for some of the classes integrating the school curriculum such as measuring or who you are is what you eat (we harvested nice nice lettuces and radish and planted some corn).

Oh what a week...

2010-10-10T07:26:00.000-07:00

We moved out of Mount Echo Park last monday into a much smaller apartment, I am much happier at the smaller space, though the dogs are not entirely used to not having access to a garden. Loren left for HK then Canada on Friday.

Nate has been getting alot more homework as he is now in primary one and I need to figure out a system or time to sit down with him to do homework! I took the boys to Wild Wild Wet today, sorry no pictures as it was quite wet! On the way home we got pulled over by a police officer, I glanced at my speedometer as he asked me to pull over and was not over the speed limit. When he got to my window, I asked him if the boys were making funny faces at him, he laughed and said no, but he wanted to check if they were properly strapped in with a seat belt (they were).

The boys were quite concerned, they were as quiet as a mouse and then they said, oh we can breathe again now.... they seem to take authority quite seriously!

Been posting alot on Ike

2010-10-08T03:26:00.001-07:00

as i have been swiping the photo's off the teacher's weekly report... I will have to take more pics of Nate. I spoke to Ike's class teacher today, she said on the english side he recognises letters that make up his name, not the full alphabet yet but they will go through that material this year. She said he is good at math and he understands chinese though reluctant to speak, as the teacher told a joke and he laughed.

I am now on the hunt for a chinese speaking helper. We moved to an apartment this week and am still unpacking. Loren has left for canada today.

Some Photo's from Ikes class

2010-10-04T02:31:00.000-07:00

Moon Festival 2010

2010-09-26T07:36:00.000-07:00

So we did not have a big party this year, just a quieter one where they boys got sparklers and lanterns and got to stay up a bit late. Am in Ko Samui with loren at the moment, we are on a yoga and meditation retreat, may muscles are all achy! We will be here till Saturday and when we get back we will be moving homes. We didn't get to buy a place yet as the government changed some rules and we are hoping the market comes down a bit. So we are renting for now...

School...

2010-09-26T07:23:00.000-07:00

The kids are settling in quite nicely. Loren is going to be involved in the PTA this year. Here is a pic of Ike in school doing some art (he is quite confirmed a leftie).

We also went to the beach last sunday and they played alot, while I did this "artistic" pine seed on branch thing.

Nate's dental xray

2010-09-26T07:05:00.000-07:00

Here is an xray of nate's teeth. It really looks like an alien's mouth, there is the set of his existing teeth and the adult teeth that are being formed below his baby teeth.

He also has 3 cavities. The dr has fixed 2, they were caught early so no pain. We now have to start flossing as well.

What we have been up to...

2010-09-17T07:51:00.000-07:00

Today is Nate's birthday, we bought a cake for him to take to school and some photo's of when he was younger and his past b'day pictures along with his birth certificate. Had a brief chat with his teacher who said he has high IQ and EQ, is an average reader but not a risk taker. He is shy to read in front of his friends and doesn't like it when he can't read a word, though at home he doesn't seem to have that problem. I wonder how we step up our reading... maybe more reading time in bed, both chinese and english books. He does know big words like "republic" because it appears in star wars.

We went skating after school, ike tried for the first time, guess who is sore all over propping him up on the bar? he though is getting the hang of it and then passed out like a rock in the car. I think dada needs to take them more often! I thought I took a pic of him in skates but it didn't show up when I uploaded my pics.

Here is the school garden, now being dug up by other parents, its nice to have more company in the garden but I also have been spending more time there than the stuff that needs to get off my desk. We're going to put in a corm patch there.

Here is ike's teacher from last year, showing the kids how to feed the "banana eating plant". I remember that was so coool when I learnt that. I think I need to involve ike's classroom a bit more.

Nate jumping off some big logs at our dog walk at fort canning park and I have been showing nate more and more of Niubizi, the cartoon character created by my granddad and how to draw it (as its really easy, its just lines, dots and circles), nate is getting the hang of it but all his Niubizi created are of star wars... now thats an angle for my future marketing! yoda meets niubizi or alien morphs niubizi with yoda...

KL - Hari Raya 2010

2010-09-12T05:34:00.000-07:00

We decided last minute to go to KL and the traffic was not bad at all, we left after the boy's school on Thursday at about 230pm and got into KL at about 6pm. The boys fell asleep in the car. No rain on the way. Similar on the way back too, no rain and although they woke up early, they slept just as we were about 10km from the border.

The 4 cousins really bonded this time and seemed to enjoy each other's company. My aunt is also back from Houston and came to stay with us for two nites. The boys got to go to 2 new play places and wear themselves out. In the afternoons we went swimming but the two days we were there it poured. We also got to attend JH's second son's one month birthday party. It was food, food and more good food.

I think we also figured out who the SIngapore PRs are going out to... apparently all the Malaysians that are defecting to Singapore! have succeeded in getting their PRs, while all the angmoh friends here that we know off that applied are just getting rejected left right and center. There has always been a priority for Malaysian Chinese in getting a singaporean PR, I guess they assimilate better but this is like the mass malaysian chinese exodus in the 1980s...

More birthday photos

2010-09-05T19:54:00.000-07:00

Rosh Shana photos

2010-09-05T19:51:00.000-07:00

I bought some sparklers (not enough though) and the kids wanted to swim at night, here is Ike being tossed high high by uncle allan.

Photos from Ikes first week back at school

2010-09-05T06:20:00.000-07:00

Well day one on wednesday was just a 2 hour stint, on thursday, ike was acting up about not wanting to go to school. When I left him, he was yelling and screaming, oh it was not fun. By Friday, the nonsense was gone and he actually went without a fuss. Here are some pictures of him with the butterfly he made, a non-kosher looking mask and his show and tell of his pencil case, not sure why he is all slouched over.

Loren has been trying to figure out how to try and sort the school out and has already met with the principal and the admissions person about the school. The PTA leader has left and so there is a vacancy, I hope he takes it up as there is alot of support from other parents and not enough communication or "effective" communication from the school administration and owners.