Halloween 2010

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

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

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

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

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...

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

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

Moon Festival 2010

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...

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

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...

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

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...