Furano, Hokkaido

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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

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

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

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...

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...

Lego exhibition and Legoland Malaysia!!!!

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...

KL December 2011

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 T's new house, which will take about 3 years to complete).

Various Pictures

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!

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 T 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

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....