Better late than never!

While a little sad to be away from family and friends at Easter, the Aldous Adventurers managed. A show at the Singapore Repertory Theatre, a few glorious family swims and a relaxing Easter brunch on Sentosa Island all helped make our long Easter weekend *eggstra* special.

The children loved the show. A cute rendition of Rapunzel (she’s trapped in a giant cactus, her parents have been turned into an armadillo and road runner, and the evil fake mom uses Rapunzel’s tears to win local cooking competitions, and the prince who comes to rescue her is wearing pajamas), it was hilarious, the songs were catchy and the set was simple.

 

Once dried and refreshed we headed back out to Boat Quay and enjoyed  some MORE, yes more, black pepper crab! Maggie and Jack aren’t huge fans , but they love the mantou rolls that come with it!

 

      

The Easter bunny visited Singapore and to the children’s surprise he hid jellybeans, not chocolate eggs around the house. That clever, silly  bunny must  know how expensive  chocolate eggs are in Singapore! NOTE: The Easter bunny brought Jack a book titled, “I Hate Peas.” Although “hate” is not a word we typically condone, the Easter bunny is into supporting local Singaporean authors who donate their proceeds to children in Cambodia;)

We made our first visit to Sentosa Island. Sentosa is a small island to the south of the mainland and it is FULL of resorts and amusements. Much like entering Orlando, the buzz is immediate. Maggie Lou and Jack’s excitement levels rose visibly as we passed by the monorail, Universal Studios and the huge Sentosa Merlion (yes, there’s more than one). Our destination, however was not nearly as exciting; we were just having brunch. Once inside the hotel the kids were transfixed by the desserts and children’s activities.

 

                                                        

and this

 

 

 

 

 

We made our way over to the Merlion and walked off some of the chocolate!

 

                                                       

 

This Merlion was special because you could take a lift to the top. You can see our house  just over the busiest port in the world!

This week in “you won’t see this in Lee, NH”

Mosquito patches (these examples are Japanese). Don’t spray your children … just stick a patch on. Thankfully we haven’t needed to use them yet. We’ll save them for home as the mosquitos will be biting upon our arrival!

 

Lastly, a few pics from The Canadian International School …. Maggie Lou experimenting with color after learning about Matisse, and Mama and Dad at Maggie Lou’s conference last week!

    

Stay tuned for our next  installment … our appetite for adventurous eating has been resurrected and we’re gearing up to celebrate our little man’s FOURTH birthday!

We’re on a roll for rainy Saturdays … plans of beach going and pool staying go the wayside and we wonder, what will we do? To escape the 1000 square foot house in the sky, we do what all Singaporeans do – head to the mall!  Mama believes that only one quarter of the malls in Singapore will be visited by the time our six months is up. That being said we try to hit a new one each week. Last weekend was VivoCity.  This week was Plaza Singapura. A vertical mall – its stores, rather than sprawling, are stacked. Our favorite part of the day was finding the Japanese $2 store, Daiso full of kitsch and bustle. Mama couldn’t leave without some goodies. And, it takes a mall on a Saturday to make you feel like you’re in a city of 5.3 million people.

 

 

 

There is a definite focus on appearance in Singapore – so the “get slim” tricks and treatments can be found everywhere. Here the kiddos take a turn on the “Aibi” – aimed at stabilizing yourself fit (we think). Mama finds them fun and relaxing, but she doesn’t think it will fit in our suitcase.

 

 

The highlight of the week was attending Maggie Lou’s “student led conference.” An empowering approach to showing us her progress in the classroom, the students are asked to outline (and rehearse) areas in class to  engage their parents in – we spent a half hour immersed in kindergarten! We learned about math, their current inquiry about art, the mixing of different materials and her challenges and successes in Mandarin. Hats off to all the students of Singapore – it seems a tricky language to learn!

 

 Michael and colleague, Suddha (from home office in Boston) enjoyed black pepper crab on Boat Quay one night. It was so good that the family went back to the same restaurant for more black pepper crab … we may have a family favorite!

A few things you probably won’t see in NH:

Lastly, as we get ready for Easter in Singapore, we are grateful for all the cards and goodies that came our way. We are missing our church community and children’s choir this time of year, but have been talking about what Easter means and singing Easter songs. To get us in the mood we sculpted our own Easter decorations from the playdough Maggie Lou and mama made and we shared some of our goodies with neighbor, Brent. He had never seen a Peep before!

 

The Aldous children have contracted “fishitis.”This disorder is characterized by a strong desire to swim ALL day long! Maggie Lou is growing fins and Jack has a layer of scales, and they can’t get enough jumping, diving for rings and playing with new friends.

   Jumping Jack – the water wings really help him fly!

Over the weekend, Michael and I slipped away to enjoy a night on the town – we started at the beautiful Raffles Hotel, birthplace of the Singapore Sling. The Long Bar (yes, it’s a long bar) serves peanuts and tradition dictates sweeping the shells onto the floor. Mama does not like messy traditions.

Both kids were back to school this week and the weather seems to have settled into a daily pattern of wicked hot, afternoon thunderstorm, wicked humid, wicked hot, repeat.  After almost 3 months, routine is being achieved!

To celebrate the end of her holiday, Maggie Lou and mommy got mani/pedis. ML chose a nice sparkly pink!

                                   

Mama has had the pleasure of helping out in Maggie Lou’s classroom with one of their art projects – a multi-week papier mache exploration. Although mama did not get photos of the children’s papier mache, mama did manage to take some of the school for Maggie Lou’s memories.

 

 

Things you probably won’t see in NH!

  Getting the word out about Krispy Kreme’s opening!

 

 

Lost Thailand Photos:

Maggie Lou has been on school holiday the past two weeks and that, in addition to Jack starting school this week, has Mama a bit confused about days and weeks! This post will hopefully serve as a “catch up,” as week 8 was neglected and overshadowed by our Thailand episode. Having Maggie Lou home has been a treat and all the adventures that Jack and Mama were saving  until we were all together have been executed: The ArtScience Museum – Dawn to Extinction exhibit, Mr. Peabody and Sherman, The Singapore Art Museum, The Peranakan Museum, and  the flower domes at Gardens by the Bay. The kids have been MAJOR troopers and know the city very well. Mama cringes (and prays the taxi driver has limited English) when Jack points out the taxi driver  is going the wrong way. Jack is often spot on, even though a little cheeky. This past weekend we spent quality time by the pool, visited the Botanical Gardens and had dinner with an old high school friend of Mama’s.  We are still enjoying our time and trying to make the most of every moment!

The Botanical Gardens were planted in the English Landscape Movement’s style (natural and flowing, as opposed to trimmed and ornate) and cover 74 hectacres (1 hectacre=2.47 acres). This beautiful sanctuary in the middle of the city continues to play an important role as a hub of tropical botany. We planned to spend a few hours in the gardens, but the weather was a bit sticky. When we “alighted” the MRT we were surprised to find everything soaked; we had missed a quick rainstorm. Despite the gardens feeling more like a sauna, we persevered and headed to the Jacob Ballas Children’s Garden.                                                                      Singapore Grass

We also made a visit to Daddy’s office after hours. Yes, it’s an awesome office. Maggie Lou and Mama explored the Singapore Art Museum. The exhibit is titled “Unearthed” and all pieces were by local artists exploring Singapore’s relationship to nature in such an urban area. Maggie Lou was an excellent visitor — very curious, creative and thoughtful.

The dinosaur exhibit at the ArtScience was great – interactive, educational and complete with a nice craft and excellent gift shop.  

To round out our museum visits we also hit up the Peranakan Museum. If you remember from Week 6, Peranakan is the word to describe descendants of Chinese traders who came to Singapore during the 15-17th centuries and married locals. They’ve created and maintained a unique culture, showcased at this museum.

The last part of the museum had a mini exhibit on local Peranakan couples and their love stories … We finally made it INTO the flower dome and cloud forest over in the Gardens by the Bay. Amazing how cooling and refreshing walking around these domes can be. We were just about melting prior to visiting these lush attractions.

    Lastly, here’s this week’s installment of “you probably won’t see this in NH!”