Happy Birthday Catitlyn!

I can't beleive she's one already! We had a great time for Caitlyn's birthday this weekend, inviting some old time friends and some new friends. What a blast! I had a friend come and take proffessional pics of her, so when I get those I will post them as well.

Ethan made a new friend named Jackson, it was so great to watch them play together. Caitlyn wasn't sure what to do woth all the poeple in the house though. And as if it wasn't enough to watch her make a mess of herself the first time she ate her "cake", we had to do it again for all to see. She really dove into it this time!

Sweet Caitlyn

Caitlyn is definately sweet enough on her own, but I wanted to give her a taste of a real sweetness on her birthday. CHOCOLATE! I am not real sure of where this tradition comes from, letting the children play in thier food on thier frist birthday. Not allowing them to have any sweets their whole short life, and then giving them something full of sugar, to run thier fingers wildly through while we laugh at the cuteness of it all. THEN, we wonder why they want to play with their food al the time. And I am sure they are wondering why in the world we won't let them, after all, we did that one time and everyone thought it was so darn cute! If you think about it, it doesn't really make sense.

Well, I went ahead and did it anyway. I mean, who am I to break such a tradition? I made her a healthy one at least. It's called Avocado pudding. It consist of avocados, cocoa, agave syrup, and coconut cream. Then I made a crust of ground almonds and agave mixed. Put some fruit slices in and on top and viola! A yummy dessert that's healthy too. No, I couldn't resist the urge to put a plug in here for healthy treats, it's a passion, what can I say?

Christmas in November

So, most of you know the saga about our container arriving in Sg last yr. Well, the saga continues! This is what our house looked like last weekend when we had 60 boxes arrive from our container. You see, Steve thought it would be a great idea to get some stuff out of storage and go through it before they sent it back to the U.S. finally. Now, in theory, it sounded like a great idea. But halfway through the morning when we kept discovering things we hadn't seen in 3 yrs, yet didn't have a place for them, we quickly wished we hadn't done it.

Steve enjoyed going through old highschool and college yearbooks, while the younger boys fondly remembered the train we used to put around the Christmas tree. It was fun, if only for a while.

Just too cute!

Carving Pumpkins

I sometimes wonder wether the pumpkin carving is more for the adults or for the children. After picking the pumpkins we all came back and carved them. However, you can't put a sharp pointed object in the hand of a boy, especially when they love sword fights! So, all the adults took a deep breath and dove in. How quickly you forget about the mess it makes, and the slime! As you can tell, Ryan was thoroughly disgusted at the slimy goopy mess. He kept saying "I'm gonna throw up!". He obviously doesn't take after me, I love goopy stuff! Aaron, on the other hand, dove in head first, with both hands having a great time! Now, that's my boy!

Great fun was had by all. One & a half hours, four adults, and five boys later, we have five cool pumpkins with various designs ready to light up the night.

Pickin' pumpkins

I was excited to here when a friend told me she was going to pick pumpkins, as I haven't done so since we came here 3 1/2 yrs ago. This was one of my favorites thing to do in the harvest season. The Singapore American School (sas) had converted one of their outdoor play areas to a pumpkin patch. There were lots to choose from, of all different sizes. It was so fun, remembering like it was "back in the good ol' days".

There weren't cheap though! Having to ship them in from the U.S. they charged a pretty penny for each pumpkin. But the little ones were only $1 each, and the Indian Corn was 2/$1. This was cool because last year when I bought some at Cold Storage they were at least $5 each.

Anyway, we had a fun fall day today.

This is Caitlyn enjoying Beehoon. I am not exactly sure how you spell it, but it has become one of our regular weekly meals. It consists of rice noodles, and various veggies with chicken stir fried. Add a little Tamari sauce and viola! YUM!

As for how much she actualy ate vs wore, I am not sure. But, it was definately fun to watch!

Mr. Peter

We are always blessed when Peter comes to Singapore. This time he joined us on our Sunday tradition across the bridge to Brewerkz, our favorite burger joint. The boys enjoy sharing with him all thats new and telling srories as well. It was Cate's first time meeting Peter, she took to him quite well, blessing him with a smile.

We sure hope Eileen, Peter's wife, can join him on the next trip out!

The Second Day of School!

Why not the first day of school? Well, I decided it was better to remember the 2nd day than the first. It was "School Spirit" week at ICS. This means you dress up in different themes assigned for the particular day. Day 2 was "mismatch day". They all had so much fun with that one. Other days were "celebrity day", "futuristic day", "pajama day", you get the idea.

The first day was full of hurrying, and stress for me. The rain came down inside and out. We arrived a bit late because it was raining so heavy that morning. It seemed like the longest carride ever. I was excited for my little boy to start school but it was hard to see him in a sea of people not knowing what to do with it all. The excitement and flurry of people at the schoolyard was a bit too much for both of us.

BUT, we both survived and are loving it!

Ethan's teacher is Mrs. Lawrence. She has 5 children, whom she homeschooled for several years before moving to Singapore. You can imagine my delight when I heard this! A woman who shares my heart. Ethan loves her, and I am sure they will have a fantastic year!

Aaron's Teacher is Miss Ringy. Actually, that's not how you spell her name, but that's how it's pronounced (ca't remember how to spell it). She is also a great teacher. He is one of 10 students I think, so his cvlass it quite small this year. Miss Ringy had the class write Aaron welco0me notes for his first day. This blessed us beyond measure! His face lit up so brightly and he wanted to make them all cards in return. For him, having friends and fitting in ranks real high. He was afraid it would be hard to make friends. God is taking care of them exactly the way they need to be.

Ryan enjoys having someone to ride the bus with in the morning, and is a great big brother helping Ethan get settled when they first get there. I am blessed by his friendship and responsibility to them.

Peaceful

In one word, that's what 3 hours of my day was like. Oddly peaqceful. Aaron and Ethan visited their school today. I stayed to sneak peaks at them throughout the morning, and also had a meeting with some of Ryan's teachers, so by the time I got home, 3 hours were left. It was oddly quiet, but I could definately get used to it. Ya know, by the time they got home I felt totally rejuvinated to take them on and hear about their days, do homework ect ect. I had some great time with Caitlyn, just me and my baby girl. It was surreal. I can't help but feel slightly guilty when I dream about Monday morning when they will all go again and I have the entire day like that again. The sleep I will catch up on, more one on one time with Cate, and study without interuptions. But I am sure the novelty will wear off and I will want the noise and craziness of them all back for the day. The cometitions at the lunch table of who can eat the fastest, or silly stories that you have no idea if they will ever end, or the jokes they come up with that you pretend to think are funny. The boy noises, gross questions, messes, and rocks collected on our nature walks. I haven't had just one in the house for 7 yrs. Teaching them and watching them discover was often the best part of my day. Seasons. They come and go. Yes, I know that just because they are gone for a time during the day doesn't meanI won't get to see those things again. The are boys afterall, and full of energy and life! Dinner is just the same, if not more so since now all 3 of them will have silly stories from school. Nature walks will be relished for weekends and days off.

Another feild trip to the Science center found us watching a movie at the Omnimax Theatre called "Hurricane on the Bayou". Ryan brought along a friend from school named Alex. Four boys after sitting through a documentary with carmel popcorn for snack can get quite obnoxious ya know! It was all great fun!

Singapore Airforce Museum

Another feild trip we went on which was really cool! Yes, we have been taking alot of feild trips lately. I figured, since I only have a few weeks left of teaching the boys before they go to ICS, I might as well have lots of fun with them! So, we take 1-2 feild trips a week for this month. God has blessed us mightly.

Singapore Children's Garden

Last week we went for a felid trip with the Butz's, who homeschool also, to the brand new Chidren's Garden in Singapore. It was really quite nice and the kids had a blast. There were a few places that weren't finished, like a place we could plant flowers, and dye plants. There was a huge tree house made in the middle of a Banyan tree which the boys loved. Their other favorite part was the watering wells. Because the weather is unbelievably hot lately, they stayed in this spot the longest and ended up soaking wet.

International Night

Ryan's school holds a dinner annually to celebrate all the nationalities involved. I think there are 16 contries currently, with a total of just over 300 students. Each country represented put on a specail show or talent. The Korean drums were fascinating, the boys favorite! It was sper cute to see the kindergarteners sing a song in Mandarin while trying to hold up the coordinating signs with Chinese writing. The picture of the boys is Ryan and his new best friend at school, Sok Joon.

This is what I call a real sinus problem! I am not sure why they find it so fascinating to climb up in the nose and sit there but they do. Boys will be boys I guess. This nose is in the Science Center, in the Human Body section. We visited last week while we were trying to0 decide if we wanted to start studying the human body or the animal kingdom for science. After all the hype with the nose, they chose the animal kingdom. Go figure.

Ryan talking to Beca

They may be worlds apart but they remain the best of friends. What a special blessing!

Two wheelin' it

Ethan's learning to ride a two wheeler like his brothers and doing excellent! He has picked it up in less than a month. He can ride on his own now, but has trouble starting, and going over anything but smooth terrain. Give it time and he will be going down the hills like the bigs boys I'm sure.

Today we rode across the bridge to the castle playground to celebrate with him. If you look hard, in the 2nd picture it's the red blob off in the distnace next to the stadium. He did quite well!

Daddy's little girl

There really are no words to describe these few pictures. It's special in many ways.