Swimming with Dolphins

 Without a doubt one of my children's favorite activities so far has been swimming with the pink dolphins at Underwater World in Sentosa. A dream of theirs came true that morning. After a brief introduction to the dolphins they were allowed into the lagoon to swim around with the dolphins. Seeing them splash around made me kind of wish that I had signed up too, but then again I have visions of myself hanging on to Flipper and swimming way out into the ocean. One day... 

http://www.underwaterworld.com.sg/adventures_swimdolphin.htm

Christmas Countdown

This pocketed-numbered (does that make sense?) piece of fabric is the reason that my children for the past 2 weeks have not complained once about waking up. These days they run down the stairs excitedly to see what the "Christmas Angels" have brought them during the night, so far they have received lots of silly bandz, chocolate santas and candy canes. Need to thank www.kikki-k.com for this year's advent calendar. Kikki K's creator is  from Sweden, hence the little Nordic flair to her stationery, but the company is based in Australia, hence the snowfree Christmas catalog. Check out her website - my current favorite is the "3am" notebook. Store locations in Singapore: Ion, Tampines Mall and Changi Airport - in case you have not finished your Christmas shopping head to one of these locations and you'll wrap up your list in no time.

My little elf this morning before he went off to his Christmas concert

"Petit Papa Noël..."

Ah! la belle Escalade

"Qu'ainsi périssent les ennemis de la République"

that's what we screamed tonight for desert before our chocolate orgy began.

Great friends from Geneva sent us a chocolate "marmite", so that we too could celebrate the Escalade here in Singapore. Breaking the traditional marmite is the Genevan way of celebrating their December, 1602 victory over the Savoyards when they tried to take hold of Geneva. Belief is that the Mère Royaume threw her cauldron of boiling soup on the head of a Savoyard soldier. 

So much for the little Geneva history lesson I'm going back to the chocolate before the kids eat it all.

Fresh cuts at the mall

With this kind of heat there was no choice, but to head to the mall and give Oscar a trim to keep him cool and at Junction 8 we found if not the coolest hairdresser for kids the funnest one. 

 Oscar first off got to choose a movie, stickers, and a balloon. Then followed a no wash haircut, so no shampoo in the eyes and at the end of it all he got to choose which color streaks he wanted to add to his new "do." He was feeling green after all this choosing. Needless to say his sisters want to go back to the same place and get a combo of pink & purple highlights, should be interesting. 

Mangroves of Sungei Buloh

Another one of our favorite recent discoveries - the wetland reserve of of Sungei Buloh. Initially, we were looking for a bird farm in the northern part of Singapore, animal related activities are the way we lure our children out of the house...Anyway never found the farm, and instead walked around the mangroves and ponds of Sungei Buloh. We loved it, beats walking around the malls any day. Kids wanted to spot crocodiles and instead spotted countless Komodo dragons as well as colorful hummingbirds. Definitely want to head back there for one of their guided tours.

I'm repeating myself, but if in Singapore you need to visit this nature reserve. 

www.sbwr.org.sg

MacRitchie Must Go

 

As of this weekend, we have favorite new hang out that I want to share it with you and if in Singapore or if ever here you need to go there: the MacRitchie Reservoir. It's simply beautiful. Different trails take you into the jungle or you can just stay around the reservoir and observe the monkeys which Oscar loved. Zoe loved chasing fish in the pond and even catching some. JD dreamed of kayaking and Rose was content to cool off her feet in the water. As for me, I managed to run/jog the "yellow" trail this morning with a little help from french sporty ladies. 
See you there.

http://www.nparks.gov.sg/cms/index.php?option=com_visitorsguide&task=naturereserves&id=49&Itemid=75

Letter to Santa

After the trimmings came the letter to Santa. Oscar has decided (with lots of convincing on our part) that for every pacifier sent to Santa he would receive a present of his choice. We managed to find 7 pacifiers, so if he sticks to his part of the deal (no more "nonos" as he calls them) he'll be getting a lot of presents this year. 

Decking the Halls

...in my dreams. This is what happens when you decide to move to the other side of the world with only your carry on suitcase you start from absolute scratch and in our case start by buying an itsy size Christmas tree at our favorite everything for $2 japanese store Daiso. However later today, I was feeling sorry for the kids for the lack of Christmas spirit at home, so went out to get the wreath and big Z thought it was completely dull. Guess we'll be counting on the grandparents for decorations or then again there's always Orchard Road which in terms of trimmings beats it all.

The kids just off Orchard Road