Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Care package today
WOW! Look what we received in the mail yesterday! Two boxes of Parrish and Sabrina's favorite chocolate muffin mix from Rob's mom. I know it cost her a fortune to send so we thank you sincerely!!
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Happy Thanksgiving
We have had our turkey dinner this evening and we are just about ready to sign off for the night, but I was having a moment of missing family and thought I would let you all know how thankful we are for you. I'm also thankful everyday for the experience we are able to give our children over here in Singapore. I'm grateful for the new friendships we have made and know they will not end when we go home. Every email, card or phone call that comes in from the US brings such excitement into our home. I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving today and know that we were thinking of you.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Butterfly Parrish
Look what landed on Parrish during our hike last weekend....funny, I just noticed the shirt she's wearing too.
Halloween
No where on earth celebrates Halloween like the USA, but we did dress up and go to a party.
Here's Parrish as a ghost who spent the majority of her time in the bounce house at the school party despite all the other fun activities going on.
Sabrina was a little spider. At first we didn't think she would wear the costume but eventually thought it would be fun to have 8 legs.
Mom and Dad were Dracula's. I decided I like wearing a cape. Sorry, I don't have a picture.
Here's Parrish as a ghost who spent the majority of her time in the bounce house at the school party despite all the other fun activities going on.
Sabrina was a little spider. At first we didn't think she would wear the costume but eventually thought it would be fun to have 8 legs.
Mom and Dad were Dracula's. I decided I like wearing a cape. Sorry, I don't have a picture.
More Autumn celebrations
I'm afraid I've fallen a bit behind in keeping the blog updated. We've had some great celebrations this Fall and had the chance to take a trip to Thailand during the kids' Fall break.
Mid-October was the Deepavali celebration.....or some say Diwali or Dipavali. Nonetheless, its a worldwide celebration in Indian (Hindu) culture that marks the New Year based on the Indian Lunar calendar. Diwali means Festival of Lights and like many celebrations, this holiday is celebrated by gathering with friends, giving gifts and eating delicious treats.
Parrish and Sabrina celebrated at school with some festival treats and dress up. In the pictures above Sabrina is admiring her kid-size bangles and perhaps you can see the bindi on her forehead. The second is our friend Ruchita with her adorable and energetic daughter, Navya, giving her a kiss.
The bindi is a decoration item of any shape or color and no longer signifies age, marital status, religion or ethnic affilication . I was able to join Sabrina's class this day and help them make laddu (sweet coconut balls) and try my talents in applying henna on the small hands of very still 2 year olds. *grin*
Mid-October was the Deepavali celebration.....or some say Diwali or Dipavali. Nonetheless, its a worldwide celebration in Indian (Hindu) culture that marks the New Year based on the Indian Lunar calendar. Diwali means Festival of Lights and like many celebrations, this holiday is celebrated by gathering with friends, giving gifts and eating delicious treats.
The bindi is a decoration item of any shape or color and no longer signifies age, marital status, religion or ethnic affilication . I was able to join Sabrina's class this day and help them make laddu (sweet coconut balls) and try my talents in applying henna on the small hands of very still 2 year olds. *grin*
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Jungle forest lodge
Last weekend we put another stamp in our passports and drove to Malaysia, Kota Tinggi to stay in a rain forest lodge with a few friends and their families that are also here working for Xerox. The plan was to hike around the area, take a firefly river cruise and let the rest of the weekend fall into whatever it was going to be. We arrived mid-day and quickly joined our friends at a waterfall park where a lot of the locals hang out. We arrived just after noon and I was so happy we were getting in the water......it was hot & humid, surprise! I'm not talking just humid, I mean sweat from every pore just standing there in the shade, humid. Parrish and Sabrina donned their suits and we grabbed our beach towels.
Here's a picture of Parrish and our friends' daughter, Nevi, who were playing "let's hold Nevi's dad, Devin, under water for as long as we can".
We would have loved to stay there for longer but needed to get Sabrina down for a nap so it was time to check-in to our room........
Just kidding......it was more like this......
Just after we checked in the rain started to pour, literally!
And it rained some more......
Our plans for a firefly river cruise were canceled but we had a wonderful time visiting with our friends, playing a little Foosball and enjoying a local meal prepared by the staff at the lodge. We had noodles, rice (or course), grilled fish, rice cakes, chicken stay, grilled chicken, grilled fish balls (yummy), baked bean curd (tofu) and some fruit for dessert. There weren't too many guests at this lodge so the kids ran around the dining area playing hide and seek while the rest of the adults finished their meal. I love it when we can get the kids fed and let them go play while we take our time.
The next day four of us adults decided to take a jungle hike. We weren't really sure where any established hikes were, but our friend David spotted a trail he was interested in from a previous trip to Kota Tinggi. The kids and a few other adults stayed behind to play in the pool, yes! this rustic lodge did have a pool, but no lounge chairs so it was "bring your own towel".
I'd have to say it didn't take very long on our hike to lose the trail and wish we had a machete.
Thank goodness our friend Devin brought along his GPS. His name is Devin despite "Doug" printed on his shirt. There's a story in there somewhere.
Something I learned on this hike was that tea tree oil and lavender oil will remove leeches. Every time we stopped on the "trail" for a little bit we did a leech check and usually found one of these little blood suckers. You don't want to pull the leech off, although tempting, because they have mouth parts that can be left behind in your skin, ewe. Plus, they also have an anticoagulant saliva that can leave you bleeding if you're not careful.
The jungle hike had some dangerous elements beside the leeches. You had to be very careful stepping over tree logs. Some logs had huge spikes on them and others were the pathway for an army of ants. "The ants go marching" song rang in my head every time I came across this. They were literally marching in a long line of about 4 rows.
I had heard there were cobras in this part of the world, but it didn't occur to me that on this day we might see one. I was not thinking about snakes at all on our hike.....or I might have easily stayed behind. The cobra you see in the picture was spotted on the way back to the lodge after our hike. We pulled over to watch and realized this snake was actually injured pretty badly and disoriented. Somehow his head was smashed. I never thought I would feel bad for a cobra. There were a few other locals that also stopped to watch the snake. My guess is they were thinking....."food".
We had just enough time to jump into the pool before cleaning up and getting ready to check-out. On our way out of town we stopped at a recommended Chinese restaurant and ate lunch for about $40, 5 adults and 3 kids. Not bad!
Parrish said on our way back to Singapore that she really likes Malaysia because of the talking birds. The lodge had a collection of birds all with funny personalities. One bird was bilingual and greeted us with "g'day" or "ni hao". Another bird hissed and meowed like a cat. We also saw a few sleeping bats in the rafters of one of the shelters over a pathway. Thank goodness for bats. I had less mosquito (mozzie) bites because of them!
Here's a picture of Parrish and our friends' daughter, Nevi, who were playing "let's hold Nevi's dad, Devin, under water for as long as we can".
We would have loved to stay there for longer but needed to get Sabrina down for a nap so it was time to check-in to our room........
Just kidding......it was more like this......
Just after we checked in the rain started to pour, literally!
And it rained some more......
Our plans for a firefly river cruise were canceled but we had a wonderful time visiting with our friends, playing a little Foosball and enjoying a local meal prepared by the staff at the lodge. We had noodles, rice (or course), grilled fish, rice cakes, chicken stay, grilled chicken, grilled fish balls (yummy), baked bean curd (tofu) and some fruit for dessert. There weren't too many guests at this lodge so the kids ran around the dining area playing hide and seek while the rest of the adults finished their meal. I love it when we can get the kids fed and let them go play while we take our time.
The next day four of us adults decided to take a jungle hike. We weren't really sure where any established hikes were, but our friend David spotted a trail he was interested in from a previous trip to Kota Tinggi. The kids and a few other adults stayed behind to play in the pool, yes! this rustic lodge did have a pool, but no lounge chairs so it was "bring your own towel".
I'd have to say it didn't take very long on our hike to lose the trail and wish we had a machete.
Thank goodness our friend Devin brought along his GPS. His name is Devin despite "Doug" printed on his shirt. There's a story in there somewhere.
Something I learned on this hike was that tea tree oil and lavender oil will remove leeches. Every time we stopped on the "trail" for a little bit we did a leech check and usually found one of these little blood suckers. You don't want to pull the leech off, although tempting, because they have mouth parts that can be left behind in your skin, ewe. Plus, they also have an anticoagulant saliva that can leave you bleeding if you're not careful.
The jungle hike had some dangerous elements beside the leeches. You had to be very careful stepping over tree logs. Some logs had huge spikes on them and others were the pathway for an army of ants. "The ants go marching" song rang in my head every time I came across this. They were literally marching in a long line of about 4 rows.
I had heard there were cobras in this part of the world, but it didn't occur to me that on this day we might see one. I was not thinking about snakes at all on our hike.....or I might have easily stayed behind. The cobra you see in the picture was spotted on the way back to the lodge after our hike. We pulled over to watch and realized this snake was actually injured pretty badly and disoriented. Somehow his head was smashed. I never thought I would feel bad for a cobra. There were a few other locals that also stopped to watch the snake. My guess is they were thinking....."food".
We had just enough time to jump into the pool before cleaning up and getting ready to check-out. On our way out of town we stopped at a recommended Chinese restaurant and ate lunch for about $40, 5 adults and 3 kids. Not bad!
Parrish said on our way back to Singapore that she really likes Malaysia because of the talking birds. The lodge had a collection of birds all with funny personalities. One bird was bilingual and greeted us with "g'day" or "ni hao". Another bird hissed and meowed like a cat. We also saw a few sleeping bats in the rafters of one of the shelters over a pathway. Thank goodness for bats. I had less mosquito (mozzie) bites because of them!
Monday, October 5, 2009
Mid-Autumn Festival
Last Friday we celebrated a traditional Chinese harvest festival at the poolside of our condo. This festival has also been referred to as the "Mooncake Festival" or "Lantern Festival". It falls on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese Calendar which usually lands in late September or early October. Stories of the mid-autumn festival take on many variations and adaptations. I'm sure you can read about them all on Wikipedia. But the most common theme is that family and friends gather together to admire the bright moon and eat mooncakes and pomelos (pale yellow or green citrus fruit with a spongy, thick skin). The management of the complex planned an evening that included all the traditions of this time of year in a family centered fashion.
Some of the activities included:
Dressing in Chinese Costume (at least the kids anyway)
Playing who can open the Pomelo the quickest
Dancing under the kid-size lion dance costume
Playing pass the ping pong with chop sticks
Making mooncakes!
And a Lantern Parade (that's not the Easter bunny....I think it's supposed to represent the Jade rabbit!)
Some of the activities included:
Dressing in Chinese Costume (at least the kids anyway)
Playing who can open the Pomelo the quickest
Dancing under the kid-size lion dance costume
Playing pass the ping pong with chop sticks
Making mooncakes!
And a Lantern Parade (that's not the Easter bunny....I think it's supposed to represent the Jade rabbit!)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)