Shitoryu Karate Association

Frunty and Pit have started karate in Singapore! Frunty and I had started last year at another association but it only offered a late night Thursday class which was too exhausting come Friday. And it was so hot, I could hardly stand up!

Now that Pit is 6 years old, we thought it would be fun for both boys to do karate together and luckily found a class which offers classes for 6-12 year olds. (adults are not able to join in but that is okay!)

For part of the 1.5hours, all children are together and at other times during the lesson, they break into groups depending on the colour of the belt. Frunty and Pit had a great time and look forward to tomorrow's class. I thought the senseis were really nice and professional. The dojo has fans and soft flooring!

We celebrated their first karate session by going to Little India afterwards for lunch! Gambatte, boys!

p.s. I was very impressed by Pit who got over some initial stage fright and then really enjoyed the class! Good job, brave one! And thanks to Frunty for helping Pit through his first karate experience! You're a fantastic big brother!

Photos from Papa's 40th!

Chinese musicians serenaded Papa with the Happy Birthday song as Pit handed our "VIP guest of honour" a glass of rose upon arrival. Welcome to Marina Bay Sands and happy 40th, Papa! Just don't swim over the edge because you're 57 floors up! Thanks for a wonderful gift from Gramma, Grampa and Nonna and Nonno!

Birthday Celebrations! Papa's 40th!

This has been a spectacular year of birthday celebrations with Pit swimming on the Great Barrier Reef and riding a helicopter for the first time and Frunty and I running around like natives on our own Robinson Crusoe island near Mission Beach. It was pretty hard to top those three days but alas, we did it and all thanks to Gramma and Grampa and Nonna and Nonno!!!

We started celebrating Papa's 40th on the 18th of August with a special dinner with balloons, banners and bubbly. The next day, Papa enjoyed a scavenger hunt set up by the boys followed by phone calls and skyping with all the grandparents and the Peacocks. Papa and Frunty headed down to the office which gave Pit and I time to get ready and Ailene time in the kitchen making our allergy-free cake. (Frunty had the day off from school so Papa took him to the office. Both left in their ties with brief cases! Too adorable!) At 3pm, Pit and I waited in the lobby at the Marina Bay Sands for Papa and Frunty to arrive!!!

Yes, you read correctly! THE MARINA BAY SANDS!!!!!!!!!! One of Singapore's most special hotels which has become a world class symbol of luxury on this small, southeast Asian island.

As Papa and Frunty entered the lobby, Pit and I handed them a glass of rose and a glass of fruit punch and the group of Chinese musicians played, Happy Birthday! Papa and Frunty thought they had come to the Marina Bay Sands for a rooftop picnic but luckily, we had rented a room grace aux grandparents! I write "luckily" because when they arrived there was a big storm and it would have been hard to picnic in that inclement weather.

We made our way up to Tower 2, Club room 4552. We got upgraded from a premium room to a club room because I showed Papa's passport during check in and notified them that it was his 40th. Nice! Sweet! Up in the room, we all danced around in merriment and quickly headed up to the rooftop in our swimsuits!

We came back down for sushi, bubbly and a cake with 40 candles and 4 sparklers. It was pretty funny in the bathroom when Pit tried to help me light all the candles. When he blew out his match, he accidentally blew out a whole bunch of candles. You can imagine that Papa, who had been waiting so long in the dark, eventually turned on the light and started reading a magazine until Frunty ran in and turned off the lights again! We sang happy birthday and freaked Papa out a bit with the cake on fire! No worries! We jumped around with the balloons and then Papa and I took turns going to a bar to redeem our free coupon for a cocktail while the other watched the wee ones.

After the Kuta de Ta cocktails, we got back into our swimsuits to enjoy a night swim which is always a huge highlight!!! With an incredible view of the city, we enjoyed every minute.

The next morning, we headed up to the gym but kids were not permitted unfortunately. I took a sauna/steam room and hot tub...oh what a life...and later met Papa and the boys back in the rooftop pool. I asked for late check out which gave us lots of time to have a light breakfast, watch a Tom and Jerry movie and read newspapers...all with the beautiful view of Singapore below us in our luxurious, club room.

We did not want the fun to stop after checking out so we jumped into a cab and headed to Cafe Iguana at the Clarke Quay for quesadillas and a jug of margheritas! What a fantastic, little Mexican place. We took our time walking back to our hotel to pick up our luggage and headed home in a pretty ritzy, black Chrysler 300. Only the very best for Papa! Somehow, it was 5pm by the time we got home and what did Papa find!? A huge basket full of various types of champagne from the Peacocks! Too generous! But hey, Papa! You are worth it!

Happy 40th, Papa! Love from all of us who think you are super chouette! And thank you to everyone who generously helped make Papa's birthday so very special! You can see from the photos how much fun we had on the "top of the world"!

The Eve of Papa's Big Birthday!

Tonight the boys and I decorated Papa's chair with balloons and hung up birthday banners! All on the eve of Papa's big birthday! Papa came down for dinner and the boys serenaded him with their own show and we toasted Papa!! Tomorrow, more surprises are in store! The boys put on several dance spectacles too. They are too hilarious. And then, Frunty and Pit's new friend, Jack, ran over and invited us over to have some cake as it is his birthday!! You'll see some photos of Jack and his mom, Robin, and their dog, C.C. from the other day. By the way, it's cousin Izzy's birthday today too! She's a teenager now! And tomorrow is my cousin, Kirsten's birthday and my friend, Bev's. And my aunt and uncle's anniversary. But I digress! We grabbed our gift for Jack that we luckily had prepared for a welcome-to- Singapore surprise and dashed on over. It was sweet how the boys sat up on Jack's top bunk and played with Pokemon cards. They are all adorable and we hope that Jack, who has been here for two weeks, has a great memory of his first double digit birthday! All the best!!! And to Papa! Wait til you see what is in store for you tomorrow! Sweet dreams and can't wait to post the celebration photos on the 19th! Well, maybe I'll be too busy having fun and post them on the 20th!!! Stay tuned...

Foot Massages for Two

Life in Singapore is just nasty! Yesterday I was passing the time while waiting for Frunty to finish school. How do I do that? Well, I read the classified ads while having my feet massaged. Like I said, nasty! And Pit's at home with the helper. All of a sudden, I got a phone call. It was Frunty who had been let out early because his teacher was sick and could not do math remedial with him. I told him to come on over. This was the first time I told him to come alone from his school to Tampines Mall #1. Yes, I was a bit nervous but hey, it is Singapore and he does know the route except not the massage place as I recently changed. Anyway, next thing you know, he is sitting beside me with his Diary of A Wimpy Kid book in hand and accepting a foot massage. GOOD FOR HIM! I looked over with pride. Because if you can't kick back and enjoy a good massage at age 9, when can you? You gotta stop and smell the roses, right? Life in Singapore? Brutal!

Papa's Scuba Diving

Papa went scuba diving with Uncle Adam this weekend. So the three of us kicked up our heels a bit and as usual, made the most of our Mommy-time. We took our time waking up and snuggling. The boys played Lego and then we had breakfast together. Sweet Potatoes and other yummy food. Then the boys worked hard doing their studies while Mama chatted with Nonna/Nonno by skype. Afterwards, we jumped in the pool. And that was all before noon!!!

After lunch, we headed to Tampines Mall to see the movie Zookeeper and ran into our friends, Chris and her family. I managed to squeeze in a foot massage and we spent time at Popular Bookstore reading away! We had Carls Jr. for dinner and were so full that we decided to walk home! We took the Park Connector most of the way but at times got lost in HDB developments and wound up on sidewalks here and there. By the time we got home, 8pm, we were hot and sweaty and needed a night swim!!! Who needs an excuse for a night swim!? It was really very nice because the moon was huge. We have more fun planned for tomorrow but don't worry, Papa! We always do our homework and chores first!

Cheerio and hope you are having a great time diving down to that wreck. Frunty asked where you were this morning. He forgot and then cheered himself up by telling himself that you will be home tomorrow!!!

Siena's First Birthday!

Somehow Siena turned one! How did that happen!!?! We enjoyed celebrating her first birthday last night at Sam and Su's new condo. The boys loved the balloons and the jacuzzi pool where they tried to make a whirlpool. Catching up with colleagues was also fun. And the birthday girl? She got overwhelmed and started crying! Hey, it was her party!

French Time!

One of my challenges here in Singapore has been to find a consistent way for the boys to learn French in a fun environment. We have had some great babysitters from France and some couch surfers too. But recently, I found a woman who does "animation" in her home once a week. Bien sur, en francais! Yesterday we went to Agnes' home. She is from Bordeaux and has a daughter named Uma. Frunty and Pit seemed to enjoy their visit and look forward to attending Friday sessions of bricolage, cooking etc. Agnes accepts a small number of children which reminds me a lot of the kind of classes I once offered in Brussels for the Japanese moms/tots. A bientot!

Dinner at Basavesh's

One of Frunty's buddy is named Basavesh and he comes from Bangalore, India. They are in the same class at school. I met his mom in the park awhile back and we talked about getting together sometime. I said we would really be interested and she laughed. She thought we would not want to get together. She also could not believe that we loved Indian food! And she thought we had so many friends that we would not have time to come over. (In fact, she called me several times yesterday and today to make sure we were coming!!) And she excused her home which is smaller than our home. I wish she could know what is in our hearts and maybe now she does. Because all of that is so inconsequential to us and we mean it. We were so grateful to enjoy our new friends' hospitality tonight. We had a beautiful dinner together and the boys played really nicely at the park. We are already talking about the next time when we can go bowling together and then back to our home for swimming and dinner! How fun is that?!

Early Morning Starts

For some reason, the boys got up this morning at around 5am and quickly got dressed and ate and were raring to go to school when it was still dark out. This is not the first time. So you can imagine that after school, cycling and playing in the park, they were pretty exhausted at dinner time. Papa to the rescue! He gave us all an incentive to eat and get upstairs for a surprise. And what did we get! A wonderful movie Papa made of our day trip to the zoo on Saturday. Now the hard part. Figuring out how I can get it on my blog. Stay tuned...