This has been our favourite month so far and the boys are even now saying that they like Singapore "a little bit". And they love their new friends "a lot"! They still cheer when I say we are leaving next week as they are excited to get to their grandparents in Toronto, reason #1, and the second reason is to work on their cubby hole in our backyard shed.
We had our last badminton practise yesterday until 2013. Frunty won a competition against one of his best friends, Quinn. He has progressed well. Pit started to participate a little and so next year, he may decide to commit to badminton more fully by actually taking the lessons. We'll have to practise in our backyard in Toronto.
Today we will work hard again on our math (decimals for Frunty and multiplication for Pit) and then Papa will play Lego Xbox with them. They are then having a surprise trip to another best friends' home named Caleb and they will go to athletics together. Anju is giving me time to get ready for Italy!
Tomorrow we are going to the movies with Quinn and his sister, Logan. We have made good friends with this American family from Arizona-Kansas. In fact, the homeschooling group is too good to be true. Jennifer showed up at badminton yesterday with freshly baked "freefrom" cookies for us. It is true that what goes around comes around because we treat our friends this way too. We give from the heart.
Friday is Burton's disco party. I better find our wigs in storage! Burton and his family are from New Zealand and we enjoy Scouts, badminton and athletics with them too.
The one thing is that no one really knows how long they are going to stay in Singapore. It is a little unsettling at times. I asked Frunty and Pit if they were sad that friends come and go so often and Frunty said, "no...we can visit them in their countries!" Good attitude. It is the reality of the expat world and we can either accept it and find all the good in it or fight it and be miserable. I am glad our boys are picking up our positive attitudes!
Onwards and upwards and let's live in the moment! Math time!!!
Tuesday, 28 August 2012
Thursday, 23 August 2012
Sailing Lessons
Our boys are taking sailing lessons with some HS friends (homeschool) at the yacht club in Singapore called SAF. They love sailing! Today a gust of wind sent all sailors but one to the shores of Malaysia. Frunty was the only one who controlled his craft and was able to continue sailing near Singapore. When I arrived some moms who were there already said that various children were crying as they got further away from Singapore and had to be rescued by the instructors in two different motor boats. Later one of the coaches came and told me that Frunty is an exceptional sailor. He was both surprised and impressed that Frunty was able to control his boat. Several mothers were very impressed as well. I was just happy no one made it to Malaysia!!
Frunty is now saving up for his own boat! Grampa- maybe you can fix that old one at the cottage? Pit will sail by himself tomorrow and all the parents will come to see the children's progress and have a small party afterwards. One of the sailors is a young girl who is allergic to many of the foods we have challenges with...I mean, seriously allergic. She travels with her own epi-pen. So our party will be a "Freefrom" event we can all enjoy. I am not happy that she has been to emergency so many times. On the flipside, I am happy that my boys and I will be able to partake without fear. Proceed to Party! And...
happy sailing!!!
Well done, Frunty and Pit! We are so proud of you guys. You take on new challenges even though you might be a bit scared (deep waters-Pit) and that takes a lot of guts! Good for you!
Frunty is now saving up for his own boat! Grampa- maybe you can fix that old one at the cottage? Pit will sail by himself tomorrow and all the parents will come to see the children's progress and have a small party afterwards. One of the sailors is a young girl who is allergic to many of the foods we have challenges with...I mean, seriously allergic. She travels with her own epi-pen. So our party will be a "Freefrom" event we can all enjoy. I am not happy that she has been to emergency so many times. On the flipside, I am happy that my boys and I will be able to partake without fear. Proceed to Party! And...
happy sailing!!!
Well done, Frunty and Pit! We are so proud of you guys. You take on new challenges even though you might be a bit scared (deep waters-Pit) and that takes a lot of guts! Good for you!
Saturday, 18 August 2012
Catching Up!
Tomorrow is Papa's birthday and we are off to Universal Studios for a day of screaming roller coasters! We'll all wear our running shoes so we can optimize our day there by sprinting from ride to ride. Everyone is now tall enough to partake in all the fun! The boys and I had a grande time at a shop in DC where we purchased Papa's birthday gifts last month.
This month has been nuts and when I have had a moment alone, I have not chosen to write in our blog or even check email. In fact, my phone did not work for several weeks and I did not bother to fix it. I needed to retreat from the world a bit. And now it is thundering outside, the boys are working with Papa on their sailing journals (more on that later...) and I am ready to update our blog in my air conditioned room!
After our whirlwind tour of Hong Kong during which we enjoyed visiting Lisa and her family (our Canadian-French friends from Brussels), we got back to Singapore quite tired. With jet lag, we went to HK Disney land, visiting Kowloon and Hong Kong Island, took a doubledecker tram (a real highlight) around town and laughed at the noisy "quiet train" on the MTR. We crammed in a lot during our few days and got home just in time to clean up and prepare for Lisa and her daughter to arrive from Hong Kong. They stayed with us for 10 days and we enjoyed every minute.
One of the highlights of their stay with us, I think we can all agree, is our camping trip on the east coast with several other homeschool families to celebrate Frunty and Pit's belated birthdays. Did anyone sleep a wink? Were jets flying overhead all night, other campers coming through our camping spot, garbage collectors squishing plastic bottles ad nauseum? Yes, but nevertheless, we all had a ball! We enjoyed our two nights of camping with Frunty and Pit's new friends, Zoe and Burton, Jessi and Abi and those who visited us during the weekend, San-San and Jonathon, Quinn and Logan. We all know eachother from HS, Scouts and Badminton and personally, I feel very grateful for our new friends! Papa and I had fun doing Henna art on willing participants! Frunty and Pit loved building a raft that did indeed float, with Uncle Andrew and Uncle Richard. We all went swimming even with the tankers in full view...how dirty could it be? Sometimes one just has to ignore the pollution.
At night, we roasted our giant marshmallows that we carried from the States! That was super fun. Although we did not have a bonfire, we used our bbq pit to toast this yummy snack. We played games, went bike riding, dug for clay and made fun objects. Everyone liked the Canadian loot bags that they took home too. We had gorgeous weather. Almost no sleep but lots of fun!
Lisa and Alice had a few more days with us after the camping trip and then they returned to HK to finish their three month sejour and we were left happy but exhausted. Just enough time to recover before the boys started their sailing course. This month, the boys asked for a "sports camp" so we signed them up for athletics, badminton and a 4 day sailing course. Along with Karate, they are happily working away at learning new skills. We are still doing a bit of math but really, it is a month during which we concentrate on sports. Frunty is as always gung-ho. Pit is a bit reluctant but once he gets started, he really seems to enjoy it all too.
With HS, we can make our own schedule and have days off between sport events (unlike other full-on sport camps) to enjoy playing lots and lots of Lego and going to the odd film. We took Burton and Alice to see "Brave" and look forward to the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" part two at the end of August.
We have decided to stay in Singapore while Papa goes to BKK. A hard decision but on the other hand, it's good to stay put and not go walk about for a bit. We need to prepare for our Italian stage in September! Times ticking and soon we'll be in PEI for our cousin, Sapphire's wedding.
Hope everyone is having a great summer too!
This month has been nuts and when I have had a moment alone, I have not chosen to write in our blog or even check email. In fact, my phone did not work for several weeks and I did not bother to fix it. I needed to retreat from the world a bit. And now it is thundering outside, the boys are working with Papa on their sailing journals (more on that later...) and I am ready to update our blog in my air conditioned room!
After our whirlwind tour of Hong Kong during which we enjoyed visiting Lisa and her family (our Canadian-French friends from Brussels), we got back to Singapore quite tired. With jet lag, we went to HK Disney land, visiting Kowloon and Hong Kong Island, took a doubledecker tram (a real highlight) around town and laughed at the noisy "quiet train" on the MTR. We crammed in a lot during our few days and got home just in time to clean up and prepare for Lisa and her daughter to arrive from Hong Kong. They stayed with us for 10 days and we enjoyed every minute.
One of the highlights of their stay with us, I think we can all agree, is our camping trip on the east coast with several other homeschool families to celebrate Frunty and Pit's belated birthdays. Did anyone sleep a wink? Were jets flying overhead all night, other campers coming through our camping spot, garbage collectors squishing plastic bottles ad nauseum? Yes, but nevertheless, we all had a ball! We enjoyed our two nights of camping with Frunty and Pit's new friends, Zoe and Burton, Jessi and Abi and those who visited us during the weekend, San-San and Jonathon, Quinn and Logan. We all know eachother from HS, Scouts and Badminton and personally, I feel very grateful for our new friends! Papa and I had fun doing Henna art on willing participants! Frunty and Pit loved building a raft that did indeed float, with Uncle Andrew and Uncle Richard. We all went swimming even with the tankers in full view...how dirty could it be? Sometimes one just has to ignore the pollution.
At night, we roasted our giant marshmallows that we carried from the States! That was super fun. Although we did not have a bonfire, we used our bbq pit to toast this yummy snack. We played games, went bike riding, dug for clay and made fun objects. Everyone liked the Canadian loot bags that they took home too. We had gorgeous weather. Almost no sleep but lots of fun!
Lisa and Alice had a few more days with us after the camping trip and then they returned to HK to finish their three month sejour and we were left happy but exhausted. Just enough time to recover before the boys started their sailing course. This month, the boys asked for a "sports camp" so we signed them up for athletics, badminton and a 4 day sailing course. Along with Karate, they are happily working away at learning new skills. We are still doing a bit of math but really, it is a month during which we concentrate on sports. Frunty is as always gung-ho. Pit is a bit reluctant but once he gets started, he really seems to enjoy it all too.
With HS, we can make our own schedule and have days off between sport events (unlike other full-on sport camps) to enjoy playing lots and lots of Lego and going to the odd film. We took Burton and Alice to see "Brave" and look forward to the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" part two at the end of August.
We have decided to stay in Singapore while Papa goes to BKK. A hard decision but on the other hand, it's good to stay put and not go walk about for a bit. We need to prepare for our Italian stage in September! Times ticking and soon we'll be in PEI for our cousin, Sapphire's wedding.
Hope everyone is having a great summer too!
Thursday, 2 August 2012
Gramma's birthday: our NA highlight!
We arrived back in Singapore after an amazing month in North America. Two side trips to Washington DC and Hong Kong were fascinating but the main highlight was celebrating Gramma's birthday together at the cottage. Honestly. It was so restful. The air was hot, the water was cool but not cold, and the swim across the lake on Gramma's 70th was truly fun and memorable. Gramma swam to the tiny lighthouse across the bay and back and we were all impressed as were neighbours who were watching with binoculars. Bravo, Gramma! You are an inspiration to us all!
Spending time with the Nonni and Uncle Andrew and Daniel in was also very fun and it was great the boys had a day out at the SkyDome. Yes, I know it is no longer called that but I like the old name. They saw Daniel's favourite soccer team, Liverpool, tie with Toronto's team. Good job, Toronto! Nonno bought the boys Blue Jays hats which they proudly wore the rest of the trip.
We now have an exciting month in Singapore full of HS activities. The boys, without asking, get their math done before breakfast so they have time for all their other activities. Besides working on Scout badges, playing badminton, karate and bike riding, we are preparing for our three day camping birthday trip next week and expecting our friends from Hong Kong to arrive as well. Never a dull moment with the bello boys! We do have many rest days in between though to enjoy playing with Lego, fear not!
It's great to be home for a bit and like my Kiwi friend says, how lucky we are to enjoy our lives on several different continents throughout the year. How grateful to have family and friends in different places and to be able to have adventures with them. With HS, we can now participate in very special days like Gramma's 70th and have the flexibility to start training for next year's Skyline hike with Nonno. Very lucky indeed!
Happy birthday, Gramma! Thanks for being so special!
Spending time with the Nonni and Uncle Andrew and Daniel in was also very fun and it was great the boys had a day out at the SkyDome. Yes, I know it is no longer called that but I like the old name. They saw Daniel's favourite soccer team, Liverpool, tie with Toronto's team. Good job, Toronto! Nonno bought the boys Blue Jays hats which they proudly wore the rest of the trip.
We now have an exciting month in Singapore full of HS activities. The boys, without asking, get their math done before breakfast so they have time for all their other activities. Besides working on Scout badges, playing badminton, karate and bike riding, we are preparing for our three day camping birthday trip next week and expecting our friends from Hong Kong to arrive as well. Never a dull moment with the bello boys! We do have many rest days in between though to enjoy playing with Lego, fear not!
It's great to be home for a bit and like my Kiwi friend says, how lucky we are to enjoy our lives on several different continents throughout the year. How grateful to have family and friends in different places and to be able to have adventures with them. With HS, we can now participate in very special days like Gramma's 70th and have the flexibility to start training for next year's Skyline hike with Nonno. Very lucky indeed!
Happy birthday, Gramma! Thanks for being so special!
