Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!!

We stayed home for New Years this year, but we partied with our neighbors.  We feel so lucky to be living here at The Chuan.  We've got great neighbors and our own community.  It's wonderful.  The kids napped on New Years Eve day, so they were allowed to stay up as late as they could for New Years.  They made it to midnight!  I couldn't believe it!!  Right after, we returned home and everyone went to bed.  There were some grumpy kids around here on Sunday, but we made sure to put them to bed early that night and everyone was right again by Monday.

Madeline decided to put makeup on Wyatt.  I said he looked like he was trying to be a Smurf.  My kids didn't know what I was talking about.  So, I decided to break out You Tube and see if I could find an old episode to show them.  I did, and Lily began her new obsession.

Lily has been watching old Smurf episodes on You Tube.  She's been so into it, that I actually purchased a season on iTunes because I don't think it's a good idea for her to be clicking random videos on You Tube.  You never know what you are going to get...

Here's the funny part...  She calls them the Smurths.   I've corrected her, Scott's corrected her, but she insists that it's Smurths.  And she's missing her teeth, so she can't really make the "th" sounds.  Hilarious.  Wyatt calls them the Murfs.  I think we'll someday miss the time when the little people around us mispronounce things.  It's pretty entertaining.

I took the kids this week to get fish pedicures!  It was really fun.  I did it too.  These salons are all over the place!  We've wanted to try it ever since we arrived, but just hadn't yet.  I thought it would be a fun experience for all of us.  The fish really tickled me!  Some of them got up on the under side of my toes.  So silly!  The fish much preferred my feet because I had a lot more dry skin for them to eat compared to the kids feet.  Afterwards, our skin felt soft and tingly.  But, it didn't last too long.

I've since learned that there is some risk of disease associated with this.  It's actually illegal in some US states (including Texas).  I wasn't properly informed before we tried it.  We still had fun and I thought the salon was clean and everything seemed okay.   We won't be doing it again.  If you'd like to read more about the risks, you can do so here.

It's hard to get a good picture of the fish in the water.  I think there were at least a thousand of them!  The water was deep and at first my legs, from just below the knee, all the way down to my toes were completely covered in the fish.  Amazing!

We had to top off our spa day with haircuts and ice cream!

I had an unsuccessful outing this week.  I took the kids to ride the Bum Boats at Clarke Quay, but it didn't work out.  We'll have to go back and try again.  Lily felt sick once we got there and were ready to get to the boats.  I didn't think it was a good idea to take a child on a boat when she was already feeling nauseous.  While we waited for Lily to feel well enough to return home, Madeline and Wyatt entertained themselves by chasing birds and also acting like them.  Silly kids!  

On Saturday, we went to the Children's Garden at the Botanic Gardens.  It was awesome!  We will go back.  It's all free.  There's a tree house and a water play area.  We met up with our friend Wes Graff and his son Vaughn.  The kids had a great time playing and running.

After the children's garden, we headed over to the west coast fruit and vegetable market.  This is where the shipments come in right off the boats.  Wholesale and retail customers can come in and buy what they'd like.  I was totally amazed!  The freshness was the best I've seen in Singapore and the prices were unbelievable.  We were able to fill both my backpack and Scott's, plus some hand held bags.  It was all we could carry and it only cost about S$30.  That's an unbelievable price.  Groceries are really expensive in Singapore, generally.  Everything is imported, so there is a markup.  

After our busy day out, we had a restful afternoon and then decided to check out one of the restaurants that is walking distance from where we live.  We intended to go to one called Jules, but it was closed (we'll try it another time).  Next door was this one called The Fat Cat.  It was great!  It's all out door seating, but covered (in case it rains).  The menu has Thai, Indian and Western food available.  The Western portion of the menu (pizza and pasta) wasn't available last night, but we were happy with the Thai and Indian.  In fact, I can't tell you how excited I am to have Indian food walking distance from my house.  Delicious!

It's been a good week.  We are now 3 weeks in to our break.  Next week, we are heading out to Thailand on Thursday for 4 nights.  We're going to a town called Krabi.  We've planned a 1/2 day Elephant excursion!  I'm really excited!