Happy Birthday Magdalene!

Magdalene turned 11 on February 8 this year.  She is a lovely girl and always willing to do whatever we ask without complaint or argument.  She is a favorite with her sisters and brother because of her kindness.  We are grateful for Magdalene in our family.

The color of the week is red because it is Chinese New Year.  Magdalene's birthday happens to fall each year somewhere close to this auspicious holiday.   And this is the year of the snake--mine and Magdalene's year!  Ella was the one who got into it the most, loving her Chinese dress and the celebrations at school and around the neighborhood.  This used to be Magdalene's dress when she was in Kindergarten . . . 

Happy Birthday Abigail!

Abigail turned 13 on January 18.  It wasn't nearly as eventful as she had hoped.  She was down with a terrible flu and was unable to enjoy her favorite dinner of Vietnamese Spring rolls and her birthday cake.  Poor girl.  She was very much looking forward to going to school and being with her friends, eating Subway for lunch, and having a great birthday dinner.  With a birthday in the winter during flu season, I don't think this will be a singular occurrence.  Notice Xander in the background.  He was right there, taking in a big breath and blowing our more than his share of birthday candles for Abigail.  

I think she looks like Abigail some but with blue eyes.

Ella happened to have Dog day at school on Friday.   It was probably the highlight of her entire school year thus far.  She named herself Conrad after our little dog.

Our Littlest Sunbeam

Juliet is looking so grown up today, her first Sunday as a Sunbeam in Primary.  She is officially the youngest Sunbeam in the class, having just turned 3 before the end of last year.  She is also in underwear!  So exciting to put away diapers (almost--we are still working on the night time) and see a little girl emerge from the baby of the family.  I am afraid she will always be my baby though . . . 

Legoland

 The kids are still on winter break and we are always looking for things to keep us busy during the three weeks away from school.  In September, a new Legoland opened right next door to us in Malaysia.  This was pretty exciting and we have been eager to go.  All my kids love Legos so it was an exciting excursion.  Legoland is about 15 minutes across the border into Malaysia, so not too far at all.  If we didn't have to go through customs and immigration twice to get there, it would feel a lot like driving down the highway in California to Legoland.  I ventured alone because Joseph had to work.  Unfortunately, he doesn't get a three week winter break.  It was a little hotter than California; smaller too as they have only completed the first part of the park; and empty because all the locals are in school.  Otherwise, it is exactly the same.  We haven't been to Legoland since Abigail and Maggie were 5 and 3 years old.

Ducking into the air-conditioned building lab was a refreshing necessity.  Abigail built a mini lego version of herself.

I think Miniland is the best place in the whole park.  Legoland Malaysia's Miniland is all Asian cities and monuments.  I've been to the real Taj Mahal and it was breathtaking.  I must admit that this Lego version was pretty impressive too.

Mimi Malaysia with the twin towers in Kuala Lampur in the background.  You can see with the few people in the background the scale of these buildings.

Ice Skating

Ice skating in Singapore?  You bet!  The hardest part is trying to find warm enough clothes to be around the ice.  It is a bit like coming up with Halloween costumes . . .

Juliet and Ella both had these little penguins to push around.  They were both fantastic on the ice.  Ella cruised around for two hours without stopping.  Juliet was also totally independent, quickly picking up the idea of pushing off of one foot at a time and keeping her feet close together.  She skated independently the whole time, albeit a little slowly.  I just stayed close by her and gave her pointers.

Gardens By the Bay

We spent a morning with mom and dad and the Bruschkes exploring a new park/garden here in Singapore by the Marina Bay Sands Hotel.  The hotel itself has become a recognizable Singapore icon with its three towers topped by a boat architecture.  The gardens are also unique to Singapore with these "super trees."  They are made of metal and have foliage that  grows on them.  They look like futuristic trees.  We didn't get to enjoy them long before we got rained out by one of the heavy tropical storms that come though here daily during monsoon season.  

This is a gorilla. The garden was organized into smaller gardens with themes.  This particular garden had plants of different shaped animals and insects.

Xander thought these were dinosaur eggs.

There is a skywalk you can pay extra for to walk around the super trees.

You can see the first tower of the Marina Bay Sands hotel on the far left of this picture.

A photo I took from Joseph's office window of a Singapore storm rolling in.  These storms dump 6 inches of water easy in minutes.

 A couple days later, Mom, Dad, Cami, Craig, Joseph and I went to the top of the Marina Bay Sands hotel, 57 floors up, to the chocolate buffet.  The chocolate was good, albeit a bit too rich to feel good afterwards (for about 24 hours.)  There were 57 varieties of chocolate desserts.  The views of downtown Singapore and the bay were stunning from the roof.  We feel fortunate to live in such a beautiful, safe, clean city.

Happy Birthday Juliet

Juliet turned 3 on December 26.  She was so excited about her pink cupcakes and blowing out the candles.  Because we were in Bintan on her real birthday, we celebrated on December 29 with her cousin Bryant (who also had a birthday while were traveling) and the Bruschkes.  Grandma and Grandpa Larsen were there to celebrate with her and that made for a special day for our special girl.