Some Baking

Some baking for Karen and Arne's (belated)
40th Wedding Anniversary Party this weekend.
The children helped.

We did these sugar cookies
Semprot (aka Princess Cookies) and some shortbread buttons lined on the underside
with chocolate (no photo - too lazy).

I finally got tired of juggling my nozzles and went out
to buy couplers. What a difference - so much flexibility.
Should've done it years ago. Also got to use my
new rolling pin - to get even-thickness dough.
Also should've bought it years ago.

The things we learn after suffering needlessly for years.

Train Ride To Anywhere

One of the things on our long list of Summer To Do's is to ride the train with the kids - the Light Rail, specifically. The kids have ridden the MRT in Singapore countless times, but I don't imagine that Kate remembers much of it. But Jenna and Emily do - at least enough to know that train rides are fun. Today we finally did it - and although we didn't care where we rode it to,

we decided that maybe somewhere was better than anywhere, so we got off at the downtown Farmers' Market on Nicollet Mall.

I used to frequent that pretty street when I lived downtown/by the river as a carefree single/engaged person - so it was a nice revisit now that I had three smalls with me and one stroller. Not quite so free to stop in at every high-end department store to check out their shoe selection, for instance, but much more fun.

We walked by all the stands, deciding what sorts of things we wanted to buy (and eat). The kids were amazed that they could find Target, Walgreens, real department stores and familiar chain eateries all within a stone's throw of the market stalls. And all in one street. We gawked at the towering skyscrapers, pretending that we'd never seen anything like them before. Emily, whose first words upon entering the train were, "It smells like an airplane! I feel like I'm in an airplane!", now said of the market, "It feels like Singapore! I'm homesick for Singapore!".

It started to drizzle a little when we got to the end of the row of tents, so we turned around and ducked into the Barnes and Noble ("Wow, Mum - there's even a Barnes and Noble here! And it has an upstairs! Can we ride the escalator?") for tea. We sat and shared cheesecake, a gigantic sugar shortbread cookie and lemonade. And I had tea. We talked and took turns to throw wadded up paper balls into the trash can, just to see how the revolving lid worked. And waited for the drizzle to stop.

Then out we went again, picked plums for Dad, grapes for Kate and Jenna, and teeny tomatoes for Emily. And Jenna chose that bouquet of flowers for Mum (who paid for it). And overstayed our welcome at the salsa stand. Kate held one precious green grape in her little hand all the way back to the train station - "my save it for the train ride".

Then back to the Megamall station by train (some of us napped), and then home by car.

What a very fun day. We must do this again- maybe in the winter when the streets are decked out in lights and snow and we can look in the store windows and get all excited about Christmas. I miss shopping on foot, walking down street after street, stopping at little cafes for hot chocolate, and watching the world go by. Here in the suburbs we spend far too much time driving everywhere. I miss living downtown (or in the city, really). And it somehow feels wrong to drive downtown in our suburban minivan and park along the street just to be there. But today, though, by train and on foot - it felt just right.

Sports According To Walt Disney

Some old youtube video tutorials from my childhood,
starring Goofy. This is Disney as I remember it.

How to Play Baseball



How to Do Gymnastics



How to Play Tennis



How To Swim



How to Ski



How to Master Self-Defence



How to Dance (of course)

Photo of the Day

Emily (who'd just been to a neighbor's house to play): "I missed you, Jenna!"

Alphabet Game

Emily made this alphabet game for me last week.
One one side of the paper, she wrote the alphabet.

On the other side of the paper, she drew
a picture with hidden letters. Cunning.

I had a lot of fun trying to spot the letters and
crossing them out on the first side of the paper.
Go ahead and play, too!

Hint: Not ALL the letters of the alphabet are in
the picture, and some are present in multiples.

Pony Tails

Kate's hair is finally long enough for pony tails.
She thinks she's cute in them (so do we)
and will bring her little hair ties to us,
saying, "My want pony tails, mum. My want be soooo cute."
Pony tails go so nicely with chubby cheeks!
All our girls had them (both the tails and the cheeks) -

Jenna - Summer 2008
and Emily - Winter 2006 (in Singapore)
Gerrrrrram!

Swimming Lessons

A plea before we proceed, Singaporean family and friends: pleeeeaaaase do not scoff at these indoor photos. Yes, I absolutely believe that swimming in an indoor pool is about the saddest form of sports, but that is all we have here. Emily kept saying, "I wish we could learn to swim in the fresh air." ("And brilliant, warm sunshine and balmy breeze, albeit slighty tainted with the fragrance of durian," I wanted to add). Me, too, Emily. I miss swimming sooooooooo much. Even enough to be in an indoor pool. I repressed all memories of golden tans and palm trees (never heard of those, what are they?) and plunged right in. Without sunscreen.

But enough of me. On to the girls!

Emily and Jenna are in their last week of swimming lessons. There's Emily in the middle of the pool, in her turquoise two-piece and pink goggles, floating on her back with the teacher.

Jenna and I are at the bottom of the photo - Jenna is practising calling 911 on her foam cell phone.



Here is Jenna, in her white-with-blue-polka-dot swimsuit jumping into the pool. This is her favorite part of swimming lessons. Emily (top of photo) is blowing bubbles.

The girls really, really like swimming lessons, in spite of being hesitant to even put their faces in the water when we began. We will probably continue their lessons through the fall and winter, and have Kate join them, if we can coordinate the times. We're practising for Singapore, see.

Must find a way to get in this pool (even if indoor and half-Olympic size) on my own so I can practise as well. It's been years. Can I even do 10 lengths? 5? I doubt it.

Independent Kids' Art

I received this very fun art-supply carousel for my birthday. It was meant for my sewing stuff -scissors, rulers, fabric markers, drafting pencils etc, but the girls hijacked it and filled it with their own stuff. Emily regularly replenishes the supply of paper in the middle

and every day, whenever there is a lull in the day's manic activity, the girls are sitting at the table, drawing and coloring.

Some of Emily's recent drawings:

A boy and a girl picking apples

Jenna dressed as Maisy

A girl having lunch in her room, brought to her by her sister

Cinderella, her stepmother, her two stepsisters and Jaq (the sidekick mouse)

Kate's Prettyrellas

which Kate happily matched up with her actual Prettyrella figurines.

Jenna's current inspiration is rainbows:

"This is me standing on a rainbow."

"This is us covered in chocolate standing on a rainbow."

Kate loves drawing herself. I drew one blue Kate as an example, and then we used foam stickies for bodies/dresses and I drew heads. Some of the limbs I drew, but most of them she did. She drew all the shoes.




The last Kate in yellow was drawn entirely by her (except the head). She insisted that this Kate had a skirt AND shirt. And shoes, of course.

I think I'll let the carousel sit on our kitchen table a while more. It's kept the kids busy while I cook and clean, and it has produced far prettier works of art than I ever have with my sewing stuff.

Jenna's Library Card

Apologies for all the black paper censorship - I'm still naive enough to believe that it works on the internet.

But look - Jenna got her library card today! She was very proud to sign her name small and on the line. She used it to check about seven books, all Maisy, and one Tinkerbell DVD. Emily has been using her own card for some time now, and as soon as Kate can write her name, we will get her one too! Hopefully by then, she will also be more discerning of the titles of books she picks to throw into our basket!