Candyland Express Event!

Candyland Express!

Our AWA Children's Committee had our Christmas Event last night, after months of working really hard (and our committee consists of only 4 other girls, including myself). Our theme was Candyland Express! We hired 2 open-top buses to drive down Orchard Rd.-the main downtown/shopping area and view all the Christmas lights. We also had games and entertainment that went along with "Candyland" -you know, the kids game?! We sold out all the tickets in 2 days, we only had enough room for 150 people, and it turned out to be a great evening!!!

Here is my girl as Princess Lolly and her friend Katie was a Lollygirl too. They ran a Lollipop Lucky draw game, pick a lollipop from the tree and if yours had a colored dot on the end of the stick...you won! FUN FUN!


We held the event in a hotel lobby/room that already have a life-sized Gingerbread house built in it! It was amazing! What was even more amazing was seeing all of the Christmas lights downtown. I don't think I have seen a city decorate like this in the USA!!! We live downtown and have witnessed the preparation of the lights, but all of the committee members and families used the last bus at 9:30pm to go on the tour that we worked so hard on. It was amazing to see all of the lights on and the amazing ways that the buildings were decorated. I will post a slide show of all the lights, so you can see. Enjoy!

Tour of Little India in Singapore

The AWA (American Womans Association) here in Singapore does tours of local areas every month. This month they did a tour of Little India so my friend Lori and I signed up. We both felt like we really haven't "explored" much, and we are both new here-it was a perfect opportunity.

I did not realize how big the Indian community was here in Singapore. They began to arrive in Singapore as soon as the island was established as a British trading post in 1819. 7% of the population is of Indian extraction, and the Little India area is just beautiful. Full of bright colors, wonderful restaurants, and very friendly people.

Here are a few photos of our amazing fun tour of Little India. We toured a Wet Market (like a farmers market), some great stores, a few Temples, and then had a great lunch to end the tour. Looking forward to more tours that the AWA has planned.

Grant gets stitches!

Got the dreaded call yesterday while meeting Brian for lunch-the Singapore American School Nurses office. My heart dropped.... it's Grant....he's slipped in the cafeteria and has a cut on his chin that should be looked at by a doctor!!

Brian and I went to school and picked him up, he looked ok and seemed not too upset. We were told that when he saw all the blood on his white uniform shirt, he asked where the red paint came from. When the nurses told him it was blood, that is when he really freaked out. He cried of course when it first happened, but the visual of the blood was too much for him. Poor boy. They got him a clean uniform shirt to change into because he couldn't stand the sight of it.

We went to the ER and he received 5 stitches under his chin. So bad that...look away if you are squeamish....you could see his bone! YUCKY! YUCKY! I had to leave the room when they cleaned it, thought I was going to pass out.

He was so brave and only yelled at the doctor to "STOP IT" when he was cleaning it thoroughly, and when he was received one of the 5 shots to numb it he got VERY upset. That must have hurt! He will have the stitches in for 7-10 days depending on how it heals. He was so brave, we took him to ToysRUs and he picked out a new Transformer. Brave brave boy-with no tears while we were at the hospital.

First stitches for us Sibley's, sure it won't be our last! :)

He is home from school for a few days to make sure it stays clean and dry (with no sweat-are you kidding?? It's 85-90 degrees here!). He will go back to school on Thursday. The biggest bummer for him....no swimming for a few weeks! He is not happy about that.

Late post-Halloween Singapore style

I realized after a friend emailed me, that I did not put up Halloween photos of the kids. As most of you know, I love Halloween and love planning/helping with Halloween parties! :) I was feeling a little sad that this year I could not do a Halloween Dance, like I did the last few years for the PTA, but that all changed when I joined The American Womans Association Children's Committee and I joined a great team of ladies planning a Halloween event! YIPEEE!!! It was so much fun, and very odd to be soooo hot on Halloween.

Our street here in Singapore has many expats and locals who love celebrating Halloween. It was amazing to see all of the crazy decorations on the gates outside the homes, and the amount of effort they all took for the kids. All of our neighbors met at the pool, set up "camp" with dinner, drinks, and tons of candy. We all invited over friends who lived on streets that didn't participate, so we had a good group from our complex.

It was fun to see how the locals celebrate and what they gave out to the kids...boy did we get some odd looking things! :) Some locals didn't open their gates to their houses, but instead stood on the other side and passed the goodies through the bars. And then other locals surprised us by being all dressed up and very festive. :) The kids had a great time and ran around like crazy up and down the street-they were dripping wet with sweat when the night was over. After we tucked the kids into bed, the adults met back at the pool and we celebrated Halloween (had fun cocktails and ate the kids candy out of their baskets! ) ha ha

Dr. Jane Goodall visit to SAS

We ran into Dr. Jane Goodall one day last week afterschool at SAS (Singapore American School)!! What an amazing surprise it was for us!

I went to school to pick up the kids, and as we were walking to the parking garage....up drove a car and she got out! WOW! Madeline recognized her right away, they have studied her work in class.

Dr. Goodall came to SAS to speak to the High School students who are part of a group called ROOTS and SHOOTS-which is local groups that are worldwide of kids/adults who want to make a difference in the future of the world and the animals that live in it.

Then, just TODAY as I met a friend for lunch at The American Club I got into the elevator to leave and who was in the there?? But Dr. Jane Goodall and her "bodyguard/escort"!!! It was just the 3 of us...and we rode up 3 floors. I just HAD to talk to her some more (you all know I can't shut my mouth). So we chatted and she was just lovely. It made my day! As she got off the elevator she was bombarded with lots of folks, it was amazing to see the turnout to hear her speak.

She was lovely to meet and one of the best highlights of living in Singapore so far!!!

Halloween Monster Name

Halloween Monster Name Your Halloween Monster Name is Shandra the Zombie Fire Breathing Mom Get Your Halloween Monster Name at Quizopolis.com

Check out my Slide Show!

Check out my Video of Madeline at her Indonesian Gamelan Concert

Madeline will be CLARA in The Nutcracker!!

We received some exciting and fun news the other night at Madeline's dance class.

She has been asked to be Clara in the upcoming Nutcracker preformance!!! Madeline is sooo excited, and she said that this is a "Dream come true!". We have seen the Nutcracker many many times (both live and on TV) and she has always said that she wanted to someday be in The Nutcracker. We never expected it to be now! The owner/director of the Dance Studio said that "Madeline will be the perfect little Clara!!" :)

The show will be November 23rd and the practicing/rehearsing starts this week, and she is sooo excited about it. The first people she wanted to call was Mimi (Karol-Brian's mom) and her twin sister Auntie Karen-who both are dancers.

Exciting and happy news for Madeline and wanted to share it with all of you!

Bukit Timah Nature Reserve Rainforest Field Trip

Madeline's 4th grade class went on a field trip to Bukit Timah Nature Reserve today. What an amazing place. We learned that all of Singapore island used to be covered in Rainforest, and tigers roamed among us....now Bukit Timah Nature Reserve is the only undisturbed remaining rainforest here in Singapore. Pictured above is my group of 4 girls, along with a group of 4 boys that we toured with. Also pictured above is the Quarry that people used to jump from and swim in the water below. Beautiful scenery and surroundings at Bukit Timah. Here are some of the things we learned and saw today.

The Bukit Timah nature reserve is home to more than 840 flowering plants and over 500 species of animals. These include towering trees, climbing palms (better known as rattans), ferns, orchids, gingers and strange blooms such as the Black or Bat lily. The forest is home to all kinds of animals. The most commonly encountered are the Long-tailed Macaques or monkeys. Please don't feed them as this does them more harm than good. Other special treats are the Flying lemur (Colugo) and squirrels. Forest birds include the Striped tit-babbler, the Fairy bluebird, drongos and bulbuls.

Pictured above is a slide on the outskirts of the rainforest that went down below into an amazing playground area/exploring area/picnic area for kids.

There are monkeys everywhere in the Reserve...so many that these signs are posted throughout the trails. (see below)

When we first got off the bus, one poor boy in her class got his lunch bag taken by a monkey. The hungry monkey jumped up and snatched it from his little hands. Then proceeded to go sit on a bench and start eating his popcorn and trying to open his water bottle. The boy was a little traumatized by the surprise attack, but we have been told this is not uncommon. The monkeys now know that brown paper bags = food due to people feeding them for "fun" and now are very aggressive towards anyone carrying one.

Later after our tour and Photo Scavenger Hunt the kids went on (each child got their own digital cameras at the school to use as they walked around to document and take photos of each item they need to find on the list), we decided to take a much needed snack/water break. We sat near the entrance at some benches and a few monkey found us sitting and eating. One brave and aggressive monkey saw a bag of papaya that a child had brought and walked up, took it, and then chewed through the ziploc bag to get to it. (pictured below)

Madeline was very quietly enjoying a juice box of Gatorade with some friends and was surprised to see a monkey stalking her too!! The monkey came up, took her juice box and scrambled off with it and ran up a tree. He then proceeded to chew a whole in the side, drink all the juice, shake it to make sure it was empty, and then throw the garbage on the ground!! Here he is as he is enjoying his Gatorade!! He seems to enjoy the lime flavor a great deal!!! :)

This last photo is of my group today, Madeline's friends; Kendall, Jamila, and Ruchi. Great girls and we had a fun, hot, exciting day at the Rainforest! :) If you click on any of the photos above, it will make them bigger so you can see them better. Enjoy! And if you come to visit, we will go visit Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, but we'll leave the snacks and juice in the car...just in case! ha ha!

High School Musical 2 Fever in Singapore!

Today, Sunday Sept. 9, is the day that High School Musical 2 will be on the Disney Channel here in Singapore. It came out in the USA a month ago, but it takes a while for things to be shown here on tv. Madeline has already seen it thanks to a local friend who has Slingbox (a device that allows you to see US shows live), but she is looking forward to seeing it again tonight. We already have the soundtrack and she knows all the songs by heart (and so does Grant from having to listen to it all the time).

They had a local dance contest yesterday, sponsored by Disney Channel Asia and High School Musical 2, that allowed kids to form a small "dance team" with kids from their school and preform to one of the songs from High School Musical. They called it "MY SCHOOL ROCKS"-and thousands of kids across the tiny island of Singapore tried out last month. The finals were yesterday at a mall close to our house, so Maddie and I went to watch them compete. The 5 team finalists were cute, and all under the age of 12 (our fav. team is pictured above-they were from the International Community School, great routine!) . Maddie was upset that she didn't get the chance to do it with kids from her school, you know how she is about dancing and getting on stage. :) We'll have to wait for High School Musical 3 to come out so she can try out then!

Culture Shock

Now that we have been here almost two months (time has flown by) I have had a chance to get used to a lot of different things here in Singapore. I guess you can call them "culture shock" as these items did seem to frustrate me in the beginning, and now I am very used to it. Here are some I can think of off the top of my head:
*Lack of electrical outlets throughout the house:
-no outlets in the bathrooms (yes, I have to blow dry my hair in my bedroom)
-only 2 outlets in the kitchen (AUGH!!! do you know how many things we keep plugged in normally? and you have to move your small kitchen appliance way over to where the outlet is to use it!!)
-only 1-2 outlets in each room, and in the least used part. We had to buy many extension cords upon arrival.

*Hot Water Heaters- There are switches (like light switches) to turn on the hot water in the bathrooms and kitchen. It takes only a few minutes for it to start working, but many times I have gotten into the shower and can't figure out why there isn't any hot water...forgot to turn it on! Kids have taken cold quick showers many times due to my forgetfullness. Some places in Singapore don't have hot water in the kitchen, thank goodness ours does. Most houses do not have dishwashers either, due to everyone having live-in maids. I had our landlord put in a new dishwasher before we moved in, can't live without it!

*Store employees "stalking" you while you shop. They hover over you while you look around. I first thought that they must think you are about to steal something, but later found that they do that to EVERYONE who come in. They hover....and hover....and ask you frequently, "can I help you with anything?" Keeps me from window shopping now-don't want to deal with the employees of the store! And they give you attitude if you say "I'm just looking".

*You pay for your grocery carts at the store. You put in a dollar coin to release the cart, and if you don't return it to the line of carts after you are done shopping, your dollar is gone. Like the airport carts at the airport. It DOES cut down on the amount of carts left in the parking garages. :) (see photo above of the carts and the chains that connect them until you put in your $1 coin)

*There isn't any consideration when waiting in line for anything-locals will push, cut in front, or ignore you. They call it "queuing" for things. But most are not considerate of kids, pregnant people, elderly etc. Which is very odd, because the local "Singaporians" are the nicest people, just not when they are waiting in line for things.

*REAL donuts are not to be found here (YES, one of the few US companies NOT here is Dunkin Donuts!!) They have donuts, but they taste like cardboard. And the few places that sell donuts, the line for waiting is sometimes as long as 2 hours!! People will wait in line for hours until they open their doors in the a.m. CRAZY but true. And they taste horrible...just gross. Anyone want to come over and open a Dunkin?? The people here would love it!

*No central air conditioning! We have separate wall units in each room, that are mounted to the walls (not windows, thank goodness) and have a remote control to set the temp. Pain in the butt to get used to. They also have to be serviced and cleaned every 2-3 months due to the fact that they run constantly all year. (it remains a constant 75-85 degrees here year round-great beach/pool weather though).

That's all I can think of now, but my list was a lot longer when we first arrived. I just seem to have forgotten or are so used to it, that I can't remember! :)

All in all it has been very easy to transition living here in Singapore. I have met a lot of moms from the US who lived in other countries before coming here, and they all say that living in Singapore is SOOO easy. I guess living in China or Japan is very difficult, and not very "western like the USA". I really forget sometimes that we are in a foreign country so far away, because of the same products, stores, and items we have at home you can find here easily. And there are SOOO many Americans here that we don't seem like foreigners. (at least in the Central and Downtown areas).

I will post more later about our adventures. :) Keep checking back, as I am sure we will have funny stories to tell (I already have a few that involve a GECKO in the kitchen and Brian screaming like a girl......)

Grant's first Taekwondo lesson

Grant is too young for most afterschool activities (and continuing HOCKEY here in Singapore is not an option) so we decided to try out Taekwondo. We had a trial lesson last week, but today was his first official lesson. He was so excited to have his own uniform with his name on it!

Fun in the Pool after school!

Getting lost

The good thing about the location of our house here in Singapore, is that most shops and grocery stores are within walking distance. (Toys R Us, Starbucks, Borders, etc) Also, taxis are everywhere and that is how I have been getting around since Brian takes the car to work each day. Taxis are great here, everyone speaks amazing English and they are very friendly and clean (unlike some NYC ones). The bad part is that when a taxi takes you everywhere, you don't really need to pay attention to HOW you got to your destination. You call from the house, they come and pick you up in 3-5 min, you tell them where you want to go and then Voila...you are at your destination. (photo to the left is of Orchard Road-close to where we live)

This week Brian flew to China for a business trip, so I had free use of the car. Great, huh? No...not really. Each day I have tried to go out to new places (outside our Orchard Road area-which is in the Central area of Singapore) and I have managed to get lost every time! The car even has a navigation system---but I still manage to get lost because if it is slightly cloudy or rainy the nav satelite can't "find you". Very frustrating!!! AUGH!!!

Happy to say that I just found my way to a store without having to make a U turn or pull over till the nav system finds me! HIP HIP HOOORAY!

I am starting to enjoy this new found freedom of having the kids in school from 7am-4pm. I joined the American Women's Association here and they do a ton of social things (bunco, girls night out, movie/lunch out, etc) and local tours. I am looking forward to exploring the local areas and people here in Singapore.

Well, I am off to get the kids off of the bus. I certainly can't get lost going there! :)

More Photos of going to School

Here are some photos of the first days of school and the bus.

Grant's Post---aka "DARTH GRANT"

This is Grant. My school is really great. I started Kindergarten yesterday. My teachers name is Miss Scott and she has a helper named Miss Susie. It is really great. Today we went to the Library and we saw around the library. And we had bees in our basement at home this morning-scary. Mom killed the bees and now they are all gone! And school is REALLY good. The bus ride is kinda boring because there nothing to do. We are on the bus for a long time (30 min) and I sit with my sister. I am really good at art. One of my friends at school is named Aiden and Ashton. Ashton is from France. Lunchtime is great because, I don't know. I ate bow tie pasta for lunch. Yesterday I had Chinese class. I learned a song that I can not sing correctly. But I know part of it , I think. But I only know it sounds like the song Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. I have a cool new room, and I have BUNK BEDS!! I like living in Singapore it so green and everything is clean and no garbage on the floor. Here is a picture of me going to my first day of Kindergarten. BYE GRANT CLARKE SIBLEY