Back home in the USA for summer!

Madeline, Grant and I flew home to USA on Friday the 13th (ewww-i know, bad day to fly). Brian could not come with us, but will be flying over on the 26th of June. He stayed home to work and take care of Oaky the cat.

We did make it safely and had a GREAT flight! Imagine my stress level before flying....leaving on Friday the 13th, flying by MYSELF with the 2 kids, flying by myself with the 2 kids for a 21 hour flight....need I say more?? BUT, the kids were so great!! Singapore Airlines could be the best airline in the world, seriously. Every passenger has their own TV/video screen and it is filled with hundreds of movies, tv show, video games, music etc. And a section that is kids only, so Maddie and Grant had no trouble being entertained. Tons of food served to you and in the back lounge area. Games and toys provided to the kids. Amazing airline.

Madeline is old enough to really take care of herself, so she watched 5 movies (caught up on new ones we didn't see in Singapore) and did her thing. Really love that "almost" 10 yr old age for that reason, she is easy. She slept a total of about 2 1/2 hours of the trip, not much, but she didn't bother me...so that is ok. Grant on the other hand was a little bit more busy, changing his activity every 10 minutes or so. :) He played/watched TV/DS/ipod for the first 14 hours and then I made him sleep for 6 hours, and when he woke up-we only had another hour to go. Wasn't too bad-could have been a lot worse. The 21 hours went by pretty fast, thank goodness!

We arrived home at 1am and the kids were wide awake until 2am! YIKES! Karol and Jerry are here with us, and poor folks had to deal with us being jet lagged. I put the kids to bed at 2am and they slept until 5am. Hmmm. Since then, it's been 5 days, we all crash and go to bed at 8pm and then we are wide awake at 5am!! It's not fun. It's really hard to stay awake in the afternoon-the 12 hours difference is brutal. Anyway, I am sure that by this weekend we will be back on track.

We went up to Vermont the day after we arrived and went to the annual Quechee Balloon Festival. Maddie and Grant LOVE it, and we go every year. Amazing to see so many hot air balloons go up at one time. Surrounding the balloons are fun carnival/fair type activities which is fun for all. Who doesn't love a funnel cake??? :) Might be a new cure for jet lag! We stayed up for the weekend and now are back in the comfort of our house. AHHHHHHHHH. Nice to be home.

Madeline's Dance Recital 2008

Last weekend we had Madeline's dance recital, her FAVORITE time of year! :) The recital took place at the famous Raffles Hotel. An amazing theater is upstairs, didn't even know that, and it sat 350 people. Beautiful facility in such a historic location. The theme of the recital was "Uniquely Singapore" as the dance studio caters and seems to have mostly expat kids (children who are not Singaporians). Each dance had to do with famous sites, sounds, and people of Singapore. It was beautifully done and great fun to watch. The recital was broken into 2 shows, due to so many kids/classes to fit in, one show at 1pm the other at 4:30. Madeline danced in both shows, 7 dances in the first show and 5 dances in second show=lots of costume changes and lots of fun for her! :) Her dances were jazz and ballet, she did not take tap this year (not enough time in our week, she is already dancing 2 nights a week). She had such a great time, and loved every minute of it. If she could do it again, she would jump at the chance. She loves to be on stage dancing, as you all know so well. :)

Here are some photos of her in her costumes.


Jazz costume, she was a black orchid (orchids being Singapore's flower)




Maddie and her friend Katie, who was a Big Spender tapper from Orchard Road (like 5th avenue in NYC)



Maddie in another jazz costume to the theme Formula 1-as Singapore is hosting the first night Formula 1 street race this September..and YES Brian already bought tickets. He liked this dance the best of Maddie's! :)



Her ballet costume, she was a spider from the Singapore Zoo category.




Her last costume was a Singapore police costume for a jazz number. The singapore police wear camo here, so it was a cute girly version for the dance. :)

A photographer took some amazing photos during the rehearsal and show, and I will post a few of my favorites later (I know...boring....but I just love seeing her dancing and doing what she loves the most!!)