Christmas and Bali

Happy New Year to all! We've had a busy holiday season. The girls were so excited about Christmas this year and were quite pleased to find that Santa had come on Christmas morning. Before the big man came, we made cookies to leave for him. The girls are decked out in their new princess gowns, courtesy of Meme and Baba.



Here they are, enjoying the loot on Christmas morning in their princess pajamas from Nana and Papa. Notice daddy in the background, enjoying his Christmas ipad. :)

Alas, we didn't take very many pictures on Christmas as we were excitedly packing for our trip to Bali!

We had a blast. Ida and Harper were quite interested in all of the things to see at this temple to Vishnu we visited outside Ubud. You'll notice Mom and Dad in their sarongs - required temple wear, but also pretty hip.











After visiting the temple, we ate lunch by some rice paddies.





The sacred monkey forest in Ubud was definitely one of our favorite places in Bali. Here are the girls at a temple within the forest.



Some of the monkeys we encountered:





We spent a lot of time relaxing at the pool.









The girls built sand volcanoes at the beach:





Ida Jane even got her hair braided on the beach and then pulled out the beads 2 hours later. You can kind of see it here.



The highlight of the trip for Harper was the traditional Ramayana dance performance we attended.





After all the excitement, it's always good to come home again. :)

Tree time

It's Christmas time in Singapore, again! Hard to believe we passed the one-year mark earlier last week.

Our little Singaporean girls could be on a postcard for the botanical gardens:







These are pictures from our photo shoot a while back, we promised to put more up, so here they are!



So, Christmas in Singapore. The weather has been really nice lately, a bit cooler and breezier (so, high 80s instead of low 90s, and yes, you can tell). Perfect weather to get our tree up.



Yes, Harper, it will "grow."







Harper provided a tour of the work:



While it has been a year, we didn't have this stuff last year, as it was sitting on a container in the South Pacific. The girls are enjoying their stockings and decorations. "Deck them halls" and all that stuff!

Halloween Fun

We had a fun Halloween here in Singapore! The girls had a party at school and one at home.
It all started with a fun sticker activity sent by Aunt Barb and Uncle Jim.
Next Ida Jane and Harper got to show off their costumes on the walk to school.
Jessie the Cowgirl:

Cinderella:

Ida and her best friend Charli:
Trick-or-treating isn't really done in Singapore so we held a Halloween party for the girls and their friends. The whole family dressed up for the fun.

Most of the kids had never celebrated Halloween before. Everyone had a blast as you can see from the pile of bodies in the playroom.
We even had trick-or-treating from door to door within the house, which was a huge hit with all of the kids.
Halloween was followed by Diwali. Ida Jane got a henna tattoo at school.

Hope everyone had a happy Halloween! We will be missing family at Thanksgiving. Stay tuned for pictures from the Singapore Botanic Gardens.

Mid-Autumn Festival

The girls took part in celebrating mid-Autumn festival last month. First, there was a celebration at their pre-school. Here they are, ready to go with their lanterns.



Both of their classes did a little performance.



Harper was relieved when that was over with.


The girls played with their classmates, feasted on mooncakes, and then got to light their lanterns when it got dark.


A few days later, there was another celebration at our condominium complex. The girls waited excitedly for balloons.


The flower and butterfly were worth the wait.






The girls enjoyed the puppet show. Ida Jane sat with her buddy Charles and paid close attention to the story.


Harper thought the show was hilarious.


The pre-school recently held a "funfair" where Ida Jane was quite pleased to become her favorite superhero.



Ida Jane and Harper are looking forward to the next celebration: Halloween!