Es Car Go!

Kate had her first snail!  Her friend showed her how it was done first.  14 times.  

I had to try one too, of course. The texture was firmer than I had anticipated. Unfortunately, this did not help the tastiness factor. 

Another young and naive friend decided he would hide a snail in Mike's burrito (Yes, he ordered a burrito) while he was away from his plate. I was able to avert this suicidal disaster just in time.  Or maybe it was homocidal, because if Mike found out he had accidentally eaten snail, I honestly believe he might have died. 

Welcome Year of the Goat!

So Chinese New Year happened.  It's a big deal here that lasts 2 weeks.  This year's mascot is a goat/ram, which just happens to be my Chinese zodiac sign!  I thought this was pretty cool until I found out that every year your animal comes up will be an unlucky year.  However, one can stave off this unluckiness by wearing something red that was given to you by an elder.  So feel free to hook me up, older friends and relatives!

I took the kids to China town to see all the decorations and hopefully catch a lion dance.  It was a mad house.  They closed several streets to accommodate the masses, but many cars didn't like it, so the tried to drive down the streets anyway.  Usually in "man vs. car" the car wins, but "car vs. hoards of people" results in a stalemate with a lot of honking and yelling but no movement.

So I took some pictures and got out of there. Behold:

 

Kate and Faith's Chinese teacher helped them make some New Year decorations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For CNY day, we went to the zoo and watched a lion dance:

 

Probably the kids' favorite part of CNY is that adults hand out little red envelopes filled with money to kids.  :)

Crime and punishment

Jace disapproves of kissing.  Whenever he sees Mike kiss me, he threatens to tell our parents so they'll spank us.  We make a point to kiss in front of him often, and he makes a point to cover his eyes and make gagging noises. 

Just now in the car, the loathsome topic of kissing came up, and Jace said, 

"If you guys kiss, I'm going to punch you in the face!"

We all laughed, then I told Jace he really shouldn't say things like that, even if he's joking.  He replied:

"I'm not joking. I'm really going to do it."

County Fair

Yesterday was the local school's carnival, which they call the County Fair.  Since it had been almost a full day since I'd done some really profuse sweating, I decided to take the kids on over!  I told the kids to get shoes on so we could go to the county fair, and Jace complained,

"But Mom! Why we hafta go there? I already know how to count: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,16,17,18,19,21,22,23,27,29,20.  I can count to 20."

County Fair. Tee hee!

Faith getting her flirt on.

Egg painting

When I saw that egg painting was on the agenda for art today, I thought we would be painting eggs. Silly me!  Turns out that during the Byzantine Empire, egg yolks were mixed with minerals to make the paint shiny.  

Thank you, Byzantine Empire for teaching me yet another use for the fabulous egg.

Javan Mynah

 

This bird is everywhere in Singapore.  Not this exact one.  It's not like he travels the island with lightning speed.  But about a million birds just like him are everywhere.  I hope that's clearer.  Brighton is constantly shouting "TWEET TWEET!!" everywhere we go.  They are pretty used to humans and seem relatively harmless.  Until today.

 

Today we witness our first act of gang violence in Singapore. 

 

We were just sitting at the table, doing some homework, when suddenly we heard what sounded like a flock of birds enter our house.  They were actually just outside the window on the patio, but they were LOUD.  We went to see what was happening, and I could scarcely believe what I saw. 

About 8 of these birds were in a group.  One was being pinned to the ground by 2 other birds, and another bird was beating the tuna salad out of him.  The rest were gathered around to watch.  It looked like they were going to kill the poor little guy, so we ran out there yelling and waving our arms.  They all flew away, including the beaten one, so he must have been okay.

 

Brighton yelled at the fleeing birds and summed up what we were all feeling:

 

"Bad tweet tweet!"

A Day in the Life

A typical day for us here in Singapore isn't too different from back home.  

Wake up, get breakfast for the kids, clean up the kitchen, kill as many flies as possible, then throw in a load of laundry.

Don't forget to check for lizards.

Then we might take a trip to the market so we can eat something other than peanut butter sandwiches for the next few days.  It's best to go early before it gets too hot.  Remember to be prepared for inclement weather!

I am also supposed to water the plants. Every day.  This isn't going that well.  I thought I could get away with watering every few days since it rains often.  I've killed two trees.

This non-dead tree is my favorite:).

The other night we walked over to KFC as an upgrade to PB&J.  Pretty thrilling, I know :). 

In between these things is a lot of home school.  And fly killing, of course.

Wrap up the day with some time in the pool with friends.  

Life is good!