Hanukkah: Food, Craft and Present Extravaganza!

This year for Hanukkah, Noah and Daddy prepared all kinds of yummy food. Below, Noah with the pile of latkes he and Seth made. 

Noah cutting dough to make sufganiyot.

Cool!

Seth demonstrating how to fill them with jam and seal the top.

Noah making his "I know how to do it, my turn" face. 

Noah's turn...

Noah with the finished product.

Noah received a great Hanukkah present from his Aunt Renee and Uncle Tom... a hanukkah cupcake decorating kit. He just had to make cupcakes to try out his new kit. Below, Noah making chocolate cupcakes.

Noah and the finished product: chocolate cupcake with peanut butter icing and dreidel shaped sprinkles with Happy Hanukkah cupcake holders and little decoration.

To top it all off - Noah and Seth made some bagels... sooooo good. Noah showing off his handiwork.

In addition to toys and books from us, Noah also got some great books and an awesome playmobil set from GG and Grandpa and his Aunts and Uncles. Below Noah playing with his playmobils. 

To thank everyone, Noah and I made some Hanukkah thank you cards (with inspiration from the internet: Hanukkah Tinfoil Card ). Noah gluing pieces of blue paper, ribbons and feathers onto a big piece of tinfoil.

With a little gluing help from Maman.

All done with the shredding and gluing portion (by the way, a very good project to do with a preschooler who loves shredding and gluing :) ).

The result... three cards.

Up close...

Noah selecting which card goes to which person.

Another project (it took 16 rolls of toilet paper....) - a hanukkah wreath (Hanukkah Wreath Instructions). Noah did a great job painting all the rolls of toilet paper blue and really got into it. 

We also did the traditional dreidel playing... a big hit especially since he got to chose a piece of candy/chocolate to eat at the end. 

He was very excited because "he won" - he was the first to lose all his chocolate/candy and was then the first to be allowed to eat a piece!

And of course... candle lighting and singing which Noah really enjoyed. 

Last night - Noah looking at the Hanukkiah.

Up close...

Pretending to blow out the candles.

Now - that was funny!

Happy belated Hanukkah everyone. 

Singapore Walks: Bukit Brown

Last weekend, we went walking at the Bukit Brown Cemetery. The cemetery was opened in the 20s  on  213 acres of land and in the 70s it stopped being used. Now, as wikipedia explains, "the cemetery is home to many bird species and wild life, and has as such become popular again–this time, with nature lovers". Unfortunately, at the beginning of 2013, they will begin tearing it apart to make way for a highway.  Below, Noah exploring (we only had our cell phones with us so the quality of the pictures is not very good).

Petting one of the many sculpted lions.

Checking out another lion...

More lions!

The place was very big and green and beautiful. Noah got to do his first real bushwacking which he enjoyed though longer pants and closed toed shoes might have been a bit better! It was very hot out that day but we all enjoyed our tour of Bukit Brown. Next weekend.... the Tree-Top Walk at the Macritchie Reservoir Park.

Singapore Walks: Mount Faber to Hort Park

For the last few months, Noah has been able to happily keep up on long walks without needing a stroller. Soon, we will be needing a stroller again but for now... here we come Singapore! A few weekends ago, we took a cab to Mount Faber Park which is up on a hill above Vivocity, portal to Sentosa. Below is a view from Mount Faber Park (unfortunately, we did not take any pictures of this walk but I got some off the internet...).

From Mount Faber, we walked to the Henderson Waves Bridge - a funky wave-like bridge that was even written up in the NY Times. 

It looks even more spectacular at night... 

The pedestrian bridge is all wood.

From there we walked along the Southern Ridges Walk to terrace park... 

And further down, on suspended bridges. Signs kept telling us to beware the monkeys but unfortunately (or fortunately), we did not see any monkeys. We saw lots of birds and butterflies and little bugs though...

From there, we walked to Hort Park.  

The total walk was about 4k and Noah seemed to really enjoy it. So... the next available weekend, we went to Bukit Brown Cemetery and Nature Reserve ... (see next post). 

A very American Thanksgiving

This year, for the first time in many years we celebrated Thanksgiving with turkey and stuffing and yams and good friends and the whole nine yards. And it was wonderful. Our good friends invited us over and really went all out - so yummy and heartwarming to celebrate such an American holiday out here in our little tropical island. Here the kids' table. Noah enjoyed the turkey and stuffing and cranberries and yams and of course the pumpkin pie (our only contribution to the feast) and pecan pie and apple pie!

Our friends had also rented a little house and car for the kids to play with - which was a huge hit. Noah and the girls... 

The car...

A wonderful evening with amazing food, great company and fun for everyone - Thanks Laura, David and Kathryn :)

First Party Without us!

Noah was invited to a friend's birthday party this afternoon/evening without parents. I dropped him off around 17:00 and came back for him around 21:00. The first time our little guy is at a party on his own (and to top it off with parents he does not know well in a condo he had never yet been to). Apparently, they had a great time playing at the playground, eating some yummy food and watching a cartoon. Seth and I went to the movies... crazy crazy. Our little guy is growing up.

Noah and Lola sharing a slide. 

The kids playing on the slide...

Noah loved Benjamin's little car.

Noah's School Show

A few weeks ago, we went to Noah's school show. His class danced to "Move it Move it" from Madagascar which has a good beat. The kids were dressed up and had quite a lot of makeup and gel (and had them wear diapers just in case... weird to see Noah in a diaper again - it's been over a year since he has worn day diapers and four months or so since he has had a night diaper). Noah did a great job and smiled through most of it... 

At first, the boys were in the back and the girls were in the front...

The kids dancing... The song is actually pretty long and the choreography was not that simple.

turn around ...

Then the boys moved forward and the girls moved backwards...

The kids bowing... after this, Noah helped close the curtain (because apparently it did not close well on its on) - so Noah to try to help make things work smoothly.

Our little guy showing us his moves afterwards.