Miscellaneous March and April Stuff

Hi, everyone. The Bach family has been taking it pretty easy for the last month or so. The kids all started their second term of school in mid-March. This will be their last term in Singapore. Things are really moving along quickly. We have booked our return flights home although Ted will be flying back separately about a week or so after the rest of us. The return flight will be significantly less luxurious than our flight here unfortunately. Have you noticed how much air fares have increased this year? It's crazy! The flight we took here doubled in price. That means I'll be flying solo with three young children with layovers in Hong Kong and Canada. The thing that makes me crazy is that even though we won't actually be visiting those countries we still have to get off the plane and go through customs before-reboarding. Fun times. With three sleepy little ones. So we're flying in regular old coach for more than 24 hours. Sound like fun?

Before that happens, though, we have trips to Bali and then Taiwan in the two short months we have left here. We're heading to Bali for 5 days to celebrate my 40th birthday. Not bad! Then, the kids have another few weeks of school, finishing 31 May. The second week of June will be spent touring the northern half of Taiwan. Ted and I have both been busy planning that trip. Taiwan looks beautiful and I can't wait to go, but it's hard to make arrangements due to the language barrier. I assumed it would be no more difficult than planning the Thailand trip, but it really is. I'm sure it will be worth it. It will be our last hurrah in Asia because less than a week after we return from that trip, the kids and I will be returning to the US.

We have a lot to do!

But first, let's review the last month or so. We have 3.5 batches of photos here. First, we have a set of pictures from our trip to check out the famous Raffles Hotel and then to an easy dinner at a hawker centre with quite a view. There's another set from another cable car trip to Sentosa. Third, we have some obligatory shots from Easter. The last few capture one of our April Fool's Day tricks.

Grandma Nancy was here during the school vacation week and after we returned from the Rimba trip at Sibu, we had plenty of sights to show her around Singapore. She really wanted to see the Raffles Hotel. Ted and I hadn't been yet so we thought we would all go have a look. There was supposed to be a museum there as well but it permanently closed in February so we just missed that. Before heading to Raffles, we had some fun with a present from their grandma, markers for windows!

Most of the area around Raffles has been turned into shops. The building is colonial style and the shops look high-end. We did not take the kids inside those. Unfortunately, they were even a little too wound up for us to sit down so the adults could enjoy a Singapore Sling. Sigh.

We took this for our friend in Somerville, Tim Devin, not because he loves Louis Vuitton--I'm sure he does--but because he collects (and sometimes makes music with) typewriters.

Wyatt attracted a lot of attention in his Superman cape from Grandma Skinner.

Not a bad place for a wedding, I think.

We tried a door in the middle of the building. It was open. Peeking in, we realized it was a grand theatre. I'm not sure we are supposed to be here, but I'm glad we saw it. 

When we found out the museum was closed, we decided to head back out, descending this gorgeous staircase.

Ted took us to a food centre close to his office. He said we would appreciate the view and wow was he right. Look at that! 

It was a quick trip, but I'm glad we saw it.

The next shots are from our Sentosa excursion.

Here we are in the cable cars. All of the Angry Birds ones are gone. Now they are mostly the jewel box type, which means the view improves dramatically. We could see out the bottom!

Singapore is known as the lion city. The big merlion is in the bay and sprays a ton of water. This is the little merlion on Sentosa. The kids always want to climb up the steps inside, but we never have. Maybe next trip?

Sentosa takes care of you. To get from any point to another, there are lots of options: free bus, trams, the beach tram, and so on. But even walking involves little climbing because there are covered escalators on the biggest hills. 

And we headed to our new favorite part of the small island. The kids and Ted went for a little swim.

Then we played in the splash area.

We took the cable cars back home, too.

Check out the cruise ship we passed over. Hopefully it wasn't a Carnival one!

The Easter Bunny brought us some treats this year, but he didn't put them in baskets. I guess he couldn't find them.

The Easter Bunny brought us some necklaces, headbands, Pocky, chocolates, Oreos, and arts and crafts supplies. He also ate the carrot we left and stamped his paw on our note after he hid a bunch of our eggs.

Easter breakfast included French toast, eggs--scrambled or hard-boiled, lots of fruit, and bacon.

The booty.

And what I thought was a ham was a jumbo hot dog. Gross! Inedible, well to adults anyway.

At least we had cheesy potatoes, Brussels sprouts, and rolls.

And cute little desserts.

And Wyatt decided to help scrub the floors afterward.

So what was the big April Fool's Day joke this year? Pink oatmeal! And yellow milk!

Oh, and Ted and I swapped clothes. But we did not take pictures of that!

OK, I think that's a wrap. Next time I post, I will probably be 40! and the pictures will be from Bali. I'm going to guess those pictures will be awesome. See you then!