When we woke up on the Saturday before his birthday, we pretended today was the big day. Ted opened his presents from the family: a keychain Eleanor had bought from her school store, swim trunks, and a cool island shirt I had picked up on the sly in Bali. We went to the water park that we love so much and Ted got to use all three presents there.
We arranged for a surprise dinner for Ted at an Indian restaurant called Kinara in Holland Village on Saturday evening. It was a surprise because I had invited a couple of his coworkers to join us there with their families. Before the restaurant opened, we stopped for a quick drink next door.
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Okay, I guess I forgot to take pictures at dinner but the restaurant was really pretty and the food was great. The kids were a little crazy so as soon as they were done eating, I took them outside to play in the streets. This part of Holland Village shuts the main street down in the evenings and all the restaurants and bars (there are tons) set up tables and chairs in the street. We played all kinds of games out there while the rest of the adults finished up.
Then, we walked a few doors down to a dessert place for ice cream.
Here is Ted blowing out the candle in his ice cream.
After desserts, Ananth and Srimathi gave Ted a cool engraved pen. Very nice!
Here we are out on the packed street.
And what's a party without noisemakers?
On Tuesday morning, Ted's actual birthday, we had the traditional name pancakes.
And he had cards from the kids.
Then on Wednesday night, we had cake after dinner at home. Of course I forgot to take pictures of that, but I think you can tell Ted had a pretty amazing 37th birthday (week)! He deserves it, too. He works very hard so that the whole family can play this hard. We love you, Daddy!
I've talked about one of our favorite places to go out to eat before. It's called Red Dot. We go to the one on Dempsey Road. It's a brew-pub with a really cool koi pond and practically outdoor setting. We go usually near the end of Happy Hour and get a couple drinks and a bunch of appetizers that are mostly potato-based. The kids are happy, we are happy. It's not the healthiest night, but we load 'em up with veggies at lunch to prepare. What we really wish is that we could go with some Happy Hour Play Group friends so we could get one of these at our table:
Alas, it's always just the two adults so we settle for a pint or two each.This green beer is amazing!
The first thing we do after being seated is let the kids go check out the koi pond. We always try to get a seat close to it and because we go so early it's never a problem. Last time we went, the server brought out these plastic takeaway containers for the kids to catch (and release) the little koi fish. People walking in to the restaurant thought it was so cool that they offered to help Wyatt who was having less luck than his sisters at catching anything.
When that didn't work, even the chef came out to help little Wy!
Can you see the little orange guy in there?
Tonight we splurged and bought the kids some ice cream: one scoop each of chocolate, vanilla, and pistachio. Guess which one Wyatt ate?
So that's Red Dot. Yum and fun. And want to see what happened on the way home? Ted left the car to pay for our gas and this is what the kids did:
A great thing happened last week; we found the most excellent satay place. Why didn't we find this place before our last few weeks here? So sad! There are a bunch of places for great food at Satay by the Bay, the food court for Gardens by the Bay. Ted and I found it when I met him for lunch one day while the kids were at school. We went back twice for dinner! Anyway, why am I telling you this story? Because after the first visit (when we got monsooned--fun!) our daughter who is usually the quiet one (Zoe, duh) sang us a song she had learned at school. The song is called "Courtesy is for Free." There is a background story to the courtesy campaign involving Singha the Courtesy Lion leaving the country because Singaporeans were losing their courtesy, but that's for another time. Here is Zoe's song, in two parts. It's cute, I promise.
OK, that's it for now. The next blog will be a little different. Probably there will be no pictures. The family has been working on some lists of things we will miss about Singapore and things we can't wait to say goodbye to. Should be interesting, but hopefully not controversial. Thanks for reading!
Good to see Ted with a MF Pancake Riot on his hands!
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