Fall Break 2013

I am enjoying having all my kids home and off of school for a whole week for fall break!  We have been having FUN!

Day 1 - Shopping with the big girls and lunch at a favorite Swiss restaurant, Marche
Flip-flops for Sammy, clothes for Bailey
Carson, Jack and Sky - playdates with friends

Day 2 - Sammy & Bailey - piano lessons in the morning, then we hit Amped Trampoline Park for the youngest four kids.  Lots of their friends came too:  Skylar's friend 'Ina, the Gammons, the Garners and all the other SAS families that we ran into there.

I love these 2 shots of my friend Melissa and I jumping into the ball pit and the capture of our cracking up trying to get up and out of the foam.  It's much harder than it looks!

 Maddy and Bailey are great at helping out with the little kids:

 Bailey and Mason chilling on the wall:

Sorry for the blurriness and no pics of Jack.  They were too blurry.  Sammy stayed home to work on writing her novel.  It's November: National Novel Writing Month/ NaNoWriMo

The drive home from Amped included a seriously heavy Singapore storm with lightning flashing (and me ducking!) the entire ride home.  I really hate those storms.  I love the rain but hate the lightning!

Day 3 - Adventure Cove Waterpark at Sentosa all day!  We had a bunch of families join us at Adventure Cove which was great because everyone had a buddy or two to hang out with:

Bailey and Maddy:

 Sammy & Holly:

 Carson and Carsen Torfin:

Skylar and Mom!

Jack and his friend Ryan Dean:  Not pictured because they never stood still and were off on the water slides the entire time!

Adventure Cove is such a fun waterpark.  There's an amazing lazy river, lots of great slides and a really fun snorkeling pool.  Sky loved watching the fish and watching Carson snorkel by.

My friend Melissa and I went on a couple of slides while Sammy & Bailey watched Skylar.  They were both pitch black so they weren't my favorite ones ever.  I screamed pretty loud on one that had a huge drop-off right off the bat!

Day 4 - Girls Day #2 - pedicures in Holland Village and lunch at Pho Hoa, more playdates for the 3 little kids.

I woke up sick this morning so I decided a little pampering was in order.  Nothing tastes better than a big bowl of Pho when I'm sick!  I'm so glad that my girls are Pho fans also!

Day 5, 6 & 7 Mike and I were totally sick.  So, I set up playdates with my kiddos friends and just drove them all over the island to where they were playing.  So, I spent the end of the week in the car playing taxi driver.  All in all, it was a pretty fun week and I was sad to see everyone go back to school. I sure love having them around to play with!

Siem Riep Service Trip

Hi. This is Sammie, taking over my mom's blog for a minute (mostly because she bugged me to do it. But I need the writing practice, since I've decided to take on a challenge in which I write about a thousand words a day. However, that's another story).

Recently, I got to travel to Siem Riep, Cambodia, with a school service club called Village HOPE, which stands for Health, Opportunity, Prevention, and Education. The object of the service trip was to educate local Cambodian farmers about pesticides and using them properly. The farmers have no idea that pesticides are a poison; they think of them as medicine, that they are good because they kill all the bugs and help their plants grow. Our purpose in going was to explain the dangers of pesticides and how they could be properly used. (Pictures to follow).

On the first day, we met with 30 farmers in their communal building. The farmers were split into 5 groups of 6, and at each station one or two students would give a presentation. The respective categories were things like what are pesticides, proper pesticide use, protecting yourself against pesticides, and treating pesticide poisoning. My partner, Holly, and I spoke on the signs and symptoms of pesticide poisoning. We would go through our presentation with a translator at our disposal, and use flipcharts that had been translated into khmer with pictures to help the farmers who couldn't read.

It was an incredible learning experience. Each station was different from the others; with some the farmers would be silent, with others they would be outspoken. Sometimes we would zip through our presentation and would have to fill time by asking the farmers questions, other times we would still be answering their questions even as our time ran out and we would have to move to the next spot, promising them through our translator that someone in the next group would answer their question. Our translator, whose name was RJ, soon became an expert on our topic after reciting the presentation ten different times, and he soon was able to answer the farmers' questions when they asked him without having to consult Holly and I for answers. This led to a few frustrating times when RJ would get into long conversations with the farmers in khmer, and we would be left sitting awkwardly, listening to the complex tones of the language and wishing we were bilingual. I had so much respect for the translators at the end of the trip; I find languages incredibly fascinating although I'm horrible at them.

At each station we would ask the farmers if they had contacted some of the pesticide signs we spoke about. At almost every station, farmers admitted they had contacted some kind of affliction: headaches, nausea, rashes, diarrhea, and aching bones were some of the more common symptoms, although it was clear that these people had been suffering for a long time from pesticides and had no idea why. For those farmers who said that no symptoms had affected them, we explained that while no signs may show immediately, they could contact signs eventually, such as cancer. Although they may not have fully understood the idea of symptoms coming later, they did understand us when we said, "If you protect yourself against pesticides, you will be healthy and live longer!"

As difficult as it may have been for some of them, by the end of our presentations they believed us wholeheartedly. I even asked some of them at the end of our presentation, "Now that we've taught you these things, will you make sure to protect yourselves against pesticides?" They replied, with help from the translator, that they would do so. I was amazed at their willingness.

At the end of the morning, we did an activity that involved all of them. We had someone lie down on a large piece of paper and traced their body, then had all the farmers come up and mark the places on the drawing where they had been affected by pesticides. To protect themselves against these afflictions, we gave each farmer a set of rubber boots, a pair of gloves, and a mask, reminding them to wear long sleeves and pants to protect their skin. Each farmer left that day feeling enlightened, safer, and grateful. They continually thanked us for coming to teach them, while all the time I wanted to thank them for allowing us to teach them.

Jozz Part 2

I didn't pick up Jack from school one day last week because I was sick with the flu.  Marnelie picked him up and told me that the teacher wanted to talk to me.  That didn't sound good.
So, the next morning I made sure that I walked Jack to school so I could find out what his teacher wanted.  It turns out that Jack has been acting up in class and even went as far as doing the "pull the chair out trick"...you know the one where when someone goes to sit down someone pulls the chair out of the way so that they end up falling on the ground.
So, he didn't get to attend his class's "Fun Friday" party and had to write an apology letter to Emily, the girl whose chair he pulled out.
Hmmm....I have a feeling that this naughty behavior will kind of pass since he started off this way in first grade too...but then had a great time the rest of the year.  However, only time will tell.  There was that one time that he had to go sit in the primary school office during kindergarten also...
It's a good thing I adore this boy!!!

JOZZ

I feel compelled to write about my son Jack today.  This guy is kind of a mystery at times but has a sweet side that no one tends to see but me, his mom.  So, I just feel like I better write about the secrets only I know about Jack in case something ever happens to me.  Also, because he is often very difficult and I will need to read this on days when he is breaking my parental threshold.  I wouldn't want his future wife to miss out on reading about the sweet moments that did actually occur, unbeknownst to the rest of the world.
Some secrets about Jack are the following, in no particular order:

-His nickname is Jozz and sometimes J-Tozz - this stands for Jack Thomas Ozz Daynes
-He loves his little sister Skylar and loves to give her kisses and hugs.  In return, she absolutely adores him and asks me all day when Jackie will be home from school?
-He doesn't like to go to bed without the following:
lullabies from mom (Tora Lora especially)
eskimo kisses
butterfly kisses
at least one panky (blankie)
his thumb
prayers
light up turtle pillow pet
-He gives great hugs and kisses and even holds my hand while walking to school.  Then he gives me a hug goodbye at his classroom door.

A great story that happened on Sunday:
Every Sunday I require my children to write in their journals and practice the piano before they can do their other Sunday activities.  Both Carson and Jack hate it and it is torture for them to write even a few lines.  We keep their journals on their book shelf in their bedroom so that they are always easy to find on Sundays.  Well, this past Sunday Jack couldn't find his journal.  He was searching all over the book shelf but it wasn't there.  So, he roped me into helping him look for it.  As we were looking he told me that he needed to tell me a secret.  He whispered, "I said a prayer to God to help me find my journal." We soon found his journal underneath the coffee table in the living room.

This is part of the soft side of Jack that I get to see but no one else does.  It's cool to see that he is learning a few things in primary or at home and actually putting them to the test on his own.

I went to Jack's back to school night last night and found out that when he grows up he wants to be a TV producer.  It will be fun to watch him grow up and decide his profession.

Love you Jack-Jack, Jackie, Jozz, J-Tozz!

First week of Second Grade!

Carson's "10th" Birthday Party

Carson decided to have a One Direction birthday party for his birthday this year.  Since his birthday is in the summer he wanted to have it with his friends from school so we planned it for a Saturday night - May 4!  He invited 18 boys and 2 girls and that is exactly how many friends came to the party...18 boys and 2 girls!

Bailey and a couple of friends were the "bouncers."  They made sure everyone who came was given their special "golden ticket" upon entering the gate.  Then they had to walk down the red carpet to get into the party.

Carson and his buddy Ethan looked like "pros" at karaoke on our makeshift stage.

Carson and friends sang 2 hours of One Direction songs!

Mike was sporting a "sweet" wig as usual at his kid's parties.

I was more "behind the scenes." writing out corny signs, making the cake and preparing a few games.

This was the top of the cake. Carson picked out some pans for me to use from my cake-baking friend Monica and so I was stuck putting in some serious hours on this year's cake:

Hunter and Carson (school buddies) got into the singing too.

As well as the neighborhood gang.

More photos and videos are coming soon of this fun, fun party.    Carson is such a fun kid that it's not a surprise that he picks great party themes.  However, I cannot wait to see his face when I show him some of the videos from the party when he is 16 or so!

Another Athletic Achievement

Dec. 14, 2012 Carson just reminded me that I have neglected to post an important athletic achievement from back in early December; the SAS Intermediate School's Basketball Shootout.  Carson participated in the prelims before school one morning, against any of the 150-180 (or so) third grade boys who were interested in trying out.  He made it to the finals for the third grade boys. Our whole house was excited for Carson to participate in the Finals because we could all tell how important it was to him.  He was so excited and nervous about it that he woke up at midnight the night before the competition and started getting dressed for school because he was so worried that he might miss the finals or be late.  (The competition was held before school at 7:30am.)

For the finals the clock ran for 1 minute and the top 3 boys all shot at 3 different baskets simultaneously.  It was pretty clear before the minute was up that Carson was the winner.  He played the game very smart and shot carefully, always running as fast as he could back to the 1, 2 or 3 point lines.  He was determined and smart in his strategy and it payed off.  After he won he told everyone who could hear that he won...now we are working on humility. :)

Happy Halloween!

It's lucky for us that SAS has a pumpkin sale a couple of weeks before Halloween.  Skylar and I were one of the first ones there to pick out our pumpkins:

I made these cute ghost cupcakes on Pinterest, my favorite place for fun and festive ideas!

I picked these up for Bailey one day at Giant while grocery shopping.  They were mixed in with all the socks and weren't meant for Halloween.  Who would wear these when it's not Halloween????

My friend Sonia sent me some great photos just recently from Halloween night at our house so I better post them.

Halloween night has become such a fun and predictable tradition at the Daynes home!  We have mostly the same families over every year with a few exceptions.  This year we had the Smarts (our South African friends), the Laus, Laurie Wiluan and her kiddos, the Lawlers and Lindsay Hancock (hubby Ben is in the U.S. now for his job).

We had our traditional soups, homemade bread, and pumpkin pies.  We had thousands of pieces of candy to give out as usual.  What was a bit different this year was our costumes!!!

This is what Mike brought home from work Halloween evening for he and I to wear:

 
 It took some careful maneuvering to make it through the crowds in these giant shark costumes!




 
 Skylar really loved Halloween this year.  She was Tinkerbell but she didn't care who she
was...all she really cared about was eating all of the candy she possibly could.







 
Carson was Ironman this year.  He and his classmates were definitely into the Avengers/Superhero theme this year:
 




Jack was Cole, the black Ninja from Lego Ninjago. 

Jack was only a Mummy for a short while at his class party after I wrapped him in toilet paper!

 


 

I thought the Smart girls looked fabulous in their costumes.  Sammy was pretty cute as a Newsie too!

Carson, Jack, Bailey & Sammy pumpkins (you can already see the mold growing inside!)

 

Here I am with the loot and my friend Lindsay.  She really went retro with her hair for the event!!!

Bailey and friends were Little Miss girls.  I like that Halloween in Singapore is for all ages!

The sweetest candy of the night was right here...yummy!!!