Christmas activities 2013!

Today is December 26 and I don't know what to do with myself!  This whole month has been so non-stop busy, crazy, with a zillion To-Do Lists that it was so weird waking up today with nothing that had to be done!  December 1-25 has been amazing!  I really didn't want it to end.  We had Christmas-y activities going on everyday and it was pure bliss!

The first thing that I'm so proud of is that we made 3 HUGE batches of Christmas salsa and delivered them to everyone who was "expecting" a batch!  We delivered salsa and chips to 30 + people!  It was actually our cheapest year because there's finally a brand of tortilla chips that arrived this year that doesn't cost an arm and a leg.  They are the Mission brand of chips from the U.S. but they have them in a smaller size bag and they can be found for under $5! (Yay for importing more Tex/Mex stuff Singapore!!!)




Also, we had some amazing service projects this December!  My favorite one was "12 Days of Christmas."  We said a prayer at family night to come up with a family in our neighborhood who we thought could use an activity like this and we were all in agreement after the prayer of who it should be. Luckily, the family we chose lives right around the corner from us, which made it easy.  One or all of us dressed up in black every night (to hide our blonde hair) for 12 nights and delivered a quote, along with a piece of a nativity set each night.  We were so psyched that we didn't get caught and made it the entire 12 nights in anonymity!  The last night was super sweet because the kids in the house left a note out on the porch that said, "Thank you Secret Santa!"

Another great activity was a youth service project that Bailey, Sammy and I participated in.  We went to National University Hospital and sang Christmas Carols to sick children.  The children's faces absolutely lit up as we entered the room.  A guy in our ward came along, dressed as Santa, and he was going around shaking kids hands and delivering presents to the kids as we walked around singing. This was very well received by everyone in the hospital and many people stopped us to tell us how much they appreciated the Christmas caroling.

Some other Christmas favorites this month included the tradition of going to Tanglin Mall to play in the "Snow."  (Bailey came straight from soccer practice so she was busy eating dinner during the snowfall this year and Sammy was off shopping with Mike for a new computer.)
Skylar was not so sure she liked the snow at first but she ended up liking it by the end of the snowfall.

                                                  Jack had fun with his buddy Ryan Dean.

We spent another day going Christmas shopping and taking our annual photo with Santa at Tanglin Mall.  (My oldest 3 kids are now hating this tradition but we've been doing it since Sammy was a baby so I told them that sometimes they just have to go along with what makes their mom happy!) We also had a great ward Christmas party and went to a fun party at our friends, the Gatlin's, house where we had a White Elephant exchange.  I got a seriously creepy doll that has been the gift that keeps coming back each year.  Mike and I died laughing bc one of our friends re-wrapped it and put it under the tree for our host's daughter!  She was probably scared to death opening that present.

 Sky was the best helper this Christmas season!  She's mailing packages to the grandparents here.

Sugar cookies I made for Jack and Carson's school parties!

Jack with his friend Graeme.

 Another great service project Sammy and I participated in this Christmas season was when we got together with some of Sammy & Bailey's friends and made lanyard holders for the non-profit organization called Village Hope.  This is the same organization that Sammy went to Cambodia with in September.

Sammy, Bailey and friend Bentley scaling walls to deliver Christmas cheer (& Christmas salsa) to our neighbors!

My gang of five visiting "the Santa Claus" at Tanglin Mall.

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!!!