Flat Tire

Our Mountain buggy suffered a blow, putting us without our "car" for a few days.  The kids helped daddy to fix the flat.  You can see Ainsley is putting the tube in, Kara is pumping the air, and Jack is inspecting the tools.  This is about as handy as we get living in an apartment and the kids were so excited they could barely stand it.  It compared only to the exciting project of changing light bulbs last month :-)

Saturday we met some friends at the top of the new Marina Bay Sands, at the Ku De Ta bar.  I did a horrible job of taking pictures once we got there, but it was cool and the view was really nice. 

My new hair cut (I cut four inches off)...

My horrible picture of an amazing view...

Fashion Plates

Do our kids have a future in fashion?  They sure like to pick out their own looks, and we let them.  We laugh at the ensembles they come up with, but then again, who are we to judge?  This could be the future of fashion...

Artistic Expressions

Ainsley has improved her drawing skills lately and we love the pictures she is drawing of the family.  The first picture is one she drew of mommy and daddy, the second one is of the whole family...

Jack likes the spinning platform on the lego box.  He doesn't actually build anything with the legos, he just puts legos on the spinning platform and watches them spin around.

Kara looking cute in pig tails...

Playdoh :-)

Leaving for school Thursday morning to celebrate Children's day, thus the costumes...

Growth Spurt

Can you guess who has had a growth spurt?

Last week on our ride home from school the taxi driver was wearing gloves.  Ainsley said, "Mom, why is uncle wearing socks on his fingers?"  I then had to try and explain what gloves are for...and ended up digging out a pair Matt bought last winter in China to let Ainsley try them on.

Jack finally decided he wanted to wear his big boy underwear!  He only wore them for an hour before he was back in diapers, but at least he is entertaining the idea!

Arts and crafts time!!  Ainsley spent 30 minutes putting tattoos on herself and Kara while Jack worked on his masterpiece crayon drawing while also watching "Cars" on the tv.

Today we saw a woman in a wedding dress and Ainsley says..."Mommy, when I get big, big, bigger maybe I will wear a wedding dress and get married.  I will marry my daddy!"  

Tonight before bedtime Ainsley says, "Mom, you are the best mommy ever!"

:-) smiles 

End of Hari Raya

MMI (the kid's school) held a celebration for Hari Raya and taught the parents and the students about the holiday.  Hari Raya is a muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan.  The teachers performed songs and dances and treated us to some traditional Malaysian food and sweets.  Ainsley volunteered to dance on stage with her teacher (Miss Lynn) showing off her skills with a Malay dance.  Jack and Kara paid attention for the first 15 minutes but then I spent the rest of the time chasing them around the school grounds.  

Matt's new iPad is not only his favorite toy but also the kids!  Matt downloaded some kid games and they LOVE playing games with daddy.

Cuties hamming it up for the camera...

We bought some dress-up outfits for the kids and Ainsley and Jack enjoyed wearing theirs most of the weekend.  Kara wasn't in the mood but wore her new slippers.

Kara is officially out of diapers (during awake time) and is doing really well.  Jack is still happy wearing his diapers and since we only have one left in diapers now we don't mind :-)  

We remember a distinct time period when Ainsley's brain seemed to "click" and she seemed to understand the world around her and could communicate effectively.  We then noticed the same click with Kara 2 or 3 months ago.  Over the past week Jack appears to have passed this moment as well.  It became suddenly apparent that Jack understands everything around him, he participates in conversations, listens and responds, and just "gets it" so to speak.  We knew this time was coming from watching Kara, and now it has!  We no longer feel like we have babies or toddlers, just three amazing kids!

Beijing and Farewell

Last week Grandma D and Aunt Heather stayed in Singapore with the kids while Matt and I enjoyed a quick vacation to Beijing.  We enjoyed ourselves and packed lots of sight seeing into our short trip!

Highlights of our trip...The Forbidden City...

Tianamen Square...

The Great Wall...

A Jade factory...

Olympic village, bird's nest, etc...

Learning about Chinese tea at Dr. Tea...

Over the weekend we had an extra day due to a public holiday (Hari Raya).  We enjoyed spending time with Grandma D and Aunt Heather during their last weekend here.  We went to Mac Ritchie to try to spot some monkey's but there were no monkeys out this weekend :-(

We are sad to bid farewell to Grandma D and Aunt Heather and are very thankful they came to spend time with us.  The Diamond trio will miss you!!!!!!

ROAD TRIP!!! well, sort of...

We rented a car (minivan) for the weekend so we could take a road trip to Malaysia.  Intentions were good, but we aborted the mission and didn't get quite as far as we planned...but alas the adventure was entertaining.  We loaded up the minivan (a Toyota Picnic) and Ainsley was SO excited she was about to burst.  She packed a suitcase full of legos, strapped on her sunglasses and brought along a bag of snacks.  She is the self-proclaimed map (think Dora) and literally could not wait to get on the way to Malaysia (or as her Singapore accent says, "Malaysher")...

So, we reached the border to Malaysia in a mere 20 minutes.  That was the easy part.  The part that wasn't on the glossy brochure was the twins that hate car seats and screamed their little heads off, the two hour wait to get through the border checks/immigration, the road system once we got across the border, and the delay in schedule that pushed up to lunch time and nap time.  After a brief stop at a gas station in Johor to let Ainsley go to the bathroom, we headed back to Singapore :-)  Jack and Kara fell asleep on the way back to Singapore and gave our ears a needed rest.  Ainsley continued to have the time of her life, despite all of the drama rich in the adventure.

Sunday we enjoyed getting together with some Texas friends to watch the UT/Rice game.  The kids loved playing in a new house and wore themselves out.

Sunday evening we took Barb and Heather to our favorite Indian restaurant in Little India...

We continue to enjoy having Grandma D and Aunt Heather with us.  The kids are LOVING it and we are having loads of fun.  Ainsley says, "Aunt Hedder" ... so cute.