Singapore | Wild and Crazy Friday Night (or not, because we have kids...)

We arrived back in Singapore around noon and hung out at the hotel waiting for our room to be ready (we stayed at the Holiday Inn on Orchard Road - I literally just googled kid friendly hotel in Singapore and this came up, it was available so we booked it).  After it was ready, we left the lounge (we booked an executive room - I think that's what it's called, so nice with kids - there are snacks and drinks and coffees all day) and headed to the room for a rest.  After we rested we went out to explore Orchard Road - and we found this cute wall right by our neighborhood. I couldn't resist snapping a few of my twirly girlies. 

^ can you tell who is who? ^

^ the cutest little street. ^

^ stopped by the Apple store and Wes and Emma tried out the iPad pro - she looooved it ;). and tried to convince us to buy her one.  nice try Emma :). ^

^ then we had googled best burger in Singapore and a place came up that said it was similar to Shake Shack so that is where we headed (we love Shake Shack).  It was super duper yummy - and really hit the spot (we cannot get anything like this in the Chengdu) and we even got a real deal root beer float. ^

^ on the way back to our hotel, the girls had picked up a few new things to play with (they loved this shop called Smiggles) and wanted to take a picture with their finds. then we got a few drinks at the lounge and headed to night swimming - a definite highlight for the girls.  it was a nice, relaxing day - which we would need, our next day was go go go! ^

A Brief Stint in Malaysia

After the Singapore Zoo, we headed back to the hotel, packed up and headed to Malaysia.  I had a work trip which meant Wes and the girls were on their own for  most of the time.  Here is a look at our very brief visit to Malaysia.

^ the view from the infinity pool at our hotel overlooking the river. ^

^ we stayed near jonkers street. ^

^ I have noticed that ever since moving to China, we have become obsessed with blue skies and I find myself randomly taking pictures when the sky seems too good to be true. ^

^ Wes and the girls ventured to the mall one day (which was no small feat, we left our strollers in Singapore which meant lots of walking for the girls) and from the pictures it looks like they were being extra sweet to each other. ^

^ they spent tons of time in the pool - Wes would take them 2 - 3 times a day! ^

^ there was a hardrock cafe within walking distance to our hotel - Wes took the girls on a date and he said they were so well behaved and ate almost all of their food! ^

^ I told Wes he would earn major bonus points if he took a picture of the girls twirling in front of this wall - he is seriously a rockstar dad! ^

^ a girl at the pool in Singapore had taught Emma how to do a handstand in the water so she spent lots of time practicing in Malaysia. ^

^ I have mentioned this several times, but Everly has always been our early bird so some mornings we would spend a half hour together before Emma would wake up. Love getting these snuggles in before heading to work. ^

^ one morning she got me all ready by putting on the finishing touch ;). ^

^ our last night in Malaysia - we let the girls go on one of these rides (not even sure what they are called - they had been asking for the past two days) back to our hotel after we ate dinner.  They were both pretty elated. ^ 

^ we checked out Friday morning, but not before finding a dragon fly - Emma loves any creature (except spiders) and she was pretty pleased with herself for discovering this little guy! Even though we didn't really get to explore the area of Malaysia we were in, we appreciated the down town for the girls during the middle of our vacation - travelling can be exhausting (even for them ;)). ^

A Week of Celebrating!!

We have spent the last week celebrating!! One week ago today was Wes's birthday! And today is our 7 year anniversary.  Last year was a complete fail in the celebrating department (my mindset at the time was that everything is too difficult in China (and I couldn't make any celebrations special), we did nothing for our anniversary and for Wes's birthday we made banana muffins and called it a day - lame, I know. Well I am happy to say that I no longer think this way - everything is still a little more difficult in China, but with some planning it is completely possible to make celebrations special by just putting in a little extra effort.

Last Saturday we had a small party (two other families) over for bar-b-que and drinks.  There were six adults and six kids and it was the perfect size.  We made it easy on ourselves and ordered out most of the food and it was the perfect, low key, low stress event celebrating Wes! I made his favorite cake (texas sheet cake if you are wondering) and the girls helped him blow out his candles and we all just had so much fun!

 ^ in case you are wondering why Emma is sitting inside her pillow case - she fashioned a mermaid tail out of it and spent at least half an hour trying to convince Wes to sew it onto her costume permanently.  she loved hopping everywhere (just like a real mermaid ;)).

^ love this guy!! ^

On Monday, I took the day off and we celebrated our anniversary.  Since we don't have any babysitters in China, we decided to make use of school as our babysitter and spend the day together.  I got to walk the girls to the bus stop which is always a highlight for them and me :)! After we said goodbye, Wes and I had a day date going to Starbucks, running a few errands, eating at a Japanese restaurant for lunch followed by a massage for me and a pedicure for Wes.  It was really the best day celebrating us and just hanging out! I truly cannot believe it has already been seven years! We feel so blessed to have each other :).

Last, but not least, we are also celebrating that a Starbucks is coming to our neighborhood! This is truly one of the things I had wished and hoped for and we are so so excited about this :).

Today, we will have a family day doing what we do best - going on an adventure of sorts. Can't wait to share more :).

Singapore| The Singapore Zoo

On Monday afternoon, we were headed to Melaka (I had to work at some point ;)) but before we left Singapore, we wanted to spend one more morning exploring so we decided to go to the Singapore Zoo.  We ended up buying the four in one pass (that included the River Safari, Night Safari and Bird Park) since we would be back in Singapore just four days later for the weekend and it ended up working out perfectly.  Also, let me just rave about the Singapore Zoo for a minute - you hear a lot about the Night Safari, but the Singapore Zoo is hands down the best/most beautiful zoo we have been too (and we have been to a lot of zoos!).  I am not sure these pictures capture it, but it was just like walking through a rainforest with the tropical climate, the roaming animals - monkey's everywhere and the view (it is right on the water).  All of that to say - we loved loved loved this zoo! Here are a few pictures if you would like to see.

^ even the entrance is gorgeous! ^

^ they were having a special dinosaur exhibit and it was right up Emma's alley - she was asking to go through it again on our way out that's how much she enjoyed it. ^

^ she loved for Wes to tell her each type of dinosaur and then she would study them for awhile.  some kids were scared, not our Emma. ^

^ discussing something about the baby dinosaur situation with sis looking on.^

^ maybe Emma gets her love of dinosaurs from Wes? ^

^ Mingo's are much more up Everly's alley. ^

^ Singapore Zoo had the most active polar bear - and I love that it looks like Everly and the polar bear are saying hello. ^

^ I am a rhino lover and these guys were especially pretty. ^

^ the girls thought the same thing ;). ^

^ pointing at something?? ^ 

^ they loved the little mercats. ^

^ the animals here are said to have some of the best views of any other animals - I have to say these giraffes have quite the view. ^

^ I didn't capture much, but the girls (especially Emma) loved the reptile house - snakes, frogs and creatures galore! they especially loved when it was on their level. ^

^ which one is real, which one is fake ;). ^

^ my girls! ^

^ the have the same expression here! ^

^ hard to see, but I loved this little sun bear (the smallest of all the bears). ^

^ also a little hard to see, but this zoo has three white tigers! we love the white tiger at the fort worth zoo, but I have to say these ones were impressive too. ^

^ a little peak into what I hope Australia is like :). ^

^ we worked up quite a sweat walking around the zoo - the girls were so excited to go to the splash pad for a bit (with goggles this time ;)). ^

^ it really was more like a small waterpark than a splash pad and it comes free with the price of the zoo admission ticket. ^

^ the girls splashed and splashed and we finally got them out of the water to eat lunch and then they just went right back in again. ^

^ the tickets that we bought also included a carrousel ride which the girls were pretty please about so before we headed out, the girls took it for a whirl.  they were the only ones and had a blast! we had such a great morning at the Singapore Zoo! ^