Singapore | Botanic Gardens

One last Singapore post - did this seem like the never ending vacation?? I know you guys are tired of hearing about the great time that we had in Singapore, but one more post because it was our last day and it was such a cool spot and you know me, I document nearly everything! We had a leisurely breakfast and then headed to the Singapore Botanic Gardens!!  Mostly I am just going to bombard you with beautiful pictures of flowers and my girls doing mostly what they do best - twirl.  This place was expansive.  We walked and walked and walked until we got to our main destination, the National Orchid Garden (you pay a small fee to go in, but it is definitely worth it!).  There are more orchids here than anywhere I have ever seen.  It was simply stunning.  Hope you enjoy!

^ loved this view - we lucked out and caught a period where no one was walking through. ^

^ baby girl was turning four later that week so we attempted to take a few birthday pictures while we were there. ^

^ my favorite orchid. ^

^ the girls loved the misters - it was so so hot! ^

^ love this shot of Emma! ^

^ we found an iguana (free roaming) and the girls were obsessed. ^

^ never lacking in personality :) ^

^ we wrapped up our time in Singapore with a rooftop swim before heading back to Chengdu.  I believe I said this when we started, but Singapore is truly a top notch vacation spot - we loved everything about it, but especially how kid friendly it is. ^

Four Random Things

1. Emma stills says the funniest things.  I have been kicking myself for not capturing as many of these funny saying as I used to, but I am going to make an attempt again.  Most recently, she was eating some banana bread that she and I had made together and she said, “I just don’t know what it is, my taster is a lover of banana bread!”.

2. Travel.  We will take 8 flights before the year is over.  We are heading to Thailand and Cambodia for Thanksgiving week and then home for Christmas!! We are all unbelievably excited about both trips! The girls have been talking nonstop about their holidays!!

3. Christmas Shopping.  I am *almost* 100% done with my Christmas shopping! I ordered everything online and rumor has it, I have boxes and boxes of stuff waiting for me at my parents’ house ;).  Are you curious what the girls will be receiving? Mostly princess dresses J.  Emma requested both of the Elena dresses and a new Ariel dress from Santa and Everly requested a new Minnie Mouse dress and we got her a Lambie costume and a Doc McStuffins kit.  I can’t wait to see their reactions on Christmas morning – I am giddy just thinking about it.

 4. Speaking of Christmas Things.  The one weekend that we have left in Chengdu will be packed with all of the Christmas things.  Snowflake is scheduled to make her debut on December 2^nd morning (I cannot wait to see the girls reaction! Rumor has it, she’s adding balloons to the mix this year).  Then they were invited to a Christmas party that afternoon and on Sunday we are hosting a Christmas party for my work team – it is going to be busy, busy but full of so many good things!

Singapore | Jurong Bird Park

A couple of more Singapore posts and we will be all wrapped up.  We just had a super busy day the day prior visiting the Merlion, Singapore Flyer, River Safari and Night Safari so we decided to sleep in the following day and just play it by ear.  We were googling best water parks in Singapore figuring the girls would like a water day when the bird park actually came up in our search.  Emma pulled hard for the bird park so off we went.

^ she was pretty pleased to be there (and to see birds before entering the park!). ^

^ tad bit sunny ;). ^

^ Ev's has loved flamingo's (she used to refer to them as 'mingos') for as long as I can remember. I have loved that little wave for as long as I can remember ;). ^

^ there was a bird show starting pretty close to when we got there so we went in and found some front row seats. ^

^ it was stifling so we did our best to keep cool with our hand held fans. ^

^ the bird show was pretty good - the girls liked how interactive it was for them. ^

^ there was a bird show finale and Emma and Everly got to get up close to see lots of the birds! ^

^ Em's especially enjoyed the parrot. ^

^ while Ev's especially enjoyed the flamingos. ^

^ that wave! ^

^ little did they (or us for that matter) know that they were going to get to take their picture with the flamingo!! ^

^ we walked around and looked at birds for awhile (not many pictures because Wes and I are not really into birds, ha!) but we did see a snowy owl which I thought was pretty cool! ^

^ then we headed to the water park to cool down! ^

^ these water parks are free with your admission ticket and are not very crowded and are the perfect addition to many activities in Singapore since it has very mild temperatures year round. ^

^ I didn't get a very good picture, but you can see most of it in this picture behind the girls - so much fun! I put my phone down and stopped taking pictures and got in on the fun with the girls!! ^

^ all dried off and ready to go back to our hotel. ^

^ back at our hotel, we rested for a bit and then got ready to go to dinner.  just a few of my favorite Emma pictures from the whole trip as we waited for our taxi to take us to dinner. ^

^ we googled best Mexican food in Singapore and found this place and headed there (best might be debatable if you are from Texas ;)), but nevertheless we ate it right up!. ^

^ had to take a picture of this Vespa for Papa George! ^

^ we were in the Clark Quay area and I loved the colorful buildings that were around us! ^

^ the girls found this heart shaped art with lots of locks on it and wanted their picture taken :).  it was a perfect low key day!! ^