Last in our series about the multi-day festivities surrounding our boy’s fifth birthday.
Our marquee event on the day after his actual birthday was a school field trip to Snow City, an indoor attraction in Singapore that features manufactured snow, ice slides, and a huge sledding hill. The field trip was originally going to be on his birthday proper, but it got bumped by a day, extending the birthday celebrations by an extra 24 hours.
And it was a lot of fun! Really cold of course — the place provides coats and boots, and we brought our own gloves and hats (got to bust the beloved monkey hat he used to wear in London!). Nyan had fun running around and playing with his friends; he wasn’t crazy about the sledding hill; Daddy sat on an inner tube while Nyan rode on his lap, and the thing actually went really fast and bounced a bit (enough that his helmet flew off at one point). But he was a brave trooper and tried, at least.
The place also had an educational component of sorts: staffers did a demonstration of how to make ice cream from liquid nitrogen. Plus a little demo of blowing liquid nitrogen smoke rings.
After all that snow and ice, we were all more than ready to get out into the more than 90 degree F sunshine outside. After a quick lunch, Nyan and some classmates played around on the little playground, which included a trampoline and a water screw.
Busy day! Everyone took a little nap when they got back to the school around mid-afternoon. And as you can see and hear from this video that Daddy shot at pick-up time, around 5:30pm, all the kids had plenty of energy left over:
We leave you with a few random shots of before and after the field trip – goofing with Adrianna, riding the bus.
And with that, the five days of birthday celebrations came to a close. Next year, will we do six days for six years? Eh, hopefully not — we loved celebrating with our boy and reminding him how special he is, but wow it was exhausting for Mommy and Daddy! We’re thinking that for Birthday No. 6, we’ll try to pack it all into just one day.
Continuing this chronicle of the extended celebrations for Nyan’s fifth birthday, we come now to day four, Tuesday the 26th. A.k.a, Nyan’s actual birthday.
The actual day itself ended up being one of the more mellow of his five birthday days. It was a school day, but that’s fine: most of his best friends are his classmates — he’s really close to many of them — so it makes perfect sense to spend the day with them.
And with Mommy and Daddy too: they showed up in the late morning with a cake. Nyan had requested a Transformers cake, so that’s what he got:
His friends all came together and sang before Nyan blew out the candles:
Other than that, there were goodie bags, silly children, and loads and loads of sugar. (Oops, sorry about that, teachers!) Really a fantastic way to celebrate.
Next up: the chilly conclusion to Nyan’s Five Days of Turning Five…
The hero of this humble blog turned five years old on July 26. (No, we can’t believe he’s five already, either.) A couple months back, we started thinking about how to properly celebrate. Last year, you may recall, we had a big family gathering in the US on the day itself, and then a pretty big party with all his friends by the pool back home in Singapore a couple months later. Each was a ton of fun, and each was a ton of work. This year, after looking at a few options, we thought we’d make it a little more restrained: a small cake party at school, and some special excursion the weekend before. Simple.
That’s not how it worked out, though. Because of a confluence of events and activities, the birthday celebrations ended up starting on a Saturday and continuing til Wednesday. That’s five days for five years (which might make a catchy #hashtag if this blog was into that sort of thing).
Let’s take a look back at the festivities, day by day by day by day by day.
Day One: Saturday
The Shaolin Monks were in town, and Nyan and Daddy got tickets.
The Shaolin Monks, you may or may not know, are Buddhist monks from China who practice a very impressive style of martial arts. And they’ve turned it into a stage show, and they tour around the world, giving a performance that tells the ancient history of the Shaolin temple (lots of warlords and fighting and the like) while also showing off their pretty amazing dexterity. (Sorry, no video of the actual performance.)
The show was at Marina Bay Sands, and afterwards, Daddy and Nyan took a nice long slow stroll along the water, with Nyan of course asking questions about every. single. thing. he. saw. Until finally we met up with Mommy for dinner. A nice start to the five-day party!
Day Two: Sunday
Nyan wanted a playdate with BFF Kyle, so a playdate he got. We met Kyle, his baby sister Kara and his parents at a newly discovered waterpark near the National Stadium. It’s a small place but just right for splashing around, swimming a bit, getting huge buckets of water dumped on your head, and the like. And it’s free! The boys splashed around for a while until a storm rolled in. Bummer. But the waterpark is actually on the roof of a shopping mall, so in we went. Strolled around for a while, ended up getting an early dinner at a food court. And goofed around on Kara’s stroller.
Day Three: Monday
On Monday, we played hooky from school and kicked the celebrations into another gear. A day trip into nearby Malaysia for the Legoland theme park! We had no idea what to expect, but had heard good things about the place, so off we went.
The bus ride was only about an hour on the road, but it still took us about three hours to get there, thanks to having to get off the bus and clear immigration in both Singapore and, a mile later, Malaysia. It took a looooong time. But no real worries: by late morning we were inside the park. It was an overcast day, which meant it never got hot, and it was a Monday, which meant it never got crowded. Our timing couldn’t have been better!
One of our first stops was, of course, the Star Wars exhibit – home to lots of Lego models of various scenes from the movies. Plus life-sized Lego characters, and of course a gift shop.
There was also a section devoted to knights and castles and the like, also with a gift shop, where we bought Nyan what quickly become his favorite toy:
It also had a (somewhat tame) joust/horse ride:
Yes, Legoland had a lot of rides. Some of them were far too much for Nyan, like the roller coaster that Daddy went on solo. But other were more Nyan’s speed, like this quasi-roller coaster:
One sort-of downside to there being no crowds: no lines for rides like these, so both Mommy and then Daddy went on the ride with Nyan about three or four time each. Got a little seasick by the end, truth be told…
There was also a train:
And driving school. Nyan did pretty okay, for his first time. He’s certainly a cautious driver:
Legoland also had a lot of really intricate Lego models throughout the park.
And there was a movie theater with a 3D movie:
Best of all, there was a silly and goofy little boy, having the time of his life.
A great day overall, even though go through immigration on the way home was a test of patience, to say the least. But all’s well that ends well, and we got home and got to sleep, resting up for Day Four in our seemingly never-ending birthday extravaganza. Stay tuned for more…
Summer in Singapore is much like any other season: hot and humid, with about 12 hours of intense sunlight pretty much every day. As expected, Nyan managed to pack a lot of summertime fun into June this year, with swimming, playing outside, visiting museums, being silly. Here’s a quick look:
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