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Monthly Archives: November 2016

Gardens by the Bay with Kyra and Chrysa

30 Nov

One of Nyan’s favorite classmates is Kyra, who lives next door along with her younger sister Chrysa, who attends the same preschool. One Sunday afternoon and evening in October, the three kids, along with all four parents, headed down to Gardens by the Bay for some play.

Gardens by the Bay itself was as gorgeous as ever, by day and by night:

The kids had a blast together. Here’s Nyan with Kyra:

And here he is being Big Brother to Chrysa:

We didn’t end up in the domes that are home to the botanic gardens on this trip. We did manage to find a cool playground:

The main event, though, was the Gardens’ excellent waterplay area. We’ve been here numerous times before, and it never fails to impress.

 

The kids were out of control, in the very best possible way:

A really fun day!

 
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Posted by on November 30, 2016 in Uncategorized

 

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Nyan Thomas Does Halloween

26 Nov

When we asked Nyan what he wanted to be for Halloween this year, he was unequivocal: he wanted to be a knight. Okay then. We looked around a bit for a decent knight costume to purchase, but found next to nothing — certainly nothing good. Not to worry: Mommy’s pretty skilled and creative at sewing and other craft-y type stuff, so she dove right in to a labor of love: making our boy a knight costume from scratch. And what a job she did. We used a sword and shield we’d gotten at Legoland, and a helmet and dagger from a castle in England, but the rest was all homemade. Check it out:

Is that awesome or is that awesome?

Here he is, strutting his stuff around the pool:

That was at a Halloween party that the apartment complex threw for all the kids. More scenes from that, including a mummy-making contest.

Then it was time for trick or treating! It was Nyan’s first time to actually go trick or treating; we went to every one of the five towers in our apartment complex, hitting up those apartments that were taking part. Maybe 30 or 40 in all. Nyan hooked up with Jayden and his brother Johnnie to do it:

By the end of the night, the costumes were getting a little intermixed:

And then we found a toy knife that Nyan just had to try out. Okay, Daddy too.

Silly. But fun.

 
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Posted by on November 26, 2016 in Uncategorized

 

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Another Playdate with Kyle

23 Nov

One of our favorite recurring characters on this blog is Kyle, Nyan’s former classmate whom he’s stayed close to even though they don’t go to the same school any longer, and in fact get to see each other but rarely – once a month at best. But they definitely make the most of the time they do get to spend together. Like in mid-October, when Nyan spent the afternoon at Kyle’s new home.

Much of the action took place in the lovely swimming pool, where the boys played all sorts of games.

And splashed in the water.

And goofed around using a hollow swim noodle:

It being nearly Halloween, there was of course a skeleton hanging around.

But mostly it was just about two pals hanging out.

 
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Posted by on November 23, 2016 in Photos, Video

 

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Nyan Walks, Pinkly

19 Nov

 

One of our first activities after returning from our ‘round-the-world travels during August and September was to take part in a 5k family walk for breast cancer awareness and fundraising. It took place around Marina Bay, the waterfront area in downtown Singapore.

We had tried to do the same event last year, but horrible air pollution — haze from rainforest fires in nearby Indonesia — forced its cancelation. This time, the air was fresh and there was no need to wear air masks. But Nyan had brought his own mask, and happened to bump into this friendly Imperial Stormtrooper.

(What do Stormtroopers have to do with breast cancer awareness? Great question. We have no idea. Nyan was happy though.)

A five kilometer walk is a decently long stroll, and Nyan got tired about halfway through. Luckily for him, Daddy’s shoulders were right there. He didn’t look too tired as soon as he got up there, though. Hmm.

So Daddy ended up with a little bit of a sore back – the kid ain’t so light any more! – but all’s well that ends well. And it was for a good cause, too.

 
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Posted by on November 19, 2016 in Photos

 

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Nyan Thomas and the Pumpkin Patch

15 Nov

We were in Iowa for much of the month of September. Usually the weather is starting to cool down as the calendar heads for autumn. That wasn’t the case this year as it was hot pretty much the entire time we were there, but some autumnal events were already  ongoing. Like the pumpkin patch: farmers harvest their crop of pumpkins ahead of Halloween, and also offer games, corn mazes, tractor rides and the like. It’s all very Americana, and it’s also a lot of fun. We took Nyan there late one warm afternoon.

Here are some of the old tractors on display:

A fun little ‘train’ ride pulled by a tractor:

They also had a ‘sandbox’ of sorts – except instead of sand, it was filled with corn kernels.

Nyan loved it. Check out these videos:

More bits of fun:

And more scenery:

See all those pumpkins? That’s the real reason for the whole thing, of course, so we had Nyan pick out a pumpkin to take home.

He made sure to strap it in for the ride home.

Back home, it was time to carve it up. Nyan was enthused until he learned he had to stick his hand inside and pull out the pumpkin’s slimy guts. So Grandpa ended up doing most of the work.

A fun way to spend a late summer afternoon!

 
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Posted by on November 15, 2016 in Photos, Uncategorized

 

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In and Around Iowa City

09 Nov

We spent a few weeks in the U.S. in September, based at Grandma and Grandpa’s with a few jaunts around the greater midwest for good measure. Let’s take a look at some of what our hero got up to.

There was a visit to the local natural history museum, where Nyan got his very own helmet with a light at the front:

And we visited the public open house at Hancher Auditorium, a performance hall that was rebuilt after being destroyed by a flood in 2008. This was a place where Daddy spent a lot of time as a kid growing up in Iowa City, so it was a special event for him. Nyan enjoyed being on the stage too.

We also drove to Chicago to visit friends, including Leo, Jacob and Eli, the sons of Phil and Jill.

And oh yes, there was a trampoline:

Grandma and Grandpa also took Nyan to a model airplane club’s annual exhibition show, featuring lots of toy planes and a bizarre helicopter display too:

It wasn’t all running around though: sometimes Nyan just stayed at home and made a robot out of a box and a Transformers mask.

Here we see him running through the halls at Great Grandma’s apartment and deciding who to pledge his collegiate loyalty to:

And finally, just some random photos from around the great state of Iowa. Enjoying the park, working a puzzle, watching a lovely sunset, feeding fish with Grandma, relaxing on a giant teddy bear, and so forth.

 
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Posted by on November 9, 2016 in Uncategorized

 

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Day Trip with Grandma and Grandpa

04 Nov

During our September sojourn in Iowa, Grandma and Grandpa took Nyan for a day trip to the Mississippi River town of Dubuque. They have this cool museum that’s mostly about the river, its dams and its ships. Nyan was pretty into it:

There were lots of exhibits about old riverboats and locks on the river:

And, for some reason, they had a big exhibit on …. dinosaurs. No problem though – the kid loved them too!

And finally, some random shots around the place. Not a bad way to spend a day!

 
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Posted by on November 4, 2016 in Uncategorized

 

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The Model Train

01 Nov

Nyan and Grandpa have always bonded over their mutual love of model trains. On our visit to Grandpa’s place this September, though, they took it to the next level: Grandpa cleared out a large space in the garage and set up a big table devoted to a model train layout. The two of them spent hours out there, every single day, adding to it and racing the trains around the track.

It was pretty impressive:

Here’s the young engineer himself at work:

They eventually ran out of room and so had to add another table. That necessitated some fresh painting too.

Nyan got so into it, in fact, that even when he wasn’t out in the garage, he was still playing trains: he’d take extra track and build his own little layout inside Grandma and Grandpa’s house.

He’s already got big plans for how to build the train layout next time he visits Iowa. We can only hope Grandma and Grandpa are ready – and have enough room!

 

 
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Posted by on November 1, 2016 in Uncategorized

 

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