RSS

Monthly Archives: June 2018

Oh What a Month it Was

30 Jun

One of the many highlights of the month of May was Nyan’s new scooter (and helmet), a modern marvel to replace the one he’d had since his second birthday. Here are some pictures of him showing it off, and a video of him starting to get used to the new wheels.

Let’s take a look at some of the many other small-but-special moments that made May a fun month.

Nyan and Jayden love to do “science” when they get together to play:

Other times they like to make creative scenarios with Legos:

Some random photos:

Nyan has also been making friends with the new neighbor, a cute little two-year-old girl who doesn’t speak much English but really seems to like our boy.

Showing off his dance moves at the tutoring center where he was taking a Mandarin class:

More dance moves:

More random photos:

He made a train out of a box:

Singing while doing his abacus homework:

Another set of random pics:

Goofing around in the elevator:

Goofing around in the pool:

One last batch of miscellaneous pictures:

And finally: our little prince getting a thoroughly relaxing face massage from mommy at the end of another fun-filled day.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on June 30, 2018 in Uncategorized

 

Winding Down the School Year

26 Jun

 

As Nyan’s primary school year wound to a close, there were plenty of events and activities to keep us busy and entertained in the month of May. 

One such event was called Family Day. It was held on a Saturday morning in mid-May and featured lots of food, music, games, and some giant inflated bouncy castles! That’s what we focused on with our video-taking. Check it out:

Later, at month-end, they had the family BBQ night, which included plenty of food and, before that, song-and-dance performances from all the kids. Here’s the tent they set up on the school grounds:

20180531_085304

Here’s Nyan’s class up on the stage performing their song, a Bob Marley classic:

After a picnic dinner on the grass, there was lots and lots of playtime – featuring a couple hundred hyper, happy kids.

Lots of fun times and fun memories during the final days of the school year, and in fact of the school itself (it’s being closed and the land will be turned into a public high school).

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on June 26, 2018 in Uncategorized

 

Tags: ,

Nyan’s First Ballet: Swan Lake 

22 Jun

For Mother’s Day in May, Nyan and Daddy accompanied Mommy to a production of the ballet, Swan Lake. It was a very nice performance, and Nyan did quite well with his first-ever ballet, sitting patiently, enjoying the dancing and the music, and not fidgeting much at all (although, about 15 minutes into the show, he did ask, “When are they going to start talking?”). 

The theater was in the western part of the island, pretty far from home, so we made an afternoon of it. That included a stroll to a nearby office building that has a lush garden on part of its roof – and features the Jedi master himself standing in a pond:

(Of course, Nyan had to do his thing where he tries to look miserable for the camera!)

We then headed to a nearby shopping mall for some food, browsing and – crucially – a haircut for the young man. Came out pretty well, we thought!

Before the haircut, we had dinner at a Japanese place, which featured mellow Japanese music playing in the background. Nyan did a sort of martial arts/dance combo. What can we say; he’s a goofball sometimes.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on June 22, 2018 in Uncategorized

 

Tags:

Back to the Beach

18 Jun

We always lament that we don’t get down to our seaside park – just a 10 minute stroll away – nearly as often as we should, so we’ve been proactively trying to change that. Here’s a look at a couple of recent visits.

School helped out with one: Nyan’s class took a field trip of sorts down to East Coast Park, for a beach cleanup. The kids donned gloves and trash bags and got to work, and helped make their little corner of the world just a little cleaner.

Here they all are. (Don’t be fooled by Nyan’s rather sad looking faces. He’s just goofing for the camera, like he does. He had a fine time.)

Another day around the same time, Nyan and Daddy went down for a late-Sunday-afternoon round of sand-play and dinner. Here he is on the sand, including with a little boy, maybe four years old, who started playing with him.

When night fell, we retreated to a beachside restaurant that was nearly empty, for some reason. (No, it wasn’t because the food was bad; the food was fine.) They were playing music and had a bunch of disco balls on the ceiling. Did our boy dance? He did.

A robotic dance to go with the robotic music:

And a more mellow, light-chasing dance to go with the more mellow music:

That’s our boy.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on June 18, 2018 in Uncategorized

 

Tags: ,

A Quick Soccer Update

14 Jun

It feels like it’s been a little while since we’ve checked in on Nyan’s progress on the soccer pitch. So how’s he doing? Eh, he’s fine. Slow and steady progress. And he’s still having fun, which remains the most important part, by far.

Here’s our hero at a recent practice, lined up with his teammates.

20180526_174944

Running a drill, scoring a goal:

Same drill, same result:

And finally, an actual game. He alternates between being engaged and playing some decent defense, and completely spacing out.

But again: he’s having fun! 

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on June 14, 2018 in Uncategorized

 

Tags:

A Visit to See Dinosaur Bones

10 Jun

Who knew there were real dinosaur bones right here in li’l ol’ Singapore? We had kinda heard about a museum with such a display, but hadn’t done anything about it until recently, when we made a Sunday afternoon family trip to a natural history museum out in the west of Singapore. And sure enough, it has has several dinosaur skeletons on display!

Check out them bones:

It’s a pretty cool place even aside from the dinosaurs, with lots of animal and plant exhibits:

And a dolphin skeleton too:

Oh, and plenty of space to dance:

Nyan’s favorite part was in the special exhibit on Christmas Island, which detailed how the island is completely overrun by red crabs at spawning season each year. They had an interactive light display on the floor, showing crabs crawling around; you were supposed to avoid them, but Nyan decided it would be more fun to stomp on them:

The museum is in a pretty cool building, with lots of plants and space:

And more space for dancing:

The museum is part of a university, and we strolled around the campus afterwards. Found a grassy field for students to hang out at; Nyan thought it’d be fun to run down the hill.

The simple pleasures in life for a city kid! 

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on June 10, 2018 in Uncategorized

 

Tags: ,

Some Late-Year School Work

06 Jun

Toward the end of the school year in June, Mommy and Daddy attended numerous events at Nyan’s school, and got to see many examples of his drawings and writings pinned to various walls. Let’s take a quick look.

First up: all the kids did a drawing/painting of their most favorite moment of the school year. Here’s Nyan’s – and yes, of course it involves Jayden. (We especially love the detail of the clouds in the sky!)

The kids learned about measurements, and Nyan did a very detailed piece illustrating all the different things that can be measured. (Such as the temperature, which can tell you if it’s going to snow tomorrow in Iowa!)

20180519_102739.jpg

Here’s a zoomed-in look at both parts of that paper. Click to enlarge and read:

And there was a unit on reduce/reuse/recycle — very ably illustrated here by Nyan. (Click to enlarge.)

Almost last but not least, here’s a nice mellow painting of some flowers, we think:

20180519_110119.jpg

And last but not least, a goofy boy at the end of the school day, making himself dizzy.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on June 6, 2018 in Uncategorized

 

Tags:

Yellow Belt!

02 Jun

Back in April, Nyan went for his latest taekwondo grading exercise — proving to a panel of judges that he has the skill to move up to the next level, and get a new color of belt. 

Some photos from before and after the grading (parents aren’t allowed in to see the actual grading itself):

And some video as he and others warmed up and practiced, waiting to go in and get graded: 

So did he pass? Reader, he passed. Check him out as his instructor, Master Lee, awards the new yellow belt:

He was rightfully very proud of himself:

Bonus: Our boy is rising through the taekwondo ranks, but he still manages to have fun in class. Here he is one day, playing some sort of dodge ball with his classmates and Master Lee.

Next up: green-tip belt. Grading is in August. Fingers crossed!

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on June 2, 2018 in Uncategorized

 

Tags:

 
%d bloggers like this: