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A Sunday Morning Nature Hike

One steamy Sunday morning, Nyan and Daddy set off on a jungle hike to a place called the MacRitchie Reservoir. It’s a series of trails along the shores of a man-made lake. It was hardly roughing it: the place is a 20-minute taxi ride away, all the trails are wide, well-maintained boardwalks, and the place was mostly heaving with other people having the same idea. Still, it was a nice escape. 

This being the Singapore jungle, yes there were monkeys.

And plenty of turtles in the near-shore areas.

Pretty great scenery and a good little break, complete with fresh air and (modest) exercise.

 
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Posted by on July 16, 2021 in Uncategorized

 

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Hot Fun in the Summertime

Some of the random bits of fun Nyan got up to in the early weeks of Summer Vacation 2021, before his various camps kicked in.

We did a puzzle! Grandma and Granpa had sent Nyan a 500-piece sloth puzzle for Christmas, and we finally found the time to do it. We don’t have a great space to do it, unfortunately, but we made do,

Truth be told, Daddy did a fair amount of the work on this one. But Nyan helped out, and got better over time. And he wanted to be sure to put in the final piece himself

We learned another new skill: full flips into the pool!

He also did a lot of drawing

Check out some of the results. This boy continues to amaze his parents with this artistic skills!

Not a bad start to the summer!

 
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Posted by on July 9, 2021 in Uncategorized

 

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Kicking off Summer at the Raffles Hotel

School ended in mid-June, and we celebrated with a two-night stay at the iconic Raffles Hotel, which has stood in the heart of Singapore for about 150 years and which recently underwent a thorough renovation. They were running special deals that made it far more affordable, and we figured it was something that we had to do at least once in our lives. Really glad we did – the place was luxurious, the staffers were amazing, and we had a great time overall. No complaints at all.

Some interiors of the lobby and our room:

And random photos from outside — the views, the facades, the courtyards.

As usual for our ‘staycations,’ we didn’t actually do all that much. It was about relaxing, spending time together as a family, taking our feet off the proverbial gas pedal. So what all did we get up to?

We posted for pictures:

We swam: 

We checked out artifacts like the famous grandfather clock in the hotel lobby:

And we ate. In-room breakfast:

In-room afternoon tea:

In-room evening meal:

That was about it! Can’t recommend the Raffles Hotel highly enough. We had a great time, and it was a great start to the summer.

 
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Posted by on July 6, 2021 in Uncategorized

 

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Goodbye School, Hello Summer

Nyan finished his Year 5 of primary/elementary school in mid-June, with two months of fun to follow! We’ll talk a lot more about that in upcoming posts. But first, we thought we’d look back at the year that was. 

It was an up and down year, with lots of Covid restrictions and, to cap off the year, several weeks of home-based learning. But Nyan managed to learn a lot, and have a good bit of fun in the process. 

At the end of the year he brought home a big stack of papers and journals and whatnot. We went through them, took photos of a lot of the best writings and drawings, and share them with you here! We don’t have a lot of context for them but you can figure them out. Click on the photos to enlarge to better read what they say – or perhaps just enlarge your browser…

Here’s a fun assignment he did fairly early in the year (November 2020). We’ll include close-ups of the writing for easier reading.

Not sure what this is about but it’s something about how a refrigerator works. Love the imagination, love the drawings, love the descriptions!

More creativity: some sort of invention.

Some random work:

He wrote, and illustrated, a short story about a Viking adventure:

Nyan’s class did a lot of work learning about the various forms of government. He wrote quite a bit about it:

Some sort of poetry assignment, it seems; he chose to write, and draw, about his good friend Arav.

Nyan wrote and illustrated a faux diary entry about a surprise party his parents threw him. (No, this did not really happen!)

Some work he did about some ancient art:

Here’s another hodge podge collection of writing and assignments Nyan did:

And finally, just a few random drawings. Not sure what these are about, but they’re pretty good!

Pretty good school year, we’d say!

 
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Posted by on July 2, 2021 in Uncategorized

 

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A Lot More Fun in May ’21

Some other stuff Nyan got up to in May 2021 — a month when we returned to a sort of soft Covid lockdown, so we had school from home. He clearly spent a lot of time hanging out with Slothie, and Daddy clearly mostly took pictures of Nyan sleeping!

Before the lockdown, happily bopping his way home after school:

More pictures:

Some of his drawings from the month:

Nyan hard at work in his couch pillow fort:

And a last set of photos from the month.

 
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Posted by on June 25, 2021 in Uncategorized

 

Junior Black Belt!

Nyan has been working hard at taekwondo for several years now, and in May he finally was awarded a poom belt – a.k.a. junior black belt! It’s quite an accomplishment.

Here he is ahead of the belt ceremony — including some of the older kids helping him make sure his old belt was properly in place.

Parents weren’t allowed at the ceremony itself due to pandemic restrictions, but here’s a great video of Nyan getting the next level – including splitting a piece of wood with a kick! 

He was rightfully proud of himself, and of having broken the wood. 

Well done, Nyan!

 
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Posted by on June 16, 2021 in Uncategorized

 

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A Playdate with Edris

We had Edris over one day in May for what would end up being one of the last playdates with him, as he and his family are moving to Zurich in the summer. Sad, but we made the most of the time we had!

Like…Lego time:

And goofing in the elevator on the way down to the pool:

Edris is a great little guy, and we’ll miss him for sure!

 
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Posted by on June 4, 2021 in Uncategorized

 

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Adventures in April

Besides multi-adventure camp, what else did Nyan get up to in April 2021? Let’s find out!

What else? Ice cream, sleeping, goofing with Jayden. The usual:

And, yeah, more reading, of course, including on the street. That’s our boy!

 
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Posted by on May 29, 2021 in Uncategorized

 

Multi-Adventure Camp

Nyan had some time off from school around Easter, and with the Covid pandemic starting to subside for the moment, we were able to send him to an activity camp. We chose “Multi-Activity” which included, well, multiple activities!

There was tent pitching:

And cooking over an outdoor stove:

There were also games like four square, and activities like orienteering, first aid… frankly it reminded us of what Daddy learned to do in Boy Scouts! 

Lots of kids, and it was a great time by all accounts.

 
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Posted by on May 12, 2021 in Uncategorized

 

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Miscellaneous Mayhem in March 2021

Just some random shots from the month of March 2021.

A couple of drawings he made during the month:

More pictures:

School pictures! 

And one last batch of photos:

 
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Posted by on April 29, 2021 in Uncategorized