Lil' Dean Fam

Colin took his first business trip to Hong Kong this week.  Because the boys were out of school on Thursday and Friday for the Thanksgiving Holiday, he took those days off to be at home with us.  We did another "staycation" and went to Sentosa yesterday.  We didn't do a lot of planning for this little trip but it turned out pretty well.  We took a taxi down to Sentosa and walked over to Port of Lost Wonder.  We purchased tickets for the water park and the kids went down the slides two times, did the foam pit, and we spent the rest of the day on the beach.  Next time we wont bother with POLW.  After POLW we wandered around Palawan Beach looking for a nice spot to set up for the day.  We ended up buying lunch at a little Beach Bar and camped out on their lawn chairs for the remainder of our day.  The kids spent the entire day playing in the sand and water.  Colin and I read our books, played our games, and enjoyed the low-key time together.   We came home sunburned

The boys and I enjoyed a Thanksgiving Feast on Wednesday in Evan's class.  It was a delicious meal with all of the traditional American Thanksgiving foods.

I went to a cooking class a few weeks ago.  We learned how to make dumplings and a Japanese dish.  It was a fun afternoon and I finally learned how to fold a dumpling so that it looks pretty.  The Japanese dish is called Oyako Donburi which means Mother Daughter.  It represents the chicken and egg in the dish.  It's a little bit like how I make fried rice but much tastier.  I haven't' made this one at home yet, but I should.  Maybe I'll put it on the menu for this week!  

In Singapore, Scouts is done through the school and we have yet to sign up.  The activities for boys ages 8-11 is called activity days.  Ryan's first activity was this week.  And lo and behold, it was the Rain Gutter Regatta.  Way to kick it off!  We found out on Sunday that the activity was Wednesday.  On Monday morning we got right to work getting his boat crafted for the regatta.  I wish I had taken more pictures of the process but Ryan really did do most of the work.  I just helped with quality control.    Ryan sanding his boat.  Painting All done!  The sail design was all Ryan.  I did help with the bubble letters but he drew the little (Minecraft, of course) guy.   The directions were fairly easy and the boat was pretty hard to do incorrectly.  But the one thing I wish we had done differently was to glue the mast and sail in place.  That would have prevented some getting stuck.   I love how excited Evan is.  This was his first round down the rain gutter

Today we went for a hike at the MacRitchie Reservoir.  It's the nature reserve which is right in the middle of Singapore, all jungle basically and I think it's a National Park or something too.  Anyway, we went on the Tree Top Walk trail and it was a fun outing.  You can drive your car (if you have one) to the parking lot and hike up and around several trails.  As you'll see in the pictures below, the trail we chose to go on has a suspension bridge kind of like the ones you see in the cartoons where it's really high up, in the tree tops!  The view was incredible and it was a really neat experience.  I'm glad I lugged my big camera along for this one!    The boys did such a good job of walking and enjoying nature.  They never complained about walking or the heat or anything, I was so proud of them.  We all had a lot of fun.   The friends we went with have been doing the geocaching thing.  If you aren't aware of what that is, I'll quickly explain.  Ge