Lil' Dean Fam

I went with a few friends on a mommy-field trip to the Spode Dish factory in Malaysia.  We had the best time and it was an experience I won't soon forget.  We met at Becky's in the morning and got our three car caravan ready to go.  We said a prayer, did a cheer and were off at about 9 am.  We crossed the border without any issues (except for toll top-up cards) and hit the road.  In about an hour we arrived at this little side-of-the-road pottery market.  It was typical of a third-world place. True Outlet shopping.  There was a nice aluminum roof and some big fans to keep us cool.  The plates were very dusty from being outside so long but there were so many lovely treasures.  We all had a good time just wandering around searching for new dishes. I was looking for a set of every-day dishes and anything else was a bonus in my mind.  Spode is a European brand that outsources production to Malaysia.  Their retail cost is pretty high...

The Elementary School at SAS celebrated Festival of Stories this week.  They had several days and activities devoted to stories, writing, and illustrating.  Evan was looking forward to dressing up for the culmination day: Character Dress Up Day.  He decided he wanted to be a YOP from Dr. Seuss's One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish.  He chose the character and assembled the outfit entirely on his own (So Evan) and he was ready at least a week ahead of time.  He asked me every single day (even weekends) how many days there were until Character dress-up day.  He loved meeting the Author and Artist in Residence (as did Ryan: they had a different author and illustrator visit the older kids) and they even got a signed copy of Todd Parr's book!

I was lucky enough to chaperone Ryan's class on their Aquarium field trip.  We went to the SEA (South East Asia) Aquarium at Sentosa's Resort World.  There were two fourth grade classes there that day and not really a lot of other tourists or locals, so it was really nice and "empty".  The aquarium is quite a good one, the kids enjoyed it and took their time exploring throughout.   Near the end of the aquarium is this giant ocean tank.  The kids spent a nice long time looking at the tank, lying down in an observation room, and just enjoying the atmosphere.  They play some nice classical tunes and it is really quite lovely. I remember there were a few big bat rays swimming about.  I found them fascinating.  When I decided to photograph one, he started doing back flips; so I caught a pretty cool video of it!   I'm glad I get to go on all of these fun field trips with my kids.  Especially ones that ar...

My kids were out of school for four weeks this Christmas break.  That's a long time if you don't do any traveling.  So, we did a little stay-cationing and one day we went with a group of friends to the Bird Park.  The Bird Park is just what you would imagine it to be, just like a zoo except only birds.  We had a great time and were able to see most of the park.  We stayed a good long time too so that was fun.  The group we went with ended up being quite big.  5 moms and 19 kids, holy cow, that's 24 people!  It was great though because everyone had a friend.  The first thing we did was the High Flyers show.  It was really well choreographed and a fun 30 minute presentation.  One of our kids even got to participate!   After the show we walked around and saw all the birds.  The pelicans are quite impressive; such large birds!  This one was giving Ryan his best intimidation face.   At the Lo...