new addition to the family

go, diego, go!

you didn't think it was another baby, right* =)

it's our double stroller.

the boys call it their "train".

they love sitting together. =)

water babies

wading pool near our old place finally filled up for summer. the last time we came here was in Fall last yr. the day following our 1st "swim", the pool was drained out for Fall. Jl was so tiny then. he was only crawling then & had to be carried. he's a little boy now.

Summer lingo - sun hat, sunscreen, surf shorts, swim suit, beach toys, swim shoes, lake, beach, wading pool

beach, lake calhoun.

moooooooved

ah-soh in the kitchen. never thought i would ever spend sooo much time in here.

boys chilling out on the new couch with hidden bed inside

can you believe my dear J was so strong to carry this sofa with the help of a frail stroller frame & his own brute strength. he said must be the angels in heaven helping =)

imagine the number of shoes we bought while we were here. there are some more in boxes. no space on the shelves. J simply loves shoes...
3 quarters of this huge wardrobe are the boys' clothes. including those in boxes below. retail therapy gone wrong... blame MN, there isn't much to do here =)

this is what has been keeping me from the blog. busy packing & trying to sell some stuff before the move. now when i think about moving home to SGP, i worry how many boxes we would need & how much stuff we should sell or give away first. =)

our new place is a student co-op. so far it has been lovely. the boys enjoy playing in the playground just outside our apartment after dinner til dusk. 9 pm! *sweet* no worries about safety here. J can do his summer class assignments while i take the boys out on my own.

life here is like a little community. very eventful. we've only been here a week & we've gone for pizza party, puppet show, ice cream party & water slide. later in the week are movies & watching euro cup together. next week has strawberry picking *they are chatering a bus* & SB jam making. yum!

the only minus is we take turns to do cleaning. this week was our turn to clean our corridor. 6 families rotate. vacumn, sweep, mop, clean windows, doors, carpets & corridors for the wk. every 32 wks or so, it's our turn to clean the laundry room of the building.

this is only a little of what we give, in return for all the great stuff we receive. for the last few days, Jr has been saying thank you, Jesus for our new house. =) we have certainly been blessed.

la la la la

we've having loooong summer days now. sun sets at 9pm so it's nice. have time to go to parks or playground after dinner.

we just went to our 1st outdoor concert at the park today. kind of nice, living like the locals. i mean, they really make time for the great outdoors. even after the concert, we could pass the beach & let the kids get out to play. there were tons of people sitting at the beach enjoying the beautiful sunset. couples holding hands. kids splashing in the freezing lake water. Jl must think it's really unfair. each time he gets into the water, we give him a time out.

the concert was a couple singing songs they wrote themselves on the guitar. it was lovely. having a picnic dinner, watching sailboats pass us in the lake, drakes fighting over a female, sitting on benches in the open, watching the boys run on the grass, dance to the music, clap after each song... Jr reminded J a few times he must clap after each song. *grins*

we had a fun time trying to guess if the performing couple - old chap 70s & young gal 30s are a couple. they sang so well together. we gasped when she started talking about the 1st time she met bill & their eyes met. i mean, call us conservative asians... he introduced his grandkids *toddler* & kids. i mean, it's like his kids are the same age as his wife. just feels a bit weird...

too lazy to do pix today, another time ok*

wake up

wake up. it's time for wendy's breakfast!

reminds me of ernie's song to bert"wake up, wake up. wake up your toes, wake up..." as usual, he has the last laugh, after he wakes the whole of bert, he says he's practising for morning & goes back to sleep... i just love ernie...

someone find me the lyrics & video, please. i searched the whole of youtube but to no avail.

*back to track* had a hard time explaining to the boys what happened to the balloons after the air escapes. no problem, Jr says they can "walk" the "dog". the string is the leash. coooool

treasures

char siew ribs, anyone*

my fav-est shot
boys hitting dandelion seeds into the air - i love the time they had their lovely yellow flowers
sand & water crazy dude! can't get him out of the water
tiger, tiger roarrrrrrr - another of our many TP roll animals
balanced life - fun & food

was reading my bro's blog about simple joys in his life & was thinking about my own. this morning's "Wow, Wow, Wubsy" was talking about seeking out a treasure using a map. they found "it" in the end - an adventure. more than silver or gold.

little things in life... the warmth of the sunshine, skirts! short sleeves! the long summer days, the laughter of the boys, good recipes & food blogs, picnics, selling something on ebay, finding a new park or playground, fresh food at the farmers' market

boy toys

boys will be boys... they were both so busy checking out EVERY single car they could get into *those on the lower rack* at Toys R Us. can imagine them doing this one day with real 4 wheels... vroooooom...

check out our summer wear

it was a lovely day outdoors, decking short sleeves *& no jackets* for the first time this spring.

couldn't resist the lovely beach *despite the huge signboards that state it's not a designated place for swimming* well, they didn't say we couldn't play along the shore...

look at jerald's lovely clothes & shoes sitting in the mud. =) jerome's more co-operative. he'll remind jerald to keep his feet out of the water...

we thought we didn't do too bad. we have a bag of beach toys, extra clothes & picnic gear in the car for times like this. =)

grill n thunderstorm

went for our first grill at L's house on memorial day weekend. how nice... we had a lovely dinner with new MN dishes that jerome absolutely loved - grilled pork chops, corn on the cob with corn picks, green bean casserole & Jello with whipped cream & fruits. yum!

emily was the perfect host like dad n mum. =) after the kids were done with supper *dinner*, she invited the boys to her room. the 3 of them suddenly burst out of the room, laughing & saying they're doing a puppet show for us. they all had animal head bands on. so funny! i bet if we weren't busy eating & talking, we would take a pix of them.

since sun sets at 9 pm now, the kids still had time to trot over to the neighbor's yard with lots of play stuff. yeah!