Just Hanging Out!

This post is just to share a few recent photos with all of you. Some of them are us hanging around at home, and some are out and about.

They include Liam's first home hair-cut! Now maybe we'll get fewer "Oh, what a cute little girl!" comments. There are some photos of the ice rink they created in the shopping center down the street - the boys had a fun little ice-ball fight! There are also photos of Liam sitting in our "Sock Pile" - sure can't wait for our dressers to arrive. And there are a couple of photos of Ethan and Jonah riding the MRT (subway) and a couple of them playing Wii - what a happy, happy day when Wii arrived! :) And lots more!

Around Singapore - The Zoo

Yes, another trip to yet another animal park! They seem to be pretty popular around here. So far of the three parks we have visited, the Singapore Zoo is the most impressive. I have gone twice now, the first time with Jonah's kindergarten class and the second time with all of us. It is very large and even after visiting twice, we still have not been able to see the entire park!

I think the biggest draw for the kids is the mini-water park inside. They love it and could spend the whole day there. The next best thing is that the majority of the monkeys are free ranging, so there are monkeys everywhere and they come quite close - very exciting! Another part that I thought was really fun was the Tropical Crops garden - it shows all of the local crops and trees that grow in this region, it was great!

The zoo is on a small peninsula, so there are boat rides around the zoo and the animals can be seen from the boats - which is pretty cool. The boys really loved watching the Proboscis Monkeys and the Hamadryas Baboons - they are hilarious and kept us amazed for some time.

They also have lots of shows for all ages and some really great restaurants! And we also saw areas where you can ride horses, feed kangaroos, pet walruses, and feed and even ride elephants! WOW! The boys already want to go back next weekend. Here are some photos.

Oh, I almost forgot - a quick story. . . when I chaperoned Jonah's class trip to the zoo, some of the most popular animals to see were the white tigers. The zoo has three of them and they are beautiful and the kids spent lots of time watching them. Then, just two days later we read in the newspaper that a zoo worker (apparently dazed and a little crazed) jumped into the moat surrounding those very same tigers, and the tigers ate him! Yikes! Very sad but the zoo did not put any blame on the tigers at all and closed down the tiger area for only a couple days.

Fun Facts!

• White tigers have beautiful light blue eyes and are very rare. It is said that all white tigers originated from one single white tiger who was captured in India in 1915 - his name was Mohan and he is said to have sired dozens of cubs.


• The zoo has two polar bears who live in a giant cold water and ice area but they are exposed to more sun that they normally would be, so their fur actually grows green moss on it - just like on a sloth.


• In the Tropical Crops gardens we saw enormous water lily pads. Apparently they can grow to about five feet across and are strong enough to hold small children! Whoa!

Around Singapore - Jurong Bird Park

We went to the Jurong Bird Park and saw more birds than we ever knew existed. The park is located out on the west side of the island and is a pretty popular place to visit. It is a huge park filled with every bird you can imagine - very beautiful. I am not a big fan of zoos and really don't like seeing birds in cages, but the boys did enjoy seeing them all. They had a really great show where the birds flew over the audience, and they were so close that their wings kept hitting our heads! The part the boys liked the best (mostly Ethan since Jonah was bitten by a bird!) was where they got to feed the Lories. The Lories are very colorful birds, and they'll fly right up and land on you - pretty cool! And the craziest looking bird we saw was the Shoebill Stork - bizarre! Here are some photos.

Fun Facts!

• The Lory feeding area is about 9,000 square feet and has about 1,000 Lories inside! You can walk around inside on hanging bridges.
• The Shoebill Crane can have a wingspan up to 9 feet across!
• Both Ethan and Dad got pooped on in the Lory feeding area. tee hee