FAMILY TRAVELS

Books, Babies and a Brief Encounter at the Seattle Aquarium

January 14, 2012

The boys love this book that they received when they wee babies (Thank you Marcia and Ken!) and I think because they love it, they also love the sea otters at the aquarium. So when I told them that one of the sea otters was going to have a baby a couple weeks ago, it’s been […]

Photo Friday: Jaguars swimming at the Singapore Zoo

Jaguars can swim. I never would have believed it if I hadn’t seen it at this zoo. We love the Singapore Zoo by the way. And now we know that jaguars can swim and it seemed like they could even smell raw chicken in water from the shore. Each time they dipped underwater they came […]

I heart Postcardly

January 11, 2012

When I first heard about Postcardly I wasn’t sure how I was going to use it: the grandparents, aunts and uncles all live in Canada and it doesn’t work for international addresses( yet). BUT, I suddenly realized how fantastic it would be for sending to our local friends and I’ve been having fun sending playdate […]

great membership deal at seattle aquarium with kids

Wordless Wednesday: Active Octopus at the Seattle Aquarium

Some days the world just seems a whole lot more wonderful. I could watch the octopus at the Seattle Aquarium all day. It’s probably the most active one we’ve ever seen and we love to check out the octopus tank when we come to the aquarium to visit our undersea friends. The kids also love […]

Fragile Forest (Singapore Zoo, Singapore)

January 10, 2012

Seeing this little lemur on Trader Joe’s Cinnamon and Black Tea at Christmas made me all nostalgic and dreamy for our recent Singapore trip and I had to buy it. I love Trader Joe’s holiday products-I have so many whim purchases there at this time of year! A couple months ago we traveled to my […]

The Quiet Room at Seattle Children’s Theatre

January 3, 2012

If you by any chance have a little boy who is scared of plays, or even just scared of being scared, you might want to find this door the next time you go to the Seattle Children’s Theatre. It’s the Quiet Room. I think it’s meant for screaming babies because there were a few in […]

(French) Toasting out 2011 with one last yummy breakfast

December 31, 2011

I think today’s breakfast place will be a favorite in 2012. We’ve driven by numerous times and I fell in love with the logo: And now I’ve fallen in love with their breakfast. We went to the Cheeky Cafe this morning with Auntie and Uncle J and were thrilled to find that the menu had […]

Sensoji Temple (Tokyo, Japan)

December 30, 2011

The boys recently got hooked on the book I Can Read with My Eyes Shut, by Dr. Seuss and in it the big cat explains to the little cat, “the more that you read, the more you will know and the more that you learn the more places you will go.” I hope if we can […]

Putting the Finishing touches on Christmas 2011

December 22, 2011

We aren’t totally ready for Christmas yet. There are a million presents to wrap in our basement despite the diligent wrapping efforts the hubby and I have been putting in between episodes of Friday Night Lights and vain attempts to exercise at the gym. But it is beginning to feel a lot like Christmas. The […]

Trip to Storybrooke (Steveston, BC)

December 16, 2011

Before my sister moved there, I didn’t really know much about Steveston BC. And now, it’s even all over tv with a new show called Once Upon A Time where it goes by the name Storybrooke. The boys were thrilled this summer when we went to get one of our favorite treats (Screamers, of course! […]

Gingerbread building, making gummies and the most youthful Santa we’ve ever seen

December 9, 2011

We’ve been pretty busy this last little while taking many different holiday classes. A really neat one we tried this week was the kids’ baking class at the PCC grocery store. We learned how to make an egg-free gingerbread recipe which is awesome when you cook with kids and worry about them eating raw-egg. The […]

Prata and other foods at Singapore's Changi Airport

Jurong Bird Park (Singapore)

December 8, 2011

I was not expecting the Jurong Bird Park to be on my list of places I want to see again when we go back to Singapore. I’ve never really been a fan of birds: they fly around, poo overhead, have very sharp knife-like beaks and pretty much just creep me out. But, this place is […]

If you give a toddler boy an Iphone…

There are no words for this one. I gave my toddler boy an iphone while I was busy doing an errand and needed him to be quiet so I let him do the draw anything screen. Of course my phone comes back like this after a few minutes of silence and then a round of […]

Holidays have begun!

November 28, 2011

The boys and I were looking through all the flyers that have been arriving with the paper lately. “I don’t want a bird poo Christmas tree” Leelee says. If you want one, you can buy it here. We did not get that one-we cut ours this morning at our favorite Christmas tree farm. The weather […]

Kid-Friendly malls in Asia

November 18, 2011

I’ll have to admit, I was a little scared taking two newly toilet trained boys to Asia. Were we going to have to revert back to diapers? Would it be a giant poo disaster everyday? I was so thankful to find that the places we visited in Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo were even more […]

Airplane Activity Bag

November 12, 2011

Nothing terrifies me more than being stuck on an airplane flight without food or toys to entertain the kids. But, I also don’t want to be weighed down with too much stuff. When we packed for our last trip which included a 14-hour flight, I was a little worried that we wouldn’t have enough so […]

In case you were wondering what jet-lagged twin toddlers look like

November 9, 2011

This is 2am on Saturday night. We are making pancakes and waiting for the sun to rise. This is after about 14 trips to the bathroom and me waving a white flag. This is what jet-legged twin toddlers look like. Two of us were thrilled-pancakes at midnight? What fun! And one of us is too […]

One day in Hong Kong with kids

November 8, 2011

What can you do in one day in Hong Kong? We spent two nights at the Hong Kong Sky City Marriott by the airport(an amazing hotel in Lantau by the way!) to break up a journey to Singapore which could potentially take more than 24 hours of travel from Seattle with stopovers. I’m so glad we […]

Hallowe’en in Singapore

November 6, 2011

We celebrated Hallowe’en on the road this year, but I couldn’t help but bring costumes along. In Singapore, we saw Hallowe’en decorations in the stores, a really gruesome display at Sentosa Island and I was tempted to try exploring when I heard there was some kind of trick or treating around an American school (Thank […]

Stuffington Bear Factory (phoenix, AZ)

October 14, 2011

Our most recent trip to Phoenix was so relaxing and tropical-it was a far cry from our first ever Phoenix trip. We originally went in December and the guys were nearly one and a half and getting into everything. For some reason the week we went it was extremely cold. Like, almost snow cold and […]