Favorites - 1st Grade Edition of Questions

Back to school questions Hannah Levy 2012 (1st Grade)

1.What is your favorite toy? Dollies
2.What is your favorite color? Purple
3.What is your favorite fruit? apples
4.What is your favorite TV show? Care bears
5.What is your favorite movie? Brave
6.What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Steak
7.What is your favorite outfit? Brown/Green/Blue Maxi Dress
8.What is your favorite game? Toy Story Game
9.What is your favorite snack? Popcorn
10.What is your favorite animal? Dog
11.What is your favorite song? I love You Song
12.What is your favorite book? Happy Birthday Book by Dr. Seuss
13.What is your favorite vacation place? Beach
14.What is your favorite thing to play? Babies w/ Ansley
15.Who is your best friend at school? Vanessa
16.Who is your best friend from Georgia? Nava
17.What is your favorite sport? Swimming
18.What is your favorite thing to do outside? Choo Choo playground
19.What is your favorite drink? chocolate milk
20.What is your favorite holiday? My birthday
21.What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Taggie and woof woof
22.What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? chocolate croissants
23.What is your favorite restaurant? Brazilian Steakhouse
24.What do you want to be when you grow up? ballet teacher
25.What is your favorite thing about school? Big kid play ground
26.What is your favorite school subject? Mandarin
27.What is your teacher’s name? Ms. Tammy
28.What is your favorite thing you did this summer? Spending time with my whole entire family
29.What is your favorite date to do with mom? bake things
30.What is your favorite date to do with dad? ice skating or movies

Hungry Ghost Festival

On my way home from dropping off the kids this AM at school, this is what I was welcomed by at the grocery store:

And now for the explanation as copied from Your Singapore (I needed to look this up as I needed to see why people make these little "offerings" of sorts):

Every year, usually in the month of August, the Chinese in Singapore observe a large-scale tradition of paying respects to the dead. Taoist Chinese believe that during this month, the “Gates of Hell” are opened and souls of the dead are freed and allowed to roam the earth.

The best places to watch how the traditional rites are practiced in Singapore are in the soul of the heartlands, where fellow believers congregate to burn incense sticks and present their offerings in the form of prayer, fruit such as Mandarin oranges, food such as roasted suckling pig, bowls of rice and occasionally a local Chinese cake made especially for the occasion. It is not uncommon to see various forms of tent-age set up in open fields during this period, for the Chinese also believe in entertaining the spirits with boisterous live wayang and getai performances not only depicting tales of the divine gods and goddesses, but also bawdy stand-up comedy with a local twang, song and dance numbers in the various Chinese dialects and even sensually acrobatic pole dancing by felinely lithe spandex clad dancers.

Everyone is welcome to watch the show as long as you don’t sit at the front row, which is reserved for the “special guests”. The festival is so widely-practiced here that special paper bins have been set up for believers to burn their paper money in, believed to translate into great fortune in the afterlife. Small altars can also be seen outside many homes, both on private property and in public housing areas. Hence what I saw this AM at the grocery store.

From grand feasts costing thousands of dollars to a melange of puppetry, opera and singing performances, the various ways with which the Chinese appease these roaming spirits is fascinating to watch, these festivities usually take place across the various neighborhoods like Chinatown, Redhill and Geylang — so check these out if you’re feeling a little adventurous and want to lose yourself in a truly local experience.

Manasseh Meyer School - Singapore 2012

School started on Monday for both girls - they were BOTH excited.

They had woken up at 6:30 prior to me even waking them! Hannah is in the 1st grade and Ansley is in the 3 year old class (AKA Nursery 2). Here they are on the way to school on the bus:

Ansley was willing to pose at school in her uniform. Hannah on the other hand is NOT fond of said uniform. She prefers to pick out her own clothes:

And day 1 is complete:

Beef - it's what's for Dinner!

As anyone who knows Hannah well, she is carnivorous. She LOVES meat of any kind. Her most recent is Japanese BBQ. Anytime you ask her where she would like to go for dinner she will usually tell you a meat place - current two choices are hawker center for rice and chicken or Plaza Singapore for chop chop (hibachi). Her newest taste is for Japanese BBQ. We went to a steak place a week or so ago called Gyu-Kaku. $120 later, we walked out fat and VERY happy!

This would be your "bib":

How one cooks their dinner:

Lenny literally "cutting" the girls dinner with scissors:

Lastly - something that Lenny dearly loves - and you DO NOT find in the states:

BEEF PEPPERONI

Olympics 2012

It is definitely different being an American and watching the Olympics in another country. Not that I won't root for Singapore, just their "ideas" on what is important to televise and what I think is important to televise are drastically different. You won't care to hear how MUCH ping pong (aka table tennis) as well as badminton I have watched. I did see all my swimming however the most important thing I watch, gymnastics, was televised from 2-4 AM. By the time I figured this out (it was a little hard to find the guide here in Singapore) I missed most of it. So here is my shout out to Singapore who won two bronze medals in table tennis!

PORT - and NO I am not talking liquor or wine!

FINALLY - after a LONG wait and endless make believe play, our BOAT arrived. July 31, 2012....it was like Hanukkah had arrived in the summer. Our girls we SO excited about getting back their toys that had been packed up since June 4, 2012. It was a little like winning the jackpot here. The truck arrived about 9:45 AM and the lead dude gave me a spreadsheet with the box numbers on it to check off as they unloaded into our 986 sq ft apartment. I began to really contemplate whether we made a mistake on taking this place as it is smaller that anything else we had looked at. But have no fear, thanks to Lenny, it ALL has a home here - only a few items had to find new ones, but those were due to constraints on size NOT the ability to store it!

Asian Tiger, the company that was contracted to move our junk, did a GREAT job! All the boxes were accounted for and not only delivered, but unpacked, items put into the rooms they belong in and the trash HAULED away! It was great!!! If this is how country moving is - I look forward to moving to our next country!