Fun Days!

Here are some random pics of fun times we've been having:

Aaron came into our room, plopped his little blanket on his head, and said, "Mommy, take picture of Aaron?"
Umm....sure, ok!

 There was a break in the recent rainy weather, so Aaron and Mommy went to a couple of playgrounds.  The sun made the slides too hot for Aaron to slide, but he drove his truck all over and it went down the slides several times!  For a while, a boy who was on his way home from school joined in the fun and would send the truck back up the slides for Aaron to catch!

Aaron really liked playing with these gears!

 

Daddy emptied out the legos bucket and Aaron decided to fill it himself!

  

Oh, and the snowman had to join in the fun!!

  

Daddy and Mommy had a day off while Aaron played with a babysitter on Saturday.  We joined some friends and played frisbee disc golf.  There were several beginners learning the art of putting!

 

Danny just sent a disc flying off to a distant target!

  

Ok, now it is Betsy's turn.

 

Lastly, today, Betsy watched the sky transform from this:

 

To this:

(Yea, rain followed soon after, complete with crackling lightning and rolling thunder!)

 

New Shutterbug Goes Berzerk!!!!

We have been saving for about two years for a new, professional camera.  Well, we finally saved enough to get one.  I (Betsy) have been enjoying its many features!

Here are a few pics from the last couple of weeks.  Believe me, we have many more!

I took Aaron to the zoo the other day.  It was a great day to be there.  Partly cloudy skies helped keep the weather somewhat cooler.  Even the cheetahs liked it!

A lot of plants are in bloom right now.  This one intrigued me greatly!

  

Aaron's favorite place is the playground.  He took a car down this "roller" slide until he was a sweaty little guy.

  

So, after all that fun at the "dry" part of the playground, we changed him into his swimsuit and moved over to the "wet" side. It is not deep, but very wet and cool!

  

 Danny is teaching me about a computer program that lets you select color regions and make "art" out of any photo.  I call this one "The Floating Leaf". 

  

We recently received two  packages in one day!  One was from Auntie Jo and the other from Poppa and Gigi.  Auntie Jo sent Aaron Lightning McQueen shoes.  He put them on and took them off all afternoon.  They are still a little big, but he'll grow fast!

  

Poppa and Gigi sent lots of different things, mostly our favorite snacks that can be hard to find here.  For example: Cheerios, Kix, Gold Fish.  A few surprises as well.  The hit was a toy truck that looks like Poppa's real truck from the farm.

 

Thanks Auntie Jo and Poppa and Gigi!  It was so much fun to laugh over your wonderful gifts!!

Scriptures for you

Here is a quick video for you. This is Aaron from last night quoting some Scripture.

Sunday Adventure

Sunday afternoon we went on an adventure.  Of course, we started our day with church, Danny taught Sunday School, Betsy listened to the sermon while keeping Aaron occupied in the cry room.

After church we took a nice walk to the nearby mall for lunch.  On the way to the mall we discovered this beautiful little park with a great pond.  Betsy loved the flowers and turtles so she got a few pictures for you.

  

After lunch we headed downtown to go to a 4:00 basketball game.  We were very early, so we were able to take a leisurely stroll by the river.  Near the stadium we stopped to watch the kayakers.

  

Aaron couldn't understand all these pictures that didn't include him!  He said "Take Aaron picture?" and moved about three feet from Betsy.  We told him to backup and got a few good pics of him!

  

  

  

Then we made our way to the stadium.  The game was between the Singapore Slingers and the Philippine team Air 21.  I think there were more fans from the Philippines than from Singapore, but it was still fun.  At half-time Aaron got a kick out of meeting the mascot.  He is a merlion, the symbol of Singapore, half lion, half fish.

  

  

 All in all, it was a great day!

Today, Wednesday the 24th was the annual "See You at the Pole" day.  We had students gathered in different places around the school praying. 

  

 As a school we have had many things to pray for lately as two of our staff members are having serious medical conditions.  Please pray with us for: 

Tina Ong - She delivered twin boys about ten days ago and has been in serious condition since then.  She is finally beginning to recover, but still has a ways to go.  Tina finally was able to move out of ICU into a normal ward today; this also means that she will finally be able to see her sons!  (She hadn't seen them as of this morning).  The boys are doing ok.  They were born a few weeks early and thus have had to go through extra treatment.  They are now both very near 4 lbs!

Bob Brosius - He is our IT director and has had to have a couple of surgeries recently.  Things have not gone as smoothly as was hoped and it seems there may need to be more surgeries.  Pray for wisdom for the doctors to determine what is going on!

Thank you for all your prayers and support!

Family Fun Day

We had our annual Family Fun Day carnival at the school this weekend. Here is a video one of my students took. Enjoy!

Bossy Neighbors

Having children apparently gives eveyone free reign to pass on any and all words of child-rearing wisdom gained over the centuries.  If you have kids, you know what I mean!

We get advice spanning not only the ages, but also cultures as well.  Anything from sanitizing the world to the dangers of 2 year old thumb sucking.

However, the pinnacle, the most amazing, the greatest piece of advice came from a neighbor sharing a ride down the lift (oh, I mean elevator).  A fatherly-looking gentlemen flashed Aaron and I (Betsy) a huge smile as we entered and guessed that Aaron was about 1 year old.  I kindly corrected him that actually Aaron is 2 years old.  He got a very thoughtful expression on his face and replied, "Oh, he is much to short for 2.  You must make him grow more!"

Well, what could I do?  I smiled and said a sweet, "Thank you."  All the time thinking, "Huh???  Is this guy for real????  OK!"

Yeah, gotta love all the very free, helpful advice from everyone!

Aaron's New Joys

Thought we would simply share some of the Aaron's excitement this week.

Aaron's favorite movie is about a little race car that meets a rusty tow truck.  This week he received a new blanket in the mail.  He was VERY excited!

 

  

Here Aaron is enjoying story time with Grandma.  He loves watching DVDs sent by his grandparents. 

  

This was a new treat.  Can you tell what it is?  Aaron had a hard time at first, but it was fun watching him PPUULLLLLL at the little gummy worm in order to bite it off. 

  

Finally, this evening we got a new tool for cleaning up the toys!  Aaron didn't want to clean up, so I asked if he wanted Daddy to pick him up by his feet while he cleaned up the toys.  He loved it!  I got a GREAT weight-lifting session! 

  

 Love to you all!

Danny, Betsy, & Aaron

Staff Orientation & a New Year

School has now been in session for seven days.  We have had a good start to the year.  I am starting to get adjusted to my class schedule, and am enjoying meeting and getting to know my new students.  This year is a bit more difficult than the past couple of years because I am teaching classes that I haven't taught recently.  But, I am looking forward to rising to the challenge and relying upon God to help me through!

The pictures today are from a recent staff bonding trip to Sentosa (a small island off the coast of Singapore with a few different tourist attractions).  While there we took part in an race through many of the attractions.  It was a lot of fun and allowed us a chance to see some of the things that we don't normally see and to learn a little about Singapore history.

One stop was in Images of Singapore.  This attraction has a bunch of wax figures depicting scenes from the history and life of Singapore.  Here are four pictures showing weddings from different cultures.

 

  

  

  

 

Next stop, the insect garden.  We got bonus points for this picture!  (Our fearless art teacher Sharon.)

  

Here is a picture of my team.  We had a lot of fun.  We were first to finish the race, but missed some of the points and received third place. 

  

Here is the view from the top of the island.  You can see the beaches, and in the background you can see the ships in the harbor.  It is always amazing to me how close these huge ships are to the beaches! 

  

  

 

Thanks again for all your love and support.
Danny, Betsy, & Aaron

The end of summer vacation

Danny reported back for work this last Friday and has been working to get ready for student arrival on the 11th of August.  It is hard to believe that the summer is over!  Please pray for Danny in his preparations, he is teaching two classes that he hasn't taught recently (Physics and MultiMedia) and needs to do a bit of work to prepare for them.  Pray that God will give him wisdom in how to teach these classes.



Please also pray for Aaron and Betsy as they adjust to not having Danny around all the time.  The whole family has enjoyed Danny being around and it will be an adjustment for all of us.



Here are some pictures of what Aaron has been up to lately:

 A few months ago we bought this outfit for Aaron, but it is just now starting to fit in it nicely.  (Sorry, his blankie kinda covers it up.)

A few days ago we forgot to close the gate at the top of the stairs.  In the morning we found this: 

There is a lot of construction going on in our neighborhood right now and Aaron just loves it!  He spend about 10 minutes looking out the window watching the digger work.

Then he got his own tractor out to do some digging of his own! 

Aaron also loves his "Big Car" and is learning to control it somewhat.  He can at least go forward and backwards, hasn't figured out steering yet, and mostly just stops when it slams into a wall!  He has fun though!

Hope you enjoyed these pictures!  We love you all!

Danny, Betsy, & Aaron

A Day at the Zoo

The three of us met some friends and spent the day at the zoo today. Aaron had a blast. He kept running ahead saying, "Go see something else?" We had a hard time keeping up with him!

Here is Aaron with Caleb. They were both doing a wonderful job of sharing their raisins. They each had a pile, but would hand raisins to each other!


Aaron loved the butterflies.

Though he wasn't too sure about this one that landed on him!


This is from a few days ago. Aaron took a break from playing with his new car track to help Daddy sort his change.


Love you all, and God bless!