Around the World With Kids: Tired Feet

Another day with kids in the Singapore Botanic Gardens. My feet are really tired. Our corespondent in Beijing, otherwise known as dad, is still away in Beijing filming but we are fairing well here by ourselves in Singapore. But i am counting the moments till his return. It feels very strange to be on my own in a foreign country with three little ones while Econ Man is in a different foreign country--and Communist at that!
So in lieu of venturing out and trying something new today, I found myself repeating a known experience. It' really just that I'm tired and not that all interested in something different today. That admitted, I took them back to the playground at Food For Thought and we ate American food again. It was easy to contain them there and since it was a weekday we had the whole playground to ourselves.

I decided a long walk would wear them out so we took the long route through the Botanical Gardens. We walked under a canopy of ivy with its pink roots hanging down brushing our faces. Declan found a root lying on the ground and decided to make an Indiana Jones whip out of it. The whole canopy was really lovely, like something from The Hobbit.

One of my favorite tropical flowers is the Heliconia. It's everywhere here.

We took time for a homeschool lesson about cinnamon. This is Declan with a cinnamon tree. Didn't know the cinnamon you eat is actually bark shaved from the tree, left in the sun to dry and curl? Well now you do.

We headed over the the children's garden again. This time I brought the kids' swimsuits because they have an outdoor water feature that the boys really wanted to play in. Smart mummy brought the suits this time. Even Tess had a ball.

Almost every park in Singapore has some sort of water play feature. It gets REALLY hot here on the Equator (another homeschool lesson today) and everyone's looking for a way to cool down.

Plumeria is all over the place here. So beautiful. Dash gave this one to Tess.

Our third homeschool lesson for today was on Symbiosis. In particular, the symbiosis of flora and fauna in rain forests. This picture is a perfect example of a plant growing on a tree. It is not the tree, but uses the tree in order to survive.

Tonight we swam. A pool is a must on a long trip like this. The kids burn off so much energy in the pool. I fixed Asian food. Really yummy. The kids shoveled it as fast as I could divvy it. That's another great thing about renting an apartment while traveling--you have a kitchen and, usually, a dryer. Thank God for these! We've been eating breakfasts in the apt and some dinners. It's been great because we don't have to take the kids out and make them sit and be perfect for three meals a day--with the added benefit of saving money.
So I'll close with pics from Econ Man's filming journey in Beijing.