Swim and sleepover

I haven't seen my father swimming since I was kid. He used to take us to the local swimming pools every summer holiday. It was kind of nice to see him with my own kids :)

Luca enjoying being in the water with his grandfather:

The girls:

It is nice to have lots of friends here for Yuzuki especially.  Can you spot a dead kid floating in the background? Well, that is Luca's new trick... 

We had the Kobayashi girls sleeping over for the night. They had lots of fun together. 

Needless to say it took a long time for them to settle. They kept finding some fun things to do instead of sleeping!

Another busy day was over. At this point I was getting quite quite tired. But guess what I got myself into the next day... Universal Studios Singapore here we come!

Gardens by the Bay

This was the top of the list for mum to do while in Singapore. Visiting Gardens by the Bay. We arrived with perfect timing to catch the audio tour around the garden.

Great view of MBS:

The Supertree canopy walk:

It was quite a hot day so the quick tour around the entire garden was a great idea. I like leaving some parts of sightseeing undone when we have visitors. Then we can take them back to the same place when they visit us next time but still find it interesting. Gardens by the Bay is definitely the place my parents will come back and visit. 

We alighted at Cloud Forest - one of my favourite places.  It is very cool inside (almost cold...) so you can spend as long as you want looking at the lush green plants and many kinds of beautiful orchids. I got to see them closer and longer as I didn't have the kids with us running around all the time.

Each time I visit I find some new kinds of flowers: 

After spending a good 2 hours plus in the Cloud Forest we walked towards the Supertrees then to the other side of MBS. 

I really wanted to bring my parents to the ArtScience Museum. I think this would have been more fun with the kids. The digital art displays were fantastic.

The butterfly room:

Interactive digital play area for the kids. Some were fascinating. I am definitely bringing my kids here. This one was if you move the wooden frying pan the fire starts and the egg will be cooked. 

Play area for kids:

Even us adults had fun in this draw your own fish and release them in 3D water tank. First, we drew a fish each. 

Then they put it through the scanner and they became 3D images and swam around the tank. The pink one with some Japanese writing is mum's.

The blue and yellow one with a big eye is mine:

Here is the one dad drew:

And a big blue one Runa drew:

They were swimming everywhere!

Just before the exit there was another impressive room with thousands of LED lights and mirrors.  

Different form of art but we all enjoyed it a lot. I am very happy to find another cool indoor place to take the kids. I cannot wait to spend some more time there. 

Sentosa Island and Chinatown

Another great destination here for a family is Sentosa Island. We divided the group into two, one to go and splash in Adventure Cove the other to go and visit the Aquarium.

I took Oliver, Yuzuki and Eiji to Adventure Cove. My friend Charne came along with Liam. For a change us mothers got into swimming gear and enjoyed the sun. We spent most of the time in the lazy river where you swim between tanks full of fish and stingrays. When you are lucky you can see some dolphins swim underneath you.

Meanwhile Matthew, my parents and the rest of the kids had fun at the Ocean Eggsploration!

After a busy morning we met up in Chinatown for a late lunch at our favourite Yum Cha restaurant. 

I really wanted to take mum to this Taiwanese sweets cafe but it was closed :( It happened when I had some Japanese friends visiting too. I must remember they are closed on Mondays!

Just like previous outings after the lunch the boys took all the tired kids home and mum, Yuzuki, Runa and I stayed and enjoyed some shopping. Another place to visit ticked off!

Marina Bay visit

My family were only here for 6 full days so I had to plan things carefully. Mum was very keen to have a relaxing holiday - staying at home and not doing much but I had to make sure to take them out to show them some of the amazing places that Singapore has to offer.

We arrived at Marina Bay and Merlion Park area in the late afternoon. We walked around and took hundreds of photos. Here are some of them.

I was hoping the sun was not as harsh but it was such a hot afternoon! Walking to the other side of the bay was harder than we thought...

My original plan was to walk around the bay until people were too hot to walk any more then take them to visit the ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands for a cool down. I've heard lots of good things about FUTURE WORLD from friends. But the kids were so thirsty and hungry we had to get some food and drinks first, and by the time we got back to the museum we found out that we missed the last admission session for the day :(

I wanted to spend an extra few hours around the area to show them the water and light show at Marina Bay Sands. So spending time in cool air conditioned museum was the perfect thing to do but instead the kids ended up running around playing rugby in Gardens by the Bay.   

Even though we spent a while waiting for it, the show was only half completed due to some very strong winds blowing all the water display...

By the time the show was finished Matthew arrived at the hotel to meet up with us. He took my father to the roof top bar at MBS to have a nice cold beer together. 

Once the boys enjoyed a quick beer, they kindly (?) took the little kids back home so that us ladies can go up and enjoy some night views with Cheese and Chocolate buffet at Club55. 

Needless to say we all ate way more than we needed!!

It was a fun relaxing way to finish up the day. I do recommend if you are a super chocolate eater to make the most of the buffet. All the cakes were very rich even though each piece was small! 

Maybe I will go there again for a quiet night with Matthew for some wine and cheese.