Dad's 80th Birthday

It was my fathers 80th birthday on January 26. We celebrated primarily by eating, first having lunch at Dumpling Town in Senado Square. Everyone enjoyed fresh made dumplings, won-ton soup and ox-rib stew. In the evening the entire family went to the 360 restaurant at the Macau Tower

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This revolving restaurant offers excellent food along with amazing views of Macau and China.
We capped off the birthday celebration by setting off fireworks the following night; it was fun and very loud!

Singapore Day 3

Day 3 in Singapore was a quieter day for all of us. Activities during the day included shopping, swimming and school work. It was Chinese New Years Day so the city was a bit quieter. We did however get out in the evening as we went to the Night Safari at the Singapore Zoo. It was an excellent outing as the animals are more active at night and the park itself does not place the animals in cages or fenced off areas. One exhibit of note was the bat exhibit where you enter the bats home and they fly around at will, often swooping just over your head as the travel from tree to tree in search of food.

Singapore Day 2

Our second full day in Singapore had us take a city tour which included stops at the famous Raffles Hotel, the Singapore Flyer

and the Marina Bay Sands. The tour was via a double-decker bus that had open air seating on top; it was a great way to see the city.
The flyer was Andreas idea and we all jumped on board for a 30 minute ride some 165m above the city. The views were amazing.
We ended the day with dinner at the Banana Leaf Apolo restaurant in the Little India neighborhood of Singapore. We were joined by good friends of ours -Stephanie and Tim- who now live in Singapore. Check out the plates we ate off of!

Trip to Singapore

Schools out for Chinese New Year so the seven of us jetted off to Singapore for five days. It was my parents idea that we all go away together (somewhere warm) and my mom had been wanting to see Singapore...
The first day saw us visiting the Singapore Botanical Garden in the morning. This is a beautiful area in Singapore that has numerous gardens, ponds and an amazing orchid exhibit. In the afternoon we visited the Battle Box, an underground compound that was the command center for British forces during WWII. It was here that the commanding officers met and decided to surrender to the Japanese in 1942. It was a very interesting place to see and we all got a lesson on a major event in Singapore's history.

Trip to Shenzhen

Chuck, Andrea and Marlene were given their Christmas presents - a trip to mainland China to do some shopping. We traveled to Shenzhen by ferry (60 minutes) and spent Monday afternoon shopping at Holiday Plaza. This was followed by dinner at a local noodle restaurant; Andrea loved the dumplings. Tuesday morning was spent shopping at Decathlon (sports and outdoor clothing store) and at Metro (like Costco but better). We ended up leaving early as we had too many bags to carry. Let's just say that Andrea and Marlene went a little crazy...

Emily's Birthday

Emily turned twelve last Saturday. It was a true family celebration as she was able to celebrate with her grandparents, her Aunt Marlene as well as the immediate family. Jackie cooked Emily's favorite dish - veggie lasagna and we finished off the celebration with a vanilla & fruit cake from our favorite bakery.

Aunty Arrives

The family reunion got bigger as my sister Marlene arrived in Macau last Sunday; she is joining us for two weeks! We are all excited to have her with us for two weeks.

Grandparents Arrive

Everyone here has been waiting for my parents to arrive for a visit and they finally arrived January 10th. After a day of recovery they have been busy shopping, cooking and gambling. This morning we took them over to mainland China for some bargain shopping. The afternoon was spent at the Olympic pool watching Danielle and Emily compete in a swimming competition.