Today we actually celebrated the 4th of July.
Not right away. Being Saturday we didn't roll out of the hotel until 11 a.m. and then it was only to head down to Orchard Road for some shopping. Rebecca has completely outgrown her tennis shoes and we hunted through several shops before deciding $100 is too much for shoes outgrown in 6 months, even in Singapore dollars. Heck, even the flipflops (which I'll be ordering from Old Navy, thankyouverymuch) were "on sale" for SG$30. I wonder what the COLA is to live here anyway?
The movie theaters are quite nice, at least at the Shaw Lido. We saw "Kung Fu Panda" and it was hilarious. I don't want to sound like an ad, but seriously, I did laugh out loud and several parts took me by surprise. I highly recommend it, even with the cartoon violence. No blood is shed.
We wandered through a few more malls (not shops, entire malls, as large portions of Singapore city is just layers of shopping centers) before reaching the ToysRUs. Honestly, we aren't here to shop. I like walking through a mall periodically, but doing it daily isn't fun for me. Seeing as we're here though, and malls aren't all that common in Chennai with Borders, Gap, and ToysRUs, I'll put up with the temporary sensory overload.
About 3:30 in the afternoon we hopped the MRT to Sambawang station on the north side of the island and caught a shuttle to the Terror Club. Yes, the Terror Club. I don't know why anyone, especially an American MWR, would call their place the Terror Club, but that's where the American Association's IndepenDance celebation was held. At 4:30 it was a pleasant field with a long food tent filled with wonderful smells of ribs, burgers, kebabs, plenty of room to sit and enjoy the breeze while the kids tore around to the trampoline bungy thing, the free cotton candy, the bouncy houses, martial arts demonstration and trial class.... you get the idea. Because of the location, we could let them roam free, much like at the AISC picnics. We found an empty bench on the hillside while the kids wound down, in time for the presentation of the Colors and the National Anthem. Shortly after, the fireworks started and it was a very decent show. Sitting with my sweaty, dirty offspring among the sea of people in red, white and blue, hearing the anthem and watching the show was worth all the grumbling along the way ("Where are we going?" "How much longer?" "Why do we have to go?" "How long are we staying?").
Catching a cab, we passed the zoo and night safari (planned for Monday night provided the 60% rain predicted for all week holds off) and were home by 9 p.m. Now the boys are conked out. The sleeping situation is still a problem but tonight we tried something different by putting the boys to bed while letting the girls stay up to watch the women's finals of Wimbledon. For some reason both DSs have come out so I'm the only one actually watching tennis, but it's not even 10:30 yet and church isn't until 10 in the morning.
I think I'll have another snack.
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