Chef DN

About three weeks back, I got a text from WP asking if I was keen on signing up for a parent-child baking workshop at So EZ Cooking Studio. We would be learning how to make a log cake. A log cake! I only know how to eat log cakes, so learning how to make one would be pretty darn cool. PLUS, I get to spend time just with DN.

"Ok!" I texted back.

Now that DS has joined the Ong family, she has become the fifth limb I didn't know I had. I need surgery to detach her from me on weekends. She is THAT clingy. It does amazing things for my self-esteem but it also means that poor DN doesn't really have his mommy any more. Sad face. I don't think he feels good about it. And because of this, he is now really attached to PF. Like seriously. It's always, "I want Papa to brush my teeth!" or "I want Papa to pat me to sleep!". He doesn't really ask for me any more. Sigh!

So I thought the baking class would be a great chance to get some solo time with my little man. And it was quite fun! We made a really basic log cake from scratch. It was surprisingly simple - just a swiss roll covered in fresh cream and decorated with a jelly santa and fruits.

DN got a little chef's hat and coat to wear during the class. Pity it wasn't his to keep though. I heard that the kids get to keep theirs at Bakerzin classes. Well, no matter, we had fun!

That's us mixing the eggs and sugar for the swiss roll.

DN and Jovann having a little snack during the break. We were waiting for the swiss rolls to bake and cool down a little before moving on to the next step - decorating!

That's DN decorating his log cake with fresh fruits (raspberries, strawberries, blueberries), chocolate balls and sprinkles. He took the decorating very seriously!

I know this is a bit belated but, here's wishing you a fun Christmas and New Year holiday!

The Tanglin Tree

Yes, I'm alive, and no, my fingers did not rot and fall off. My excuse dear friends, for totally falling out of the  blogosphere, starts with "work" and ends with "crap". Whoops, I just meant "work".

Sigh. It's been pretty crazy since April. I've hardly had time to go to the toilet, let alone blog! Mornings are spent leaping out of bed (late, no less), sterilising pump parts and bottles, deciding on an outfit, getting dressed, changing mind about outfit, getting dressed (again), feeding DS, packing bags (mine and DN's), getting DN dressed, sending him to school and then myself to school before class starts. Nights are spent harvesting my pumpkins on Farmville in Facebook preparing for the next day's class. 

I hope things will be better in this new school term. :) It probably will - I've moved the Facebook app on my iPhone to the last page and have sworn off Facebook. It's the damn farming that's been a pure waste of time! Wish me luck... and will power.

So many things have happened since my last post about the kiddos - DN outgrowing his milk allergy (woot!), DS sprouting teeth, DN's trip to the theatre where he spent 40 minutes sitting ON THE FLOOR and DS's transformation from baby to toilet brush. Yes, toilet brush. But more about that later this week. (Haven't downloaded the photos yet, haha!)

Today, I want to blog about the fun time we had meeting up with Sophie when she came back from New Zealand for a holiday. Sophie and DN have been hanging out since they were 8 months old and have gone to the zoo, the botanic gardens and even the theatre together. A whole bunch of us decided to meet up for breakfast at The Tanglin Tree one Sunday morning. DN had a swell time that day, playing with Jovann, Clarence and Sophie.

The Tanglin Tree has a pretty nice tree house out front and after about half an hour, we had to admit defeat and release the children into the sun... where they stayed for the next whole hour.

Jovann, Sophie and Clarence were thrilled with the water pit. There were also water and sand toys for the kids to play with. DN steered clear because he didn't want to get wet. He can be quite mak nenek (a grandmother) sometimes!

So while everyone else was splashing around, he entertained himself with the slides.

When we finally managed to drag the kiddos in, they headed for the books. Please don't ask me why I have such a stupid look on my face.

Sophie and DN, May 2010

DN and Sophie, March 2007

Our First Staycation

Oh my gosh, it was S.O. F.U.N.!

The last time we did this, we picked the wrong hotel. 'Wrong' because it was along Havelock Road, and since we weren't that keen on introducing DN to the world of Zouk, we just went to the hotel pool. *yawn*

This time round, we checked into Orchard Hotel. Ah, decisions, decisions. Pool? Orchard Road? Pool? Orchard Road?

ORCHARD ROADDD! *deep guttural sound from the bowels of my shopping deprived being*

So shop I did. And suffered I did! (at the end of the day) You see, for this pregnancy, I've been as mobile as Raffles' statue. It's no wonder I'm looking more and more like Barbapapa everyday. Just less pink and with more hair. So imagine me in all my stagnant and stationary glory, traipsing waddling up and down Orchard Road as my feet get progressively redder and more bruised by the minute. Do I stop? Hell no! Bring it onnn...! *another deep guttural sound from the bowels of my shopping deprived being*

So yup, we didn't even make it down to the hotel pool. We saw it from our room window though, and had good intentions to squeeze in a dip in the pool, if that counts for anything. :p

The highlight of the weekend for DN had to be the bus and MRT rides. He had a blast flagging the bus down, hee hee.

$1. That's all it takes to make this little guy happy. He loves bus rides!


Even after we'd arrived at our station, we hung around just to let him see the trains zoom past.

We also made a trip down to the National Museum to check out the Verner Panton exhibition. Very cool. PF and I took turns to play with DN in the Phantasy Landscape so we could wander around the exhibition.

In all, we stayed 2 nights. One of the best things had to be knowing there was a buffet breakfast waiting for us in the morning and it only being an elevator ride away. Sweet. This is what DN had for breakfast - hard boiled egg, sausage, pancakes, dried nuts and fruits - ON HIS PLATE. On MY plate, he ate the noodles and on PF's plate, he ate the cold tofu. Halfway through breakfast, I had to bring him to the toilet to poo. -___-

It was a good weekend. :)

So... what kind of mouse are you?

Is it a bad thing if your son replies "go shopping centre" or "go supermarket" if you ask him what he wants to do? Hmm... I'm not sure. On the one hand, at least I know he'll be able to navigate though the concrete jungle next time (threatening to cancel credit cards to get another free year of subscription, modifying the Wii to play pirated games, cheating when plucking car park coupons...), but on the other hand, to not have the experience of catching fish in drains or climbing a tree must be quite a sad thing don't you think?

So yes, DN is definitely a city mouse, not a country mouse. And it's our fault of course. We just don't expose him to nature enough. And with the weather threatening to fry us silly, it's not like I'm going to start traipsing around Sungei Buloh anytime soon.

Our most recent (and valiant) attempt was 2 weekends ago when we brought DN to West Coast Park for some hotcakes, cycling and sand play with Reubern and Sophie. We brought DN's tricycle along and phwoarh! That really tested his non-existent sharing ability together with my patience. -_- If anyone has any tips on how to get an almost 3 year old to share, I'm all ears.

So except for the "This is mineminemine!" raving and ranting, all of us city mice had a good time in the "pseudo" country. At the sand pit, DN just leapt right in, dug his feet and hands into the sand and was basically just loving it as his mommy tottered after him with tissue to wipe sand off his face (futile, don't know why I bothered... sand and children go together like peanut butter and jam). I really had to bite my tongue from saying, "Argh! Don't touch your hair!" or "Eep! Don't pick that up!" or "Aiyah! Don't kick the sand into your eyes!" and of course, "You stink! Let's go home now!"

Sigh... I'm the real city mouse.

But city mouse or not, I'm glad we brought DN there because he had a swell time, smelly or not. We've been back once since that last trip and we're going again this weekend. :D

This is what theatre is all about!

Last week, DN and I watched a play at The Arts House. In The Garden was part of the Act 3-Prudential Children's First Festival. It was a good choice, and I'm glad it was pitched at the right level (1-4 years). There was no story, which was fine because at DN's age, to get them to concentrate, absorb and try to understand a 45 minute story is impossible anyway. There were hardly any words too, and honestly, it didn't need words because it was so visual. There was the use of shadow puppets, multi-media and music, and that was enough to grab DN's attention. The entire performance was made up of tiny tiny action sequences - being chased by elephants, looking for a boat in choppy waters, getting wet in the rain etc... things that very young children can understand and enjoy. No words needed.

DN was engaged throughout! He laughed at the funny moments, shouted out the names of the animals that he saw on the screen, tried to imitate the actions of the actors (only 2 of them) and basically enjoyed himself very much. He responded to this so much better than when we watched The Rainbow Fish last September. Of course, he's older now, but I think the content, and our seats (we were seated almost right at the back for that one! LOL), also made a difference. This time, it was a much smaller theatre space, very intimate and we sat on the floor.

However (and you can crucify me for this one), I was just a little disappointed to hear other parents in the audience repeatedly shush their little ones during this performance. It's children's theatre, CHILDREN'S theatre! Let them laugh out loud, let them them shout "elephant!", let them enjoy themselves! Come onnn... they're not watching The Bridge Project, so give them a break already! As another parent in the audience, I won't mind if your child makes "noises" during the show. If I did mind, then I didn't deserve to be there. I should be watching The Bridge Project instead.

I'm now reading David Wood's Theatre for Children and he puts it succinctly when he says...

I shall never forget standing at the back of the auditorium of the Swan Theatre, Worcester watching the first production of "The Owl and the Pussycat Went to See...", my second play for children, co-written with Sheila Ruskin. The children responded with huge enthusiasm, rooting for the Owl and the Pussycat as they pursued their quest to get married, beset by marauding Jumblies and the ever-hungry Plum Pudding Flea. One minute they listened attentively, the next they participated with ear-splitting excitement. The way they willingly suspended disbelief and entered into the spirit of the performance was incredibly exciting and strangely moving. They laughed, they shouted warnings, they became emotionally involved, they cared. And the victorious, abandoned cheer when justice prevailed and the Plum Pudding Flea was vanquished was sheer joy to behold. A couple of years later Braham Murray, director of the prestigious 69 Theatre Company in Manchester witnessed the same triumphant moment with tears rolling down his cheeks. "This," he said, "is what theatre is all about!"

How brilliant!

He then carries on to say...

Such uninhibited displays of happy enthusiasm are all too rare in adult audiences.

Aiyoh. But that's true in everything we do isn't it? We lose all those wonderful child-like behaviours as we grow up and we mind our p's and q's (although many living in Chin Swee Road don't and still pee in HDB lift toilets!) with everything. Oh well. I guess I'm also not going to jump like a kangaroo when I find my favourite Kate Spade bag on sale at 50% off. Hmm... okay, I might.

Two days after the performance, we decided to do a little art project at home. After the performance on Sunday, every child was given a little butterfly to bring home. Of course, by the time we put DN in the car seat, it didn't look like a butterfly anymore, more like a beetle. But I kept it anyway and traced it out onto many sheets of coloured paper.

DN and I then decorated the butterflies with other little bits of coloured paper which he tore up into smaller pieces. We were aiming for the mosaic look, but failed miserably!

That night, I got him to help me scotchtape the butterflies onto a piece of ribbon and we strung it up on his cot. He loved it! You could detect a big dose of pride in his voice when he showed it to his Dad the next day. And he says goodnight to them every night now. Awww...

Early Bird Breakfast Show

I much prefer going to the zoo than the bird park. In fact, I've brought DN to the zoo about 8 times in all, and to the bird park only once. Hmm... I don't know, feathered friends don't really do it for me. But if birds had fur, ah! I might change my mind. ;)

That said, I have to admit that there's a new thing at the Bird Park that has made me feel a little more affectionate towards birds. It's the Early Bird Breakfast Show at the Bongo Burgers Cafe. It's quite a novel treat! As long as you buy breakfast from the cafe, you're entitled to a shady seat outdoors, next to a little pond with ducks and swans. So you have breakfast as the bird show goes on and the best thing is, it's free! The cafe is located outside the Bird Park, so technically, you can just go there for breakfast and not pay $18 to enter the park.

The show is not bad really. No vultures swooping over your heads or penguins diving into the pond of course, but we did get to take pictures with a parrot and DN and Jovann both got to feed the ducks. It's a half hour show and we got to see some parrots up close too. The trainer actually brought the parrots up close to every table so we could see the bird perform little tricks. Like sticking out its tongue at us. Er, yes, thank you.

Except for the breakfast selection which could do with a MAJOR upgrade in terms of variety, and the cut-throat prices for beverages ($5 for ice milo??! *£$&"@~), it's a pretty enjoyable morning out. Guess who's bringing her own ice milo in a thermos next time?

A Hotel (un)Adventure

PF had a voucher for a free night's stay in a hotel so we packed the family up and headed off for an adventure. Humph, except for the 45 minutes we spent in the pool, there wasn't much adventure in our little getaway. There's nothing to do in a hotel! And we weren't in town, so there was no chance of getting out to do a little shopping. It was a bit of a let down.

As we were getting ready to check out, DN pottered about the room, looking for things to do. He was very contented sitting in the drawers.



After checking out, we went to Centrepoint, had breakfast at Long John Silver's and shopped at Robinsons. DN likes Bob The Builder, but there are hardly any BTB toys. (PHEW!)







Later that afternoon, we met Sophie, Arianne and Jovann at Fidgets. It was quite different from the first time we brought DN there.

It was a madhouse! There were little bodies running, jumping and hurtling everywhere. CRAZY! After 5 minutes in the war zone 'big kids' playground, we admitted defeat and retreated to the 'little kids' playground.

If you want to go to Fidgets, go at 5pm. It empties at 5pm and it's almost immediate. One minute you can hear fighting, screaming and crying, and then, suddenly, silence. Bliss!

Brenda's theory is that the expat housewives have to go home to prepare dinner. Yay! And that's when the Singaporeans have the whole 'big kids' playground to themselves, and proceed to playplayplay until 6.15pm and make the Fidgets staff wait for them to close up. Oops, did I just say that?

All zoo-ed out! (Part 2)

On Day 2, we went to the zoo with Sam, WP + Jovann and Ling + Sophie (and her pink parasol). The first thing we did was feed the kangaroos at the Australian Outback enclosure. Highly recommended! $5 is a small price to pay to feed the kangaroos, pet the kangaroos and hold hands with the kangaroos! (Yes, you read right. See pic below.) Oh, I absolutely loved it. The kangaroo that we fed was called Lola and she had the softest fur. It reminded me of a kangaroo fur pouch my mom had yonks ago. Oops. Yes, Lola felt like a bag. -_-

We also saw a wallaby. Wallabies are smaller than kangaroos, have shorter ears and (very) dangly... erm... spherical private bits. Oops.

Next, we headed towards the pony rides ($4 per child). Unfortunately, none of the kiddos wanted to sit on Buddy the pony. The keeper was really really nice. He allowed us to pet Buddy and get up close, hoping that the kids would lose their inhibitions, but no dice. I bet Buddy was relieved, haha. Thank goodness I didn't say, "Can I have a go then?" because not long after, I overheard him telling someone else, "The pony ride is only for kids. No adults." PHEW! If I'd sat on Buddy, I'd probably have to pay for his chiropractor bills. For life.

We had lunch after and after that, we decided to check out the elephant rides ($4 per child, $8 per adult). Jovann was so excited because he loves elephants. I wasn't so keen because I was forced to sit on an elephant when I was little and I hated it. In those days, you literally sat ON the elephant. And Babar's not exactly a Mexican Hairless Dog. I swear I had chafing.

But as luck would have it, DN asked to sit on the elephant. (What was wrong with Buddy???) So up we went. And it wasn't bad at all! Ling said DN looked quite shell-shocked the entire time though, haha.
Our last stop was the orang utan free-range enclosure (what an oxymoron) and then we headed back. All three went home to nap. (kids, not the parents)
It was a good day. :)

DN started the day with a hearty breakfast - scrambled eggs on a bed of seaweed, rock melons (he asked for an extra helping), half a bowl of oats, a cup of soya milk and 2 chewy multi-vits.


Sophie and DN were not in the least bit afraid of the kangaroo. It must have been her friendly face. :)





DN and Lola, sharing a "moment".









They were really holding hands, er, paws, er hands!










We caught Lola doing "something" while eating. Hmm. Sophie has agreed to potty train her.








That's Gambir the elephant. She's 19 years old and also not potty-trained. Sophie's going to share some potty tips with her too.





Picture Of The Day --> Lola going, "Hello la! I'm a kangaroo! I'm allowed to pee and poop all over the place!"

All zoo-ed out! (Part 1)

Because I won't get to see DN for about a month o_o, I'm trying to spend as much time as I can with him now before I leave. We went to the zoo twice this week, two days IN A ROW, and I've found my "zoo limit". No way can I do three days in a row because I will look like this.

We went to the zoo with Rina + Rae Ann and Ling + Sophie on Wednesday and my advice to all is this - go on a weekday. We've gone on a weekend and it's bloody awful. Unless you're into masochism and go to Comex AND ENJOY IT, go on a weekday. Please!

The kiddos at the entrance - fresh, dry and fragrant! (but not for long)

We had a wonderful time at the zoo because it was empty. :) We got there in time to catch the Splash Safari Show (featuring penguins, manatees, pelicans and sea lions). After that, we said hello to the elephants and then headed straight to the water playground.

I love manatees. Gentle sea cows who eat sea grass. :)

Funnily, DN is terribly wary of water playgrounds and all its bells and whistles. Here is someone who doesn't think twice about jumping into a deep swimming pool, but won't go near a shower fountain. Every time I tried to take off his t-shirt, he said, "no no no no no". So we sat on the bench for awhile. I was ready to sit there with him and wait for the two girls, but after awhile, he took the swim diaper from me and tried to put in on over his shorts, LOL. I guess he was ready!

DN was the driest of the three. I was pleased as punch when he finally bent down to splash some water. For the longest time, he was walking along the edge of the pool, throwing leaves into it. (?)

Picture Of The Day -->

Ling was theme coordinated! The zoo should give her a pass for her effort.

Movie Date

Ling and I have been shamelessly throwing our respective offspring at the other's offspring (i.e. matchmaking) this entire year. Today, we watched I-Theatre's "Rainbow Fish" with Jovann, Arianne, Reubern, Clarence and Cayden and both of us were at it again.

Sophie sat next to DN during the play and I actually caught them "pak tor-ing". (Success!) Halfway through the show, I saw Sophie lean over and try to rest her head on DN's shoulder. Wahahaha! A little while later, I saw DN's little hand reach out and grope for Sophie's hand in the dark. Aiyoh!

DN : "If I put my hand here, maybe she will hold it."

Sophie : "Not on a first date, buster!"

Sophie : "Okay, maybe just this once."

DN : "Sorry, wait, my butt is itchy."








This was DN's first play/show and I had no inkling of how he would behave. Will he sit through the entire thing? Will he be afraid of the dark? Will he throw a fit and scream the house down? I was prepared for the worst and was ready to sit outside the theatre with DN, waiting for the rest, but it went quite well! The only hitch was when this horribe pong wafted over from DN and I brought him to the toilet because I thought he'd pooped. He didn't. It was just a fart. -_- And we missed part of the octopus's song because of that.

We all trooped over to Taman Serasi for lunch after that and even though we all know better, the optimists in us still insisted on taking group photos WITH kids. Getting 7 of us to look at same camera is already a feat in itself. Throw in 7 very squirmy 2-year olds? o_o

This was the best shot from our camera. The trick is to take 100 shots, haha. ;) And honestly, we were sitting there for a LONG time.

Museum Toddlers

When I think "museum", I think -> dioramas, dinosaurs, dust, fossilised guards shouting "QUIET!" and of course, boring. (I have about an gram's worth of culture in my brain. The rest is my shopping-discount-calculator.) So I was really pleasantly surprised to find out from Grace about this Museum Toddlers programme at the National Museum. Kids in the museum? Can meh!?

Can!

First in Singapore, the National Museum of Singapore's Museum Toddlers programme provides a play-based learning experience for children aged 18months to 4 years. Using key artefacts from the Museum's collection, the programme focusses on the process of exploring and interacting... and using the powers of imagination.

Go to [www.nationalmuseum.sg] -> [what's on] -> [all events] -> [museum toddlers] to read more.

There was singing, a puppet show, an art-and-craft session and finally, a short visit to the film gallery where we saw old hand puppets, old costumes worn by chinese opera actors, old videos of puppet shows and an old puppet stage. Very very cool.

What I really like is how NHB is trying to reach out to the really young with all these programmes. This Museum Toddlers programme has been running bi-monthly from April and will last until December. There are 4 different types of workshops altogether - puppetry, photography, fashion and a culinary one. Guess which one we're going for next? ;)

I also like how the workshop was in a way, holistic and thematic. The kids watched a puppet show, then they made their own pop-up puppet (I'll post the instructions in the next post) and then this was linked to Singapore's own history and past - how opera and puppet shows were a popular form of entertainment for the immigrants in the early 1900's. I just wish there was some focus on wayang kulit too.

The guys from Toy Box were very very good - funny, enthusiastic and really into the kids. For a long time, DN just stuck to me. Once he warmed up, he moved right in front. :)


There he is, clapping his hands after the puppet show.


Before they made their own pop-up puppet, one of the Toy Box guys showed them a real pop-up puppet and how it worked.


After they'd finished their puppet, the kids were shown these old stick puppets - how they worked and how elaborate their costumes were. This was a nice lead-in to the visit to the film gallery.


DN and Caryn on their second date. The concept of "out of your league" still hasn't sunk in for DN.



This has nothing to do with the puppetry workshop, but these lights are so cool!

Ace!

You know you're watching too much Wimbledon when your 22 month old suddenly starts swinging AND GRUNTING while you're watching Wimbledon.

Here he is, doing a "monica seles".



After taking pity on DN "playing tennis" with a hand-held broom, we toyed with the idea of getting him a cheap set of rackets to play with. But of course, being the lazy bums that we are, DN continued playing tennis with ladles, cups and fly-swatters (UGH, imagine the fly parts flying around) until...

... we had dinner at Pasta Waraku. Yes indeed! A Japanese restaurant helped realise my son's Wimbledon dreams, haha. Let me explain.

At the entrance, there was a big basket of toys. At first, I thought they were for entertaining children while their parents ate, but figured they were for sale because they were brand new.


We didn't give it a second thought until PF brought DN for a walk while waiting for our food. Suddenly, DN came running back with this.

All kids at the restaurant get to pick a toy for free! Isn't that great? Before we left, a waitress even offered DN a second toy. We picked another set of rackets. Now we can play doubles, heh!

The first thing DN did was put the little plastic ball in the shuttlecock and start licking it like ice-cream. Wa-hahaha! PF and I couldn't stop laughing.






It was a good evening - funny baby, free toys and good food - what more can a Singaporean ask for (besides winning 4D also)? By the time I remembered to take a picture of our dinner, this was all that was left. No, we didn't lick our plates. I had the Salmon & Salmon Roe Spaghetti and PF had the Katsu Tamagoji Spaghetti. DN had both, but of course.

Fidgets

Remember how it was raining a lot in May? Well, we were rained on one Saturday morning so Joanne and Peter suggested checking Fidgets out, an indoor kids playgym at Turf City.

DN is still young (ish), so he couldn't climb up/slide down/crawl over some of the stuff, but the monkey gene is strong in this one, so 80% of the gym was accessible to him. Did he have fun? Er, do chickens taste good? (duh)

We couldn't hold him back.


I was most impressed with this "Ball Cleaning Machine". Yeah! The balls in the ball pit go through this machine, get cleaned (we can see the process through a glass bit) and get sent back into the pit!

It's even interactive! The kids toss the balls through the bullseye and it gets vacuumed into the machine. You can even watch your ball travel through the tube and wait for it to get shot back into the pit. It was definitely a crowd-fave. I was standing there for 5 minutes feeding balls into the bullseye. (Helping them clean the balls mah!)

Animal Resort

Last Saturday, DN and Caryn visited Animal Resort and had a swell time. After a breakfast of prata (DN lurves prata) and thosai at Jalan Kayu, we swung over to Seletar Farmway 5 to meet Caryn and her parents. We got there at 10am and left at 11.30am. That tiny little farm entertained us suitably for 1.5 hours.

DN and Caryn fed the

• goats
• cranes
• fish
• guinea pigs
• rabbits
• chickens
• geese
• turkey and
• cancer bird
  

Yes, cancer bird. It's a farm, not a zoo, so the cages weren't labelled. And us being the city mice that we are, we had no idea what this animal was.

We stood outside his cage for a good 15 minutes, arguing about that long sac hanging off his chin.

Carla : It's a goiter!
PF : It's a cyst!
Noel : It's Ebenezer Scrooge!
Me (thinking) : It's going to eat our children!

We concluded that he smoked too much in his younger days and is paying for it now with that cancerous cyst. We gave him some bread and christianed him "cancer bird". As we left, Caryn said, "Bye cancer bird!" Oops.

The Animal Resort is free for all. You just need to buy feed for the animals - $2 for 3 packets. My advice is, just buy the bread, carrots and fish food. As tasty as they are, the turkey and chickens weren't exciting to feed at all and the rabbits and guinea pigs were too blind to find the food dropped into their cages.

Here's DN feeding the rabbits, but...

... doing this instead! I bet they didn't know what hit them. LOL.

There were 2 goats there. Until Noel (the observant city mouse) pointed it out, the 3 of us never knew that goats have rectangular pupils! Did YOU know?

Looks like Mr Goat needs a pedicure... big time.




When I got this packet of food, I told Carla, "Cool! Pileons! Wonder what they look like."

I think I remember Carla going something like this, "Prrrrthhhh! Wa-hahahaha!" I think she was glad I didn't say anything about "jurkeys".

This was the only decent picture we got of DN & Caryn. Thank goodness for digital cameras.