Singapore Botanic Gardens

Wednesday, December 21st

Chad and I enjoyed our relaxing break, and good thing, because right when we got back on Wednesday morning, we headed off to the Singapore Botanic Gardens!

This was on our list of places to go two years ago, but we didn't quite make it, so this time we made sure to get there. It was totally worth it!

Normally, I wouldn't say we are the "Botanic-Gardeny-Type" but my mom told us that they have a fun little Children's Botanic Garden.

Fun stuff to keep the kids busy? We're all over that!

Here's a picture of us as we walked over to the children's section.

It was hot. Really hot. I think we're all pretty sweaty in this picture.

We walked through a little jungle of banana trees where we saw actual bananas growing.

I think that blew Karli's mind.

"They grow in the stores, you're silly, Mom!"

Yup, silly me.

We started off at this little playground:

Next, we headed towards the maze:
Why is it that kids LOVE mazes?

They actually seem kind of scary to me.

What if you can't find your way out???

The kids didn't mind.

Ready, set, go!

I had a hard time telling who was the leader.

Sometimes Landon was, sometimes Sydney. The little girls were just running around having fun.

We were all EXTREMELY surprised when Keely was the first one out!

And Karli followed quickly after.

Who would have thought the youngest would prevail??

Maybe Keely is some sort of navigational genius prodigy child.

After a few rounds in the maze, we headed off to walk through the gardens.

This bridge seemed very "Swiss-Family-Robinson-like" to me.

I forgot how much I love that movie!

They had some cute little learning games and activities.

And thank goodness for those misters!

Next, the kids got to explore this big tree house.

I'm not sure what is going on in the following picture, but maybe they're having some sort of secret treehouse meeting.

Michelle and Chad took a little break under the GIANT mushrooms!

Um, have I mentioned that my sister has been doing this and she is 36 WEEKS PREGNANT!

She deserves a little rest. As for Chad, I don't know what his excuse was. Kidding.

The kids enjoyed some more play areas.

And then, we found the

SPLASH PAD!

There are hardly any children's attractions in Singapore that don't include some sort of water feature.

I think Michelle and I both said something to the effect of "Just try not to get too wet."

We quickly knew that was impossible.

"Never mind, just have fun then."

Even Ashley wanted in on the action.

Karli and Keely would take breaks from the water to come and "read" this little sign. It was fun to hear what it "said." Somehow, it was different every time!

Love this action shot of Karli:

It was another soggy taxi ride home, but so worth it!

After the we got home, the kids got all cleaned up and dove into bed.

However, we headed out to be a part of the Singapore night-life and do some exploring.

Look what we found:

After hearing so many good things about H&M, I finally got to see one for myself!

We picked up a few Christmas presents and headed home...exhausted!