Fri, 27 Oct - Cheryl's Full Dress Rehearsal

I took leave today to attend Cheryl's full dress rehearsal for her school concert. In the morning I helped her put on some makeup while my maid tied up her hair. I took this photo of her before she went to school. Unfortunately, the school disallowed us to take photos while they were performing as they had paid professional photographers to do the job. So we have to go buy those photos at $1 each later on . I had wanted to take some shots and video for TT to see, since he cannot attend the actual concert the next week. My mum, maid and Isaac also came to have a look at Cheryl's performance. We could see that Cheryl was rather shy and maybe a bit self-concious because she knew we were present. But anyway everything went rather smoothly though I thought the whole thing was really boring and not as professional as the concert put up by my sis' kids' kindy.

At night, we decided to take the kids for a ride in a double-decker bus. We took Bus 111 (and sat at the upper deck) to Toys R Us at Forum Galleria. There we bought a large Doodle Pro board for the kids as our old magnetic doodle board was rusty and very difficult to erase. The kids enjoyed the bus trip so much they asked us to take a bus back home again (TT had wanted to take a cab because the bus stop was quite a distance away). So in the end we walked all the way to the bus stop just to satisfy the kids. They got to sit at the upper deck again at the front, which was a real treat for them. It's ironic that the kids enjoy taking public transport so much even though they have the luxury of riding in their own car. They don't get to go on buses or trains often, so taking public transport is definitely a more interesting experience for Isaac, who is currently obsessed with mass transportation.

Tue, 24 Oct - Hari Raya Puasa

TT convinced me to allow him to play badminton in the morning. We let our helper take the day off today since it's Hari Raya. Lunch was at my sis' place as she had prepared something special to celebrate my brother-in-law's birthday (which was actually the next day). In the evening we all went to have a buffet dinner at The Square at Liang Court. The main food selection was not that fantastic and not very wide, but the desserts were good though. (The following night we dropped by and brought my brother-in-law a surprise durian birthday cake to celebrate. Anyway,it's more for the kids... they're just suckers for this candle-blowing business!)

Sun, 22 Oct - We love Lego

Thanks to the haze, TT decided to join us for Mass again at Holy Cross in the late morning. So perhaps the haze is a blessing in disguise...

In the evening, we decided to go to OG Orchard with our neighbour and Sean. We wanted to get a Lego set so that Cheryl can build more houses. She's been spending her time building instead of watching TV and we're glad to get her more bricks to make her creations. We got her a big tub at $49.90. I personally love to play with Lego and I wish I could buy more. This is the second set we've bought for her, the first being a Duplo set (bigger bricks). The rest were gifts or passed down from my nephews. I can still remember hounding my mother when I was a kid to buy this big Lego set which cost $99.90. I still remember it was a set with only blue and red bricks building a container truck, helicopter or crane, and other creations. That was the only set I had and now I wish I had not given it away when I eventually "outgrew" it.

Now, even TT and I have lots of fun helping Cheryl build her own town using the colourful bricks she has. Cheryl can follow the instructions to build simple items and even built her own houses. Inspired by our Genting trip, TT built this Lego Ferris wheel and I built the Astro Fighter Ride (below). Both creations can actually spin!

I also made this integrated playground. Notice it has a slide, see-saw, merry-go-round, monkey bars and basketball court. Like the creations above, the parts are movable as well! We helped Cheryl build these houses. Aren't they pretty?

However Cheryl made these simple creations herself: some trees, a picnic table and chairs, and a jeep.

Well, the hardest thing about Lego is breaking up your creations, but we're running out of bricks and soon we'll have to dismantle them. Or maybe buy another set???

Sat, 21 Oct - Deepavali

Since Deepavali was on Saturday, it didn't really feel like a holiday. In the morning TT had to send some of his overseas visitors to Changi Airport, so we decided to take the kids for a short excursion to the airport via MRT. Since TT would be taking the car, we would meet him at the airport itself. My sis and kids also wanted to come since they had nothing else to do that morning. We met at Queenstown MRT and took the train all the way to Changi Airport Terminal 2. At the airport we took the skytrain from Terminal 2 to 1. We met up with TT and then went to the viewing gallery to look at some of the stationary airplanes. After that we had lunch there at the staff canteen before TT drove us all back home. I'm sure Isaac enjoyed the trip because he still mentions "skytrain" and "airplane" in his baby talk. Here are pics of the kids in the train...

Sun, 15 Oct - An Interesting Sunday

In the late morning the whole family went for Mass at Holy Cross Church at Clementi with our neighbour's family. This is rare because TT is not catholic and I don't force him to attend church with us. But occasionally I will nag him :P. Today I managed to get Cheryl and Isaac to receive blessings from Fr. Val.

After that we headed for Great World City for lunch. We managed to get a pair of white shoes for Cheryl's coming school concert. Isaac had a short nap while TT carried him. We went home after that. TT had to return the goods van back to Tampines, so we decided to all take a ride on the van and later take the MRT back. Our neighbour Sean and his dad Ryan decided to go for the excursion as well. Isaac sat on my lap at the front while the Cheryl, Sean and Ryan were at the back. Everybody had a bit of fun in the van. After returning the van, we took the MRT back from Tampines station since the kids wanted to take a ride on the train for some time now. These are pics of us in the van.

We planned to meet my sis and family at VivoCity for dinner, but they reached there first and said that the place was really crowded. So we changed our plans and met instead at SAFRA Mt Faber where we had dinner at the Japanese restaurant again (we had gone there last week for TT's birthday).

Sat, 14 Oct - An Electone for Cheryl

This evening, we arranged with my aunt to move my cousin's old electone organ to our place. TT borrowed a goods van from our brother-in-law in Tampines. In the evening, we drove to my aunt's place at Bt. Batok and transported the electone back to our place. It is still in good condition, and now I'm trying to figure out how to operate the buttons correctly. Now Cheryl will have a proper keyboard to practise on, though we'll need to always find some way to keep Isaac from interfering with her practice... This is a picture of Isaac tinkering at the electone.
Our place is already so crowded with so many things, and we still managed to squeeze this electone into one corner of the living/dining room. I will really need to throw some stuff out or move out to a bigger apartment! We don't know how long Cheryl will be able to keep up her interest with the keyboard. We're hoping she'd eventually progress to play the piano when she's older. Otherwise, I thought I might just pick up my electone playing again. Isaac is also showing some interest, so maybe the electone may still be of some use.

Mon, 9 Oct - Spinning Ferris Wheel art & craft

Cheryl and our neighbour Sean were bothering me to do some art and craft. Inspired by the recent trip to Genting Highlands, Sean suggested doing a Ferris wheel with a paper plate. With some improvisation, this was the end result...

We used coloured paper for the spokes of the wheel and individual carriages. The kids drew the people in each carriage and I helped them staple each carriage to the plate. I poked a straw through the centre of the plate so that the plate actually spins like a real ferris wheel, though at one point everyone will be upside down!

Here are some other crafts we did previously with paper plates and straws.

Snowman: (right) This one uses plates of 2 sizes. Stapled straws to the plate for the limbs and wrapped a strip of unwanted wrapping paper round the neck for the scarf.

Butterfly: Cut the paper plate so that it looks like wings. Used brown paper for the body and stapled a folded straw for the anteanae. Cheryl used a hole puncher to get all those colourful confetti which we pasted on the wings.
Realise I don't really use paints because I'm too lazy to clear and wash up... We just use markers or coloured paper.

Sun, 8 Oct - Haze is gone! At least for today...

Woke up to a gloriously clear day this morning...no haze in sight. Never thought I would feel so grateful for such unpolluted air! A visit to the park was definitely in order. Cheryl wanted Pasir Ris again, but TT & I wanted Botanic Gardens! Two votes against one! Cheryl's bad behaviour returned today, starting with a tantrum because she forgot to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on cable...*sigh*

Ignoring her whines, we made our way to the main lake of Botanic Gardens. We managed to feed one of the two swans there. The turtles and fish seem to be much more reserved than the ones at the Symphony lake. After that we went to the nearby field to play frisbee. This is me trying to imitate the sculpture.

Unfortunately, I was not strong enough, and Isaac was a wee bit too overgrown. TT had more success, but he's got no boobs like the sculpture... haha! Cheryl managed to collect some leaf specimens from the ground, and later at home I helped her to make this picture collage.

In the afternoon, we had some friends and their 2 kids over at our place for a swim.

Sat, 7 Oct - TT's Birthday

I'm making a note of today because it's one of those rare occasions when Cheryl seemed to be influnced by her good angel! In the morning, without much fuss, she had her breakfast and I took her for her chinese class.

After class, she asked me to help her make a birthday card for Daddy. Hmmm, I'm thinking..."Very last-minute leh ... I'd been reminding her all week to make a card." Anyway I helped her to write the words in glue and she sprinkled the glitter on it. I drew a cake and she coloured it and added balloons to the picture. These are pics of our handiwork...
Then I asked her to practise playing on her keyboard as she was going for her music lesson in the afternoon and had been too lazy to practise all week. Surprisingly, with me coaching her only a couple of times, she managed to play quite well, and of course I praised her profusely, because I was really quite pleased. During the lesson, I was glad she was able to play well too, and I think it boosted her morale that she was actually able to play a couple of songs properly all by herself. She was even attentive during class. Over the last few weeks, I was almost tempted to stop the classes because she seemed to be losing interest and was too lazy to practise. I hope she'll be encouraged by her own ability and be motivated to practise this week. We'll see...

As a reward, I bought her a bar of FruitTella and a box of ink stamps to play with. She only ate one sweet and said she would eat the rest some other time! *Shock!* Even my sister noticed her good behaviour!

At night, my sis and I brought TT out for a dinner treat at a Japanese restaurant at SAFRA Mt. Faber. We really stuffed our faces with meat and grilled shishamo (pregnant fish) and other food in the a la carte buffet. Too bad we all don't like raw fish, so I can't comment on those. But the food items we ordered were yummy. After dinner we rushed back to celebrate the TT's birthday with the usual cake and candle-blowing. The kids were eagerly waiting for this as you can see in this pic...

Sadly, Cheryl's good angel did not return the next day... sigh...

Fri, 6 Oct - A Hazy Mid-autumn Festival

My sis family came over to our place after dinner so that the kids could get together to play lanterns. The haze was really bad, I think PSI 150 for that night. The kids went downstairs to play with their lanterns but lost interest quickly because they wanted to play with sparklers. Isaac shook his lantern so vigourously the flame just went out, so that was that, I didn't bother to light it up anymore! So they spent most of the time playing sparklers and running around. But my niece developed some difficulty breathing after all the running in the haze and we decided to retreat back home. The air smelled really bad. We closed our windows and switched on the air-con. Then we ate mooncakes and pomelos and drank chinese tea (wah, so traditional! heh).

Tue, 3 Oct - Lantern exhibition at Chinese Garden

My company offered these tickets at 20% off, so I bought lots of tickets for family and friends. I bought weekday tickets because we're so crowd-phobic. I enjoyed the displays for the previous years and decided to go again this year. This year's theme was various landmarks around the world, like the Taj Mahal, Eiffel Tower and Leaning Tower of Pisa. Some displays were too gaudy for my liking. It was nice but I liked the previous years' themes better (like safari or sanrio characters). Anyway, important thing was that the kids enjoyed the themselves.
Click here to see more pictures...

Sun,1 Oct - Fun Day for Kids

Cheryl fell sick with fever on Thursday and Friday. Not sure why, maybe she caught something from Genting, or maybe from school. Fortunately, by Sunday she was well enough to suggest Pasir Ris Park, which we obliged, grateful that she had recovered. The both of them only played with the sand there, so actually we could have just gone to West Coast park which was much nearer.

Everyone had a good nap in the afternoon, and in the evening we went over to Seletar Country Club with my sis' family for a swim and dinner. This is Isaac in the pool and the kids having fun in the children's play/ball room (Oli is Snow White, Cheryl is Bozo the Clown!)

Sat-Mon, 23-25 Sept - Genting Highlands Trip

DAY 1
Having just gone to Genting only a few months back in May, I wasn't too anxious about the trip this time. This would be my third time there in two years. I reused the list I drew up the last time to pack the stuff for the trip, leaving or adding stuff based on past experience. Most troublesome is having to pack the kids' milk powder and remembering to bring a hot water flask.

It was my sister's idea to go to Genting to coincide with my niece Olivia's 5th birthday. We have three families going this time, our family, my sis' and my neighbour's. Going in a group is more fun, especially for the kids, but it was a little harder to coordinate and communicate. We set out about 9.30am after our breakfast. Right after going through Malaysian customs via the second link, we stopped briefly while Cheryl went over to Sean's car. As with the previous trip, Sean and her watched Bob the Builder dvds on the way there. We "synchronised" our walkie talkies to the same frequency. We and our neighbours had bought one set each for this trip. Previously we had used a friend's set and found it very useful for communication on the roads and up at Genting itself.

The trip was quite smooth except for a slight hiccup - my neighbour's car got stopped by the traffic police, apparently for speeding. So they made a "donation" of RM50 and was let off. Our first rest stop was at Ayer Keroh. The kids played at the playground there while the adults had some refreshments and lunch.I had packed some sandwiches. After that it was straight to Genting and Isaac slept most of the way there, so it was quite uneventful.

There was a slight jam at the exits of KL and Cheras, but it was mostly smooth. We reached Genting Skyway around 4pm.The plan was to have the kids and the wives take the cable car up and the guys drive the cars up to Genting Highlands. We would meet at the First World Hotel lobby. There was no queue at all and we boarded the cable car almost immediately after buying our tickets. Isaac has been looking forward to this cable car ride and has been talking about it since our last trip. As expected, the kids enjoyed the ride and view up to Genting Highlands, excited about being in the clouds and the stone animals along the way up. Compared to Singapore's cable car ride which costs $12 per adult, this one way trip of RM8 per head was really value for money.

Once up there,I put Isaac on the pram and we made our way to First World Hotel, which was quite a distance from the cable car station. Since it wasn't our first time, we had little trouble finding our way there, we just followed the signages. Our timing was perfect... by the time we reached the lobby, the guys were already checking in at the reception. We had booked our reservations via the internet. My neighbour got a World Club room while my sis and our family managed to book deluxe rooms because the world club rooms were booked up. We didn't mind even though it's much smaller because it costs half the price. Because we had different types of rooms, my neighbour was at Tower 1 while we were at the newer Tower 2. The deluxe rooms were indeed much smaller than the world club room we had the last time, but it was ok, since it was just nice for the 4 of us with the 2 super single beds.

After settling down, it was almost time for dinner. We had some hot noodles and rice. After that we walked around the area and the kids played some of the kiddy rides. The guys took the kids for the monorail ride while the ladies went shopping. My sis' kids were tired, so they retired to their room earlier. Later that night, after the kids were in bed, the guys went out to watch soccer and visit the casino.

DAY 2
Breakfast was complementary at the hotel's gigantic cafe, but it was really bad. Maybe because it had to cater to such large crowds.

After breakfast, we bought 1-Day Indoor/Outdoor passes for both kids and adults. Unfortunately the weather was rather wet and very chilly/cold, so we retreated to the Indoor theme park. We took the Ferris Wheel and Antique Car rides. The weather got a little better and so the kids went to the outdoor theme park to take the Flying Jumbo, Astro Fighter, Rodeo Rider and Teacup rides. Cheryl felt rather queasy after the teacup ride and had little appetite for lunch - porridge. After lunch, Isaac took a nap in his pram while the rest of us took the Venice Gondola and Ferris Wheel rides.

Later in the afternoon we went outdoors again and took rides on the Double Decker Carousel, Ferris Wheel(outdoor), and the Rodeo Rider (see picture) again. The smaller kids also enjoyed the Busy Bugs and Circus Carousel. Then we went indoors again to take the Flying Dragon ride (a slightly thrilling roller coaster ride), Ride de Paris (kiddie ride around the Eiffle tower), and the indoor Carousel (the best of all carousel rides). Then we had a hearty dinner at Pizza Hut. After that it was more rides for the kids - Rio Float, Reindeer Ride (both agonisingly slow rides traversing within the indoor mall) and more Carousel rides. By the time we went back to our rooms, Isaac was already asleep and so we didn't bother to change him to his pyjamas.

DAY 3
I packed up our stuff in the morning as we needed to check out by noon. We decided to skip the free breakfast at the cafe and just ate some tuna sandwiches my sister made. The kids were still keen on going for the theme park rides, so we bought 1-day indoor passes for them. So they took ride and after ride the whole morning: Ferris wheel, Tour de paris, Reindeer ride, Carousel. Unfortunately the fun had to end around noon and we proceeded to check out of our room and we went up to my neighbour's World Club room to have a quick lunch of instant cup noodles we had brought along. They had extended their check-out to one more hour. Thereafter, the guys dropped us off at the cable car station so that we could take the cable car down while they drove the cars down Genting. This is a pic of Isaac enjoying his cable car ride.

We spent a short time at the station below to buy stuff from this big shop selling all kinds of preserved fruits (kanas) and snacks. We left the place around 3pm. My sis and neighbour headed straight back to Singapore while we planned to stop by at Johor Bahru. We drove down to Seremban, where TT had his fix of nasi lemak and teh tarik. He said it was delicious. Along the way, Cheryl took a short nap while Isaac slept most of the way. Even then, I had a challenging time entertaining them with masking tape during their waking hours in the car! We reaced JB town around 7+ in the evening and headed for Holiday Plaza, the place notorious for all the horror stories that happened to other unlucky Singaporeans. We ate at McDonalds, and the kids had fun at the indoor playground there. We managed to get some *ahem* contraband items there before we headed home. By the time we reached home, it was almost 10pm, but the kids were still energetic!

As with previous trips, the kids proved to be good travellers. Isaac surprised me by staying belted in his car seat for long periods of time without too much of a fuss. Somehow he knew we were going on a long journey and behaved himself. It helped that he slept for about half of the journey both ways, so I was relieved of entertaining him during these times. I was also grateful they didn't get any sickness during the trip which would have made me very anxious.

All in all, as expected, the kids enjoyed themselves thoroughly with all the park rides and having each other to play with for 3 days. They just can't get enough of Genting. Isaac never fails to be entralled with the sights around him, especially while in the cable car. Three weeks on, he's still asking to "go cable car"...As for me, I'm already quite bored with the place but the cool air is a nice change. The trip was anyway for the kids, and I'm glad everybody had a good time and came back safe and sound!

If you need any advice on Genting - how to get there, temperature, what to do there, etc...drop me a line! I'm no expert, but I can tell you a thing or two!

Click here for more photos of the trip...

Sat, 16 Sept - Isaac turns Two!

It's Isaac's birthday today and we held a a party in the evening. Since most of the decorations were already up since Cheryl's birthday, only thing left was to blow and put up "boy-coloured" balloons (blue, silver etc.), and paste "ISAAC" on the wall. The food was be western, so I cooked spaggetti bolognaise. My sister contributed a yummy shepherd's pie. On the side we had cocktail sausages and other fried finger food and cut fruits. Again, I forgot to take photos of the food because we were all so busy.

The birthday boy didn't manage to sleep enough for his afternoon nap and had to take another one around dinner time. Fortunately he woke up in time for the candle-blowing and cake-cutting, though he appeared rather grouchy in the picture. For the cake we ordered ice cream cake from Swensen's again which had little train sugar figurines on top. Cheryl had the same cake two years ago and all the kids were clamouring over which figurine they wanted. The same thing happened again this time. It was a total madhouse when we brought in the cake box. Isaac managed to blow out the candles by himself.

The kids made such a racket, I'm sure the neighbours really hate us...:oP Other than that, things went quite smoothly.