Who does B take after?

A typical day at B's music class would end with the teacher asking me to get the instrument for B to practice... after I've gotten the instrument, she'll want me to ensure B practice at least 10 mins every day at home. Today was no difference except she commented that B pick up quickly during class despite her not practicing at home, she had the potential.

The music teacher also said that at her age, B's notation was perfect and that she must have been very clever. She enquired if she was doing well in school to which I replied okay.

She further questioned if her intelligence was from her parents. I was quite taken aback to receive such a question from the teacher but humbly said it could be her daddy and left to chase after B who had left the classroom already.

Back home, I told DC what happened and we both fought for the credit (LOL!), both claimed that B takes after ourselves! Well, although DC achieved the top few percent of his cohort, I was quite a model and promising student back then at school too!

Never mind who won the fight in the end, it was a proud moment for us!

Photo of her taken on that day, on the way to her music class. :)


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A Tembusa Tree Fell in Botanic Gardens

A tembusu tree toppled in the Botanic Gardens yesterday afternoon and left 1woman dead and 4 injured including the deceased twin 1yo children!

We also discovered that very night that another tree also toppled at our estate, and blocked our way!

A remembered hearing the sound of the tree toppling, so did DC during nap time... while B and me were sound asleep! He was worried about the tree falling again and couldn't sleep at night... and we allowed him to sleep with us that night, much to his relief! :)

The fallen tree:

The next morning (today), we saw some men clearing the tree. Boy, that was sure a lot of work and that tree wasn't even the size of the fallen tree at the Botanic Gardens!

Knowing that the tree was removed, A slept well that night. :)

RIP Tree!

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A Happy Day

Today, after their enrichment school, we took the kids to somewhere we hadn't gone in a while.

The chewzies were questioning if they were going to their Sunday school when they realized that they were going in the direction of MBS.

"Yes, we are going to MBS."
"But, no there is no school today!"

That made their day, mine too! :D

And so, we all went to LV Island Maison in MBS. A place we used to hang out before the kids were born, ok to be exact before B was born.

It was heaven to them, they were having joy and fun there, as if they were at home! Chasing each other around, running around, exploring every corner and taking pictures everywhere (haha this which I was guilty of).

We were glad to see a familiar face there, still as friendly, and we took pictures with her. :)

However, we were disappointed to know that the belts that both of us wanted were either sold out (just a day before!!!) or not in the correct sizes (we requested to have it transferred from another shop but to find on the day after that that was in bad condition!!!).

Nevertheless it's still good to be back. The island was really a nice place to laze around on a sunday afternoon.

Next, we went to a jap café in Suntec and tried their newly introduced brunch sets. Their coffee was still as aromatic, just what we need to handle our energetic kids!

After we had our fill, we headed to Sentosa to do some collection at the RWS Invites counter. And, B thought that she was going to check in a hotel today! haha...

Much to the kids disappointment, we went back home after the collection.

Happy day still, for the kids and me! :D


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New Spectacles Collected

DC did a pair of spectacles recently and suggested I did a pair too at the same shop when he went back to adjust his new spectacles. I did just that and only managed to collect it tonight. It's been almost a month, I almost couldn't find my receipt... (I had DC rolling his eyes at me!)

At home, I showed it to the kids and was amused by their reactions towards me wearing spectacles! I wanted to tell them to take good care of their eyes... otherwise they'll end up like me. Haha, THEY, especially A, looked at my nerd look and rolled on the bed laughing! LOL!

And, it (the laughing) continued over the next few days!

[Updated: For the next few days, A constantly requested for me to wear the new specs and without forgetting to laugh at me heartily! Thanks to him, my new specs was not a white elephant! :P]


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Cousin's ROM Lunch

A joyous occasion! :)

One of DC's little cousins, one whom I had known since he was only 10 years old, got married today!

B wanted to be prettier than the bride. Look what she wore:

I told her that she might or might not be the prettiest but definitely the shiniest haha... cos she was wearing a glittery silver dress, glittery headband and glittery shoes! I joined in the fun too! :P

The couple and us:

The ceremony was held at a café and we had our lunch there. Love the relaxed atmosphere and the rainbow cushions! B had her ice-cream fill there too! Big cuppa vanilla!

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Kids First Trip to Pulau Ubin

We hesitated to take the kids there initially but glad that we made it there!

It was the kids' first outing with their cousins, ours too! In fact, we didn't expect such a big group (24 of us including 8 kids)! We gathered at Changi for breakfast at the hawker centre before heading there in batches by boat...

 A & B enjoyed the trip very much! No mosquito bites at all, probably because it was a public holiday, there were a lot of people there.

 

A liked the van ride (A sat in front with DC) while B liked the boat ride. I couldn't imagine how we could squeeze ourselves in a van to and fro Chek Jawa, all 24 of us, ha! the boat ride was much more comfortable with 12 in a boat.

A wild boar greeted us the moment we got down from the van!

At Chek Jawa, A walked on his own and B mostly carried by me on the boardwalk and we took lots of pictures... of the swamp, mangroves, boardwalk and us together! :)

Memories flowed back when we were at the House at Chek Jawa! DC and I visited the place in 2007 and hadn't returned since! How wonderful to return with the kids now. :)
 

After that, we went back to Changi and settled our hungry stomachs at the Ubin First Stop Restaurant. The food there was surprisingly good!

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CNY Ang Pows 2016

There were 2 versions this year, the rectangular ones were for the adults, the monkey ones were for the kids!



Extending last year's idea, I wanted the kids to do some artwork on this year's ang pows to make them more personalized and original. There were some hiccups along the way e.g. yellow printer ink was running out causing the colour of the ang pow to be off, the flower plum cutter that I bought could not cut through felt cloth (wanted the kids to stick different shades of pink flowers on the ang pows) and the idea had to be abandoned, the gold paint did not settle well on the red packets, etc. Due to time constraints, this was what we came up or rather, made do with for this year, the year of the Monkey.

As for the monkey-faced red packets, I stumbled upon a YouTube videos on origami monkey and thought it would be fun to have origami monkey as ang pows. I took me a while to search for a folding method that could allow me to encase and slot money in. I then did a template with folding and cutting lines and filled in the colors I wanted. I created 2 versions of it - girl monkey with ribbon and boy without. I gave A the boy monkey ang pow and B the girl monkey ang pow as 压岁钱 on the eve of CNY! They both love it and the ang pows are still under their pillows! :)

The process was fun and B had been a great help this time round! :)


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Movie Time with Family

We figured out a pretty good way to spend family time on a weekend and at the same time immersed ourselves in movies we like with the people we love!

And so, off we went to the City Link Mall - DC watched Ip Man 3 with his dad, while I watched The Good Dinosaur with my kiddos! :)

It was a pity the kiddos still could not appreciate movies yet - A kept asking where his daddy and grandpa were, subsequently to the toilet and B was afraid of the dinosaurs and sound effects... but, they did have a big deal of fun after the show! I took them on a free trolley car ride and then we went to have some fun activities at the stations set up in City Link Mall, thanks to 2 Samaritans who handed us free passes that they didn't need (passes come with spending at the mall)!

Ip Man 3

CAST
Donnie Yen, Max Zhang Jin, Lynn Hung, Patrick Tam, Bryan Leung, Karena Ng, Kent Cheng, Louis Cheng, Danny Chan, Babyjohn Choi, Mike Tyson

DIRECTOR
Wilson Yip

GENRE
Action/ Drama

RELEASE
24-12-2015

RUNNING TIME
105 minutes

SYNOPSIS
Ip Man (Donnie Yen) takes on disciple, Bruce Lee, and engage in frequent sparring sessions to hone his skill after seeing great potential. Meanwhile, a well-known property developer-cum-street fighter played by American boxer Mike Tyson, challenges Ip Man in an incredible showdown of Wing Chun kung fu versus heavyweight boxing. In a never-seen-before union of Ip Man, Bruce Lee (revived by computer graphics) and Mike Tyson, the past and the present unite as a tribute to two of China’s greatest fighters.

The Good Dinosaur
CAST
Jeffrey Wright, Frances McDormand, Maleah Nipay-Padilla

DIRECTOR
Peter Sohn

GENRE
Animation

RELEASE
26-11-2015

RUNNING TIME
101 minutes

SYNOPSIS
"The Good Dinosaur" asks the question: What if the asteroid that forever changed life on Earth missed the planet completely and giant dinosaurs never became extinct? Pixar Animation Studios takes you on an epic journey into the world of dinosaurs where an Apatosaurus named Arlo makes an unlikely human friend. While traveling through a harsh and mysterious landscape, Arlo learns the power of confronting his fears and discovers what he is truly capable of.








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A on a Hunt

I took A to library this evening (B was having her lesson and DC was doing his grocery shopping).

While I was searching for books to borrow, A came to me and asked me to help him find "15".

"15? What 15?"
"Shelf 15!"
"Oh book shelf No. 15!"
"Yes! Help me find!"

He couldn't find the library book shelf number "15" and pleaded me to look for it with him.

And so, A and I went on a hunt for the number "15" in the library.

Strangely, even I could not find it... There were 1, 2, 3...14 and there were 16, 17, ...22 but there was no 15!

After a few rounds of walking, we sought the librarian's help to locate the "missing" shelf.

"Ask and you shall be granted" That's what I told him, hehe...

Alas! The librarian couldn't find it too! But, she had her means...she went to the lift lobby, checked the directory and managed to lead us to the mystery shelf. :)

"找到了!" A exclaimed excitedly.

That ended our mini hunting game at the library... So it was a magazine rack!

Here's A and his 15:)

In the Eyes of A

 

I took this picture of A this morning on the way to the doctor's. (He was having cough on every other day for quite a while during this Haze period.)

What a handsome boy he looked in his mummy's eyes...

And strangely, in this same picture, you can see how he saw his Mummy and Daddy, in his eyes!

What can you see in the eyes of A?

I saw Mummy the photo-taking fanatic who always try to capture his every moment in life and Daddy the back-facing driver of his life! :)

After this picture, he requested for more pictures to be taken - of his new shoes, his hands and of his "Mercedes" driving wheels! Cool boy he was, in his sunglasses!

 

Hi, my Name is Elsa Anna

"My Name is R. Elsa Anna C.!"

"Mummy, can you help me tie Elsa (or Anna) hair?"

"I want a long Elsa dress, Mummy!"

"Can I have a Elsa birthday party, Mummy?"

Rapunzel and Beauty were of the past and now comes Elsa! My 3yo girl was so in love with the characters of the popular movie Frozen that she now owned quite a number of its merchandise! Bag, long gown, crown, yellow blouse, doll, lego set...

To add to her collection, my sis brought her a new dress, a pink blouse and a white skirt with sparkles from Bossini. We got it on Fri and she wore them right away on the next opportunity on Sun!

Here's my Elsa shopping for more "Elsa" clothes on Sun at H&M:

I was quite fascinated by the vast collection the store got, they even had the jackets and boots for the winter! There, we bought her a new gown, a skirt, a leggings and a pack of Frozen socks... There were also the cute little shoes, blouses, PJs that the girly me also adored, I'll probably pay the store another visit to grab them all for her, hehe...

Today, she added to her collection an Elsa necklace which the nanny's daughter bought for her. Needless to say, she's thrilled over it!

[Updated on 23 Oct 2015] Another pink Frozen blouse from nanny! She wore it to her ballet lesson!

爸爸去哪儿

Recently I don't have the energy and time to watch long dramas... I switched to the more entertaining variety shows instead e.g Running Man, 我是歌手， 一路上有你， 爸爸去哪儿. ..

Really love this TV programme 爸爸去哪儿!

It features how the groups of 5 celebrity daddies and their child(ren) overcome a series of challenges in 3D2N trips to 6-7 different states of china. At the end of each tasks, both parents and children grew their bonds and understanding towards one another. I think I could not be able to survive some of the harsh conditions e.g. staying in rural village without water supply, cooking with limited ingredients, etc. I'm better off at home or on my staycations. :P

I always bug DC to watch it, so he could learn from the other daddies and also see for himself how different daddies have their similar challenges with their child. I also showed some of the episodes to A and B to teach them to share and not to fight. 

I've completed Season 1 and Season 2. Season 3 is showing this month (next week!), can't wait!

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Minions

MINIONS

CAST: Pierre Coffin , Sandra Bullock

DIRECTOR: Kyle Balda, Pierre Coffin
LANGUAGE: English
RATING: PG
RUNTIME: 91 mins
OPENING: 18 Jun 2015
GENRE: Animation

SYNOPSIS
Starting as single-celled yellow organisms, Minions evolve through the ages, perpetually serving the most despicable of masters. Continuously unsuccessful at keeping these masters—from T. rex to Napoleon—the Minions find themselves without someone to serve and fall into a deep depression. But one Minion named Kevin has a plan, and he—alongside teenage rebel Stuart and lovable little Bob—ventures out into the world to find a new evil boss for his brethren to follow. The trio embarks upon a thrilling journey that ultimately leads them to their next potential master, Scarlet Overkill (Academy Award®winner Sandra Bullock), the world’s first-ever female super-villain. They travel from frigid Antarctica to 1960s New York City, ending in mod London, where they must face their biggest challenge to date: saving all of Minionkind...from annihilation.





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Our first programme for Father's day today was to bring the kids to watch Minions with their Yiyi.

A was expecting it and kept asking to watch the movie the whole morning (the show was at 1050am)!

The kiddos couldn't really sit still towards the end but they did a good job watching it till the end (unlike the previous movie!). :)

Was the movie good? I would say it's good for kids! :) At least my 2 kids enjoyed them.

CNY Ang Pows 2015

 The 2015 handmade limited edition CNY ang pows are out! :)

This year, I had the fun experimenting with different PS techniques e.g. changing the colour of A's Polo shirt from grey to red, creating texture/ patterns for the background, embossing words, etc...

I did not want my ang pows to look too commercial, so this year, I involved my precious A and B in the making too! I got them to do finger painting on the ang pows... I guess it was not difficult to guess which paint colour was done by who. :)

I then did a few finishing touches on the ang pows such as outlining the "yellow" ingots, branching the "pink" flowers, adding smaller darker pink sparkling flowers and making the gold accessories that B had sparkle using gold pens.

For a change, I actually wanted to devise a couplet [金玉洋洋到、满堂喜气来] but DC preferred the old school greetings. So, I stick to the usual family greeting that I usually used for the ang pows.

Anyway, I think the results was good! The thought that each ang pow was unique and done by the little hands made me warm! :) Good job, kiddos!

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Merry X'mas 2014!

Just did quick collages of A and B to send greetings this joyful festive season! :)

Merry X'mas 2014 & Happy New Year 2015 to all! 

Boo!

Happy Halloween 2014!

It was so coincidental that A's room light was faulty since a few days ago... good to create some "spookiness" in darkness!

I switched on the night lights and placed the kiddos close to the lights. I took the chance to introduce Halloween to them, a holiday widely celebrated in the west... we also had treats, but no tricks...

They had fun with the lights. Kids are kids... no matter how you get them to pose, they will look cute, innocent and photogenic. More angels than devils I say! :)

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My Happy Pair

See how happy the kiddos are!

We brought them to the new place. They inspected their room and gave their approvals on the wall colors. The colors were chosen by themselves, boy - blue/green, girl - yellow/pink. :)

After seeing their room, now they were so excited about moving that they started collecting and asking which were the items to move to the new place!  


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Amusing Words From My Darlings

You know you'll always get the most unimaginable words out of kids' mouths! I got some today...

A, who had a sore throat, was coughing and had been refusing his milk for days asked me for chips! He said, "I want chip chips!".

B, who had just recovered from her sore throat, was snacking too much, had been putting on some weight lately asked me for snacks! She said, "I want to be chubby"!

Didn't know whether I should cry or laugh!

Well, I gave in to them... but I recorded what they said, in case they blamed me later on. :P


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Great Getaway at Rasa Sentosa

We had a great weekend at Sentosa as usual!

It was a free stay again. This time, we brought the grandparents along.

The staycation was originally planned to be on Mother's day weekend, and we postponed it to a week later. Instead of Mother's day celebration, it became early anniversary celebration. :)

Ever since we told A about the staycation, for the whole of last week, he asked for it the first thing he woke up every morning! He had to count down from "3 more days" to "2 more days" to "1 more day" to the actual day - it was a long wait for him!

We requested for a connecting room with the grandparents. Both A and B happily roamed freely into the grandparents room each time the door was opened. We took our usual family photo on the bed, this time we had the help of my in-laws, how great!

See them jumping up the bed, how happy!

The weather was good, needless to think more, it was swimming time with the kids. The water was warm (i like!).

Then we went for some yummy food at Casserole. The last time we went, A and B enjoyed the food very much - to the extent that they were licking up the soup pot! This time, the food didn't disappoint either.  B drank the soup and finished up the vinegar olive oil bread dip. A had great time eating satay and asked for chips! He still remembered the chips there?! The most amazing thing was that the waitress remembered him after one year!

The next day, we woke up late, had buffet, packed up and then checked out.

It was a relaxing and peaceful trip. It's a pity that A was having slight cough, but he definitely enjoyed it better than anyone of us, I'm sure! For after the staycation, he kept asking to go back again!


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Lovey Balloons

My lovely A and B, posing with lovely balloons. What a lovely picture! :)

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