An Animal Project!

The theme for this month is about animals. The school had planned for a parent-child bonding competition with this theme, and that's to create an animal using re-cycling materials. This is the 1st time Cieran and I will sit together on a 'project' I called it, and I want to create an impression for his learning. I browsed through the net and check what I can find for kids' craft under this theme...You will not be surprised by the numerous choices to go for. I remembered Ashley and I made a cat out of tissue box on a similar project by Carpe Diem when she was in N2 or so.. I decided to create a different one with Cieran. I selected lion, elephant and mouse for Cieran to choose. I reckon he will pick elephant as that's his favourite animal and indeed I was right. The next couple of days, I ponder on the materials that we will need for this craft and started to collect them, ready for weekends where we can work on the craft. Not too difficult as I already have 2 bottles of green tea drink in my fridge, I just need to clear them and use that for elephant's feet. As for the body, I had a large bottle as well... one that I used to water my plants, which can be used for this craft purposes. For a moment, I felt I am rather creative...haha! On Sat, after sending Ashley off for her YOG rehearsal, I started to plan for the craft project with Cieran. Cieran is extremely happy that he is going to make an elephant with him. Happily, he helped me with the preparations...like carrying the ikea chair outdoor, laying the newspaper over it. He is definitely excited over this project. As for mummy, I am busy walking in and out, up and down, getting all needed materials ready. It wasn't easy cutting the bottles into half... eventually I ended up using the fire at cooking stove to melt the plastic... which was a good idea... as the 2 feet came out well and evenly 'cut' with a nice shape. Next, we are busy fixing the shape of the elephant, adding his nose (using a book binder) and ears. As paint doesn't goes well on to a smooth surface, such as on the bottles, I have to think of a way to have the paints on. I could be a genius coming out an idea of wetting the newspapers, sticking them on, as a based for the entire elephant before I put the paints on. Next moment, Cieran was busying helping me with more newspaper, and tearing them in pieces, throwing them into the pail of water. He had fun tearing and mixing them with water, while I scope them up and stick them on the elephant. Indeed, this is a good opportunity to bond with Cieran which I hardly have such time. I looked at his happy face, and it filled me up with joy. I have missed such bonding time with him alone, doing something together. We spent more than an hour 'fixing' this elephant and eventually, the draft was ready for drying. Cieran was really happy and had many praises on his very own elephant. When Ashley was home from her rehearsal, Cieran immediately hold her hand, showing his sister his elephant. He did the same when Jeremy came home. "Nice? Nice elephant..... I made with mummy".... he would say. What a cute little boy. Sun, we beautify the elephant with grey paints. It looked more like an elephant with the rightful colour on. What was missing will be the eyes and tusks. What can we used for that purposes?.... buttons came into my mind. Yes! Buttons for the eyes... and... macaroni for the tusks. I went off to search for buttons.. and the kids are excited wanting to help. Unfortunately I am not a person that will keep stock of buttons and we only managed to locate 3 buttons of different colours and sizes. Haha! We could use them, but they made the elephant look a little silly with 1 eye big and the other small. Cieran doesn't mind, but I told him we could find more at Po Po house. As such, we decide to add the eyes and tusks on Mon, after checking on Po Po's stock. Haha... and we did! The elephant was complete... finally.. on Mon evening. See! Doesn't it look like an elephant??

Cieran is full of joy!

A Fun Day on Labour Day!

Weekends are always busy with either enrichment classes, or indulge in housework. Finally the day comes where I can spent the whole day with the children, without being a chauffeur driving kids to classes. A day that I long missed! I have everything all planned for this day-Labour Day! The day started with fun at the playground before our hearty breakfast at the coffee shop. Nothing fanciful, but the children are happy so far. Haha! Through the morning, I mentioned few times to Cieran that we will visit the hair salon to have his hair trimmed short. He seems to understand my explanation that mummy can't trimmed his hair well especially areas near to ear and only the hairdresser can do a better job than mummy. Not sure if he does understand what I said, but he didn't create any fuss over the topic. He knocks his head happily and says 'yes' when I mention hair cut later in the day (phew!). It has always been a challenge to have Cieran sit on the chair in the hair salon, and through the years, I am the one trimming his hair. (surprisingly, he sits quietly for me to trim his hair... but not others!) Anyway, since the salon doesn't open so early (as we are early birds), we have to head home 1st after breakfast. "What shall we do, Mummy?", Ashley asks me. Art & Craft I told her. Instantly, there are cheers among the air. The children gets excited over the activity I suggested. Haha! Soon, the table was set! Newspaper all over, with paints and craft works that I bought. The children are going to make their very own wind chime. Cieran may be a little young for this activity, but who cares! As long as he had fun... or rather, we had fun together. The 2 kids are busy painting their chime, while mummy watched them, and help them with the colours. Obviously Ashley's chimes looks more colorful with her knowledge of mix & match and dividing the colours separately. As for Cieran's one.... haha.... the colours turn dull of brownish green as he mixed them all together. We spent almost an hour in the colouring of wind chime before I have to rush the kids to the bathroom to get clean up. (they simply refused to let go of the colourings!) After washing up, we went for a bicycle ride to the hair salon. Ashley seems more anxious than Cieran. Along the walk to the salon, she goes on & on telling Cieran that he will look handsome after the hair cut....which is encouraging. Somehow Cieran has fear to the hair salon, and with Ashley's encouragements, I cross my fingers that all will goes well. I realised there are 2 hair salons around my house vicinity (for more than 3 years staying here... only now I noticed! :-p). I let Cieran choose which salon he prefers, and eventually we stepped into one. After much persuasions and hoax, he finally sat onto one of the chairs. (with Ashley sitting next to him). I thought this will be it.... who knows..... the moment the hairdresser came with the scissors, he started to cry for 'NO'! My god! I expected this, but thought all went well so far.... In the end, I had to sit with him, with no shield over us, and have the hair cut. This hair cut was certainly a challenging one for the hairdresser. With lots of hoax, cries, pacifying, trimming bit by bit.... eventually the job was done. I didnt take notice of the time how long it took, as I was already busy, rushing back home. You cant imagine how many hair/hairs I had on me!!! Of course, on Cieran as well. Along the way, he keeps pulling his shirt...and complaining itchy. Without further delay, shower is our next activity. Yes! We shower together.....haha... Can still afford to, when the kids are young. ;-) Not forgetting to praise Cieran being a good boy and he looks so handsome after the haircut.. I hope he will 'behaves' better in his next hair cut. Haha! Ashley was a great help is praising him. Next activity, we had water play. The children was trilled over the idea. It's been a long time since the last water play we had at home. After some digging at the storeroom, I found the pump for the pool. Children had been patient on mummy in setting this up. What to do? Mummy alone doing all the work ley.... but it's worth it when I see the smiles in them. While they are having fun, I am again busy snapping photos on them. For a moment, I wonder why I didn't snap photos during our playground fun and Art & Craft. As such, in this blog, I only have water play pics. (haiz!) Thank god that the weather had been good and the children gets to play outdoor. They had almost 2 hours water fun before I shower them again and head off for lunch. Kids favourite again!-KFC lunch. As expected, Cieran fell asleep soon after I started the car engine, but he didnt sleep for long. When I parked my car and carried him, he woke up. Also a blessing, so that he will not missed lunch. I am on my way queuing to place orders once I settled the kids to a table. I consider myself lucky that I always have peace of mind when I am alone with my kids-I can leave them to place orders while they will be waiting for me patiently by the table. The children welcome me when I am back to the table with... FOOD! Popcorn chicken and milk for Cieran, while Ashley had a chicken drumstick with some fries, an egg tart and a packet of milk. For myself, 2 pcs chicken, fries and drink. We had good junk food for lunch.... haha! After lunch, we head home for a story book before we take our naps. Well, the day had been well-spent, so putting the kids to bed wasn't a difficult task at all.

How my kids have grown!

While browsing through the photos that I have taken on my mobile, I realised how my kids have grown.

Time flies in a blink of an eye without you realizing it. How I wished I can hold back the time... not being afraid that I will aged, but I really enjoy and missed the cute little ones in needing me for anything and everything.

As they grow older, they will be more independant and will need me less and less... coz they will have their own wings and fly away from me in search of their own life.

I stared at this page... not knowing what else to add on. For once, I am speechless all of sudden in my blog.

I love my children, Ashley & Cieran!

An Easter Morning @ East Coast

It has been a stressful weeks for me. 2 trainings falling on the same month disrupted all my initial plans. The daily family routine was messed up, I have to travel more often to/fro office and off site, working long hours continuously for consecutive 2 weeks.... etc. Well, I can't complain much now... COZ IT's OVER!!! Haha.... Didn't wish to dig it out as it will require efforts to think back the unhappiness occurrence for the past weeks. Anyway, as the title of this clip says... it's about Easter outing. The Easter outing wasn't planned properly. I felt a little guilty especially when the kids are so excited on Thursday night, asking me repeatedly what they will be doing the next day. Especially Ashley who knew it was a holiday, and she kept throwing ideas to Cieran, what they could do. From zoo, to wild wild wet to Ikea playground... the 2 little ones (or rather just Ashley) had non-stopped ideas. Cieran was a 'follower' getting excited over Ashley's fantastic ideas. Haha! Well, actually I did give a thought in the afternoon and planned to buy some mini chocolate eggs, hot cross buns and have a educational discussion with them about what is Easter Day and why eggs, hot cross buns etc. I have printed and edited a clippings found in the Internet on Easter Day and planned to share with the kids. A pity that this didn't work out as I was upset over something, it slipped my mind in getting the purchases and I had left the clippings in the office. After putting the children to bed (which is a challenge, since they are so excited over next day's program), I gave a seriously thought what we could do on a Easter holiday. Still wanting to rope them into the festival (though I am not Christian), I decided that the children could do eggs painting. Glad that there are still eggs in the fridge (though not with white shells) but that will do the job. The morning was great with bright sunshine. Ashley was up early since she is all ready for a fund day. Immediately she asked where will we be doing for the day. Cieran love my idea of painting eggs and the 2 kids jumped with joy when I threw the idea to them. Instead of having eggs painting at home by the car pouch area, I decided to bring them outdoor by the sea since the weather looked great. The next hour was spent being busy at the kitchen. Rushing the kids to clean up and dressed up, boiling the eggs, cooking some snacks for breakfast to bring along, packing extra clothing and getting the paints and brushes...etc. This mummy was definitely working hard for a fun morning for the kids! (sigh! what to do? Daddy is always not around to help) Thanks to having a car to drive which was really handy, especially when I have so many stuffs to bring along. But, getting parking was expected to be tough on a holiday. Though we were not late (around 9am) arriving at East Coast, the parking along MacDonald and the next 2 car parks were already full. Well, I need to be near ro facilities, especially now that Cieran is on diaperless... near to toilet is a must! Waited a while in vain, I drove up further and finally got a lot. Not too near to shops where I can easily buy drinks, but a good one where there's a nearby toilet. Hehe! We found a table under a big tree that provides shade. Soon, we were settled down. Ashley was eager to paint, but I insisted that they should took their breakfast before any painting. Both children took some hot dogs and steam man tau. Not long, I laid the paints and brought out the eggs. Both children shouted with joy...haha! I enjoyed watching them get dirty with paints on their hands. As usual, mummy took photos while the children were at work. :-p Each of them got to 2 eggs to paint, while mummy got 1. Told them that we could have eggs hunting game when the paints dries up. The children shouted 'YEAH!'. After washing up, we went for a short walk by the beach. Cieran had been a real good boy. He is under toilet training, and this is the first time I had him outdoor diaperless. He had not wet his pants at all and has been telling me when he needs to go toilet. Three thumbs up for Cieran! The children didn't have enough with painting. After the walk, they continue their art & craft with colouring. Lucky I have made preparations! Ashley choose to put on colours on her pottery fish while Cieran got colouring book. He choose a fish picture as well. We stayed till noon when the weather starts to get hot. Our next stop will be Kallang MacDonald. Not that East Coast doesn't have one, but coz it will be very crowded...so I decided to bring them to Kallang branch instead. I ordered a happy meal for the children to share (coz we are all not hungry) and Ashley wished for the toy. On our way home, little Cieran slept in the car. Ashley was tired too... thus the 3 of us took a nap together! :-) We hadn't forgotten about the treasure hunt. When the kids woke up... they reminded me! I had fun hiding the eggs in the house and they had fun searching for them.

Our Easter day ended with lots of laughter.... together! ;-)

Steamboat @ Valerie's House

Be it chinese new year gathering or steamboat gathering... you named it, it shall be it! We have been talking about it, and the day (27Feb) finally comes. A list of food items was collected by Val earlier and I am sure all will have their food wish layed on the table...haha! As usual, I am the last to arrive. Not too late, merely about 5mins past 6.30pm. Immediately I set off to prepare the yu sheng I brought over. When it was ready, the mummies decided that the children should eat 1st before we messed up the table, so I left it aside and placed the salmon in the fridge for later use. Val's fridge was a 'classic'! She had so many magnets displayed all over on the exterior, and guess what? She had lots inside the interior as well! haha..!!! Nonetheless, there is a spot for salmon. The ladies are kinda-of busy inside the kitchen, while the 2 men (Laurence and Jeremy) and the children are all at the living 'entertaining' themselves. Well, the kids have the TV, toys... while the 2 daddies helped to keep an eye on them. Oh, there's Geneve's helper as well. After cooking and settling the kids, the adults gathered once again by the table for Yu Sheng. Ashton and Janelle joined us in the 'lao'! Geneve commented that this is the 1st time she tasted pear in the yu sheng, which was nice. Yes, the pear makes the Yu Sheng not so dry, and add natural sweetness to it. ;-) Thanks to Mum's recipe. After the Yu Sheng, mummies finally settled down and enjoy the steamboat. A causal and homely dinner together.... really an enjoyable evening affair. I love the cocktail that Brandon mixed specially for his guests (though he is physically not able to join us...) The kids love the corns in the soup. Laurence captured a funny video. I titled it -'The Kid's Corn Battle' (Joey and Janelle stealing corn pulps from Kai Teng's bowl) It was extremely interesting to see how the kids interact with one another. Guess who won the battle of the last corn-between Joey and Kai Teng?? The answer will be at the bottom of this page. Haha! After the hearty steamboat dinner, Val presented her desert for the evening... Whoooo... home-made carrot cake! She baked it on her own. We are all very full, but each took a small slice to try. I have to admit that I am not a carrot cake fan, I mean those western carrot cake... but this one was rather good. Just 1 short fall on my opinion, the icing is a little too sweet for me. it will be better w/o the icing sugar I think. But the rest of the gals enjoyed... so, it was my personal preference. Hehe! The night end with a performance by the children. It was a band concerto with 3 little dancers! Well, Kai Teng took a fancy on the trumpet and flute and he went marching in circles with the instruments. Ashton was dancing away with the music from the organ, while Janelle following his dancing steps. Joey on the other hand, also stood up and in her own dancing moves. It was really entertaining. What happened to my kids?? Ashley was the little devil that keeps the organ on/off with music while Cieran just sat on the little stool as if he is enjoying a band performance! How entertaining right? Oh! Cant missed out the youngest kid, Chloe. She is busying crawling and picking up the loose puzzles on the floor! Each child had 'something' to keep them busy, while the adults enjoy watching them.

It was a night full of laugther for the adults, and full of fun for the children. Thanks to Val... for her steamboat invitation!

MSO Division's Lo-Hei on Feb 26

This is the 1st time the division have a lo-hei. Camy has been surveying which restaurant's yu sheng is good.. there has been several suggestions. Eventually it was arranged at Grand Palace Chinese restaurant at Grand Park Cityhall Hotel. A reminder email was sent out on Feb 25, and requesting all to dress up in traditional costume for the event. It was a sporting affair that majority did dressed up for the lunch, even the non-chinese. Mike had volunteered to be the camera man for the event and he happily offer to take photos for us, early in the morning when the few are in the office. Mike looks good in his brown traditional costume, do does Alan who purposely went Chinatown to get one. Though Chinese would avoid black colour due to auspicious reason, but Alan does look good with the China collar cut. The few of us (ladies of course) took one with the pantry auntie who looks after our floor. Before we left for lunch at 11.50am, we cant helped to take again another photo flashing our different colours of costume. Majority of the employees walk over to Grand Park... the 3 'lazy' ones (Joan, Benny & I) are the only ones taking a bus there. Haha! Well, it was actually Joan who is terribly afraid of the sun, and I am merely accompanying her... and Benny joins us. as we took the bus, we are the no. 1 to arrive at Grand Palace, meeting Mike & Alan at the lobby. They are the 1st group who walked over. The lunch started of with Yu Sheng. We are amazed by the large red bowl of Yu Sheng when the waiter brings into the room. The bowl was with a nice, bright colour... with a subtiantial height! Definitely to match the long chopsticks displayed on the table for the 'lao'! The group was in great spirits as we all raised and did the 'lao yu sheng' together. Mentioning auspicious greetings was a must and we have that 'documented' with video and photos. A 9-course lunch awaits us after the yu sheng. First, the shark fins pumpkin soup... a rather unique combination. We all enjoyed this soup, except for Joan. Well, she tried the 'vegetarian' version and commented it tasted blend... she was not convinced that the soup was not tasty is because of the 'version' she had....nonetheless, we all agreed totally that the soup was delicious. I had the pleasure that I have 2 small bowls of the soup. Hehe! Followed by are wasabi prawn, fish, spring chicken, vegetables, noodles and 2 deserts. I like to specially mention about the deserts. We have 1 cold desert and 1 hot desert. The cold one was interesting as it gave a refreshing taste. It was apricot in sweet syrupp with sago, a combination of sweet and soury taste. This is the first time I try such desert. As for the hot desert, it's 'zing doi' known as sesame ball. I like this desert as the filing is not too sweet (coz it's not red bean filing). The biting sensation is good. The restaurant supervisor came to our table and specially highlighted that the sesame ball goes well after we tasted the apricot. This is the arrangements so that the cold desert will brings out the flavour of the sesame ball-not too sweet and will not provides a 'full' feeling after having it. I totally agree with her. The lunch does end very well with the sesame ball. We all have a hearty meal! Before a walk back to the office, we took our last pic by the restaurant entrance...as the girls cant get over with the beautiful decorations. Haha! Cheeze!!!