Halloween Night

It's our 2nd visit to Woodlands Grove this year for Halloween. This place seems to be the traditional area where owners were seated by their houses and giving out treats to children or teenagers who were there for the night. Caden and Ethan each dressed up in their Batman and Spiderman costumes and were set to gather their share of treats from them.

We reached there at abt 715pm. There were already many people walking around the region and dressed up in their halloween suits. Some of them were really funny, I saw 2 boys in their teens in white tops and white pants with blood like fluid splashed all over their faces and costumes. Others were mainly in black capes with horrendous masks and some girls were in gothic like costumes which seems kinda of weird for this occasion. My personal favorite was a young gal in her wonder-woman suit and she even wore skinned leggings, her cape was filled with sequins and it really glammed up the whole look. Caden and Ethan were too shy to have a picture taken with this gal so we didn't get to capture her picture.

Caden and Ethan were generally very well-liked by the owners (I think predominantly they are Americans), as they are one of the younger ones spotted tonight. One of them actually asked to take a picture of them for his momento. Other aunties actually spoke to Caden for some time and when we asked him what has the auntie asked him, he said when he walked up to her and said happy halloween, she asked him what else does he need to say, he then continued with "trick or treat" (and he could articulate these words quite well), she then told him that, "that's the way to get your sweets!" ..we could see that the boys were very happy to get these treats tonight.

We called it a night at 810pm, when Caden started to say he wants to go home - I think he couldn't wait to get home to start eating on his sweets. But probably he's was already sweating and tired as we had a jog this afternoon before our early dinner. We probably may plan for another trip here again next year, depending which day will halloween fall on.

posing for the night



this is one of the first few houses they visited


subsequent ones where it was damn crowded


We waited outside the house and kept an eye on our lil ones


the most challenging spot to collect the sweets (these gals were seated on the top of their gate boundary)


some of the interesting home decors that we liked





counting their rewards

Ethan's Birthday

Ethan turns 3 today. I have taken off today in hope to bring Ethan out in the morning for his favorite bowling game. However, PaPa fell ill and had taken medical leave so we are home bound. I couldn't do any outdoor activities with Ethan due to the haze level so we decided to send him for his usual morning class at 1030am.

I have arranged for a dinner at Dining room at Sheraton Towers. The good part about this buffet dinner is that kids below 6 dines free. I wanted to book Melt and Aquamarine (both around marina area) and they had been fully booked till Sat (blame it on my last minute planning), despite the high charges. We thought of trying out Cafe Biz at Trader's but PaPa decided to opt for Dining room for it's waterfall feature. To be honest, since I am a local food lover, we realised that we have not had buffets together as a family for the last 8 years!!! Most of the time, we would dine at Ding Tai Fung (all time fav for the boys), Crystal Jade or other Dim Sum chinese restuarant, or Mac's, KFC for the kids. Or otherwise, we would settle for my fav chicken rice, bbq chicken wings, hokkien noodles, fish soup, prawn noodles, zi char or ngoh niang somewhere.

We reached the hotel around 650pm and were really hungry. Ethan and Caden were fairly behaved at first since they needed to fill their tummies. Caden surprised me by wanting to tag along when I told them that I'll help to get some food for them, and he brought along his child plate. Caden was adventurous to take some food from the sashimi counter, salad bar and some english bread (and his small little plate was already fully filled). PaPa got some ee-fu noodles for Ethan and he enjoyed it happily. I specially like the fried shrimp wantons but PaPa like the ee-fu noodles most. Generally, the food selection was quite wide and their desserts were good. Throughout the whole dinner, there's a live band singing soothing melodies at the drinking lounge which is located near the Dining Room. So the ambience was good. We probably come in for another round of dinner before Caden turns 6 next year (to take advantage of the child limit charges!).

Dinner scenes







Ethan's half-filled and started playing with chopsticks


Caden offered to take a shot for Mummy when he realised that I was snapping for everyone


Caden giving some brotherly kisses to DiDi for his birthday



and Ethan returning some


the waterfall feature and live band completes whole celebration

Ethan's and GongGong's birthday celebration

We organised a mini-gathering at my place for Ethan's and GongGong's birthday celebration. Coincidentally, GongGong's english birthday is 3 days after Ethan's and his lunar birthday falls 9 days before Ethan's. So for this year, we decided to officially combined their birthday celebrations into 1 single event. (Come to think of it, my ah lou shares the same birthday as his mum, so our family's birthdays are so closely tied to my in-laws!)

My mum-in-law did most of the hard work for this dinner, she came over to our place at abt 3pm and started to cook her yummy curry and fried bee hoon (using prawn stock). We only helped with Otah and Ikea chicken wings, fish balls, cake and soft drinks. My only efforts made on that day was to clear the table and oven the fishballs and otah! :D

Ethan with Grandma - our key chef for the night


Ethan was surprising happy on this night. I think he seems to be aware that we are celebrating his birthday. He smiled sweetly on every picture request, including the solo ones with Grandpa and Grandma (which it was really rare) and enjoyed his cousins company.

with his cousins during the dinner



A posed picture with his PaPa



The highlight of the night was the birthday cake which we ordered from Coffee Bean. It was a 3-D train with 3 cartridges which were filled with M&Ms, candies and cookies. The 5 children got so excited when the birthday cake was unveiled and jumped in delight. They started indicating which cartridge they wanted - luckily, it comes in one pink one so both Kimi and Emma got excited as well.





5 grandchildren with their grandpa and grandma


the 2 birthday stars


Caden helped with candles blowing and cake cutting




the kids asking for their specific share of the cake



ripping presents time



Generally, it was a good catch-up event, Uncle Colin just returned from their Aussie trip and had lotsa photos to share. The kids had a good time playing Caden's and Ethan's toys. Food wise, we don't have much to complain since the star was the curry and fried bee hoon plus my mil's ti poh (crispy fish skin).

This Friday is Ethan's actual birthday - we still have no plans as yet but I will try to get something done for him to keep it as part of his life memory.

Dear boys

It has been such a draining week for me.. the fact that I had so much work waiting patiently in line to be cleared and at the same time trying to spend some time with the boys. Eventually, I am guilty for not accomplishing the latter as I am literally swamped with work during this budget period.

Ethan is turning 3 years old soon. He has still not displayed a level of maturity and independence that Caden used to show in the past. I think naturally we tend to compare the boys, especially Ethan's progression with his elder brother's when he is at Ethan's age. We tried to remind ourselves that every child is unique and special in their own ways so it didn't really bother us too much for now. These few days, Ethan has been quite a pain - when I got back home from work at 10plus pm, he was still found wondering around the house, then pestering me to sleep together with him when I still need to find time to have a de-tox shower before my beauty sleep.. he has been very resistant to his father lately, probably he thinks PaPa always sided Caden (which is valid) since most of the times, Ethan is the unreasonable, possessive one. Hopefully end Nov comes around real soon and that's when I can set aside some quality time with my 2 dear boys + 1 old boy!!