My 'me time'

I am fully appreciative of my 'me time'. It's usually the time period when the boys are finally asleep and ah Lou happened to be in bed early as well. For the last 4 days, I got some breather from my boys' mischief as ah Lou had taken some leave this week. It was rather timely as I was already on the verge of tearing my hair off every day with their bickering!

During my 'me time' , I get to munch on my titbits, drink some cold beverage and play some candy crush before I get onto bed. Sometimes I like to catch up on financial news to keep myself updated still (to aid us in better financial planning). I guess this 'me time' also helps me to consolidate my emotions and reflect on areas that I should do better as a mummy and be more mentally strong. Honestly, on an average week, my 'me-time' only lasted at most 2 to 3 hours per week! Although short, it's definitely important to have a 'me time' to go a longer way!

Secret Police Bunker - 26th November 2015

Aunt Peggy organised a trip to bring all the cousins (almost all, minus Samuel) to the Secret Police Bunker near Chinatown (Pearl's Hill Terrace) late November.  It was a rare trip together, especially with Emma Jie Jie.

 

I didn't join them as it was my teaching day but I heard all the kids had a lot of fun hanging out together, be it the tour, or just playing some simple games..

Some pictures which were shared:

Funny faces shot

With the Old Police Car

I think this is command centre?

Caden told me that playing with this old dial phone was fun!

Resting time..

 



The boys told me that they had a great time! So I guess this is worth a visit!

E-mail fcor@mha.gov.sg or call 9893-5140 to book the tour which is ongoing till Jan 31 2016. Tours will be conducted from Tuesdays to Sundays, excluding public holidays, at 10am, 10.45am, 11.30am, 2pm, 2.45pm and 3.30pm.

8th December - Trip to Zoo and River Safari

We had planned a trip to the Zoo and River safari on the 8th of December, mid-way into their school holidays.

We reached the Mandai at about 930am and decided to start with the Zoo first (River Safari opens at 10am officially). Given that it has been raining in the mid afternoons for the past week, I have planned to finish covering the Zoo before 1pm (lunch inclusive) and move on to River Safari (hoping to finish before 3pm).

It has been a while since we last came (I think at least 4 years back), but the boys seemed to remember most parts of the Zoo and their shows too (there wasn't much changes to the content of the shows after all these years!). We saw many breeds of the orang utans and chimpanzees, which kept us quite amused.

(I can't remember what animal is this.. )

These lions were awake (most of the times, they were sleeping during the day!)


The baby giraffe (centre) was born in August 2015 (so it's about 4 months old now) and he was born 1.9m!



 

At the Polar bear enclosure, Frozen Tundra (this is a new exhibit area, but we can't see the Polar...). This place is very cold, and they have also built an igloo to let you experience that it's actually warm and cosy if you are in the igloo.

Only children can fit in the igloo. Both boys are enjoying their time in this igloo.

Koalas in the Australian Outback section

We managed to catch the following shows:
1) Rainforest fights back
2) Splash Safari
and had our lunch at Ah Meng restaurant. Thankfully we made it back to the entrance of Zoo just before the heavy downpour. Ethan happily went to pick up one soft toy to replace his tiger. By this time, we (adults) were rather exhausted from the heat and the walking..

River Safari:
It was much cooler after the rain and the tour in this park was more pleasant. Given that most of the pathways are sheltered, we were rather happy with the layout and enjoyed the walk better. The boys saw the River Quest boat ride and asked to take them to experience the other parts of the park. This boat ride is definitely the highlight of the park besides Jia Jia and Kai Kai I must say (don't take the cruise)

 

Possibly the rain was just gone, we couldn't see Brazilian Tapir and  Giant Anteater. Some animals we saw during the River Quest ride

At the Touch Pool:

There was starfish, stingray and crabs for the children to touch..

Some big alligator..

At Giant Panda Forest where Jia Jia and Kai Kai are (this place is really very very cold!):

 

Kai Kai

Jia Jia

The red panda

The River Safari reminds me of SEA Aquarium, given that there are so many sea creatures for viewing and there was a big indoor aquarium as well (so many parts of this theme park were air-conditioned). Generally I think it's worth making a visit, but this park also reminds me of Hong Kong's Ocean Park. Least we kept them happy and fully occupied with this day trip

8th Asean Para Games and Carnival

Last sunday, we made a last minute call to drop by Singapore Sports hub to watch some matches of the Para Games. By the time we reached there, it was near 5pm and the Track and Field segment was nearing its end. Hence, we hopped over to the OCBC Aquatic Centre to catch the table tennis matches first, thereafter the Badminton matches:

The turnout was not as high as what we have seen during the SEA games in June, but good enough to cheer the athletes on. These players demonstrated sheer determination to put up a good fight with each other and their sports spirit was indeed commendable.

The 8th Asean Para Games organiser has also put up some booths in their Carnival and the boys wanted to try out a few stations to have a feel of how it is like to play sports in the shoes of the disabled athletes:

Caden found it very strenuous to pull himself up the slope with the wheelchair

They said straight paths are much easier:

They had to wear a blindfold to kick the ball into the target (mission impossible since they don't even know where is the target)

We had to wait 1 hour for this segment! This is a simulation of how the blind people carry out their day-to-day activities with the help of a walking stick and surrounding sounds:

 

 

They were asked to feel the objects in these boxes and identify what they were

Then they had to arrange the cutlery into the correct positions and also pour out a cup of water from the flask

Lastly, they had to roll the bowling ball to hit the pins (another mission impossible task!)

Both of them enjoyed the experience they had in this last station and realised that it's really not easy to be doing stuff without sight. I hope this experience helps them to be more compassionate towards the unfortunate ones and also be appreciative with what they have in life.

PaPa's 4x Birthday Celebration!

Another overdue post! We celebrated daddy's birthday in November and I decided to treat him Shabu Shabu buffet dinner on Friday to curb his craving..

Ethan was busy helping to put in the beef slices and also purposely using the container to hide his face..

Ethan still busy..

We decided to skip him.. hahaha

So hard to get Ethan to take a picture with us.. unless I make funny faces like him!

Managed to snap a shot of him in action

 



 

This year, we didn't get a cake for PaPa too because all of us were too full after the buffet dinner. We continued PaPa's birthday celebration with a Dim Sum lunch at Crystal Jade on Sunday (actually to curb mummy's craving!)

 



 

This lunch is better compared to Shabu Shabu.. maybe I am really not a meat person!