Kallang Ice World

On one of the long weekends last month, we met up with Brian's family for a session of Ice-skating!

We reached Kallang Ice World early, I think it was just 30minutes after 9am. There were already a few kids on the rink but the crowd was still manageable.

The 4 boys were very excited. They helped each other to wear their skating boots and went off to the rink. As it was the first ice-skating experience for both Caden and Ethan, we decided to just hold onto the bar along the circumference for a start.

Little did we realise that the children's metal bar is actually made available for kids below 1.2m and there are only 20 pieces on loan (for free!). First come first serve. By the time we realise we needed 2 for our boys, the metal bars were all snapped up by the later crowd...

Subsequently we found a few metal bars 'abandoned' in the skating rink, so finally the boys got some help.. Ethan enjoyed it a lot more with the help of the metal bar.

Caden was too tall for the bar but nonetheless, it's easier with the support

Most of the times, PaPa helped by giving him the support.. Skating is not for me so I ended up watching them instead.. hiak hiak..



 

After getting the hang of the sport, Ethan decided to let go of the bar and skate on his own without help.. Children really can pick up things fast!

Just 20 minutes before the 2 hour block, he's skating like a pro...



All the boys had a good time, they even spoke about when they can make a second trip here to skate again.. fees are not cheap.. It cost us $17.50 per pax for 2 hours (adults) and $15 per child. So for a family of 4 like us, total bill came up to $74 (including 4 pairs of gloves).

So to cut costs, we need to bring our own socks and gloves next round!

Hanging out with one of their best friends - Cherson

Cherson used to be Caden's best friend in P3 until his parents transferred him out to Temasek Primary school due to the long distance and time spent in shuttling Cherson to and fro eversince they moved to Bedok.

Cherson misses his friends so much that his mum has to organise gathering once in a while to bring Kesler and Caden over to catch up and have fun..

Gathering 1 (at Cherson's house): Last year

Gathering 2: Cherson's birthday celebration in May last year (2015) when he invited the whole of P3-8 ex-class to this event!

Some captain's ball game was played

Although Ethan wasn't part of the class, he mingled in quite seamlessly

The 3 best friends - Kesler, Cherson and Caden

Caden with a very 'round' face :)

 

I suppose Cherson will still continue to make an effort to get his mum to organise an annual catch up with his ex-classmates so this friendship will definitely continue for at least the next few years!

Ethan's classmate birthday bash

Ethan was invited to his classmate's 6th birthday party at the Safra Toa payoh playarea. He had lotsa of fun on that afternoon!

one of the smallest built boy in the class

as usual, his lovely unique pose

8 year neighbour

Our 8-yr neighbour has decided to shift out of their home to stay with her mum given that it was too much of a strain on their end to ferry their girls to and fro from home to mum's place everyday. They got their place sold recently and had shifted out last week.

I took some pictures of the boys with En Qi since they had been keeping each other occupied on some weekends (communications through the gates most of the times). And her signature calling to Ethan was,"Friend...."

Wonder if the boys understand that they are not going to see her so often going forward

 

I wish them well.. it's not easy bringing up twins (En Qi's younger sisters) so hopefully they both have an easier time after the move. It's weird to know that you will have a new neighbour soon.. coupled with the fact that they are non-locals make me feel that I have to adapt to whatever culture that we will get to see.. actually, this is going to be my first time receiving new neighbours..

Aidan was warded

We were having our usual gathering on the 13th Aug at my place for a usual catch up MJ plus beyblade session for the boys. Aidan was already not well on that day and looked very tired. As our boys had to attend night classes at Berries thereafter, all of them took their afternoon nap by 3pm and nothing seemed to be amissed then.

To our surprise, Auntie Winnie text Mummy and told her the next day that Aidan had an acute asmatha attack on that Sat night and was sent to A&E at KK hospital. We went to visit him straight after Caden's piano lesson to see how he was. It was the boys first visit to the hospital as visitors for their friend.. (Caden has been admitted to KK hospital just before he turned 4 years for a 7-stitch job).

The boys were not too sure what to do when they see their friend laying on the bed and connected to a drip. Instead, they cast their eyes on a ipad that Elliot was playing together with Issac (their cousin) and quickly stayed close to that gadget instead of checking out how their friend was doing..

Aidan on oxygen mask and drip


the boys stayed close to Issac who's holding on to the ipad




It was only after a while that they decided to play with Aidan who was extremely breathless and bored sitting there on the bed. They shared with him the train toys which they got from their Mac's happy meals.

Fortunately, Aidan was discharged after 2 nights stay and had only to be on the inhaler for the next 2 weeks.

National Day long weekend

This National Day long weekend has been a good break for both of us. We started the weekend on Saturday with a late afternoon swim, although the intention was to do a cycle in the morning at East coast park but the weather wasn't too coorperative. Thankfully we realised that Starhub channel offered all channels during this period so the TV kept us fairly occupied.

The swimming pool at PaPa's old place was so crowded. We realised that there were alot of swim lessons conducted at 5pm time slots and Mummy didn't have a chance to do a good swim.

On Sunday, we arranged to meet up with their best best friends, Aidan and Elliot, for badminton game and dry swim. Caden, Ethan and Aidan ended up playing soccer at an open field near the badminton court while Elliot stayed on the sideline playing his mummy's iphone. The boys had a fun time roughing out on the field and learnt to head the ball with the help of Uncle Brian's uncle. Great grand uncle commented that Ethan has a good ball sense and he kicked much better than the other 2 older boys. The kids also ended up picking up fallen tree branches and breaking them up.. this is the first time I think I have seen my boys playing without much interference from us (cos we were usually protective)at the nature.









one of the rare moments that Elliot was on the field (back-facing)



After lunch, the boys hang out at Uncle Brian's place while the adults interact socially via dry swim. Ethan and Caden were elated each time the father won and congratulated him with lots of delight.


On the last day (national day), we stayed full day at home while Mummy catched up on her Gold Coast scrapbooking and Caden did his homework and spelling test preparation. Ethan also tried to do some of the 2yr old books which Mummy had bought for Caden long time back (but not utilised) and he did it quite well and managed to stay on his seat for almost an hour working on the activities. The night ended with pizza dine-in at home with Mummy's fav drumlets and the admiration of the National Day performance on TV.

When we were young, we would always looked forward to National day because this is usually the day when the family gathers and watch the national day parade together. And furthermore, it's always a school holiday the next day for all students which doubled up the holidays, similar to chinese new year, with much lesser stress (in terms of home visiting).

Gathering at Auntie Aries house

We have arranged to meet up at Aries place as we need to collect back the glass milk bottles which we have passed on to Claudia (cos she needs them back in preparation for her no 2). So the plan was to gather at Aries place since her house is flooded with toys (as she claimed) and we brought along clothes to shower the kids at night so that they can go straight to bed when we reach home later at night.

We reached Aries place near 6pm and our 2 boys were fairly reserved in the house. While rueben started to tempt our 2 boys with all his toys, Caden began to be more receptive and started playing with them. Ethan only started to get warmed up when found his favorite bakugan brawlers kept in a corner. Ethan got to play with them eventually and was contented at the small little corner till the older children joined in. Ethan hardly spoke throughout the own night and behaved like an angel.

After dinner, the kids all got to play with Wii, bubble guns, eat ice-cream and showered. Subsequently when it's time to leave for the night, Rueben asked Caden if he is keen to stay over at his place for the night (sleep there) and Caden then turned to his PaPa and asked if it's fine. We decided to let him stay over and arranged to pick him up the following morning.

this is their cosy bedroom.. Caden looked well settled.



According to Auntie Aries, Caden is fairly independent (as if) as he could brushed his own teeth and ate breakfast independently in the morning. After this outing, Caden just told us today if he can stay over at Rueben's house every Sat!!