大年初二: 9th February 2016

On second day of CNY, it's a tradition to visit my side of relatives.  However, this year we are missing my Aunt as she had passed on with cancer last July. My cousins can't celebrate this year so we don't have to make a house visit to their house.

We had our kueh lapis breakfast before going over to my parents' temple and the boys really love this cake so much..

80% gone in no time!

Somehow the temple was not too crowded on that day so it was rather peaceful.

After we are done with praying, we decided to pop by IKEA for a quick lunch as I needed to get some stuff from their kitchen departmart. Ethan asked to play in the indoor playground although his brother can't join in given his height now:

I think this boy has another 2 more years to enjoy the Indoor playground facility:

I felt so cold and sick all of a sudden, and it turned out that I had fever by the time I reached home.  And it also turned out that I had a continuous attack of the fever for the following 6 days which had also kept me out of school. What a virus! I hope this is my 1st and only illness for this year of Monkey!

大年初一 : 8th February 2016

It's the first day of Chinese New Year and the boys finally get to wear their long awaited soccer t-shirts which they had been looking forward to for the past weeks.

As part of the tradition, we had our usual vegetarian breakfast at the boys' Grandma's place. The food that we always look forward to is the sweet sauce Tou Foo which was rather appetising to start the day.

About 45 minutes later,  the lil boy is still eating his share of rice :O  

Aunt Peggy and family members were off to Penang to visit Uncle SK 's mum so we don't always have their company during this first day of CNY. Nonetheless, we had our reunion dinner last week before they set off to Penang:

After breakfast, we left mum's place after Ethan was done and proceed to pay respects to their Grandfather at the temple to 拜年.

As it was too late to hop over to my parents' temple, we decided to do a stopover at Waterway Point shopping mall to see see look look and get our light lunch..

Both Ethan and Caden had just recovered from a bad fever virus and cough so they didn't have much appetite the whole of last week.  When they saw Ding Tai Fung in Waterway Point,  their eyes lit up and we decided to have something light there. Overall the quality of food is good in this outlet so we will definitely come back here again next time!



My sis happened to be nearby our place in the afternoon so the cousins had BIG and crazy fun playing hide and seek in the house!

The boys were so tired by 7plus at night and they went into slumber land by 8pm!

SG50 Golden Jubilee weekend - 10th Aug 2015

We started our last day of this nationwide Golden Jubilee holidays in Sentosa.. it was hard for us to get out of bed after the day we spent at the Sports Hub.

Again, the crowds were massive. I heard from Brian and Winnie that the monorail station at Harbourfront station had long queues with hundreds of people waiting in line to board the monorail. We drove into the island and had to wait for a while to get into the carpark. This time round, the indoor carpark had reached its maximum capacity and we were ushered to park at a sandy patch outside beach station.

There was no tram service on Monday so we had to travel by foot to Siloso Beach where the Sands of Time exhibit was located... there were many people so it was a long, hot walk...

Highlights of the 100m long sculptures (text of each sculpture was adapted from Sentosa website) :

A Day to Remember Singaporeans in a Kopitiam watching the press conference where Mr Lee Kuan Yew announced Singapore’s separation from the Malaysian Federation

Lifelike creation

First National Day Parade 1966Singapore’s first National Day Parade on 9 August 1966 with the Armed Forces marching pass the former Supreme Court.

 

On a little street of SingaporeA typical street market in Singapore back in the 60s and 70s showcasing the multicultural aspects of Singapore with the local flavours of Chinese, Malay and Indian street food.

So Singapore Illustrating that time is precious and finite, this Centrepiece honours the past and celebrates the present. Backing the idea of time are the iconic quirks that make up the Singaporean DNA.

 

Our HeartlandsA typical scene of our heartlands with HDB flats, playground and MRT train in the background, to showcase where Singaporeans live and play homes.

 

 

 

Our HomeThis final scene depicts the metropolis that Singapore has become today out of mudflats. It shows modern Singapore with the skyline of the financial district, and a couple from the Pioneer Generation who have been instrumental to Singapore’s success story.

 

While waiting for Brian's family to reach, the boys played with sand and raced on the beach..

By the time they came, it started to drizzle....

Spot the man!

We spent some time in the pavilion to play the games stations. It wasn't as crowded as what we experienced in Sports Hub but we did spend some time queuing up to play the games..

 

 

Generally, the boys had fun.. and I think it was a good outing for them to soak in the sunshine and play with the sand. Whether do they appreciate the sand sculpture? hmm... I don't think so! hahahaa

SG50 Golden Jubilee weekend - 9th Aug 2015

 

We decided to spend our National Day at Singapore Sports Hub as there was a SG50 carnival event. Given the array of activities that we could cover (as shown below), we thought it's enough to keep us occupied for the whole afternoon till 8pm when we can catch the fireworks display.

 



We parked our car at Mountbatten and took the circle line train to Stadium. Haha, we thought it was going to be easy and smooth but we were shocked to see the massive crowds inside the train cabins and we had difficulties boarding the trains at Dakota. To my mind, I was thinking maybe these people are heading towards promenade station to watch the fireworks display at night.. so happened that there was a rather empty train that came along after a while (because it wasn't meant to allow passengers onto board), we went onto it, hoping that it will open at Stadium.

So we reached the Sports Hub and met up with Brian's family. There were many games stations outside the stadium but the more popular ones like MegaBounce and Kids Peddle boat had a queue which requires us to stand in line for 60 minutes. As the weather was hot and humid, we only got the boys to play those oldie games and they didn't seem to have much fun..

Throwing the top:

 

 

As we head towards Aquatic Centre, we saw this soccer game table and decided to have a go.. it was fun (but not free!)

 

 

The 4 boys spent a fair bit of time playing with the kick scooters that Brian and Winnie had brought along. Ethan suggested to the rest of the boys to do a 400m race and he managed to beat all others and reached the finishing line first!

 

 

Big victory!



totally exhausted

Second to reach, while Aidan followed closely behind

After dinner, we watched the fireworks display with many many others around but we felt that the view there in Sports hub was not spectacular. We once had an experience at Esplanade and were so close to the fireworks display and that was spectacular (with the accompanying sound effects). So we are not going to watch fireworks display in town again, unless we can get nearer to the parade venue.

 



picture taken by caden

I guessed the boys had fun playing with kick scooters and on the soccer table game but that was all...
we managed to beat the massive crowd and catch a train back to Dakota right before the end of the NDP show. Honestly, it is definitely more cosy and comfortable watching NDP at home with good food..  :)