Wednesday - Ikea and Orchard night out

We planned a trip to Ikea tampines today as we needed to order the cooker hob to replace our existing one (all things in the house started to break down after 7 years, so far we had recently replaced washing machine, TV, laptop in the last 5 months). We brought Kimi along as she likes to tag along with us during this week when we are on leave.

We decided to let the kids play at the Ikea smallworld (some fun land where parents deposit their children while they do their shopping in peace). Since Ethan is still quite small and it's the first time that he's playing without any adult supervision by his side, PaPa glued his eyes on the younger one the moment he was admitted to the fun land (while Mummy goes shop around the store). The children had a great time playing in the place and were perspiring after abt 40mins when PaPa decided that time is up.

While waiting for their turn - it was quite a long wait considering it's a weekday - it's amazing how many parents are also on leave at the same time!






Ethan started to play iphone again as his comfort pastime-r


We went to orchard for a dinner and stroll after PaPa's dental appt at Paragon. This year's xmas theme is blue and the ambience's looks fairly romantic. But to be honest, after going through so many years on orchard xmas lighting, somehow, I don't see any spectacular displays on shopping malls for me to take a picture as memento.

Dinner at Din Tai Fung - Caden's fav place - he's always happy whenever we decided to eat our meals there



I never had a proper picture with Ethan, he's always cheeky with funny expressions whenever we posed for a pic

refusing to eat after half a bowl of rice, appetite's has been failing lately



We had hokkaido ice-cream at ngee ann city after our dinner. The texture is kinda of special - fairly soft and not too sweet (which makes this ice-cream feels very much less sinful!) but expensive! Worth the try though. Caden and Ethan were given the 2 spoons to take control and they are generous and thoughtful throughout the whole session to share the ice-cream with us (by feeding us with their spoons).





Caden was completely knocked out halfway through and PaPa had to carry him back from taka to wisma carpark - given his weight now, it has been a real challenge to complete this task for the night!

Monday - Trip to Sentosa!

It has been quite some time since we hit to the beach and on our first day of holidays, we went to sentosa for some sand building!





Ethan as usual, was so afraid of the water currents and wanted to stay far away from the coastline. Caden was more adventurous and asked his PaPa to bring him to get water and at the same time jumped around when the current comes close.

The weather turned out to be another disappointment when it started drizzling after we were out at the beach for an hour. We quickly head towards the shelter nearby and the boys started to play with the water spouts with other children who are seeking the shelter too.




As the rain got heavier, we decided to call it a day and get the boys changed. After their shower, the rain became heavier and we had to hide in the shelter just outside the toilet with some blangladesh workers. We waited for some time for the rain to be less heavy (but it was still fairly heavy) and braved through the storm to get to the carpark - we only had one small brolly and 2 raincoats for the boys (thankfully we packed in the raincoats seconds before we leave home).


We had lunch at Sentosa golf club and decided to take a stroll around resorts world area. I concluded that it was fairly populated with lots of tourists (mostly with the hidden agenda) now and I didn't like the mix of the crowd in that area. I won't be considering any nights stay at any of the resorts world hotel. Probably we will check out Rasa Sentosa once again when it reopens after the revamp.

It was quite a disappointing trip since we paid a lot to get into the island and also incur high charges for carpark fees. We didn't get a chance to ride the luge due to weather conditions and it will be a long time again the next time we check into Sentosa.

I want Mummy to sleep with me

Ethan said this almost every night at bedtime since I am on leave. I realised that it's actually a blessing to be able watch your lil one falling asleep beside you each night which I have been missing the last few weeks.

Bonding time with the boys

Finally I have gotten myself 2 weeks off from work since Tues and have the chance to spend some quality time with the boys. I have been working till late for at least 5 straight weeks prior to my block leave and didn't have too much energy during the past weekends to catch up on the lost time.

On Tues, it was our 8th wedding anniversary and my ah lou and myself went out together (minus the kids) for a full day out. On Wed, I brought Caden out to meet my long-time friends Glory and Wendy for a long-awaited catchup lunch and was glad to know Glory is currently preggie and has joined our motherhood club. Caden was easy to shop around with and handle over lunch (since he eats almost anything), when he had 1 bowl of prawn noodles by himself, 3 chicken wings, shared 1 bottle of 100plus, and a dunkin donut at late afternoon. I am amazed how high metabolic rate children have when I am still full with my medium sized prawn noodles from lunch. Caden was quite accomodating when it comes to shopping with me, so long I allocated some time to him for him to spend some time at the toys section. He had the most fun at the toys fair at taka atrium where he spent a fair amount of time looking at masked rider den-O collection, power rangers RPM collection and watching the live meet and greet show (some yo-gaba gaba stuff - which I totally had no idea who they are!). So eventually, I get to shop around for my clothes and some christmas gifts (selected by Caden for Eillot and Aidan) and bonded with him at the same time for the whole day out.

On Thurs, I stayed at home to supervise the boys to do some homework and managed to pack my wardrobe to clear out some clothes. In the late afternoon, I got Caden to do some rubber artwork at our nearby mall and he was happy with his accomplishment (his first attempt on rubber art).

Friday, it was homework time again in the morning for the boys and I left for my own pampering facial session after lunch at home. And we look forward to more eventful days in the coming week as my ah lou will be on leave and we can venture out to more places since the car is at our reach! (provided the weather is good to us)

PaPa's birthday!

Today is PaPa' and Grandma's birthday. We had a mini-celebration at Swa Garden (teochew) restuarant in the evening along Macpherson Rd. The food there was fantastic. The crayfish, cold crabs and vegetable with ti poh were nice, coupled with their teochew ooni (yam dessert).

We left the restuarant at abt 740pm, my father-in-law was so considerate that he suggested to leave IMMEDIATELY after our last dish so that the restuarant can cater for another bigger group for the night. Caden and Ethan both seemed to love the food as well and ate quite a lot.

We had our birthday cake cutting an hour later which is what the boys usually look forward to whenever there's a birthday celebration.




Caden wanted this pose to be kept as a momento for PaPa

Caden's Year End Concert

Caden has been keeping mum about his performing item for this year end concert. When we asked him what dance will he be performing, he would usually tell us that we will know it when we attend the concert.

We had to get them to school before 6pm as the teachers had to spend time styling their hair and dressing them up prior to the concert. This is also the last year that both Caden and Kimi get to perform on the same stage with 2 families watching together with Grandpa and Grandma at the same time (as each child gets alloted 4 tickets to the concert).

Upon reaching the school near 6pm, both of them bought new shoes for their graduation ceremony


While queuing to get into the auditorium, PaPa brought Ethan to the playground to pass time. I got some time to take some of the school's mock-up stations where the students get to do role-play during their lessons. The kindergarten has won a couple of awards from MOE which was quite honorable for their efforts put.


Ethan was elated when he was given a lollipop by an older girl who was seated near him.



Opening ceremony, where all the children came out to wave to the audience. Caden was looking for us, but not able to see us eventually before he left the stage. Caden was too shy and looked away from our direction most of the time.


His segment was the 3rd item on the list, when he first appeared on the stage, he spotted us in a short while as we were seated right on the second row on the same side where he came out from.


















finale


After the concert which ended almost near 930pm, the 2 cousins took a shot together in the kindergarten for the last time




Can't wait for next year to happen, as both Ethan and Caden will be performing at the same time on the same stage!