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The kids wanted to create their own videos to show Daddy while he was away on business trip, so I took these two videos of them each singing a song of their choice and sent them over to Pete.
Do you think they succeeded in putting a BIG smile on Daddy’s face?
This year, because it is Ethan’s last year in preschool, we decided to treat him to a special birthday party celebration with his friends at one of Ethan’s favorite places: AdventureZone in Golden Sands, Penang.
He was all excited in the days leading up to the birthday party, and kept asking me to show him the guest list of confirmed attendees. On the day itself, he was bugging us to leave quickly so we won’t be late. Such was the enthusiasm of our little Mr Bulat.
There were 2 birthday themed rooms to choose from: Pirate and Circus, and Ethan had chosen the Circus Theme. However the organizers made a mistake and prepared the Pirate room for him instead. Rather than have uncoordinated gift packs, Ethan was a good sport and agreed to go along with the Pirate theme. Of course, the organizers were very apologetic and gave us some *special privileges* because of the mistake.
Ethan’s friends started arriving quite punctually, and we also invited 2 of Hannah’s friends from school, just so she would not feel out of place. All the kids (and adults) had a great time playing in the play area…well actually it was kinda difficult to get good shots of the kids because everything was moving so fast!
After about an hour of play in the play area, the kids were gathered upstairs for the cake-cutting and their meal in the birthday room.
This year marks the 3rd consecutive year in a row that Ethan’s picture has been featured on the Birthday Book on Astro Channel 613, previously Playhouse Disney, but now known as Disney Junior.
However, he did not receive any letter or birthday stickers from Disney Junior informing him of the feature, like he did in previous years. As such, we were not able to record the feature when it was shown on TV, as we did not know what time slots to wait for. Instead I managed to record it off the computer, from the Disney Junior site.
The background *accompaniment* you hear is courtesy of Ethan and Hannah…and sorry for the streaming of the video, which was not very smooth.
On one of the days when I was running out of ideas on how to occupy the kids’ time, I decided to try this Bean Sorting exercise I had read about in one of my newly-acquired homeschooling books. It was an activity I felt both Ethan and Hannah could share and enjoy..and I was right.
I made use of the Organic Soup Mix beans that I had, and explained to them both that the task was to sort the beans according to type and color into separate cups. They had to work together to complete the task.
It was fun to see how attentive both Ethan and Hannah were, trying to complete the task on hand. I assisted in telling them that they could each take a different type of bean and then sort that out.
They were done in about 15 minutes.
And then I asked them to count the beans in the individual cups and I provided some sticker labels to label the number of beans.
Kids enjoy simple pleasures in life 🙂 – and they were so proud of their “completed assignment” that day and couldn’t wait to show Daddy when he got home.
One of the first things we prepared before Day 2 was to get our ez-link cards to use on the MRT and the buses in Singapore. Kids up to 0.9m in height can travel for free, and Hannah just barely made it 🙂 However, for preschoolers over 0.9m and below 7 years old, like Ethan, we got him the Child Concession Card, which entitled him to a 50% discount on all fares. Of course, Ethan was all happy and felt grown-up when he could also tap his very own card and walk across the gates.
On Monday morning, armed with our day backpack, camera and loads of energy (somewhat), we made our way on foot to the nearest MRT station near Bernard & Pei Ling’s house…..but….halfway there, Pete turned around and asked,
Pete: Did you bring the (Bird Park) tickets?
Me (giving him a blank stare): Nooo…..I thought they were in your bag!
So while the kids happily whiled away their time playing in the play structure in one of the HDB flats, I walked back to the house to get the tickets. It was a little extra exercise for me, and we haven’t even gotten on the train yet!
We had actually left the house quite late and when we boarded the MRT it was close to lunch time. So we decided to stop at Jurong Point Mall for lunch…instigated by pictures of Burger King’s food in the MRT too, actually!
Ethan was busy looking at the MRT map and telling his sister which station would come next and which station we would get off.
…and finally we arrived!
It was our first time at the Jurong Bird Park and one of the highlights the kids wanted to go to was the Lory Loft Feeding.
“Mommy, Mommy, can I feed the birds?” Hannah would ask, and hold up her hands as if holding the bird feed. But when we arrived, as soon as I was handed the sweet bird feed in the little plastic cup, I daresay at least 4 or 5 lory birds swarmed towards me and started eating from the bowl. The kids would not hold the bowl, and they were visibly afraid. We tried to cajole them into feeding the birds, but the most we got was them touching the feeding bowl together with Daddy (missed the chance to take a picture though. Boo.)
Other pictures from our enjoyable Bird Park trip:
It was a hot, hot, hot day that day (contradictory to the weather forecasted then), and the kids had their Kidz Banz sunglasses to protect their eyes (and look cool at the same time)!
It was a Sunday on December 4th when our long-awaited family vacation was to begin. Both Ethan and Hannah had been eagerly looking forward to this day for weeks, and I had told them that they would need to get up extra extra early that morning, for our cab would arrive to pick us up to the airport at 8a.m.
Well, miracles DO happen when the kids excitedly got ready and did not dilly-dally. We got to the airport well on time and even had time to grab a quick breakfast at McDonald’s in the departure terminal first.
It was another short wait for our plane to arrive, but you know…the kids got restless and kept asking, “Why is our airplane not here yet?”, “When are we boarding?”, and the like.
We’d redeemed airplane tickets using our Krisflyer points (finally), and it was an exciting occasion for the kids because I felt this was the time they would both remember they were in an airplane together. The last time Hannah boarded a plane, she was only 4 months’ old, and could only lie down in a crib!
The kids occupied themselves with complimentary doodle pads from SilkAir and drank some milk and juice that was served, and before we knew it, we had already landed in Singapore.
We just got back from our family vacation in Singapore last week, and I am far far behind in my blog postings. I’ve got so many drafts sitting and collecting digital dust, and other non-blogging things to do too, so while I gather my thoughts and (hopefully) publish alternate posts about our Singapore getaway really soon, here are some pictures taken at Pauline Kor Kor’s condo’s swimming pool, during our recent trip to KL for the Barney show…we had the whole pool to ourselves that day!!! 🙂
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Oh and by the way, check out this month’s issue of BabyTalk, where Hannah picture is featured in the Star Toddlers section. 🙂
And if you like reading, you could also read one of my personal Christmas stories here, featured in that same magazine 🙂 Just click on the image to enlarge it.
Mommy: Hannah, we’re going to KL this weekend. Do you know who we’re going to see?
Hannah: Barney!!
Mommy: Yes..
Hannah: …and Baby Bop! And BJ!
Mommy: Oh yeah…and..?
Hannah: And Riff…and Mother Goose…
Mommy: Hehe…oh yes..
Hannah:…Oh…and the kids.. 🙂
Turns out we did see all of the above at the Barney’s Space Adventures show, held at Plenary Hall, KLCC last weekend…well, save for Mother Goose and the kids though. Mother Goose did not make an appearance because I suppose she doesn’t take too kindly to anything “outer space”y, and as for the kids, well,…they were replaced by some singers and dancers who looked quite like adults to me.
Hannah was in total awe when Barney and his friends appeared on stage, so awestruck was she that she could hardly sing and dance, and could only watch in amazement. During the 20-minute intermission in the middle of the 90-minute performance, she was visibly upset for a while, asking me, “Where’s Barney, Mommy?”
And when I told her Barney and his friends had to make their way to the perfectly purple castle and the journey would take them 20 minutes, she wailed, “Nooo…:(”
Her brother Ethan, on the other hand, was having the time of his life, singing and dancing and clapping to almost every song during the performance.
In fact, Daddy looked more excited to watch Barney than he was when we went to watch Cats some years ago. 😛
It was an enjoyable show, and fun-packed with great songs the kids enjoyed. I might add that the seats were really comfortable too, and the sound system was superb. There were some people who showed their true Malaysian kiasu colors by moving from cheaper seats at the back to the front more expensive seats, since the hall wasn’t full…ah, but that’s a story for another day.
We had a great family time together watching Barney, and if that wasn’t enough, later that night, we celebrated cousin Caitlynn’s birthday at Friday’s at Alamanda too!
When I heard that the Penang International Kids Storytelling Festival (PINKS) was coming back to Penang for the second time, I was undecided about bringing the kids there. Last year, they had it at Youth Park and it was scorching hot, even under those tents equipped with strong-blowing fans. But this year, they changed the venue to Straits Quay, and since my Mom expressed her interest in checking out the festival, we decided to bring the kids there.
The kids had been looking forward to this event and were very excited when we finally arrived. Got slightly delayed due to the heavy traffic.
We only managed to arrive in the evening, close to the end of the program, but we were still in time to witness Jeeva Ragunath (from India) entertaining the audience with storytelling, song and dance.
The Christmas decorations at Straits Quay were already up, and my “models”, as usual, were ever ready to pose. 🙂
We had a simple dinner at Secret Recipe and were just about to leave Straits Quay for home when we heard a very mesmerizing rhythmic beat coming from the foyer near the sea. Turned out it was a group of talented performers from The Performing Arts Center of Penang (PenangPAC), making rhythm and sounds using drums, tambourines and other percussion instruments in a Drum Circle. Ethan and Hannah started dancing to the beat, and some of the musicians started asking some of the kids to join in with the musical instruments. Ethan and Hannah were not excluded. 🙂
Ethan got to play with some rhythm sticks, and Hannah played a triangle. They enjoyed themselves so much and could be seen shaking their booty along to the rhythm. They even sat in the circle together with the rest of the players.
At the end of it all, it was all in great fun and the kids were tired but definitely happy.
No wonder they’re both knocked out now!
I’m always amazed at the amount of energy my kids have day in and day out, and even at home where space is kinda limited, they can find some activity to indulge in. Whether it is building an imaginary house on the bed or running their own little restaurant, I love to watch their antics and know that they are having fun.
Recently Ethan asked me to bring their Veggie Tales audio CD from my car back to our home, because he and Hannah wanted to dance to it…oh, and did I mention that Hannah also tried singing to the songs?