Last entry for the year

Looking back the year, I must say that I didn't have a great year neither was it bad. There were ups and downs; there were happy news and sad news. This year marks me being a bummer for the 4th year.
This year too, too many goodbyes. One last album to share for the year.


The new year, I trust the Lord will keep the family safe. I hope the new year, I will be able to have more time for my sleep otherwise I might end up with liver problem for all the overnights. The new year, I hope I can cope with both children in school - their schoolwork and an even distribution of play as well.

Aricia's school

2nd day - 30th Dec
KZ had to help me out today coz' I have a medical check-up at Paragon.

According to KZ, Aricia did cling on to her and wailed out loud but stopped quite fast. Daddy picked her up from school coz' I couldn't rush back in time.

3rd day - 31st Dec
Brought her in to school myself. I had time to myself too without the kids (something I've been hoping for) Tell you, children are really smart. She knew she was going to school. We were at the carpark when she came to me "mummy, carry."Supervisor helped me carry her in and she let out a "waah.." few steps later, she kept quiet.

I had time to do some shopping for myself. So happy! Taitaidom here I come!! Hehe

Picked her up, stood to observe what she was doing. She didn't see me, she was yakking to her friend pointing to his shoes. She didn't sit still, kept walking around with her bag. When teacher asked "Aricia, see who's at the door." She looked at scream "Ma....mie......." Should have taken a photo of her expression.

And then I remembered something, I explained to R to help me watch out for behavioural change the next few weeks coz' I'll be starting her in another new class (Shichida), I'm afraid of some psychological effect on her.
Also, asked them to help me try give her fruits as she refuse fruits. They were surprised and said that she did fruits - apple in school on both days. On Tuesday, she barely finished one piece. And today, she asked for one more piece. Ooh! My kids just love to taunt me. And she fed herself in class. Asked for more porridge on Wednesday, refused to eat the macaroni on Tuesday.

Small world

Athena went for her Berries make-up lesson this evening. While waiting for her, I chatted with this mummy.. a stranger who was looking at Aricia.

And then... realised she's sending her girl to the same school as Athena. So, I'm not the only idiot mummy who's sending her child to a school so far away. She said no, apparently there's another madder mother who lives in Woodlands. Of course the first question was "are you an old girl?"

More facts >>
She's not my time, 3 years my sister's senior. So probably my sister might know her if she was a school prefect.

She's Mrs Norris's, my FT in lower secondary, daughter. OMG!

Lil' girl's 1st day at school

It's Aricia's first day at school. She did seem prepared, she seems mature to understand what 'rubbish' I was telling her. Contrary to what Jocelyn (Javier- Shichida) told me to do - 5 mins suggestion to prep her up, I didn't. I felt she is sensible and ... indeed she didn't disappoint me. I am so proud of her.

Coincidentally mom stayed the night before, so we were in full platoon to send her to school (as compared to che-che's first day). The mummy, daddy, che-che, ah ma, and helper. R, the supervisor must have thought we were very kan-cheong and kept reassuring us.

In actual fact, I wasn't that worried but like any mother, mixed feelings were felt. Happy yet sad (happy that she's growing up, sad that she's finally not going to be dependent on me solely), shocked but reality (shocked if she could cope, reality - she managed it well which made me feel if she ever loved me) I was very confident she could cope, really! I spoke to her like an adult. Reassuring her that I love her very much and that tomorrow onwards, she's going to make new friends and learn new things in school. And I'm very confident that she's going to do well in school and all the praises that won't swell up her head etc...I found it hilarious too that she seem to understand so much.
Me : Aricia, you have to behave yourself in school, okay?
Ari : Ok
Me : You cannot bully others, and you can't let anyone bully you ok?
Ari : Ok
Me : Can you bully your friends?
Ari : No
Me : If any of your friends bully you, don't fight back. Complain to your teacher.
Ari : Yah

Today
Athena was so kapo... and being the che-che was very helpful. She helped her remove her shoes before I could do it. Mini-mummy (Athena) echoed the same time as I did "Aricia, put your shoes in the cubby hole" (pause) "good girl, Aricia."
Aricia knows where coz' she always do that when she pops by her sister's school. She always put her shoes into someone's cubby hole and I always laugh at her for her innocent comical act.

She seems happy to carry her schoolbag & waterbottle. She refuses to drink from the bottle so I had to replace the straw with a disposable one for her first.
I brought her in with me, stayed with her a short while. She didn't want to stand on her own, so I had to carry her during her circle time. She wanted the mummy, which I must admit that I was so happy that I'm wanted. After some time, I was tired I made the excuse that I needed to use the toilet and actioned to the teacher. She teared but didn't cry out loud.

We hang around the area for a while before leaving for a quick munch downstairs. Came back again to see how she was doing. Mom went in to see, her 2nd grandchild in school. Aricia saw her, shouted "ma ma!" but good thing she didn't cry. We left for Athena's school. Needed to get some more things. (we're only left with the PE T-shirt) at the same time show mom the new school. Athena proudly brought her to see her classroom. Anyway, no chance for us to do that next time.

Came back to pick her up, supervisor said she did very well (the best one so far - maybe just trying to angkat me) considering that she's the 2nd child and her outgoing personality. In her expertise, she did say that children don't cry on first day coz' they're curious. 2nd day onwards they'll start crying. I assured myself that my girl is a brave girl, she won't cry at all. But if she does, it's perfectly normal. Whatever it is, my girl is in good hands. And the teachers all speak really well.

Looking forward to Day 2

Cute!

Chanced upon this cute video. Just like my two lil' girls..

Christmas Party @ mom's

Organised by brother and SIL. Last year they surprised us with the decorations, I wonder what my brother will be up to this year.

My two kiddos were Santarinas last year and this year - they're reindeers. As usual, when a child gets older she has her own mind, would refuse to wear the clothes you ask her to. Athena refused to wear her brown dress. Argh! Last minute did a red-nose for Rudolf. Mei-mei looked cute in it coz' she's in brown but she keeps sweeping it away, so negotiate with che-che that she helps me with this.


WT, I forgot about him. No choice passed him the hat and did a stupid beard for him with the felt cloth I have. But..... I ran out of white, so it was beige. Haha! Dirty santa. I thought sometimes he looked like bandit. Hee!
Rudolf (che-che) with Dasher (thought she'll suit Dasher coz' always dashing around like siao char-bo) and Santa. Santa moved along like he was horse-riding. Haha! Quite funny. They attracted the attention of strangers downstairs. If only LCCC was opened on that day....
The candy house that brother did. Nice right? But I told him he should get those rounded swirled candies as well.
He did the house in such a way that the kids can crawl through. Really nice, the kids enjoyed it most importantly

Of course it was the centerpiece. Simple chats starts from here, photo shoots from here too!

Food

Have lots of photos but I'm too tired to post them in.

Then it was time to open presents. So, I'm not the only one who will have so many presents for each child. SIL distributed the presents under the tree, and coz' it was a last minute thing to bring WT they didn't prepare much for him. Gave him one box, then the rests was for the other 3 children, he turned to look around and then looked at his pathetic box, pouted lips. Haha! Good thing, brother had some additional gifts in the room so he hastily wrapped them up. He was so happy after that.

SIL said "who shall open first?" We looked around, the obvious one should open first. WT innocently said "I open first, I open very fast." We thought it was coz' he had the least presents. *gulp*

Followed by che-che

Followed by mei-mei. She only managed to open one. At the rate she was tearing the paper, we thought di-di will have to wait till next year to open his. Anyway, KZ had to help after that.

Di-di's presents : opened mainly by SIL

After that, we sang a birthday song (it's a pity that mei-mei was brought downstairs) to Jesus. Funny! But the kids loved it when it came to cake + candles. Cheap thrill!
With that, we ended the party. Tired... WT stayed another night with us. The kids wanted to play, but I had to put a stop to it coz' it's late and they have to go to school the next day.

Merry Christmas

Here's wishing everyone a Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!!

Christmas Gathering : Preparation & Gathering Day itself

A gathering was organised for Aricia's darling - Aunty Ros and her classmates and a new friend, Mel. Athena's friends - Jachelle and Wei Teng (all 3 skipped school)

This was planned at last minute, 10 days prior to be exact. Which can make me very very very kan-cheong. I hate to do things last minute. As to what Mel puts it, I was able to put everything together in such short notice. I felt she was just being courteous and tactful. It wasn't a good job done.
Thanks to everyone who RSVP-ed within such short notice. I was able to draw lots for the gift exchanges. Budget $15 per household, which is little to me (and can't really buy anything) but I'm not sure if people would mind if I upped the price so kept it as it is.

Theme - Precious Moments. But it's not obvious enough given that I didn't paste that cuties' faces all over my house. I didn't have time to decorate the house.

Food - I wanted to order catering. But with the minimum number of pax required (15), it was far too large for my gathering. Although I always claim it's always good to have more than less, we always end up either forcing people to help to tah-pao back or throw the food away (we do keep for the next day's meal but some food can't be kept that long. And to have the same meal for 2 consecutive days can make one real S-I-C-K). And this time round I only had like 10 adults. Kids don't eat much + the buffer amount they give. It's going to be alot of wastage. In the end, food was mainly easy food that can be done at home.
It took me one trip down to Carrefour to do major shopping. It was really MAJOR! Heavy like crazy, worried if the lao-pok-car will stall or topple one side. Looking for places to order festive food & cake. In the end I had to settle with NTUC coz' it's the nearest place I could pick up from. Cold Storage don't offer what I really wanted. Carrefour is obviously out of the question.

Cake - been wanting to try to make one log cake myself. I even bought the Christmas sugar dolls! But I didn't have time to experiment the size of the cake with that small tray I have. (why small.. coz' my oven's small) so in the end, I decided to order. When I was out in the malls, I started collecting those pamplets and was so tempted with Gelare and Haagen Daz but it means I had to go all the way to Hougang/Tampines (nearest outlet) to collect it. Not that I'm making up excuses for myself, but to handle everything on my own and an extra time needed for 'just in case glitches' on the actual day morning, I think it's going to be very tiring for me to do everything by myself.

Prepared a small candy bag for the children. All at last minute after I had finished packing the other goodie bags for Athena's and Aricia's classmates + presents. So it was starting all over again for me.

Tried making the Precious Moments chocolates with the mould, but didn't turn out well so I gave up the idea. + it's going to melt in our weather (I still wonder how is it those shops' moulded chocolates don't melt)

Then I remembered I needed to get some small gifts for the children. I can't be doing another major shopping around looking for gifts for every individual kids - I had been doing that and was just recuperating from wrecking my brains.
So the easiest way is to get similiar gifts. Don't feel sincere huh?
I swear - the SA was following me all the time thinking that I'm a shoplifter. Coz' I kept holding on to some things, walking here and there, squat at one corner, looking at every inch and corner of the shelf, put them back, take another etc....
Then I found this perfect gift! A photo frame. All I needed to do was to separate what's for boys and girls.

For the girls

For the boys

The SA must think I must be planning for birthday party. Almost $100 worth of similiar things.

Small gifts was bought for the families too. And I mean real small, I didn't know what to get - really! Box of biscuits (something sinful) or marmalade (something sweet to end the year) or tea (something healthy to end this year -with all the feasting we have) I should think everyone would drink the tea right? So it's small but carefully thought of. When I looked at the size of the box, I was wondering if I should get something else to make it look big, by then I was already brain exhausted. ( I had spent almost 5 hours jostling with the crowds in Orchard). So I stopped at that and thought probably my friends don't mind, and what's more important is that the children sees their mummy/daddy holding onto their present and it's smaller than theirs. Haha! Sorry if I have this mentality... coz' Athena is always comparing the present size

Oh my goash! I've never wrapped so many gifts before in one Christmas. Very tiring! I could have passed it to the gift wrapping counters to do the job, but many a times I see horrible wrapping. So far, the only place which does nice wrapping is Robinsons.

22nd Dec :
Suddenly remembered I was suppose to bake. I baked on one day and did the decorations on another day. But in the end, I realise the cookies were too little. I was too tired to bake another 2 more batches + trying to decorate with the kids interrupting me. I gave up!

I was trying to emulate Mel. I did both shortbread and gingerbread. It's like not enough to go around so did this for decoration purposes.

Ta-da! The Christmas tree. BTW, I didn't do the white star, so happened I have this from the Marriott bakery.

As you can see, it's going to be real tiring for me to bake more cookies. I was already tired with this batch. They were eventually enjoyed by my children and KZ.

24th Dec

Hubby as usual went to PP for his breakfast, so I sent him to collect the things on my behalf. Festive goodies (chicken and pork ribs) from NTUC and cake from Prima Deli. While I decorate the table and prepare the chocolate fondue - first time using it since I bought it a month back.

Mom was suppose to come at 10+ to fry the fried rice for us. She had told me to cook 3 cups of rice the night before, I don't really know how to do estimation so I thought 3 1/2 should be sufficient. However on the day itself, after mom fried the rice, it did seem little. In the end, she came so late 11+and I thought she probably changed her mind and cooked from home but no...... we ended up jostling for space in the kitchen when hubby came back with the stuffs.

Rather embarrassing that the table was not even fully set up by 12pm.

Menu :
1) Fried Rice
2) Mee Siam
3) Achar
4) Fishballs/Sotongballs
5) Samosa/Spring rolls
6) Chicken
7) Honey glazed / Black pepper pork ribs
8) Chocolate fountain (apricots, strawberries, biscuit sticks, biscuits, marshmallows,bananas) A failure with the bananas though, we tried to salt the bananas to prevent them from yellowing but they still did. Hmm... how did those hotels do it?
9) Log cake
10) eclairs/ fruit tartlets

Hope I didn't starve my guests. Thanks too, to Ros, who kindly helped me with the chicken & stuffing. See lah! hao-lian want to do Xmas party also never do chicken before. Like an expert, she was stuffing and fidling with my oven ( I never even pressed that grilling button before) and the food came out all so nice. Was hoping that she was wearing a huge carat diamond ring... and then while stuffing.. she dropped the ring inside the chicken. Would have been my sparkliest and brightest Christmas ever! *evil laughter*

Chocolate fountain, a definite hit with children.

The children played amongst themselves, I tried to play host to everyone but somehow can't seem to chat with everyone. My apologies!

Behold! An angel of the Lord came

Thanks to A too, who came with her dou-hua. Very smooth, very sedap! Definitely a hit with everyone.

Gift exchange

S had to leave, she's going to have a party in her own home with cell group so needs to set up. So nice of her to drop by despite her tight schedule.

Enjoy the photos >>

Argh! I've been taken advantage of!

Pretending to coax me, but in actual fact was still taking advantage of me.

My recipients : Chez and Jez the lovable twins.

A group photo

Party ended at 3+, M stayed back for a chat. Must admit I do like parties, but most of the time I end up feeling guilty not being able to play host with everyone. So I was glad that we could really chat while the children played.

Tidied up the place thereafter. And .......guess what! I forgot to give MH, J and WT their presents (which was partially hidden by the tree). Argh! So paiseh...

Another party tomorrow. Last few days for me to feast before my diet plan comes in.