Gallop into the Horse Year

 Good health ! Good results !

Goodye Ms Subaru

After driving for many years, it's time to finally let her go.

We got Ms Subaru as the second car in July 2007 , mainly for me to chauffeur the girls around. Its low fuel consumption; compact size is simply attractive. Plus I'm not that tall to look like a giant in a dwarf car, though hubby looks like one when he drives this car on weekends.
The girls used to like it, I had the Hello Kitty chairtable for them in the car, they eat on the go. I know this would attract unwanted pests, but our schedule is really tight. Plus I clean the car diligently. 
I love Ms Subaru coz' for a dummy like me, parallel parking becomes so easy. I've seen how cars tried to park a not too big lot and drive off after failed attempts, I take their lot and have the smurk look on my face as I walked out of the car. 

Subsequently over the years my girls have grown bigger. The car has become a little too squeezy for them. Last year when both girls have to carry big bags, it became worst. It was a battle of the faster hands win. They have no place to put their schoolbags, so they stack up and then start fighting. "My bag is at the bottom, the bag dropped to my side, I have no place etc..."  I get so immuned to their fights. When hubby's not around, they always ask me to drive his car but I refuse. I'd only drive if I had alot of bulky stuffs to buy.

Anyway, we've made the decision to sell one car this year and obviously it has to be Ms Subaru.

Thank you for serving me so well. I'm going to miss you. 

The bogus doctor

Doc McAricia's patient logbook.

She gave me a wrong diagnosis last night too.

Complaint I had headache, backache and fever. She said

"you have a baby". LOL

Asked for massage coz I'm having backache. She quipped

"I'm a doctor, I don't do massages."

Better still, when she realize she didn't he time to play n her clinic is going to close in 15mins, she declared "nur mind!

I'm going to extend my closing time."

Goodbye my dear friend. We'll meet again

Our dearest friend whom we got to know in MMI is leaving SIN for home. We're sad ...

Kids having fun jumping while the mummies are busy talking

Farewell Gifts for N and the boys.

Ohh... I love this coin bank. It says there Vacation Fund. Save up money for your air-tickets to SIN, Deccy

Mei-mei love to touch baby A, keeps stroking her legs and .... ok back at home she told me she wanted a sister. Nah! I must be crazy if I ever listen to her.

1st day of school

It's funny, I don't seem to welcome this year. It's probably because this is THE YEAR for my first born.

With my first-born, everything is a FIRST TIME for me. For the first time I learnt how to change a baby's diapers; bathe; how to feed and what to feed. It was my first time 'building a solid foundation' for my kid in academic ways

 

When she went into Primary 1, I followed her. When her grades plummet in beginning of Primary 3, my heart ached. When she excelled, I shared the joys with her. When I say I cursed and swore at the education system in Singapore,  I'm not joking. The thought of me, at 30+++, still studying with her irks me. (Though I must admit I do feel good when she thinks so highly of me asking me every question) Solving and challenging her to work faster than me in solving those stupid stupid ridiculous Math questions. Cracking my brain to think of how to answer those Science Section B questions, guiding her. Funny! I never seem to crack my brain that hard when I took my PSLE?!

I'm not a genius and I'm learning along as she grows. And I'm proud to say I'm an experienced slave driver.

 

There are times when I learn from my own mistakes but this year we can risk to make any mistakes at all.

This year will be my first timer as a PSLE-er. ARGH!! I have no idea how well prepared she is. I scream at her daily reading her compositions.

I wanna cry.. I've a whole bookshelf filled with composition books that Popular bookstore had transferred their stock to me - if you know what I mean.

I made her memorise phrases and she don't use it. I practice Oral with her and she doesn't score that well. I get frustrated when she mispronounce her words, I get angry when she , in her haste to get it over and done with, give me slipshod picture discussion. I wanna wring her neck when I see how careless she is in her Math. So what if she is a divergent thinker? She has no logically thinking when I scold her over the same thing all these years. Needless to day, this year is not a year to repeat those mistakes and rightfully gain back the marks that she has been losing. I think I do sound a little panicky huh? (Duh! I think I just repeated my sentence!!)

 

On another note, here's to more "complaints from lil' one's teachers" - I want to get myself drunk. Hmm..... I wonder what silly and funny things she'll do in school.

 

To my girls, STUDY HARD!!  

 

Tracking on motherhood & enjoying it

As blind at a bat; as blur as sotong

Che-Che so funny just now. She hasn't been wearing her specs for 2 days coz didn't like her spare specs.

So she's been squinting her eyes trying to see things.

Just now, after crossing the carpark road (with mei-mei & me) to the car. I asked Aricia to quickly get into the car coz it started to drizzle. I look around for Che-Che who "suddenly disappeared" she was trying to open the door (behind left door) of the car next to hubby's. Hahaha! The chey-meh-gu (blind cow in dialect) was still mumbling "ay the door is locked."

Espana & Portugal

Went on a trip to Spain and Portugal. Left SIN on 26th November and came back on 7th December. On the whole it was a good trip and the girls made friends with one of the girl. The organised tour is not so rushing, we get back to hotel rather early - which is good. Unlike China tour, you piah all the way till 9+, next day morning call at 5 or 6. I'm always tired coz' I'm always the last to sleep in any tour we go.  

 

Granada is beautiful, Toledo is old and nice, Lisbon is my opinion is boring.

 

*sob sob* No trips in June as .... ahem ahem.... crucial year for che-che. But yay to year end, it's USA!! The girls want LA, che-che hasn't been there yet but I think she forgot her trip to the east coast and would like to bring her there again. It'll be a first for mei-mei and she exclaims "I need to go there to buy my Doc McStuffins toys!!"

 

Pictures uploaded (not arranged for some pics)

Click here

 

Big girl is 11.

No birthday party for the big girl this year (again). I think I'm getting old such that I get so mentally and physically drained at the end of the year with all the exam preparations.

 

Brought the girl out for a fun outing at Wild Wild Wet. We haven't been there in ages, mei-mei hasn't even been there at all. Took a few pictures before leaving the camera in the locker. I would have loved to take more pictures but it would mean I can't soak in the water.

 

 

Signs that che-che is getting older (obviously), the two younger ones played together while she decided to do her own thing. Soon, she'll be doing things she wants to do. Soon, she'll decide to go out with her friends instead of us. Soon, soon, soon..... oh well better treasure the time we have with her now.

 

She saw cakepop for the first time and was so awed by it. I told her I can do this, it's really easy and her eyes went *ding* can we do it? Can we bake? I haven't baked for a long time.

Proceeded back to the East (haha! Idling in the East from Mon to Fri is not enough, on Sat also must go back there?!?!) Deal is hubby has a birthday voucher, so instead of using on himself he used it for his girl. I mean, who would buy a birthday cake for himself right?  

 

Family pictures with my nephew. I have 3 kids - heehee!

 Brother - another November child. 6 days after che-che's birthday.

 

One last photo shot before we return home

我的小宝贝啊！

Today my lil' one told us she went to the school chapel to say Hail Mary 10x. (We had a good laugh...y was she there?) So l asked her did she hold on to rosary. Her answer "no mummy. But u must buy me the card!!"

The funniest incident that happened quite some time back during school mass. Priest said "u can sit or kneel". My lil' one went to kneel. 😆 Hahahaha! We burst out laughing 😂 and then she said "but he said we can sit or kneel. I can choose what!"

I've reminded her time n time n again to pls remain seated during communion. I hope she did.

** edited : footnote written in 2023

My lil' one always never fail to make us laugh @ Aricia Ting

Really hoped she didn't think it was food and she went up during communion 🤭

 #wernotcatholics#

Studying

It’s the weekend but kids in Singapore don’t have much time for play once they are at a certain level in school. Che-Che’s in P5, after this last exam it’s play for a short while before cramming again during the school holidays. P6 next year lor! 

Going through thick and thin books together.

Andrea and Shellie May are now myopic.

Footnote written 10 years later (we can travel thru time. Haha!) in 2023 :

If we have enough rooms now, I would have converted one room into study room. Still feel that a bedroom should be a bedroom

Her birthday present

The most important birthday present arrived late due to some small mishaps. But well.... better than not getting them at all.

Her surprise - a personalized McAricia shirt

 

Wearing the shirt with the hairclips which she received a long time ago

7th Oct 2013 #Birthday wishes or postings on FB#

6th Oct - Celebrating me being young for the last day. 

Happiness is when you've got someone to help you blow out the candles ; another to help you cut the cake. Then I need someone to feed me.

A virtual card from bro 

🎼Happy Birthday to You🎶

Greetings to you on this your special day and wishing

you 💍🌹🎁🍡🎈🍸 and many happy returns of the day❗

Children's Day 2013 goodies

The second last Children's Day goodies I'm giving che- che 's class.  Had a hard time deciding what to give the girls this year. I'm proud to say that the girls love their personalized gift.

The raw products. It was a tiring process designing everything but I simply love it when I see every small little bit materializing 

Excited!

Personalized clips 

I love this the moment I piece up everything

Boxed up

Edible goodies for the girls

And not forgetting the simple goodie bags for  Aricia's classmates 



Doc McAricia is 7

Lil' one has been talking about her big day since the beginning of the year. Call it persistent, I finally gave in to her and she has a Doc McStuffins birthday celebration this year. We only celebrated for her in school, I have no time and energy to plan any party for her this year as venue is always a big problem.

 

As usual, my girls always like to choose a theme that has no ready supply of birthday stuffs in Singapore. It's always so difficult to get favors here and I have to resort to get it shipped in from US.

 

Well, I did an online search. There were quite a few items but if I were to multiply that by 30-36x, it costs really a lot. And thus, personalization comes in to make her goody bag a little different. As usual, a lot of photoshopping was done and since I do not have a ready template to work on, I'm always doing a trial and error printing until I get the correct alignment.

The preparation @ home :

Prepared these tags to put on the cupcake boxes (which I eventually forgot to do so in the school canteen)   

 

I wrecked my head for snack items and somewhat remembered I used to like these "8" chocolates and they work fine as a 'medicine'. Of course needed to get the correct Ziploc bag size and then I'll figure out the 'medicine sticker' These are lozenges. Aww.. you know they're not real lozenges but if you eat too much of them, you'll really end up with a sore throat. Haha!

 

Doc McStuffins always have plasters in her bag. And these caramelized biscuits are so perfectly rectangular shaped that I can print and paste them on it.

 

Hersheys Kisses as Paractemols. If you know, it was pun intended. 

The stickers I print out are lovely to look at but it's really difficult to paste them coz' I printed them on glossy photo paper.

 

I really have no idea what else to put in .... but was told that some kids don't eat chocolates. What?!?! They're missing out the best thing in the world! Decided to put in the healthy Honey Stars and then designed and printed the activity sheets on it, cut and paste. If you remember, I did almost the same thing for her Little Einstein birthday as well  

 

In the midst of all these preparation, our parcels arrived. Here, the girls opening up the boxes. I hate it when they have to pack into such big boxes!!

Figurines for her mock cake and later will be her toy, skipping ropes, stickers, balloons, favor bags, plates and napkins

 
Finally everything's here, it's ready for assembling. Tags made

 What goes into each bag and the final product

On the day itself :

In the morning, lil' one kept reminding me that I HAD TO BE IN HER SCHOOL DURING HER RECESS TIME. I'll definitely be there, afterall what can I do with the leftover cupcakes and favour bags if I don't appear in her school.

After I dropped the girls in school (che-che was made to help her carry the goody bags into mei-mei's class as I can't manage to carry so many things all by myself later), I rushed home to finish packing and moving the box into the car. I put all the nitty gritty stuffs in the box for easy transportation.

Collected the cupcakes and proceeded back to the school.  

 

They're lovely, aren't they? But they're really costly at $5 per piece. A friend laughed at me, "why are you paying people money when you can bake it yourself?" I guess I'm paying for convenience, I needed to save time plus I have no space in my small fridge to put them in.

I asked for boxes too, have to pay 50cents extra. Hmm......   

Her mock cake. Heehee! Goes to show that I can do the real cake and the fake cake. Don't think it's an easy task doing this fake cake, it's not! hard to get the felt to stick and I got myself burnt with the hot glue so many times

 

The setup and ready for the girls

The recess bell rang, I had a few kids running to me. "Is this for Aricia's birthday??" I was surprised that they knew and asked if they knew her. "No, she told us this morning that it is her birthday today." Haha! This is funny. My boastful girl!! Wait till she gets to my age, she won't reveal when her birthday is. 

Class photo

 

 

 

 

A happy and older girl with some of her best friends

 

My laoshi was there on duty, so she came by to wish her. Sweet huh?    

After mei-mei finished her recess, I waited for che-che's recess and pass her the birthday cake and pass one of her best friend a goody bag for her younger sister. Then it was back to the cakeshop to collect the remaining cakes. And pack the cakes for distribution to friends. Brought along a cold bag with ice sticks to keep the cakes cool as I can't go back home.  

 

Remaining ones for me and mom.

The banner - I prepared these but my girls said "cannot! cannot put anything". I asked if I could hang banner infront of the table cloth they thought I was referring to the wall. Of course lah! Who would climb up to hang on the wall? Anyway, since I had it all ready, I hung it in the living room 

 The happy child

 and her presents ......

 
from all the aunties that love her .....

 from her classmates ....

 

 Birthday treat at Swensens

 

 Happy Birthday my lil girl. Mummy LOVE you from here to the Moon and back