September school hols

Oh my! Oh my! This hasn't been a productive school holiday for us. Haven't had much time to do any work (go through oral, composition) with che-che. Her SA2 is in 6-7 weeks time. With the amount of homeworks she has everyday, I always find it hard to find time for her to do my work or to go through work with her. Sianz!

4th September (Sunday)

The school holiday started with a friend's birthday party on the 4th. It was a Barbie Party and the girls loved it. They enjoyed the bouncy castle (wah... even my immature 8+ yr-old played inside. Think she was like the oldest girl in there??)

Mei-mei and the pretty birthday girl

Queuing up for manicure

And finally face-painting. Apparently mei-mei don't like face-painting so she joined in the magic show

Magic show

Pinata! I had a good laugh when the magician asked the children to queue up according to height. Coz' his logic is, if they're shorter so they must be younger. My lil' girl benefitted lor!

Hmm.... I know they love Pinatas .... but I don't.

Balloon sculpting
Mei-mei and her dolphin

Che-che and her heart-shaped balloon

Birthday song

The girls continued playing after that. Was doing PR while I don't know when children started going into the pool. And my two girls kept telling me they want to go swimming. I didn't allow them, no costume how to go in. They were pretty sad .... but it wasn't in the birthday initinery what!

Back at home, they kept themselves occupied going through the sweets collected from the pinata and from the goodie bag

They admired their manicure and che-che loved the tattoo on her face so much.. and then I suddenly remembered. OMG! She was suppose to return back to school on Tuesday. Oh my! Should have done a pedicure instead and have the tattoo on her shoulder or buttocks.

5th September (Monday)

Did some work for me in the morning.

And then Peggy came by for their music lesson.

6th September (Tuesday)

Very little work done for me as we had to leave house at 11+. Call her productive! I hate it when she takes her own sweet time to do her work. By right 3 hours in the morning, she should be able to do quite a substantial amount of work right? Waste time! Daydream! Play with eraser!!

Okay, I was getting really grumpy with her.

While she was in school ringing away the bells, I brought mei-mei to get some last minute party stuffs for her party 2 Saturdays later.

Brought them out for a Smurf show and dinner.

Hmm! No work done!

7th September (Wednesday)

She has a tuition in the morning, shifted to morning, so that I can bring them for their Disney show.

Had lunch at home, I don't think I can suffer in the hands of the lil' girl.

We walked around MBS for a short while before the show. I remember how panicky I was before the Lion King show coz' I couldn't find any parking lots, so went much earlier. And bumped into Jen there. So lucky that woman! Can win the prize. How come I don't have such luck?

After the show ended at close to 5pm, made a quick rush to Raffles City to get a dress for che-che. The kids had their quick dinner. Note : how I always write "rush". Indeed we were rushing and I was all grumpy when they eat very slowly.

Brought them to SCGS to watch this famed Japanese University students playing the handbells.

It was really a challenge for mei-mei to learn to keep quiet throughout the performance. But she did well. Here she is, putting on lipgloss. Hiao charboh!

Their performance were awesome. And I hope che-che and her friend gained some insight

Let There Be Peace On Earth

I love this song - Beauty & The Beast (mixture of 3 songs)

Adjourned to T3 for dinner. Brought along Maxine's BD presents as we didn't join them for the celebration. Summer asked me a very good question when she saw Maxine opening up her present. "Aunty, can I ask you why everytime your box is from Isetan? You always buy from there"?

It goes to show how pathetic my life is, I really have no time to shop except during that short half an hour before picking mei-mei up from school. And no other shops are opened except Isetan.

Birthday gal

Happy Birthday, sweetie!

Reached home late. We need to wake up early tomorrow morning. Was informed last week that the rites for FIL's 49th day would be done on 8th Sep

Oh! I didn't know that next Fri the girls didn't have to go to school. Spoke to the mummies about a small celebration for mei-mei. Yes! It's happening. I have another venue in mind, some place where the activities might suit all.

8th September (Thursday)

Sigh... the girls can't do any work today. Left house at 8.10am. By the time we finished everything, it was already 12+ noon.

Brought the girls for lunch at Longhouse, went back home to shower and leave house again. I was tired and asked girl to skip Shichida but model-student wouldn't skip class. How about skipping either one of the class - Abacus. Girl turned teary. Sigh... while I can have one jubilant kid for missing lesson; I have another one who simply refuses to skip lesson.

After her Shichida class, she was really tired. Me too! I can fall asleep behind the wheels! I let her nap for an hour which turned out longer for me. Still insisted on going for class, but no way! We both fell asleep for another hour or so.

Had our dinner and then sleep again. I feel like a pig. Oink oink! Somehow I touched lil' girl's head ... it did seem a lil' warm. Oh oh! I have plans to bring mei-mei out to collect her passport the next day.

9th September (Friday)

Arghhhhhh. FEVER! Both girls! What luck!

Can't bring her to collect her passport and there's no way I can change the appointment date. Have to do a walk-in (and pray hard it doesn't take long). Brought them to see PD instead.

Can't do work either! Shucks! Last day of school holiday weekday and ...not much was done throughout the whole week.

Didn't bring her for her music class in the evening.

10th September (Saturday)

Didn't bring them for swimming either. Fever was going up and down and it's worrying. School's commencing in 2 days time. I hope they recover by then

11th September (Sunday)

Fever cleared the whole day but let them rest after their Berries class in the morning. Day wasted getting them to rest. My heart was thumping away. Darn! Not much work done. When school term starts, we'd be so busy trying hard to complete her tons of daily homeworks. How??

The day when the school is run by ...

the parents! Yes, it's that time of the year again. For three consecutive years I had been going back to che-che's school to bully the children.

This is the day when the teachers don't come in to school until 11am. And the parents be a teacher for the day. Nope! Thank goodness we're not there to teach, I'll go crazy before the children do. We basically take care of the children.

And looks like my prayers worked this time round. For two years I've been taking care of P1s, though with a buddy parent it's tough having to be so sensitive to children complaining about one another. (blame it on my sensitivity when I hear minute squabbles) I didn't wish for an upper primary class too! Coz' they can be rebellious too, but honestly speaking the girls in our school are very sweet. How often do you see children greet you "Good morning Aunty"?

This year, I'm tasked with a P3 class. And no... it's not my daughter's class, they wouldn't pair parents up with their children's class. Last minute, my buddy couldn't turn up so I had to run the show myself. And well, it's a class where I had see some familiar faces definitely coz' I know some girls in there. So I'm alright. Infact I'm having so much more fun with them. No cry babies at all; no fighting. The girls and I had enjoyed our short 1-2 hours together.

Started the day in the school hall with a short address by the school Principal. A talk by an ex-principal on Friendship. Thereafter ACES Day. I wasn't in my sports attire and was like a siao charbo hoping around with the kids. Well, I was as red as lobster after that. The girls went for their recess while I proceeded upstairs for a break myself. After all that hopping?! Goes to show how old and useless I am.
To keep the kids entertained we played Pictionary. And this time round I allowed them to call me 'aunty' instead of my married name, which we had to self-introduce ourselves in the hall. With that, the formality is gone but with due respect still! The girls were awesome! Such angelic girls - honest!
Gave them 10 mins to draw/write on the board for their FT. FT came in and I asked the girls to wish her. Kids were really happy to see her crowding around her, I left quietly and pleased with myself for a job well done.

Next year? I'm not sure coz' by then KZ would have already left our household so nobody can help me pick up lil' girl from school. I might help again the following year (2013) as lil' chilli padi would be P1.

Swimming classes

The girls started their swimming lessons in July. Had procrastinated for a very long time. Che-che was suppose to start at age 5. Turned out I started before mei-mei turns 5.

These are pictures taken on their first to third lessons

They look forward to every Saturdays to see their Coach. They also look forward to the playpool with the slide.

But it also means that they get so exhausted after their swim, they end up sleeping and I can't find the time to let them do their work. Argh!

Teacher's Day 2011

These are the gifts prepared for the teachers this year.

Personalized honey bottles

Personalized chocolate bars

Note books

All individually packed

In total, made about 11 note books. The personalized honey and chocolates were more.

Too tired already as I was coping between mei-mei's birthday party preparations; this and Children's Day.

Just for laughs

28th August

Few days ago, Che-Che asked me "mummy, what is aviary?" I answered her. Few minutes later,"mummy, what is a-r-s-e-n-a-l?" "It's a football team in England." Gave me a very blur look, "ooh! ...ok.."

Today as I'm marking her work, I burst out laughing at my answer. Wah!! Silly mother!!

Quick! Must make her erase off that definition n reload new and accurate answer. LOL

30th August

KZ related to me abt what happened this morning. Lil' girl's eyes barely open, hvnt brushed teeth, she walked out of bedroom n went to studyroom,did her mountaineering job (chair to highchair) n looked at her time-table for Tuesdays. Stare for quite awhile, think was trying to digest what she's reading in her blurry state. Did her big biz, washup,eat n did her work straightaway

Shucks!

Shucks! Plans aborted!

Che-che has to be in school on Tuesday for her CCA during the school hols.

Phew! Lucky thing I haven't spoke to the mummies about it but..... how?

How? How? How?

I recalled how ML celebrated Summer's birthday after school one day, and thought perhaps I can do something like that.

Still trying to figure out a date for mei-mei's birthday celebration with the older che-ches. Checked out Icing Room package, sounds interesting but it means everyone has to go down to Somerset 313. On a school day? Coz' our weekends are packed! But.... I'm the busiest person amongst them. My two girls have classes almost everyday! And don't ever talk about skipping lessons to mei-mei, she's one person who will insist on going for classes. (and make me feel guilty) Che-che would gladly love to skip her lessons but I would prefer her, being P3, to not skip any lessons.

Maybe can take one of the days during the school hols. Perhaps can discuss with the mummies. But looking at my own September hols schedule, can't find a day except Tuesday?

Fun time

We had a long National Day holiday, the girls didn't have to attend school. (mummy's finally relieved from chauffeuring duties)

After doing some work, they had wanted to bake. But mummy's too tired + did not have time to check if have the raw ingredients at home. Had no idea what to bake either!

Then I decided to do something easy and fast. I remembered I had these funny faces icing stuffs (meant for kids to decorate cupcakes with them when we bake cupcakes), took out their favourite Oreos cookies and did some chocolate coating.

It's amazing to see their creative juices flowing. For once mei-mei really did enjoy herself thoroughly (she's the impatient sort, so usually gives up faster than che-che)

I hate to work with white chocolate! Always so difficult!!

Che-che had wanted to continue doing it, but I decided to let them rest while I coat the remaining with dark chocolates. And if I were to have difficulty in coating them; she would definitely find it a challenge too, right?

Once the chocolate is about to set, I asked the girls to decorate the cookies with quins and mini m&ms. I finally get to use my chocolate transfer sheet. And I love the outcome!

The girls' works and my chocolate transfer sheet works.

Girls enjoying their cookies. I prefer the dark chocolates though.

With that, we ended the session and shall look forward to the next mummy-daughters bonding session

Racial Harmony Day - 21st July & 22nd July

Days before
This year, I finally bought them sarong kebaya. Well, should have pre-empt that majority of students could be wearing that since their school is located in the Katong area.
Anyway, the girls were pretty excited with their costume. Few days ago, I brought them to the shop and did their shopping. Mei-mei attracted the people's attention there being the youngest and the cutest. One of the customer brought her out to the main area "mama (grandma in peranakan) mama , you look at this cute little anak".And I thought she really looks good in the kebaya.

1 day before
Mei-mei's school asked us to bring some food which represents our ethnic group. Haha! I'm not peranakan neither is hubby.
I decided to pack some stuffs for the kids instead coz' I thought maybe the kids will be overwhelm with so many different kinds of food in class.
Bought them mini rice-dumplings, kueh lapis and kueh salat. Packed them up.

21st July
Mei-mei's school celebrated Racial Harmony today, as across the whole of Singapore.Not for che-che's school which did the next day to coincide with some Mother -tongue thing they have in school.

Gave the snacks to her FT and showed her how to bring up the box handle as I did not do it, to make lugging around easier for me. I love the box!! Amazing hor? I managed to squeeze printing; pasting and assembling everything within one day.

My little girl in her kebaya

The children in her school. When I saw the other children brought to school. I thought the parents either didn't understand the note (bringing codfish snacks, biscuits ???) or I've read too much into the lines.

Right after school, we took out out cameras to have some nice photo shots of the kids.

I love this shot taken by I's daddy

And how he photoshopped this into a Korean Love Story Drama

22nd July

It's che-che's turn to don this today. She's pretty excited wearing this. No sandals, wanted her to wear my SQ sandals but it's too big for her. She looks cute in this too. Must make her wear more often since she outgrows her clothes very fast.

8th April - Well done, mei-mei!

Shichida Yellow Belt

Well done! I'm so proud of you, mei-mei!

Baking

Now that the school hols is coming to an end, I found one day (just one day) to bake with the girls

Che-che asked to bake cookies. She missed doing cookie colouring.

We did everything from scratch, including the icings

Mei-mei's masterpieces

Che-che's masterpieces

And since I was already in that mood, I baked some cuppies. Nice but I didn't like the way the frosting turned out. Must try another recipe

June holidays

Set off to nearby places this time round. And it was a really long holiday - 10 days to be exact. We get alot of funny response from friends "what! 10 days!!"

Though I don't mind HKG for their food and shopping, I'd definitely stuff my face with noodles and desserts. Put on the extra pound and figure out how to lose them. Always so easy to put on weight but difficult to lose!

We left for Macau, Shenzhen and Hong Kong.

Macau 澳门

First stop, the much talked- about Venetian. Girls never stopped their "wows" the moment we stepped into the hotel. Of course che-che would remember clearly her handsome Go Jun Pyo in various spots in Venetian. The girls loved their room. Mei-mei calls the raised platform area their stage and kept putting up performances - singing and dancing.

(pic taken off their website)

They love the big bathroom too! Well... it's the bathtub that they both like. And throughout the whole trip, they rate the 4 hotels we stayed. Anyway, ask them which is their favourite country they've been so far. They'll answer you not based on the attractions but based on the toilet ratings.

From Macau we headed to Shenzhen by speedboat. The girls wanted to stick to daddy and I'm super h-a-p-p-y!! I can sleep without anyone disturbing me.

Shenzhen 深圳

I know when people mention about Shenzhen, the first thing they think of are the imitation stuffs. But when I was there, I went sightseeing. Keke!

I was surprise when hubby told me Shenzhen has changed and I'm really surprised at how alarming the change is. It's no wonder China is opening up to the world, said to be the next big country. I mean, even small provinces look more modern.

Prior to the trip, I suggested to hubby we can bring the kids to Windows Of The World. It's a very interesting place I went to donkeys years back. He said there are many interesting places we can go. Should trust him since he does travel to Shenzhen too. Okay... Ah-soh haven't been reading up ok? Unless I'm back flying right?

Wow! They have a direct subway to the attraction and it's really easy to travel around Shenzhen now.

Hong Kong 香港

We had the option for taking the train to Luo Wu and then change MTR twice to Jordan. Sounds easy but easy prey for snatch thiefs and we had 4 bags (coz' the girls wanted to drag their own bags). Then hubby suggested we could take a bus which is much easier. Best thing? The bus terminus is directly opposite our hotel. We only need to make one change and that's it. The bus however don't stop at our hotel, so we stopped someone closeby and took a cab down.

Chiak! chiak! chiak! Woah! I love the food.

Brought the girls to Ocean Park. Ahh... I've never been to Ocean Park. Bumped into mei-mei's music friend there. The girls enjoyed it especially the carousel. We sat with them thrice. Old folks feel the giddiness leh! They saw Red Panda and panda for the second time. And .... meimei had to be asked to keep quiet by the staffs there coz' we had to be quiet in the enclosure. Haha! She talked too much.

The last part of our trip, Disneyland. But it wasn't exactly good news for me when hubby told me last minute (In Macau) he had to travel to Shanghai and I was to bring them to Disneyland alone.

I feel so gloomy like Eeyore. The weather felt the same way too! On the day we arrived in Disneyland, the sky turned grey. And it rained heavily; trees swaying, I thought it was typhoon heading our way. Though kids won't be boring if we're stuck in hotel the whole day, but they were really looking forward to Disneyland. Wanted to bring them out in the early part of the evening but couldn't. We brought them there around 8+pm. Took some photos as I reckon the next day we'd be too tired to take photos after the fireworks.

The next day, we had breakfast together before daddy leaves for the airport. Said goodbye to daddy and off we went to Disneyland. My fears were unfounded, the girls did co-operate with me. In the afternoon, we sat in a prime spot for the Parade. They stopped in front of us and at one point, they went up to the two girls to play with the twirl thing. Mei-mei was brave enough to go up and I can see she liked it.

We had great fun together. Watched the spectacular fireworks in the night. One word to describe it -AWESOME!

The next day, brought them for breakfast before checking out. They were well-behaved when I did the check in. I never need to worry about them in the plane, they are so obedient. So, will I take them on holidays alone? Perhaps.

We shall look forward to our holiday in year-end.

Closure of myphotoalbum.com

Hate this! Received an email about the cessation of my online photo sharing album. Shucks! Had to find another place to continue this.

I started off with Kodak Gallery years ago, but stopped when they asked to pay for the yearly subscription fee. Jumped the wagon to myphotoalbum. Which turned out to be free for only one year. Yah!yah! they always never tell you it's FREE for only one year. Even if they don't they print the words so bloody small that nobody can read. I didn't want to jump the wagon again and thought, heck lah! since they needed purchase to extend subscription for another year. I might as well get it right?

First purchase for 2nd year subscription - Christmas cards. I was waiting in great anticipation for the cards since they had the pictures of our little girls. One month went by after another. Before I knew it, it's already 2 weeks before Christmas as my alarm clock rang. "What's the problem?" I had already emailed them, they said they had sent it out but no ... I didn't get anything at all! By then I was already pissed off to the limit. Needless to say, my christmas cards were sent out late that year. My overseas friends received them after Christmas. I emailed them again, they kept claiming they had sent out but no further service recovery on their part.

Second purchase for 3rd year subscription - Notepads and mousepad. Those arrived in my mailbox quite fast.

Third purchase for 4th year subscription - Notepads again. I can't seem to get the Christmas cards, there seems to be some problem with their link with that. Sigh...

But then the bad news came when I've paid for the year! I had to look for alternatives. And they had the option of storing the albums into a DVD. I thought it'll be easier for me to upload into my new photosharing album next time. Haha! That is if I ever find the time to load the photos!!

The problem doesn't end just here. First they apologised for taking a long time to get the discs sent out coz' of massive load. Then when it did come a month plus later. My kids were boys! My kids were caucasians! Best thing - I had a different husband!! What the ?!?!?!?! I'm really angry. How can they make such silly mistake. And when I emailed them about recovering my DVD and sending back the DVD I have but not bloody paying postage. No reply. Bad service! Perhaps that's why they shut down!!

Now that I've changed to shutterfly, as seen on my top header, I hope they don't disappoint me. I don't think I have the time to upload my previous albums anymore. I hope I can find the time to upload new photos into my new account.

Coming June hols

The months whizzed past us before we can say Superman. Really scary! It seems a while ago, I was talking about my girl's first year in Primary school. It's the mid of her 3rd primary school years, 3 1/2 more years to go before she goes into Secondary school.

So what's the plan for this coming school hols? We'll be heading for a holiday nearby our hot hot Singapore. And it's going to be even hotter!! Summer clothings are easier to pack definitely but it means I'll have to double up my action as a laundry ah-soh. Wouldn't want a luggage filled with*whew! what was that smell?* clothes as I open it.

It's really unlike of me to pack the girls' and my stuffs at last minute. But .... what happened this year? I'm really exhausted! Been so tied up with che-che's school work. It's no joke, her work tripled this year everyday. Really! My crowning glory tripled its speed in growing out more white hairs. ARGH!

Lion King - 14th May

Brought the girls for their first musical. Initially I had only bought two tickets for che-che and myself. I didn't buy the expensive front row tickets but bought the Cat 3 tickets to try out as I'm not sure if che-che would like it.

Mei-mei cried when she heard that she was not included. Quite poor thing also. In the end, I bought another ticket for her (thank goodness the seat next to us was not taken up). I gave her the condition that she shouldn't sleep inside (coz' she always sleep in movies), she agreed.

Two days before the show, I reminded her again. And in her mischievous response, she shouted "I'm going to sleep inside." Told her I'm going to pry her eyes open if she dares to sleep inside.

Verdict : She slept inside. Argh! I spent the money to put my precious LV bag. !!!!!! Of course I'm not bringing her to anymore musicals.

On the other hand, che-che enjoyed it so much