LRT ride

The kids love their bus and train rides. Such rides are like treats for them, perhaps because the bus and trains give them more space to move about, and allow them to see more things than in a car.

Last Saturday, we took them on their first (and ours as well) LRT ride in Sengkang. They were sooooo excited.

There are so many new flats being built in Sengkang and Punggol area. But there are also lots of open fields and greenery. Quite an interesting and relaxing ride. Perhaps we'll do the ride again next time when we can't think of better ideas to entertain the kids!

Christmas tree

It's that time of the year again ... to put up the Christmas tree. It's hard work to put it up, and even harder to keep it afterwards. But it's always a joy to see the Christmas tree, and even more so to see the happiness on the kids' faces.

This year, both kids helped me to decorate the tree. They patiently waited for me to put up the tree and the lights, and were so delighted when I opened up the boxes of decorations.

They have so much fun with the tree - every day, they'd shift the decor items at the lowest part of the tree (wherever they can reach) from one spot to another. And I came home one day to find an additional decor item, courtesy of Aaron!

End of Nursery year for Nadine

Nadine has completed her Nursery year, and we're happy with her "results".

The areas where she needs help are well-expected - comprehending instructions and expressing herself in Chinese. Perhaps we could have done more to help her, whether it's to send her for extra lessons, or do more revision at home.  Well, we're lazy. But also believe she still has time to catch up, and what's more important is that she enjoys school and all her classes, including Chinese. We're happy that she's no longer resistant to the language, and would even ask for translations of certain words. That's enough, for now.

Nadine is a calendar girl!

Nadine and her church friends who are in LSK are on the 2014 calendar. Apparently she picked the SQ girl costume herself!

Legoland ... again

When we went to Legoland in March, we bought an annual pass, thinking that we'll be back soon. Took us close to eight months before the next visit! We finally went there again last Monday.

We started with the Water Park, for which we had to purchase separate tickets. Totally not worth the money, mainly coz both kids are too young for most of the slides, and were too scared of the main playground "Joker Soaker" section, while the Duplo section meant for toddlers were closed for maintenance. So Nadine ended up just soaking in the part of the Duplo section that was not closed, and had only one elephant; and Aaron played mostly at the Imagination Station, building legos in water. Only upside of the Water Park was that lunch was much better there than what we had in Legoland during our last visit.

The weather was actually quite nice that afternoon. A bit of an overcast. And since it was a Monday, it was not crowded at all. Quite a pleasant experience, compared to the last time, which was a public holiday.

The kids, as usual, loved their car rides, even if it was stationary. 

First stop - Lego Kingdoms, which we missed the last time.

Nadine had a blast riding on the horse. And since there was no queue, she went on the ride twice.

Aaron enjoyed himself the most in the Build and Test section of Imagination, where Daddy built him a car that he could test on a ramp. This boy loves his lego, and sure has a vivid imagination!

The kids remembered the Duplo Express from their last trip, and were excited to ride on it again.

After the small train, we went on the big train. The last time, we queued for almost an hour to get on it! This time round, we just hop on!

And finally, driving school for Nadine. Aaron's still too young for it. Unfortunately, it started to rain 1 min after Nadine got into her car. So she barely drove a round and had to disembark already.

All in all, it was a great outing, and there are interesting attractions on the park to make us go back again. But we've definitely learnt our lesson - go on a weekday, and the earlier in the week, the better!

Storytelling

My 4-year-old telling a story, with all her favourite elements - princess, flowers, roses, living happily, pet owl; and a dash of Singapore - bougainvilleas. Happy to also hear that her story (and what's in her mind) features Jesus and heaven.  :-)

Fun at IKEA

The kids love IKEA, especially the cooking set at the children's section. It's a wonderful playground, with lots of variety, and great for night outings or rainy days. Better than indoor playgrounds coz they won't ask Daddy or Mummy to slide/bounce/crawl/climb with them, and we don't have to worry about them being knocked over by running/sliding/bouncing kids.

River Safari

Brought the kids to River Safari today. Compared to the Zoo, Night Safari and Bird Park, the River Safari is a much easier park to navigate and enjoy. It's smaller, and importantly, is mostly covered. Some parts are even air-conditioned!

But certainly expensive, for its few attractions! And of course, most people went there to see the pandas. I've heard that the pandas are usually sleeping in some corners. Today's our lucky day. Jia Jia came out for struck a few poses for us! Didn't see Kai Kai though.

Aaron loved the huge fish tanks, especially the ones with the giant catfish, Yangtze alligator, sturgeon, stingray and manatee. He enjoyed the squirrel monkey enclosure too, and wanted to touch the monkeys. I wasn't sure if that was a good idea, and was just hanging on tightly to Aaron, just in case the monkeys turn hostile, so didn't take any photos at all.

Nadine loved the fishes too, but enjoyed the shops and ice-cream the most!

On our way out, we saw "Jia Jia & Kai Kai" at the entrance, taking photos with visitors! What a lucky day!

LSK Concert 2013

LSK's annual concert took place last week. The month leading up to the concert was an anxious one, as we tried to ensure that Nadine doesn't fall sick, especially since there were numerous cases of HFMD in her school. She's been practising her songs and moves diligently for months. So it'll be terrible if she missed the concert.

Silly me, only realised halfway through the performance that I forgot to press the 'record' button!

Nadine's definitely not one with stage fright. Very confident and very happy, and seemed to have enjoyed herself so much performing all the items. 

This is one of the combined items - one which Nadine seemed to have the most fun with!

It's amazing how the LSK teachers managed to get so many kids to sing and dance to all the items! 1 class item + 3 combined items. Even more amazing that the kids, even some of the tiny Pre-Nursery kids, could remember all the moves, and none cried on stage!

Nadine remembered that last year, we got her flowers, and asked for flowers this year. She was really pleased when we presented the flower to her.

Poor girl was so hungry at the end of the concert, she wolfed down the pack of donut balls that Daddy bought +  a box of honey stars and a cup of milk. Of course - she had her dinner at 4pm, coz she was so anxious to change up and go to school!