Legoland + Church Camp June 2017

This year, we decided to do a mini vacation before church camp. Spent a couple of days at Legoland and had so much fun because the park was so empty as it was fasting month and school term for Malaysia.

The last couple of times when we went to Legoland, we had to queue for a long time for the rides. But this time, there were hardly any queues. The kids even went on some of the rides twice. Very shiok!

But the weather was so hot. We ended up spending a lot of time in the Star Wars section, which was totally fascinating.

We also spent about 45 min in the Lego Academy, where the kids could build, and the parents could snooze in air con comfort!

With the kids older now, and the park having more attractions, Legoland has become more fun for us. Of course, the fact that both of them like lego - actually, more like Nadine likes lego while Aaron is obsessed with lego, Legoland is a great place for them. We may just try and come back more often in future!

Going to church camp with the kids has become much easier over the years as the kids grow. They go to their children's program, we go to our service. Nadine can pretty much take care of herself, and Aaron is getting there.

This year, for the children's performance, I sent the Daddy to the front to take video. But he didn't manage to get a good position to catch Nadine and Aaron. So only these photos.

Didn't take many photos during the camp. But did managed to take one of the few of us from cell who could make it to camp this year. Hope more can make it next year!

May the 4th Be With You Festival

This year's Star Wars Day, we went to Gardens by the Bay to join the festivities. It was a fun outing. Lots of things to see, lots of creativity and energy from all the Star Wars fans.

The person who enjoyed it the most - Aaron. He was so excited to see all the stormtroopers, AT-ATs, etc.

He was so inspired that while waiting for our dinner, he drew all that he saw. Such a little fan.

Nadine's ballet class open house

In March, Nadine's ballet class had an "open house" - basically a session when parents could go into the class to watch their daughters "perform".

This is her doing her solo segment.

She's definitely improved heaps since last year's open house. And she definitely loves ballet. Which then makes me think if we should let her take exam, or continue to do it for fun but perhaps never become extremely good, since she doesn't get extra classes. Hmm ....

Easter 2017

For this year's Easter service, Children Church encouraged the kids to invite their friends. Aaron and Nadine talked about it for a long time, but didn't really get into action.

Just as I thought they were not going to do it any more, Nadine invited 3 of her classmates - Faith, Evangeline and Weien. I thought that was a good enough effort, that she dared to invite them. I was really surprised when Evangeline's mum texted me to confirm that Evangeline was coming! And then on Saturday, Faith's mum texted to say that Faith was coming too!

So proud of my little evangelist for taking the bold step to invite her classmates!

March 2017 holiday - Phuket

As with our previous Phuket trips, we looked for a hotel with a nice pool with slides. This time, we found Phuket Marriott Resort & Spa, Merlin Beach. The address said Patong, so we thought it'd be conveniently located near the heart of Patong, but it's actually a 10-min drive away. Turned out to be quite nice actually, to be near enough to Patong, and far enough to be quieter and more peaceful. The crowd there was also not as rowdy.

We arrived too early to check in to the room we booked, so the receptionist asked us if we'd like to upgrade to a pool access room. The moment we saw the room, the kids got super excited. The adults got excited too, to be able to jump into the pool so easily. But we later realised that our room floor would always be wet as a result! Nonetheless, it was a fun experience.

We spent a morning at the beach, and the rest of the time in the pool.

The morning when we were at the beach, a huge dead puffer fish got washed up to shore. We've never seen such a huge puffer fish before. The dive shop owner decided to display the fish outside her dive shop and use it as a science lesson for little kids, to teach them about puffer fish!

The kids loved the pool. The hotel had 3 pools - 2 of which were huge, and 1 of them had slides and little islands in the middle. Nadine, as usual, was like a fish. She even attempted to do a water ballet.

Last year, Aaron was still super scared of the water, always staying at the edge, or where the water is not above his knees. This time round, he jumped in and out like a tiny fish!

He even came down on the slide on his belly!

We went to the Phuket Dolphin Show, not expecting much. But it turned out to be a really good show. We bought the front row seats, and had an excellent view of the dolphins and seals.

And years after the introduction of the selfie-stick, we finally got ourselves one at the Patong Market and were so thrilled!

This Phuket trip turned out to be a really nice and relaxing one. Lots of pool time, no rushing anywhere and just taking it easy. Nice! And all 4 of us came back with nice brown tan. We want to do this again soon!

Dye-Nosaur Gardens

On the 1st day of the March holidays, we started the day by watching the Batman Lego Movie with Luanne, Josh and Auntie Lydia, before going to Gardens by the Bay to see the "Dye-Nosaurs". The Chuas didn't want to go as it was a hot day, so it was just us.

For the first time, we took the tram that took us around the Gardens, and saw parts of the Gardens that we'd never seen before.

Colonial Garden

Floating baby

Bottle trees!

Toadstools!

The kids really enjoyed looking at the giant-sized Dye-Nosaurs and riding the not-so-giant ones.

After the expensive short 5-min ride in the hot sun, we needed ice-cream to cool us down, and air-con. We went into the Flower Dome and Cloud Forest. Nadine went into photographer mode and snapped tonnes of photos of the flowers.

I thought she was just snapping thoughtlessly. But when I looked at the photos, I realised she's taken photos of flowers of all kinds of unique colours, shapes and patterns.

Aaron was inspired by his sister, and wanted to take photos too. And he's quite good too!

Overall, we had a really good time, and we'll probably come back again for more photography sessions!