Obsessed with ballet

Nadine is super obsessed with ballet. She loves her ballet class, any ballet books that she can find in the library, and drawing ballerinas. It's amazing to see this little girl being so passionate about something.

She draws ballerinas all the time, with different ballet moves, and different outfit.

And she definitely enjoys her ballet class. Love the way she smiles when she dances.

Praying for Daddy

Daddy left for Minneapolis yesterday morning to attend a conference. Last night, before bed, after I prayed for both kids, I asked Nadine to pray for Daddy. And she prayed a really sweet prayer, which started with:

"Dear God, we thank you for bring Daddy to work safely."

Claiming a safe flight for Daddy while he's still flying! Child-like faith!

Recycled art

The kids learned recycled art in school, and now they're hooked! They'd use any empty boxes they can find to make all sorts of things. Quite fun seeing all the things they create.

Their most recent creations - used milk cartons to make a army truck and 2 dinosaurs! Love their creativity!

Proper pronounciation

Aaron likes to say things accurately (accurate according to his little mind), whether it's sentence structure or pronunciation. He doesn't always pronounce his words correctly, but when he's absolutely sure he's right, he'll even correct others!

Case in point ...
Daddy: Shall we go and watch An-man? (spoke too fast, really sounded like "an")

Aaron: You mean AnT (emphasised T) man?

To be proud or irritated??!!

Play doh fashion designer

Nadine made dresses for her dollies out of play doh! So creative this girl!

2015 Term 3 Observation Reports

Week before the September holidays, the kids brought back their Term 3 Observation Reports.

For Nadine, I'm happy that she's scored an "S" for her ability to write Chinese characters. Indeed, her Chinese writing has improved so much. She's even able to write her name without my help!

For Aaron, I'm happy to see that he's able to point at words when reading. He loves "looking" at books, especially if the books have interesting pictures of animals, sharks and vehicles. But unlike Nadine, he's never tried to pretend he could read. So I've been wondering if he's paying attention to the words in the books. So it sure was a relief to see that he could point at words when reading!

Little seamstress

Nadine saw me sewing the other day, and wanted to learn to sew as well. She loved it! Quite a nice mother-daughter bonding activity!

Nadine doing assessments

Before the September school holiday, I took Nadine's teacher's advice of buying her some assessment books, and making her do a few pages a day - just so she starts getting used to having to do homework.

Surprisingly, she actually enjoyed doing the assessments .... for the first week. Then the novelty wore off. And then all assessments stopped during the holiday.

Now that school term has started again, we need to go back to the discipline of doing assessments again!

Musical ears

Nadine's ears are super sharp when it comes to music - she can sing along in the right key, sing an octave down if the pitch is too high for her, and also recognize the different singing styles of singers.

Daddy introduced her to Gwen Stefani and No Doubt, and Nadine loves her/their music. And we kept listening to the same few songs whenever we're in the car - Just a girl, Bath water, Ex-girlfriend, Rich girl, Sweet escape, What you waiting for.

One day, she asked Daddy, "how come she sings differently in No Doubt and when she is Gwen Stefani?" 

We were so surprised that she observed the different styles! I hope she'll continue to develop her musical ears, and perhaps pick up an instrument!

Black Knights

On National Day this year (a Sunday), we left church after worship and before sermon, for Marina Barrage, so as to avoid traffic jam, get a close enough parking lot, and a good spot to catch the Black Knights's aerobatics show.

We reached Marina Barrage at about 10am, and there was already a huge crowd, but we still managed to find a good spot.

Weather was so much better than Saturday, when it rained non-stop. But it was hot and humid. Hardly an breeze. Didn't help that we were on the roof top.

There were lots of activities around - stalls selling food, clothes, toys, and even soap; and a kids activities around with a huge bouncy castle and train rides.

The crowd swelled even more just before noon, as everybody got ready for the start of the show.

It was a spectacular show, and the planes came so close to us. Glad we came for this once-in-50-years public performance.

But halfway through the show, Aaron started to fizzle out ..... too hot ...

And Nadine had a melt-down, wailed and screamed, wanting to go home. Poor girl, the sun really got to her. Didn't help that she was not feeling well. 

This is the sea of red streaming out down from the rooftop of the Barrage. 

Although the experience was marred by Nadine's melt-down, it was still a worthwhile experience. Will certainly do it again in future!