KiNiGu

CNY 2012

2012-01-27T20:15:00.006+08:00

Bento #186

2012-01-19T21:04:00.002+08:00

Our neighbour was baking pineapple tarts and the aroma filled OUR house!! Jaimie actually stood at the door to enjoy the smell! My very generous and kind neighbour, Pauline, packed a tin for us (yipee!! No, she didn't notice Jaimie at the door...) and the greedy little pig immediately asked for a piece.

With the pineapple tart still in her mouth, she asked me, "Mommy! Do you know how to make pineapple tarts?" "No~~ I don't! Aunty Pauline is so good at making the tarts, isn't she?"

She swallowed her mouthful of pastry and said, "How come you do not know how to make pineapple tarts? And you do not know how to bake cake. And you do not know how to sew. You only know how to make bento."

ARRRGGGHHHH!!!!

*wipe tears off the corners of my eyes*

Bento #185

2012-01-18T08:45:00.002+08:00

I put in 2 candies in Jaimie's bento as a little treat but they were "robbed" by her classmates. Yesterday, she told me that her classmates "robbed" her strawberries... I have to teach her the art of defence for her bento...

媛媛画五月天

2012-01-15T15:17:00.002+08:00

超厉害的吧！！！五迷们应该不难猜出谁是谁！

有一种精神叫萧敬腾--14th January 2012

2012-01-15T14:51:00.003+08:00

这场演唱会让我很期待，因为是第一次与朋友们同坐一排一同看演唱会。而萧敬腾的演唱实力，也不必我多加介绍。

萧敬腾每次换一套衣服出来，就是不同的音乐场所。是古典音乐演奏厅、是酒廊、是百老汇式，还有一个我实在不知道是什么，因为他外穿着一条闪着灯的内裤耶...是不是rocker啊？我不太清楚。

为什么演唱会叫“有一种精神叫萧敬腾”，我也不知道。其精神是什么，我也不知道。感觉上缺少一个明确的主题。萧敬腾在台上做的动作，或许连他都觉得滑稽，因为他老是在偷笑和露出腼腆和难为情的模样。跟观众说的话，只有“大家好！”“你好吗？”和“这首歌，你们都会唱/你们会喜欢的。”。

但是，在充满爆发力和情感的歌声中、在杂乱无章和尴尬的交流中，却出奇地好玩和好笑！我和朋友们都乐翻了！

这，就是萧敬腾的精神吧！

Bento #182, #183 #184

2012-01-10T08:31:00.004+08:00

3 ultra simple and quick yet nutritious meal ideas!

Basil chicken with fusilli -- inspired by Pasta Mania. Marinate your chicken and leave in the fridge. Takes only 7mins to cook in the morning, including the pasta!

Yoghurt with berries breakfast. Power!

Baked salmon, ham and onion omelette.

My Christmas Present For Myself

2012-01-07T22:49:00.001+08:00

My Second Life has begun.

First Gathering (and Sleeping Over) @ 2012

2012-01-03T16:29:00.007+08:00

What is a better way to start a new year than gathering with a group of best-est friends? We had a warm and fun get together to renew our friendship, foster closer bond and celebrate our lives together.

Ced and Elo are not with us but we keep exchanging messages in watsapp and sent pictures over. Technologies do draw people closer, especially when we are at different parts on this earth! Here's (part of) the wine for the night... cheers, my friends!!

As I was saying... technologies do draw people closer... look at the children...

1st bottle of wine opened for the evening.

Ah Seng brought 2 guitars and the guys started to sing all the oldies from our school days!

These were the only 2 audience for the Old Uncle Band. The children were watching Smurfs and/ or running around, the ladies were busy catching up with one another. Nevermind we just met during Xmas. We are never short of any conversation topics.

Food!

All of them stayed over at my place except Ray's family. The daddies watched bollywood movies, played Tabu (yes, it's TABU, the iphone app), played chor-dai-dee and eat eat eat till 8am.

The kids were quite tired by the time they went up to the house. None of them wanted to follow my plans and wanted to squeeze together on this inflated queen size bed. Fine. In the end, they found it so uncomfortable to squeeze together (although it was fun -- only when you do not need to seriously sleep) that they dispersed to different beds to sleep. I missed out 3/4 of the night because Jaimie developed a fever suddenly. She was all teary, clingy and whiny. I had to sponge her to keep her temperature down while the people outside played Tabu (arrghh! I so wanted to play this game!). The ladies rested at about 4am while the guys continued with their card games till 8am.

Everybody was trying very hard to stay awake in the morning to go for breakfast and go home after that. We all lamented that we were really old... just one night of not sleeping and we all turned into zombies. It was a very simple gathering but it's always the company that counts. Hanging out together in one house, eating, drinking, chatting and watching movies together till the wee hours was a weekly activity when we were in UK. It definitely feels like going back to those good old times!

Happy New Year, our dearest friends! May we make time for more of such gatherings in the year 2012...

A Perfect Xmas Dinner @New Ubin Seafood

2011-12-25T21:25:00.007+08:00

Ah Seng asked if we would like to have dinner together this evening. Since we did not have any plans, we said ok and we went to New Ubin Seafood for dinner. The humble restaurant is at Blk 27 in Sing Min Road Industrial Park A. It is hidden among rows and rows of single storey car workshops. One would never think that a food paradise is hidden there!

Sotong coated with salted egg yolk. 9.5/10. Superb but the sotong can be slightly more tender, in my opinion.

Special kye lan. The leaves were finely chopped and deep fried with ikan bilis. The children thought they were seaweed and gobbled them down with their rice. Must try!!! Very unique dish! 10/10.

Juicy fried Hokkien mee garnished with generous bak you poh. Wah.... 9/10. I am a bit overwhelmed by the crispy lard.

Prawn paste chicken wings. Very crispy skin. 8/10 compared to the other dishes. But if you ask me to give another rating, I would say this is definitely better than the ones served in Holland V XO fish head bee hoon (yes, that infamous rude boss with broccoli styled hair)

Kong bak bao. 10/10 if you are a KBB fan. Do not order if the sight of pork belly meat puts you off.

P/s: the gravy is superb. Goes so well with white rice!

Jaimie says 10/10.

"We tried to count the calories but iphone hanged when we try to input the amount of food consumed..."

Ah Seng brought a white wine. Lovely.

BBQ beef with onions and potato wedges. 11/10. Shiokadooooooooo. The beef cubes were tender and juicy. Best of all, they did not have the "beefy" smell or taste!

This fried rice comes with the BBQ beef. The juice that runs from the BBQ beef was saved and used to fry the rice. Juicy. Fragrant. Flavourful. I thought I was eating claypot rice.

Pork knuckle. So crispy. 2 choices of sauces to go along -- peanut and sweet chilly. I think peanut sauce is better!! 10/10!

When Clement went to New Ubin Seafood 2 weeks ago, he told me that was the BEST dinner ever. I thought he was exaggerating then but now I totally understood what he meant!

Must try!!!! Must try!!!

HappyCall Pan- Muah Chee

2011-12-22T20:20:00.005+08:00

My Christmas present from Clement this year is a HappyCall pan! I have been thinking about this toy for quite some time but was hesitant to make a purchase because I hardly do any proper cooking. And to be honest, my cooking sucks. So when I unwrapped the present and saw a HappyCall pan, I was thrilled!

The package comes with a handbook with a few recipes. Unfortunately, it was all written in Korean. Ajuma doesn't know Korean... so I shall have to figure out what makes the HappyPan happy and what makes it angry...

Delicious looking food with recipe. But sorry, I do not understand a single thing.
Since Clement bought this for me, I must try to make something for him too. My blogger friend Mamabliss is a superb cook and has posted quite a few recipes using HappyCall pan. I looked through them and decided to try making muah chee, which looks relatively easy.

I have nothing in my kitchen so I went to get all the ingredients I needed. Today is not exactly a good day to make something with grounded peanuts because today is 冬至. All the grounded peanuts in the supermarkets were grabbed up to make glutinuous rice balls for the festival! I walked to several places before I found my grounded peanuts! Yippeeee!

And so I did as Pauline demonstrated in her video. First, toast the sesame seeds.

Next, prepare the shallots.

Prepare the coating-- sugar, grounded peanut and sesame seeds.

Here comes the exciting part-- preparing the batter. 1 cup of glutinuous rice flour to 3/4 cup of water. Add the water gradually and mix well.

Brown the shallots.

Then, I scooped up 3/4 of the shallots (another recipe suggested doing so) and poured in the batter evenly into the HappyCall pan. Pauline's recipe says cover and cook for 30sec but another recipe says 3mins. So I opened up at 30sec, not sure, cover up, and cook for 3mins.

Roll the mixture into a dough.

Alright, I know this looks successful and good but in fact, I threw this away. That was because I didn't mix the flour well and when I poured the batter into the pan, I realised there was a lot of undissolved flour at the bottom of the measuring cup. I added more water to get them out and I knew it was not going to be successful. Indeed, it was too soft and sticky. Not nice.

It's ok!! I quickly did everything from step one again, this time extremely careful with the batter.

Mistake number 2: I overcooked the dough. I was washing up some of the utensils while waiting for it to be done and overshot the suggested cooking time. The side of the dough which was in contact with the pan became cripsy!!!! ALAMAK! I quickly rolled it up (actually, it was flapping it since it became crispy...) and removed it from the pan. The crispy side of the dough wouldn't stick much of the coating but generally, it was an OK attempt. At least, the texture was nice.

Phew~~~~~

Definitely not an easy task for an idiot like me. But not a bad try too! *gives myself a pat on the back*

Not a bad bento idea, huh!!! We can prepare the coating the night before. In the morning, we only need about 5mins to prepare the dough. Nice and easy!!

First Xmas Party in 2011

2011-12-18T23:08:00.002+08:00

It's Christmas season again! How could we not have a party? But this time, we only planned the food, we didn't plan the games. Dress theme? Green and red.
Viv is such an excellent host and cook! She homecooked all the food by herself! Even the salsa dip, the salad dressing and the garlic spread on the toast! That is why we love to go over to her place for parties... :)))

This baked mushroom is the best-est dish, in my opinion!

The kids enjoyed the food too. Then, they invaded into Ezra's room to play and poor Ezra was left out in the girls' game. It took some time for him to break into the girls' circle.
We started on the Pictionary game.

Loads of creative drawing, fun and laughter!

Make your guesses.

Parent-Child Bento Making Workshop

2011-12-09T16:25:00.002+08:00

When Rosalind from Mad about Kids left me a message to ask about the possibility of conducting a parent-child bento making workshop, I wasn't optimistic because I had to turn down a few of such invitations due to logistic problems. But Rosalind went all the way out to help me with my constraints and I was able to do this workshop with 14 pairs of parent-child workshop today.

The workshop was held at the Family Lounge at Plaza Singapura. I was quite nervous because I wasn't too sure if I was able to manage a class of adults and children. Will the children be engaged? Will the adults find the workshop lack of useful information? ... and I was quite pleased that it turned out quite well.

Quite an experience for me!! I hope the participants had fun too!

感恩的心

2011-12-08T01:29:00.002+08:00

媛媛：

有一颗感恩的心，你会满足，你会快乐，你会宽恕，你会宁静，你会心灵富裕。人生的道路肯定是凹凸不平，顺利的时候，低下头看看路边的野花，说：“感恩！谢谢你们把我的道路映得更加漂亮！”，跌倒的时候，不要急着爬起来，躺着休息一下，仰望天空，说：“感恩！要不是我跌倒了，我不会从这个角度看到美丽的蓝天白云！”

宝贝，无论遇到什么事，都记得说一声“感恩！”。用谦卑的态度面对人生，你的人生就永远不会偏离轨道太远。

我亲爱的孩子，愿你永远有一颗感恩的心。

家书抵万金

2011-11-21T21:41:00.002+08:00

在电子邮箱时代里，传统的信箱已经成了账单和传单的专用箱。从前打开信箱时，看到蓝色信封的那种喜悦，恐怕现在的孩子已经无法体会了。所以，很早很早以前，我就想等媛媛会读、会写的时候，跟她来个“母女信箱”。我们可以通过信箱交换一个简单的问候、可以感受写信与收信的喜悦、可以让孩子练习写字、可以表达一些情感、可以问一些尴尬的问题。

今天，终于给媛媛做了这个专属信箱。用包装盒子割开一个缝就可以了。

这是我给媛媛投递的第一封信。

Hello Kitty的夹子是我的“信箱”。

绿色的篮子是爸比的信箱。

媛媛通过信箱给我的第一封信。

同一天的第二封信。

我原本以为是“一天一信”就好了。但是媛媛非常非常的兴奋！她一直跟我拿纸写信，一直问我某些字怎么拼音。

“我的头快爆炸了！”她说。

“为什么？”

“因为我写信给把拔和马麻，你们很开心，我也很开心！我就一直写一直写，我满头大汗了！！”

“你喜欢写信吗？”

“喜欢！！可是我写了3封给你，你只写一封给我。”

于是，我又写了一张便条给她，投进小信箱里。

媛媛难掩脸上的喜悦，抱着信箱到床上去读信，又神神秘秘地趴在地上再给我回信。我竟然要劝她停笔，留着明天写。

我小心地把媛媛写给我的信收进文件夹里。

等我的小天使长大，我或许可以坐在摇椅上，慢慢细读品味，这值万金的家书。

媛媛给我们的一封信

2011-11-09T23:07:00.003+08:00

媛媛在奶奶的指导下，写了这封信。除了最后一张图是媛媛自己画的，其余的是奶奶协助，媛媛上颜色。

收到这份信，我和媛爸满满满满满满的感动。

不论将来这样的承诺会不会兑现，都不重要。重要的，是孩子现在的心里自己种下了善的种子。

10km Jurong Lake Run 2011

2011-11-05T21:15:00.002+08:00

Technically speaking, this wasn't the official Jurong Lake Run. This was a launch run of the Jurong Lake Running Club. We signed up because it was only $10 after passion card discount, and there's goodie bag, and there's a buffet dinner after the run. Heh heh heh! No lah, we were not that cheapskate. We just like to run with a group of people.

We were blessed with good weather this evening. There was no event t-shirt and all the runners came in their own running tee. Clement wore the one that printed "18km" for the Newton Run. Wow... quite a lot wore the same event tshirt as Clement but theirs were 30km! This guy wore a biathalon event tshirt. Those girls were McRitchie Runner members. And look at those ang mohs with super duper long and lean legs! Wooo.... this one wore a finisher tshirt for a marathon! Suddenly, I felt so small..... but I remembered what my friend Dawn shared with me just last night -- Running is about completion, not competition. Ahhh, yes!

And so we ran.

Running among a group of fast runners made me lose my pace. After 3km or so, I gave up trying so hard and ran at a comfortable speed. My legs were telling me to slow down too as I had already chalked 35km this week. Upon completing this run, I would have chalked up 45km for this week!! A personal achievement!

I completed the run in 1hr 5mins 38sec, about 3 mins slower than the guys.

This is probably my last running event in 2011. Looking forward to 2012 and more running events!

She Likes To Paint

2011-11-05T21:02:00.003+08:00

Jaimie has always liked to draw and paint. It was I who stopped her from painting because I can get very upset if the furniture, wall or floor is dirtied with paint. To be totally honest, I disliked art because I had never been good at it. The first subject I failed when I was in secondary school was "Computing" (yes, we had an exam on computing in sec 2 and I had ZERO idea what was going on...) and it was followed by Art. Anyway, I wasn't good at any subject except Chinese lah.

Sorry, I digressed.

So this morning, I finally allowed Jaimie to do some art at home. She was very happy to draw with poster colour.

Oh well... seeing the happy smiles on her face, I think I should close two eyes on the dirtied floor...

30th Oct 2011 - 18km Newton Run at ECP

2011-11-03T18:42:00.002+08:00

Completed in 2hr 9mins and 33sec according to official timing.

Thus run was surprisingly the most tiring run I have done so far. It was far more tiring than the 21km SAFRA run I did in Sept.

Pros of Newton Run:

(1) the goodie bag was really goodie! Early birds like us got a sports watch worth more than $100!

(2) the event T shirt is nice

(3) love the sponsered isotonic drink Pocari Sweat

(4) the cold, wet towel given out at the end of the event was very much welcomed

Cons of the Newton Run:

(1) ECP (route is too familar)

(2) PARKING issues

(3) started at 7am. It is too warm already. 6am would be ideal.

Conclusion: I would sign up for Newton Run again if it is not at ECP. The goodie bag is too good to say no to it. :D

School Graduation Performance 29th Oct 2011

2011-11-02T23:58:00.008+08:00

We were all looking forward to 29th Oct 2011 because Jaimie would be performing at her school's annual graduation concert! Jaimie would be performing in 2 items plus a little solo time between 2 performances.

The concert venue was at ACJC. It looked like it was going to be a grand affair!

We were to send Jaimie to school by 1230pm for makeup and final preparation. Jaimie was so excited! She kept asking if it was time to go school yet as she was afraid that she would be late.

The teachers were very busy dolling up the little performers! This is Teacher Shirley, Jaimie's form teacher.

My little star!

My little star with her 2 friends, Shermaine and Seraphine. Seraphine had graduated from the same school last year.

The concert started at 3.15pm. I was almost in tears when I saw the little graduands going up on stage. Oh gosh, it would be Jaimie's turn next year! Will I cry buckets of tears???

The performances put up by the little children were highly entertaining! Each and every one of them was so charming on stage. The innocent faces, the happy dance steps which came from their heart... I really enjoyed myself very much!

Finally, it was Jaimie's turn to be on stage with her Waka Waka dance! We spotted her and quickly snapped pictures of her. Then, as the children moved around on the stage, both Clement and I lost sight of her as ALL THE GIRLS LOOKED ALIKE!

And we found her again during the ending....hahahaha!

This kung-fu performance impressed me most. Not only did the children danced in kung-fu moves, they wrote "Chinese Kung Fu" (中国功夫) with calligraphy pens on stage! As a Chinese teacher, I couldn't love this performance more.

Anyway, when we saw the lyrics of the song, Clement and I laughed until we teared. The lyrics were very meaningful, don't get me wrong. We laughed because we finally understood what Jaimie was trying to sing to us all these while. And we couldn't understand even one line when she was singing!

Jaimie and her classmates changed into another costume and performed the Beijing Opera Song 《唱脸谱》, another of my favourite performance of the concert! Cute dance steps, lyrics loaded with cultural knowledge and most importantly... Jaimie would be doing a solo 4-line after the dance! *BEAMING WITH PRIDE*

Jaimie's solo time!

Then, she recited a poetry 《咏鹅》with 3 other K2 students.

The concert ended at 5.30pm after the finale.

It must be a very emotional moment for the teachers and the graduands. This concert was a milestone and a testimonial of their growth. Congratulations, K2 students! One year later I would probably write a very emotional post about the graduating concert!

我到底在干嘛

2011-10-28T14:17:00.003+08:00

学生曾经问我惭愧和内疚的分别。

我说，惭愧是觉得自己做得不好，觉得不好意思。内疚多有因为伤害了别人而觉得难过、过意不去。

此时，我带着惭愧和内疚的心情写这篇博文。

我，口口声声说我不需要我的孩子考第一名或100分。我，是一名曾经得过“爱心老师”奖的教育工作者。我，甚至是“模范华文老师”得奖人。但是，我在教自己的孩子读书的时候，我没有爱心，没有耐心，我更加不是模范，而是一个极端错误的示范。

教幼稚园一年级的媛媛读英文听写，才教15分钟我的火就开始来了。

“练习了10多次还记不住！！”、“你有没有用你的脑！！！”、“这么简单的拼音！记起来！记起来！记起来！！！”我开始吼叫，媛媛开始慌张。她越慌，越记不得，她越记不得，我越气，我越气，我变得更加暴怒。丢书、拍桌子、摔东西这些恶劣的行为便出现了。

丢给媛爸处理，我带着愤怒到厨房去做点事让自己冷却。冷静下来后，内疚得不得了。

我没有尊重自己的孩子的学习进度。我没有给予我的孩子一个教育工作者应该有的耐心和爱心。我丑陋恶劣的行为，甚至是伤害了孩子的心灵。看到朋友们爱心满满地督促自己的孩子学习，我真的自惭形秽。

我到底在干嘛？

我是在恼怒她“不成材”吗？我是在“望女成龙”吗？我是被工作耗完了我的耐心和爱心吗？我是在揠苗助长吗？还是，我在自责因为自己忙而没有时间陪她学习而趁机发泄情绪？

也许什么都有一点。

但这不是重点。重点是，我写这篇博文自省，诚实地面对自己的缺点，提醒自己要拿出更多的耐心和爱心来教导自己的孩子。况且，说真的，媛媛是一个相当伶俐的孩子。我到底要什么？我对她的要求是什么？我要搞清楚。这样，我才能做一个更好的妈妈。

Deepavali 2011

2011-10-27T22:58:00.005+08:00

It all started with an innocent call for a gathering on the upcoming public holiday, which was Deepavali.

Then, it spun into an Indian themed party cum kids' mini concert. Being the usual crazy group of friends who take fun very seriously, we decided to potluck our favourite Indian food, serve teh tarik, put banana leaves on our plates and eat with our fingers for the gathering. We adults were supposed to come up with performance items too.

It was a gathering we very much looked forward to. We have not had a gathering for a long time and the mommies also had a hilarious discussion on the gathering. And my best friend HappyPig would be joining us for the gathering too! Unfortunately Viv and family were caught in the rain when they went cycling in ECP that very afternoon and Jac caught a cold. They couldn't make it to the gathering. What a shame...

We were serious about dressing up. Bindi, fake nose ring, bangles, traditional Indian costume, jasmine flower... somebody suggested putting coconut oil on our hair but the rest of us violently objected to the idea.

As usual, Jaimie thinks she looks super pretty.

We started with the kids' performance. Every child wanted to "go on stage" first. Some tears was shed due to the unhappiness caused by switching of order. I thought this only happened in getai...?

Rain, the very talented athletic, swung her hula hoop continuously for at least 5mins. Wow. We couldn't even manage 5 rounds.

Jaimie did her Waka waka and Chinese Opera with a Bollywood twist.

Cherrlyn the passionate dancer put up 2 lovely dances for us.

The adults were supposed to perform but look at the spread! We were all salivating and couldn't wait to start our feast. Forget about the performance. Let's dig in!!

As Joyce's birthday was last week and Wolf's coming up real soon, we had a little celebration for them. We put candles on the Indian rojak and sang them the birthday song.

The awesome mommies!

The children~ all girls!!

What is a celebration without playing with sparkles? We went to the garden and the kids had fun drawing in the air with their sparkles. Jaimie actually burnt 4 of her tiny fingers during the play but she did not notice the pain until the party was over.

I say this all the time but I must still say it in every post. We are so blessed to have this group of awesome friends! Each and every gathering is loaded with fun and laughter, and we brought home lots of fond memories (and left over food) at each gathering. Love you guys!!

The Budding Poet

2011-10-17T07:56:00.001+08:00

She wrote this with some of my help. :) Her first poem!!

Lion City Acrobatic Show

2011-10-16T11:24:00.002+08:00

Wolfgirl was really nice. She had some complimentary tickets and when she texted me and asked me if I was keen to bring Jaimie to watch the "Lion City Acrobatic Show", I said ok. I had totally no idea what it was and thought it was some acrobatic performances by our very own local talents.

Well, it turned out that it was a National Education journey for our youngs one. And the acrobats were from Shanghai! The show was divided into 5 acts. Act 1 would be the beginning of Singapore, starting from Sang Nila Utama braved a thunderstorm and landed in Singapore. And then the development of Singapore and then you know the rest of the story.

The children were quite impressed with the laser, sound, light, colours, dance, acrobatic performance etc. Honestly it was an impressive performance with some humor injected into the show. My personal favourite dances were (1) the Rickshaw Dance. It was quite funny and it showed us the days in the early 19th century and (2) Traffic Police Dance. Yes, those were the days when the policemen were mostly Indians and wore shorts! (3) "The Fluttering Romance", where the 2 performers danced (flew) around the air with the support of 2 long red cloth (supposedly the curtains of the newly-wed's bed. Erm, don't ask me how this is linked to the "Lion City" theme.

The finale was the most hilarous part. A giantic comical looking Merlion was pushed out onto the stage and even had water jetting out from its mouth! And there were fountains in front of the stage too. Rain and Jaimie held hands, waved them in the air when "We are Singapore" was played and they sang out loud too. Wolfgirl, Clement and myself were half the time rolling our eyes and half the time laughing at the children.

This show will amuse the children very much but it was just ok for the adults. Anyway, thanks, Wolfie, for inviting us to the show which we would otherwise will not pay $128 per ticket to go!

2011-10-12T19:55:00.001+08:00

Jaimie has been taking tap dance lessons for a few months. This is what she is capable of now. Not very good, not very coordinated, but I love her performance nonetheless. I think she has quite good showmanship! :DD *proud mommy*

Happy Children's Day 2011

2011-10-02T19:13:00.000+08:00

Children's Day had always been on the 1st October but from this year onwards, it will be on the first Friday of October. Hmmm... why? I don't know! But it doesn't matter, as long as the children get to celebrate the day which is dedicated to them! Jaimie's Childcare Centre did a big celebration this year! They participated in a carnival which, while letting the children have lots of fun, attempted to break a Guinness record of having the most number of people doing a limbo rock (I can't remember the conditions lah~).

They even had a children's craft auction to raise fund in helping children fight the cancer.

After the carnival and Jaimie's usual classes, we checked in to Intercontinenal Hotel. I won a weekend stay at the hotel in a lucky draw! We decided to claim our prize on Children's Day as a present for Jaimie. Jaimie was thrilled when she entered the room and exclaimed "BEST PRESENT EVER!". Wow.

Jaimie enjoyed the faciliies in the room, played in the bathtub and watched TV till very late at night. I think she was too excited to fall asleep.

The next morning, we had our complimentary buffet breakfast at Olive. The food there was EXCELLENT!

Going for a dip in the pool after breakfast.

After we checked out and went home, Jaimie did her homework and off she went scooting with daddy. She had the BEST children's day, ever! :)

追梦（明星梦？）

2011-09-26T21:29:00.001+08:00

昨天我们全家人去看了五月天的《追梦》3DNA电影演唱会。今天，回家的路途中出现了这样的一段对话。

（在车里，她要争听原声带的《知足》，我要听《倔强》，两人相持不下的时候...）

媛媛：爸爸！我长大要做五月天！
爸爸：har?不可以啊！不可以去“做”五月天的。
媛媛：（不服气）为什么！
爸爸：因为就好像你不可以做ultraman 一样lor。
媛媛：Ultraman是假的嘛！五月天是真的。
爸爸：呃，对咯！就好像你是黄靖媛，你不可以做Denise还是Teryl（媛媛的同学）的咯。
媛媛：（沉吟片刻）爸爸！！那你带我去看真的五月天！
爸爸：可是五月天的票很贵的叻！
媛媛：我要看真的五月天！我要看真的五月天！
爸爸：这样啊...不然爸爸带你看Mickey Mouse Musical好不好？
媛媛：好！！！我要看Mickey Mouse Musical!...可是五月天叻？
爸爸：Mickey Mouse Musical的票也很贵叻！看了Mickey Mouse就不可以看五月天了。
媛媛：（失望）Har~~~~~~~~?!?!?!?
爸爸：不然我给你选啦。你要看Mickey Mouse还是五月天？只可以选一个。
媛媛：呃...嗯...啊...我要看五月天。
爸爸：好，那就五月天咯！
媛媛：耶！！！！！！爸爸爸爸！《知足》！！（五音不全）怎么去拥有一道彩虹、怎么去拥抱一夏天的风、天上的星星笑地上的人、叽里咕噜叽里咕噜足够...

A GREAT Day!

2011-09-25T20:51:00.000+08:00

It has been a long while that we packed the whole day full of activities! The morning began Clement bringing Jaimie to Jurong Central Park to play her scooter which she got yesterday while I did my grocery shopping in Jurong Point. Then, we met at the McDonald's for a sumptuous breakfast.

After that, we went home. Clement and Jaimie went for a dip in the swimming pool while I spent the hour doing housework. We were all looking forward to the afternoon program -- Mayday 3DNA Movie/ Concert at GV Marina! Clement and I watched it last Friday. We loved the movie/ concert so much that we decided to watch it again and this time, we brought Jaimie along.

Jaimie was super happy to go to the cinema! She might be small but she is a big fan of Mayday, just like her mommy!! Errr.. Jaimie, we need to take another shot. Please point somewhere else...

Yeah!

The audience was taking photos in the cinema before the show began, just like what we usually do before the concert starts. Some people even brought in the trademark blue lightstick into the cinema! Wow!

Jaimie really rocked with the songs! She was singing ALOUD (and I really meant LOUD) and waving her hands in the air while kicking her feet. After the movie, she made 2 comments. (1) the music was too loud (2) please bring her to a real Mayday concert. Dear, it is going to be even LOUDER in a concert! How? And I am not going to pay $168 for your ticket and get you ear plugs.

Dinner at Just Acia. The little girl ordered cheese rice with fried ebi. She ate half the portion and showed me her big and round stomach to convince me that she was very, very full. Then, she ate some ice cream. Hmmm...

Her drawing has improved lately. She added many details to her pictures.

This was Mr Bump (from Little Men) falling off the ladder while trying to repair the chimney. The drawing was dedicated to her daddy.

Mommy gets a princess picture. On the left is Rapanzel and her tower. On the right is Cinderella with her glass slippers... if you can tell it's a glass slipper.

All I can say, is that today is a GREAT DAY!

Waka Waka!

2011-09-13T18:35:00.002+08:00

Jaimie rehearsing at home. I think this is for her kindergarten graduation concert. I am not very sure! She does this African inspired dance often at home. She is also dancing to a Chinese opera song. Hmmmm... my little star going international?

1st Half Marathon and a Marathon Week

2011-09-10T14:53:00.005+08:00

This September is a memorable one. I did my first half marathon and in one week, I did a marathon's distance worth of exercising!

4 September 2011 - SAFRA Bay Run/ Army Half Marathon, 21km.
With encouragement and challenges from my running buddy Wolfie, I completed my 21km in about 2hr 30mins.

I was in quite good form that day and ran the entire 21km. So proud of myself! My average speed was 8.4km/h.

7 Sept 2011 - MacRitchie Resevoir, 10.5km

From the fun photos you know that we didn't run. We walked (exercised our legs) and talked (exercised our mouth) and laughed (exercised our facial muscles) for 10.5km. We took about 2hr 20min.

8th Sept, 10th Sept 2011 - 2x5km on treadmill

I ran at 10.1km/h and 10.2km/h for 5km on the 2 days respectively.

In total, I did a marathon distance in a week! :))

Now, my resolution for 2012 is to do a full marathon in 6hrs!

I hope I will be able to do that!

M&M

2011-08-25T19:08:00.003+08:00

This is done by the great artist Saulne. This is an old piece of work he did some years back.

He noticed that M&M is my energy booster, caffaine, morphine, anti-depressant, PMS food etc. He warned me that if I eat too much of it, I will end up looking like one.

Woooo.... scary!

But I am not about to give up my solution to all my troubles.

Bento #181

2011-08-21T13:43:00.002+08:00

Same old boring combination. Jaimie prefers to eat familar food. The meatballs in the bento made her very happy.

Food For Thoughts

2011-08-19T22:36:00.006+08:00

The teacher mommies team has not met for a long long time. Wolfgirl and I happened to be available on this Friday evening for dinner. We tried our luck to call Joyce and Viv to join us and being such great friends we are, the 2 girls made changes to their schedule just to have an evening out together!

It is a tradition to have a dress up theme whenever we meet. Since next Saturday is the Presidential Election, we decided to use that as a theme!

Joyce coming as "The First Lady".

Wolfgirl is "Cheng Hoo Lang" (Government people). Always serve and greet with a smile although growling inside. Er, yes, she was very hungry because she missed lunch.

Viv is "The People's President". She came in flip flops.

I put on my glasses. Isn't that very obvious?!
We had very intellectual discussion over a very, very big spread. We polished off everything! We didn't "liow bee" (waste rice) and we don't jiak liow bee. The phrase "food for thoughts" is so true. We need to eat so that we can think. And so we thought hard who to vote for. After a lengthy discussion, we decided that we should vote for Mr Tan GG*.

We continued our very in depth discussion over yoghurt. See, my yoghurt has nata de coco. They said it's Dr TT's white hair. Viv ordered a mixture of flavours. So hers is the one who supported both the ruling and the opposition party. The other 2 are just there for show.

Hanging out with my dear friends is so fun! As usual, we discussed about education, our children's development, fashion, cooking, food, health, family etc. I love these friends of mine!

*Tan GG= Tan Gu Gu

媛媛爱爸爸~

2011-08-05T23:58:00.002+08:00

睡觉时间到了，媛媛自己刷牙时，帮还没回家的爸爸准备好牙刷和牙膏。

Bento #180

2011-08-04T14:44:00.002+08:00

I love this! Prata with nutella! Yummy yummy yummy!

Lesson learnt this morning while I was frying the prata -- do not multi-task when you are pan frying your food. Concentrate on the fire. This morning, I burnt 3 pieces of prata. After the 3rd prata turned into charcoal then I learnt my lesson. How clever.

Bento #179

2011-08-03T15:54:00.002+08:00

This "garden" themed bento is for Jaimie. "Mushroom" bread, carrot flowers and a giant, sleepy caterpillar.

My original idea was to put the "umbrella hook" food pick on the bread so that they became umbrellas. However, the food pick could not support the weight of the bread and took up some space in the bento box. So I put in the fish tofu cubes and chuck my "umbrellas" upside down.

Bento #177, Bento #178 and Exchanging Bentos With Students

2011-08-02T15:45:00.004+08:00

I shared with my students about bento making during class last week and it got them so excited. They kept bugging me to make bentos for them but it was just impossible to make so many! Hence, I told them we could do a exchange bento! Those of them who wanted to try their hands on bento-making can bring one to school and we would do an exchange.

This morning, I woke up at 5.15am to make 3 bentos. This oven-baked crispy chicken bun was for Clement. The chicken pieces were too chunky so I cut them into halves and they fit nicely.

This was for Jaimie.

I made this for the bento exchange.

After the lesson time, we put our bentos together and took some photos. The students were both shy and proud to show the very FIRST bento they made!
To decide who would take whose bento, we played the "choot hoh beh" game. :D

These bentos may not be the most beautifully ones but they were definitely filled with love. I hope this simple exchange would add some more fond memories to their secondary school life!

Bento #176

2011-08-01T21:04:00.002+08:00

Clement said it's "Mister Angry". Jaimie said "His crown is upside down".

That's the difference between a pessimistic and an optimistic person.

In-House Bento-making Workshop

2011-07-29T21:55:00.006+08:00

After I conducted the bento making workshop organised by Health Promotion Board (HPB), I received quite a few invitations from several organisations, asking if I could do something similar. I would love to say YES to all of them but it was unfortunate that due to time contraints or logistics problems, I had to turn them down.

Hence,when my colleague, SW, approached me and asked me if I could do a in-house bento making workshop with her Girl Guides, I said yes immediately! :)

After some discussion with SW, we decided to keep it simpler by just doing bread bento. I listed down the stuff needed and SW settled that with the girls. We used the school's cookery room for the workshop. Quite simple logistic!

We began with workshop with a 45mins "theory" lesson. After that, the girls couldn't wait to start the hands-on.

They were more creative than I thought! They had very simple tools to play with compared to the participants at the HPB workshop but their creations were just as exciting!

Some colleagues came to attend the workshop too!

The girls had a lot of fun for 2 hours! They were so proud of their own creation and they were excited about presenting their bento to their parents. Awwww... this is why I like to conduct workshops!

As my morning routine has changed, I haven't been able to make "presentable" bentos which I can blog about but I still make simple ones for Jaimie and Clement. The happy faces on the students gave me a glimpse of how Jaimie looked when she brought her bento to school.

What is bento? Bento is LOVE. :)

Angry (Bird) -Angie

2011-07-27T21:16:00.004+08:00

Remember I mentioned about the talented, funny-to-the-max comic artist Saulne whom we met during our trip to France?

That day, one of my colleagues SW posted something in her FB status which I thought was SO COOL.

"Life is like playing angry bird. When you fail, there will be a few pigs laughing."

I had to share with Saulne (Sylvain) this phrase because he is a big ~~addict~~ fan of angry bird! Then we started to talk about angry birds and I told him some of my students described me as "an angry bird"...=.=

He said it gave him an idea for a comic and he used my face in the comic!

Oh my god!!!! This is SOOOO COOOLL!!!! I have a comic strip drawn using my face!!! This is totally AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you so much, my friend!!!

Kids' Kampong

2011-07-24T15:11:00.006+08:00

Wow.. when was the last time we had fun doing longkang fishing? It was almost 2 years ago! So when YS messaged me and invited us to celebrate Seraphine's 7th birthday at the Kids' Kampong, both Jaimie and I were thrilled. Clement is out of town so he missed the fun. Here's Seraphine, the birthday star, also the "Queen Fisher". She was good at longkang fishing!

When we stepped into the fishing area, we saw lots and lots of fish in the longkang. "Aiyah, a piece of cake, lah! Looks so much easier than the Bottle Tree Park longkang fishing!" I told myself. I handed over the net and the bucket to Jaimie and told her to go and catch the fish. "Just scoop, you will be able to catch. So easy!" Then, I stepped aside to make some phonecalls. Before I could finish making the call, Jaimie came to me, frustrated and disappointed. She couldn't catch A SINGLE fish.

I told her to show me how did she go about fishing. She demonstrated. Well, she was literally running after the fishes and plunge her fishing net into the longkang randomly.

"Aiyoh!! Jaimie!! Not like that! Come, mama show you!" With so much confidence, I chose a spot where there were many fish. "Look, this is how you should do it..." I told Jaimie. The moment I dipped my net into the water, all the fishes dispersed. "MOMMY!! The fishes are gone!" exclaimed Jaimie, who was even more disappointed by now. "Errrrr, dont worry!! I will catch them for you!"

And after that, I squatted beside the longkang for the next 30mins, perspiring and frustrated at the cunning fishes which swam in lightning speed. I managed to catch a decent number of fish (mostly young ones or sickly ones) and Jaimie was extremely pleased. Oh, Jaimie caught one too! But it was a dead fish.

After the longkang fishing, it's animal feeding time before we feed the little ~~animals~~ children.

They even have fighting fish! It's $4 for a match.

The children had a lot of fun feeding the animals and even experienced being pecked by the hungry ducks during the feed!

Now, it's the moment they have been waiting for -- lunch! While waiting for YS to pick up the kids' meals from MacDonalds, the children gathered for a drink while peeping at the birthday cake again and again.

Xaeus, so cheeky!

The final program for the day was "Pet Show". The kids were laughing so hysterically when 2 mice were put on a rappelling competition. They had the chance to touch and carry the pets too.

Before the children went home, they had their fishes packed for them. I convinced Jaimie to let the fishes go. Jaimie wanted to bring home the fishes very much but she is indeed a very kind and compassionate girl. She bid her (MINE!) fishes goodbye and sent them back to the longkang.

It was a very unique birthday party and I'm sure the children will remember it for a long, long time. Happy Birthday, Seraphine! Thank you for inviting us to your special party!

Jaimie's Second Visit To The Dentist

2011-07-24T14:50:00.002+08:00

Jaimie had a very pleasant dental experience with Dr Eng last September. She's overdue for her second visit and I finally found time to bring her to clean up her pearly whites yesterday. Unlike her mommy (yours truly), she was quite excited about visiting the dentist. She remembers Dr Eng, the clinic and the room.

The usual routine was done-- polishing, scaling, X-Ray (to check the development of her adult teeth) and learning to brush properly. Her 2 lower front teeth are a teeny wheeny bit shaky, according to Dr Eng. He predicted that they would be replaced at about half a year later.

So, it's pizza to celerate a successful visit to the dentist. :) Jaimie ate 5/8 of the 7" Hawaiian pizza.

France, Paris, See you again!

2011-07-10T22:13:00.009+08:00

We spent our last few days in Paris doing more sightseeing and shopping. The plan which Cedric and Elodie drawn out for us was changed "every 30 seconds" (in Cedric's words) because we were falling sick one by one. It's Clement's turn to run a high fever while Pam's 2 children had not gotten much better. This picture was taken behind the Paris Opera House. That's the "full strength" for that day.
Fragonard is THE famous perfume maker in France. I bought some for my friends.

Paris Opera House, front view.

Then we proceeded to the 7th floor of Galleries Lafayette, where the viewing gallery was. The interior design is stunningly beautiful!

At the viewing gallery, where we could see the entire Paris.

After lunch, Cedric had to go back to the office and Elodie took over as the tour guide. Terry brought the kids to join the afternoon tour after they had rested in the morning. Poor Xaeus and Xalicia. Their fever just wouldn't go down.

Moulin Rouge was our next destination!

The children were super excited about Eiffel Tower.

Jaimie broke into a dance in her excitment.=.=''' This is so Bollywood.

We didn't go up the Eiffel Tower as the tickets were sold out till next week!!! And we went for our boat ride along River Seine. Clement was feeling very unwell and he didn't take any pictures.

The next day, which was the second last day in Paris, Clement was running a very high fever already so he didn't join us for the morning. He rested at home with Elodie while we visited Notre Dame therefore no pictures. He joined for lunch and then he went back to the apartment again. This time, he went back with the guys as the ladies were going to take a break and have some time to ourselves! Guess where we went?

I am a very happy woman!

Then, Elodie brought us to have the best macarons in Paris for our afternoon tea. I was very pleased to know that they are have the same luxury pastry shop in Mandarin Gallery! It's renamed as Antoinette. Can't wait to go there to have a luxurious afternoon tea again!

The guys were cooking dinner (how nice!) when we came back to the apartment for our final dinner gathering.

Terry and Pam.

Yeow Seng and Shelley.

Cedric and Elodie.

Us. With Clement pretending to look ok.

That was how he looked (wearing his thick jacket indoor due to the fever!)

Cedric prepared this rum for us and the guys were made to drink some. Clement was not spared. According to Cedric, this was what Clement needed for a good night's rest!

On our last morning in Paris, Clement was still too unwell to join us so no pictures again. I snapped this one with my handphone. It's a rare picture with all the children!! By the way, we threatened them so that they sat still for 15 seconds for the picture. Heh heh heh.

After some touring and final souvenir shopping, we took taxi to the airport at 5pm. We took a long, long, long, long, long time to check in (Changi Airport is one of the world's best airport, we must be proud of it!!!) and by the time we were done, the eateries in the airport were closing. We grabbed some sandwiches and had a quick dinner.

The goodbye was difficult. All the girls were crying at the departure gate and the boys exchanged long handshakes and hugs. Cedric and Elodie will try to come to Singapore next year. We said we'll return 5 years later.

Our 18 days trip has finally came to an end. We brought back more than 2000 photos, loads of memories and tons of bond for our friendship.

This is a wonderful, wonderful trip.

France, Paris, Picnic @ Parc Floral

2011-07-09T20:46:00.007+08:00

The sun was smiling brightly on the day Cedric and Elodie planned for us a picnic in the park. Elodie baked some really yummy bread and chocolate cake (which a non-chocolate eater like myself ate 3 slices!!!!!) and packed salad, ham, beer (but of course!), snacks etc. As Elodie was exhausted from running around for the past few days, she didn't join us for the picnic but rested at home. And today we witnessed how forgetful was Cedric.
First, he forgot his wallet when he went to buy gorcery with Clement in the morning. He placed all the stuff on the conveyer belt, dug his pockets, and started to put everything back to the basket. When Clement asked him, he sheepishly said he forgot his wallet so Clement picked up the bill for him. Then, he totally forgot about the picnic bags when he alighted from the metro and I picked them up. Last but not least (literally), he lost his blackberry in the park! Thankfully, a very kind lady picked it up and Cedric retrieved his dear phone after about an hour of anxiety and searching. Well, well, well.
Parc Floral is a very nice park for picnics. The weather was great! It was cloudy and windy with occasional sun. The moment we reached the pond area, the children dashed to see the swans and started running around happily.
The moment we laid the mat and spread out the food, they flocked in and asked for bread.... to feed the birds! We said NO NO NO! They could only take the left overs for the birds. The birds DO NOT eat before us. So, the children gobbled down the food and asked for bread. We were busy eating and hence didn't notice what they were doing with the bread. Only when they came back for more servings of the bread then we realised that they were feeding all the animals in the park. And we had to stop them. We haven't had our sandwiches yet!

Cedric hadn't noticed that he lost his phone in this picture.

Our family pic. :)

After Cedric found his phone, and we had finished all the food while waiting for him to find his phone, we moved to the playground area where the children further expanded their energy.

Well, so did the old boys.

Pam's children were running a fever. They rushed to the nearby clinic when the fever spiked to 41 deg. Cedric had to made phonecalls (1, to ask where's the nearest clinic to Parc Flora and 2, make a phonecall to the clinic to make an appointment. Yes, in France, you cannot just walk into the clinic. You need to make an appointment. And you need to get your medicine at the pharmacy, which is not inside the clinic) and bring them to see the doctor. So Yeow Seng's family and us stayed in the park to do some cycling and have a cuppa tea while waiting for them.

It was a really relaxing afternoon for all of us. There is no need to spend a lot of money and the children had lots of fun while the adults had a relaxing time chilling out (except for Cedric~), enjoying the weather, the fresh air and the company.

After the children had seen the doctor, we took the metro to Belleville, where the Chinatown is, and had our cravings satisfied. The food here is GOOD! And Elodie joined us for dinner. We saw a notice written in Chinese put up at the restaurant entrance. It was an appeal for the Chinese to join a demonstration against being bullied in France. It said something like "The Chinese should not be victims of robbery, theft, extortion and exploitation! Let's unite and let our voices be heard! Chinese people are not weaklings. United we stand!". I can't remember the exact content of the notice but it's something like that. Wow. Yes! 我们不是东亚病夫！

France, Paris, The Beauty of Paris

2011-07-08T16:44:00.006+08:00

After a very tiring at Disneyland, our very thoughtful friend Cedric planned something nice and easy for us the following day. We visited the Church of the Madeleine and Louvre. Very, very beautiful church.

Street view from the top of the stairs to the church. A lovely couple had just had their wedding in the church.

The door itself is a piece of art work.

I was trying to explain to Jaimie about stone sculpture in simple and kiddy terms when she suddenly replied, "我知道，是石匠雕刻出来的。" My jaws dropped. She knew this from one of the stories she read and she could relate what she read to what she saw! I cannot be more impressed.

Then, we went to the Concorde. Cedric gave us a history lesson but unfortunately I was too busy watching over Jaimie (whom I suspect was still high from the previous day's trip to Disneyland...) that I couldn't get much of it. Sorry, pal. I will read up from the internet. Promise.

We did a lot of tourist-y pictures in Louvre. Well, we're tourists!!

France, Paris, Disneyland

2011-07-07T18:05:00.015+08:00

The biggest highlight of this trip, to the children (and adults!) is definitely Disneyland! The children already had lots of fun in Legoland and we promised them MORE FUN in Disneyland!
Hence, the most often heard threat during the trip was "if you do not behave/ eat your dinner/ sleep early/ take your medicine/(any other desired action by the kids), you will NOT go to Disneyland!"

So, well, here we are!!! Euro-Disney with our personal guide, Mr and Mrs Cedric!

First thing first, buy accessories so that the children (maybe adults?) can wear for the day!
3 Minnie-wannbes and a little wizard.
First stop first, er... I cant remember the name! Thunder something?! It's the most popular ride in Disneyland with the longest queuing time. We spent about 45mins to wait for our turn. It's definitely worth the wait!

Then, we ventured into the haunted mansion.

Jaimie didn't say that she was a little frightened but I could sense her nervousness when she saw the hideous creatures. I kept telling her those were not real and made fun of them. She bravely sat through the ride. Well done, my girl!
Pirates of the Carribbean wasn't scary after we have been into the haunted mansion.
Jaimie was absolutely delighted to see the legendary princesses! She totally believed that she had seen the REAL Cinderella and company.

After the 2 not-so-child-friendly thrilling visits, "It's a Small World" lightens up the children's mood immediately and they were grinding broadly when they were on the ride. A contrast to their quiet and wary look earlier.

Happy after the Small World ride.

The children's favourite uncle. He planned the sequence of the rides so that we could maximise our time there, ran to get express tickets for us, entertained our children, carried them when they were tired... Uncle Cedric, WE (the adults) LOVE YOU!!

The lovely couple. We were tired running around the whole day, let alone Elodie who is pregnant with 7mths! Thank you, Elodie! You are wonderful.

One of the few group pictures with EVERYBODY looking at the camera.

We hopped over to Disney Studio, the neighbouring theme park which were not in operation yet when we last visited EuroDisney in 2002.

We took the "Hollywood Hotel Tower" without knowing what was installed for us. We screamed and screamed during the ride but Jaimie enjoyed it (!!!!!!!). Pam told me she was so frightened that she nearly peed in her pants. Wahahahaha!! I shall not reveal what was this ride about over here.

Me and Pam.

We were in time for the meet and greet session. The kids were thrilled, as usual. Jaimie thought she finally met Mr Woody and Ms Jessie in real person...

We went for a train ride around the studio. I was so tired I fell asleep during the ride.

After the power nap, I was ready for more fun again!

We went to Planet Hollywood for dinner at about 8pm. It was VERY CROWDED. We were hungry and we were angry with the long wait. Well, hungry = angry.

Jaimie fell asleep almost instanteously when we took the train back to the 1925 apartment. The girl slept all the way home and through the night and only woke up at about 10am the next day. Sorry, she didn't shower for the day.

This is my 4th visit to Disneyland. I simply love the place and this visit was definitely the best. Why? Because it is the happiest place on earth and it is even happier when you are there with your FAMILY and FRIENDS!

Paris 18th-22nd June 2011 -- An apartment built in 1925

2011-07-06T21:41:00.007+08:00

To me, it only exists in the black and white movies. Old apartments built in the early 20th century with the legendary lifts with iron grills, squeaky parquet floor and noisy taps. In Singapore, we lived in a city where modernisation takes priority. It is really hard for me to imagine living in an apartment built almost a century ago. However, old buildings are proudly and carefully conserved in France. The apartment Cedric and Elodie lived is built in 1925! We stayed in their apartment while the other 2 families stayed in another rented apartment. It was a very special experience for me, to stay in a "movie set". It was almost like a dream come true.

The beautiful apartment built in 1925.

It is a hilly place. I wanted to go jogging around the neighbourhood but the slopes were so steep that I decided to give myself a break.

The room Cedric and Elodie prepared for us. It is going to be their princess's nursery!
The most modern part of the house-- the kitchen!

Carpeted corridor and staircase with romantic orange dim lightings.

The lift can only take 2 people. You need to open the iron grill to get into the lift.

The walkway in the house.

The entrance.

We took a walk to Sacred Ceour as it is rather near Cedric's apartment. So beautiful by the night.

and so beautiful by the day too!

We could see the beautifully lit Eiffel Tower from a distance.

Lots of shopping and good food around the area. There were many traditional French restaurants around with people playing traditional French music on the accordion. The whole ambience is just so, so, so romantic!

The salad is SSSSOOOOOO GOOOODDDD that we requested to go back again for lunch! I was very full but I still stuffed myself with the delicious salad (it's not a very healthy salad, by the way, with the enormous amout of deep fried potatoes and the other oh-so-heavenly dressing).

It was really a very unique and nice experience to live in an old apartment. I simply love it!

France, Rochefort 12-17th June 2011

2011-07-01T23:10:00.015+08:00

We took the budget airline to cross over to France to visit the dear and crazy French men, Cedric, at his hometown Rochefort. It was indeed a crazy experience because we mistook the TOOK OFF time as the BOARDING TIME. It was totally our bad. By the time we realised our horrible mistake, the plane was going to take off in 15mins. We rushed to the customs and wasted more time due to the stringent security clearance. Then, like you see in movies, we shouted "EXCUSE ME!!!", jumped over bags, squeezed our way through queues, sprinted across long corridors and reached the gate of the jet plane A FEW SECONDS before the door closed on us. Literally.

We spent the entire flight catching our breath and wiping away our cold sweat. When we saw Cedric, Elodie, his mom and his friends at La Rochelle airport, the joy was doubled. After exchanging hugs and kisses, we were dispatched into different cars and drove to Corrine's (Cedric's mom) big big house in Rochefort.

Corrine's house is beautiful. It was not only big, functional, bright, cosy and homely, it was absolutely beautiful by any standard. I could only say it is like the bed and breakfast in Taiwan, only better. We had the most wonderful part of our trip in this house.
Elodie is 7 months pregnant with a princess (and she is still so thin!!!!!) Anyway, it is with honor and pride for me to share with the readers of the Kinigu blog that I AM the official God-mother of this princess! It was formally asked and announced over dinner and champagne! I AM THE GOD-MOTHER!! *Leaping with joy*

Corrine kept a gorgeous garden at the back of her house. She grew roses, lavander, salad leaves, herbs, fruits........ everytime she needed to cook a dish, make a dessert or brew a tea, she would walk into the garden and get the freshest and organic ingredients she needs! And the kids had a wonderful time plucking raspberries and strawberries from her garden.

It was certainly very, very, very good to see our dear old crazy friend again!

The kids had a wonderful time playing in the garden. They were chasing one another or chasing after a ball. Otherwise, Uncle Cedric would be happily playing with them while the rest of us enjoyed a cup of nespresso or organic tea. At night, Uncle Cedric would oblige them and bring them to see wild rabbits. The kids had so much fun that they were reluctant to go to bed even though they were yawning and it was past midnight.

We were pampered with lots and lots and lots of good food.

Freshly baked homemade bread was available on the table all day long (oh my god, as I am writing this post, I could still remember the aroma of the bread from THAT bread-making machine!).

We had the FRESHEST possible mussles.

Salad.

Lots of cheese. We were made to eat all sorts of cheese because we made Cedric eat durian when he was in Singapore. Sweet revenge for him. Hahaha!

We had the finest wine and champagne.

Elodie made the BEST crepe.

I dont know what tea this was but it was simply the BEST tea I have ever tasted! Cedric plucked a bunch of I-dont-kn-what leaves and put into the teapot. My god... it was heavenly!!

We had barbeque lunch.

Elodie baked this yummiest appetizer.

The children made this dessert together with Corrine, using the raspberries from her garden.

We had seafood platter one evening. According to the oyster eaters (I am not), the oysters were DEE BEST.

We hardly left the house for these 5 days. We were either sitting around this table to eat and talk...

or we spent time in the garden, eating and talking too.

On one of the afternoons the children went to the seaside (I chose to stay behind to enjoy the house and also to keep Jaimie company as she was having a fever).

On one of the days we visited the rope museum and the construction site of a ship.

The boys, as usual, had loads of fun and crazy moments. It was a time of total relaxation, both mentally and physically.

The Singaporeans decided to show appreication to our hospitable host by cooking some Singaporean dishes.

And they went marketing with Master Chef Chuah, who brought the instant chilli crab mix, instant laksa mix, instant chicken rice mix and instant bak-kut-teh mix from Singapore.

The kids entertain themselves while the adults spent a busy afternoon in Corrine's big and fully-equipped kitchen.

We found carrots, chinese mushrooms and chinese noodles in Corrine's cabinate and helped ourselves to the ingredients. We whipped up another dish-- Singaporean fried noodles, which the French raved about.

We bought a pot of orchid for Corrine to thank her for her hospitality. She is such a charming lady that we all fell in love with her. Did I mention that she is a famous dance teacher? I came back to Singapore regretting not having the courage to ask her to show us some steps.

On the left is Cedric's extremely talented and funny friend, Sylvain, otherwise known as Saulne. Click on the hyperlink to check out his art work. It's a little complex for me to introduce him here. Basically he is a drawer who has published a few books under his name! He makes comics for iphone too. I asked Elodie to verbally translate one of his books (Title: It Cost Me Nothing) for me. It was simply brilliant! The artwork was fantastic too. No, I am not overrating his talent.

The boys bought this tshirt. We told Cedric to wear it when Elodie gives birth. :D
The girls decided that they could not lose out to the boys. We went shopping and bought this very appropriate group t-shirt too!

More chor-dai-dee game at late night.

Here's me enjoying a drink at Corrine's kitchen.

Forfeit!

5 days just flew pass as we laughed and played. Our next stop was Paris with Cedric and Elodie. We had to bid Corrine farewell. We exchanged more hugs and kisses as we bid Corrine and her friends goodbye at the railway station. We already miss her before we said goodbye.

Shelley couldn't hold back her tears while I pretended to be strong.

Dear Corrine, thank you so much for having us. Thank you for taking care of us (and so many of us!!!). You made us feel so at home and at ease. We had so much wonderful memories in your beautiful house (sorry we messed it up!!!). We really couldn't thank you enough and we really wanted to visit you and go to your house again soon! Take care! Till we meet again! Au revoir!

2011 UK Trip -- Legoland

2011-06-29T19:20:00.010+08:00

The rain clouds were following us everywhere in UK. We had to make a lot of alternate arrangements due to the bad weather. The funny thing was, the moment we stepped indoor, the sun shined brightly but it rained cats and dogs the moment we stepped outside. With this kind of weather, it was also very difficult for us to choose our attire. We looked at the morning sun and brought our shades and wore short sleeves. After breakfast, the dark clouds appeared from nowhere and started a downpour, just for us.=.=

On the morning we were deciding to venture to Legoland or not, the same thing happened. The sky looked dreadfully threatening. After debating over the breakfast table for almost an hour (and we took another 2 hours to rent 3 cars), we took the gamble. And we won! We had one of the best days in the tour in Legoland!

We customerize our own virtual driver and vehicle and had a race.

Jaimie enjoyed all the thrilling rides! Thankfully she meets the height limit for most of the rides, which is 1m.

This viking was too kiddy for Jaimie. It was just a warm up for her.

She went on the REAL THING! And she asked to go AGAIN!! And I dare not take the ride! Check out the dark clouds n the sky!!

Roller coaster. She was happy to take the 1st seat.

Again! Again!

*Yawn*

This one doesn't go as high up like the one in Genting. It just swung you around.

Uncle Yeow Seng: "Am I the only one feeling scared?"

Legoland is a big theme park with lots of rides! One of Jaimie's favourite theme parks.

Firemen!!

Toot toot train for the "young and old".

Jaimie flew the helicopter. I was the co-pilot. :)

Scenery from London made with Lego. Whatelse?

Definitely one of the best days in UK. The weather was windy and couldn't decide to rain or not. We only had a brief shower during our lunch break and were blessed with a relatively dry day.

2011 UK Tour -- Something New

2011-06-26T16:22:00.004+08:00

These girls are the new additions to the group.

For some of us, it was a first visit to Warwick Castle. Jaimie was totally impressed as I told her this was where the REAL Kings and Queens and Princesses lived. Actually, I think I gave her the wrong information. Ah, never mind. At least now she has an idea how big is a real castle.

She believed they were real.

There was even an interactive session with the kids where this princess asked the kids to vote for the wedding dress for her sister. Jaimie was TOTALLY convinced that she was a real princess!

Everyday was filled with so much fun and adventure that we forgot it was past our normal dinner time. Plus, the sun set was at 9.30pm and made it seem early to have dinner at 7pm. We ate in this Taiwanese Restaurant in London. They serve quite authentic Taiwanese food!

When we were young and travelling without kids, we walked the whole of London. Gone were the days. We decided to give ourselves a break by taking a boat tour around London. Aaahhhhh~~ it sure felt good to sit down and enjoy the breeze!

Come, take picture with me and pay me money!

I had to control my laughter when I saw who was behind the mask!

The guys were very adventurous and decided to do punting themselves. That is certainly something they had never done before. With their punting skills, we were unable to go very far nor were we able to relax to enjoy the beauty of Cambridge. This is definitely a new experience for all of us. :)

2011 UK Trip -- It's the same but it's not the same

2011-06-26T08:38:00.006+08:00

We went to some places we used to frequent when we were there 9 years ago. There is very minimal change even after almost a decade.

Towerbridge, of course does not change but I had a more awesome view of it compared to the last time I saw it.

This mailbox, which stood opposite 20 Folly Cresent, was where I posted letters and cards to my loved ones back home. It meant quite a lot to me but now it was standing alone in a half deserted neighbourhood.

The pub near where we stayed is the same. Everytime we drove pass Prince of Wales, it would be just another 3mins before we reached our doorstep.

Shopping at the same favourite mall.

Induldging in the same ice cream shop.

Found our old friend Connie. She aged quite a bit.

Chinatown remains exactly the same. I felt that time has stood still when these people migrated over. They brought over everything from their hometown and did not change with time.

Brunel Centre is the same same same!

Tesco is not quite the same. They did some renovation.

My favourite breakfast at Tesco.

We went to these places and most of them remain unchanged. However, it just felt quite different. Fortunately, the friendship and the beer remain unchanged.

2011 UK Trip -- Before and After 9 years

2011-06-25T22:27:00.005+08:00

Cambridge, before.

Cambridge, after.

Munching strawberries in Millet's Farm, before.

Munching strawberries at Millet's Farm, after.

Millet's Farm Entrance, before.

Millet's Farm Entrance, after.

Rows and rows of juicy and sweet strawberries, before.

Rows and rows of juicy and sweet strawberries, after.

The house we used to live in, before.

Now, the whole street is deserted.

Big Ben, before.

Big Ben, after.

Brighton Pier, before.

Brighton Pier, after.

Baby Xaeus.

Xaeus, 9 years old.

俏姑娘

2011-05-29T23:17:00.001+08:00

鬼马双星

2011-05-15T16:41:00.004+08:00

午餐吃了寿司，两个很熟络的小朋友却还是没热起来，其中一个还闷到差点睡着。

“来来来！拍照！拍照！”小朋友立刻从刚才无精打采的样子很专业地摆起pose来。

“做鬼脸！”这些小模特儿的配合度实在是非常的高，立刻弄出了一系列的丑怪模样。

雪糕端上来了，RR眼睛立刻闪烁起幸福的光芒。媛媛还止不住，继续扮鬼脸。

饿虎扑食。不对，刚才不是吃了寿司了吗？

各自吃各自的。睬你都傻。

我自己也叫了一客。然后对媛媛的那杯虎视眈眈。果然，她只吃半杯就饱了。我如愿以偿。

Just Some Photos

2011-05-14T21:27:00.001+08:00

Baking Cookies With Mommy

2011-05-07T19:31:00.004+08:00

First of all, thank you very much, Shelley, for inviting us to this event!! We had such a good time!!
It's baking with mom with love at Hotel Intercontinental. Cookie baking plus high tea. Double wow!

Here's the chief chef for this session. Jaimie was so super excited to bake cookies and doing it together with her good friend Sera made her even happier.

The "official" photographer's job is to... take photos, of course. :)

The 4 girls. Reminds me of the good times we spent baking together when we were in UK.

Jaimie couldn't wait.

Waiting for instructions.

Chef Frankie doing the demo. Yeah! Let's start!

Ah-ah! What are you eating, girl!

Tossing the cookie dough.

Coating with cornflakes.

Little hands at work.

Little hands helping mommy. Love this bonding time.

The helpful chefs walking around to help us.

I made a conscious effort to let Jaimie do as much as she could.

While the cookies were being sent into the oven, we went for the high tea.

Cookies baked with love. :)))

A Very Special Mothers' Day Celebration

2011-05-06T16:11:00.009+08:00

Last week, Jaimie came home and urged me to go to her school to attend the Mothers' Day celebration as she was going to perform.

I wasn't very early but early enough to get a seat right in front so that I would have an unobstructed view later. The celebration started with some ice breaking games among the mommies and then the pre-nursery and N1 children came out to present their mommies with their handmade crowns. The N2 students did a very quick song which I didn't pay attention to because I was busy double checking my sometimes-not-very-reliable Nokia phone that it was not throwing a tantrum.

When the K1 students came on stage, I was beaming with pride when I saw my little girl. I thought she was only to do the introduction but to my surprise, she was actually the lead girl in the performance! Oh my god! I was so, so, so proud of her! She spoke well, sang well, and was totally at ease in front of the audience! After the song, she came up to me and "crowned" me.

Shelley couldn't make it to the celebration so I asked Shermaine to join me. She was happy to sit with Jaimie jie-jie.

After the performances and the little games, it's lunch time. It's a potluck party and I brought some cookies. Jaimie played host very well. She showed me where she showered, where she had her meals and even asked me to sit down as she knew I was the guest.

I took off the handmade crown from my head and had a close look. So, she drew a picture of us on the crown...

There were also 2 photo booths were the mommies and daughters took pictured. I think our picture was taken with Jaimie's teacher's camera. We'll wait for her to email us. This is Jaimie and her best friend in school, Denise. 2 lovely brides.

Here's the video of Jaimie's performance.

This event was really very special and I will remember it very dearly. And I am really happy that Jaimie has grown up to be what she is now.

Thank you, my love. You made me a very, very, very happy mommy.

Tai-tai In The Making

2011-05-02T14:06:00.002+08:00

To be a taitai, you need to get use to hair washing in the salon. Heh heh heh.

Anyway, it was super super cheap. $7.80 to cut and wash. Cheaper than QB or EC Cut.

Mothers' Day Celebration 2011

2011-05-01T18:50:00.002+08:00

I never liked the crowd on Mothers' Day in the restaurants and I dislike their overpriced set menus. So, I decided that we should celebrate earlier this year! We went to Beng Hiang Restaurant for lunch. Good Hokkien food but cannot say for the same for their service.

My mother-in-law busy with Kai Kai.

Me and my mommy.

Jaimie took this picture. :)

The 3rd mommy.

We had so much food! Luckily I ran my first 21km yesterday~ hopefully it helps~

I love family meals together like this. Happy Mother's Day to 妈妈，妈咪 and myself!!

My Best Mother's Day Gift

2011-04-30T21:41:00.000+08:00

Reflections

2011-04-26T08:34:00.000+08:00

Jaimie's Draws Rapunzel and Cat

2011-04-24T19:49:00.000+08:00

Jaimie's Second Crush

2011-04-24T00:12:00.002+08:00

Jaimie's first crush happened when she was in N1.

Clement told me Jaimie's in love, again.

The dialogue between Clement and Jaimie was something like this:

Clement：你喜欢Superman 还是 Spiderman?

Jaimie：Superman。当Superman看到我的时候，他会说：‘哇！媛媛，你好美啊！我要跟你结婚！’。（低头，含羞答答地微笑）

I must be the luckiest mother-in-law on earth.

Bento #174, #175

2011-04-15T20:47:00.003+08:00

Clement's Old Chang Kee curry puff bento.

Jaimie's noodle bento.

Note (Warning) to Self

2011-04-14T17:34:00.002+08:00

Mental note: (1)no chicken briyani unless I run a half marathon. (2)no hor fun, laksa, mee siam, chicken rice unless I run 45 rounds the track. (3)choose mee goreng over mee rebus, choose Hokkien mee over economic rice and bak kut teh! (at least there is one piece of good news).

Bento #173

2011-04-14T11:06:00.002+08:00

When you asked your daughter "Do you like today's bento?" and the reply was an very happy "YES!!! MY MOMMY IS THE BEST!!!", this will motivate you to wake up early to prepare bento for her even though you are on mc. :) This is the 2nd bento I made for Jaimie on my second day of mc. She requested for the honey stars. The agar-agar is a bonus because she had been really sweet to me when I was unwell.

Jaimie's Birthday Celebration in School

2011-04-13T23:11:00.002+08:00

We were so happy when we open our email today and found that Jaimie's teacher took pictures of her birthday celebration in school last week. It was a shame that both Clement and I were unable to take the day off from work to be in her school to join in the celebration.

Jaimie chose this cake herself. She loves unicorn for some strange reason. It's good that we found the design for her in ECreative. However, she complained that the cake was too creamy and caused her to have stomach upset! Ha!

Bento #172

2011-04-13T12:32:00.000+08:00

横眉冷对千夫指，抱病仍在做便当。

Bento #171

2011-04-12T19:16:00.001+08:00

Jaimie's bento for today. Everything is packed according to her highness's request.

10 April 2XU Compression Run 12km

2011-04-12T18:50:00.001+08:00

A very scenic and enjoyable run! Looking forward to the next run in May!

Bento #170

2011-04-08T20:36:00.002+08:00

Jaimie's breakfast. I still make bento everyday but they are too repetitive and simple to be blogged. This is another simple bento which could be done in 10mins. I sliced the swiss roll the night before, put them in the bento box and keep in the refrigerator. In the morning, I just need to prepare the fruits and shell the quail's eggs.

Jae says yum yum yum. :)

Jaimie's Birthday Wish

2011-04-06T21:38:00.002+08:00

Jaimie wrote this note to me last night. I "lon-bang" on this post to document the very first note she wrote to me~ a love note that cheered me up totally after a long, busy and hard day at work. Thank you, my love.

Today is Jaimie's birthday and we brought her to Swensen's to enjoy her favourite spaghetti, french fries and ice cream. Jaimie's birthday wish (no prompting from us at all): "I wish that every year I can celebrate my birthday with papa and mama, and the planet Earth will not have any earthquake."

She can run for Miss Universe.

Jaimie's 5th Birthday -- Family Celebration

2011-04-04T23:29:00.003+08:00

I do not believe in holding big parties for young children for their birthdays. Birthdays can be celebrated by giving thanks to parents who give birth to us, to those who love us, and to those who bring us up. Hence, I very much prefer family meal gatherings to children's parties because I want to take the opportunity to thank my parents and my in laws for loving Jaimie so much and taking care of her.

Jaimie will be 5 years old soon.

My dearest daughter, happy birthday to you! I thank you for joining mommy and daddy and be part of the family. I thank god every day to have a lovely daughter like you. From the day you become part of the family, there's only 2 things mommy and papa want for you: Good health and happiness. May you be blessed with abundance, always.

Loving you so dearly,

Mommy

我的小天使

2011-03-28T22:47:00.003+08:00

今天，媛媛非常具体地表现了她对我的关怀与爱。

我今天非常累。昨晚照顾一直做恶梦的媛媛而睡眠不足，今天又上课到很迟，到了傍晚6点多，我已经耐不住，横在沙发上睡着了。

突然，迷迷糊糊中我感觉身上多了一张被子。勉强睁开眼睛一看，原来是媛媛贴心地从房间拖出了一张被来帮我盖上。虽然我一点都不冷，但我还是把被盖好，在我的小天使送来的温暖里继续小憩一会儿。

我的小天使，我不需要你学会18般才艺，也不需要你在学业上有非凡的成就。你的温柔，体贴，孝顺，主动自发，才是最耀眼的光芒，也是妈妈最大的骄傲。

A Lazy Morning At The Beach

2011-03-20T21:50:00.004+08:00

It has been a while since we went to the beach. This morning, we made our way to the East Coast Park and Jaimie was definitely thrilled!

The weather was excellent. Clement played with Jaimie while I sat on the bench to read.

Clement "caught" a crab. Instead of asking "Is it alive?", Jaimie asked "Is it working?" =.=''' No, my dear, it is a very lazy crab.

Jaimie showed a keen interest in earthquakes, tsunami and volcanos after the Japan earthquake on March 11. She built this volcano with the help of Clement and waited for the "tsunami" to flood the hole.

MRT Run

2011-03-19T13:54:00.005+08:00

The mommies in the Running Mummies Club are absolutely serious about the club! Viv ran 1km and walked 1.5km yesterday, and she walked 10km round MacRitchie Resevoir today! Joyce did her running too and needless to say, Wolfgirl is running 6 days a week (and it does not limit to once a day) religiously.

So, I cannot be too laid back, right?! I planned to run from the MRT station nearest to our house to Outram MRT. It is going to be more than 10km.

All ready! Cap, dry-fit t-shirt, dry-fit shorts, Nike running socks AND, my new running belt!

The running belt kind of get in my way and it weighed me down. I was grunting and puffing while running. In the end, I asked Clement to wear the belt.

It was super tiring and the weather was getting hot. We decided to stop at Tiong Bahru MRT station and called it a day after 1hr 56mins of jogging.

Wet, smelly, tired.

Then, we walked further down to Tiong Bahru market for brunch.

This used to be my favourite lor mee but I think the standard has dropped! So disappointing.

Anyway, it was a good run and nice time spent with Clement. I hope we'll be able to build up our stamina and run to a even further MRT station soon!

Very Touching. Cannot stop crying after watching the video.

2011-03-18T09:35:00.000+08:00

Running Mummies

2011-03-17T20:30:00.004+08:00

I shall not go into the hilarious details of how the club "Running Mummies" is formed and named. Anyway, we are very serious about the club and we are going to hold our own "Sunset In the City Half Marathon Run" some time in May. We'll have our own event T-shirt, own medals, own certificate and own logo.

Yeah, don't play play.

Viv bought her running shoes and we got her this matching running tshirt to motivate her.

Wolf added ANOTHER pair of running shoes to her collection (an identical pair!!) and a matching Tshirt too.

Joyce got herself a sexy sports top.

I bought running shorts and socks.

And we're planning our route!! 21km and we're going to run past 21 landmarks in Singapore.

This is our club logo. Running Mummies. We're contemplating to wrap ourselves in toilet papers and run. Hahahaha!!!

Can't wait for the run!! We're going to have loads of fun I am sure!

Jaimie ah....

2011-03-12T20:58:00.001+08:00

Throwing tantrum look.

Roll eyes. Just like mummy.

Masquerade

2011-03-08T21:36:00.002+08:00

The PHHHHHAAAANNNNTOOOOOMMMMMMMM of the oooooooppppeerraa is hereeeee.... inside my miinnnnnnnd.....

No, actually it's big bird in disguise.

Jaimie Draws Rabbits

2011-03-06T21:17:00.001+08:00

兔女郎？

Bento #169

2011-03-04T21:13:00.003+08:00

亲爱的媛媛：

等你长大了，妈妈就教你玩一种游戏。这种游戏呢，有好多的方块，上面有汉字啦，圆点啦，线条啦，还有一些小动物。如果你收集到公鸡，蜈蚣，小猫和老鼠，那是很了不起的哦！

先在你的便当上放四只小动物，让你对这个游戏有个概念。

“碰”食物之前记得先洗手。吃草莓的时候不要乱乱“摸”。也不要吃得嘴巴都“糊糊”的。

Bento #168

2011-02-28T21:56:00.004+08:00

Jaimie's has a scarily huge appetite now. Look, she has a crossiant, a slice of swiss roll, 2 quail eggs and fruits for breakfast. She doesn't finish them all at one go, though. She polishes them off during her breakfast and morning tea break time.

Wow.

She eats more than me.

Bento #167

2011-02-24T20:29:00.002+08:00

Jaimie's bento. Char siew bao, fruits and hello panda biscuits.

My favourite question to ask Jaimie nowadays: "Do you like your bento today?"

The answer is a real morale booster! *BEAMING PROUDLY*

Bento #166

2011-02-22T18:39:00.002+08:00

Jaimie's bento for today. Mr Baoz. But Jaimie said she didn't like "the eyes and the moustache".

Haiz. Should have saved my effort.

Bento #164 & #165

2011-02-21T20:54:00.002+08:00

Nowdays mornings are very challenging and always very rush. That's because I am making 2 different bentos for both my love.

After the first bento Jaimie brought to school, there is no turning back. She said she preferred my bento to the breakfast provided by the school. When I asked her what did she like in her bento, she replied "EVERYTHING!!!! My friends said my mommy is super!!" WAHHHHHH~~~ how not to make bento for her like that? *bursting with pride*

Jaimie's bento -- strawberry jam and peanut butter bread.

Clement's bento -- egg mayo sandwich.

Making 2 different bentos require more time and planning... and I am not complaining. :)

幸福时刻

2011-02-17T22:43:00.003+08:00

我们这个年纪的人或许会记得Dumex奶粉的一首广告歌，大概是这样唱: 你是我的小宝贝，你是我的心安慰，我要力求为你尽善尽美~~

我只大略记得到这里，后半部的部分只记得旋律，不记得歌词，所以自己乱乱掰。媛媛睡觉前，有时会要求我们唱歌给她听。我们就这样唱：

你是我的小宝贝，你是我的心安慰，我要为你力求尽善尽美！愿你天天快乐，愿你快快长大，你是我的心肝小宝贝~~

今晚陪媛媛上床时，媛媛又问：“妈妈，可以唱歌给我听吗？”我把她搂在怀里，五音不全地唱给她听。

她满脸幸福地听着，突然说：“妈妈，我也要唱给你听！”于是，她用同样的旋律，同样乱改歌词：

你是我的好妈妈，你是我的宝宝贝，我要为你力求尽善尽美！愿你天天强壮，愿你天天开心，你是我的好妈妈，妈，妈，妈！

然后，她用力地抱了我一下。

从来没有感受到如此的幸福~~~~~

Bento#163

2011-02-11T14:27:00.002+08:00

After practicing for more than 2 years, FINALLY, this is the FIRST bento I made for Jaimie for her to bring to school!

Hurhurhur.

Nothing much, actually. I bought her the sausage bun to pack to school but she requested for quail eggs too. And since I have some strawberries in the fridge, I put them together and this is it. But I am now motivated to make her happy bentos in the morning!

I am sure Jaimie will be happy to eat her breakfast. I can't wait for her to come home this evening to tell me about it~~ heeheehee~~~

Bento#162

2011-02-10T17:46:00.002+08:00

Before I find out why my hotdog bun becomes all torn up when I put in the sausage, I will be spreading just peanut butter and kaya inside the bun.

Pineapple tarts and some CNY goodies in the bento too. Pineapple tarts home made by our neighhour Pauline. Nice tarts. And very nice neighbours!

调虎离山

2011-02-08T20:13:00.005+08:00

Jae: Papa, come! I have something to show you!

Me (on the iPad): Mmm.

Jae: Papa! Come! I have something to show you!

Me (still on the iPad): What is it?

Jae (tugs on my fingers, prying them from the iPad): Come! I'd show you!

Me (lays iPad down on dining table): Hmmph. Ok, ok....What do you want to show Papa?

Jae (hands me her bolster and stuff toy): Hold these.

Me (obliges): Alright....

Jae (grabs iPad from table and runs into bedroom): Hee hee hee hee!

Me (Whaaa?!)

Bento #161

2011-02-07T20:58:00.002+08:00

I shamelessly call this a bento. But this IS my favourite lunch!!!! Lim Chee Guan bak kwa ROCKS!

Jaimie Tries To Spell

2011-02-04T21:21:00.001+08:00

Jaimie tried to spell "insect" and "caterpillar". Well, perhaps that's how the short forms are invented!

Jaimie's 2nd Dance Performance

2011-01-28T23:33:00.005+08:00

Jaimie is now doing Theatical Tots "B" dance lessons. There are only 2 students in this class and they were one of the 2 groups of students invited to perform at Suntec City for Chinese New Year on 28th Jan 2011.

Jaimie's favourite part of the "performance" -- face painting~~~~~~

Opening: Singing Chinese New Year songs with the other performers and teachers.

Jaimie and Leah ready to perform while teacher Jenny did a quick introduction of the girls.

All ready!! Music please!!

Ending pose.

The girls' performance, they only had 2 lessons of practice!!!