Today is the last day of 2011 and as usual, we (yes, including both Jerlene and Javier) were all ready for the fireworks viewing from our rooftop. We saw fireworks coming not just from one location, not two but three different locations. Of course the main one was at Marina Bay area, with its eight minutes long fireworks spectacular.
There were also celebration across the island in the various heartlands. Looking south was the fireworks at Marina Bay. At the same time, there was fireworks coming from the north, probably around Yishun or Sembawang area. Then there was another cluster of fireworks coming from the northeast direction, probably around Punggol or Pasir Ris.
I believe everyone knows Boxing Day falls on the 26 Dec, one day after Christmas. However, how many of you actually knows how Boxing Day comes about? I was curious too so I look up wikipedia and here it is.
"Boxing Day is traditionally a day following Christmas when wealthy people in the United Kingdom would give a box containing a gift to their servants. Today, Boxing Day is better known as a bank or public holiday that occurs on December 26, or the first or second weekday after Christmas Day, depending on national or regional laws. It is observed in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and some other Commonwealth nations."
Now that Christmas is over, it means that this year is coming to an end. Let's get ready to welcome 2012 in a few days time!
Last year, we had our rooftop BBQ on Christmas Day. This year, we had it on Christmas Eve. It got me worried throughout the day because it was raining intermittently. Fortunately, it wasn't raining when we started BBQ'ing. Only towards the end of the session then it started to drizzle for a while. This seemed to be the same situation as last year. The food was good, the atmosphere was great, and everybody seemed to enjoy it.
After all the BBQ food, we had a pretty little log cake to go around.
Finally it's gift exchange time where the children were all very excited. It's a great evening and I'll probably make this a yearly event, if possible.
Jerlene's childcare centre was having a Xmas celebration today. Parents were invited, so there we were. Every parent brought some food and drinks to the school to be shared with the children and teachers.
First, they were having some games such as musical chairs and mini telematch. Then there were some singing before they proceed for the food.
The food looked good and Jerlene was getting ready to have a feast.......
Great to see all the children enjoying themselves. :-)
Jerlene and Javier were in a good mood tonight. Instead of fighting over things, they decided to share a small mattress and sleep together. How I wish they can be just like this always...... :-)
My family went to Imperial Treasure Cantonese Cuisine Restaurant at T3 for lunch to celebrate my dad's 70th birthday. The food was great, especially the roasted goose. We bought a birthday cake but we were all too full to eat it. Anyway, we need to leave the restaurant soon as the next group of customers were already outside waiting for our tables.
After lunch, we decided to walk around the airport. There is some nice decoration where it is a good spot for photo taking.
At the departure hall, there is an area with Angry Birds decoration. The little ones (between 2-4 years old) are all very familiar with Angry Birds. That shows how popular and successful angry birds are.
We visited Jerlene's childcare centre today to meet up with the teachers on Jerlene's development. Feedback from the teachers were mostly positive except that Jerlene is always easily distracted during class. And she can be quite emotional at times. In terms of the various skills, she is doing pretty good at the current stage. She also got good memory. She was the first in class to memorize all the dance steps for the concert. And she's the only one in class who can hoola hoop non-stop.....without much effort......... Below is her report card for the year 2011.
Next year, she'll be in K1 and hope that she can continue to improve. Jerlene, 加油!
We visited Marina Bay Sands (MBS) today as we had a MBS voucher which expired today. The voucher can be used in restaurant within the hotel. Initially we thought of having our lunch at the SkyPark restaurant. However, we find it too expensive even with the vouchers. The view from SkyPark is superb though.
After admiring the view from SkyPark, we went down to have our buffet lunch at the Rise restaurant. This is one of our best buffet lunch that we had so far.
We were very full after two hours of feasting. :-)
Recently, Javier starts to speak short phrases and sentences. When playing Wii, he will say sentences such as "I want two players", "I don't want this, I want table tennis". Sometimes when I walk away, he will say "Daddy come back!". His vocabulary is also improving and he can call out most of the objects around the house. Great job, Javier! :-)
Changi City Point is a new mall near my office and we decided to go there and have a look. As it is located in the middle of Changi Business Park, I thought it would be less crowded during weekend. However, to our surprise, when we reached there, there was a long queue of cars trying to get into the carpark. Since we drove all the way there, we decided to queue. It took about half an hour before we managed to get into the carpark. Initially we thought of bringing the kids to the rooftop playground. However, it started to rain the moment we entered the building. Fortunately, there was a big open space in the mall and kids just love to run around.
It's difficult to shop with the two kids around although Tracy is very tempted as the shops are mainly outlet stores. Anyway, today was simply too crowded, probably because it's just launched and many people are curious about this place. Carpark is free after spending above $50. There were other gifts if you spent above $100. This place is not too bad and we will probably come back another time.
Today is Jerlene's childcare centre K2 class graduation and year end concert. It's held at Civil Service Club Auditorium from 5pm to 7pm. Before the concert, I totally have no idea what Jerlene was going to perform. All I know is that it has something to do with an ant. She refused to perform the dance to me before the concert and asked me to watch her dance during the concert. The theme of the concert is "Waka Afrika!" As such, I would expect many animals and true enough, all the kids were "made" into differernt types of animals.
Jerlene and her classmates appeared on stage as the second item of the evening. It's a chinese song called "蚂蚁搬豆". We spotted Jerlene very easily because she's one of the shortest among her classmates. It was a great effort from her and her classmates. They must have practised quite a lot in school. The video was not very well taken as it's from my iPhone from a distance. Anyway, I've ordered the DVD and once I received that, I will extract and post it here.
There was an intermission half way through the concert while buffet dinner was served. Before the concert ended, all the performers appeared on stage and sang the final song. Overall, it's an enjoyable concert.
After the concert, I picked up my little princess from the backstage. I could see that she's very tired. However, she's very pretty with her makeup. Great job, Jerlene!
When we reached home, I again took a photo with her before Tracy helped to remove her makeup. She really looked very pretty with those makeup. :-)
Every night when we reach home, Javier will come and ask me to let him play Wii bowling. As he has been practising almost every night, he's now slowly turning into a "pro". His bowling style is so funny, especially when he's about to release the bowling ball, his left leg will be raised high up......a bit like 狗尿尿.....lol.......
Though his action is funny, his bowling skill has improved quite tremendously. Below video shows how he improves slowly.....from throwing away my Wii remote to getting spares and finally STRIKES!
Today, Jerlene's castle had turned into a hair salon. And guess what, Javier is her first customer......the one and only customer....... Let's hope that Jerlene did a good job and next time when we bring Javier for a real haircut, he will not scream and shout. :-)
As Christmas is approaching, I decided to setup a Xmas tree. Jerlene and Javier were very excited the moment they saw me taking it out from the storeroom. They were very eager to help me out........
After the tree was setup, next was to put up some lights and finally all my angel bears.........
We all had a sense of achievement after the tree was fully setup. I think we still need some presents at the bottom of the tree. Anybody want to donate some?
Today is the completion of Jerlene's Speech and Drama enrichment class for 2011. Parents were invited to the childcare centre where the kids had a short performance. This year, the theme surrounds the story of Babar elephant. As you can see below, all the children were wearing an elephant mask which they made it during their previous classes.
After the performance, every child was presented with a certificate of completion.
Jerlene brought back her graduation photo of her Nursery 2 class. Though she's one of the oldest in her class, she's also the shortest...... Below are the slightly enlarged version.
Javier has always wanted to try out new things. Unlike him, Jerlene would not dare to try things that she's not familiar with. In fact, a lot of time, she actually encourages Javier to go try things that she herself would not dare to do. Javier, on the other hand, really 天不怕地不怕. Today while we were shopping at Suntec City, we came across a mini trampoline. I first asked Jerlene to try and as expected, she wouldn't dare. When I asked Javier to go, he straight away went on it and started jumping confidently.
I think I need to put in more effort to "counsel" Jerlene not to be afraid of failure. Not everything needs to be first. She needs to know that as long as she tried her best, that's sufficient. I will never give her that type of pressure.......
Another enjoyable singing session in the KTV room. Now both Jerlene and Javier were willing to sing together....... Watch the video below. Tell me what do you think Javier was doing while Jerlene was singing..... :P
NO....it's not what you are thinking.....he's simply imitating what's on the TV screen...... ;)
As I've mentioned many times, Jerlene has always wanted to be a princess. She has built her princess castle and tonight, she decided to make herself a beautiful veil and a nice long dress......
To me, my first impression when I saw her is that........"Why you make yourself like a terrorist??!!" :-P
Today as I walked pass our staircase area, I suddenly realized some unfamiliar structures. There are a few cones sticking our from the staircase ledge. When I asked Jerlene who did it? She said, "Me.....I am building my castle"! Immediately, the images of those castle towers started floating into my mind. Jerlene now not only has expanded her territory, she has also upgraded her house into a princess castle.
Since few weeks back, Jerlene has established her territory under the staircase area. She claims that she "owned" the area and refused to let Javier in.
And whenever Jerlene watches DVDs, poor Javier can only stand or sit outside the gate watching through the gaps. Surprisingly, he did not complain at all.
