31 Dec 2012 - Year End Gathering

I organized a year end gathering at my place today.  In the afternoon, we had a KTV session, though there was some mix up in the booking by the management office which caused some unhappiness, especially to the other party as they had to give up the room to us.  For some of us who do not sing, we had a snooker session just outside the KTV room.

I had ordered food for BBQ this evening.  However, it had been raining since early afternoon till the sky turned dark.  Eventually, we had no choice but to open up my huge umbrella and started BBQing under it.  Surprisingly, we managed to have all the food BBQed.  The only thing is we cannot eat the food while enjoying the roof top atmosphere this time.

After dinner, we had lots of fun playing Xbox Kinect games.  We had so much laugh while playing the "Rabbids" game.  It was great to end 2012 with so much fun and laughter!

Happy 2013 to ALL!

29 Dec 2012 - Parent Teacher Meeting Day

We met up with Jerlene's and Javier's teachers today at the childcare centre to understand their progress in development.  Jerlene had been doing well in general.  She's well liked by her teachers and classmates.  According to her teachers, she always wanted to be first in doing everything.  She also likes to help out the teachers such as wiping the table, shifting the chairs etc.  As she knew a lot of songs from all the music videos that she had at home, there were times where her teacher even asked her to teach the class how to sing those songs.  Academically, she's doing ok and in terms of the creativity and artistic areas, she excels among the class.

As for Javier, he's also coping well in class.  However, the teacher noticed that he may be a little introvert at times.  Sometimes when all his classmates went out to the playground, he'll rather stay in the class and do his own thing.  I would say that he's rather stubborn.  The more you want him to do certain thing, the more he will not do it....even though in his heart, he actually wanted to.  That's why we always called him "the opposition party (反对党)"!  Anyway, at his age, he seems to be pretty "matured" and is also good at artwork like his sister.

26 Dec 2012 - Bread Skin Cutter

We gave Jerlene a bread skin cutter and she was very eager to try it out.  She wanted to try it so much so that she had been "forcing" everyone to eat bread.  Usually for one loaf of bread, we can eat for about 3 days.  And since she had this bread skin cutter, we almost finished the entire loaf within a day.  Every few hours, she will ask me whether I want to eat bread.  So as not to disappoint her, I always said "Yes"!  :-P

25 Dec 2012 - Celebrating Xmas at T3

It's Christmas and we decided to spend this wonderful day at the airport.  When we reached the departure hall, Jerlene and Javier kept asking me:"Are we going to Australia?", "Are we going to the aeroplane?"

Once again, this year's decoration at the airport is based on "Angry Bird Space" theme.  In one of the open space, there is a huge Angry Bird Space Shuttle and we can even go on-board.  Jerlene and Javier kept running up and down the shuttle.

We had our lunch at Dian Xiao Er at T3.  As we spent more than S$60 for the lunch, we can redeem an Angry Bird plush toy from the counter at basement 2 if we are Changi Rewards members.  As such, we quickly went to apply for the membership to get the plush toy.  Other than getting the toy, we can also redeem an art-and-craft workshop session where Jerlene gotta work on some artwork as shown below.  She was very focused while doing her artwork and the final product was great!

We all had an enjoyable time at the airport.  Finally, let us wish all a MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

21 Dec 2012 - The Little Big Club

From Hello Kitty Town, we went one level up to The Little Big Club.  Once we entered the park, my two little angels started shouting:"It's BARNEY!".  Yes, there is a Barney stage performance going on.

After the performance ended, we went to a nearby Barney's Barnyard and both my angels started running around like nobody business.

At the end of the park, there is another bigger indoor playground.  We spent about an hour there before going up another level to Thomas the Train park.  There are a number of rides here whereby Jerlene and I tried the bumper car.  Javier was not allowed to get on this ride due to his height.  The minimum height requirement is 110cm.  Jerlene just meet it.  As they enjoyed playground more than these rides, we again went to another playground where they can climb, crawl, slide and run.

Overall, Puteri Harbour Family Theme Park is very suitable for family with small kids.  Another good thing is that everything is inside a building and everyone is able to enjoy regardless of the weather outside.  Let's have a recap of some of the shows that we saw in the parks.

21 Dec 2012 - Hello Kitty Town

We took leave today to bring our little angels to Hello Kitty Town and Little Big Club at Nusajaya, Johor Bahru.  We bought the two park pass which cost RM110 each (same price for adult and child ticket).  Malaysian can buy the tickets at RM85 each.  The park is located at Puteri Harbour which is about 10mins drive from Legoland.

We reached the park at about 11am and we went straight to the entrance as we already got the tickets the day before.  The entire place is indoor.  We took the escalator to 2nd floor where Hello Kitty Town is located.  By then, Jerlene finally realized where this place was (we had kept it a secret from her and told her she will know once we reached).  As both Jerlene and Javier were not familiar with this place, it took them quite a while to get used to the surrounding before they started running around as usual.

Once we entered Hello Kitty Town, the parade just started where we saw My Melody, Badz Badz Maru and of course Hello Kitty and Dear Daniel dancing along the walkway.

The first ride that we took was the rotating tea cup.  After that, we entered the home of Hello Kitty, the interior design is pretty similar to the Hello Kitty castle where we have been to few years back in Harmony Land, Fukuoka, Japan.

We had our lunch at a small cafe within the park.  Jerlene and Javier had their favourite rainbow donuts.

Half way through our lunch, a Hello Kitty performance began on the stage just beside the cafe.  Though it's a side view, we were able to watch the show comfortably in the cafe while having our lunch.

After lunch, we had a little adventure to rescue Hello Kitty and Dear Daniel.  In this adventure, we got to find 5 different letters in 5 different areas.  Once we found all 5 letters, we got to form the correct word to accomplish the mission.  At the end, we were even given a certificate with a rating.

Of all the rides, Jerlene and Javier like the playground the most.  In the enclosed area, there were lots of little soft balls all over the place.  Jerlene was busy picking up the balls and put them in a bag while Javier was busy throwing the balls everywhere.  This is a dreamland for all small kids.

Next we went to the 3rd floor to meet up with Barney and friends.......

8 Dec 2012 - My little Dancing King and Queen

Jerlene and Javier are no longer shy to dance in front of us now.  They had been practising the dance moves from the Xbox Kinect games "Just Dance Kids" so much that they can now memorize the steps without staring at the TV.  Jerlene dances beautifully but it's more fun to watch Javier dance as his moves are so funny......lol.....  Here are a few clips that I've taken.  ENJOY!

7 Dec 2012 - Tying up a bun

As Jerlene is going to take her pre syllabus ballet exam in about 3 months time, the teacher had advised us not to cut her hair from now on because she will have to tie up her hair into a bun for the exam.  My helper tried to tie up a bun for her today and this is how she looks.  I guess it will be a lot easier and neater to buy her a bun net.

1 Dec 2012 - Legoland, here we come AGAIN!

We drove to Nusajaya Legoland for a second time this afternoon.  This time, we parked our car at Medini Mall carpark.  We packed some food from the mall before entering Legoland.  The first ride we went to is the Junior Driving School.  Jerlene was good at that but Javier still needs some practicing.  Somehow he kept letting go of the accelerator.

After that, we spent quite a while at a playground.  This playground was closed the last time we came due to wet weather.  They had so much fun running around.  We then went to other rides before heading to their favourite "horse ride".

After about 2 hours in the park, I suddenly did not feel well.  As such, I took some rest before getting Tracy to drive us home.  I felt so sorry for Jerlene and Javier as we had to cut short our time in the park.  However I promised to bring them back soon.

30 Nov 2012 - Javier, the future Dance Master!

We bought an Xbox 360 Kinect game called "Just Dance Kids!" from the recent Sitex Show.  However since then, Javier refused to dance and only wanted to watch.  Tonight, Javier finally had the courage to take up the stage.  It was great effort from Javier and it was really funny BUT adorable!  So let's welcome the future Dance Master, Javier!  :-)

23 Nov 2012 - 2nd Ballet Term Report

Jerlene got her second ballet term report today.  In general she was still doing pretty well.  The teacher commented that Jerlene will be ready for the exam in Mar next year.  Not everyone in her class will be able to take the exam.  The teacher actually assessed the students over their class performance in the past few months and select those whom she think will be ready.  Good job, Jerlene!  Wish you all the best in your very first exam of your life.  :-)

11 Nov 2012 - Empress Seat

Today at my MIL place, Jerlene suddenly pulled me out of the room to see something that she had created.  She actually used several cushions to create a beautiful seat.  To me, it looked very much like an emperor seat (龙椅).  Since Jerlene is the one sitting on it, I'll call it the Empress Seat.  :-)

10 Nov 2012 - Legoland, here we come!

We are one of the early bird to have purchased the annual pass for Legoland about 6 months ago.  At that time we actually got it pretty cheap, as compared to the current price.  We could have visited the park 2 months ago but we have no hurry since we got the annual pass.  In order to beat the school holiday which starts in a week's time, we decided to make a trip to Legoland.

It was about 2pm that we made the decision to go.  The moment we drove out of the carpark, it started to pour pretty heavily.  We just hope that the rain will stop when we reached there.  We took the route via Tuas Checkpoint as the LTA webcam showed that it has lesser traffic as compared to Woodlands Checkpoint.  True enough, we got past the checkpoint quite smoothly, same for the Malaysian custom.  From there, it's only a 10mins drive.  Just before we turned into Legoland, there is a mall called Mall of Medini.  An advice for those who will be driving there, the open car park at this mall is nearer to Legoland than the actual Legoland carpark.

When we reached, the rain indeed had stopped though the sky was still pretty dark.  There was no queue at the annual pass redemption counter.  Just that the processing was quite slow.  It's good to be there after the rain as the weather was very cool.  I had heard feedback from many people that I need to be prepared for the heat, which was not applicable today.  :-)

Jerlene had been very excited because she had heard from her friends about Legoland.  On Monday, it's her turn to tell her class how fun it was in Legoland.  First we went to the centre of the theme park where there were many prominent buildings and structures from around South East Asia all made up of Lego bricks.

Soon after, it started to drizzle so we decided to go somewhere indoor.  There was an indoor hall where tons of Lego bricks awaits the kids.  We spent quite sometimes there before going to the nearby 4D show.  We queued for about 30mins and fortunately, we had some titbits to entertain my two angels, especially Javier.

After the 4D show, we went next door where there was an observatory ride.  After queuing for sometimes, there seemed to be some technical glitch where the door was unable to open with people inside.  The technician came few minutes later.  Though the door managed to be open, they need to do a few rounds of test run before allow people to enter the ride again.  So we waited for another 15mins before we can take the ride.  This ride allow us to have a 360 degree view of the entire theme park.

We then went to a few more rides where only Jerlene can play because Javier is under age.  We can see  Javier was a bit disappointed that he cannot play some of the rides.  However, he seemed to understand the reason.  When I asked him why he cannot play, he actually said "I am too short"

We then went to visit other parts of the park.  Jerlene and Javier had such a fun time in the playground.  They kept running and climbing.....in the end, Javier had no more strength to climb anymore.  He seemed to even walked funny......lol.......

As the sky slowly turned dark, those mini buildings and structures started to light up.

We managed to play a few more rides, such as the fireman ride and junior driving lesson before the park closed.  Actually just before it closed, we were queuing at a remote boat ride.  However, there was again a technical glitch and they decided to close it.  We thought they may have purposely close the ride because it's very near to park closing time, and there was still a long queue.

From Legoland, we walked to the adjacent Mall to have our dinner.  Jerlene requested for KFC.  By the time we reached home, it was past 10pm.  Overall it was a great day and everyone enjoyed it.  I think it's good to have an annual pass so that there is no stress even when the queue was long.

5 Nov 2012 - Day 3: Genting Trip ends

There was no activity planned for today.  As such, after breakfast, we just walked around "look see look see".  I remembered the last time I was here, it was so foggy that I never knew First World Hotel is so colourful.

Similarly, I finally got to see how the outdoor theme park looks like.

At about 11am, we checked out from the hotel and drove down to the foot of the highlands for lunch.

Then we began another long drive back to Singapore.  We were driving smoothly on north-south highway when suddenly, all cars were diverted out of the highway before reaching Malacca.  It was raining very heavily at that time, so we guessed it's probably due to flood or some related reasons that they closed the highway.  We started to get worried because once we were out of the highway, we have no idea which way to go.  I turned on my GPS on my phone but it kept asking me to U-turn back to the highway.  Fortunately, I saw a coach from WTS Travel and decided to follow it as it's probably heading back to Singapore as well.  True enough, it led us to Malacca via an alternative route and in the end, we ended back on north-south highway again.  From then on, it was pretty smooth and we reached home before 7pm.

4 Nov 2012 - Day 2: First World Indoor Theme Park

After the bowling session, Javier seemed to be very tired. As such, we went back to our room so that Javier can rest. Jerlene on the other hand was still active and kept wanting to go to the indoor theme park, which she had so much fun time there yesterday.  Not to disappoint her, we brought her there while Javier stayed in the room with our helper.  The first station Jerlene wanted to go is the Junior Bumper Car.  She went for a few rounds before going to other stations.  I can see she's really enjoying that.

Next, we went to other rides round the theme park.  At least 4 to 5 other rides.  Jerlene thoroughly enjoyed the day, actually me too.  :-)

Finally we went for the 4D show.  However, it was of horror theme, so Jerlene did not like it.  By the time we completed the show, it was around 9pm.  We then went to buy dinner for Javier and my helper, and while waiting, Tracy brought Jerlene back to the Junior Bumper Car ride for one last round.

4 Nov 2012 - Day 2: First real bowling session for my angels

After lunch, we brought Jerlene and Javier to the bowling alley to meet up with my sister's family.  So far, Jerlene and Javier had enjoyed playing bowling on Wii and Xbox Kinect.  Today, they finally had their first real bowling session in an actual bowling alley.  Javier was very excited and cannot wait to hold onto a bowling ball.  On the other hand, Jerlene somehow was afraid to try.  It was only after watching Javier having so much fun, she finally decided to give it a try.  Once they get into the mood, they cannot stop.  I had a hard time asking them to end the game eventually.  Javier's bowling style was very cute.  Watch the below video and I'm sure you will put on a smile on your face......Enjoy!

4 Nov 2012 - Day 2: Strawberry, Flower and Mushroom Farm

We had our breakfast today at OldTown Cafe.  After breakfast, we decided to visit Genting Strawberry Park.  It's just a short drive from the hotel around the mid hill area.  The kids were all very excited as we entered the park.

I took a basket from the counter to let Jerlene and Javier do some strawberry harvesting.  Initially, they picked any strawberry that they saw.  So I reminded them to only choose those big and red ones because at the end of the session, we will pay for the strawberries that we had harvested.

Next to the Strawberry Park is a Flower Farm.  The moment we entered the farm, we can see a whole plot full of lovely lavender.  Nice........

We spent a while at the Flower Farm before proceeding to the Mushroom Farm next door.  The kids were uninterested with mushroom so we were quick to leave the farm.

Once we reached our hotel room, Jerlene and Javier can't wait to take out the the strawberries that they had picked and started "feasting" on them!