Dinner with Godma and family

Tonight, I arranged dinner with Marianne as we have not met up for quite a while. We met at Tampines Mall for dinner as Phoebe, my god-daughter had her music lessons at Yamaha. Marianne has been my close friend since 1997. I first met her when I went for a youth camp and she was one of the youth leaders then. I didnt know anyone there in the camp. But I remember after the camp, she became my best friend. So since then, we naturally become god-mothers for each other's children.

Anyway, here's dinner at Swensens, a favourite haunt for Asher and Phoebe.

Here's Asher and Caleb doing some colouring before their dinner, or should I say, playing with the pencils?



And here's a nice picture of Danielle and god-ma Marianne...both looking similar-in terms of skin colour.



Phoebe was pretty excited to hold Danielle and take a picture with her!


As for Asher, he was busy enjoying his spaghetti with meatballs and his french fries. Love watching people enjoying their food, especially babies! As for Caleb, it was a torture trying to feed him. Nothing can tempt him, including fries. Sigh. The whole time, he just wanted us to put him down the high chair for him to play and run around.



Danielle was sleeping during our dinner but woke up shortly later and she was standing by herself for the longest time. It was about 1-2 mins!



Had a good time. Now I really cant wait for our kids to grow up and have sleepover at each other's house.

Interesting nights

Nights are the time when I spend with the family. After dinner, we would be gathering together in the living room, watching TV or just playing with one another. Here's CT stealing a bite from Danielle's baby cracker.


Caleb was parading about in his new pyjamas passed down by my friend, Juliane. He was pretty excited to wear it and seemed intrigued by long sleeve shirts as he seldom wears them.



Danielle would usually be crawling everywhere, standing up with the support of the table, or pushing high chairs all over the place, producing a very loud and irritating noise which I hoped the neighbours downstairs are not complaining.



I do love nights as the kids are all awake and I just appreciate the time spent with them. But that also mean I cannot watch any of my shows in peace. Most of the time, I cannot hear the sound from the TV as the kids will be making too much noise. Oh well all I can say is that its great training in building up my patience and tolerance.

A typical Sunday...

Today, Vicky was on leave. Went to church as usual. Here's Meimei wearing this dress for the first time.



After service, I would go to pick Caleb up from the Sunday sch class while CT would go pick Danielle up.

I usually look forward to see what Caleb has done during his session in church. Here's what he did today.





In the end, I used the beans to grow. Just for educational purposes to let Caleb see and learn.


After church, we would go to my mum-in-law's place lunch where Caleb would be all over the place, playing with his cousin and toys.

Here's the traditional toys that Caleb plays with which I like because its so durable and its not made in China. Its actually made in England! (Whoa..so rare!)





Caleb loves it as the vehicles were related to construction and he likes looking at all those vehicles and machines in the construction site since there's practically construction everywhere in Singapore and because of that, he has learnt to say the words, "Excavator and cranes".

After lunch today, we went to my sister-in-law's place at Hougang to visit and guess what? The trees near her place were blooming. Looked like the cherry blossoms in Japan. So actually, we do not really need to go Japan to catch a glimpse of the pink flowers.



There is Keane, my sister-in-law's son who is about 5 months old. Though he is younger than Danielle, he is heavier and bigger than her! Very smiley and easy going baby!



Reached home at about 4pm. Cooked lamb stew for dinner which I prepared early in the morning already as I placed everything in the slow cooker.

Here's Caleb dinner which he finished eventually!


I have to say, life without Vicky gets easier as the kids are older. In fact, I feel grateful for the chance that I have alone with the kids and CT, without Vicky as I would feel accomplished that I could handle them well and have the opportunity to spend more time with them.

Picnic at East Coast Park

Today, my bible study group organised a picnic at East Coast Park. Once a month, we would have cell outings as a group instead of the regular meetings on Friday nights for bible study. I would always look forward to it as my cell group has about 7 couples and each couple have about 2 kids ranging from 2 months old to 10 years old. So our total strength in the group is approximately 30 of us!

There was lots of yummy food! I contributed konnayaku jelly. I made the longan type, mango type and osmanthus flower.


I invited my parents along since this time round, we agreed as a cell to bring our parents. My parents brought fried chicken wings! Other food on the menu was chilli dogs (which was absolutely amazing! The sauce was so so yummy!), fried dry mee siam, fried tang hoon for the kids, fishballs, sausages, fruits etc.

Upon arriving at the place, Caleb headed straight to play with the sand. So we had to feed him there as he played with it.



We also brought Ashley along since I figured, I havent brought her out for a walk since dont know when...it has been ages. Moreover, she is getting old..



Danielle also had a little fun on the bicycle.


During the middle of our picnic, I thought of letting Caleb ride on the bicycle since we do not have a child seat installed on my bicycle at home...so my friend actually lend us their rented bicycles for us to take Caleb on a spin!

I was riding solo on one while CT and Caleb rode together!


I was cycling behind them taking shots and then overtaking them to take different shots of them together. It was all fun.


But just a side point. I have no idea why Caleb looks so 'sian' behind the wheel. He was practically expressionless...haha. Was he sacred stiff? I dunno..but he seemed to enjoy it as I asked him after our ride and he didnt want to come down.

Oh well..

Anyway, all in all, we enjoyed ourselves tremendously.

1,2,3,4...Hi 5!

Since 1 year ago, Caleb has always loved watching Hi-5 for its music and dance!

So finally, I took this opportunity to take him out to the Hi-5 concert when I first heard that they would be coming to Singapore. I bought tickets probably about 3 months ahead from the actual day of the show as I was pretty excited as well!



It was an afternoon date with my son which I was looking forward to.

I reached the Indoor Stadium at about 30 mins before the show and a number of kids and parents were already waiting outside to get in.



We were sitted at the fourth row at the raised platform. So it wasnt too far! It actually costs me $62 per ticket! I feel that when I come to watch such shows, I cannot save on such money as I might as well splurge a bit more to get good seats. If not, there's not much point to go and watch if I'm going to sit far away.


While waiting for the show to start, Caleb was busy drawing. He was surprisingly well-behaved as he sat down the whole time while waiting. There were times when he would look around to see the lights and the colourful props on stage as well as enjoying the background Hi-5 music being played. Other than that, he was a good boy!


Here's one of his drawings that shocked me. I told myself that I had to take a shot of this to remember how talented he is at only 2 years old! haha.
After drawing this, he said, "Por por". It means that he was trying to draw my mum! Wow..Finally a drawing that I could understand!


When Hi-5 finally came out, his eyes were so wide that he quickly sat tight and watched intensely.


I know of friends who prefer the old group of Hi-5 to the present one and because of that, they do not wish to bring their kids to watch. Whether its the old or new Hi-5, my kids love them all and so, it doesnt matter to me or them. But if you ask for my opinion, I prefer the new Hi-5! I feel they have more energy and at least the guys look more manly (as they do not have curly hair) and more fit! My favourite Hi-5 member is Tim as he looks cute and plays the guitar!



The whole storyline is about planning a surprise birthday party for Chad.


The funny thing was that during the intermission, Caleb started moving around and dancing to the background music but when the show started, he would quickly go back to his seat and watched the show! When I 'forced' him to dance as the kids were dancing during the show, he refused. Haha..


All in all, we had a great time!

He was so tired that he fell asleep on the way home in the car.

Did you know?

I never knew that there is such thing as a Ribena Plant. All along I thought the all-favourite drink amongst kids was from some common berry plant. Never knew that they actually come from a special plant which was named as ribena until my mum recently got the actual plant from the market.

Here it is for those who have never seen it!



My mum also got a passion fruit plant!

There's the fruit


and here's the flower..


A week later, my mum actually harvested the ribena, boiled it and viola! Here's the Ribena drink from the plant!



What an educational lesson for me. It just reminds me of the fact that we are all still learning no matter what age we are or how long ago we have left school...Learning- it is a journey and a life-long process.

Big Brother

Caleb has been quite mature, in terms of look and behaviour since he was born. I am glad that he has been a good brother so far.

He has grown taller quite a bit and his favourite toy is Thomas and friends. He has to hold the train in his hands for him to sleep.

So here's a shot in the morning...


And there's Caleb taking care of Danielle as we were waiting for my mum to come pick us up.



Recently, he has been peeing in the potty. He has not learnt to tell us that he wants to go but when we ask him if he wants to pee, he would nod his head and go with us to the potty to pee.


So, I am glad that at least, he is starting to learn...
all thanks to my friend who passed me her daughter's potty which sits like a chair- a much better looking one than what I had which Caleb strongly hates as he has to squat, instead of sit.

There's Caleb multi-tasking while peeing.


I am definitely enjoying Caleb more and more each day as he grows up.

Food that makes me go mmmm..

My mum is a very generous woman. Sometimes I feel that she is over-splurging on us that I do feel unworthy at times as she would cook good and expensive food, but I have came to realise and accept that it is her way of showing her love and she just wants to make us all happy. So I humbly accept her generosity...;p

Here's what she has prepared for us tonight on one of those usual weekly visit to her place.

1) Grilled portabello mushrooms with melted cheese


2)Fruit and vegetable salad


3) One plate full of lamb chops


4)Fried fish with herbs- mainly for our 2 helpers as they do not eat lamb


5) And lastly, angel hair pasta with meatballs


After dinner, Caleb went to play piano with my brother...


As for myself, I was waiting patiently for my sister-in-law, Pamela to arrive as I havent seen their 2 gals for quite some time and I do miss seeing both of them.

When they finally arrived, I quickly went to carry Joyanne and take a good look at her. So here's me and baby Joyanne who is still quite light!



Really wonder how the children will all grow up looking...hmmm

Child-like?

Since its school holidays, I had more time with the kids in the day time and this morning, I actually made Caleb a star egg omelette sandwich with a cup of milo. I love making such meals as I would feel satisfied when I see their happy faces before the meal since it looks cute and as well as after the meal when it taste good.


In many ways, I think I am a kid and after having kids, I feel more and more like a kid as buying toys for them now give me an excuse to play them as well.

I love to play all sorts of games, going to toysrus still excites me and my impractical dream is to have a playroom displaying my collection of all sorts of toy models ranging from robots, to cartoon, comic or movie models.

Today, I brought Caleb and Danielle to Compasspoint with the main purpose of getting Caleb some undies and I was glad to see the Gundam models being displayed at the main foyer area.



To be frank, I have never watched any Gundam TV series but the exhibition just excited me as I looked at the models. Its so nice to admire them...


Caleb was also quite interested at it, especially the life-size ones..And though the sign says, "Do not touch", Caleb actually touched it a number of times out of curiosity which gave the saleswoman a scare of her life..haha



During our lunch at Compasspoint, a family with one daughter was sitting next to us and as we were feeding Caleb, the girl was trying to amuse Danielle as Danielle and Caleb smiled back at her. So within seconds, they have made a new friend.

Something interesting happened after lunch.

I left the kids behind with Vicky at the kiddy ride while I went to do my own shopping and when I came back, Caleb was actually with the same girl we met earlier during lunch. Her parents actually gave money for their daughter and Caleb to have fun on the ride together. How nice!



Danielle also had her share of fun!


I cant wait for the next school holidays!