Ammi Turns 9!

 Ammi's 9th birthday was made up of:
- 1 'Good Dinosaur' movie because she wanted to watch and there was a 10am slot that worked for me and husband. We managed a lunch at Old Town Coffee, glad our schedules are flexible and very grateful for that.
- 2 Baskin Robbins ice cream cake (cookies & cream, strawberry, cookies & cream, vanilla). 2nd one was a repeat because she said someone threw her share of cake away on her birthday party and she didn't get to taste it at all.
- 4 pencil cases for birthday presents. I'm happy, I won't need to replace one for a few years!
- 7 school mates invited for her ice-skating party which 5 out of the 7 did not know how to ice-skate. Glad it was a good experience for them, even though it meant more effort to watch out for the girls and need to coach the girls on how to move on the ice
- The Chengs were moving house and came over for a sleepover on the 27th night. So we had company for that night which was lovely!

Celebrating 10 years...of Parenthood!

Our firstborn turns ten today! Very thankful that it is a public holiday, yesterday (Sunday) being Hari Raya Haji. That means we played awesomely heaps, even the boy himself said that he not only had a good day but he had a very good week. Started with P.M. Classes (3.5 hours only) because of PSLE, and then visits by grandparents from K.L. And Uncle and family for the weekend. He was showered with plenty of attention, presents and played non-stop!

We are still the 'party' parents, despite me finding it takes me less and less effort to plan parties. This would mean that either I am getting too experienced at such things or my standards are dropping and I can't be bothered... Venues, invites and food are all booked pretty last minute and I am glad we had close friends to help us with carrying stuff, ferrying kids to the venue and also providing supplementary entertainment such as helium balloons! So here we are at Forest Adventure on the Sunday, a day before his actual birthday.

It would probably be the last time that Aidan rides the kids course at Forest Adventure since he started when he was 7 years old. He wants to go for the grand course but some of his friends didn't make the height requirement. Still, all kids enjoyed and Ammi did it too, albeit complaining about the height and having no buddies, except her brother's friends around her.

Twins hung around while their cousin did the mini course. Anya couldn't do it because it requires two hands to hold onto the harness. Ally wasn't game from the first moment, so we just took photos, sipped drinks and then left home early. It was a good thing that my parents came along, so that we could hitch a ride home earlier while Hubs took care of the guests and the packing up.

It was hazy today but we continued our adventure by taking the kids for a bus and train ride. Bus 51 -Jurong  East MRT - Boon Lay MRT - Ding Tai Fung - Boon Lay MRT - Jurong East MRT - Bus 143 - home. 

Dinner was spent at the Sngs. Second round of cake and this one has candles! Last cake with ten candles on it, unless our boy lives to a hundred! His request - durian cake. It is good that he enjoys food and would occasionally request for certain dishes. For this birthday, he had chosen Teh Tarik flavor 'minecraft cake' cake. He was pleasantly surprised when he saw it, asked if I baked it though. Ouch..... Sorry, Mummy lacks time, energy and the passion to create coloured, sugar-laden baked goods nowadays. I would rather not see how the sugar and colouring were mixed into the food we eat, just like how I can't bear to see a cow get slaughtered but would order a good steak any chance I get to! Oh, by the way, the cakes... I would pay again anytime for them. D24 durian, 500g - $51.70; Minecraft customised ice cream cake - $115.

So half way past dinner, Anya's bandage fell off. Dr. Papa Ang took her to Guardian and came back with a bag of medical supplies and bubble tea for all adults. We switched on 'Peppa Pig' while he changed her dressing. Good distraction, I was trying to listen to what Peppa and brother was learning in French and why George kept asking "Why?" in one of the episodes, in order to try not look at the dead nails.

Acts of ❤️ by Hubs and myself. We each did our own version on her ring and middle finger respectively. Hope it can lasts till tomorrow noon, where she has an appointment with the GP to change her dressing. She did her first nail cut since the accident, which means that her nails on the injured fingers are growled probably around 2mm to date. Long way more to go.... Hang on, darling! 

Goodbye Jan 2013

So... 2 weeks of canteen duties, 1 misplaced water bottle (Ammi), 1 misplaced lunch box (Aidan), 1 lost name tag (Ammi), 1 ear infection (Ally), 1 broken elbow (MIL), 1 spoilt phone and a new phone (me), 2 changes of computer hard disk and 1 Windows system upgrade (me), 1 case of diarrhea (Ally), 3 visits to the PD (Ally and Anya), 1 loss of a baby tooth (Ammi), 1 new subject for spelling (Aidan and it brings it to a grand total of 5 spellings I have to cover per week!), 1 embarassing note to the form teacher to request for a reply slip I had torn and threw away without reading carefully that 'a NIL reply is needed' (Aidan) and 1 birthday party later, we have survived the first month of January!

 

My photo folders and SD card are bursting with photos, which is a good sign = loads of good memories but I and the other half are D.E.A.D. tired. I have never craved for the bed so much, never took a nap because I NEEDED to or else I cannot function past 5p.m. Having to deal with 4 school-going kids is not fun, need to consider seriously if the trade-off for peace and quiet in the morning is really that worth while at all?

 

Here's a snapshot of all we went through in January. The twins are great girls, who have gotten used to school and Anya has even gone for 3 straight days bidding Ally farewell at home, since she had an ear infection and mild fever. In return, she expects Ally to wait for her when her school bus arrives at the gate - which of course - her twin is there for her since she doesn't really have that much to do while at home.





 

 Flowers above for my MIL when she broke her elbow on her first night in Beijing. I learnt a little more about flowers, such as white eustomas and I didn't know Tiger Lilies came in so many colours!

Ally in her Letterland costumes - how cute!

It was Buddy Time for Ammi and Aidan - the older Primary 3 kids have to partner up to two P1 (the capable, model students are assigned to 2 juniors) to teach them how to queue and pay for food. I had fun watching and helping some of the lost sheep and also found out the rent for the tuckshop stalls costs only $25 per month! Ran the idea of running one with Hubs and his instant reply was :"Later one cockroach only, you are dead!". Ok, I'm sticking to my office job.

Our brave Anya who apparently is very demure and obedient in class everyday. The teachers told me they saw her true colours when we came to school to celebrate her birthday, where she was shouting and jumping and chatting with Ally.

 Birthday party (above) with the two classes combined. Giveaways were helium balloons with lollipops tied at the bottom of each balloon. Too lazy and tired to plan party bags.

Duck Tour (right) with the family on the actual birthday which fell on a Sunday. Relaxing and everyone had fun.

 The pretty babes in their Chinese costumes I bought from Xi'an. Can't wait to have Ammi join them in the same costumes.

Tooth dislodged after Ammi munched on a lollipop. A tooth which she never complained of looseness or discomfort. I have been hoping that she can keep her upper front teeth intact until post CNY. They are so loose you can see the gaps next to them. In fact, the one of the left has been overlapping slightly because it is very loose.

Spot check in school during reccess, when I returned to the school to buy an extra set of P.E. uniform for them.

 

The school started an 'Eat Fruits Day' initiative so students of all levels are encouraged to bring fruits from home every last week of the month. Aidan says there are rules to it though - no durian and no juicy fruits because it's messy (like oranges) and something that you can finish in 5 minutes (so no whole mango?). Sounds do-able still.... except I have to make sure I hit the supermarket for fresh fruits every weekend before the last week of the month. No one was interested in bringing bananas - it's the more exotic, the better. But this, I can do. Had a request from Aidan to "... make me Angry Birds sushi like what Kenneth's Mom let him bring to school everyday? So good lor, Joshua's mother also rang Kenneth's mother to learn how to make and his mother even bought those cute, cute cutters for the carrots and egg." and I did start researching on Bentos, to take it up as a challenge but I can live with 'fruits bento' for a while until the kids get bored and start checking out what is inside Kenneth's lunch box again.

 



 (Photo obtained from Just One Cookbook blog. See link above under 'Bentos')

Amelie Turned 5!

This is a super late post, 1 month after our eldest girl turned 5.

It was a Sunday, so we decided to hold a party for her. She mentioned to us before "Why Kor-kor gets to invite his school friends over, but I never get to?" This is true, Aidan has friends over even for play dates and I never arranged for any of her friends to come over to play. So, we gave her a party to call her own. Everyone was supportive, grandparents Chua said it is true too, Ammi never had a proper birthday party with her own friends. Aidan asked his sister if he could invite some of his friends, and the final number was 5 and 3 turned up. His classmate, Jialing, even played the birthday song for Ammi when we were going to cut cake!

I hired a magician from Party Impact, ordered bunny pencil cases in bulk to act as goodie bag and so the kids could keep their candy from the pinata. I ordered a 'princess' dress from eBay, chosen by the birthday girl herself and a 'castle' cake from Charlotte Grace, buffet with chocolate dip from Smiling Orchid and we were set. Still, the RSVP, planning and clearing the house for the party, bringing out extra chairs, keeping the porch neat and tidy were too challenging for me. Too much to take into account, so no more parties for at least a year. Either that or I will outsource. Party shops don't even seem attractive to me now. I even lose appetite when I see a birthday cake.

 Big thanks to everyone for their birthday gifts and wishes. The food must have been good too, and I probably under-ordered by about 5 persons. I was officially the last person to have lunch after the guests left and only tasted the chicken curry... literally curry and a piece of chicken and some noodles. Thanks to QH for being our official photographer, and in-laws for coming from K.L. and Sis and TT for being the official cake cutters! ;)

Of course, things don't come for free so easily. In return, Ammi promised that after she turns 5, she will learn how to ride a 2-wheel bicycle, eat papaya (she and her friend Isabelle talked each other into boycotting papaya) and wipe her backside after she poo. I'm an evil Mom, ain't I?!

One Year and 10 days older...

I turned 34 last Monday, the day the US celebrates its Independence Day. It's really a quiet birthday - I worked in the morning, went out for a break (see below), continued to work (because of a center launch in China, the past 3 weeks were hell for me) and then brought Ammi to music class at night.

This is the cake Hubby rushed to pick up after work, and we waited for him to come back home with it because we wanted to take family pictures with the twins before they go to bed. Alas, it was not meant to be. Despite the twins staying up, and me and Ammi was late for class, the photos came out ALL blur. The only ones that were not blur were the ones taken by me of the cake. The rest of the photos were taken by the helper... and what can I say, except not everyone can handle a DSLR - that's why you still need a 'point and shoot' or an iPhone (but iPhone is still quite difficult because the button is too low, I feel).


We had Dim Sum lunch the day before, being Sunday. It wasn't an enjoyable, peaceful lunch. The twins were cranky, whiny and Ally refused to sit in the baby chair. She was walked around, outside the restaurant, sat in her Daddy's arms and did not eat much. Anya was more cooperative, she enjoyed her congee and other snacks. I felt bad that Hubby didn't get to eat much, he ate bits and pieces around and even had to rush through desserts.


At this age, plus with 2 toddlers of the same age, it is still hell eating outside. Like what my FIL says, meal times are like war times for us. Need minimum 3 adults with 4 kids, and the more the better because this means the adults actually get to eat; while feeding the young ones. As for the older ones, it is more trying to control them from turning the entire place upside down - playing with chopsticks, napkins, water/ tea, etc.


As we drove home, both girls wailed in the car. Our car got into an accident so we had to drive a sedan, i.e. 2 rows of seats only and it was packed like sardines. I had to drive because I cannot handle the girls should they step on my wound. I could barely concentrate, and finally, Ally choked and vomited over herself, Hubby and the car.


In the evening, we decided to just take a short ride to West Coast Park instead of the original plans to go further. We were traumatised and exhausted after the 'Dim Sum and Wail-in-the-car' incidents.


I love the dresses above - the girls' Yiyi went to Spain and got them these cute Zara dresses. They just need matching hairbands and they will look like Ah go-go girls from the 70s!


The next day, on my exact birthday, we went to watch one of my all-time favourite characters - Transformers! We splurged and treated ourselves and the older 2 on Gold-Class tickets. $28 per ticket, ouch; but for the length of the movie (longer than 2 hours), it's quite worth the money.

Thereafter, we went to Toys R Us to find Aidan a Bumblebee mask because he had 'Show and Tell' session where he had to dress up as his favourite storybook character. I am crossing my fingers his teacher wouldn't give him an 'F' since technically, Transformers didn't originate from storybooks. Examples given were 'Red Riding Hood' and 'Jack and the Beanstalk' but my son didn't really fancy any of those characters. He might have liked being the Big Bad Wolf (from the 'Three Little Pigs"), but the students are required to explain what did they learn from the story and why they like the character? I don't think saying: "I like the Big Bad Wolf because he is evil and smaller animals are afraid of him. I learnt that I should be smarter and watch if there is anything dangerous, like a hot pot of water; before I jump down the chimney", will earn him points with the teacher.

While driving Am to class, I had an entertaining conversation with her that left me grinning and laughing inside.

Ammi: Sorry I didn't get you any presents yet. I promise I will give you a present ok?

Me: It's OK, Am. Mummy doesn't need presents for birthday.

Ammi: No, I want to bring you shopping then you can choose your own present, OK? What do you want?

Me: Mummy likes bags... (and was about to continue with ... "I like red or black colour", when she interrupted with)...

Ammi: You like what type? Kangaroo bag, or with dog or what animal? [Because she has one of these (below)]

Me: (pause)... actually, I like cow bag. Cow but with no head and legs or tail, only skin.

Ammi: (long pause).... no head? You don't want the cow's head on the bag?

Me: (grins)... yah, I only like the skin of the cow. It's called 'leather'. Mummy doesn't need the legs or the tails.

Ammi: (doubtfully) Ok, so I will go to the shop and ask Auntie there (in Chinese) "我要一个牛包包，但是不要头和脚？"

Me: Yes, something like that. 牛皮will be better. (grin widely)

Ammi agreed, but of course by now she forgot she is supposed to bring me shopping....