Abel's last day at School

Next year, Abel will join Keziah at Kindi. We bought a cake for farewell with his classmates at school. Abel chose the design and the filling (Mango) all himself. A definitely decision boy.

 How the little ones enjoyed the cake!

Abel and his teachers…they did a great job teaching him. Thank you!

The goodbye hugs and last gathering….

Lasagne

Time to mess at home. Mommy was given some lasagne sheet some months back and today she tried to prepare the ingredients for the kids to get their hands on cooking. It was simple. Just make some mince beef sauce by frying 250g mince beef with onions, mixed vegetables and diced tomatoes (1 400g can) and cheese sauce by cooking a tablespoon of plain flour over melted butter followed by whisking in a cup of fresh milk till a thick sauce is obtained before adding in 70g cheddar cheese.

Then the kids got busy layering the lasagne, one to do the mince beef sauce, the other the cheese sauce. So the alternate between lasagne sheet, mince beef and cheese sauce.

Finally top with mozoralle cheese and pop into the oven. 30 - 35 minutes at 180 deg C and it's done! Well the cheese was a little too brown but otherwise fine :)

Bark Cafe

Interesting little hideout that Ta Ta took us to for some western food. Nice setting just next to the chapel of Changi Prison. However, definitely not a child friendly place as they don't have high chairs. Frankly, food was only average and we much pefer the food at Seletar Airbase.

Art and Barney show

Today Keziah had to draw an insect kingdom and it sure looked like she did it all on her own.

Coincidentally, there's Barney show at United Square. We popped in to join the crowd. Can you imagine, the queue started an hour before the show! What a craze! We weren't that early but we thanked God that we managed to squeezed in. It's amazing how these 2 kids can really sit and wait with the rhetoric question of when it was going to start, even for our little Abel.

Julia Gabriel's Mandarin Early readers

As Mommy still has a week more of school though Keziah's has broken for break, we went for this Chinese programme to keep her occupied. Yes, Julia Gabriel's is well known for their English Speech and Drama and Keziah has always enjoyed the previous holiday classes. Nonetheless, we decided to just immerse her in Chinese now that she's in a constant English environment in school. She definitely enjoyed the programme and learned some simple word recognition through songs and games.

JG Chinese Mandarin Reader - Word recognition 1 from Joan on Vimeo.

JG Early Mandarin Reader - Word Recognition 2 from Joan on Vimeo.

Climbing Trees

Sounds like one of those things we do in Kampong Days. Yes, Keziah decided to try it out while at Botanic Gardens with church mates today. Seeing the older ones do it, she also wanted to try. With much effort, she did reach the top but fear gripped her, knowing that she's quite far from the ground. She just couldn't let go to reach out to those trying to help her to get down. Good try though for the courage!

Biking out @ ECP

Our first attempt at taking the kids out on pillion. Well, it's definitely a new and refreshing experience. The kids simply enjoyed the ride though Keziah was a little afraid as Mommy isn't a steady driver after all.

Nothing more refreshing than a cold coconut drink after being under the hot sun for awhile.

Keziah was going to have an end-of-term party on Friday. It's going to be a jungle theme and our dear girl wants to be a giraffe. So after her nap, Daddy and her worked on this little creation.

Mommy was busy cooking up in the kitchen. It's Mexican for the night. Instant mix but nonetheless healthy wraps.

Elephant ride

After PTM, we took a trip off to the zoo. Yes again! However, we caught sight things new again. White-faced monkeys snatching carrots from the macaw, new born baby hippo just a few days old...

The kids had their first elephant ride which they were all so excited about. Can't imagine having to queue for this ride.

Wet and wild makes little ones as happy as ever!

End of N2

So quickly a year has passed. Today is PTM again. We see some of her works on display and met her best friend in school.

Guess what, our gal is on the coverpage of the magazine!

 

All the sweeties in the class….

Slumber Party

Daddy chanced upon Mc's Pyjamas Party and we trodded down with the little ones for some fun. It's our first time and we really didn't know what to expect. We met Daddy's friend and their daughter, Eunice and the kids had so much fun that we felt our kids were a little wild.

After Happy Meal time, it was time for some quizzes. The kids were so excited and Daddy got involved with being the answer provided. Proven for once, Daddy was a McDonald kid, knowing the characters, where the drive-thru were, opening of this new branch so well in his hands.

Next was some craft time….

Then a story time which all kids were waiting for. We had the story about "The Angry Old Woman". Definitely all captivated by the story, even our dear little Abel, the youngest, was all ears.

What was Mommy doing? Taking pictures and chilling out with a sip of Mocha!

There was a lucky draw at the end. We didn't get the lucky pick but still we went home all happy with a goodie bag.

Manatee Feeding

Today Keziah tagged along Mommy who was bringing her students out to the Zoo for learning journey. We've been to the zoo umpteen times but we just didn't take notice of manatee feeding. It wasn't too crowded and so we took the opportunity. We discovered that they were vegetarians and like their common name says "sea cows", they literally feed on sea grass. However for feeding today, we fed them with boiled potatoes and carrots. Their skin was so rough and thick and their snout was so hairy.

Breaststroke in action

K swimming breast stroke from Joan on Vimeo.

Happy Birthday Dearie...

It's the end of term and we were real busy and all of us were sick one after another the last weekend when it was Daddy's Birthday. So here is the belated gift from our little ones.

Finally too a night out for Daddy and Mommy. It had been awhile since we had last gone of one. Yes there's always this gap and now it looked like it might be more difficult to get away when the kids are still up. Keziah created a din before we managed to get her to go out with Ta Ta and Nei Nei so we could go for our pre-arranged date.

Mommy chanced upon Tairan Izakaya @ Holiday Inn Orchard City Centre on Hungrygowhere.com. It was tucked away in a little corner of Orchard Road. The decoration and all really reminded Mommy of the Japanese bars. We were certainly amazed with the food.

Appetizers: Negi Toro Otsumami. Chopped tuna belly with roe eaten rolled in seaweed provided. All the flavours just oozed into your mouth with the very bite.

Takosu: A traditional japanese dish of vinegered octopus. Really appetising! Top with Assorted Sashimi of what we think were one of the places that served the freshest sashimi. With a spread of salmon, tuna belly, sword fish, amber jack, octopus with fish roe and prawn that were served in generous slices, we can't help but to savour every bit.

Mains:
Somen champuru - tasty angel hair noodles full of the flavours of broth.
Gyu Saikoro - grilled black pepper beef cubes. Very succulent.
Grilled seasonal pink fish - extremely fresh.

Hmm…what do you do with the prawn head from the sashimi? Nothing was wasted. The waitress actually approached us to ask for the prawn head after we are done with the sashimi for it to be deep fried. It came out totally crispy that you could munch the whole head down.

A favourite that we usually don't miss at Japanese restaurant: Grilled squid. We tried the salted grilled squid. Daddy liked it but Mommy found it a tat too tough though it was still tasty and juicy.

Rounding it off with desserts: all complimentary!

We totally agreed with the food review that this place will seriously be our next Japanese food hunt. Reasonable price for the extensive menu of fresh yummy food. Quiet environment for two to talk despite not having the romantic setting.

Nature walk

It's a public holiday and off we went to MacRitchie Reservoir for a morning walk. It was a wet start but thank God the weather cleared. It was so heartwarming to see how the two stick so close to one another.

 An event not to be missed -  feeding the fish. We were all ready with our bread to feed them to their fill. Interestingly it was just this one spot that we had a school of fish.

We headed next to Changi Airport for our lunch. The slide was opened and our gal tried it for the first time. Fun but she was a little frightened when she couldn't find the button to activate the exit door at the slide landing. Oh yes, the viewing gallery at T3 is completed and we had a good view of the flights taking off and landing.