It's confirmed!

At 19 weeks 6 days, we are meeting again! This time with Daddy, Jie Jie and Kor Kor.

Active little one measuring 312 g (approximately 10% of Mommy's weight gain) and the gender is confirmed!

Keziah's pieces @ Kidz Academy

We went down after the kids' nap for a stroll at Suntec. We just realised we haven't gone out to shop like that for ages! We popped by at her art school Vince Music Art Studio booth at the Kidz Academy Exhibition at Suntec to look at her pieces. She was most happy to see her pieces there. 

Hmm…her potriat…erm..does she want to be blonde? The other was a joint effort by a few of the kids in the class and the dragonflies were her handiwork.

Hainanese Chicken Rice Balls

We ventured to try out this Hainanese Chicken Rice balls recommended by our friend just round the corner at Blk 111, Toa Payoh Lor 1.

Verdict: Yumz! The next best to the traditional one we had at Malacca. The chicken was good but the rice balls were a little too big (tennis ball size) so actually 1-2 will actually fill you substantially. We ordered 7 and had 2 left. Thankfully Mommy didn't listen to Daddy to order 10!

Art Exhibition

Keziah's artwork will be exhibited at the following event! Can't wait to see the final piece put together..

The Kidz Academy emerged from the exciting concept of bringing together a diverse range of learning and development programmes onto a single, convenient platform for the benefit of parents and children alike. There's range of activities for the kids to enjoy, some craft workshops and ballet trial class etc.

Playground in the Neighbourhood

Well this sort of sand playground in the neighbourhood had almost gone extinct as most now are carpeted with synthetic material. This one is just next to Ang Mo Kio McDonald's. They must have just refurbish it as the structures all looked really new. One of those rare weeks that Keziah doesn't have lesson in the morning so we decided to just explore this place then go down to the beach. Little things that keeps the kids happy. One thing noted, Keziah doesn't have the guts to go high! Abel is quite happy with his usual play stuff.

Dear Diary

To encourage Keziah to write, we started this dear diary some time last year but had been very infrequent in updating. It was only this last hols that we manage to date down more things. Keziah started to really like looking back at her diary of what she wrote.

Homeschooling….Letter H..hhhhhh

Holidays had been play for most time. Abel had great fun with his train set and always finding innovative ways to involve his toys. Now his train can transport a ball and next it can transform to a plane. Otherwise, he changes his track to a rollercoaster by using one of the carriages to raise one end of the track.

We had stopped for some time with our alphabet and we were back to H.

Some songs we sang:

Hairy Hat man whispers "hhh",
whispers "hhh", whispers "hhh"
Hairy Hat man whispers "hhh"
He never talks too loud

With Christ in the vessel we can smile at the storm
Smile at the storm, smile at the storm,
With Christ in the vessel we can smile at the storm
As we go sailing HOME
Sailing, Sailing, HOME (x2)
With Christ in the vessel we can smile at the storm
As we go sailing HOME

Simple craft collage to make different type of homes…house and a flat…

 Keziah's piece...

 Abel's piece...

We also explored some memory games with our old flashcards and surprise our boy can remember a sequence of 5 animals and Keziah can do 7 quite easily. We also tried to find out where some of these animals stayed.

Finding our heart and punching holes and threading…our little Keziah wrote her little love note..

 

For Keziah we did this count in 5s catepillar to help her with counting in fives as a prelude to her learning to read the analogue clock beyond the hour and half hour.

Cooking for a week

Cooking is never easy when you want minimal preparation time but best output. This holidays was the most cooked food time when we had almost 4 days of homecooked meals.

Monday: Just simple marconi chicken soup.

Tuesday: Mommy tried some instant sauces such as Japanese Curry. Yes, it's mild enough for the kids. Sauces all prepared and all we had to do was to fry some mince meat and mixed vegetable to add in more nutrients to the meal. Easy to go together with rice.


Wednesday: Little more elaborate with Shepherd's pie. Though it's just 1 dish to bake but the preparation time was more challenging than expected. It took Mommy almost 2 hours with all the cutting, frying and mashing of potatoes to get this dish. We tried a mix of red, purple and yellow potatoes and the kids seemed to like the purple potatoes quite a bit.


Thursday: Clearing stock from the fridge with pork rib and vegetable soup and a dish of sweetpeas fried with mushroom.

Conclusion: Mommy's too ambitious with trying to cook meals. Cooking is definitely more tiring when you have to do the cleaning up after and playing with 2 little ones! We might just have to have tingkat when no. 3 arrives if Mommy were to have sanity of mind to spend time with 3 kids.

Rock Climbing

The holidays had been busier than ever for Mommy with the kids. It's packed with activities and this was really the finale of the week. Thanks to Aunt Nat's invitation, we joined their regular group of friends for the kids to rock climb. The kids were all harnessed and really to start their climb.

 Of course not without a proper briefing by the trainers.

 Abel was having his own fun time roaming around and getting his hands exposed to some tactile simulation.

 All the kids were excited to give a try and they all did really well.

Keziah had her turn too but she was just a little sticky and whiney for the day. Not sure if it's the fear of trying new things or fear of heights or simply just because she didn't get a proper night. Mommy was really at her wits trying to get her to attempt the wall on one hand and trying to capture pictures of her first experience coz otherwise there will be no records of her first attempt. It was nice that Uncle Chris came to give some hand in encouraging her and a few little ones like Cheryl and Zinnia. After all, everyone else was focussing on their own kids and friends' kids.

 Next the kids had the chance of bouldering. There were some games to lighten things up.

 Definitely Keziah and Abel enjoyed this part more. Without the restraint of ropes!

 The happy faces of all the little ones...

 We stopped by City Square Mall for a meal and caught sight of candy making.

Durians...

The kids loved it! Little of what we expect as previously they would just take a bite and run off.

Ear rings...

Keziah had been bugging Mommy to have her ear pierced as she wanted to have ear rings on. We weren't expecting it as she was afraid of the pain that we had once told her previously. However, this time she was adamant she had hers. Nonetheless, as sure as said, she felt the pain! Must say she was a brave girl and stopped after a few sobs.

GingerbreadMan

This was one fairy tale that we had been reading for some time. The kids were really excited as we headed off for an early show!

The kids were so caught up by the catchy rhyme and the characters…Even Abel was so glued to his seat throughout the entire 1 hour show.
"Run, run, as fast as you can,
You cannot catch me, I am the gingerbreadman!"

Bottletree Park

We met up with a few churchmates today for the kids to have some fishing experience together. The kids were early and they were happily skipping on the rocks on the pond while waiting for the rest to arrive.

It was definitely not easy to be as fast as the fish but all of them were ready to get their hands on one.

Keziah caught a few of her own and became quite an expert after awhile. Mommy forgot to take a picture of the catch. In total we had 9 fish that we brought home from this trip. Sadly, they all didn't survive for more than a day.

Disney on Ice!

Yes, it's back but we're not going for the show. However, we did take opportunity of free encounters with the characters at Square 2.

First came McQueen….Abel's favourite!

Then came Mickey and Minnie. We just happen to chance upon them and the opportunity to have a free photography session!

Churchmates from of old...

It's been ages since Daddy caught up with his pals from his youth days…..

ABel's craft from kindi

I like this!