Lion Dance

Last Friday, Anders childcare celebrated Chinese New Year and had a mini Lion Dance performance.

As we managed to borrow a Lion head, Anders had the honored to Head the lion while his classmate tailed him.

Before the celebration, the teachers had made them practiced the dance steps. Being the eldest in the childcare, the K2 children had to perform for the toddles/nursery group and also the K1 class.

In the morning at 9.30am, I went by to the centre. As there were existing HFM cases, so parents were not allowed to go into the centre, we were allowed Window View..haha.

The 1st performance was for the toddles / nursery classes and the small children were all very excited to see the K2 children performed. It was a fantastic performance.

The 2nd lion dance was for the K1 children and one pair of the K1 joined in the K2 for the Lion Dance and they did equally well for this performance.

After the Lion Dance, they sang all the Chinese New Year songs and the atmosphere was simply joy & happiness.

Now Anthea & Anders are hoping to perform for the families before the Tiger Year roar away this weekends...

欢庆虎年

除夕： Sat, 13 Feb 2010
Our reunions started with lunch at my parents place. As usual, food was abundance with dishes like: 鲍鱼 ，烧鸭/烧肉，鸡，虾，蔬菜和汤。 We also bought in a pack of 鱼生 for Lo Hei.

Lunch was very sumptuous and we had an enjoyable time with the food and companionship. Both Anthea & Anders enjoyed the jelly and drinks that my mom had specially prepared for them.

After a good lunch, we went home to rest ourselves before dinner. In the evening we had the chance to get some exercise before round 2 of great feasting.

Reunion dinner was at my Parents in law place and the usual practice was – 火锅 (steamboat). As usual before dinner, we had a round of Lo Hei to start off. Then the dinner started. There was also lots of good food that went down to the steamboat. We had beef, prawns, squids, codfish cakes, vegetables and fishes. Dinner was very relaxed and we ended with a good bottle of Red Wine.

Then we headed home to rest for the night. As it was the eve of Chinese New Year, both Anthea & Anders stayed up with me. This is a tradition that I practice – 守岁。We slept around 1am.

正月初一 : Sunday, 14 Feb

Our 1st stop for 拜年 is always my in laws place. So in the morning after a simple breakfast, we went over to greet my in laws.

After that, we went over to my parents place for lunch and at the same time 拜年。After lunch, Adrian sent them off to the airport as my brother brought my parents to Bangkok for a short vacation.

Then we went home to rest for the afternoon.

In the evening dinner was home cooked meal at my youngest brother in law home. We had a round of Mahjong game after dinner. Quite luckily, I managed to win a little bit of monies...hehe

正月初二：Monday, 15 Feb

In the late morning, we went to Shangrila hotel for a swim as the weather has been very hot for the few days. My youngest SIL had booked a room for my PIL to stay for the night.

In the late afternoon, after our nap, we headed to my 大舅house for 拜年. All the uncles / aunties & cousins were gathered at his house, so it was easier for me to 派红包。

We had a sumptuous dinner at my uncle house and then left to meet up with my extended families for after dinner drinks. As Adrian’s uncles/aunties were there, it was a good chance for them to catch up for Chinese New Year.

Anthea & Anders had a great time and was happy to meet with all the cousins & uncles for the day.

正月初三：Tuesday, 16 Feb

In the morning, I went early to 城隍庙拜太岁 as Anders & my Zodiac is against the Tiger Year.

The rest of the day was simply rest & relax.

This had been another enjoyable Chinese New Year celebration. We had abundance of food, happiness and Joy for the few days.

I hope that in the Tiger year – all will be smooth sailing for the family – 一帆风顺！

Learning Journey to Singapore Zoological Garden

Monday Blues? What Monday blues, we were going to the Zoo…haha.

Yes, this was the 1st Learning Journey for the Primary 2 children and they were going to the Zoo.

I woke up around 5.30am in the morning to prepare Anthea’s breakfast and her snack for the trip. She had requested for sushi roll.

I was also going for the trip as a Parent support…hehe. We went to school together and I waited at the canteen with the other PSG for the children to assemble.

We started our bus journey around 8.40am. The children had an early recess at the canteen while waiting for the bus.

On the way to the Zoo, everyone was feeling the excitement and the children were busy chatting away with one another on the bus.

We arrived at the Zoo around 9.30am and started the assignment immediately. Each child has been given a set of notes to complete. There were 5 main stations for them to cover in order to complete their assignment.

The 5 stations were:

Station 1A: Polar Bears

Tasks: to find the names of the 2 Polar bears in our Zoo. One of the bear age and the year he was born. Also listing out the food that the bear eats. The children saw the feeding of the bears at the same time.

Station 1B: Wild Africa

Task: Find out the meaning of Orang Utan. Their Arms length and the shaped of the feet.

Station 2: Fragile Forest
Task: Life Cycle of a butterfly & life cycle of a cockroach

Station 3: Kidz World

Last Station: Elephant @ Work & Play show.

After walking for almost 1.5 hours, the children had a 10 minutes water break at the Kidz world zone. Most of them were hungry by now and ate their snacks happily.

At 11.30am, we were at the Asia Elephant area for the Elephant show. It was a 15 minutes show and it was entertaining, both for the adults & children. Some of them whom volunteered to sit in the 1st row of the show got a splashing good time from the Elephant and they were a bit wet. : )

After the show, we proceeded to the exit and took the school bus back to the school.

It had been an enjoyable outing for the children and I know they will bring back what they have seen in the Zoo to the classroom and shared with one another.

Too HOT to MISS..

It’s the Singapore Air show and it’s happening during this week from 02 to 7 February 2010. The last 2 days are open to publics.

Adrian had been assigned duties during the air show and he had mentioned a few times of me bringing Anthea & Anders to the air show. I am quite reluctant to do so because of a few reasons – the children had tuition classes on Sat & Sunday & it will be too rushed for us to make it to the show. Another reason is the tickets prices are too expensive. And lastly from previous air show feedback – the public transport is madness and I have no intention to join in this game…hehe.

Till last Friday, Adrian smsed me and said that he had FREE tickets to the show and his officer had allowed him to be off duty of Sunday to bring his family to the carnival. So how can we say NO…hehe.

This morning, we woke up at 7am and had early breakfast. Then we changed and set off for the air show. Both Anthea and Anders were excited about the show as Adrian mentioned that they will get to see the fighter jet.

We decided to go earlier as we wanted to beat the crowd and also Anthea had her revision class at 2pm.

We arrived at the show around 9am and the crowd was already starting to go in. When we reached the F-16, the Q was already formed. We joined in the Q and it was really HOT. The children kept complaining about the heat. Yeah, they are too pampered.

After going on the F-16, Adrian asked if they wanted to Q to go into the Apache and both said NO..haha.

Then we just walked around the display area and view a few other planes that were on display. It was really hot and the children surrendered and said they wanted to go to the air-condition place. Then we went to the exhibition hall and there was air condition in the hall. We walked around and enjoy a bit of the cool air and then called it a day.

Finally we left the show around 10 plus and had brunch at Changi Village before going back to rest.

It was a good experienced for the family and understanding how hard (HOT) at work daddy is every day, we truly salute him