Anders 3Days 2Night Adventure Camp, 24 – 26 March 2014

Anthea did her camp while she was in Primary 5. However due to the P5 heavy curriculum and many other awaiting activities, the school decided to change the Adventure Camp to take place during Primary 4.

Anders batch was the first batch to sample the 3D2N adventure camp. Based in the same camp based as Anthea, we were more or less mentally prepared for the camp.

So packing was done quite last minute. Packing boy’s stuff seem much easier compared to girl.

24^th March – Day 1: Setting off for the camp. I can sense that he was a little nervous and kept telling him that we would be seeing him soon, at the camp fire.  He even told me that he Love me and will miss me for the next 2 days.

 

I had no worries for him as he had been pretty street smart all these while and I knew he had the capabilities to look after himself.

We were also getting “LIVE FEEDS” from the teacher-in-charge and seeing all the great photos, we knew they were in good hands and having good time.

 

The home was very quiet without him.

25^th March – Day 2:  Campfire night. Adrian,

Anthea and I went for the campfire; we knew our presence meant a lot to him even though he didn’t said much.  It was a fun night to see all the children performing together and they had so much fun singing their cheers.

At 9pm, the campfire came to a closure and we left for supper. We brought Anthea to The Kranji Resort to have their lovely zi-char dishes. This place seems to be our annual retreat for supper.

26^th March – Day 3: Home Sweet Home – Buses arrived around 12.30noon and the children had a quick debrief before they were all off for home sweet home. Anders came back and had a good hot shower and lunch before he slumped off to slumber land.

After all, he had enjoyed the 3D2N camp and even said that they are going in P5 again. I wonder? 

Happy 10th Birthday, Anders

His birthday always coincide with the Term 1 school holiday, thus it is not easy to invite friends to his party as most would be off for their own holidays.

 

This year he had a few wishes for us to grant:

1. Catching a movie with his best friend
2. Play date with his few good friends at kids Amaze
3. Special meals with the family

 

Yes, all these were full filled and he had a great time with his friends and families.

At every birthday, I felt a sense of accomplishment as he reaches the 10^th milestone. He has not been an easy child, very temperamental and emotional and many times can set me to edge of tearing.

I know I had to embrace all these with an open heart and mind, it’s easy said than done but I know I WILL HAVE TO DO IT. 

On this special day, I wish my son – Happy 10^th Birthday. 

 

Happy 9th Birthday, Anders!

His birthday falls within the March school holiday, so he had the whole week to celebrate it.

We had asked him how would he like to celebrate it and he said he wanted to invite his usual gang of 4 but it was not possible as Bryan would be away for his holiday and Nicole had changed to a new school and it was not easy to invite her. So the only ONE left available was Ryan.

So we had a simple family dinner and invited Bryan along. Dinner was at TCC and it was a great choice as the food was delicious and we had a 50% discount off total bill as it was my birthday month too.

After dinner, Anders requested to play his favorite arcade game with Ryan. They had great fun at the machine. Then we proceeded to MacDonald for a simple cake cutting celebration and had our dessert at the same time.

Each birthday we celebrate for him meant we had reached another milestone – he is not an easy child to bring up. There were many occasions that I had teared because I felt that I had failed as a mother in disciplining him. But I know I cannot give up on him because if I do so, he will be a goner forever. So no matter what happen, I have to be there for him.

So on this special day – I just want to tell him: “Happy Birthday Anders, Mommy loves you very much!”

 

 

Happy 7th Birthday to Anders

Anders had expressed his intention to invite his classmates for his 7th birthday celebration. As he just started Primary 1 and I am not too familiar with his classmates parents, so I told him we should celebrate his birthday in school so that all his classmates can be invited to the party. He was agreeable to the idea and with this – I started the Party Planning.

The 1st step was to get his form teacher approval and arranged the party at recess time. A few emails correspondences with the form teacher – Mrs. Phua and we were all set for the party.

On 22nd March morning, I went to collect his cake and headed to his school for the party. At 9.25am, the form teacher brought the children to the canteen and we started with the cake ceremony. After eating the cake, we had some simple beehoon with chicken nuggets, fishballs and dou fu for their main meal. We ended the meal with a bottle of Vitagen.

It was a simple birthday celebration and I believed Anders had enjoyed it with all the blessings from his friends and teachers. Happy 7th Year old, my dearest Anders!

Anders 1st Learning Journey to Harbour Front

It was Anders 1st Learning Journey with the school and as usual, I volunteered my Parent Support for the outing.

The outing was on 9th February 2011 – we went to the school together and I joined in the morning briefing for the Primary 1 parent volunteer.

The journey started off at 8.30am and the children were all very excited as this was their 1st trip. I could see the excitement on their faces. Anders’s form teacher – Mrs. Phua had paired the children up and given them a number to ensure that they lined up according to the number.

The class children followed this line up worked out very well, on the bus and the road. I was impressed with the children adherence to the children instruction.

The 1st stop was the Sentosa Boardwalk. The children were introduced to the boardwalk and its official opening by the Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean on 29 January 2011.

After the boardwalk, all the children were complaining of the heat and hunger. So naturally, our next stop is Snack break and we headed to the open Pavilion on the 3rd floor of the building. The children had their snacks and drink and enjoyed the shelter from the heat.

When we were done with the snack break, the teacher brought them to the next stop – the PLAYGROUND. All of them were really excited and started going around the playground to count the number of statues for their class assignment. Then after counting, they played for a while before we proceed to the next stop.

The harbor station was our next station. The children were tasked to draw a picture from the viewing gallery. It was really fun to see different child drawing their own thoughts. Some were more creative than other.

Soon it was 12noon and it was time for us to depart Harbour Front and returned to the school. It was a very fulfilling day for the children and I know they would surely look forward to the next Learning Journey.

毕业典礼- Anders K2 Graduation Ceremony 2010

19 November 2010 was a BIG Day for me. Yes, finally, Anders is graduating from his kindergarten stage and would be going to Primary 1 in 2011.

This time round, my first Skool had decided to do the ceremony as individual centre based rather than a combined concert with other centers.

The concert was much smaller in scale but the importance and significance of the celebration remained HUGE in meaning.

The graduation was scheduled to start in the evening at 6.30pm. Around 6.15pm, Anthea and I took a slow walk to the centre. When we arrived at the centre, we realized that the Guest of Honor – Dr.S Vasoo was already making his speech. We entered the centre discreetly and quite luckily, we managed to be seated in the 1st row of the concert.

After his speech, the graduation began. The K2 graduands marched in with pride. They were all wearing the graduation gowns and mortarboard. It was a very special MOMENT for all the parents when they saw their children and cameras were busy flashing away.

Dr. S Vasoo presented each one of them with their graduation certification. After that, they took a group photo with the centre Principal and Teachers in charge.

Then the concert began – the program was well lined up and we had great fun and were well entertained throughout the 2 hours.

Finally when the show was over, we were treated to some light refreshment prepared by the centre aunties. The food was simple and delicious. The children were having a great time, eating their food and chatting with their friends.

For some of them, this would be the last month attending the childcare as some would be going on the next stage in their life.

This was my 2nd time attending a graduation ceremony and I found it to be much more meaning than those big scale show. It really allowed the parents to see the talents in their own child.

Once again, I am a PROUD mother for the day!

亲爱的勇学，

终于毕业了。这是新的开始。。路会很长不过妈妈会陪着你！希望你会勇敢的学习。

爱您的妈妈。

New Shoes/ Swimsuits

It had been a very busy working week cum sport week for me.

I am having quite a few upcoming web conferences and I am busied preparing for them. Also I have an upcoming RoundTable meeting in Melbourne, thus I will be travelling again soon.

With Adrian’s blessing, I am truly enjoying my new home based job which allows me the time to be with the children, especially comes 2011, Anders will be in Primary 1 and I will be taking care of his after school needs as well.

Besides being occupied with work and housework, we are also kept busied with our Saturdays badminton session at the sport hall. I had been booking the badminton hall on all the Saturdays to give Anthea the chance to practice her badminton skill and I know it’s getting better each time. : ) also Anders is enjoying the sport too and hope that he will be able to join the school team too when he starts Primary 1.

Anders will be graduating from the childcare in another 1 month time. I am looking forward to his graduation ceremony in mid November. They had their graduation photo taken on last Thursday, 30 September 2010. Because of the photo, he was required to wear a pair of covered black shoes, so on Wednesday, I went to Marina Square and bought a pair of Reebok for him. Now he is wearing them for his badminton game.

The children celebrated Children Day on 1 October 2010 and thus there was no school on that day for Anthea. We decided on a morning swim at my 3rd BIL and both Anthea and Anders had a great time playing with their cousins – Faith, Saige and Taeia

I noticed that Anders had “bubbles” from his swimsuit and knew it’s time for him to get a new one. Since he is now progressing well in his swimming lesson, it was time to invest in a good swimwear for him. On Saturday, after dinner with the families, we went to Velocity @ Novena Square and bought him an Arena Swimsuit. He is now all ready for his new challenge. Let’s hope he will be able to do his bronze test soon.

Happy 6th Birthday to Anders!

Anders will be 6 years old on 22 March 2010. As this is his last year in the childcare centre, what other better way than to celebrate this special day with all his good friends.

With this in mind, I organized a Mac Party for him in his childcare on Friday, 19 March. Also since this week is the school holiday and Adrian is also on his 1 week leaves, all of us could attend his birthday party.

Yesterday around 3.30pm, we went to his childcare centre with his birthday cake. He chose for himself a Transformer cake.

When we arrived at the centre, the Macdonald team was already there. The children just woke up from their nap and were getting ready for the tea-break. I had ordered a Happy Meal for all of them – Mac nuggets, Apple dipper & apple juice.

The children enjoyed their happy meal and most of them managed to finished the whole meal. Anthea also had a set of happy meal. For the class teachers, I ordered Mac Chicken meals for them.

After eating the happy meal, the party began. The 1st game that they played was Musical chair. All of them knew the game well as they played in school before and they obeyed the rule well. Finally the winner was ANDERS…haha.

The 2nd game was Dog & Bone – it was quite an interesting game and the children also had a fun time playing with it. I was enjoying it by the sideline and busied taking photos.

Following the game was the cake cutting ceremony. Everyone was excited to see the cake and they started singing the birthday song when prompted. They sang total of 4 versions of the song – English, Chinese, Malay & Indian. I was impressed.

After that Anders made a wish and cut the cake on his own. Then he started giving out the cakes to his teachers & classmates.

The final part of the party was the giving out Party pack to his classmates. Macdonald had prepared all the packs nicely and Anders was happily handing all the packs to his friends.

For my Dearest Anders, May you have another Blessed Year Ahead and grow up happy each & everyday, just like the Happy Meal!!

Rainbow Restaurant

For this term of school, Anders has been learning about different kind food & fruits.

The teachers had been bringing them around to places like wet market, NTUC Supermarket and also they visited KFC to understand how a kitchen operates.

During school days, they also had “cooking lesson” and he came back telling me that he had been trying different dishes in school.

They were also taught of different roles in a restaurant; e.g. chefs/waitress/cashier etcs. All these were in preparation of the opening of their own new restaurant – RAINBOW RESTAURANT.

30 November 2009 was the official OPENING of the restaurant and parents were invited to visit the restaurant. So on Monday evening, with our invitation letter, I went to the official opening with Anthea. Anthea was very excited about the opening ceremony. We arrived at the restaurant at the time slot given to us 7 pm.

The waitresses were standing by to welcome all the guests. Then we went in and placed order on our food.

Anders was CHEF in charge of Drinks..haha.

They were serving drinks, egg mayo sandwiches, kebab & fruits salad. Anthea was going around the place and placing her order, using the coupons that were given to the guests. Then she registered her coupon at the cashiers.

We had a really fun time, seeing the “Chefs” all busied at work and the waitresses serving us diligently.

The foods served were delicious and the service was TIP TOP…: )

The shift ended at 7.30pm as the next group of invited guests were waiting outside the restaurant for their meals. (these were the K2 Graduation event)

Then the "chefs" changed shift and had their break after a hard day of work...hehe.

Anders has been displaying keen interest in cooking and each time when I bake/cook, he would come by my side and asks me a lot of questions. He also volunteers his help willingly. I have been telling Adrian – if he cont’d to display keen interest in culinary, maybe one day he will become a CELEBRITY CHEF….haha. Then I can enjoy plenty of nice dishes, if he’s willing to cook for me by then…hehe.

New Toy / New Haircuts

We had another busy weekend. Ever since Anthea & Anders tried Angus’s Yo-yo, they have been bugging me to buy one for them.

So as usual, how can I say No to them, right..: ) . On Saturday afternoon, I brought both of them to Toy R Us @ United Square to search for the recommended Yo-Yo. Before hand, I had a quick checked with Cindy and she recommended the Super Yoyo Stealth Raider model for beginner. However, the outlet does not have stock of this model and the children were disappointed and they would not go off empty handed. Finally, we bought another model Yoyo but instead of 2, I told them we would only buy one and try another outlet for the recommended Yoyo. They were both agreeable to the decision.

So now at home, both of them are practicing the new tricks on their new toy – Yoyo.

After buying the Yoyo, we had our lunch at Macdonald. I am still short of a few properties to get one of the monopoly prizes…hee.

Then we walked to Novena for our favorite dessert – Yummy Yogurt. After our dessert, I brought Anders for his haircut at EC House and while waiting for Anders. I try to persuade Anthea to cut her hair too. She has been keeping her long hair for a while but I had some problems with her maintaining it. She is too lazy to comb her own hair after each wash and I had to keep nagging at her. Also she does sports and swim, so keeping long hair is quite a chore.

I told her of all the good points of keeping short hair and finally after some consideration- she said YES. Immediately I bought the coupon at EC House and told the lady hair dresser that I would like her to cut Anthea’s hair.

After 10 minutes, she came out with a new look and the hairstyle suit her well. Anthea said she was happy with her new hairdo…phew.

We all went home feeling very happy with our achievements..haha.

In the evening, we went for a House warming gathering of one of Adrian long time buddy. He also upgraded his home from a 5 room HDB to a Condominium. They hold a dinner buffet at the clubhouse. We had a good time catching up with his buddies and wives. His buddy brought us to his unit and shows us the beautiful home. Very happy for them to have find their new home sweet home.

On Sunday morning, I went for my Boot camp training and this time round we had a new trainer and he was more on cardio training. After the session, my whole body felt the effect(aching) and I told Adrian it was a very good workout…“ 花钱买罪受。。哈哈”

In the afternoon, I baked some milo cookies for the family and my working colleagues.

In the evening, we brought Anthea to one of her classmate home as she requested to go over to play with her.

They had a good time at the condominium playground and we brought along our badminton gears for them to play. We finished the playtime around 6.30pm and headed over to Charco for our dinner. It was our 1st time trying the food and it was not too bad.

We went home, feeling happy & satisfied and ready for a new week ahead. Now I am looking forward to our Rasa Sentosa Weekends stay.

儿童节特写

Today is children day and school is out for Anthea. As for Anders, his childcare was still opened and had planned a Children Day cum mid-autumn festival celebration.

In the morning after breakfast, Anders changed into his new uniforms and we went together to his childcare centre. He was very happy to be in his new uniforms.

The celebration was scheduled from 9.30am to 11am. There was a mini sport day for the children. The event was supposed to be at the open court in front of the centre. However, as the event was about to start, there was a slight drizzle and the teachers decided to hold it in the childcare.

Though the space was a constraint but the event went on very well and the children had great fun.

K1 children did the Bean Bag balancers and Anders team won the event. He was very happy and accepted the prize on behalf of his team. I was really proud of his performance too.

Then the children were told to bring out their lantern and the teachers brought them for a walk around the blocks void deck. As it was still bright day light, most of the lanterns were not lighted up…haha. Still they had great fun showing off all the beautiful lanterns.

The event ended with the lantern walk and the children went back to the centre for their bath & lunch.

While Anders was having his lunch in the centre, I brought Anthea to AMK HUB for our lunch. As Adrian had some New York, New York vouchers, I decided to had our lunch there.

Before lunch we went by to popular bookstore to buy some books and a whiteboard for Anthea.

Then after lunch we went back to the childcare to fetch Anders home. Since it’s Children Day and also his Play day for his DS, so I thought I could bring him home early to enjoy the day.

It’s has been another simple & enjoyable day with the children – 儿童节的欢乐好满足！！