Stand UP on National Day.

On Friday, both Anthea and Anders schools had their respective National day celebration. Both of them were dressed in the Red/White combination as required. I also went to work in the same dress code. It’s a once a year special day, so why not join in the fun…haha.

Anthea had only 2 hours of school session and after that my mom brought her home. In the evening we went over to my parent’s home for dinner. Somehow, she caught the national day fever and was running a slight temperature. : p

On Saturday we rested whole day at home, hoping that she could recover in time for our Sunday picnic session. But her temperature was still high during the evening, so we decided to cancel the picnic.

On National Day, we had a restful day at home. Anthea temperature was back to normal during the day and she requested to watch the movie – UP. So in the evening, I went to the cinema to buy the movies tickets for the night show. At the same time, I bought back dinner as we planned to watch the National Day Parade LIVE on television.

The show started at 6.15pm and we were glued to the TV from that moment onward. I must say – this year NDP is really IMPRESSIVE! I liked the way the show was shown in chapters and each chapter reflected a different generation. The show was very lively and highly entertaining. At 8.22pm, we stand UP to recite our pledge – I did it and the children were quite amused.

After the National Day show, the children changed into their pyjamas and got ready for the UP movie. We had an enjoyable time at the movie, this time minus the pop-corn and drink as I don’t want them to fall sick again.

The show was nice but Anthea said she like ICE Age 3 better..haha. We went home after the show and headed to bed around mid-night.

Today is another official public holiday and I decided for them to rest well at home. So we shall just laze around and enjoy the day.

Wishing Singapore – a Happy 44th Birthday!

看戏。吃饭。相聚

We had a very fun and fulfilling weekends and our weekends started from Friday evening. : P

Friday – ICE AGE 3

Anthea and Anders had seen the thriller on Cartoon Networks and had mentioned their interest to watch the movie. However, we had a main headache – this movie is shown in 2 versions – 2D and 3D. Anthea wanted very much to watch the 3D movie but Anders is not so used to 3D, so we had to get both consensuses. Luckily Anthea was agreeable to watch the normal 2D movie, so we booked a 10.15pm show at cineleisure @ AMK Hub.

As our home is walking distance to the cinema, so I told the children – they should change into the pyjamas, so that after the movie, they could go home and head straight to bed…since it would be near mid-nite by the time the movie ended.

The 1 ½ hour movie was very entertaining and we had good laughs throughout the movie. As usual the children enjoyed their Jumbo popcorn.

We are planning for our next movie – Transformer as Anders had requested for it. But I heard some negative feedbacks so now I am still hesitating if we should watch it or just wait for the DVD…: P

Saturday – Home cooked Chicken Rice

Last week at dinner, Anthea mentioned that she discovered a “new” way to eat chicken rice. She said “mommy, you must put dark sauce over the chicken rice and it becomes very yummy.”
I asked her how did she discover this way – she said she had it when my FIL ate it at TMFT on the day they departed for Club Med Bintan.

So with this in mind, Anthea told Adrian to cook his “signature dish” – home cook chicken rice on Saturday for lunch. This was also a refresher course for Adrian as he will be travelling soon for his one month plus work detachment.

Recently, I bought a new soup recipe book by the title “阿婆靓汤“and decided to try on one of them – Lean pork soup with Pear & dates (蜜枣雪梨瘦肉汤)

The soup tasted very nice and sweet and all of them loved it. I had tried 2 recipes and so far the responses were good. Next week, I am going to try another recipe.

Sunday – Catching Up

A few weeks back we borrowed some winter clothing from our Aunty SP. After collecting the clothing back from the laundry shop. We made a trip to her house on Sunday to return the basket of clothing.

As usual, Anthea and Anders had a great time playing around with Uncle Kiat. He has so many toys in the house.

At the same time, Aunty SP shared with me her concerns over Kiat’s school work. He’s in Primary 2 now and like any child. He is also careless in his studies and needed my aunty guidance in his school work.

She is working Full time and indicated that she will likely quit her job next year because Primary 3 is crucial and she wants Kiat to maintain his results in order to pass. She is also concerned about his Mother Tongue as there is no one at home that can guide him. My Uncle usually works long hours, so it’s hard for him to teach Kiat Mandarin.

Looking at her situation, I can empathize with her. I told I would encourage her to stop work, if my uncle can support the family financially. I believe the first few years are critical years for the child to build up their foundation. If they don’t get it right from the start, the child may eventually lose his/her confidence in the studies and that may lead to other set of problems.

Hopes that she can works up something that best fit her family. That’s why the Chinese say: “家家有本难念的经“

WINX CLUB: THE SECRET OF THE LOST KINGDOM

Anthea has been a Winx Club fan since she was in K1 and in her own girls group in class; I think there is also a “winx club” group. She will usually come back from childcare and tells me who is Flora, who is Techna, who is Blooms etcs.

At our recent movie outing for High School Musical, the cinema show a thriller of the Winx Club movie and Anthea said she wanted to watch it.

Being a 二十四孝妈妈，how can I say NO... : P The game plan started on Saturday morning. While I was reading my newspaper at breakfast, I took a quick glance at the movie showing time in Cathay Cineplex. When I saw the show times, I knew I was spoilt for choices. So I told myself, I will play by ear to see how the schedule goes.

I did my usual household chores, prepared a simple lunch of Hainanese Chicken rice using the premix sauce. Of course, preparing a pot of home cooked soup using my new WMF pot... : )

Then I received a call from my SIL to inform me of the dinner plan of eating steamboat at my MIL's place as some of the aunties were coming over for dinner too.

So this set my game plan – target the 5.05pm Winx Club movie. I didn't tell the children about the movie plan because just in case of any last minute changes.

After lunch, the children had their usual nap. They woke up around 4pm, very good timing. I asked them if they would like to watch a movie before going to 奶奶 house for dinner. They said YES and then we were making a decision on which movie: Winx Club or Madagascar.

After discussion we decided on WINX CLUB. So around 4.45pm we made our way to the Cineplex. We bought the 2 tickets for the 5.05pm show. I used the Civil Service card and bought the weekends Combo deal – 2 tickets include Popcorn and 2 drinks. As usual the cinema was not crowded, so we had the chance to change seats.

The 1 ½ hour show was very engaging and I engaged it as much. Anthea also had a great time. Anders was a bit restless but still managed to sit through, though he kept going to the toilet... : P

The show had a beautiful ending – Bloom finally found her real parents and became the Princess of Domino.

Both Anthea and Anders came out of the cinema feeling very happy and I am glad that we had the chance to watch it too.

Then we headed to my MIL's house for dinner. Both of them were looking forward to seeing their Uncle Kiat again. Matter of fact, Anders was just asking to play with Uncle Kiat on Friday evening when we were out for dinner. They had a rowdy good time with their uncle kiat at my MIL place.

Like Adrian always say: “be careful of what you wish for.”

Wishes do come true, just like DREAMS too... : )

High School Musical 3

In the morning, I brought Anthea and Anders to the hairdresser/barber to cut their hair. Then I bought some food to prepare a simple lunch. I was planning for an early lunch because we had a "HOT DATE".

We were going to the cinema for HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3 movie!!!

Anthea and Anders have been fans of High School musical shows. We had watched the 1st and 2nd show on TV and now the final show in cinema.

After a quick lunch, we took a slow walk to the AMK HUB Cineplex. We had tickets for the 1.20pm show. As usual I bought 2 tickets as I had planned for Anders to sit on my laps. To my delight, the cinema was not full and there were plenty of empty seats. When the show started, we shifted to those empty seats and Anders had his own seat.

This time the Wildcats are all graduating from High School and seeing them graduate at this time strike a chord with me, especially my little girl will be graduating from Kindergarten to Primary school soon... : )

I hope that she has as much fun in the kindergarten as the wildcats, of course, minus the LOVE story part at this moment... : P

We enjoyed the 1.5 hours movie and the songs were just as great as no. 1 and no. 2. The dances were all well choreographed. Now I am waiting for the release of the movie vcd/dvd to add on to the collection.

In the evening we had dinner with our extended families at Crystal Jade Golden Palace @ Paragon. After dinner, we adjourned for dessert at the coffee club.

I managed to call Adrian and he had the chance to talk to the brothers. According to Adrian, they are now planning to cramp as much work as possible during the week, hoping to clear them soon and be home in time for Christmas.

Anyway, I told him we just need to follow godwill, if he's meant to be home for Christmas, it's meant to be... : ) Just hope that they have a smooth work week ahead.

I am starting my new chapter next Monday and I am looking forward to the new routine. Just like what Troy and Gabriella sang in the 1st show – “start of something new”... : )

Aces Family 1st Movie Nite

Bringing Anthea and Anders to the movie has always been on my mind. I have been procrastinating it because of my worries :

- if they can sit still for 90 minutes
- will they be scare of the darkness in the cinema
- will they enjoy the movie etcs...

So to clear all my worries, we decided to go for a movie as a family. Also the childcare centre will be closed for the next 2 days, so waking up late tomorrow is not a problem.

I have 3 FREE movie passes for Golden Village cinema. So our nearest choice is GV Bishan and the movie we chose was Mr Beans Holiday.


The 2 A's junior has been watching Mr Bean cartoon CDs and Mr Bean show at home, so they are very familiar with the character.

After getting tickets for the 7.20 pm tickets, we bought a Combo Set ( large popcorns + a large sized drink). We went in the hall for the movie.

Both Anthea and Anders were very excited, especially Anders, he kept asking : "where's Mr Bean?" Then i explained to them that we have to wait for the movie to be screen. While waiting, both of them were happily munching the popcorns and sipping the drink.

Once the movie started, 2 of them got quite engrossed with it. Only thing is both of the will keep asking me questions : "why, what happen? " So i will have to keep linking the story for them. As the movie is more of funny actions than dialogue, so it was good enough to keep their attention focused.

At the end of the movie, both of them left the cinema, tired but very Happy. Anders told me he want to see Spiderman...hee : )

Then we went Breadtalk for a light supper and after that it was Home Sweet Home.

Well, from this experienced, i know my worries were unfounded. I am proud and glad to say the our 1st movie night is a SUCCESS and i know, there will be more of it to come.