“快乐情人节“ - Valentine Weekend @ Shangri La Hotel

We had a very enjoyable weekend stay at the Shangri La hotel. On Saturday, my BIL joined us to the hotel and checked in the 2 adjoining rooms for us. Yes, he booked 2 rooms for our family.

We had room 293 & 294 at the Garden Wing of the hotel. Anthea and Anders were so happy to see the adjoining rooms and started checking out the rooms amenities.

We had a room with a King Sized bed and a room with Double Queen Sized beds. Anthea allotted the 2 rooms accordingly and she said that I should sleep with Anders in the room with King Sized bed while she took the twin room with daddy…haha.

After checked in, the children had requested to take a swim, so I brought them to the pool while Adrian went for his gym workout. We had about an hour of water fun. Anthea challenged me to race and I was very happy to see her swam on her own.

When we finished our swim, we went back to the hotel to change. The children had a simple tea break and took their power nap. I went for my gym workout while Adrian stayed with them in the room.

Around evening, my parent in laws came over with my niece to use the pool. Anthea and Anders joined them for another round of water fun at the pool. They were running all around the pool while my little niece was busy chasing after them. Luckily my In-laws had standby because my little niece was jumping in and out of the 2 children pools.

(Faith - my little niece)

When we were all done with swimming, we went back to the room to shower and changed for dinner. We took the hotel shuttle bus to Takashimaya shopping centre and had dinner at the Imperial Treasure. The meal was sumptuous with a nice pot of double boiled winter melon soup.

We went to Borders after dinner and Anthea bought a few stories books and Ander bought a Ben - 10 DVD.

Then we took a slow walk back to Shangri La hotel from Borders. Upon reaching the hotel, my little niece had some fun in the room with the Light control and she was also running in & out of the 2 rooms, looking for her 2 cousins…so busy…haha. Around 10pm, my In-laws left for home with my little niece.

Then it was our turn to chill out. Anthea and Anders had fun with the computer game on Adrian’s laptop. (Internet was FREE!!). Adrian had his bottle of Bacardi Breezer while I had my bottle of Hooch with our packet of healthy cocktail nuts. He was watching Football channel and I was enjoying the movie on HBO. This was ENJOY Life to me….simply relaxing. We knocked out around mid night.

The next day we woke up around 9 am and went to The Line restaurant for the buffet breakfast. The spread was sumptuous and we had a great meal.

After a hearty breakfast, we went back to the room to rest while before going to the pool for a morning dip.

At round noon time, we prepared for checked out, actually we had late checkout till 3pm but we had planned to go to Chan Brother’s Travel Fair at Suntec City, so we checked out earlier.

Luckily I had already made “appointment” to see my tour consultant prior to going to the fair, otherwise, the waiting time would be terribly long, judging at the Q Numbers…phew.

While I was settling the details with the consultant, Adrian brought the children to Food Republic for lunch.

At the fair, I was entitled for some goodies bag/lucky draws and a trolley bag. After claiming all these, I was walking towards the escalator an d I saw one of my IDOLS - Violet粉樱.

I approached her and asked for a photograph to be taken with her and she readily agreed. She also used her camera and took 1 photo of us together…oops, does this mean I may have the chance to appear on her diary…樱儿日记。

I met up with Adrian and the children at the Food Republic and then we went home. The children had their power nap before meeting up with the extended families for dinner.

We had a wonderful and memorable Valentine weekend and the children even said they want to stay at Shangri La again…haha.

Till our next weekend getaway….祝天下有情人总成眷属！！

First Topical Tests

Anthea had her 1st topical test for English & Chinese last week and she had her topical test on Math this week.

I was a little stressed over her topical tests. Reason being if she does not do well, she may need to go back for remedial classes. I have nothing against remedial classes; it’s just that I don’t want her nap routine to be disrupted. Nap is especially important as she had tuition classes in the evening on alternate days.

Last Friday, she brought back her English and Chinese test papers and I was very happy with her attempts. She had FULL marks for both papers. She scored 25/25 for English and she had 50/50 for Chinese. I went through both set of test papers. For English paper, I would say its set quite easily but of course, it follows what the teacher had taught in class. As for Chinese paper, most of it was in 汉语拼音, so to be able to score well; she must be familiar with the 拼音。

This week Wednesday, she had her Math test. I knew that she had some problem in her Math and on Tuesday evening, I had asked Adrian to give her a bit of coaching in the subject matter. After the coaching, she seems to understand the concept better. On Thursday she brought back the Math test paper and I was happy with her result - 24/25. Her mistake was on spelling error of the word “EIGHT”. She spelled “eighth”; I think she got a little confused with tuition class spelling…hee.

Both Adrian and me gave her praises for her effort. We told her it’s perfectly ok to make mistakes in test as we learn from mistake.

So far, I am very happy with her performance in both her school work & tuition work, though some time I do worried if she may be too “pressurized” with all the homework. I have been giving her my assurance that if she felt that there is too much work, then we can stop either the tuition classes or Chinese enrichment class.

Nowadays coaching a child in his/her study is no longer so simple. Many times, I tried coaching Anthea in her studies and ended up getting angry with her. I think my way of coaching is not right.

As for Adrian ways of coaching, she enjoyed it and can absorb the concept better. Think I must learn from Adrian about his coaching or go and find out more about correct ways of coaching. Adrian will be going on oversea detachment in the 2nd half year of 2009, so I better trained myself well as the 2nd half year is more crucial for Anthea.

Both Adrian and me are non-graduates and our wish for our children is to 青出于蓝; so far we are very happy with her performance and will give her our greatest encouragement through her school years.

美丽的“香格里拉”

Yes, thanks to my youngest BIL, we will be going to 香格里拉酒店 for a weekend stay on this coming weekend. And this Saturday happens to be Valentine Day…haha.

This will be our Aces Family 1st Valentine Weekend getaway. Reading from the Straits Times on Tuesday, Shangri La hotel has the most expensive Valentine Package deal @ $99, 998 for a night stay. Wow…cannot imagine if anyone will buy it. Lucky for us, we get the night stay for complimentary.

I am really grateful to my Terence, my youngest BIL, because he had extended this invitation to our family not once, not twice but 3 times. So how can we reject his invitation? His complimentary hotel stay expire end of February, so this is the best time to utilize them.

Well, my previous consideration was Anthea’s swimming lesson on Sunday, however, considering that hotel buffet breakfast are included at The Line, I think sacrificing 1 swimming lesson is worth it for the family treat (馋嘴妈妈)… : P

Of course, not forgetting the hotel facilities – swimming pool, gym and the spacious room.

I know for sure, both Anthea and Anders will enjoy the hotel stay. As for Adrian & me, we will pamper ourselves by chilling out with a bottle of Bacardi freeze and some cocktail nuts and enjoying a movies or 2 on HBO/Star movies etcs.

喔……
香格里拉~
这美丽的香格里拉
这可爱的香格里拉
我深深的爱上了她我爱上了她。。

Lo Hei Weekends – “大团圆“

Our Lo Hei started since Friday evening. We invited my Parents in law for a Lo Hei dinner at Zhou’s Kitchen @ Novena Square. Since Chinese New Year till Friday, our extended families have not done any Lo Hei, which is very unusual from previous years practice. : P

This was also an appreciation dinner towards my In Laws for giving our family moral & physical support during Adrian oversea detachment. We ordered a Chinese New Year Set menu which bound auspicious names:

- 丰收鱼生(Bountiful Harvest Salmon “Yu Sheng)
- 廷年益寿 （Double boiled chicken soup）
- 喜哈大笑 (Crisp fried Prawns with Butter and Wheat)
- 高瞻远瞻 (Braised spinach bean curd with Mushrooms and vegetables)
- 风气呈祥 ( Stew Chicken with fermented wine)
- 金银满屋 （Fried glutinous rice with Chinese sausages）
- 鸿运团圆 （Sweetened red bean cream with glutinous dumpling）

We had a very nice and relaxed dinner. My father in law even went to invest in the Toto Ang Bao draw after dinner… : )

Hopefully the Lo Hei would bring lucks and good health to the families for the 牛年。

On Saturday morning, I prepared my traditional 年糕 for the family. This is another tradition I will upkeep.

Wishing Adrian 步步高升in his career; Anthea 学业进步；Anders 快高长大!

We had New Year lunch at Imperial Treasure restaurant with Adrian’s group of buddies. I had known them since our dating times and it’s a yearly affair to meet up during Chinese New Year. We had a very sumptuous dim sum lunch with a very Auspicious Abalone cum Yu Sheng Lo hei.

At lunch we had a good time with new updates on one another families. After lunch, we headed home for the children nap.

In the evening, I had a gathering with a group of my Ex- colleagues from IATA. One of the colleagues will be migrating to Australia, so this gathering was mainly for her farewell.

When I reached her home, I was so happy to see so many good, OLD friends. I had left the company since 2003 and to see all of them after 5 – 6 years really brought back good memories.

Hugs were all around and some shed tears of joys. We were busy chatting and the house was filled with laughter at all corners. I met my ex-Boss (Kelly) and we had a good time reminiscing those good old working days. She is still with the company and I think she is reaching her 24 years of work with the company.

The organizers – Vivien, Alice and SL had ordered buffet and also arranged for a special farewell gift for Maggie.

Coincidentally Alice birthday also fall on this day and Maggie’s daughter baked a Bailey’s cheesecake for Alice birthday. We sang her a birthday song, double happiness…oops..Nope, another friend’s Su also celebrated her birthday on 3rd February, so we sang another birthday song….joy after joy.

Good time passed fast, at around 9.30pm Adrian came over with the children to pick me up. I was scheduled for another round of Mahjong session at my youngest BIL home… : P

My youngest SIL, Cherry, is still a ‘PPP’ (P-Plate Player) in mahjong but judging at her game, she will be PRO very soon…haha.

Today is the eve of 15th day of Chinese New Year (元宵) ，we will be doing another round of “reunion dinner” at my parent’s house. This is to celebrate a 圆满Chinese new year and may the year ahead be 一帆风顺， 大家生活都美满。

1st School Holiday Family Vacation – “东方之珠“

In last than a month, it will be Aces Family 1st school holiday... : P

Yes it is the March 1 week school holiday. 14 - 22 March 2009...

I had requested for Adrian to apply for a week of leaves to look after Anthea. He did and it had been approved.

We discussed a little if we should plan for a short vacations. I told him I prefer to do it during the June school holiday. However, he mentioned that he may be doing his course during that time and leaves may be difficult to approve. Since his March leaves had been approved, we should just go ahead for a short trip.

With the “Finance Minister” approval, I started the family vacation research. There were 3 countries for consideration:

Australia – Melbourne or Perth
Hong Kong
Thailand – Chiangmai/chiangrai

After some budgeting and planning, we (or rather the planner – that’s me!!) narrowed down to Hong Kong…hee : )

I contacted Chan Brothers and will be booking their 5D4N Hong Kong Magical Discovery. This is a package tour and it includes a 1 night stay in Disneyland hotel. The reasons why we(I) shortlisted Hong Kong is:

1. Package price is within our Q1 2009 travel budget;

2. Hong Kong is a easy place to go around, even on our own and it’s good for SHOPPING…hee : ) （买东西，吃东西)

3. Anders has not been to Hong Kong, so it’ll be a good chance for him to explore, plus he is going to Disneyland for the 1st time. It will be a great birthday present for him.

According to the agency, they need 10 travelers to materialize the group, so in the event, if the group is not confirmed, we will go on their Free & Easy deal which is still fine with us. Important thing is we are enjoying it as a family this time.

下一个(journey)旅行地点是香港，期待能够好好的共享家庭之乐。

甜甜蜜蜜的周末

Saturday

Aunty SK organized a get-together for the families as her youngest son, Wen da, will be going back to Sydney for his study. So she had requested that my youngest BIL booked a room at Shangri La hotel for Wen Da to stay and for us to rest and relax at the hotel. Adrian was commenting we are really going HIGH CLASS, going to Shangri La hotel 2 weekends in a row…haha.

The children took an early afternoon nap as they knew that we were going to the hotel for a swim with their 2 favorite uncles (Uncle Wenyi & Uncle Kiat).

While the children were napping, I took the opportunity to prepare some dessert to bring along to the hotel. From last Monday experienced, I knew the aunties were going to bring lots of food to the room. I decided to prepare the 龙眼白果清汤，I also added a bit of 百合, wishing all 百年好和.

Anthea and Anders woke up around 4.30pm and we left for the hotel. The room was as usual very big and spacious. Yes, plenty of makan stuff was in the room, as expected...haha. Uncle Kiat was in the room waiting for Anthea and Anders. We quickly changed and went to the pool.

While Adrian was looking after the children by the pool, I went to the gym and I was really amazed at the service level. When I went on the treadmill machine, the gym staff gave me a towel. Then he switched on the small monitor in front of the treadmill machine and gave me a headset. I was so impressed!! No wonder Shangri la is so HIGH CLASS…haha.

When I was done with my routine, I went to the pool and brought the children back to the room to shower and changed. Adrian went for his gym workout.

Around 7.15pm, we left the hotel for our dinner at La Forketta restaurant hosted by Uncle HT. All the children had at great time at dinner with the spaghettis, pizza and the dessert – Chocolate cake.

When it was time to go home, the children were quite reluctant to part but I told them we will sure have chance to meet again… : )

SUNDAY

Adrian was on guard duty so he reported back to work in the morning. Anthea had her swimming lesson and Anders had to tag along with me to the pool to wait for anthea.

In the evening, we went over to my Parents in law house as my FIL’s youngest brother was visiting him for CNY. I brought the children over to greet Uncle Philip and Aunty Winnie. We had dinner with them at the seafood restaurant by the coffee shop. Then we headed to my youngest BIL’s place for a game of Mahjong.

FINALLY, I had the CHANCE to play 麻将...hee. It was so much fun and I really enjoyed playing with them. There were so many jokes on the MJ table. Uncle Philips and his wife are very humorous people.

The game ended around 10.20pm and we went home for our rest.

又是一个快乐和甜蜜的周末。希望大家再来临的一年里事事都顺利，每天都甜甜蜜蜜

Her 1st Watch & His 1st Fall

This week beside busy celebrating Lunar New Year, Anthea was also busy learning for her spellings test for both her tuition class and her school.

Yesterday she was tested on both the spellings. For her tuition lesson, she made a careless mistake, so she missed the full mark by 1 point. Her score was 19/20. Anyway, she had tried her best, so I still gave her my praises and at the same time, told her to be more careful.

Today she came home and told me a piece of good news – she said she had full marks for both her school spellings. One was tested last Thursday and one was tested yesterday. She had 10/10 for both of them.

I was very happy with her scores and told her that her hard work had reaped the good results. I reminded her that she must keep up the good effort in her studies. As a result of her good score, Adrian and I decided to give her a small reward. She said she wanted a watch.

After discussion with Adrian, we think that it’s a good time for her to have a watch to wear to school. This will help her to learn more about time.

In the evening as we were heading out for dinner, Adrian mentioned that my In-laws were having dinner @ Botak Jones, so we went over to join them. Anthea shared with my parent in laws of her spelling results. My father in law was very pleased and asked her what she wants as a reward. She said a watch and my FIL said he will get one for her.

So after dinner, we went to AMK HUB with my In Laws and Anthea managed to chose a Casio watch for herself. We decided on a basic and reasonable priced watch as we don’t want her to buy anything too expensive for fear of losing it.

She is now a proud owner of a watch and is happily reading the time to everyone at home…haha. She is our Time Keeper.

Anders is also adjusting well to the new routine and his K1 Class. Basically, most of his friends are the same from his nursery class, so everything is pretty much the same, except for his new teachers.

My only worry about him is he is still very much a “Cry Baby” which I really hope that he can outgrow it fast. Adrian said he is a “SNAB” – sensitive new age boy. At times, I am really at my wits end of how to handle his emotion. I have tried telling him over and over again but his tears is like tap…once it turn on…it goes non-stop..Sigh.

I just hope that he will understand that tears do not help to solve the issue and he need to learn to manage his tears.

This evening after buying the watch, we were walking home from the HUB. Anders was walking next to Anthea. Suddenly his left leg felt into the small drain by the side of the walkway. He had bruises all over his lower left leg. He was crying in pain. Lucky it is only small scratches and I told him to be more careful next time.Now he is ok and happily playing with his game boy.

We had started a new ruling on playing game boy – No playing from Monday to Friday, only can play on Saturday and Sunday. Anders had been playing too much game boy and I told Adrian that he may become too addicted. So we decided to set the new rules on playing the game boy. So far he is following the new ruling quite well.

Looking forward to another weekends of gatherings.

喜气洋洋

大年初一 ：

Our 1st stop for Chinese New Year was my parents in law house. After a good breakfast, we changed and went over to their home. Both Anthea and Anders greeted my In-laws with their “新年快乐“和 “恭喜发财”。

We had fun chatting around and playing with our little niece. As my 2nd BIL was resting at home after his knee operation. My 2nd SIL brought my niece over to 拜年 and she went home to take care of my BIL. My little niece was having a good time with the music and she loves to groove to the songs.

After that, we went over to my parents place to 拜年 and we had a nice lunch there. At the same time, my 1st uncle also came over to my parents place and we managed to catch up a little on the progress of my cousin who is studying oversea. She will be back this weekend.

Then we left my parents place and went home to rest. The children had their usual power nap.

Something happen during the nap time – while I was hanging the children clothes out to dry; Anthea ran urgently to me and show me something in her hand. It was her FRONT TOOTH. It has finally dropped out….haha. She is now officially “无牙” and what a way to start her New Year.. : P

In the evening, we went to Shangri La hotel. My parents in law had a room booked by my youngest BIL. He had some free nights stay with the hotel, so they decided to use it on Chinese New Year day for my In Laws.

The room was fantastic as it was very spacious and also they had a pool facing room. The balcony was so big that we joked that we can camp over night with a sleeping bag..haha.

The children went for a quick swim at the swimming pool. They had fun playing with Uncle Wenyi. After ½ hour of swim, we went back to the room to change and got ready for dinner with my In laws and 2 of the aunties. My youngest BIL and SIL also came by to join us after their visits.

We had dinner at Spaghettis at Tanglin Mall and the adjourned to Coffee Club at Forum for dessert and coffee. It was pretty relaxing and we had a good time chatting with the aunties. Both Anthea and Anders misses Uncle Kiat and I told them we will try to visit him when he is back from his Thailand holiday.

We called it a night around 10pm and headed home to rest.

大年初二 ：

In the morning, we had no visits plan, so we thought we will just rest and relax till the afternoon. I received a lunch invitation from my 大哥 and we had Tim Sum lunch at Sze Chuan Court @ Fairmont Singapore. It was a very sumptuous lunch.

After lunch we walked around the mall. Adrian had planned to get something from Billabong but the shop was closed. So we went market place to stock up some groceries. After that we went home for the children power nap.

In the evening, we went over to my 1st uncle house. Anthea and Anders get the chance to meet with all the 舅公，舅婆，表哥& 表妹。Anthea and Anders had a chance to play football with my cousin twins – Samuel & Daniel. Anthea said they lost the match to the twins, score was 2 – 7. Great to hear that they had fun.

Another good new in the pipe line, one of cousin – Jun Ru is expecting her 1st baby boy and she will be due end February 2009. I am so happy to see new addition to the family. This OX year seem to be full of Baby BOYS...haha.

I had good time chatting up with all my cousins. It’s a very good reunion as we only get to see one another on this day.

Dinner was at my uncle house. As usual, my 大舅母 will cook up a storm for all and we had a round of Lo Hei too.

After dinner, we went home. Anthea and Anders were very happy and said they like 舅公家 very much. As it will be a school day tomorrow, we had an early night.

It has been a good 2 days of Chinese New Year and looking forward to more gathering on weekends..

Happy 牛Year!!

今天是年除夕，再过几个小时就过年了。。时间过得好快。

这个星期都忙于大扫除，买新衣和办年货。好像一直在更时间赛跑。。好喘 不过很开心。

For our reunion dinners, my parents will usually arrange it a day earlier because they understand that I would need to be at my In-laws side for the reunion dinner as well.

Thanks to their understanding, we celebrated our 1st reunion dinner at my parent’s home last evening. It was a sumptuous meal of Hainanese Chicken rice, Roast duck/pork, Abalone, vegetables and soup. I bought a set of 鱼生from Ichiban Restaurant and we started the dinner with our 1st 捞起Lo Hei for the Chinese New Year.

With the Lo Hei, I wished my parents – “身体安康“and wished both my brothers “事业顺利“。

After the dinner, it was giving Ang-pao time, both Anthea and Anders were very happy to received their 1st few 红包from 阿公，阿婆和大舅／二舅。

This evening we will be having our 2nd round of reunion dinner at my In-laws home. We will be having steamboat. Next few days we will be doing our usual New Year visiting.

Just a few more hours, we will be welcoming 牛大哥 and with this I would like to wish all the families and friends:

新年快乐，万事如意！！Happy 牛Year!!

All Work & No Play…

Since school started for Anthea, she can no longer play and watch TV program as she did before. I am partly at fault for allowing her too much play time while she was in pre-school but again I wanted her to enjoy her childhood as much as possible.

Now I believe she is experiencing a bit of “heart pain”, especially losing all her FREE PLAY… : P

With school, she has her daily homework; usually the form teacher will give them worksheets for English & Math. Also she has the spelling lists for both English & Chinese to learn for the term.

Beside school work, she also has her tuition homework which consists of English & Math assessment books/ worksheets. As for her Chinese enrichment, she has a list of 听写to learn.

So it all adds up to quite a fair bit of work. I will do daily revision with her and also check on her homework.

Sometimes after she completed her homework, I will allow her some time to watch her TV program. On weekends, it is the same as I want her to get used to the new routine. Of course, she gets a little more FREE Play on weekends.

I understand it’s a little hard for her with the new transition and I will try my best to put the curriculum right on track for her. My diary is full of all ANTHEA TO DO List…haha.

(I believe Anthea is not alone in this “all work and no play “transition, I had spoken to an ex-colleague - R and she said her daughter complained the same to her…hee. Guess it’s the Primary One Syndrome…haha.)

Periodically, I will still get Anthea’s feedback on her workload and so far she said she is enjoying both her tuition class and enrichment lesson. Phew ...!!

I told Adrian that if I ever get negative feedback from her, I will definitely STOP her from the classes. It’s importance for her to go to the class, feeling happy and not with fear or worries.

开心餐

Ever since Anthea started Primary School, our Sunday dinner routine also changed a little. We used to eat with our extended families on weekends but now we will try to cook and eat at home on Sunday evening.

The main reason is Anthea is in the morning session and I would prefer her to sleep early, says around 9.30pm on Sunday nights. I know if we were to go out for dinner, we will usually ended up reaching home around 10pm. Plus all the mad rush to go out for a dinner… : P

Last Sunday, I managed to cook a pot of stew chicken and the family enjoyed it. After feedback to my ex-colleague of the good response, she shared with me more easy to cook recipe. For this evening dinner, I prepared the oven baked chicken wings.

Guess what? The recipe required me to POUND the ginger and garlic together. After watching 小娘惹, I understand the importance of pounding…haha. However, I don’t have a “pounder” at home, so I borrowed it from a neighbor. Luckily she had one…hee.

So I did IT – I pounded the ginger and garlic together and while pounding, the 香味of the ingredients sent a sweet sensation to my nose.

Adrian had volunteered to cook the main course – stir fry noodle. This was another dish he learnt while working on his detachment.

Our dinner was – home cooked 莲藕排骨汤, oven baked chicken wings and a fried noodle. It was a simple meal and yet we had a good time at dinner, especially the bonding time that we had as a Family.

开心餐吃了好开心，虽然是简单的一餐。。。

第一次：汉语拼音听写

This is a week of 拼音听写 for Anthea. In her K2 enrichment classes, she did 汉字听写before; however, this is the 1st time she is doing the汉语拼音听写.

On Wednesday, it was her enrichment class spelling and she was tested on 6 words. Before the spelling, I did a few revisions with her and she managed to understand the spelling. On the actual day, I told her to just do her best and do like what we revised.

After the class, when I asked her how her spelling was, she said: “mommy, later when we are home, I have a surprise for you and papa.” Judging by her tone, I think she did well. : P

When we reached home, she showed us her spelling list and she managed a full score for her 1st attempt 12/12. Both Adrian and myself are proud of her and we gave her our praises. Amid the joy, we also told her to keep her good work and not let this overwhelmed her.

On Thursday, she has her school 拼音听写 which I also did revision with her. In comparison, her school 听写 is much easier but we do not take thing for granted.

On Friday, while checking her school diary, I saw that she was supposed to let me sign her Chinese spelling. I took out her list to see how she fares for the spelling. I was very happy because she had a full score of 10/10.

I am really happy till today, anthea is enjoying her 2nd language lesson, both in the enrichment school and her Primary school. I hope this will build up her love and interest for 华语。

日行一善

Time is passing so fast these days, it’s already mid week… : P

Last week, Anthea’s teacher gave her a letter and it was written by the principal. The school is organizing a charity drive for FFTH (Food from the Heart Food Drive 2009). In view of the upcoming Chinese New Year, the school is raising food for the needy families.

When Anthea came home with the letter, she was very excited and told me “mommy, we must go and buy some food for the poor people, they need it to celebrate Chinese New Year.”

I was very happy upon hearing her request. Ever since she started school, she is beginning to understand that there are children from the less well to do family. In her school, meals coupons are distributed to these children. She is also learning the rope of doing her bit for charity.

I have also been busy explaining what the donation is about and let her has a better understanding of the charity drives.

On Monday evening, Adrian went to the supermarket and bought some instant noodles and canned food, according to the letter.

On Tuesday morning, Anthea brought the food stuff to school and happily handled them over to the collection centre. She said the aunty at the collection point said “thank you” to her.

Both Anthea and Anders have been lucky as our living standard is consider average. On weekends, they will usually enjoy life with either my PIL’s or my family.

Now with community service as such organized by the school, I believe they will learn more about the society and how charity helps the needy ones. This will instill compassion in them and encourage them to share passionately with those who need their help.

行善不能等，希望孩子们能够培养颗善良的心， 孝敬长辈，日行一善...

Birthdays Weekends

Our 2nd week of the New Year is basically Birthdays Celebrations.

We had 2 birthdays’ celebrations over Saturday and Sunday.

Coincidentally my 大哥 birthday and Cindy’s son Angus birthday falls on the same date – 11 January. This year, Cindy had organized a birthday celebration for Angus’s 7th year old birthday on Sunday, 11 January.

So I managed to organize a family lunch birthday celebration for my brother on Saturday. We were supposed to have dim sum lunch at Old Hong Kong in Novena Square 2. Before we arrived at the restaurant, I think there was some misunderstanding of my lunch reservation and my brother was not happy about it. So we changed the lunch place to Ichiban Boshi at Square 1.

We had an enjoyable Japanese lunch with my brother and my parents. I bought a Four Season Durian cake for his birthday. However after lunch, my brother said we were all too full for cake, so we brought the cake home to portion it. My brother and parents had the cake at home and they said it was very good.

Glad that they enjoyed the lunch and cake, even though we didn’t get to eat at our original planned restaurant.. : P

Cindy celebrated Angus’s birthday at her home function room. Before going to her place, we went by to Kiddy Palace in Toa Payoh to change the birthday boy’s present. Cindy had mentioned to me that Angus would like a Bakugan Toy, so we had bought it on Friday evening. Then after some sms-ing with Cindy, then I realized that there are 2 sizes for the toy and apparently we bought the BIG ONE and Angus had the play board for the SMALL ONE… : P

We arrived at the birthday place around 1.15pm and Angus was busy entertaining some of his friends. He came over to say hello to Anthea and Anders. Angus also started Primary 1 this year in ACS and there was another girl who is in P1 in MGS. So the few P1 mommies kept exchanging information.

We had buffet lunch and the spread was delicious. Then at 2.30pm, there was a Magic Show by That Magical Party and the children had an hour of fun with all the magic and jokes. The magician was very fun and good with children. The theme of the show was Ben 10; I believe this is Angus’s favorite. Anthea and Anders had fun watching the show.

The cake cutting followed after the show and Angus had a Ben 10 cake. After eating the cake, the children played for a while more and then we headed home for their afternoon nap.

While they were napping, I prepared dinner. I cooked a pot of stewed chicken with ginger for dinner and Adrian prepared a pumpkin soup. It was a simple home cooked dinner and we enjoyed the dinner as a family. Anthe loves the pumpkin soup so much that she had 3 servings. For dessert, we had the durian cake.

It has been an eventful birthday weekends for us and now we are looking forward to our Reunion Dinners in just 2 weeks time.

T.G.I.F !!!

Anthea Primary School is TGPS, so this T.G.I.F means T.G. IS FUN… : )

The 2nd week of school has gone passed so fast and she seemed to be enjoying everyday.

From Tuesday onward, parents were not longer allowed to go into the school premise. We can only send our child to the school gate and it’s “good-bye” kiss at this point. So far she managed to walk to hall for her assembly and then proceeded to the classroom.

At recess time, she still has her buddy for this week. Her buddy is a Primary 4 girl and her name is 宋颖。Everyday, Anthea will come home and say that she likes her 姐姐。Too bad, I don’t think the 姐姐 can be with her for too long, probably next week she will be on her own. Anthea will be INDEPENDENT next week.

So far, she has been buying her own food with some guidance from her buddy. After her meal, she would go to the library to read books. She said she likes the library.

Her daily routine is more or less set and I am glad she is adjusting very well to the new schedule.

A typical school day morning will be as follow for her:

6.15 – 6.30 am: wakes up

6.30 – 7.00 am: breakfast

7:00 – 7:15 am: shower and changed to school uniform

7: 20 am: leave home for school

In the afternoon, I will fetch her after school and have lunch at home. She will take her afternoon nap and then do some homework before we fetched Anders from Childcare. So far, I am also adjusting well to my new routine as PTSAHM. It has been a fulfilling week for me too…seeing her enjoying her school days.

TGIF !!! Yes, Thanks God. IT"S FRIDAY …hee : ) looking forward to another enjoyable weekends of birthdays.

孩子与天下

After a month of break, Anthea started her Primary 1 enrichment class with 天下 this evening. I was considering the afternoon class for her but I was worried that it may disrupt her afternoon nap, so I thought we can try the evening class for the 1st term and see how she would adjust.

At the same time I also signed Anders for the K1 Trial class as an OCBC Baby Bonus Card holder. I wanted to see if he is fine with Chinese class. At home, whenever I speak Mandarin to him, he will ask me “mommy, why you speak Chinese to me? I don’t want to speak Chinese.” I was concerned as I know he has very limited exposure to the language. In childcare centre, he has English and Chinese lessons but I wanted to expose him to a different class environment to learn the language.

So this evening is Anders 1st Chinese enrichment class and to our sweetest surprise, his class teacher is none other than 琳麟 老师。She has taught Anthea before and I know Anders will surely enjoy her lesson.

Both their class started at the same time and since it was Anders 1st time to the enrichment class, I thought that he may need me to stay with him in the class. I was wrong about him…hee : ) He actually kissed me goodbye and said “see you later.” He was not frightened at all. I was really happy to see him able to settle so well in the class. I dare not take it for granted and waited outside the classroom, just in case… : P

Anders class was 1.5 hours and Anthea class was 2 hours. At the end of the trial lesson, I asked Anders if he enjoyed the lesson and his answer was positive. Immediately I signed him up for the 1st term lessons. Anthea also came out of the class saying that it was very fun and she enjoyed it.

I am really glad that both of them are enjoying the lessons as this will help to build up their INTEREST & LOVE toward the language.

希望孩子们对华文的热诚与知识会随着学习中逐渐增加。。就如天下父母对于孩子们的爱一样。。

Chasing the Blues…

Everyone Monday is PE day for Anthea and she is allowed to wear either her PE Attire or House attire. Basically her Monday time table is quite relax and according to the school, they would like to chase away the child’s Monday Blues…haha. For the day schedule, they have PE, Music and Art lessons; it is supposed to be an Aesthetic day too.

This morning she woke up at 6am and was looking forward to school. She had her breakfast – ham & cheese sandwich with a boiled egg and a cup of chocolate milk. I told her she needed to eat a healthy breakfast as she will be exercising during the morning and she needed more energy.

In the morning she will have her PE Lessons which comprised of following activities according to her PE Teacher – Mrs. Lee.

- Swimming
- Wushu
- Basketball
- Badminton
- Skipping

Adrian is still on leave for today and he went over to school to take a peek at her during recess. Anthea had requested to buy her own food, so I didn’t prepare any bento snack for her.

At recess time, she bought noodle and a drink for her snack. In the afternoon, when I fetched her from school, she was all blushed from the morning exercises. We went home for shower and lunch. Anthea took her afternoon nap.

In the evening, she had her tuition class and I was surprised to see more children joining the class. I guessed now that school started, parents are starting their children for the extra lessons. I am glad that we had a head start in December.

This morning Adrian saw an advertisement on the Straits Times about SAFRA Spouse membership. He said he can sign me up as a member at the special rate of $1 a year. I told him it’s can’t be that cheap, there must be some kind of hidden cost. He went to Toa Payoh Safra to check out the promotion and true to the ad, I was signed up for 6 years membership at $6. Now I can use the facilities at the Club houses.

At the same time, I am signing up for the Energy One GYM membership at the special rate. Now I can still do my gym routine as and when time permits.

有心就好

On Friday while having dinner with my parents and eldest brother, I casually mentioned to them about Adrian cooking Pineapple rice for the families dinner on New Year Day.

Then I told my 大哥 that Adrian would like to cook his pineapple rice for 老爸and 老妈to try, I jokingly said that my 老爸will “笑掉他的假牙“if he ate the pineapple rice.

To my surprise, my brother told me “最重要是有心就好“, the food need not be especially nice or whatever.

After listening to him, I know he is very right with his words. I am ashamed to a certain extent for doubting my dearest sincerity to cook for my family… : P

On Saturday, Adrian went marketing and cooked the Hainanese chicken rice. After cooking it, he said he want to bring it over to my 2nd BIL place for their lunch. I helped him to pack up the rice and he brought it over to them.

Today he cooked Thai Red curry and Prawn noodles for lunch. We went over to my 3rd BIL place and ate with them the curry.

So far everyone in the families is enjoying his food and I know I will not stop him from cooking, as long as he has the HEART towards it.

These 2 days I had been busy looking around the AMK HUB for girl’s singlet for Anthea and it was so difficult to get them.

Luckily this morning at the wet market, there was a cart that sells children clothing and the lady has stock of girl’s singlet, I quickly bought them.

Her school uniform is white so I thought it would be good for her to wear a singlet underneath. Matter of fact, she already wore it on day 1 of school and she is fine with it.

Adrian will be attending a relative wedding dinner with my In-laws. I decided that children and me will not go as Anthea need to wake up early for school. With our new routine, Sunday night will be early night out for us.

Looking forward to day 2 of school tomorrow....

1st Day of School...

Today is Anthea 1st day in Primary School and I took a day off as I want to witness the special moment. Adrian is also on leave and he was tasked to stay home with Anders as he was still sleeping.

In the morning, I woke Anthea up at 6.30 am as planned. She had her breakfast and then took a quick shower and changed. We left home around 7.15am and reached school within 5 minutes walk.

When we reached school, the Primary 1 children were all lead to their respective classrooms, they need not go for the morning assembly. The form teacher and language teacher were in the classrooms with the children. When school started, all the parents were looking into the classrooms to see how their child was faring. I must say, children these days no longer wept on their 1st day of Primary School like my generation used to. Most of them were quite well settled.

I took a quick look into the class to check on Anthea, she did well too. No sign of tears or fears. I am proud of her performance. Seeing that she was fine, I went home to check on Anders. He had waked up and finished his milk. He asked about Anthea and I told him she is in primary school. He had breakfast and then Adrian sent him to the childcare.

Around 9.15am, I walked over to the primary school as the recess time was scheduled at 9.30am. I had packed a Bento for Anthea. It has her all time favorite Ham & Cheese bread, apples and a small portion of her potatoes ham bread.

At 9.30am, the primary one child started coming in to the canteen and they were buddy by the older children. They were seated according to their classes, so it would be easier for the parents to spot their own child.

I saw Anthea walked into the canteen with her buddy. They seated in their section and she started eating her bento snacks. After her food, she went to line up and bought a packet of drink. When she was done, the buddy brought her to wash her hands and they went back to the hall to assemble.

When recess was over, I went home and settled some housework. Adrian had volunteered to cook lunch and he was busy in the kitchen.

At 12.45pm, I walked over to the school gate to wait for Anthea’s dismissal from school. When I reached the gate, I saw many parents were waiting anxiously for their child. I saw Anthea when I reached the gate and I fetched her home.

While walking on the way home, Anthea told me about her 1st day in school and she said she was very happy and is looking forward to Monday School. I am really happy to hear of her thoughts and I am glad she is settling well for the moment.

In the evening, we had dinner with my parents and elder brother at Long Beach seafood @ Dempsey road. It was a very good dinner and Anthea had the chance to share her 1st day experienced in school with 阿公，阿婆 and 大舅. After dinner, we had a good time chilling out at one of the Pub and then we headed home to rest.

It has been a good day for us and I hope the rest of the school year will be smooth sailing for Anthea.

新的开始...

It’s the 1st day of 2009 and it’s the new beginning for Aces family.

This morning we had home brewed coffee and home bake chicken pie for breakfast. I prepared Fruit-topped Muffins for Anthea as her breakfast. I wanted to get her feedback to see if it’s good enough for her Day 1 bento. Seem like she is still not very into Muffins, she still like her Ham & Cheese sandwich…haha.

For lunch, our “chef” decided to cook his “招牌”dish – Pineapple rice. Adrian went to NTUC Xtra and bought his ingredients. He was very enthusiastic about cooking, so I let him take over.

I prepared a Potatoes Soup from the recipe. So our lunch was Pineapple rice with potatoes soup. Dessert was Korean Strawberries.

It was a simple home cooked meal and we had good time eating as a Family, which we had not done for the last few months.

Dinner was at my In-laws place and the "chef" cooked his signature dish for the families.

Tomorrow will the Anthea very 1st day in Primary School and I am really excited for her.

Looking forward to the brand new start on 2 January 2009...