So off we went to 8Q SAM with Sarah's Godma Joy, and Caleb's favourite playmates, Kimi and Ian, and their parents. The museum had a string of programmes lined up starting from 11am. We reached there on the dot and were greeted by a swarm of parents and tons of other kids. (Ya, so we're not the only ones desperate for some "atas" exposure for our kids).
Right at the entrance, there were 2 ladies preparing to start their story telling session. And coz they were located at the entrance, it kind of created a massive jam coz every parent who came in immediately tried to find a spot on the floor to plonk their kids so that they can listen to the stories as well. It was a really tight squeeze and it was worse for us coz we had our stroller with us. We really couldn't move much with the stroller coz the space was really too small for the number of people who were there.
Nonetheless, we managed to find a tiny corner for Caleb and so I squeezed and sat down with him to listen to the storytelling. Meanwhile, Auntie Lorraine, who's ever so resourceful, managed to register Caleb and Kimi for the next available art class conducted by Art Loft.Just to give you an idea of how crowded the place was, we arrived at opening time, which is 11am, rushed to register our kids for the art class at 11.10am and the first class was already full and we managed to squeeze into the last 2 places of the 2nd class. There was literally a mad rush with all the kiasu parents (yes, us included!) trying to get our kids registered for as many activities as possible.
So, back to the storytelling. It was done by this group called IQ Kids. The stories told were fairly simple but the first story teller seemed to be suffering from a very bad sore throat coz she had this really hoarse voice and the 2nd story teller tried too hard to have variations in her tone and the effect was there were parts that we couldn't hear properly. Anyway, I didn't take any pictures coz it was quite a madhouse and we were still trying to settle down from fighting with the crowd.
At 11.30am, we went to the tiny room just next to the story telling area to go for the art class that we had registered the children for. The room was already filled with 20 other toddlers, teachers and parents. The craft that the children were going to do for that day was to decorate bookmarks using scrap pieces of coloured paper. They were also going to experiment with water colours by dripping different colours onto a piece of paper and see the effect. The teachers requested that parents leave the room and pick up our kids 20min later coz the room was really overcrowded. Me and Aunty Lorraine were quite happy to do that and it gave us time to rackie the place and see where else we could go to sign the kids up for more classes! Yeah, super kiasu... but hey, it's not everyday that we can find activities like these that are free... so we went all out!
The disappointing thing was that there really wasn't much to do. The only other thing that we could do was to queue up for the kids to get their hands painted. There were things like free pop corn, candy floss, ice cream etc but we weren't too keen to fill up the kids with sugar just before lunch and their nap time so we pass on those.
Anyway, so here's Caleb and Kimi working on their bookmarks.
And here's his masterpiece!
Caleb did it so fast that he managed to decorate 2 bookmarks. The teachers were supposed to laminate the children's bookmarks when they were done but it was quite chaotic so we left before without getting them laminated. And we didn't pick up the paper that Caleb decorated with water colours either coz it was too wet to bring around, so we left it there and moved on to hand painting.
Kimi getting her hand painted
It's a Koala bear!
Caleb's turn to get his hand painted. He requested to have an aeroplane on his hand.
The satisfied customers
After the handpainting was done, there wasn't much left to do. The crowd was also dispersing. There was a jeep clad with metal plates displayed in the middle of the museum. The metal plates were really shiny and Caleb and Kimi amused themselves looking at their own reflections. Well, Daddy had the opportunity to take some artistic shots of their reflections.
All this while, Sarah was exhausted by all the morning activities and fell asleep when the crowd quietened down. Coz there was so little space to maneuver with the stroller, somebody just started this line of stroller parking space at the side of the wall and we followed suit. Can you spot Sarah sleeping away in our stroller in the queue? Well, the only evidence is her tiny little foot sticking out from under my sling.
After the kids ran round for a short while, it was time to feed them so we took a short walk to the new(or not so new anymore) Cathay building. They went wild chasing each other throughout lunch. We parents were obviously quite happy about it coz that meant that they will would be concussed after this!
See the 2 kids running round and round outside Cathay...
Not so glam shots of them...
Picking up sticks from the floor to play
Their idea of fun....
Taking turns to sit on top of each other... hmm, 15 years down the road, I wonder what they will say when they look at these pictures again...
Well, after our little outing, the kids were definitely exhausted, but so were we! So we all went home to rest and sleep after that.
