313@Somerset

After a rather unsatisfying trip to the Fire Station, we decided to drive down to Orchard Road to enjoy the Xmas decorations. We ended up stopping at 313@Somerset to take some photos.

First attraction that caught our eye... Xmas tree!

Staring into the crystal ball

It's always tough trying to take a decent shot with 3 kiddos.
They are rarely cooperative at the same time.

I like this series of shots taken outside the Charlie Brown Cafe.
We started off with Linus and Lucy.

Then we moved on to Snoopy, Charlie Brown and Sally... But Sarah wasn't looking at the camera...

So Kor Kor had to step in and physically shift her head...

Then Sophia decides to make a run for it...

And after getting her to go stand back in position... we decided this would be our best shot... regardless of whether all 3 are looking at the camera or not!

After that, we ventured into 313.
Caleb looking very happy outside Marche.

Caleb again, posing beside a vespa

Me and the girls just walking around...

Sophia really enjoying herself walking around the mall

Caleb, taking ND's spare camera and trying to imitate him.
He went around taking some shots of his own.

Showing off the shots that he has taken

Artistic shots of our surroundings taken by ND

Me, feeling thirsty and taking a drink of water

Sophia, trying to direct us and tell us where to go next

 Sophia, very excited about the signboard she saw and babbling non stop to us about it.

Me and Sarah, my sedated one

KorKor and CheChe

Now, to add the cheeky one into the equation

OK Meimei, listen to CheChe. You got to sit down and face the camera!

Now Daddy! They're all facing the camera! Quick snap! Argghh... still not perfect...

And the girls got bored and decided Caleb's shoes were more interesting.

And we decided to call it a day and go home.
On our way out, Sophia got distracted by this huge iphone poster. And when she saw the iphone button, she instinctively walked over and tried to press it!

Caleb and Sarah came over too and tried to test out the "touch screen".
They are really kids of the iphone generation!

Trip To Central Firestation

The Central Fire Station @ Hillstreet - This is one of the places that we brought the kids to during the December holidays.

Caleb and Sarah were very excited about the outing.
I love this photo of the two of them. They look so alike here!

When we reached the fire station, there were just people walking around randomly taking photos, so we followed suit and took photos of the vehicles that were parked around the compound.
Only Caleb was interested in the vehicles and willing to take photos.

There was a long queue to get onto this fire engine with the long ladder. I stood in queue as well coz this was supposed to be the highlight of our visit. However, after queuing and watching the firemen shift the vehicle forward and backwards for 20min, they told us the vehicle was not functioning properly, so we all can't go onto the cherry picker that's attached to the ladder!

So, the only other "exciting" thing that the kids could do was to queue up to shoot jets of water from the water hose. Somehow as I stood watching the kids try out this activity, I couldn't help but wonder how much water is being wasted each week and whether they're killing the trees they by flooding it with so much water...

After that, the firemen gathered all of us to do a demo of how they would go about conducting a fire rescue operation.

And that was the end of our fire station visit. We felt slightly disappointed coz there wasn't much of a guided tour of the place and other than shooting water, we didn't really do much. We didn't realise until much later that there was actually a heritage gallery that we could visit so we left straight after the fireman's demo.

Earlier on in the year, we had brought the children to the Tampines Fire Station and coz we were the only group that morning, we were given a rather detailed tour of the fire station. The only thing about the Tampines fire station is that they don't have the water jet activity and the fire engine with the cherry picker. Oh well, I guess we can't have everything. Looks like we'll need to make another trip to the Central Fire Station to complete our fire station experience... but we'll probably wait till the girls are a little older to get more "mileage" out of our visit.

Sarah's First Day @ School

Today's Sarah's first day at school. It's the first time that she's going to "real" school. Prior to this, the closest school experience that she's had was Sunday school as well as the children's programme at BSF(Bible Study Fellowship), which I attend.  And for the past year, each time I drop her off at Sunday school or BSF, it'll be a fight between us. She'll cry, wail, cling and refuse to be dropped off. We've always been told that children need a couple of weeks to settle down and they'll be alright but for my dear Sarah, it has been one long year!

So for the month leading up to her first day at school, I've been praying for her that she would settle in easily. I was quite concerned that on top of having to deal with a new environment, the kindy that I'm sending her to is a Chinese one. She can't really speak or understand much mandarin so that might cause some additional stress for her. And she's probably the youngest kid in class coz the class she's in is for 4 year olds, while she actually just turned 3. So, this Mummy has been a little worried.

But thank God for my answered prayer! This morning, she was very willing to get dressed into her school uniform. (She told me she likes it and did a couple of twirls for me to see after she wore it.) When we reached school, I sent her up to her class and the principal welcomed her and told her to say bye to me, and she gave me a cheerful wave. And that was it. After that, I joined a couple of anxious parents who tried to peep in at their kid from outside of the classroom. The school had cleverly decorated the classroom windows leaving only a few tiny holes for us to peep into. I saw that the principal had led Sarah to the table to sit with the other children and she soon busied herself playing with some puzzles. I had actually prepared myself to stay outside the classroom the whole time but the actual process took less than 10min. Haha, I did feel a little lost that my princess didn't need me. Oh well, I should be glad that she's really growing up!

When I came back later to pick her up, the school principal told me that she was excellent and very well behaved. Sarah was in a very good mood too. She told me she ate some porridge for breakfast, and she sang songs, toured the school and played at the playground. Later when we reached home, she started singing some chinese songs that she had learnt. She sounded like she was singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in mandarin and she started babbling numbers in mandarin. Looks like she is fitting in well! I think she'll have even more fun when Kor Kor starts school next week and they get to go to school together!

 Yeah! It's my turn to go to school!

Caleb - cute?

We forgot how cute Caleb was at two and half years old, until we "stumbled" upon this old post... reprising it again for nostalgia sake, enjoy :)

Caleb's Prayer Requests

Wife asked Caleb to think about his prayer requests tonight while she brushes Sarah's teeth. Caleb comes up to me and said he has thought about it, and these are the prayer requests that he has in mind.

1. Usual Prayer Requests (sleep well, don't sleep walk, don't wee-wee on the bed)
2. Get well from his cyst
3. Learn more about God
4. Have a great time in the new year in school

Frankly, I was quite surprised at the level of maturity that he is showing with his prayer requests. A 5 year old boy who remembers to pray for healing, who wants to know more about his creator and healer, and who looks forward to a wonderful time in school. The Lord is certainly working in this one, and I pray that as parents, we will be sensitive to what the Lord is doing and letting Him lead and guide us in our parenting.

Sarah's Birthday Party

This year, since Sarah wanted a Cinderella cake, we decided that our party would take on a Cinderella theme. We threw a small party for Sarah. It was nice and cosy, just a couple of our friends and their kids from our caregroup, Sarah's Godmas, Joy and Mei, and our extended family.

The all important food. I decided to go with a western theme for a change and we served salad, pizzas, baked fish, nuggets etc. We were very blessed to get help from Sarah's Godmas, Grandpa, Yee Yee and ND's friend for some of the food items and that took a load off me.

The guests, eating and watching the Cinderella cartoon!

Since this was a Cinderella party, Yee Yee helped me to entertain the kids by giving out tatoos and doing nail art for the kids. The nail art, which is actually intricate stickers to stick on little nails was a hit with the girls.

Other than that, the kids were kept entertained with the numerous toys our kids received over the Xmas period. My entire living room was strewn with toys all over the place.

The moment that Sarah has been waiting for for the last few months...
The unveiling of the Cinderella cake. A pink cake, with flowers, butterflies and Cinderella. All as per her request. Thanks Yee Yee!

Everybody gathered around Sarah and the cake and started singing the birthday song. She was absolutely basking in all the attention and we could all tell that she LOVED the attention. She stood there giving a dainty smile and even leaned forward towards her cake to do photo taking.

After a while, she changed pose and held on to the side of her matching Cinderella dress to take photos.
(And I didn't teach her to do that! I think she's just naturally vain!)

After that, we proceeded with a series of photo taking.
Sarah, Sophia and Caleb. This was the best we could manage to get.

All the kids at the party

Sarah, Caleb and Sophia with Grandpa and Grandma

Sarah, Caleb, Sophia, Nic and Gong Gong and Ma Ma

Our familee photo

Cake cutting time. Yee Yee baked a strawberry freshcream cake and it was a hit with the guests.
First thing Sarah wanted to eat was the sugary flowers that Yee Yee used to decorate her cake.

Sophia loved the cake as well and was stuffing her herself silly with it.
Ma Ma who loves to see her grandchildren eating well, was very amused by her.

I think we all enjoyed the party. It wasn't too stressful for me since half my guests helped out with the food . The atmosphere was quite relaxed and cosy. But most important of all, Sarah was really very happy that day. She had her hair all done up, she wore a Cinderella dress, had her Cinderella cake and Cinderella balloons. (Yup, Yee Yee and Godma Joy each bought her a floating Cinderella balloon.) There were friends to play with her, lots of presents and she got to stay up till late at night. I think she will remember this birthday for quite a while. Now, I wonder what she'll ask for for her 4th birthday...