Our Birthdays

Today, I turn a year older, and my baby turns 2. 2 years ago, this baby came to me as a gift on my birthday, and from then on, I always have someone to celebrate my birthday together.

We hope to make it a birthday tradition in our family that on the childrens' birthdays, we will bring the birthday child out for fun, followed by lunch or dinner, all upon the birthday child's requests. Well, since Nigel is too young to make his requests known, hubby decided that we should go to Science Centre for water play. The boy loves water play but at the same time, he hates to get water into his eyes. So he did not quite like the big water fountain, but loved the water display where he got to put the ball into the pipe which will then shoot the ball into the centre of the water cortex.

We were too early, so chilled out at McD

He did not like this cos water gets into his eyes




Yeeesss, I can reach it.

Yes! Did it!

He liked this best. He spent a good 15mins filling the spoon with water, and then tossing it away.

After water play, we spent a short while browsing through the exhibits in Science Centre before going for lunch at Swensen's (again!). Like last year, we had a free birthday Firehouse ice-cream and a family photo. After lunch, its home sweet home for the birthday boy to have his nap, before we cut the birthday cake. Well, since it is my birthday too, I did not bother to bake a cake. Told hubby I would like a strawberry shortcake, so he ordered one from The Patissier.

One cake for 2

First, its mommy's turn

Followed by Nigel's. Not too near, you may burn your nose.

Nigel was real excited when we sang the birthday song. He was very eager to blow out the birthday candles. I guess he knew what to do from those books that I had read to him on birthdays. We then ended the day of celebration with dinner at Crystal Jade with my mom.

I think Sarah enjoyed herself most on this day. She was supposed to go to school, but we decided that she can miss school for one day. Come next year when she goes to primary school, we will no longer have this freedom to take her out from school for one day to spend some family time together.

Though it did not seemed like we did much, I am feeling very tired now. Glad that this only happens twice a year....at least for now.

Sweet Fellowship

It has been a long time since I met up with Jean, so since 5 July was a school holiday, we arranged a date with Jean and her 2 blessings. Indeed, it had been quite a while. Both Grace and Job had grown a fair bit. Sarah was happy to meet up with Grace, and I think Nigel was happy to be out and about with friends to play with. The weather was good, Jean and I had a great time catching up, and the children had fun with a small ball and the great outdoors.

Funny siblings

2 boys playing with ball


I like this pic - the 2 jiejies rushing to Job when he cried for help

Now that Sarah is schooling, we are seldom able to meet up with our old friends. So it was really great to be able to catch up with Jean this time. We will meet again soon, God willing.

Dollars and Cents of Parenthood

Yesterday's Sunday Times featured an article titled "The Dollars and Sense of Parenthood". It sets out the various costs of bringing a child up to tertiary education. In total, it will cost parents between $190k and $700k, with the average being $300k. What strikes me most was the cost of university education which ranges from a low estimate of $100k to a high of $500k. To finance this, it was recommended that parents get an endowment plan when the child is born. To obtain a $200k to $500k after 20 years, the monthly premium is about $600 to $1,400.

We did get a education plan for our first-born which allows us to cash out when she is 18 years old, but we did not get any for our 2nd-born. So when I read this article, I was very concerned if we will have enough savings for their university education. With me not working now, the current premiums we are paying are what we can cope with. It is not quite possible to take on more now. So what will happen in future? I have to admit that I was very worried for a moment, but the Holy Spirit reminded me that God is bigger than this, that His plans for my children are good, and He shall provide all that we need according to His riches in glory. Not that we can be slack in our savings or financial planning, but to trust that He will guide us in our financial decisions. We can only do our best, and commit everything into His good hands.

Well, this article also reminded us to review all our current insurance plans. Guess we have to do that soon!

Day @ Sentosa

I woke up to great disappointment to a wet rainy day. We have planned to spend the day at the beach in Sentosa. I sent a quick prayer up and started the day, hoping the skies will clear in a couple of hours. But after we finished breakfast and packed the bags, it was still pouring. We made alternative plans. We will still go to Sentosa, but instead of sand play on the beach, it will be the Underwater World, since its indoors. I was a tad disappointed our plans have changed, but told myself, maybe God has better plans for us. And He did.

Well, Underwater World was a disappointment to me. The place is small, and the fishes on display are just ordinary. The dolphin show was a mere 15 minutes and nothing spectacular. But both the kids enjoyed themselves, and I think that's good enough.




After lunch, we proceed to the Imbiah Lookout for the storytelling session. We were late for the 1st session, but there were crafts activities for kids, so Sarah and I did craft while Nigel took a short power nap in the car. She chose pebble art.

We transformed this initial drawing that she did.....

to this.

I thought she enjoyed it, but later on when we reached home, she told me that she actually wanted to do the foam craft, but chose the pebble cos that was what I wanted. I have to admit that I did persuade her not to choose the foam craft as I thought that pebble art is more fun. No wonder she seemed to have lost her touch for creativity. I had to help her with the ideas. A reminder to myself that I should not influence her decisions or impose my own preferences on her.

Next, we went on the Luge ride. Fun! This seemed to be a must-go whenever we visit Sentosa. Sarah preferred to ride with her Daddy cos he goes faster, while Mummy is a bit more careful, thus slower.



After the Luge ride, we quickly hopped over for the next session of storytelling, before going home.



Despite the change in plans, we had a really fun day.

Fun @ Barrage

This is our first time to Marina Barrage. Well, except Sarah. She had been there with her school. I was like a little girl, excited about our trip there. As we drove into the Marina Bay area, I was surprised by how much it has changed. What I remembered to be big open fields for kite-flying and those barbecue steamboat restaurants are all gone, replaced by construction sites. And there is the new integrated resort, Marina Bay Sands. It is all so different now.

The place is basically a reservoir in the city. We took the short walk through the Gallery, which shows our country's journey from the 60s till now, in cleaning up our rivers to creating our very own water supply. We did not stay long as our main purpose was kite-flying! It was perfect weather for that. There was a good breeze and the kite went up effortlessly. In fact, it was so easy we let the kite go till it reached the end of the string.

Can you spot our kite?


Sarah had a try at kite-flying and decided that she did not like it as she has this fear that the string will break. So she was contented with playing with the spare kite on the ground.



I enjoyed the scenery from the rooftop garden.



Next up, water play for the children.



It was a hot day, all of us were sun-burnt. We ended the day with a delicious lunch at Swensen's, and a little shopping after that.

Happy and grateful.

Am I back?

I think so. It has been a loooong break. I find myself having this on and off affair with blogging. After Nigel came, I was so busy with managing both kids and the house that blogging just stopped. Besides that, I am not that good with writing, so that kind of deterred me to blog. But there has been many times when something special occurred that day, and I thought, hey, maybe I should blog about that. So here I am again, coming back to blogging. Mainly, to record those precious memories I have with my loved ones, so that one day, I can look back at them, and perhaps, also for my children to look back on.

Sew Fun

Just recently, a friend L, Jean and myself were lamenting about the lack of modest skirts for girls these days. It is so difficult to find decent skirts which are below knee length. Thanks to Pauline who provided me with a very easy skirt pattern, Jean and I decided to sew a skirt for our girls. We both bought our fabric before we got preggie with our boys but no chance to sew anything when we became pregnant. So we decided its time to do something with our cloths.

This is my end product.





It is indeed very easy to sew. I think we can get it done within 1 hour if there is no interruption from our boys.

Like Jean said, it is very satisfying to sew something and very addictive.