Happy New Year

What does the year 2010 hold for you?

Are you expecting better relationship with people?  Better income?  Happier than 09?

Here’s wishing everyone a happy 2010!

God Bless.

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Christmas is here...

Christmas is of course very special to most kids...
My kids are no exception... They love the presents, the food, the gathering with other kids...

Ah Boy's first Christmas celebration.

Talk about gatherings, its amazing how women manage to keep friends from every levels and stages of their lives, as far as from primary school, secondary school, tertiary and working lives all gathering every year for all those major seasons like Christmas and Chinese New year. But now as the number of kids has outnumbered the total number of parents add together, we find ourselves meeting more often for occasions like full month celebrations and birthday parties.

Last week's Christmas weekend, I was unusually excited, reason being... I finally got the chance to pop open the bottle of red wine which I've been trying to find the right occasion to open it and share it with the other guys.

The evening started slow and quiet as the mothers are busy stuffing the kids with food they each have prepared for the pot luck feast.

The highlight for the night, beside being the gift exchange, is the violin performance by Isabel and her friend. Ally wanted to be in the limelight too, so I gave her a tambourine to create a beat for them.

We clapped and cheered for them... but the lesson I learned is at the end of the day, when I was washing up preparing for bed. Isabel came to me and asked me... "Daddy, did I do well tonight for the violin perfomance?"

I then realised, that all those cheering and clapping that she get at the end of the performance doesn't mean as much to her as the approval and praises she get from her own parents.

I gave her a big hug and a couple of kisses telling her "You did very very well, and I so proud of you."



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JB Trip

We didn't get around to book a long distance tour as we planned for this holiday due to the fact that we couldn't get our leaves from work synchronised, but as we promised the girls a trip, so we booked a hotel in JB for a weekend shopping trip.


We found hotel Mutiara, formerly known as Holiday Inn, the rates are good, very accessible to many shopping areas. We like it being next to Holiday Plaza, famous for its "Home Entertainment" selections.

We checked into the hotel, and the kids were all excited about the room and the bath tub.
Normally I wouldn't allow them to jump on beds, but since we are on a holiday... so why bother stopping them.

I brought the kids to look around the hotel checking out its facilities...

The Gym is very well maintained, although it looks like it was purchased when Rick Ashely was still a farm boy.

The pool... is wet...

The children wadding pool is as big as the bath tub in the room as seen above with the 2 girls standing next to it. Besides sitting in it, there really isn't much else they could do.

At 11th floor with no other tall buildings to block our view, we can see quite far ahead from our window. But I wouldn't call this the best view I've ever seen.

The next place we headed was Aeon Tebrau, a shopping arcade with Jusco as their anchor tenant. The place is also favorite to many Singaporeans as its new and big.

We settled lunch at their Kenny Rogers.

Although the place was only less than half filled, the staffs seems to be always busy with something. Isabel has been trying to help me get the waiter's attention for quite a while before we finally placed our orders.

We did more shopping, Ally did more whining... she's only interested in the hotel room, the moment we're out shopping... even before stepping out of the hotel lobby, she's already whining to go back to the room.

Ironic thing is... I remember doing the same thing to my father when I was her age.

But the poor thing about Ally is that she has sensitive nose. She coughed the whole night when she was using the hotel pillow and quilt. The next morning, she was so tired, she had no appetite for the spread of Intercontinental breakfast buffet.

After a last burst of shopping, we checked out of the hotel and drove home.

It was a hot day. At 3pm, even the air condition in the car don't seems to beat the heat scourging through the car's windows.

Slowly but surely, we made our way through both customs and back to home.



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Dinner on Boat

We had a chance to dine on the Riverboat which is docked in Mairna Bay.

The boat looks small but the interior is rather cosy.

We were excited of course… the last time we ate on a boat was on a cruise many years ago.

The boat was as stable as it can, but occasionally it still swayed to the waves created by passing by boats.

 

That caused Isabel to be very uncomfortable.  She couldn’t eat and had to close her eyes to rest for most of the night.

 

We left after two hours.

Painting Room

Inspired by my father, who is in his late 60s, but painted the house by himself... I spent my 2 days of leaves painting 1 room... the Study Room.

The last time I had it painted was when Ally was born. Over the years the kids have been adding a fair amount of colors and decorations with crayons, color pencils and stickers. Cleaning the walls have faded some parts of the walls.

I estimated it should take me about 6 hours without break to complete 2 coats of paint, completing before my lovely wife comes home giving her a pleasant surprise. But I did not factor in the 2 curious kids pestering me to let them help paint the room, or every 10 minutes they'll pop in and ask "Daddy are you done?", or they'll be going through stuffs that I have stored away for years.
Ya... the worst is that I under estimated the amount of barang-barang we have in there. Just imagine... it took me 4 hours to rearrange back everything the next day.

Changing the color from Lime green to light yellow

I remember using only 1 pail of 5 litre paint for the room the last time I did it. But this time as I used a different brand, it was thicker and doesn't splash back as I rolled the roller. But it also means that I am about a litre short.

By after dinner, I was only one and a half coat done... and about to be out of paint. I rush down to the shop and grabbed another 2 cans of 1 litre. By the time I declare the room complete, it was already passed 11pm.

The room looks much brighter with the fresh coat of paint.
Its not one of my best work, but the effect isn't bad at all.


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To the Zoo

As I looked back, I realized that it has been a year since we've brought the kids to the zoo. I've heard of many new features added, especially the "KidsWorld" where the water play area is especaily attractive to the kids.

For the whole week, the 2 of them have been saying "I can't wait to go to the Zoo!"

We promised them games and quizes along the way to make learning more interesting, so days before, I have been doing some "research" on the net, planning a different route to hike through the zoo as I noticed that we have been going to the same route every year, seeing the same animal and missing the rest.

I copied the list of animal from the zoo's map and compiled into a list with serveral pictures inserted, printed it complete with spaces for them to do drawings.

I also looked through some website to look for quizes for them to answer.

On the morning, the kids woke up promptly and got ready. On the night before, I prayed with the kids for good weather, and God is good, the weather was very pleasnt throughout.


Upon arrival, the kids were rushing us in, running along to see the first animal. I tried to explain the rules of the quizes and the use of the compiled list of animal but they were not really listening anymore. They look like that drank Red Bull for breakfast instead of milk.


We arrived at the kidsWorld at about 11.30am, not wanting to be caught in the frantic lunch hour queue, we decided to have a earlier lunch at the only eating place there... KFC.

To keep them entertained while we went to queue for the food, the kids studied the map for the route we are to embark later.

The Water play area is the main attraction in the kidzword. At any one time, there must be close to a hundred kids splashing in the shin high water, cooling themselves in the heat of the mid day.

Everyone had fun in the area. Ally braved through many of the splashing water.

The older sister took care of the younger ones as they played along.



Ally went up the water slide 7 times

After the play area, we continued to complete the route, the kids were starting to lose interest as they were feeling tired.

We sort of rushed through the rest as we walked by the animals, stopping to view those that are really interesting.

It was an awesome day, I did my best to entertain the kids and make it fun, in the process, I think there is stronger bonding between parents and kids. Which is what its all about.

baby baby

I was looking at Ally's photos when she was 4 months old baby, I realized they all have their unique features and bland of good looks

Ally blessed with a head of specially silky hair. She never look messy even in her messiest hair days.

Jared is taller than all his sisters comparing in their same months. Even his nannies in the Infant care is also saying that he is taller than babies of that age.