centipede (17 may 11)

Saw this beautiful centipede at the Woodland Waterfront. The background with the peddles at the playground looks as if it is under the water.

woodlands waterfront (17 may 11)

Today is public holiday. Decided to join janice and po po on a trip to the ulu ulu woodlands waterfront. This is actually our second visit to the park but this time we reached there much earlier and have plenty time to sit down and enjoy the weather. Charlie did not join us as TV was showing hello kitty cartoon when I left home in the morning.

During our first visit, night fall shortly after we are there. yy did not attempt the tree top walk but just climb a few steps on the jungle gym with his daddy pushing him behind. This time with janice around, he was much more adventurous. He climbed up the tree top walk (part of the jungle gym) three rounds without fear while I attempted it once. It was neither scary or too high just that I have not try out such activities for a long time.

Other than the jungle gym, there are other activities like swing, slides, exercise corner, a long bicycle tracks and a big field for flying kites

I tried the jungle gym on my own a few rounds after seeing some young kids climbing onto it with no difficulty at all. But I failed. Later I realised the trick to do it is to climb round and round it instead of climbing upwards. YY was bold enough to lead the way and guided me on where to place my next step. we only managed to go half way up as it started to get a bit cram with a few young little kids above us. next time I will wear something more comfortable.

handwriting (16 may 11)

Noticed yy writes very neatly for his school works. Accordingly to him, the students are not allowed to strike off or insert words with arrow symbol. Because of this, he spends too much time on his homework especially composition as he has to rewrite the whole sentence and sometimes the whole paragraph to make some correction.

Before SA1 exam this year, I emphasis to him several times that it is all right to strike off and use arrow sign. It would be better to erase and forget what he is supposed to write after that. When I got back his exam paper, I am not surprised to see a neat pcs of work. That is what we parents called the "Teacher's Power".

ecosystem (9 may 11)

yy school selling enclosed ecosystem for $36.90 each and he wanted to get one. So his stingy mummy which is me decided to diy ourselves.

we bought mineral water x 2 bottles, 3 shrimps x $3 each, 2 snails x $0.50 each and a water plant x $3 each. Total cost incurred $13

Some corals and stones available at home.
Just put everything together and this is what we have. a shrimp in the bottle. Rather small but much more interesting than fishes as you can see their movement in the tank. Unfortunately, 2 of the shrimps was found dead after 2 days. Not too sure why. Should be due to raising temperature in the water. The last shrimp survived for another week and now we are left with only 2 snails after 2 weeks.

kose mask (8 may 11)

did u notice the little patch of mask on charlie's cheek

my vain girl has been very interested with the facial product, body lotion and cosmetics I put on my face and body. This evening I put on Kose black mask. As usual, the girl got attracted very soon and started asking questions to satisfy her curiosity

charlie : what is this ?
mummy : it a mask
charlie : why you put on yr face ?
mummy : so mummy will look pretty tomorrow
charlie : will look pretty after put on face ?
mummy : yes of course if not i put it on for what. you want to try too ? (thinking she will refuse cos it is black in color)
charlie : will I look pretty too
mummy : yes .... (mummy replied in a very certain tone)
charlie : ok
so i put a small round patch on her cheek. after which, charlie went to look at herself in the mirror and came back to me.
charlie : i want the WHOLE face like you.
mummy (faint)

Project from Just Kids (4 may 11)

This is the 3rd home project assigned by charlie school this year and infact I would say the easilest. The early two are a family tree and a floor plan of your house cum activities you carried out in them.

I managed to remember to take photo of the artwork before we submit to school.

Notice from school advising us on the project details.

We brain stormed on the ideas while Charlie did all the drawing herself except for the recycle symbol. I did help out with the coloring. I was rather impressed with the final pcs.

I know the pic is upside down. Just could not get it right.

mother and girl sharing the same likes (mar)

Charlie been interested in my cosmetic and accessories for a period of time. She was more than happy when I displayed them out one evening and so eagle to try them on. Din expect to share my accessories with my gal so soon. haha !

20 min outdoor play (mar 11)

Ever since yy has lesson on sat morning 8.30am, I will have to wake up early to send him to school. After which I will go to market and pick him up at about 10am. The advantage of waking up early is I seem to have much more time and so I will bring along his scooter when I pick him so the kids can have a 20 min play outside before we head home.

yy has improved a lot on his scooter. nowsaday, he will wonder off himself way infront of us.

Charlie will always pose for pictures and video. She actually start posing (tilted her head) way before she reaches where I'm standing.

In the video below, her facial experience changed when she realised I did not manage to take the video. Doing her a disservice by uploading this video but it was really funny.

a visit to sembawang park (26 mar 11)

went to Sembawang park this evening. The Park has changed so much. There is a playground, bbq pits and a restaurant converted from a bungalow. There are many ppl camping in the park although it was not allowed. There are many ppl fishing for crabs and prawns at the extended walkway. Inline skate is indeed the in thing now. We saw two little girls skating along the path so well. YY still not able to skate at ease. At least he can walk with his skate on.

Ice cream time is always a must.

sentosa beach (15 mar 11)

Weather wasn't very good recently. Heavy downpour daily however we still went ahead to Sentosa beach today as I dont want the kids to stay at home the whole week (march school holiday).

yy looks like a big boy in this photo.

Shortly 20 min after we reached, dark clouds starting to gather and heavy rain drops started to pour. We managed to take a few photo with the clear weather. It rained so heavily that we have to seek shelter at the Delifrance cafe and took our tea break there.

It continues to rain and we forsee it will not stop. We have no choice but to take our chances and proceed to the beach. We sit and waited for quite some time but it was still drizzling. In the end, the kids have to play in the sand with cap, raincoat and umbrella. So silly.

Their daddy joined us after work and we went Chilis, outside Universal Studio, for dinner. The daddy promised yy that he will treated him a dinner at Chilis if he got all correct for his spelling consecutively for two or three (cant remember) weeks. However during the meals, he realised that yy did not achieve that and somehow there was a communication breakdown among the two of them. Who cares :P

Charlie's art & craft in school (jan 11)

After each semester, charlie's school will return the worksheet and craft works she did in school. I will selected a few (or rather most of them) and paste it on her wall. Decided to take a pic of it and upload on the blog for memory sake. YY was a bit jeolous when he said why I did not paste his art work on the wall previously. In fact I did but he could not remember and as usual they got dusty, tore off or replaced after a year or so.

Yuan yuan 8th birthday (29 jan 11)

Celebrated yy's birthday with Famous Amos cookies at home.

He had earlier one round of celebration in school in a loud "bang", with goodies bags for his classmates and his daddy and ye ye went down during recess with cake for the whole class and form teacher. Actually he was hesitating whether to go ahead with the school celebration as he dont want to give goodies bag to those not well behaved kids in school. Nonetheless, we managed to "persuade" him to go ahead due to peer pressure, more like on the parents than himself.

ps: more than half of his classmates will distribute goodies bags during birthday and some of the boys like to give him stationeries they bought or brought to school. As I discouraged him to buy stationeries and give away in school. This is a little gesture to reciprocate back.

(Oops pic captures the lamp too. lousy camera cannot take pic well in dim light, need to get more support with the table lamp)

The kids just gobble down the biscuits in a speedy manner.

Much better option than having a cake which we have to eat for the next few days and tastier too.

YY enjoying his present from his dad. What did I get for him ?

Books.....

a leopard never changes its spot ! (19 jan 11)

Bought charlie a sticker book yesterday and this morning she wanted to bring it to school. Knowing her "generosity" character. I warned her not to give her friends the stickers too freely which she agreed.
At the end of the day, this is the outcome....... when I asked her why she give out the stickers again despite I told her not to. My dear little girl replied me "I did not give, my friend WASTED it". mummy fainted on the spot. When the daddy questioned her. The little "street smart" girl just kept quiet and did not give her daddy the same "nonsense" reply. Apparently it seems that she has the impression can talk nonsense to the mummy but not to daddy.

charlie drawing (15 Jan 11)

Notice there is a difference in charlie's drawing. Her drawing style is mostly people with define face, hair, hands and legs. And sometime a simple storyline.