Letters to my happy suns - August is all about the fun with friends!

August has been an exciting month for you boys, with playdates and activities all lined up!

With most parents' busy schedules, playdates are not really the easiest thing to plan but your mummy is so blessed to have really good friends who also have kids at your age. And that means there's "instant" play-mates for you guys haha!

 I never fail to emphasize the importance of having regular play-dates and the numerous benefits reflected on a child's growing up, either by exposing them to new environments or encouraging them to build relationship with people outside the family. Children can learn so much through play. It gives them the opportunity to be themselves, to imagine ,and to improve their social and communication skill when they learn to cooperate or collaborate in a game. And because children always learn from one and another, their imagination grow to include other imagination from their friends and that promotes a higher level of creativity for them to think out of their box. I simply enjoy watching my boys at play with their friends and listening to their funny conversations that usually cracks me up most of the time!

So let's playback our August, the month of fun with friends!

On the first week of August, we spent a day at Sentosa, taking the monorail tram , cable car and basically just loitering around the Island with your friends. There's always so much fun, joy and laughter during every kids gathering.

Playing with the mist fountain

Beautiful view from the cable car

The following week we had our favorite activity of all time again... picnic at Marina Barage! We love the breeze, the good weather and the huge open space for you boys to drain away all your energy!

Kyrian, as usual you amused me so much when you approached other strangers for their picnic food! I think generally Singaporeans are pretty nice and friendly as they're willing to entertain you. A few times I spot you eating together with strangers on their picnic mat and I've to apologize and carry you away, kind of embarrassing though haha!

Once again Reagan, you and your best friend Ean enjoys each other company so much. Both of you are just like superglue when you guys meet, totally inseparable ! May your friendship remains as close as this even after you both grow up and enter the next phase of life. 

August is also a month of birthday parties!

At your friend Gwen's birthday party, you still remember the rainbow jelly pop that she offered you.

 Also, I noticed that you were more initiative this time and automatically called your friends to join you at the pool. You even agree with me now that having friends is so much fun!

Next is our gathering on National Day 2016. We made you guys dress all in red and prepared a cake to sing a birthday song for Singapore together!

.
Coincidentally, you guys also happened to be wearing MAN-U jerseys so Uncle Des was very thrilled to have a photo taken together with you boys. Hopefully years down the road, you boys can mimic this photo again with old uncle Des.

Near to mid-august, you boys were invited to Imm's 5th birthday bread-making party where you guys get to learn how to make your own bread. Reagan you were so interested in the activity and stayed throughout from the start of the session to the end. You even constantly remind Aunty Addy to check on your bread and asked her repeatedly if your bread is ready to eat. I knew you cannot wait to eat the bread you made because you've added lots and lots of chocolate chips in yours!

Dear Kyrian, during the birthday song session I've to stop you many times from blowing out the candles! We've to repeat the birthday song a few times so Imm has a chance to blow his birthday candles instead of you !

Lastly is Aunty Annette's birthday gathering! Once we reached her place, you were whining non-stop for us to open the chocolate cake from Chocolate Origin , which is also one of your favorite brands.

(a grainy low-quality photo of you happily singing the birthday song loudly for Aunty Annette)

Lastly a group photo with mummy and dada's friends!

Above I've mentioned about the benefits of children having friends and playdates, at the same time, parents also do need the same stimulation as the children too! We too really need a break from everyday life and the fastest and most convenient way of de-stressing is definitely a fulfilling gathering with friends. While the kids at play, the adults get their well-deserved quality time with friends too. We do treasure the time spent with our friends and each meet up does rejuvenates us for the week. I'm also pretty sure that we make better parents if we're having fun as well! In this way, we also show our kids how we foster good relationship with our friends and this indirectly teaches them to value personal relationship beyond their family too. 

 I truly believe that happiness is relatively linked to social connections. Therefore I shall end this post with an interesting article written by a handsome fellow, on the fastest way to make new friends in Singapore. Do check it out :P

Kyrian's 2 Years old Birthday Party - MINIONS theme

Minions is one of the cartoon characters that I thought I'll never expose my kids to. I don't find them educational, they speak gibberish and they look more weird than cute. Despite that, I swallowed back my words on the day I witnessed a Minion advertisement made my younger baby boy laughed so hysterically tat he almost choked on his banana. And that's the beginning of his love for Minions. It then brings us so much joy to watch him dance or listen to him blabber after the Minion's tune, especially that "bababa..banana~" song.

So when he turned two, we knew the theme to select for his birthday party.

MINIONS THEME!

All the kids were invited to the party dressed in yellow and blue to fit the theme too. Yes, all the little minions are going to assemble here !

These are the minions party props (hats and goggles) for the kids and my customised table-top name display.

 Pre-packed party bags for the guests (Assorted Minions theme stationary).

 Simple decoration as our photo backdrop

Balloons decorations + Customised name table display + Party bags + Party Props + Pinata are all ordered online from TAOBAO.

Minions is a common birthday theme, so I managed to grab quite a lot of interesting loots from there.

As for the words pasted on the wall "Kyrian is two", I made them myself using coloured and glittered paper.

--------------------------

Bouncy castle that Hubs arranged to bring back from his previous trip from China,. He got it at a good deal at around $200.

On the side note, most of the little guests asked if there was going to be a magician once they arrived at our place. They love the magic show at Reagan's birthday party which they attended the month before and was hoping to see it again at Kyrian's birthday. The kids have pretty good memory.

But the new bouncy castle didn't disappoint them either!

The party was held on Vesak's day, so we catered vegetarian food from Lion Kitchen, which was pretty good in my opinion, especially the yam paste , also the first to be finished up.

The kids took turns to hit the Minion pinata but it was not as easy to do so for their age. The parents were like yelling at the kids to "hit harder hit harder!" It was quite amusing actually, until babyK dropped the stick and went over to hug and "sayang" the Minion pinata~ !
I was taken by surprise. My innocent babyK must be wondering why everyone is being so mean, forcing the kids to hit his beloved Minion ! Aww...

Anyway with some help from the adults, the minion finally got ripped apart and all the goodies rained down on all the excited little sugar-craving scavengers.

The next surprise was the special appearance of the Minion mascot! 

What is a minion party without a minion?!

And yes that's my husband inside haha! He actually rehearsed a special birthday dance for BabyK but at the last minute he was too shy to perform in front of all the guests . So instead, he promised the boys to dance with them after the party. 

Our Minion distributed the goody bags to the kids and have a photo taken with them one by one.

Next our babyK's birthday cake is  from Nana Bakes , the same bakery that I bought Reagan 's train cake from. They managed to quote me a reasonable price for a 3D minion character cream cake in fruity lychee flavour. 

 Thanks to one of our lovely guests who managed to help us get these special fire-sparks candles at the very last minute again!

And lastly thanks to all who came to share this memorable day and got charmed by him at the party. 

Is hard to believe my darling baby superstar has reached the number TWO ! Where has the time gone seriously?! 

Letters to my happy suns, Reagan - The Week without your Dada (24-05-2016 to 31-05-2016)

The idea of starting to write letters to my children comes when I noticed that each time when I'm at my computer typing away, Rboy enjoys peering over my shoulder and "kaypo-ly" read out whatever I'm writing about. At times, he would ask me to show him my blog via my cellphone, so he can read up and view the photos and talk to me about the event again, especially that particular blog post on his 4th year old birthday party. Rboy is an avid reader and he is interested in his mom's blog, so what is a better time than now, to start writing to him!

This is my first letter to the boys and I hope I can keep this routine going...Sometimes there's just so much going on everyday and so much I wanted to say and so much I want the boys to remember Hopefully when his younger brother BabyK grows older, he will appreciate this letter-writing as much as his older brother. 

Dear Reagan , 

This is the first time that your dada is going overseas alone and you boys will not be seeing him for one whole week. Reagan, because Dada bathes and sleeps next to you every single night so I was worried that you would be the one having difficulty with the absence of Dada. Which also means I expected you to drive me crazy for the next seven days. However my fear was uncalled for because it turned out that your behavior was the most awesome this week! Surprisingly no cries and whines at all. You wake up early without struggle and prepare fast for school. At night, you didn't make any fuss either when I make you sleep in ahma's room. During the day, getting you to complete some work was such a breeze. You were able to finish the primary one vocabulary assessment book and all the simple addition sums practice all by yourself.  It was then I realised that you behaved so much better without the presence of your dada. I know that's because he's the only person in the house who succumbs to your cries and whines. Without him around, you truly understand that the best option is to just listen and obey my every rules haha! You are indeed a smart boy!

 

Every night after bathing and getting you boys into your pyjamas, we would sit on the bed and read the first set of Junior Young Scientist series together. Both of you love these magazines so much and made me repeat them again even after I've finished. Especially Kyrian ,your baby brother whom you always refer to as your "baby bombom". He can remember all the names of the characters and tell us which is his favourite part of the story.

 

Today mummy thought it'll be a good idea to take both of you to the Singapore Art Museum and spend a nice noon there together. 

 

"Under the sea" theme

We took quite a few photos so I can wassap dada and let him know that we were having a great time together without him haha!

 

Ah ma has been nagging non-stop for me to do something to your hair because they were too long and covering your eyes!

 

Therefore mommy bought you to Parkway to have your hair trimmed. You told mommy that you love your new hair! I also realised that without your dada around, you tend to give me more compliments than ever. Telling me how much you love me , or how beautiful I am compare to Elsa and agreeing to every single thing I said, lol.

 

After our lunch, I took you for ice-cream and once again you swore your everlasting love for me haha.

 

On Friday, mommy took you to your new Chinese enrichment class which I signed you up a couple of weeks back. You never had interest in Mandarin and always try to convince us that you don't need to learn the language. You always ask me why you need to learn and speak Mandarin? Mummy told you that you have to learn because your nainai and great grandma can only understand Mandarin, so you need to learn the language to speak to them in Mandarin, right? You cheekily replied, " Don't need, then I teach them English.." You never fail to surprise me with your witty reply at times.

However Reagan, mummy wants you to understand that Mandarin is as important as English, and one day you will do very well in Chinese too.

 

During our Uber ride, you leaned forward and asked the driver if he had the song "Oppa Gangnam Style" in his car. The driver was very amused by you. I had to explained that it is your favourite song that your daddy always play in his car for you. The Uber driver was a really nice guy, he played the song on his handphone and sang loudly for you! He made you laughed and bounced on your seat all the way till we reached home. Before we left, I made you thank the uncle again for making your day a wonderful one :)

 

On Sunday, Aunt Ella invited us to her new house and you boys were so excited to meet your friends there! We forced all of you to play this scary growling dog game and everyone's reactions were hilarious!

 

Next, we visited the playground first to drain all your energy before we go back.

 

I know you had a great time with your friends, so do I, haha!

 

On the last night of the 7th day, I guess you could no longer hold it anymore. You miss your dada so much and started crying for him to come back now. Dada had to talk to you over the phone to soothe you to sleep. You even made me promise you that you'll get to see your dada tomorrow right after you wake up, and that kinda touched me a little. I didn't know you were missing dada all along, because you've never mentioned or talked about him for the whole week, well until today. I'm glad this week is over too because I too cant wait to see that look on your face when your dada appears in front of you tomorrow!

Mrs Singapore & Mrs Classic Singapore 2016 Grand Finals

7th May 2016 is made special because it's the night that we all have been looking forward to; the crowning of our new queens of Mrs Singapore & Mrs Classic Singapore 2016. It is also the night before Mothers' Day!

 

 The grand finals is held at Orchid Country Club and the theme this year is "Red Carpet". This means that all the guests are going to shine glamorously like celebrities, walking down the iconic red carpet that night. This event gave me good reasons to get my neglected beauty fixes done such as nails, lashes and hair all ready just for tonight.

All the lovely ladies shining bright like a diamond~

The booths of our generous sponsors at the reception area

 

And first thing we did when we reached there, we whipped out our camera duh!

 

Walking down the signature red aisle with style

 

The dinner ballroom was much spacious and even more gorgeous than what I've expected.

Camera crew on standby

 

Our media table and the menu for tonight

 

Our honourable judges are all seated and ready

I shall now present u with the highlights of the night.
 

The show begins with the opening dance by the contestants in active sports fashion wear, sponsored by Lonsdale

 

Getting to know every contestant better

 

The entertaining performances by the winners of the Talent competition earlier

 

This segment is the most beautiful one because all the ladies graced down the red carpet in wedding gowns, together with their husbands and did a lovely dance together. It was truly heart-warming to watch.

Their exquisite gowns are from Beautiful Love Wedding and their elegant footwear are from Riccino.

The quick-witted ladies battling in out during the Q&A segment

A tough decision for the judges

 

Coronation of Classic Mrs Singapore 2016

Classic Mrs Singapore 2016 Second Runner Up: Evelyn Tan

Classic Mrs Singapore 2016 First Runner Up: Veronica Neo

Classic Mrs Singapore Planet 2016: Serene Cheng

Classic Mrs Singapore Globe 2016: Jessica Loh

Classic Mrs Singapore Universe 2016: Clara Lee

 

Coronation for Mrs Singapore 2016

 

Mrs Singapore 2016 Second Runner Up: Genevieve Tan

Mrs Singapore 2016 First Runner Up: Shilpi Dahiya

Mrs Singapore Planet 2016: Giselle Ang

Mrs Singapore Globe 2016: Lina Li

Mrs Singapore Universe 2016: Lynette Tan

 

 

We've come to the end of the event and once again I would like to give my heartfelt thanks to ERM Singapore for this eye-opening experience. It was indeed a memorable journey for the past 2 months watching how the finalists gradually build up their confidence with elegance and grace. It was truly a night to remember.

Do check out the blog post for this event by my pretty blogger friend Shayne as well.

 

I'm pretty looking forward to the next one in year 2017. And yes I'll be probably sending in my application as well! Do keep a look out for me then! hehe!