All About Your Child

Today, school re-opens! YEAH!!!! But before the kids bury their heads under books, they had hours of fun at The Polliwogs on the last day of school break. All thanks to LZMommy who mentioned about The Polliwogs over at the post ‘Happy 5th Birthday Binbin‘.

The Polliwogs provides mini bags for children to go ‘Ball-Shopping’ *laugh*

Both were trying to fill as much balls as they could without letting any ball escape. With 2 separate ball pool, there are LOTs of balls to go around. *giggle*

We had tried Go Go Bambini, Peek-a-Boo and now The Polliwogs. The Polliwogs is soooo much bigger!!! It has indoor play area and outdoor too! The only setback that day was, even after mopping, the outdoor play area was still pretty wet after the heavy downpour on that Friday morning. But hey, who cares about those tiny puddles of water, the children just went crazy in and out of The Polliwogs! *laugh*

The INDOOR:

We did not get to play at the outdoor the moment we arrived because we were waiting for the staff to mop the bigger puddles of water. We get to go out only after spending 2 hours indoor.

So while we were waiting, the kids decided to have an ice-cream break while I claimed the FREE COFFEE. Every receipt entitles you to a FREE Coffee or Tea.

The OUTDOOR:

The charges for The Polliwogs are in the midrange between the previous two indoor playgrounds which we went. $16 for children on weekdays with unlimited play. And $2 More for weekends and public holidays with 2hour play. Adults enter for free. Just like the other two, please BRING YOUR SOCKS!

We went at 1pm and stayed till the friendly staff shoo us off at 7pm. *giggle* 6 hours!!!! We are madly in love with The Polliwogs. Operating hours are from 10am to 7pm on weekdays and extended 1hour on weekends.

If I am ‘forced’ to say something negative about The Polliwogs. Well, my boys and I did have scratches and cuts when we came down the spiral slide; which we did not have such ‘Ouch’ experience in the other two places. Other than that, the 3 of us were like big and small hamsters, crawling all over the place, having fun at The Polliwogs. *Grin*

Finally the Video was uploaded!

Have been having issues uploading the video of what its like to take a ride Many rides at the latest slides at Singapore Changi Airport – Slide@T3.

The shorter slide, which is only 2 storey high is FREE for all to ride, so long as you are taller than 110cm.

The longer slide, 4 storey high is free ONLY when you have spent at least $30 in a single receipt at the shops in Singapore Changi Airport Terminal 3; and if you are taller than 130cm.

My boys went on the shorter slide while I went for BOTH! This is what you can expect when you are going for the slide.

There are a few pointers that are crucial for this ride. I have noted them in the following video:

This is how the button looks like, which is the ’secret’ to unlock the door; to free you when you reach the bottom of the slide. There are no staff there to help.

Remember, you or your child must use the thumb or the finger to press the Middle part. Many kids tried pressing with their palm and it does not work.

The result? Crying kids and a staff sliding down to help the distressed children. Which prolongs the waiting time of those queuing for the ride.

The boys got the T3 stamp on the back of their hands and mine was on my receipt.

For the taller slide, I was given two tokens.

To get in to the slide, the tokens need to be inserted into a machine. One token for one ride. So for $30 spent, I got to go TWICE. *wink*

My only shot taking the ride. *wink*

It was sooooooo fun for the 3 of us.

The best part about Terminal 3 in Singapore Changi Airport is its a Kids Heaven too.

To me, this is a MUST VISIT for your kids during this long school holidays. *wink* Hope you will enjoy as much as we did.

For the very first time in my 32 years being alive, I had my reunion dinner at a restaurant.

All my life, reunion dinners were taken in the house. This year, we wanted something special, but we could not decide until my sushi crazy 4 year old said “Let’s Eat Sushi!”

We thought it was an Awesome Idea! Having a healthy meal of Vitamin E enriched rice with my favourite high in Omega-3 Salmon…Whoo-hoo! Perfect Choice!

So we headed down to Sakae Sushi at TradeHub21 for three simple reasons:

Firstly, we have yet to visit this branch!

Secondly, we have an option to book a Private Room! I certainly felt rich being able to afford a private room! *laugh* Nahh….its just a small price of $10.00. However, if your bill exceeds $100, the room charge is waived. Hitting that $100 was easy peasy for us, big eaters! *laugh*

This was a totally new experience for us as a family. I love the way we could put down our legs into the ‘hole’. It felt like we were in Japan! Cool!

Thirdly, there is a playground for the kids. Definitely a cool experience for them, to eat their favourite sushi and get to play at the same time. Our room was separated from the playground by just a sliding door. Perfect convenience for the parents to lookout for their kids.

They had so much fun, I could not resist but took a short video of them playing.

While the kids had fun outside, the adults were happy to have a breath of kids-free air! Freedom! *laugh*

Deciding what to eat was hard! We were spoiled for choice! *laugh*

The kids had no problem ordering though.

Their usual favourites included Kappa maki (cucumber), Tamago maki (egg) and Ebi Sushi (prawn).

To me, new year means new beginning, hence new tastes were a MUST!

My sis is a gourmet queen. So nothing was new to her.

But for Allan and I, we tried these for the First Time:  Lobster Salad Sushi, Spicy Salmon Handroll, Inari Roll and the biggest surprise was Hotate Mentaiyaki. It was Super Delicious!

We tried new food and the kids had a new friend!

His name is Ryan! They had so much fun, the boys kept coming in to tell us about him. *Smile*

But when his family left and the kids needed the comfort of an air-conditioned room, they came in and turned the room into a playground! *faint*

We were so full!! Not only were our tummies full, our hearts were filled with joy too! For the first time, did not need to wash up after reunion dinner! Hooray!

So while the kids admire the tempting display of Sakae merchandise, the adults were at the Cashier.

It was $142.70 before discount. All thanks to my sis’s Citibank credit card, we had a 10% discount.

Thus the final amount was only $128.45. The fulfillment achieved during those 3 hours were beyond compare to that amount. *Smile*

Happy Lunar New Year Everyone!!!

This week was extreme for my family. Everyone had some pretty absurd happenings for the past 9 days, except for the happy go lucky Binbin.

We badly needed a break from all the spellings, ‘ting xie’ (chinese spelling), endless homeworks, in and out of the house 8 times a day routine and the lack of fun ever since Keatkeat started Primary One.

So yesterday, after fetching Keatkeat from school at 6.15pm, we ignored the homework. Turn a blind eye to the spelling and ‘ting xie’. Forget about the madness of going through my main door 8 times a day. We just went ahead and had fun.

Witnessed the performances from some of the best teams flew in from different countries like China, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Taiwan was a wonderful experience.

The four of us stood on our feet from 7pm to 11pm. That is how much my boys love to watch lion dance performances. They were so eager to find out who would win this 3rd International Lion Dance Competition held at the Central, they insisted on staying till the very end of the show. My boys legs, though little but amazingly strong. *Smile*

And the Winner went to Our Singapore Team! Whoo-hoo!!! With no demerits and a high score of 9.40, just 0.1 point higher than the second team (China), what a close fight!!!

Its been a long break from their favourite Monday routine. I decided to get the ball rolling again today. Visiting one of my favourite ‘baby sitter’ > The Library.

There is a story-telling session on every Monday in the Library near our place. One of the reason my boys are excited about this routine, “Mommy, its Monday! Yippee!!! We can go library again tonight?!” could also be due to the opportunity to get mini-gifts from the story-teller at the end of it.

After that is done, its my boys’ usual practise to grab at least 4 books each to bring home and return on the following Monday for another round of stories, gifts and books again….

My rule: 3 English : 1 Chinese. And that Chinese book had better come with hanyu pinyin or else its going back to the shelf, because Mommy dearest cannot read very well without the help of hanyu pinyin. *pout*

Is library your weekly hangout too?

MORNING

For the very first and last time, he celebrated his birthday at his preschool with his classmates and his little brother. We ‘borrowed‘ Binbin over to Keatkeat’s class for the mini-party.

Aaawwww… the feeling was so WONDERFUL for me!!! It felt like as if I was back to my Child Care Centre, having an Awesome time with High Spirited Children.

From a Birthday Party, one can always tell if the birthday boy/girl is popular in class and I am not ashamed to say that my boy is not. Some of Keatkeat’s classmate simply REFUSED to come over for the Birthday song.

During the English version, Keatkeat was ‘pushed‘ behind everyone else. The song went on, but the ‘STAR‘ was missing from the spotlight, hence Allan only video-ed the Chinese Version.

I apologise if my hubby had caused you to have a stiff neck. I tried for an hour searching for a way to rotate the video, but after trying out 5 different ways, nothing worked. I’m sorry, I gave up because we had to go out for the celebration already!

Just in case you were wondering if that ‘Adult Voice‘ was mine…. ITS NOT!

That was Keatkeat’s teacher, who hmmm… didn’t give any presents; unlike Keatkeat’s nursery and K1 teacher, who bothered to find out what the birthday child likes.

What made it even worse was Binbin’s Teacher gave Keatkeat a Birthday Present!!! (picture on the left)

Its either my boy is not in his teacher’s list of favourites or else, his teacher is someone who simply couldn’t be bothered. *eyes rolled*

AFTERNOON

We went to Kallang Leisure Park’s Peek-A-Boo for the very first time and we LOVED IT! Adults enter for free and children older than 2 years old, pay $12.00 per entry. You can play ALL DAY!!! Cool! Oh, remember to bring socks!

I love to go to such places during Mondays or Weekdays. It felt as if you have booked the entire place for yourself! Fabulous!

When I got disgusted having the NET and PLASTIC between us….

I JOINED THEM INSIDE!!!

Climbing that 3 storey tall playground and playing full-out was Awesome!

Ok, a word of warning for parents who want to climb in with your kids: You have to squeeze your way through some of the obstacles….so if you want to avoid having the risk of being stuck up there… you know your forbidden grounds *wink*

There was this period of Pure Family Fun for 45mins . Just the 4 of us conquering that Place. Whoo-hoo!

We stayed there for 3 hours before we head down to Suntec for Dinner……

EVENING

Few days ago….

Allan: “Keatkeat, where would you want to celebrate your birthday?”

Keatkeat: “I want to celebrate at Tony Romas, just like Mommy. Because I came out from her tummy. So I want to be just like Mommy.”

And so the birthday wish was granted.

If you had the patience to watch till the end of the above slideshow, here is the answer to Binbin’s big surprise for his big brother…

After dinner, we went to Toys R Us and Keatkeat could choose anything he wants and Binbin will pay for it from his piggy bank.

And THIS was Birthday Boy’s choice. (left)

(Look at how tired his eyes were from the whole day of Fun….)

Usually, the birthday cake is my present for him. This year was special, I found a Hot Wheels Car in the storeroom (by chance). As many of you know, I’m NOT A buy-toys Mommy, so Keatkeat was overjoyed when he received this from me. *Grin*

Allan bought his boy’s favourite Alien: XLR8. So you can imagine his glee!

My sis and her bf brought the boys out on Saturday to shop for his presents. According to my sis, this year’s present is the CHEAPEST of the 6 years! *giggle*

Happy Birthday, My Dearest Firstborn!

This is like part 2 of that previous Kite Flying post.

Finally, we bought a thicker ‘fishing wire’ to fly our big kite today. Eager as we are, we went to test it out straight away after lunch. This time, it was somewhere nearer to home.

I must say it was a disappointment. No, not the wire, but the weather. It was sunny when we went and the next moment dark clouds conquered the sky.

You would think we had super strong wind to push up the kite since signs of a big downpour was obvious? Nah… There were hardly any wind!!! *faint*

But I think the heavens were kind enough to provide the already impatient boys, who spent most of the time marking crosses with sticks on the sand, a few seconds of strong wind to get the kite up in the sky.

A few seconds of shouting (from the boys) “Yeah! Up up! I know you can do it little buddy!” was good enough to cheer the boys. So long as they are happy, Papa would not mind having a tiring right arm and Mommy would not mind being bitten by red ants. *wink*

We were there for about 40min before we RAN to our car!!! ‘cos we saw the rain was heading towards us….

So we are DEFINITELY going Marina Barrage for all future Kite Flying. Truly Much Stronger Wind There….

Yesterday was school holiday because of Deepavali (a festival celebrated by Hindus). We were in the mood to celebrate too, for a different reason though.

So for the first time, we bought a kite which cost more than $1. *giggle* We have been buying kites that are of poor quality but still fly-able. Yesterday, we decided to invest in ‘Big Bird’ (kids’ choice).

Our spirit was as sunny as the weather, taking turns to wear Allan’s sunglasses, we tried to fly the kite….

It didn’t even lift off the ground for more than 5 seconds and the string broke.*faint*

In the end, the kids had more fun chasing each other with the kite….

We’ll be back again, for sure, with a better string…

Since, kite flying didn’t work out, the water play definitely did. As usual, the kids had splashing great fun at OUR favourite hangout Marina Barrage.