Happy Birthday To Denise!

Happy 9th Birthday Denise!

Denise's favorite little friends :)

Birthday wishes came true!

Thank you everyone for coming :) Denise had a great time and it was truly a Smiggles birthday! Thanks for all the presents.... :)

Holi Good Days in HK / Shenzhen / Macau

Our last trip to Hong Kong was 5 years ago when Debbie was 5 months old. This trip was to fulfill a promise that we made to the kids... We embarked on our 8D7N trip to HK/Shenzhen/Macau.
 

The trip would not be complete without a night stay in Disneyland

 

Mickey never changed. But oh boy.....look at us!

Look better as we aged.... :)

Merry Christmas from Disneyland!

Interlaken @ Shenzhen

A must-take pic for all travellers to Macua

Back to HK for more shopping!!

Final LOOT!

Words fail to tell the good times we had, the good food we ate and the great company that we had during this trip! Yeah!!!

Happenings in August

This blog has been so....so..... quiet. This is like a half-time post to say that we are still here :) Finding the motivation to continue blogging :p Some happenings in August...

Day out at Port of Lost World - Sentosa

Zoo Outing with CG

My birthday celebration with S49 @ Two Chefs

Birthday dinner with friends @ House

Birthday lunch with Mad @ Prive Keppel

Birthday lunch with friends at TCC Keppel

Birthday dinner with my favourite people @ La Braceria

 

August had been a feasting month! Thanks for celebrating my birthday with me :)

Why I Have 2?

This post was inspired by my fellow mummy bloggers who blogged about their decisions to have 1, 2 or 3...

As for me, I had Denise when I was 28; it was 2 years into our marriage. By today's standard, that was considered young... It was not an accident :) We made an informed decision.

It was not the Baby Bonus (there was none for first kid in 2003), not the CDA (as a young couple, we did not have the luxury of saving any extras), not the maternity leave (I only took 2 months), nor was it the reduced maid levy (we did not have a maid then).

We simply wanted kids and felt that it was time to add some excitement to our marriage life. We were very contented with just 1 kid. Denise got easier and easier to handle as she grew up. We had no plans to have another one.....until....

JX and myself both came from a family of 2. We were both the younger one. I appreciated that when there was a family decision to be made, especially one that concerned our parents, I had my sister to share the burden with. Whether financial or mental responsibilities, it was good to know that I was not making the decision alone.

This may sound a bit too far now....but during my Dad's funeral, I had a sibling to rotate night shifts with me :) And we had each other when we were going through the loss...

So, Debbie came along 4 years later. It was (again!) not an accident; we planned for her :) We felt that the gap was ideal as Denise would be in P1 when Deb was ready for pre-school. Considering the huge preschool fee, we thought that it would be good to "stagger" the expenses....

Fast forward, Denise would be 9 in December and Deb just turned 5.... Life had been great and I always enjoy watching them play together. During days where we had to stay at home or when we were having our own family time, I was glad that they had each other to play with.

Having a boy or girl was never the concern for me, I simply wanted to give Denise a companion and I thank God that Debbie completed the family :)

 

So, now the question is.....will I have a third one? Well, never say never.... And if I do have another one, the decision would not depend on whether there was enough Baby Bonus, CDA or any perks that the government is offering.... And again.....no accidents :)

 

 

 

Linking up with www.sanses.com

 

Happy 5th Birthday Debbie!

Had an early celebration for Debbie at Pat's Schoolhouse. Mummy knows a little about balloon sculpture and decided to entertain her classmates with some balloons, guns and animals :)

I ordered party trays from Prima Deli and collected them from the KKH branch. We had cheese tarts, muffins, chiffon cakes, fruits tarts and chocolate pastries. The pastries were fresh and tasty :)

I ordered the Dancing Princess cupcakes for Deb. The cake was made up of 24 cupcakes; unique design. Deb and the children loved the cupcakes and she had a great time celebrating with her friends.

Weekend, she invited some friends for another celebration at home.

This time she had a Barbie agar-agar cake. It was too pretty to be eaten :)

Kids had fun and Debbie received alot of presents! Thanks to everyone for making it so special for her :)

On her actual day, we bought her an ice-cream cake from Swensen's :) 3 celebrations and 3 different kinds of birthday cakes!

Thank you for 5 fun-filled years! You have definitely brought much joy into our lives :)

IKEA - Smaland Book of Records

Recently we discovered that Debbie has a new talent! She is amazingly good with the hula-hoop. Incidenttly, IKEA was holding a "Smaland - Book of Records" event and we registered her for the Hoopla Challenge. Children had to compete to make as many rounds as they can within a minute.

Saturday morning, we set off to IKEA Tampines.... All ready for the fun!

Debbie turned out to be the youngest and smallest-sized contestant among the 8 of them! And she had the biggest hoop :p The crowd cheered the loudest when she started twirling round and round.

I think they were not expecting her to "do well"....:) She actually stopped at 55secs. She thought she had to stop when the emcee started to count down. Anyway, she still did an amazing 149 per min! (The winner did 191!!! You can see her standing behind Deb in the pic below)

 

The event ended with a magic show and lucky draw. The kids had fun at the event and brought back goodie bags with snacks and Smaland products.

 Thanks IKEA for a good time :)

Happy Father's Day

Denise planned a Lucky Dip for all the fathers over the Father's Day weekend. She wanted to do something to appreciate all the fathers. So we bought her some simple snacks and small items for her. She went round Expo approaching fathers that she knows and wished them "Happy Father's Day".

Not bad for a 9 years old :) I cannot remember what was I doing at Primary 3.

TONS and TONS of HOMEWORK

I have been doing my homework and I noticed that Pri 3 has more holiday homework than Pri 1&2. But good thing there was no science homework because it's my weakest subject. Debbie does not have homework and she does not need to go to school. Actually, she is suppose to go to school but my mum said that she is in Preschool so she did not have to go to school. So good.....

Before My Road Trip - Bosch Automotive Singapore

Planning for our one week break in Malacca next week. I was wondering if our faithful Toyota can make it up there. Decided to send it for a pre-trip servicing :)

Chanced upon the promotion that Bosch Automotive Singapore was having... "Celebrating Bosch Car Service Week". I made an appointment with Bosch Car Service located at Bukit Batok which was offering 50% off their regular servicing package on 31 May 2012.

Driving in was swift. Handing over of vehicle was fast. I was given advices on what to change and what to take note. The overall experience was pleasant; nothing to complain about :)

Incidentally, Bosch Automotive was also holding a roadshow at Chevron House that day. I was pleasantly surprised by the huge turnout. The Flash Mob created a buzz at Raffles Place.

Look at the cute Uncle Bob :) Who can resist a photo opp with him....erm.... them? p

Got a pair of Bosch ECO Windshield Wipers with easy-to-install instructions from the Roadshow. The Quick-Clip connector system for easy installation, rivet joins for increased stability and a new formulation natural rubber for high durability will provide a safer and easier solution for my windshield.

Yeah! I am DEFINITELY ready for my road trip next week :)

I Am Thankful For...

During the recent seminar with Dr Robi Sonderegger, we were told to write down 3 things that we can thank God for...

1) 2 Healthy Children - the pride and joy of my life! The best gifts that God has given to me :)

2) The Man I Married - The best choice I made in my life!

3) My Church, My Life - "Work" carries a new meaning; it's a joy to go to "work" everyday!

Harvest Highlights

Denise recorded her first-ever video announcement for Family & Mother's Day Weekend in church. Even though she had an examination paper the following day, I decided to let her take a break and she really had a lot of fun :)

Click here to watch the video.

Exams Fever "NOT"

Exams season and what have I done to prepare Denise for her SA1?

Hmm.... should I be proud that I have not done much... :p With the recent buzz on the media about Primary School standard, I am just hoping that the concerns raised would be addressed as soon as possible (hopefully not in 5 to 10 years)

She was on MC on the day before a 3-days consecutive exams week. Just nice to do some last-minute revisions at home.

All the best to Denise for her first examinations!

Bangkok Holiday

For B$700, we took an interesting MPV from airport to Amari Watergate. Traffic was smooth as we arrived early at 8.35am BKK time.

Got a free upgrade to a Grand Deluxe Room. I like the feel of checking into a room with clean and neat sheets and well-stocked toilet amenities. The last time I stayed here was in 2009 with the kids. Would gladly come back here again on the next trip.

Not wanting to waste time, we took the BTS to Chatukchat Market. It was my first time there... Huge market with rows and rows of EVERTHING! We probably only covered 50% of the market and settled down at the side for some yummy Yellow Rice with Fried Chicken :) and walked till we couldn't walk anymore.

Amari Watergate is conveniently located opposite Platinum Fashion Mall, which in my opinion, is better than shopping at anywhere else in Bangkok. After shopping, we simply unloaded our loot in our rooms and then head out again for dinner and massage.

For about S$7 for an hour of Foot or Thai Massage, there are alot of massage parlours to choose from along the street beside our hotel! We were spoilt for choice. Ended up trying different ones every night.

We did what tourist would on the 3rd day - visit to Madame Tussauds. They had a Late Savers Ticket offer at 50% discount, where you visit from 5-9pm for B$400 instead of B$800. This was the best option as we could shop during the day, visit Madame Tussauds in the evening and then head out for dinner after that :) And 4 hours was MORE THAN enough for us to walk through the whole exhibition!

Last day was reserved for shopping at Terminal 21 Shopping Mall. The nine floors at Terminal 21 house some 600 shops, a Cineplex, Gourmet Market (supermarket) and a food court with all kinds of mouthwatering Thai and international fare. Fantastic buys here. A must-go mall for my next trip to BKK.

Our return flight was as late as we could get :)

Yes, I bought chocolate and cookies because there was a gourmet sale at the foyer of CentralWorld :) Who says you can only shop for tees and accessories, haha... And did I forget to mention Naraya in the same mall! Non-stop shopping crowd throughout the time we were there :)

Final picture of my "harvest" from Bangkok!!!