My first Family Art Piece : Jan-13

After drawing on and off for several months, I had finally managed to complete my first art piece on our family cartoon using the art 'Bamboo' pen I brought last year.  I am glad to have finished this, and personally satisfied with myself.  I would leave it to you judge how well I had drawn. :-)

Enen starts art class in NAFA : Jan-13

When we began this blog 5 years ago, Xuan had just started her Art course in NAFA. This year, Enen followed his sister footstep and joined her in enrolling to a class in NAFA too.  We have the good fortune to put her in the same time slot as her sister, in fact, when I submitted her registration form, the administrator told me that that was the only vacancy left for the slot, how lucky.  I am not sure to what level Enen could sustain her interest, but currently she was looking forward to every Saturday and using her art tools which we had purchased.

Laogong's Birthday, Special 2013 : Jan-13

A birthday paradox exists in my family, on the two most special guys in my life.

This special birthday falls on a very special day of the year too -- New Year's Day on the modern Gregorian calendar, 1 January.

Initially, everyone is excited as we get to celebrate the special birthday with two persons at the same time.  Over time, one began to lament: "How come I cannot get 100% of everyone's attention on MY special day??"

Hahaa.. somehow, some forces, someone, must have overheard this and decided that 2013 would be a lil' different; depending on what we made of it.  As we went along, there were actually 3 parts to Laogong's birthday celebration!!

Part 1: the un-usual ..
Our usual Saturdays are spent with Xuan's art class in the morning and Qi's ballet in the evening, with whatever we want to do, in-between.  Being the nice and filial people we are, weekends are also the time to visit my Pa and perform some extended-family bonding, especially for the girls with their Yiyi, QQ, Qmama and Qgong.  At least twice a month, we also have our Soka meetings on weekends..  Hence only once in a blue moon do we have an extended period of many hours of solely nuclear-family time without the stress of the girls having to complete their homework or revise for exams.  Well, the Saturday before Laogong's birthday is that very rare blue moon when we can begin his 100% birthday celebration!!

Q: How do you want to celebrate your birthday?
A: I want a picnic!

So a picnic it shall be!  Or a seemingly-picnic it became..
We had a MacDonald's brunch at East Coast.  Hey, I must say I really prefer this new joint much much more than the old one!  This one is really by the sea, and bcoz of the nice breezy weather that morning, it was a very pleasant and enjoyable 'picnic' indeed.  We had everyone's favorite Mac breakfast, and the cool breeze, by the sea!!  For once, east coast Mac wasn't crowded too..

After our brunch, we took a nice long walk along the beach and jetty.. (^_^)

the gigantic x'mas tree ..

.. in ngee ann city !

Acceding to Laogong's wish, we had a refreshing steamboat dinner at Coca, ngee ann city.  Hahaa.. the girls didn't quite like it as dinner was still a rather steamy affair despite the air-conditioned environment.  Well, too bad girls.. it's your papa's birthday dinner and he's the king who had the final say!







Part 2: the usual .. still unusual
Jiun would be overseas.. Even Papa would not be in Singapore on Gregorian New Year itself, so we did our usual double birthday celebration much earlier on 30 Dec, Sunday afternoon, when everyone was still at home!  We had a nice dinner prepared by QQ and Dor.. QQ even bought two duck's drumsticks especially for the birthday boys!

showin off his drumstick!

birthday dads & their cakes ..

Our group picture ..

Talking about birthday paradox, 30 Dec is Victor's father as well as Dor's father's birthday!














Part 3: the usual .. to wrap up the 300%!!
In the wee hours on the first day of 2013, after we did our New Year's gongyo together as a family, Laogong can wait no longer and demanded his birthday presents from all of us!

Later that day, together with my in-laws, we attended the New Year's Gongyo at HQ and went for a nice family dinner thereafter.

Of course the day concluded at home with a birthday song and cake, and all our birthday wishes!! (^_^)/

School Holidays Part 3 – Johor Bahru Trip : Dec-12

Another planned trip was a short stay in JB and visit to the newly open Legoland and Hello Kitty, Sanrio land.

It was a scorching day when we arrived at Legoland as our first stop.  The place was packed with people, mainly kids and their family, rather than family and their kids… It was really a place for the kids.  Fortunately I had purchased the ticket online prior to the visit, the queue to buy the tickets was ridiculously long and would take an estimate of at least 2 hours if we did not have them purchased beforehand.

Judging from the number of patrons in the Legoland, I got a feeling that the management had oversold the tickets and overcrowded the park.  Each ride was at least 45 mins, we decided to give up after taking two of them.  The miniature lego world was impressive though, creating several countries with the art of the bricks.  Unluckily, It did not take too long for the sky to grant us showers in compensation of the hot weather, it was raining cats and dogs soon after we finished the miniature world.  We were forced to take shelters outside the lego shop for almost an hour as there were no covered walk ways, definitely an improvement opportunity for the park.  We had tried this place once at least and we doubt we would try it again.

Like every young kids, En’en was very excited about the idea of staying in a hotel.  The last few hotels we stayed had disappointed the kids a bit as there was no bathtub, so this time I took special attention in ensuring this hotel comes with one.  En’en was trilled seeing the bathtub, and suddenly loved bathing so much, such simple fun of playing with water.  Another bonus for the kids was the complimentary hotel breakfast buffet, a luxury experience I supposed.

We visited Hello Kitty land the following day, this time lesser people but smaller space.  The place was truly a kiddie palace, and for those Hello Kitty fans like Qiqi, they would be overwhelmed.

Overall, a good short break with lots of eating and shopping along with the kids stuffs. 

While I ‘envied’ that ways the kids are ‘pampered’ today, I do still cherish the carefree childhood I had undergone.  During those days, parents normally focused their time in meeting ends and did not really have time for their kids, not to say holidays.  I remembered my childhood playing simple and inexpensive things but still having similar fun if not, more than the kids nowadays.  Technology advancement and modernisation have definitely “rob” the simple ways of childhood happiness and “corrupt” the mindset of many adults and kids.   How nice it will be to sometimes just go back to the basics, living simple, that was the way our ancestor had kept our world protected and unpopulated for thousands of years, isn’t it?

School Holidays Part 2 - Garden by the bay : Dec-12

We planned to visit Garden by the Bay at MBS during this holiday along with Papa and Mama.  We started off by stopping by Macdonalds to give Papa and Mama an untypical breakfast which they seemed to enjoy as much as the kids.

We reached Garden by the Bay at about 10.30am and decided to visit the two iconic domes, Flower Dome and Cloud Forest.  We began with the Flower Dome.  When entered, I was instantly impressed by the majestic view of the artificial garden inside this fully air-conditioned dome.  We could even smell the fragrance emitted by the flowers and Qiqi even claimed she could smell the high level of oxygen!  The amount of flowers blossoming inside the dome were countless and of course, beautiful.  I was not sure how much man effort were incurred and needed to replace these flowers or do they really blossom naturally?  If it was the latter, it would be more admirable.

After the Flower Dome, we proceed to the Cloud Forest… this time it was an breath-taking man-made waterfall that greeted us at the entrance.  We spent a fair bit of time enjoying the view before moving on to the lift which took us to the top level.  Starting from the top, there was a long bridge which would bring you to the ground level and present you the journey of the various types of forestation.

At the end of the Flower Dome tour, there was also a room which exhibited how MBS had built this two domes to be environmentally friendly.  I just felt so ironic to believe that the amount of energy used to maintain these domes would be environmentally friendly or reduce any carbon footprints.  Xuan and I joked that this must be some tricks to divert some negative feedbacks from the tourists.

Nevertheless, the sceneries inside the domes were astonishing, we could not stop taking photos inside them…