Happy anniversary!

Happy ROM wedding anniversary! It's our 8th year together. Thanks for being such a wonderful hubby . ;)

Ballet trial for Raelynn

After their childcare year end concert, we are convinced that Raelynn loves to dance, she danced well for the concert, and can tell that she enjoys practising the dance too. So, hubby finally told me to let her try out ballet cos he thinks she cannot sit still and may not be able to focus long enough to learn piano.

We have come a long way cos he was not keen for the gals to learn ballet cos he thinks they will walk funny (like a duck) if they learn ballet. No offence to all the ballet dancers ya. :P

RL just turned 3 yrs old last Sunday so she just made it for Bebe ballet which is for those 3 - 3 yrs 11 mths. So, tonight, after dinner at Century Sq, we went to Crestar Dance school for trial at Abacus plaza. I brought along a ballerina looking pink dress for her and especially let her change into it before her trial.

When we reached the centre, it was dejavu cos I brought RA for the same trial twice in end 2011 and early this year. First time, RA cried cos she didn't want me to leave the room. Second time, I bought her a ballerina tutu dress, and deliberately went for trial in the same class as her best friend and CC classmate, Valerie. So, she didn't cry but after the trial, when I asked her if she wants to learn ballet, she still said no, she doesn't like to dance. So, I gave up on ballet for RA after that.

After filling up the registration form and paying $32.10, the class started at 730pm. After I helped her to take out her shoes, Raelynn just walked into the room, plonked herself down on the floor with the other gals whom she has never seen before. Looked at the teacher, without even a backward glance at me. I shouldn't have worried that she will cry like RA at all. In the end, I was the one who 不放心 and went into the room to straighten her hairband and told her that I will be waiting outside. She can't even be bothered to answer me. kaka.

It was a 45 mins trial, I popped by the small window in the door now and then to peek at her. She was jumping, dancing and following the teacher. Not shy at all though her movements are a bit off compared to the other gals. After the trial, I asked her teacher, Ms Li Tong, if RL did ok. And she said RL can follow instructions, not familiar with the movements yet but it will get better with practice. I asked RL if she wants to learn ballet and she didn't hesitate at all, and gave me a resounding yes though I asked her a few times.

Since there is no new classes scheduled in 2013 for Bebe ballet, we decided to enrol her immediately since hb and I are more free during the school hols. School fees per term is $203.30. School fees will increase to $256.80 for new classes so we are exempted from that increase for now. We paid $341.19 cos there are 2 remaining lessons in Dec and for Jan-Mar 2013. RL couldn't wait to wear her ballet shoes but too bad her size is oos. So, we only bought her attendance book and socks today. Didn't buy leotard and skirt cos it was a bit exp, $47.10, secondly, I was worried she will outgrow it before her assessment (next yr), and finally, it's not easy to bring her to toilet if she is wearing a leotard.

Her yamaha Music Wonderland lessons will start next Jan, almost same timing as RA (Sats 12.15-1pm). So, we'll monitor and see which one she likes better. ;)

Cream of mushroom soup

The gals love mushroom soup so we always order it when we go to western restaurants. Was browsing MIL's i weekly and I saw a step by step recipe for mushroom soup. It looks good so decided to buy some mushrooms when it was on offer at NTUC recently. Was also motivated to put the new NTUC bowls I bought to good use. kaka.

To be honest, I never knew cooking mushroom soup is so much work cos I grew up with campbell soup. My mum can't cook western soups so for any western soup, my dad who was a canned food hawker, will take a can of campbell soup from his inventory, open it, add a can of water, stir until it boil. Voila! Soup is done. My FIL does this too when the gals have dinner at their place and they didn't cook soup. hee.

Preparing the soup took almost 1 hr. It will take up to 2 hrs if I included the time I took to boil vegetable stock. (how I wish NTUC sells packet veg stock like those swanson chicken broth) No wonder restaurant mushroom soup tastes so good.

I modified the recipe a little cos I only had 1 onion in the house (defnitely not 200g) just couldn't find thyme (fresh nor bottled). It was oos even at NTUC Tampines Mall. Cold storage probably has it but I am too lazy to walk to Tampines One. :P The recipe asked for bay leaves too so I had to buy a bottle, hubby being the 'chin chai' chef, kept telling me to omit all these 'exp and seldom used' herbs. But I was worried it will affect the taste.

But luckily, the gals loved it. RaeAnne said it was better than pastamania soup and Raelynn said 'Yummy Gumbo' - that's her highest level of praise for food after watching The Princess and the frog. ;) So at least it was worth the effort. With soup, we still need a carbo so I just fried a easy tomato macaroni since we haven't had that for a long long time. ;)

P.S. Recipe for veg stock
1) 3 stalks of celery
2) 1 onion
3) 2 medium carrots
4) 5-7 cloves of garlic (washed but unpeeled)
5) Some mushroom stalks
Just put everything into a pot of cold water until it boils then let it simmer until stock is sweet.

Raelynn is 3 years old!

Time flies! My little bundle of joy is already 3 years old. She is 92cm tall and 13.6 kg. Although she is not as chubby like a baby, she is still as cute. She is the happy go lucky type and never asked for any birthday presents. But I bought a helium balloon for her and a few small stuff.

We are not doing any big celebrations since already had a celebration in school. But will be bringing the gals for a staycation at Festive Hotel, Resorts World Sentosa and bring them to Universal Studios today. :)

We reached USS around 11am, could have been earlier but we forgot something so had to loop back to retrieve it while I was with the 2 gals queuing for our turn to change the RWS invites vouchers into USS tickets. Luckily, the USS guest services allowed us to leave our luggage at their lost and found counter temporarily. If not, we will waste even more time going to Festive Hotel just to deposit our luggage there. We also got a birthday badge for Mei Mei since it was her birthday. So, she got free popcorn, photo album and discount coupons compliments of USS.

USS was surprisingly not crowded and the weather was good though it was a sunday, cloudy so it was not warm. Hubby wanted to see Sci Fi city cos we never saw this adventure zone though we already been to USS twice. Too bad for hubby, we have no boys and the gals are not interested in transformers. Mei Mei even cried when we tried to pose with Bumble Bee. haha.

After our lunch at KT grill (I had one for one deal using RWS invites card), we went to Jurassic Park cos I wanted to try the Canopy flyer. It was drizzling slightly by then. So, decided to go for the open air dinosaur rides first since RL wanted to sit in it. It was 30 mins wait for the canopy flyer. From the ground, the ride looks quite slow but I didn't realise it was so fast. The ride is for kids that are 92cm and taller so RL just made the height limit. But she was so scared, took a lot of convincing before she was willing to go on the ride. And the ride is really quite fast esp around the bend. I closed my eyes for some parts too. ;P

After going for the dinosaur ride again, cos RA wanted to sit on the pink dinosaur this time, we used our express pass and went for the usual stuff, ie. Shrek 4d show and Madagascar crate adventure. We also went 3 rounds at the Madagascar carousel. Mei Mei's favourite.

When we left USS, it was already 430pm, walked to festive hotel to check in. Couldn't get a free room upgrade nor the Deluxe King room that I reserved. Only got a Deluxe twin room, if not, it will be Deluxe King but on a smoking floor but I didn't want to take the risk of a stinky room. Luckily, the room had a sofa bed so it was enough for 4 of us. It was a good thing we didn't ask MIL along this time if not one of us may have to sleep on the floor. I didn't realise that Deluxe rooms have no bathtubs tnough so the gals esp RA was disappointed.

But the hotel staff did remember about our birthday celebration so they sent up a cake for us. A deliciously rich chocolate cake. Since the gals loves their hotel room, hubby tapow food from Ruyi and we tucked into our favourite 'Ru Ruo Fan'. Their chicken wings and guo tie were very good too.

The gals didn't nap at all. RL knocked out at 920pm but RA only slept at 11pm. Even hubby slept earlier than her.

The next morning, after BF, we brought them to Hard Rock Hotel Pool which was highly recommended by my forum mummy friends. It was indeed a nice pool with a man made beach. Too bad we didn't bring beach toys so we only had the bucket which was the free toy we got from KT grill for the kids meal. Still it was clean fun, no need to worry about broken glass in the sand etc so we could leave the gals to play.

There was shower cubicles (with hot water and toiletries) at the toilets near the towel counters. Too bad, we didn't know earlier so we could only shower the gals but both hubby and I did not bring along our clothes, just our robes. So, we still had to go back and shower before we can go for lunch.

Went to Coca restaurant since I got 1 for 1 promotion. $24++ for adult and $17++ for kids above 5 yrs old so the gals dine free. ;)

Prawn Aglio Olio

Did an ultimate aunty thing and collected NTUC bonus points diligently over 1 month. I had a grand total of 53 bonus points. All for the sake of getting pasta plates cos the gals love to eat pasta. 16 points to get 1 set of 2 plates at $5.95. Pastamania is their favourite haunt and their favourite home cooked dish is also spagetti bolognaise. Actually, I only need 4 plates. But I could get 6 plates cheaply. In the end, I decided to get 8 plates cos 6 plates are really not enough to entertain guests. And we are having a pot luck gathering at my brother's new place during Xmas.

Was cracking my head over what to bring or cook. But decided to make use of the new pasta plates and cook pasta. But my mum doesn't like any buttery, creamy or tomato base pasta so aglio olio pasta is the best choice, since it's garlic and oil base.

But first, I got to learn how to cook it cos I have never cooked it before. haha.

Googled online for recipes and found one that did not look too difficult. Recipe I only have frozen deshelled prawns at home so couldn't make the prawn stock from the shells. So, I made stock with boiling dried sakura shrimps which I bought from Taiwan previously. Also, I didn't use fresh cut chilli cos was afraid it will be too spicy for hubby. Only used dried chilli flakes from spice bottles. I did a non spicy version for the kids with only garlic and pasley.

Verdict: The pasta was not salty enough but the spicy version was still too spicy for hubby. The gals didn't like the garlic bits. And I think the stock will be sweeter and richer with real prawn shells so must make sure I buy fresh prawns when I want to cook this next time. Never mind, still got lots of time to practise. haha.

School holiday and RaeAnne's first professional hair cut

Friday, there's no school cos it's rest day after concert. I was keen to bring them to the zoo to see the pandas before Raelynn turns 3 years old so that we can save on her admission ticket. But the girls preferred going to indoor playground instead of the zoo so we went to Kidsplay at Tampines One, the nearest indoor playground.

It was their last day of $12 for 1 hr promotion so it was good cos we did't have much time for them to play before having lunch. After lunch at Dian Xiao Er, we passed by the kiddy salon. And a little girl with very long hair was getting her haircut while watching tinkerbell dvd. The salon was having a $10 promotion (instead of $20) so on a whim, I ask RA if she wants to have her hair cut.

Before

I was surprised when she said yes cos she has been keeping her hair long for more than 6 months in ancipation of the concert. 杨老师 asked to keep her hair long so that she can tie up her hair during the concert.

She said she wanted to have her hair like mine. So, I asked the hairstylist to cut and leave about 2 inches of hair below her ears. 奶奶 has been RaeAnne's personal hairstylist since she was born. So it was the first time she is getting a professional hair cut. She enjoyed watching the Ratatouille DVD that she chose while Mei Mei was kept entertained playing with the toys in the little play area. The hairstylist commented that RA has a lot of hair and true enough, there was a heap of hair on the floor by the time she was done.

After

Although she enjoyed the salon experience, she didn't like her new hairdo. She said she had this short hairstyle when she was very young. So, she was quite upset. On hindsight, maybe I shouldn't have taken her seriously. Should have asked the hair stylist to cut it a bit longer so that the change is less drastic. haha.

Elfa concert 2012

29 Nov 12 - the day we have been waiting for eagerly cos it's the day of Elfa concert. The gals have been practicising their dances for a long time but we only get to see snippets of it at home. Not the whole dance and definitely curious about their costumes which we paid on top of the concert tickets.

Raelynn's dance is the Mexican hat dance and RaeAnne's the popular Gee by Girls Generation. They looked so different with their full make up and their hair tied up that I couldn't recognise them even though I went close to stage to take photos. haha.

Both of them danced well, RL was quite natural and responds well to the beat. RA is flawless cos she is older and remember the complicated dance steps well though it was a pity she hardly smiled.

Belated post : Penang trip Sept 12

I just realised that I forgot to post about our Penang trip in Sept 12 when one of my forum friends asked me for the itinerary. Shows how busy (lazy) I have been since starting work full time. :P Anyway, better late than never right? haha.

Day 1
Took airasia flight to Penang, my tickets were bought 1 yr ago in Sept 11 during the zero $ promo but I added two more tickets for my mum and aunt last minute cos they wanted to go to Penang too. This time, quite disappointed with Airasia cos the flight was delayed by more than 30mins and there was a substantial turbulence dip. Enough to make a few kids (myself included) scream.

We Stayed at G Hotel again, it is our third stay there and their service and quality has been consistently good. When we reached the hotel, just nice to check in and enjoy our complimentary ice cream by the hotel. After putting down our luggage, we had a nice dim sum lunch at one of the chinese restaurants at Gurney Plaza (next door to the hotel). Unfortunately for me, I started a bad bout of flu on the day of our departure and I had full blown symptoms (bodyaches, chills and fever) so I rested in the hotel room while the rest continued shopping.

That night, we strolled to the nearby open air gurney food centre for dinner. RaeAnne was very whinny though, maybe cos she was tired and also cos she is not used to such 'no frills' street dining.

Day 2
Still feeling sick, but luckily it is still our F&E day. Took a cab and visited the nearest Tesco, bought some kiddy high heel shoes and slippers there. The gals enjoyed the rides at the amusement park at Tesco, luckily the rides were in RM not SGD so still ok. Then, we had lunch at Swensons. Popped into the pharmacy and got a stronger med for my flu and esp sore throat. Booked couple spa for my mum and aunt, this trip I did not enjoy any massages cos wasn't feeling up to it. Sigh...

We went for seafood dinner at the nearby Bali Hai seafood restaurant. Food was fresh and good like the last two times we went and I had my favourite belinbing juice. Sourish sweet, though it looks toxic green. We spent SGD200+ but also because we had lobster, and also I was super greedy (feeling better with the stronger med) and over ordered for 4 adults and 2 kids (2 veg, 1 fish, bamboo clams, fried lala, 2 crabs cooked in butter and black pepper, fried noodles, 1 lobster, sashimi style n lobster miso soup). We ended up tapowing the butter crab, and fried noodles for supper. ;)

We had an interesting stir fried vegetable that we have not seen before in Singapore. Looks a bit like super fat dou miao. And I was curious of the taste so even though we already ordered fried spinach, I added this veg. No regrets, we loved it so much that especially went to the market to search for it the next day during our 1 day tour.

Passed by Gurney Paragon, a condo cum shopping mall on our stroll back to our hotel. There was a nice colourful lighted water fountain and the gals enjoyed the light show.



Day 3
I booked a private day tour with http://rasamalaysia.com/penang-private-tour-and-culinary-tour/ for all of us and the guide picked us up in his mini van in the morning. We went on their culinary tour in 2009 when I was pregnant with Raelynn and it was a good experience esp the Penang laksa at Air Hitam was unforgetable. This time, since my mum and aunt have not really toured Penang before, we asked to go to the local market, taste local hawker fare, buy 'tao sa piah' from Him Heong, go to Batu Ferringhi beach and visit butterfly farm and fruit farm.

We were so happy shopping at the local market, bought dresses for the girls at RM10. Nice ones that costs double in Singapore, while my mum and aunt happily bought veg to be brought back to Sg the next day. End up, we were a bit late departing for Batu Ferringhi beach. The guide brought us to Hard Rock Hotel cos they have a private beach. RA took a horse ride with me while RL was happily picking seashells with hubby. We took a photo together with the horse, but RL is freaked out when the horse started to move. :P Then I went to Hard rock shop cos I wanted to buy a souvenir Tee. Initially wanted to buy for the gals too but prices were too steep. Definitely chop carrot type so I only bought one for myself.

About 1 hr later, we went to the fruit farm. Actually, the guide tried to persuade me not to go to the fruit farm cos he feels tickets are overpriced. But my mum and aunt are fans of fruit farms so I decided to just go ahead. By the time, we reached the fruit farm (it's at the other end of the island), the guide told us we cannot reach HIm Heong by 3pm to collect my preordered tau sa piah. So, we called and pushed back to 5pm collection instead. The fruit farm tour was ok, don't think my mum and aunt enjoyed as much cos it was in English as there were quite a few caucasians who joined the tour. But the gals had fun trying out the different fruits and it was the first time all of us saw a dragonfruit tree. We also had a fruit buffet at the end of the tour and that ended up as our lunch cos we were so rushed for time so no time to stop for lunch. RaeAnne even planted two longan seeds near the buffet area and we said one day we will revisit the farm and see if her longan trees have grown. ;)

After the fruit farm, we went to the butterfly farm. The gals enjoyed this most of all. They were awed by the 'up close' encounter with the many different types of butterflies and colourful caterpillars and it was an air conditioned enclosure so very comfortable to walk around. There were short 5-10 mins animated clips airing at the mini theatrette. We watched one on ants and one on snails and the gals refused to budge, had to force them to leave.

Then, we went to the reptiles n insects live exhibits area and the gals were not afraid of the creepy crawlies at all, unlike Mummy. ;P After that, we walked through the souvenir shops, spent too much at the handicrafts shop for some wood carvings cos we didn't realise there is another 'real' souvenir shop further down. Duh...

By the time, we finished with the butterfly farm, it was almost 5pm. Confirmed not enough time to collect my tau sah piah. And the guide informed me that Air Hitam penang laksa closed for the day liao. boo hoo hoo.

On our way back to Gurney drive, we passed by a durian roadside stall. The guide told us it is much cheaper to eat durians at the hillside compared to the city area so we decided to try it. We ordered just one durian and it was huge, the 4 adults had problems finishing it. Forgot the price though. :P

By the time, we reached our hotel, it was 7pm. We were debating whether to go out and eat but in the end, decided to order room service so that we have time to shower and pack our luggage for our morning flight the next day. We ordered Nasi Briyani, spagetti, Seafood hor fun. It costs about RM90.

Day 4
The guide sent us to the airport for RM60 but he detoured to Him Heong for us to get our tau sa piah. We ended up with two boxes of them, 1 big and 1 small. It was raining by the time we reached airport, and after that it was raining so heavily that the flight was delayed by 1 hr. On our return trip, we exceeded luggage weight limit (I bought 25kg). So in the end, we had to rearrange the luggage and we decided to check in the big box of tau sa piah to max our luggage allowance and hand carry the smaller box. Wrong decision cos in the end, half of the tau sa piah were crushed during transit. Morale of the story, buy only enough for handcarry, don't be greedy. :P

Celebrating Raelynn's 3rd birthday in school

Raelynn turns 3 yrs old this Sunday. Thurs is their school concert and Friday, CC is closed. So, we decided to celebrate her birthday early today on 28 Nov 12. Hubby was on reservist but managed to get early release today so we went over to the cc at 3.30pm. :) She chose the theme of Madagascar 3, her favourite movie (she didn't like Ice Age 4) so I bought partyware from Partycity and ordered the Madagascar cake from Prima Deli. She chose the cake design herself too. Teacher Angela said she told them that her cake is Madagascar, when she asked her in the morning. But she didn't believe her. She even insisted this morning to bring her favourite white 猫猫裙 (she likes it because of the sparkly design in front). haha. We had RL's PTC last Sat, and she is 91cm and 11kg. Still featherweight like RaeAnne... :P We bought her a bicycle a few weeks ago and she could ride on 4 wheels. Hope they can learn to ride on 2 wheels soon so that we can all go out in bicycles.

First comic by RA, First stick figure by RL

RA drew her first comic yesterday. 龟兔赛跑,haha. Can tell that hubby is secretly happy with his daughter's first comic. haha. I asked her is it because teacher teach her to draw or did the teacher read her this story yesterday, that's why she drew this. But she said no, she drew it from memory.

I am secretly relieved too cos I nearly fail art in my school days. If at least got 1 kid likes drawing and comics like hb, I won't feel guilty. And the fact that she can remember the illustrations of the book shows that, at least never waste my efforts to read them story books at bedtime no matter how tired I am... Hubby asked her why never colour everything, she said because she does not have enough time... haha.

RA showed me this picture, she draw the purple stick figures with the crayola paint brushes. Was about to throw it away (cos looked quite messy). Then she said, Mei Mei drew this one. Which one? The pink one!

Took a second look, wa... finally RL can draw something that resembles a face instead of just scribbles. She used to scribble or doodle and tell me that it's a boat or an aeroplane but it looks nothing like it. She is turning 3 yrs old this Sunday and looks like she has finally progressed to draw her first stick figure though it looks like an alien head still. But at least it's something recognisable. Haha.

Jia you! Raelynn! :)