The first goodbye

Kai and Yang wore their red and blue uniforms for the last time today. Just yesterday, Facebook reminded me of Yang's first day in uniform - his pants were at his ankles; this morning, they were at his knees. Similarly for Kai except that his pants were even shorter now.

Happy with their candy bags

This morning, I told them solemnly that they were wearing their uniforms for the last time today. Kai stopped me. He told me to stop saying that and not to make him cry! I wondered if he was sad or his teachers mentioned farewell and sadness to him.

Last Friday, I ordered 60 cupcakes etc from Coffee Bean for their Christmas party, to share with their classmates and their teachers. Today, I packed two bags of candies for them to give to their friends as they bade them farewell. They were very happy to share goodies with friends. When we arrived in school, Kai opened up his bag to the first teacher there - his N1 teacher, A. Then he said he would give Madam C as well and went upstairs to find her. So sweet :)

Last weekend, Yang wrote a note to his oldest friend H, with only their names written by me and some sketches in orange crayon. Kai wrote his and his oldest friend's names on a note but we didn't know where that went! I popped Yang's note into his candy bag.

This evening when I picked them up, they had only a couple of goodies left. I asked Yang if he had given the note to H. He said yes. I changed my question and asked if H was in school today. He said no! So where was the note? After a pause, he had his friend R took it!!! I forgot to take a picture of the note so I can't send H's mum the note. Oh well...

I thought about this at work this morning, and felt quite sad. Yes, it's expensive and we thought Kai might have picked up some bad habits from some angmoh friends. But they grew up there and made friends there! The centre itself feels like a home coz it's made of two houses. And gosh, I'm sure they will miss the trampoline!

But we have been planning this for while, toying with various options depending on when we move. Since it's clear that we will move by 2018, we decided that Kai will go to the new school from the start of the year so that he will have the whole year to make friends in his K2 year. And so he won't be lonesome, Yang will follow him though it doesn't matter as much for Yang when he moves over.

As for Yu, I want him to finish up infant care to minimise changes and also coz I really like his current teachers. In any case, the new school doesn't have infant care. We were looking at the PCF right downstairs but they were super disorganised - first they told me they had a place for Kai and Yu,  and asked me to check for Yang's place in October after they had sought parents' reply on whether their kid would carry on the next year; when I called back in October, they said no, they had a place only for Yu. I was so pissed.

Lucky for us, we found another school very quickly. Rather, I acted on the search very quickly haha! No choice.. And it turned out that they had three vacancies and they had an open house on Sito's birthday AND they were so friendly too! I registered during the open house.

The quality of the uniforms isn't quite so good though - can't really iron on the name tags, and the fabric melted during ironing! N got her friend to fix the hole but I won't see the results until Sunday night. If it doesn't work out, I'll just buy another set.

We brought the kids to the open house, which was useful coz they were very taken with the sandpit in the outdoor area! Also helped that they each received a fidget spinner in their goodie bag! So they both know that they are going to a new school. I'm not sure if Yang understands it much though. Kai was a little confused between new school and new house, but I'm sure he'll get it clarified by Tuesday!

I hope the two of them will get used to their new school quickly! For now, well, they still have a half-day in their current school tomorrow :p *gasp* their last drive through Chip Bee Gardens??!

Ok, too sentimental...