It's the third day and work resumes tomorrow so I guess celebrations are mostly done with...
We started ours in Chinatown last weekend!
Quite crowded but it was a mercifully cool day so it was quite a pleasant walk with the kids. We did mostly eating haha! The kids, including Yu, had a field day trying various snacks.
We ended up with these!
Add a gerbera to the table on V Day - courtesy of a sweet colleague
Didn't take photos at Chinatown - too busy holding hands! But somehow N managed to take pictures... I wonder where the holding hands went *.*
Random shot of Kai
Source: N
Yang playing with a dog display
Source: N
Fast forward to the eve. Coz it's just too much of a hassle to send Kai and Yang to BP for half a day, I took up emergency care at their old school - the $70 per pax was well spent!
Kai got a new set from Chinatown while Yang and Yu wore hand-me-downs :p
I mean, this is a once-a-year event! At most twice if you count RHD but I also have Japanese outfits for that. I bought one size larger for Kai - he can wear it again next year, for RHD if not LNY eve!
Anyway, the two older boys had fun in school with their old friends. Yu also posed with oranges in a video uploaded by the school. Why do I find all of them super cute? :)))
Reunion dinner was at Mum's place. We brought them to the playground before going up, with newly bought bubbles from Chinatown.
Yu enjoyed the slide
Yu chased bubbles!
Kai loved the big ones
Yu picking up sticks - taking the nursery rhyme so seriously? :p
What a spread we had!!
Yu had three rounds - his soup noodles, top-up braised noodles, and Papa's noodles
And there were fruits
It being LNY eve, I thought perhaps we could let Kai and Yang sleep later. We watched part of the mermaid movie on TV together while playing with random things, and they ended up with questions of why there was blood in the water when the bad guys shot into the water. Oops, PG!
We snuggled a little in our bed before shoo-ing them off to bed, saying we were tired too coz they would not admit to being tired! Kai looked especially tired - could tell from his eyes. This Yang was terrible, younger yet hardly sleepy!
Sito and I lay down with them for a short while in their room. It was sooo nice that for once, I was not in a hurry to send them to bed to ensure they get enough sleep and I get to start work early so I would get some sleep! So nice to just enjoy our kids at the moment :)
But they did not sleep in the next morning *.* In fact, they woke at normal time, which means early. I don't know what we did but we lasted until it was time to head out!
Yu napped for longer than expected so we left later than usual
Oh but a family photo first! :)
Got the boys their shirts on our first trip to Legoland. They looked great in them! I bought my dress more than two years ago but they stayed in the bag until recently.. Sito got his shirt on LNY eve so no, it was not washed before he wore it!
Yu discovered his calling for food at Mother's table of goodies!
This boy loved most of the snacks. These few days, he would not have his lunch/dinner unless they came with snacks!! Terrible... And worst of all, I gave in! But well, LNY.... His brothers could hardly stop eating too!
We had a cooked lunch, not steamboat, to our surprise, but it was yummy!
Took a break from the snacks to go to the playground
Yang was driving before becoming a prison warden..?!
And then we were called up for Yu Sheng! Version without raw fish :p
And then Kai fell asleep in my arms. My big baby :)
My old baby
:PpPpPPpPPppp
Yu dug in for goodies! Sito grabbed a drink from Macs while we were at the playground
So after waiting for Yu to wake, we had to wait for Kai to wake. So this year, we left pretty late. Dinner was leftover braised noodles from Mum. But I fell asleep with Yu and ended up too sleepy to eat :p
Lastminute playdate with J&J at their place!
It was quite a sight to have six boys in the same room! The two youngest - just five weeks apart - did not participate as much but can't wait for them to join in fully!
"I still had fun"
"See? I can get in and out without help!"
It was a short play date but it was fun enough for Kai to declare that he wanted to invite them to our new house! We went back early for lunch - leftover soup noodles! And then in the afternoon, it rained a little so we took the chance to stay in :p Gave the kids the remainder of the leftover braised noodles coz Sito and I had grand plans :)
Brought a few thousand dollars worth of bags to new house!
I wiped the cabinets where I was to store the bags. Just so happened that our neighbours were having a party so they saw us when sending guests away. I met the guy previously but this time, we also met his wife and MIL. Then so paiseh they gave us oranges and a can of snacks but we had nothing in return!
Dinner was hotpot downstairs :)
And then we went back to keep the bags properly and tuned the TVs. No prize for guessing who did what! As we were about to leave, we found something weird - turning on some lights make some other lights flicker! Took a video and sent to ID with queries. Hope to hear from him too..
Us at Esso after Sito bought some drinks
Now, the last time I drove back from BP, I had an
accident right.. So I was just telling Sito that this was the place where the lorry hit me when the car in front of us did almost the same stupid thing - it cut across the chevrons after the double white lines to get to the PIE! What the ****!!!! Sito had a good laugh though, bleah!
This morning, our neighbour downstairs had a lion dance at home again. Last year, we had to carry the boys. This year, they just climbed! But we had only glimpses of the lion. Within seconds of coming out of the house, the dance was over.
Eagerly waiting for the lion
Then we did our regular Chengzhu and Yu continued his intake...
Brought Yu out to gathering with ex-colleague!
He had a great time - ate some cake, saw the swimming pool, sat down with the big boys and girls next to the pool with me grabbing him behind. When he migrated to another end of the pool with the kids, he found that he could copy the big boy and put his feet in the water! So he splashed his pants wet. I let him play a while longer and grabbed him up. No more getting ill please!
Came back in time to pack dinner! Yang insisted on going with me so I had company :)
Yang remembered he had a photo here and wanted one more!
Then it was his turn to take a photo of me - quite a good photographer? :)
I just finished opening all the hongbaos and agonising over how to recycle them. Actually, I'm still agonising over it. I used to keep them to recycle them but they got too much and some collected so much dust that I threw everything away last year. This year, I'm feeling sorry for all the paper...
Never took this photo before, I think
I received two packs of these hongbaos some years back, used them for close family and only just finished using them this year!
This is the year when Kai became more aware. He was quite happy and willing to greet elders, but he was also shameless in asking for red packets! Gosh, and I thought I did my preparation - I told Kai and Yang to greet, say thank you and not to open the red packets there and then. But I forgot about the 伸手要钱 part! Though to be fair, he wasn't asking for money but golden chocolate coins!! He said he enjoyed Chinese New Year coz he got to eat goodies!
Yang also enjoyed himself but he was more shy when it came to greetings. In fact, he said he was shy! But he loved the goodies. Think he didn't stop eating the whole time he was at TPY!
Yu was the surprising one. While his brothers barely did much on their second LNY, this boy was all over the place looking for food! If any can was open, he reached in. Once, he got himself a crumbly pineapple tart - nightmare of picking up after him! He even grabbed a packet drink from the coffee table and started drinking it! Thankfully it belonged to one of his brothers. I guess it comes with teeth? Haha!
I love that the boys are enjoying this fave festival of mine. I hope they grow up enjoying the festivities - the goodies and the gatherings with families and friends we don't see as often as we like :)
