Our little living room

We started having movie nights on Friday in our old place. This continues today, but with way more snacks as we now store snacks within easy reach. And with them captivated by the TV, we sometimes hop out for date nights on movie nights :p Usually downstairs but also as far as Sheng Siong one MRT station away.

Bye bye! Have fun!

That was taken from the corridor outside. Made them open the window for better ventilation. Grilles are all locked. Told them to stay in, not to respond to strangers, not to open door, and just ignore the "haunties" - aunties who walk to and fro and peek in at our place!

They had to eat messy snacks on the floor coz the sofa is not modular - whatever drops in, stays in!

Yes, we had fun in the form of a very nice waffle downstairs!

Our living room is smaller than in the old house. We figure we don't invite guests over much so there's no need for more space than the five of us need, and it's better to have guests in the dining area than in front of TV?? So I also like to call it our family room.

The TV cabinet is also much smaller so we have less storage for toys. Buy less, haha! But we moved here with a lot so some toys go into their bedroom cabinets. There is still ample circulation space. We can all fit on the floor to play games. 

Giant colouring sheet 

Best of all, there is enough sofa space for all of us! The old three-seater in the old house was too squeezy for us so now, we have three one-seater for the kids, and a love seat for us. Three months in, Yu's sofa is very flat thanks to him standing and bouncing on it. Yang's still feeling good. Kai's is in between. Feels like the three bears in the fairy tale :p

Just last week, Yu puked suddenly and he didn't make it to the toilet. So his sofa had some puke stain. Yang's next to him also suffered a bit, sighs.

Anyway, we spend quite a bit of time in this room, reading, watching TV, and playing electronic or physical games. Sometimes, we just goof around.

Like Yu who happily wore a jacket and rolled around - it was meant for his learning journey the next day

Oh yes, we have decorated our walls, finally! The living room wall carries our memories - some 40-50 photos from our wedding to now! A giraffe height chart is outside Yu's room. I even found the same world map decal we had in the dining room of our old house, to place in our dining room.

Sito writing in names of key cities in Asia - coz the kids know more African countries *.*

I wanted to make a house tour video but honestly, I don't have the skills... So maybe I'll start with this, and add on other rooms later...

Final Legoland trip?

Our annual passes expire in December/January. Next year is Kai's PSLE year, so we thought we would go for a nice trip at the end of the year instead of heading to Legoland every term break. It's not just the kids who 舍不得 but I guess we should go for new experiences?

Day 1, 22 November, Wednesday

Departing for Legoland from Holland again, just like our first trip back in 2017! Traffic was smooth so we got there just after the opening show.

Finally a nice family shot! Ex but I think worth it

It was pleasantly not crowded at all! We took our time to put our suitcase in the locker and went to the toilet before going for the rides. No need to queue most of the time. Kai and Yang took the VR ride some six or seven times in a row! Even Burger Junction had plenty of seats. Just post a few photos this time.

I need to find earlier shots of this boy with the ninjas!

Watching a new 4D show, Dreamzz

Finally just Sito and me on Ninjago! Yu is big enough to be with his brothers, no adults!

And Yu takes four out of five!!

Before this, he was first with Sito in second place, Then he went on to beat Papa again and again until some guy beat him. He got high scores consistently. Sito said his arms were at the right height for the sensor :p

Back to Mindstorms - think we went only once before in a previous trip

They joined in before/after VR

We left Legoland later than usual. Bought water and buns at the supermarket and unpacked our stuff a bit to get things ready for bedtime before grabbing a ride to Aeon.

Dinner must be at Vivo Pizza coz of their Vivo Day every Wednesday! We kept eating the same stuff from their menu but those were really good!

Somehow, this one must also nua on Papa here, this time reading the bill

Massage followed :) The kids got to play phone games while we refreshed our poor legs, nice :) Then we had dessert at Blackball before going back to the apartment.

Three monkeys slept together - so cute!

Day 2, 23 November, Thursday

So happy that it was sunny! Time for water park!

We went round the lazy river maybe six times?!

Yang and Yu were happily building rafts and floated or swam with them instead of using the big floats. I had to keep up sometimes and wait sometimes... 

Also queued for the family raft, and spent some time in the wave pool and joker slides. But only Yu was game enough to go for the mat racer this time, while his brothers played in the wave pool. The guard encouraged me to go but no way!

So brave, my boy!

Then I chased after him to help him carry the mat up the stairs. I did that twice, and I think that was the cause for my super painful calves the next day! Weak :p

Lunch was at Tian Lai again but another branch between Legoland and Aeon. Same price, same good food, less (not no) flies despite the aircon.

Next was Paradigm Mall. Bought clothes and underwear for the kids. Kai did rock climbing while his brothers went to the arcade. All had fun!

So high up!

Dinner was Sushi King. Sito and I were not hungry at all but the kids were ready to eat. And as it turned out, the youngest ate the most! I had one plate and Sito had two, with Yang taking half of one of his two!

Happy!

At first, they were not so happy coz there was no tamago and no kappa maki. But when the mini bowls of curry rice and gyudon and udon arrived, all were happy :)

Later, Sito and I packed some noodles and Guilinggao to eat back at the apartment. Super satisfied :)

Day 3, 24 November, Friday

It was a busier day, queues almost everywhere. So we didn't do much, just ran about and did whatever was easy. 

Despite the crowds, the cafe at the supermarket was not as crowded as the last trip. Kai had steak, his brothers spaghetti bolognese, Sito schnitzel and I schnitzel wrap. Yu had to poop in the apartment after finishing his lunch, so I sent him back. Spent some time in the aquarium after that before returning to Legoland.

Sweet smile on this boy :)

Monkey smiles on these two

Parents vs. kids as firemen!

Lost but still happy to compete with us!

Yang enjoyed the robotics at Mindstorms :)

Actually the photo was a re-enactment as Sito didn't take photos during the session *.* We signed Kai up as well but he gave up shortly coz he found it difficult *.*

Must pose with Einstein like I used to pose with Confucious

Familiar shot? We did one pre-COVID!

Now, Miniland is all sheltered. My tripod came in useful too! Totally worth lugging it all over the place!

Since it was crowded, we left early. Sito brought water and buns back to the apartment while we waited at Medini Mall for him. Else the kids would be stuck playing games and we had to nag them to move again...

Dinner was Korean BBQ!

Free ice cream but only the parents had them

Kids had Baskin Robbins ice cream - so did Papa!

Plus a bandung drink!

Then we had another massage :) It was raining a bit so it was quite nice to huddle up and enjoy a massage to the sound of the rain... Just nice used up our credits since we don't know when we would return...

Day 4, 25 November, Saturday

Nothing much - just bought some candy at the supermarket as usual before going into Legoland. Didn't have much time but Yang managed to convince Yu to take the Lost Kingdom Adventure ride!

And he liked it!

Didn't even need me to sit with him after the first round *.* But none of us did very well with the shooting haha!

We said bye bye to Legoland just before exiting. Will we be back??

Another thing we miss, or the parents would, was the bakery at the supermarket. Bought RM75 worth of buns and cake before leaving - their bakes were so nice! We had them for our breakfast and tea these few days. Now we only have a pound cake left, sighs...

I showed Yang and Yu my post for the last trip this morning before asking them to write their own journal. Super cute. Now I know what Kai and Yang were doing on the VR ride on Wednesday - trying it opening and closing their eyes! Yu seemed to enjoy the BBQ more than Yang. As it was busy this morning with the aircon installer checking a leak in Kai's room which turned out to be from our room, I'll read their journal again with them tomorrow :)

Celebrating 43 with 43 gyozas and more

Yup, we indeed had 43 gyozas!

Sito with the first 15

That was at BariUma yesterday. They have a promotion where you get as many gyozas as your birthday in birthday month! Sito made the reservation a couple of weeks ago. We ordered ramen for all five of us - two regulars and three kiddy size. But Kai had almost all of my noodles after finishing his *.*

43 gyozas marked the last of his birthday celebration. We started on his birthday which was two Saturdays ago, with a lovely mango cake from the bakery at the train station and dinner at Swensen's. It was also the official first day of the school holidays, yeah!

Surrounding the birthday boy

Yang gave Papa a birthday card back in October - he couldn't wait!

Firehouse for the birthday boy while the kids had their usual sundae

The Swensen's membership has very good birthday deals and treat kids very well. There are two birthday treats - firehouse on the actual day and a regular sundae in the month. The kids get a kiddy sundae every month so we have been going to Swensen's almost every month since June! Helps that food is good. We like the nasi lemak but it's not available in our fave Junction 8...

Sunday celebration

Kai decided to help cut the cake even though he doesn't eat cake :)

We headed out to Famous Treasure for dinner. Very yummy food. Very full... But Yang left the restaurant with a red and swollen left eye. He said his eye area was itchy but his eyeball was fine. Couldn't be food allergy if it was just one eye. He and Yu shared a scarf provided by the restaurant as it was cold so he might have rubbed his eye on it! We got him some eyedrops and after some antihistamine back home, he woke up all fine.

On the bus home - all the kids were busy with the grands' phones *.*

Sito celebrated his 43rd year by becoming fitter, healthier and slimmer. He's now around 70kg! All the running also made him quite tan. He's never been this tan! Really my tall, dark and handsome now, haha!

Happy birthday, my dear! :)

Memories of AMK

There was no school two Fridays ago due to P1 orientation etc in school. Generally, I don't cook on weekdays when there's no school except during holidays when we can get sick packing all the time.. 

Anyway, we decided to be slack parents and gave them a late breakfast at the hawker centre followed by a late and light lunch at A&W before dinner at WaiPo's.

Happy with fried chicken!

We also shared two waffles - one with chocolate sauce and one with strawberry. It was still way too early to go find WaiPo so we decided to walk around AMK town. 

We walked out the mall into the HDB shops, and walked one whole round from Macs to Avenue 8 and back to the mall again, walking past just about all the HDB shops. 

It was a pleasant surprise to see the knitting shop at one corner - I had totally forgot about it but CY and I used to go in quite a bit! For what, I had no idea / couldn't remember coz while we did dabble in some knitting, it was a short spell!

I was telling Sito that there used to be a stall selling CDs outside the knitting shop and I bought many CDs there. Then guess what, the shop had moved further down outside another shop! And the uncle still looked the same after 20 years!!!

Then we passed by a block where I think there used to be a photocopy shop? Can't be sure if it was there or another block near Kel...

Nostalgic walk... But the kids ignored everything, and just walked and chatted and blocked people's way etc *.*

Went back to the mall to cool down. We walked the entire mall except the cinema level to avoid getting stuck at the arcade - kids just like to watch and touch etc. Eventually, the kids got so bored they started asking when we would get to WaiPo's place.

Found an MRT installation in the supermarket

There was plenty of construction around AMK. Think they're sprucing up the town centre. Just outside the MRT, think they're building the North South Corridor. The path towards the MRT track looked a bit different from the last time we were there, which was some time ago coz busy with our renovation and moving. But the MRT track path is still the same, that is, same as the last 10 years. Only the old fitness corner and running track are from my pre-marriage days.

We were still pretty early; WaiPo was still preparing food. The kids got their usual dose of Yakult, watched WaiPo prepare food a bit and went to watch Netflix.

Preparing for fried wonton

This one likes to nua on or near a parent

We found that Kai is now taller than WaiPo! 

PS: Does Yang have food in his mouth??

While the kids were watching TV, Mother brought out some stuff she got from DaYee - miniature teacup sets! DaYee kept them for years and finally decided to let go. Mother sells various stuff in the market sometimes - and got caught by taegoo before *.* But she still goes *.*

But yes, the teacup sets. They were tiny! And why were there so many?! I find them very cute but I'm not one for much decoration around the house or worse, kept in boxes. So please sell them - just don't get caught by taegoo!!

The kids played at the playground downstairs before we left. Small playground but quite fun. Don't know which iteration since the sand playground where I slid down a concrete slide and fell while playing merry-go-round. 

Passed by the coffeeshop downstairs on our way to the playground. It started doing well only in the past few years due to the mookata. It was so sad in the past! Sito and I said that we would try the mookata next time!

Old friends

Met some old friends in late September. The last time we met was over a year ago??

When we were younger, Kel, YX and I met frequently, even when we were in as many as five cities across three continents  - Oxford, Cambridge, Cornell and Stanford. We visited one another at different times and bunked in roughly with/without sleeping bags. Young backs fear no carpeted floors, haha! Wait, I probably always had my bed and took over theirs so it was not my back, oops :p

Now, we are separately busy with work and family, and meet-ups are way less frequent. So I looked forward to such gatherings very much. Was just saying the other day that I don't look forward to presents but to such experiences. After all, material stuff 生不带来，死不带去 

Staff at restaurant invited us to take photos with their props on our way out

So pretty, both me and my drink! :p

This was a pose, coz funny *.*

Also met Na in October but once again, we forgot to take photos! Come to think of it, I met CY back in July and while we took lots of photos of our kids, we did not take photos with each other! Photos are very important ok, coz memories in Google Photos will remind me when we last meet which is a great reminder to meet again!!

Celebrating efforts instead of results

Exams came and went. So glad we don't have to rush to do and mark papers after school anymore! But that doesn't mean all play and no work too.

The week after exams, they started getting their results back. Kai did quite well, with AL 11 for four subjects. He would tell everyone that he almost got AL 10 as he scored 159/200 for Chinese. Yang did not do as well, with AL 15. I think the school will probably still use bands for P3 but we decided to count AL early. 

So we continue to let them do practices to reinforce their learning. Definitely not as siong as the exam preparation work but better to regularise learning than to have to pick up after slacking off for two months!

But before that, we celebrated their efforts - and parents' too! - with a nice BBQ. At first we thought of going for our usual Korean BBQ + hotpot but the boys wanted this Japanese BBQ with soft serve. Sito and I were happy with their choice coz the meat there was better!

Happy with dessert!

Yu was less happy as he could not have soft serve - we said no ice cream if he did not drink soup at home, and he did not. But he had marshmallow and fruits in chocolate fondue!

Still happy to crowd around the soft serve machine

Went to NTUC to buy some stuff. Always happy to go to the big ones coz the ones near us are so small! And we ran out of our usual salami for pizza days - crisis! :p Also hit Donki for curry roux. We bought a lot as they were on sale and we finish a pack every month. Maybe I'll make more during the holidays since it's easy and I can hide a whole big head of broccoli inside!

Don't know why they were so captivated by baby toys in the supermarket!

Oh ya, Mama was lazy - let them drop bags and change shoes after school and left without changing out of their uniforms so there would be less laundry :p

There is no plan to celebrate their results. While we can make them put in efforts, they may not all get the desired results. Won't be fair or nice to celebrate results so we made an early decision to always celebrate efforts only. 

But as an encouragement, we told them that their phone privilege during the school holidays would depend on their results. So Kai will get 70min of play time while Yang will get 50min. Yu doesn't have exams so he's stuck with the lower of the two. 

Just one week left before school holidays, and it's a short week with Deepavali make-up and no school on Friday. It's also a gan cheong week as I must buy textbooks early so I can chope a good delivery date!

The brave one

Yang had a shaking tooth. He didn't want it to drop during school hours. So on Tuesday, just before bedtime, he decided he would pluck it out! And out it came!

So happy to have done it all by himself :)

To be honest, even though I had offered to pluck it out for him, I wasn't so sure if I would have the courage to do so... So kind of glad he didn't agree to me doing it for him?!

With some toothy experience under his belt, he could do this on his own. Wish I could say the same for his poo poo... Still not pooping frequently enough. But he managed a big poo the day before exams, which was great so he wouldn't be distracted by poop feeling *.* 

Anyway, later, I told him I dropped this same tooth in P3 as well. I remember very clearly as it happened when I was having curry rice, and I always wondered if the replacement adult tooth came out all yellow coz of the curry...!