Sito learnt that our fave Japanese BBQ restaurant was closing down by end August so we made a trip there. It happened to be a PSLE oral exam day so Yang and Yu had no school. Kai joined us there directly from school. We had a great time there!
Thanks for the memories, Kintan!
Our induction hob broke down in August. It started one Friday morning in July, when it suddenly couldn't detect my stainless steel pot I was using for barley water. Called for servicing but cancelled it coz I managed to get it to work. Then this happened on and off. I had to bring out our portable hob for hotpot to cook. Eventually, I could no longer get it to work :(
Called for servicing again. Uncle changed the circuit board for a whooping $390, and told us to keep the shelf below open to better dissipate heat and use pans with flat AND even bottoms, not those with circles. So that Saturday, we made a trip to Ikea to shop for new pans. But we're still using some of our old pans coz there are just no alternatives with even bottoms! I really cannot live without my four-hole egg pan...
We had been talking about going to Ikea at Alexander for some time but never got down to it. Finally, we packed our bags and set off! It was a nice walk to Ikea. Yes, we took the rail corridor and walked all the way!
Kai happened to walk alongside me and we had a good chat about school, his feelings towards school, our thoughts after PSLE results and after we saw how he's thriving in secondary school. It had been a long time since we had such a nice chat :)
We left the rail corridor to take a shorter route along the road to Ikea. The kids saw a black bag at the foot of an overhead bridge and said we should report it! I must say national education in school works. Ads also works btw - they keep telling us about random products haha! Anyway, I reported it on the SG Secure app 👍
The kids enjoyed Ikea as usual. We had an early dinner and walked through all the showrooms. The kids just liked to try everything! Also bumped into Kai's classmate.
But the lower floor was harder coz no showrooms. We told the kids to stay in a safe spot and play games on Kai's phone. So Sito and I walked on and picked up our shopping. Then I texted Kai to follow the arrows to the next section, where they played games again while we shopped! This happened a few times until we got to the cashier.
Wanted to take a picture of them playing games - squatting! But no chance
Recently they started playing LEGO beyblades again. Made a mess whenever they wanted to "upgrade" their beyblades. Worse, we found broken grout! This contractor already did a lousy job with the grout. So what did not happened back in the old house after months of beyblade, happened here after just days. I must be zen.... Already extracted a promise from them to dismantle once they got Yu's birthday present from the grands - actual beyblades.
Cannot mop!
One day, Yang came home after tuition to say that he wanted to try the coffeeshop near the centre coz it smelled so good when he passed by! And so we went one day.
It was indeed very good! We were spoilt for choice but the boys had the same old - pork cutlet fried rice for Kai and char siew noodles for the brothers. Sito had the JB fried beehoon and I had duck noodles. And I added Indian rojak which was the cheapest I'd ever had!
Nowadays they get to use Kai's phone after dinner outside
Ah, term break coming... But first, Teachers' Day! Kai wrote a google review for his tuition centre 🤔 Yu decided to write cards. I gave him some coloured cards and stickers, and he did a great job making cards for all his teachers! Yang had some "diamonds" in his school locker which he gave his teachers.
Adding the finishing touches
My hub is very funny. He gets lots of food info from his social media feeds. And this time, it was a free burger from Macs. So he went to get it. The boys were very excited to see a burger for afternoon snack! But each had only a quarter, haha! I had some of Sito's - quite yummy! But Yang thought it was spicy...
Let's try a new burger!
On Teachers' Day itself, we met JY and family at Paradise Hotpot at Vivocity! We were the first in the reservations queue, yeah! We went earlier coz we didn't know the exact spot and 10 of us booked three tables - for five, four and one - as there wasn't another table for five. But the staff arranged it for us :)
Fat face in foreground :p
We decided to bring a term break activity forward since we were very near the destination - cycling at West Coast Park! But we passed by the library and the younger ones wanted to go in for a while.
Chinese Dog Man!
Took a train then a bus
Yu can finally ride a bike!
We had been working with Yang on his oral exams in the past week. He shared personal stories during the practices. I overheard "journey of brothers" when he was doing English with Sito. When I asked Sito, he said Kai coined the term when the three of them went cycling further away from us that day. So cute!!
The brothers
Decided to let them wear dark colours when going to AhMa's place coz they tend to drip ice cream on themselves there! All not focusing coz eyes on TV, body slouching etc.
There happened to be a bedsheets day during the term break. Instead of changing it, I decided to get them to change their own bedsheets. But I cut down the work - didn't wipe windows or desks that day, or even the bed frame. Just changed the bedsheets and pushed back the bed.
These two happily brought their toys to the wash
Kai still has his toys in the cupboard so I don't wash much. He said they're for decoration. I read it as "cannot throw" :p
Last Saturday, we went to Swensen's - yes, again. Sito and I went again on Wednesday to redeem a free main course. We also have free buffet for two which we will redeem after all the exams.
Anyway, we spent enough to get a chance at a human claw machine! One chance so Sito went in. Told him not to grab any soft toys :p So he got chips and vouchers.
Looks like Super Mario!
Also got four tokens for the real claw machines. Kai asked about the chance of grabbing a toy. I gave a random 0.1%. It's really very low! Then he googled some and picked a machine, and voila!
"It's brains!"
The term break ended with the National Inter-school Team Chess Championship. Don't know how that's abbreviated to NST but anyway... Kai put his name down some months ago to form a team with some schoolmates. A parent registered for them. The team (and maybe more) met on Tuesday during the term break to discuss their games.
Kai played board 2 and scored 4.5/6. The team won some and lost some. But we thought they did pretty well. It was a good experience. Think they're already talking about getting more in next year, as two team mates are sec 2 and wouldn't be playing with them in U14 category.
My not-so-little knight
While Sito was with Kai at Pasir Ris for the chess tournament, I was at Ah Yee's place with the brothers. They just hanged out with JiuJiu before lunch. I promised them if they behaved well including eating well, I would let them play their phones after lunch. And so they were occupied while I chatted with relatives.
They ran ahead to the playground as I was packing up. But the playground was quiet... Then I saw Yang waving at me from beyond the playground - they were playing giant chess! Apparently the pieces were quite heavy. I stood there for 20min while they played - so tired coz I was carrying a lot of food! But ok la, they were very pleased :)
Yang won but both were happy :)
And with that, we're in term 4 now. Kai had listening compre and Chinese oral this week, and Yang English and Chinese oral. Kai's written exams will start next week. The brothers will have their starting the week after Kai has his last paper. And then there will be a short break before the primary school written exams, by when Kai would have started his term break.
Very short term. A lot to do. All the best to us all!
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