Happy birthday to my hub :)

Birthdays don't tell much about age except the number; stomachs tell a lot more.

We had Swensen's Unlimited on Thursday, Paradise Dynasty on Friday, Macs on Saturday, and lots of Sichuan food on Sunday. Even on Monday, Sito packed food for himself and the kids as I met the Oxford girls for dinner.

So on his birthday on Tuesday, he said no to a buffet breakfast. Instead, we just ditched Kai at home and went downstairs for char siew rice. Even that made us very full!

Early celebration with the grands on Sunday

YeePo went to Malaysia so she missed seeing the kids kind of enjoying the non-spicy dishes at the new Sichuan restaurant downstairs. In fact, Yu said he wanted to go there for his birthday! Yang saw YeePo two days later as they were on the same train home - one from tuition and one from work!

Playing Risk with the younger ones on Monday

We like to see our kids happy and thriving :)

The board game was a request from Yang who played it in school or something. So nice to see my boys playing together :) Kai eventually joined in the fun. This morning, I woke to find three of them playing in Yang's room.

Happy birthday, Papa!

Kai wasn't feeling well that day so he was napping when his brothers came home. We waited for him to wake before cutting the cake. Thankfully, we made it before Yang had to go for tuition else it would be all in PJs again :p

We only ate the cake at night after the kids went to bed, as it was green tea azuki anyway. Bought it after my dinner date on Monday - never tried Yamazaki cakes before but we found it similar to Four Leaves.

And with that, we're done with birthdays this year! But we're not done with cakes - will be logcakes coming up next :)

Almost the end of the school year

Only one more week to the end of the school year. I'm so glad that we're all free from exam stress for now!

Kai's exams ended on 2 October. He has been nua-ing since then *.* But ok, he worked hard on his own throughout the year, earning 10points for his L1R4. He has three years to improve his English!

Yang and Yu also did well. Yang achieved AL14 and Yu AL7. We were particularly happy with Yang's results as he had worked so hard for them. He was so pleased when he told us he scored 100% for synthesis and transformation in his English paper - this was an area in which he didn't do well at first and asked Papa for help. Sito found an assessment book and worked with him all the way. It paid off! 

We will continue to work with him during the term break to prepare him for P6. I will also work very hard to compile Chinese grammar from P3 onwards...! I even wrote a 范文 for Yang based on his exam version. I did the same for Yu earlier too - his Chinese compo really 不堪入目！

We were also happy with Yu's results. I mean, he barely studied... Only did papers grudgingly unlike sweet Yang Yang. Went through Chinese words even more grudgingly. He made a lot of mistakes in science though which was unexpected. But he scored full marks for English oral - I was impressed haha!

We were supposed to celebrate end of exams for all on 30 October right after the last paper but my tongue ulcer was still bothering me so we postponed it until yesterday. I refused to go to Swensen's Unlimited with ulcers again - I was recovering from ulcers during our first trip there last year :( 

End of exams also marked the end of The Big Separation - it was a chore to keep Kai away from them for four weeks so that they could study with minimal distractions! On the eve of the last paper which was science, Kai even made Yu cry. We attributed Yu's AL3 in science to that :p

Yu dubbed this a prince ice cream

This? Kiiing ice cream!

These two really enjoyed making fancy sundaes :) But actually Yang didn't eat a lot of ice cream as he had a lot of food before hitting the desserts. No wonder he's so meaty now :)

Kai didn't make fancy sundaes but he decided to have more roast beef after desserts!

Sito's affogato - coffee from machine, ice cream from dessert kiosk

We also took laksa and prawns separately and combined them to make seafood laksa. And he tipped a waffle into the chocolate fountain - it solidified into chocolate coated waffle, yummy!

Sito rubbing his belly - why?

Coz his boys just took turns to lie down on his belly for warmth! Yu had since run off to get more ice cream - can see the small yellow speck in the distance? :p

This time, I order MSW durian ice cream and regular durian gelato to compare them side by side. The gelato was smoother for sure and the ice cream icier, but the flavour was stronger for the MSW. Even Sito could tell from the smell haha!

The Geneo outlet is really nice - spacious and not too crowded, unlike our visit to the Changi outlet when we had to queue for everything. It's so much easier for the kids to get things on their own, with my hawk eyes on them :p Most importantly, it's very near us! We go to Swensen's so often that we will have yet another voucher for two to dine free at Swensen's Unlimited. Can plan next trip already :)

And yesterday, we went to the Science Centre. This time, we didn't try to reach there at opening time. We took our time. Woke naturally :) Made and had breakfast leisurely :) Read news quietly :)

Kids looked at beyblade toys happily :)

So excited?!

We eventually reached the Science Centre at about 11 am. Found new exhibits! The AI stuff were fun. The old exhibits were still fun to play with. This time, it seemed that more staff were on hand to explain things. One even did magic tricks for us and explained to us the trick behind! Sito thought it would be interesting for the kids to do some part-time job there during school holidays when they're older.

Some claw machine prototype - a bit slow...

Three small humans bullying a robot at puck fighter!

This room was really fun to play and watch :)

A carnivorous plant ate my kid!

While Kai "prayed", Yang looked resigned to being eaten haha!

Two of us got eaten!

The kids thought this was gross, hahaha!

Watching the fire tornado show

The other two came to us from the poop (play) room

But we lost all three after the show. We thought they were in the poop room but no. So we went around to look for them. Kai didn't respond to WhatsApp. I located him near the fear room based on iPhone location but the staff didn't see three boys. 

Later, Sito found Yu dashing about the AI area as he lost sight of his brothers and somehow thought they would be there... I met them at the virus area as Yu thought his brothers might be there too. In the end, I stayed with Yu while Sito went to look for the brothers. They were indeed in the fear room! Somehow they thought Yu was with us. Oh my goodness...

Gave them a scolding for running off without telling us. And the two big brothers who didn't care about the youngest!

We decided to leave at about 3 pm but as usual, we took a long time to get out. And it was pouring! It took us 15min to get from the Science Centre to the HDB side as Sito had to ferry us one by one using our one and only umbrella. Kai went first. When he came back for Yang, his shirt was drenched on one side :( I told the brothers and Yu said something real cute - he was sad that Papa did so much for them but he and his brothers couldn't do anything to repay him! I, at least, could cook for Papa.

😂

The rain somehow became smaller when it was finally my turn, and I walked out to meet Sito in the middle of the crossing. By the time we got through the HDB area to the traffic light to the MRT station, we could do without the umbrella. This was exactly like the last time it rained on our way out - rain became smaller after Sito was half wet! Grrr! We must remember to bring extra umbrellas next time!

Dinner at Paradise Dynasty. Kai had wanted two bowls of noodles but I convinced him to order one first. In the end, he was full from one bowl plus XLB. We were all very full for the second lunner in two days. Sito and I especially. The kids still had snacks at movie time later last night.

Today, we're heading out again - to the library. Tmr, we're having dinner outside to celebrate Sito's birthday with the grands. Monday, I'm meeting the Oxford girls for dinner. Food, food, food! It's like my revenge eating after ulcers :p

May the kids always be open with us

Yang had a scary outburst on the evening of 22 October.

It was time to watch Fixing Fate, a Mediacorp drama series that found favour with the boys. Kai was holding the remote control and looked like he was going to pause the anime. Yang suddenly went for the remote control. Kai held on to it. Yang stormed off into his room and closed the door.

???

I quickly went after Yang but found the door locked. I knocked and asked him to open the door. He refused. I told him I had the key but I'd rather he open it. Nope. So I unlocked it from outside and went in.

Yang was hiding in his blanket. It was hot so I uncovered his legs. He refused to uncover his head. I could tell from his voice and actions that he was sobbing. Sayang-ed him a bit and told him I'd give him time to calm down.

Eventually, he let me see his face. He said it was Yu's fault. I was surprised coz the tussle was with Kai. But later when he emerged from his room, he went to play with Yu.

So the story goes like this... Earlier in the evening, they were all watching TV - MeWatch and YouTube - and choosing the video turn by turn. It was Yu's turn when we asked him to go shower so he ended his video and passed the remote control to Kai. So now it was Kai's turn, and it was during that when I said it was time for drama, which meant Yang wouldn't have his turn to choose a video as it would be bedtime by the end of the drama.

But Yang wanted to watch Yu's video too. His point was that he could have continued watching that video if Yu didn't end it. So he was upset and felt it was unfair.

So... my fault after all?? Um...

But yes, the whole fairness thing was at play again. And I also don't understand why they must do turn by turn when each of them likes different things sometimes and videos are of different lengths! Told them to all agree on videos to watch as I could stop them any time for meals etc.

Anyway, my point here is about the part where Yang suddenly stormed into his room. I still remember Na telling me about a student in her school who had an argument with his mother and suddenly turned and jumped out of his window. 

We do have grilles in the kids' bedrooms and the keys are all with me, used only during window cleaning. But it was still scary to see him storm off like that, locking his room some more. Having heard stories about the things that children could do to themselves thanks to my old job and boss and news of course, I was very worried. My poor Yang. My poor heart.

Really must instil in them that there's nothing they could not talk to us about. Nothing. 

Date with Kai

Kai and I went to watch a musical!

Journey to Singapura

Yes, it was in Chinese - Mandarin, Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese and Hakka, I think... With lots of 新谣 with new lyrics. There were screens showing subtitles in both Chinese and English but our friend here said he still couldn't understand *.*

I wonder if his brothers might have understood more... I had wanted to get the whole family to watch this musical but then I realised it was the Saturday before exams for Yang and Yu. Just nice, make it a date with my firstborn :)

It has been so long since we last went out together, just the two of us! So long that neither of us really remembered when, except that it must be before Yang entered P1 so that means before 2021, gosh... Also a nice start for Kai's year-end holidays - nowadays secondary school kids have looong break...

Before we left home, he told me to act normal.. But I'm very normal what... Haha! At one point, he was resigned to me holding on to his arm but only for a short while.. Ok ok, I don't embarrass my teen :p

At first we were supposed to head to Raffles City for dinner. But we waited quite a bit for the bus so while on the bus, I searched for a nearer spot and found Josh's Grill at 313. Yay to bus 14 that traverses town!

So happy compared to the photo above right? Haha!

Got him a drink even though he had his water bottle with him. He was surprised to hear the coke cost $3.50. Well, that's the price for beverages. But it's ok since it's rare that we're out together like this :) 

Kai was so sweet - he offered me a nice piece of his steak. I didn't think the steak was enough - 200g - so I saved some of my chicken chop for him. Indeed, not enough! I had more than enough as I had - still have at this moment - an ulcer... 

I think it's nice to have one-one time with the kids. They can be so different when they're the only child. And it's nice to see them on their own, not as one of three kids...