The last to turn 10

Yes, the baby of the family is now 10!

First celebration was five days before his birthday. He booked his cake and ordered his presents a month ago and had to bear with not opening the presents the last time we were there! 

Strawberry cake 

He requested for dinner at his new fave restaurant downstairs - he loves the tomato eggs there. And indeed, he ate a lot of those!

I don't think I have mentioned this before - when we go outside to eat with the grands, the kids will arrange the seating. Kai will sit with AhMa, Yang with AhYe and Yu with YeePo. Why? Play their phones before and after food 🤦‍♀️ 

Playing games on YeePo's phone

Second celebration was two days before his birthday. Yes, it was a Wednesday coz YQ wasn't in town during the weekend, and Mother insisted that birthdays could not be celebrated after the date! I roll my eyes la...

So that the kids could still go to bed early, we set the venue at the other Chinese restaurant downstairs which also serves tomato eggs. But it's very Chinese - we ate cake with soup spoons!!!

Chocolate cake - coz no strawberry cake at the MRT bakery

The 10yo and the 80yo

Nowadays, Yu likes to cut cake, especially his own slice :)

Interestingly, Kai decided to have some cake! Was it the flavour or the novelty of using soup spoon to eat cake? :p

It being Mother's 80th birthday, I bought her a bracelet of jade beads and a gold lotus flower instead of giving her a hongbao. I have more to say on this but maybe another time...

Finally, Yu's birthday arrived! I was busy with breakfast and forgot about it in the morning rush. But this boy said loudly, "I'm 10!" when he was changing into his school uniform. Oh yes, indeed you are!

He had been looking forward to this day for so long! But as usual, he grumbled quite a bit over why his birthday was always during exam period... Um, we didn't think about that when trying to conceive, did we?!

Later, Sito and I went to Star Vista for lunch and to buy a strawberry cake - yes, again. I didn't get those number candles and since Yu likes to blow candles, we decided on 10 small candles - 给他吹个够！

Happy birthday, not-so-little Yu! :)

We had a little mishap... After sticking in all the candles, we discovered that our cigarette lighter was spoilt! I bought it probably over 10y ago just for birthday candles and brought it along when we moved a few times... There was still lighter fluid in it but the ignition couldn't work. So Sito had to run out to get a kitchen gas lighter - much easier than a cigarette lighter to light candles!

He saw his birthday present - Yu-Gi-Oh cards - on the dining table when he got home from school. They didn't seem as good as Yang's but Papa has since shown Yu that he could build a deck good enough to defeat Yang! It also happened to be Yu's movie night so I think he kind of enjoyed his birthday? :)

The next day, we went to Swensen's after library for the usual birthday ice cream. He wanted Firehouse but that was available only on the actual day. We didn't do actual day this time as Kai had CCA.

He still got a lovely birthday sundae

Just like that, we have no more sub-10 at home! All growing up!

It was a bittersweet birthday. I couldn't wait for the kids to grow up but to see them growing less and less babyish through the years is a little sad... And turning 10, turning double-digit, that's a milestone. Next will be the short tween and teen years before they become adults. Adults!!

Kai turns 14

We have a 14yo in the house!

Nowadays, when Kai walks into the kitchen while I was preparing food or cleaning up, I always think it's Sito. Kai is just taller than Sito now and they have similar face shape, just that Kai is thinner. Sito just reminded me that there would eventually be three of them looking like him, hoho!

Anyway, we had two cele as usual. Just us five on Saturday and with the grands on Sunday.

B&J ice cream for a cake

Yang and Yu had a miso soup bowl each while Sito and I had a couple of mouthfuls. Then Kai took the remaining 60%. Yes, it was a lot of ice cream. But it was his birthday and he has an indulgent Papa; I was appalled haha! Actually, now that I think about it, maybe I shouldn't be since there was a time when I would finish a whole pint by myself while watching a movie...!

Dinner was at Swensen's, no prize for guessing! Adding to his happiness was the pasar malam behind Junction 8. The Saturday before, we also went there after Ajisen. He likes the chicken kebabs very much.

Happy birthday to GeGe!

Including the Swensen's sundae, he probably had a full pint of ice cream on Saturday... And that's not all, coz there was more on Sunday!

Happy birthday to Kai! :)

Kids had kiddy flavours like chocolate and strawberry while the adults had pink guava and MSW! At least Kai had other ice cream too so yes, another sugar high day *.*

Dinner was at Keisuke Tonkotsu King downstairs. Thanks to the abundant afternoon snacks (not just ice cream but also chips and Yan Yan!), all three could only have their share of ramen. Kai ordered his usual extra noodles but couldn't finish. Even the karaage was less popular. But the adults enjoyed their food ✌️

Funny bit at the restaurant - staff was telling Mum something about correcting her eyesight 10y later when removing cataracts. She said she did that already. I heard and had to chime in that I was the one who would need the surgery 10y later!!!

The grands gave him hongbaos, a game and a chess clock. Hongbaos are still with me but he has kept the rest. With 20min before bedtime, he set up Nintendo to try out the new game. Now wait for September to play...

All in, a pretty happy birthday :) But there was also some stress as the chess kids in his school came together online to decide who would form a team for NST. Thankfully, the number of rounds came down from five to only three, so he was done by tea time.

Last night, this big boy came in to roll around in our bed. We told him how he used to nap between us and kick Papa. He told us his earliest memory was waking up lying on Papa and rolling over to sleep on Mama, and either he or Papa was wearing blue. So cute :)

Also very cute of him to still want to nua on our bed almost every night... Disrupt my drama yes but I also disturb him by ruffling his hair, sayang-ing his cheeks or flicking his earlobes hahaha! And he'll as usual tell me to act normal. Cannot la, baby 玩我这样久，我也该玩玩 baby :p

Yang is 12!

Just like that, another kid turned 12. One last year for Yang to have free kiddy sundaes at Swensen's, haha!

Instead of going to the regular Swensen's for his firehouse birthday sundae, he chose Swensen's Unlimited as we missed going there earlier this month due to my ulcer. 

My lovely boy made a lovely sundae :)

Can also dip a banana in ice cream toppings!

Kai said this reminded him of Swensen's kiddy sundae

Which he stopped enjoying since turning 13 as his Swensen's account went from kiddy to adult but which he had just a week ago as Yang gave up his for a strawberry cone at Macs!

Yu also made a lovely sundae

Papa put ice cream in his taiyaki!

That was a huge taiyaki.. There was a Japanese theme at Swensen's Unlimited these few weeks so we also had toriyaki, fish and vege tempura, fried soba and katsu curry rice.

As usual, we went through the NUH mall on our way to the MRT station. This time, we had some fun measuring our weight, height and even blood pressure. But the blood pressure machine isn't meant for kids. I mean, a diastolic reading of 28 surely is incompatible with life?!

Very happy, this one; the other two monkeying around the height/weight measurement

12yo also means it's PSLE year, oops... So Yang didn't escape from work even on his birthday which fell on a Saturday this year. But ok la, we didn't give him a paper, just do specific exercises. He even had time to play Nintendo!

Since we already went to Swensen's Unlimited (cheaper on weekdays :p), we just headed to our usual coffeeshop for dinner - Yang's choice. And he had a haircut after that so super handsome. Cake cutting was after dinner as Kai came back from a chess tournament after tea time.

Happy birthday, our dear Yang Yang!

Sito was very hungry that day and bought some ribs from the supermarket deli. Two boys came to tax some while I sat down with some glutinous rice tea after yummy cake.

Drink milk with BBQ ribs, hmmm...

We had a second round of celebration on Sunday as usual. This time, the cake came with a party set complete with headgear, plates and forks! Dinner was at Oriental downstairs; he veto-ed South Bank as he didn't like their fish and chips much. (But the parents like, how? Haha!)

Second strawberry cake

Notice the berries at the bottom of the cake? Random. Maybe dropped onto it after it was done and it was too much to remove and do the piping again??

On the way to dinner; Kai took a photo of them/Yu

We just happened to sit under the happy birthday sign :)

Over-ordered again. We have some fried pork in the fridge. Sito already had a few pieces for lunch; the rest will come out at dinner tonight!

Yang's presents from the grands - two board games - are still on his sofa. I should go find some space for them after this..

Yang turning 12 is a bit different from Kai turning 12, maybe coz he still wants me to lie down with him at bedtime and he's so sweet that he still gives off very baby-ish vibes. Want him to grow up more and especially be more independent in his learning but at the same time, I couldn't bear not seeing the baby in him. Dilemma of parents.

I'm 46! Or 47?

I was rather confused on Saturday morning. I was washing my face when I thought how odd it was that I was 47yo in a PSLE year. I mean, our whole family was born in even years. PSLE takes place in the year we turn 12. I should be of even age in PSLE years!

Then I realised I got the year wrong. It's 2026, not 2027!

Or maybe I was thinking about starting my 47th year right just a couple of days before that..

Or signs of dementia?

Anyway, I'm 46. And this is my 47th year.

On my birthday on Thursday, Sito brought me to Pancakes and Friends at Far East Plaza for souffle pancakes. It was a cosy little place with minimal staff so our intended brunch became an early lunch! But the food was good - we shared a smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel, and a Hokkaido milk gelato pancakes with muesli. The pancakes were so wobbly! Calories were so worth it...

Half a bagel each for my Laogong and me

Sito already bought a cake on Wednesday while I was lunching with Jo at her place. He just told me this morning that he had wanted to buy me a laptop - the one I'm now typing on is refusing to charge! But he could not surprise me coz I need to choose the colour, plus it's better that I buy with my Shopee account as I'm a Shopee VIP :p

But I do have a present of sorts... We bought a new fridge in December and it arrived almost a month later on Wednesday. We spent the afternoon cleaning it inside out. On Thursday morning, I shifted things from our old fridge to the new fridge. On Friday, I cleaned and reorganised the old fridge. SOOOOOO happy, ok... That's it. It's my birthday present, 70% paid by Ah Gong's climate vouchers :p

Anyway, after the pancakes, we headed to Bibi and Baba to get uniforms for Yang and Yu. Yang's pants were bursting at the seams - he has grown so much in the past year! His waist measures 75cm vs. Kai's 66cm 小蛮腰 ok, don't play play... Actually we bought him one larger pair in May last year but he refused to wear it as it had a button instead of a hook clasp at the top of the zip. But now he has no choice!

Their corporate tees are also rather fitting now. They look like bah zang especially the belly part. Again, Yang is going one size bigger than Kai at this age. Yu has always maintained the same shape - round - so it's kind of expected... His waist measures 65cm now. I shall see if he can wear Yang's clothes in a couple of years' time...

After a protein top-up from Old Chang Kee and a short rest with milk tea at MOS at Ion, we made our way to school. While Yu's start-of-year PTM on Tuesday was online, Yang's was F2F. Maybe coz he's P6. Kai's PTM end of the month would be F2F too - preparing for Sec 2 streaming...

Once we got to school, I went to queue at the bookshop. We already bought most of their textbooks from Popular in December but some were only available in schools. While I settled the books, Sito went to find the kids. Kai had texted us earlier to say he was getting food but the brothers couldn't be found! Eventually, Sito found them playing on the slope... He ushered Yang over to me but Yu had left for his HCL class.

After I was done with the books, Yang decided on a second lunch. He "gave me a treat" at the drinks stall :p The coffee from this drink stall was nicer than the other one but he didn't like his Milo as it tasted like tea. So he went to the other drink stall to get another Milo. 

We just sat around to wait for Papa and Yu. Watched some videos together :) Kai was seated near us but with his friends, playing chess. 

Playing with a Sec 1, who happened to be Yang's track and field friend

When Yu was done with his HCL, he came to find us and saw a kid go into the bookshop even though it was barricaded for textbooks during this period. I told him that the kid asked the auntie for permission to go in so he did the same. He came out of the bookshop with a pretty pink pencil for me :) We couldn't figure out how it works though. It took him two tries to eventually find out from the bookshop how to use the pencil - turned out it was an infinity pencil, so cool!

The PTM started late - and hence ended late - due to traffic jams as that day was also CCA open house for the secondary school kids. Sito said parents asked better questions in person. He asked about difficulty level of their P5 exams last year vs. PSLE standards and learnt that they were set at SEAB standards. Apparently, schools had to submit P3-6 papers to SEAB for sampling - too hard, too easy etc. He also noticed that Yang was bigger than many of his classmates - some went to the PTM with parents...

When Sito came back to the canteen, Yang and Yu were watching Kai playing chess. By then, they were tired and needed no ushering to leave. When we got home, Sito packed dinner for them and left for Bras Basah to get a book for Kai as it was out of stock at the bookshop. Bishan Popular didn't have it when we got their books...

Chess on the phone

I had some leftover chicken stock in the fridge and made myself some mee sua with eggs and frozen dumplings. Actually I tried to start a ritual of having mee sua for birthdays but the kids weren't too keen on it... Anyway, while waiting for Sito to come back and while waiting for the noodles to cool down, I managed to sew nametags on the new corporate tees. It's a chore...

Managed to cut the cake just before their bedtime!

Awww, I love how Kai put his head on me in this photo! This is the boy who refuses to let me hug or kiss him since P3... But sometimes, I think starting from Beijing, he would hug me to 哄妈妈 when I get upset and well, yes, I buy it... Sucker.

:p

Yesterday, we had a second celebration with the grands. The cake was so yummy but I couldn't stomach a second piece... And dinner was at Peach Blossoms - a la carte buffet. Second time there. Managed to have more variety this time with more adults. But there was a lot of food coz they didn't give us small portions as requested but portions for eight persons *.* But the kids don't eat most of the food!

Looks like a kiddy birthday though!

Took a slow walk back home, made even slower by the playground and exercise corner along the way. These monkeys can really make my heart race... I'm just glad the playground downstairs is a lot less scary than this one!

Love this shot of Yang! We were just talking about the trees on the building on the way there

All three on the 独木桥

So that's it for this year... But the cake doesn't end here.. I had wanted a Marks and Spencer chocolate cake for my birthday but it wasn't available so we will try to get it next week or so! Yay to cake!

Oh, Yay to getting old too! Don't mind mf looking old, heh! I found more white hair recently, probably due to tutoring Yang in Chinese in December... Also don't mind the colour but I mind that white hair is typically curlier?! Sighs.. Also yay to more rebonding then...!

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 :)

Yu turns nine!

Yu turned nine on Thursday :)

We have been waiting for this day for some time... 

First of all, he's supposed to start cutting his own nails in P3 just like Kai but he is still getting me to cut his nails! So the deal is ok, after nine. I just cut his nails yesterday coz I forgot but I'll shift the nail cutter to his room and let his teacher remind him to cut, hahahaha!

More importantly, he has agreed to make school trips on his own, without Papa accompanying him, on days when Yang couldn't be with him. This would really mark the end of the parents' school trips! Yay and nay at the same time coz it's really quite nice to have some one-one time...

And finally... He's nine! Each of our kids are growing up so fast! Too fast.. Sometimes very slow but ya, it always seems so fast at birthdays...

Yu wasn't feeling very well when he came home on Wednesday. His nose was a bit runny and as a result of the allergy, one eye was a bit red from rubbing.

On Thursday morning, his nose was better but his eye felt a bit swollen. He wondered if he should go to school. I left the decision to him, making sure he knew that he couldn't play phone games if he had a sick day. He took a looong time thinking and decided to stay home. But when he went to pee, he said, "Should I change my mind?" And he changed his mind *.*

All was fine in school. Yu came home looking totally fine. The three of them dropped their bags, changed their shoes and off we went to Clementi! At that hour, we could get student meals which are essentially the usual main course at a discount, plus a soup or a drink. But the choices are limited and only Kai chose from that menu. It's ok. The parents swopped with Yang and Yu :p

Ice cream all round!

We went to buy some snacks and a cake before going home. Bumped into Yu's classmate-neighbour on our way home who was on his way to his grands' with his father. They were on the same bus that morning apparently, and Yu told him where we were going so that they didn't have their usual playdate at the playground.

In any case, Yu wasn't looking forward to any play date when he had one hour of phone time on his birthday!

All in PJs for the cake-cutting

It was a late lunch and no one was really hungry at dinner time. So I didn't cook :p But Yu had two slices of cake! Think he was very full after that... Yang had only one but both boys reserved the remaining two slices for the next day so for the first time, Sito and I didn't have any of Yu's birthday cake!

Second cele with the grands on Sunday

Yu was looking worried in the photo as there were too many candles on the tiny cake and the cake looked like it was on fire!! I wasn't in the picture as I couldn't figure out the timer on my phone - first time trying to use timer on this new phone :)

Third cele, joint with WaiPo, yesterday

Yu put down his ✌️ when WaiPo mentioned it so she kena sabo-ed into giving a ✌️ hoho! 

I must say Ajisen may not be the best place to celebrate with a cake. The staff brought us the cake in the original plastic bag without a lighter, and delivered only four plates and four forks. We had to ask for five more sets and this time, bowls came, haha! But the staff took a nice photo for us :)

One surprise - Kai ate the cake! He said just to try 👍 On the other hand, Yu didn't have the cake - he said in Mandarin so WaiPo could understand, that he eats chocolate and he eats cake, but he doesn't eat chocolate cake. Also, he eats strawberry, he eats cream, and he eats lollipop, but he doesn't eat strawberry cream lollipop!

We went out separate ways after lunch. But something funny happened - Sito asked the kids to give WaiPo a hug and WaiPo gave Yu a peck! Wth?! I don't even think she kissed me before!?! Sito and I had a good laugh. Last night, I told Yu he must give me a kiss coz I didn't get one, haha!!

Anyway, Mother they all went to buy an iron while we went to the library. We just nua-ed at the library for over an hour until Kai got bored. Then we parked them at Popular while we went to shop for toiletries and herbs. 

Then we went to the pasar malam between J8 and the interchange to get our hands on our fave snacks, woohoo! This time, I got goreng pisang and shark's fin soup. I didn't expect Yang and Yu's reactions when they saw me buying the latter - you can't buy that, you'll cause more sharks to be hunted! Oh my... Apparently, they read that somewhere... I had to tell them that this shark's fin soup did not contain any shark's fin....

We were all quite full from lunch, especially Kai with his extra noodles and eight pieces of karaage! So dinner was easily settled with the food from pasar malam. The kids also had some ice cream while watching the Saturday night movie on TV. It's seldom that Kai watches a whole movie with us but it was Percy Jackson and the Sea Monster and he's now halfway through the first Percy Jackson book.

Anyway, so all the celebrations are over. Yu is properly nine now. Still a baby. Forever our baby :)

First teenager in the house!

And that's Kai :)

So fast, so big.

He caught up with me in height about March/April - can't be too sure coz he was either slouching or over extending his back 🤦‍♀️ But certainly some time between April and June, he became taller than me. We shall see whether he catches up with Papa this year or next...

Despite growing 20cm in two years, he put on only 6kg. So he's super slim now. I'm very envious of his 小蛮腰 haha!

Birthday celebrations were supposed to start with Macs breakfast but it was raining so I went to pack you tiao (four!) since I had to buy vegetables for our porridge lunch anyway.

Sito bought 12 doughnuts after lunch and I stacked six onto a plate - that's Kai's birthday "cake" since he doesn't like the usual cake. The kids had two doughnuts each - sugar high! Sito and I had one each and the kids took the remaining four the next morning for breakfast. Gone in under 24H :p

Cake but no cake - or no cake but cake?

This year, his birthday fell on a Saturday. It wasn't our usual fortnightly library Saturday but we went to the library anyway before heading to Swensen's, yes, our fave again, for dinner. His kid membership tied to Papa's expired upon his birthday so we signed him up for his own so he could get a firehouse birthday sundae. 

Ice cream is a must!

Thing is the membership uses Telegram, which is a 17+ app so we had to lift the age restriction on his phone to download and use it. When we put back the age restriction, the app disappeared. Looks like we'll do this once a year :p

The next day, we went to Asia Grand at Fairmont for lunch with the grands. Kids had noodles, Peking duck rolls and xlb; they don't eat dim sum much. The adults unfortunately overate dim sum *.* Had to pack quite a bit.

And back at the grands', we ate more! Kids had their usual snacks with TV and adults had coffee/tea. But there's also ice cream for everyone - again, a non-cake "cake".

Candle was supported by blu-tack!

And that wasn't it. Coz the following week was HBL week for Kai due to the sec 4s having "O" and "N" levels orals and listening comprehension. Extended birthday weekend woohoo!

But he had a lot of work, especially on Monday. He had more time to read Harry Potter on other days

Reading before the rest of us woke

Big boy thing? From not wanting to read all these years to reading Harry Potter every day for the past few weeks. He's now at the seventh book. He finished the series last week. Usually, he plays chess on the iPad and came in to nua with us a bit before bedtime. While he was reading the series, he read after his last match - he cannot start a new game after 9pm.

Or is it a Harry Potter thing? :p If so, how to get him hooked on new books?? We shall see...

On Wednesday, we went to Macs for lunch, in a way making up for the missed Macs breakfast on his birthday. He ate two meals minus one drink!

Teen trying to hide from my camera..

Big big boy at playground after Macs

Wanted to bring him out for brunch on Friday but Sito and I were very hungry after our dental appointments (made before the HBL was confirmed) so we ate at Tanglin Halt hawker centre and packed beehoon for him. He had CCA that afternoon and was away until evening. Just like that, HBL week was over! So was his extended birthday weekend!

It's amazing that our firstborn is now a teen. It's bewildering that this 1.7m tall 13yo boy is still coming to our bed almost every night to talk about chess, to nua, to do random things like pluck our leg hairs...!

Naughty boy trying to pluck my leg hairs!

Grow up, boy. But not too fast. Actually, grow up la. But slow down, pleeeease...

Parents are conflictec, sighs...

Yang turns 11 :)

After P1 when Yang's birthday fell on the day before the start of term 3, it had been during term time until this year - last Friday of term break with a weekend to go before the new term started. So he was very happy :)

And then, I thought we didn't do anything fun during the term break apart from our Legoland trip and was feeling a bit sad for the kids, especially Yang who had been working hard through the break. So we decided kind of last-minute, that we should go cycling!

Got the kids' assurance that they would try to learn. Coz no training wheels for Kai's size, and likely none for Yang's too. So when the weather looked good last Friday, we chop chop set off after breakfast!

The last time we went was two years ago when we were still at BP. So the journey this time was really easier - MRT to Haw Par Villa and changed to a bus which dropped us right at the cycling kiosk. Told JY about it at breakfast and they decided to come along too. 

Just two days ago, we met for dinner at Le Shrimp, and the six boys were running all over Star Vista. Later when I told Yu that Auntie JY said nightmare to have six sons, he gave me a nice retort - twice the cuteness! 💕  This round, the five boys - K1 doing holiday homework - were each busy with cycling so no nightmare :p

I demonstrated how to cycle and then Sito and I stood around to watch them try. It took an hour or so before Yang finally managed to do it! What perseverance, what an achievement! So happy for him! I think this was the best birthday present he could give himself :)

He already took received presents from the grands two weeks ago, and we also got him True Singapore Ghost Stories book 1. Do we count the Lego sword? Ah well...

Anyway, Yang soon cycled (slowly) into Kai who was stationary and sustained some bruises on his legs and an abrasion on his left forearm. Maybe due to that and the heat, he felt very tired.

Resting on the ground under a tree

Kai got it next, after we changed his mountain bike (is that what it's called??) to a city bike, and could eventually go further and more steadily than Yang. Yu couldn't do it and asked for training wheels. We didn't give in. Towards the the of our two hours, he managed to cycle a short distance - he can probably nail it next time!

Said bye bye to our friends and left for lunch at Clementi. These kids like ice cream so it was Swensen's! And this was the first time we had their student deals - very good as it's the same as their usual but cheaper!

Firehouse birthday sundae without whipped cream for Yang :)

After lunch activities included shopping and cutting hair for Yang and Yu - Kai cut his the Saturday before but his brothers refused then 🤷‍♀️ Lucky it was a weekday else it would be very crowded to cut just before a new school term!

Strawberry cake as requested :)

And yes, pyjamas party! Coz they showered and changed before dinner. They all wanted my spaghetti for dinner. I was very tired but it was an easy meal even though I had not defrosted any meat ahead of time - just use my fave IQF minced beef, yeah! I think I have perfected the laziest one-pot, three-ingredient spaghetti, four if you include tomato paste from a tube :p

Cake was a great dessert after dinner and before our usual Friday movie night. All in, a wonderful birthday for Yang, I hope :)

Another strawberry cake as requested!

Ahhh, didn't realised AhYee got blocked - she's the one who gets cakes usually, and these are amazing cakes!

Headed to Crystal Jade La Mian XLB for dinner. We haven't been there since we moved back to HV and it closed after June so we just made it! Kids had their usual kosong noodles and a tray of xlb each. But they were more interested in playing with the grands' phones 🤦‍♀️ 

And yesterday, Facebook reminded me of a photo of Yang and his bear bear from 11 years ago, when his bear bear was bigger than him! I had to ask Yang to recreate the scene :p

How my baby has grown!

In the past few months, Yang has become somewhat meatier. I think Kai put on some meat around this age too but look at his thin frame now... So, Yang, eat more!

But how the bear bear has shrunk, no thanks to my frequent washing since Yang decided to hug this to sleep some time this year! 11yo and still super cute, he would tuck bear bear into his PJs with its head sticking out and snuggling his neck. Too cute, I cannot....

Might as well add another photo from yesterday. Papa has been helping Yang meditate before bedtime for a number of days now, starting during term break? We want him to learn how to focus better. Last night, Yu decided to join them. I thought I heard Yu calling me and thought they were done. 

But I went in and saw this scene ❤️ 

Happy birthday to my sweetest middle child, Yang Yang! Hope you enjoyed your day, and benefit from these usually 1-1 meditation sessions with Papa :)

Halfway there...

Probably more, coz DOS says life expectancy is 85 for women :p

It was busier than past years coz Kai started secondary school. Due to recess being at 11am, we decided he must have more breakfast than a cup of milk. So a lot of meal prep for me. Then there were endless messages on WhatsApp.

I was also not feeling particularly well. The cough from Japan was gone, but the nose was drippy here and there. Sito found a Japanese omelette place at Bugis but we had to skip that as I wasn't feeling up to it on Tuesday.

Luckily, I was well enough on Wednesday to do all the things I wanted!

First, breakfast date with Sito :)

Fong Sheng Hao was good! The regular stuff isn't cheap but I really do like my pork floss sandwich with condensed milk. Sito ordered the value set of pork and egg sandwich which cost only $6 with a cup of teh - that is cheaper than Yakun or Toast Box, and super filling!

So good we went back to try other things the next day before a school event!

Sito ordered another value set - bacon and cheese which was even yummier! Also ordered an egg pancake with pork floss - yes, I like that - and a scallion pancake. So good.

Back to my birthday...

Karaoke on my own!

I really really felt the need to sing properly and a lot, haha! It was only two hours but it was fulfilling. Sang a lot of songs by male singers coz Youtube cannot adjust key, you know... Ended with Mayday, 一个人也 high 到不行！

Came home in time to welcome the boys home! Kai came back with them as it was still orientation for him; else his lessons end at 2.30 pm on Monday to Wednesday. They had hotdog buns for lunch as I didn't have time to cook :p

Happy 45th to me!

Nothing beats having my fave four persons in the world with me on my birthday, never mind that the small ones only remembered to say HB to me on Papa's prompts!

Sito surprised me with a two-tier cake! My only other tier cake was our wedding cake, and this one looked somewhat like that, with the lovely cream flowers :)

And the cream on top was that this cake was also yummy! Even Kai decided to have a slice - the boy who doesn't like cake?! We were very happy to see him eat cake :) We finished the last two slices at supper that night, yummmm...

The next celebration was on Sunday. We had a lovely chendol cake - AhYee always manages to find interesting cakes from different places! But of course, the kids would have none of it *.*

I'm sitting down! Haha!

Dinner was at the new Cantonese restaurant at One Holland Village. It was so good, especially the cabbage and the fish! I think Cantonese, Hokkien/Teochew food suits our palate the most. The boys had rice on top of fried noodles. We have been ordering fried yee mee separately for them for the longest time whenever we eat out at such places. Now that they're big enough, this was probably the last time we ordered noodles just for them.

Ok, time for the countdown... to the end, haha!