花好月圆

When we first moved back to HV, the first CC event we attended was Mid Autumn Festival celebrations. We skipped it last year as it was too close to PSLE and we wanted to avoid crowded places. This year, we're back!

Just saw that the 2023 event cost $2 per person. This time, it was free and at the CC hall, i.e. with aircon. There were fewer games and kiddy food. In fact, it seemed more targeted at the elderly as the singalong was full of old songs! But we had fun anyway :)

We were early and were among the first at the Chinese calligraphy booth. I thought we could write but no, they had professionals writing names and blessings. Ah well. Each kid had their own name in gold on red paper.

Sat down for performances while waiting for the gold ink to dry. The sand art was very good! I was eating a hotdog bun so wasn't fast enough to take a picture of a nice Chang E scene.

We were seated quite in front. Emcee called out Yang for a handsome boy and Kai for a tall boy but neither kid would stand - so shy! But they were not shy at the quiz segment - all wanted prizes! Yang didn't get picked to answer though..

Kai won a 大白兔奶糖 metal mug

Yu won a reusable bag - I took it :p

Good to expose them to CC events and to facing a big group to answer questions. Don't be too shy :)

There was a singalong session and the emcee went around the audience with a microphone. I sang a bit of "Fly Me to the Moon" and Yang said it was soooo embarrassing! Hahahaha! 

When they were playing 城里的月光，I was reminded of that time in JC (1 or 2?) when we performed this song at a Mid Autumn Festival celebrations. Probably a CLDDS thing. I sang a bit into my phone and sent to Na who was in the performing group, but she didn't remember, haha!

Stilt walkers!

This one was giving out candies. Another one was giving out plushies! I refused to get plushies but Yang and Yu decided to ask for one themselves! Sighs, more dustmite pillows...

Ok, the rabbit mascot looks a bit freaky... Too thin!

Mascot was giving out 大白兔奶糖 so the kids finally saw the rice paper that could be eaten. But Yang didn't have his.

We went for a hotstamping activity just before leaving and oh my, it took a long time! Quite interesting though to see how the kids took part. Kai was more hands off and let the volunteers help. Yang did almost everything himself. Yu was interested to do but looked a bit blur :p Sito and I were like Kai coz we were holding all the random things.

Finally ready to go!

Actually Kai was very tired by then. He went to bed right after showering.

But he was ok to take a little trip to the playground for a photo in the dark

So that was last Saturday. The actual festival fell on Monday, when I realised I forgot to bring out sparklers - bought them years back but didn't finish using...

Anyway, I made mooncakes again! I was rather undecided as the few tries last year yielded skin that turned hard quickly. But I was persuaded by Redman to get yam paste so I had to use it...

It turned out wonderful!!!

The trick is to steam the dough rather than microwave it. Yes, I did a shortcut last year coz the stovetop steamer was a bother. But this year, I have a cute little electric steamer that I use fairly regularly!

Gosh, it was so soft and remained soft in the fridge. We even put a bit to freeze and thaw it to try - soft! That's it. 

And the yam paste made it easy to wrap as it didn't melt like ganache. Sito and I discussed a few ways to make different mooncakes. Maybe can try :) Just hope my mould lives longer - the spring mechanism is all rusty after just one year in storage...

Snowskin mooncake - flower print coz 花好月圆 - with glutinous rice tea

That was my fourth yesterday, oops... And it was quite soon after a hotpot dinner coz I was inspired by the big round moon when I sat down in the living room after a shower...

It's a new ritual for us - hotpot on this day. 因为月圆人团圆 :) Hope the kids will find it fun to attend such celebrations and enjoy the hotpot, and eventually grow to appreciate the festival as (another) one to celebrate with family :)

Mid autumn festival

Ok, very late but this has always been one of my fave time of the year - what's not to like when you have yummy mooncakes and nice lanterns?

We signed up for a celebration event by the CC. At only $2 per person, it provided gift packs, snacks and games to keep everyone happy!

We arrived quite early and the snacks were not ready yet so we started with the games. Every game came with snacks which the kids were very happy with. We grabbed the gift packs soon after coz they came with a bag that could hold all the snacks!

Snakes and ladders

Hopscotch

Tic tac toe

We queued quite a bit for muah chee, cotton candy and ice cream. It was relatively easy to grab the hotdog buns and drinks. We went home with lots of yummy stuff! Obviously we didn't watch the shows or participate in the riddles coz we were busy queueing for snacks :p

Cute lanterns lighted our way home :)

This year, the actual day fell on a Friday. We left the kids to watch TV on their regular movie night and left for our date night with a little lantern lighting our way haha! Just nice coz the pathway to HV was changed in the day and we had to walk through a walled path which was kind of dark...

Fries, souffle and coffee at Hoshino

Went to check out the development of the new mall and found the big round moon!

Two days later, Yang suggested exploring the house with the lanterns :)

This year, we didn't eat much mooncakes. We went to the mooncake fair at Taka but bought only one round to snack - 吃爽的 :p - and a box for gifting. Let's stay slim and healthy ya? :p But I have been thinking of making mooncakes for some years (!) now. Maybe next year I should start thinking about this earlier and plan for it!

The moon is very round this year

I'm very happy that Mid Autumn Festival is on a Saturday this year - this means Sito is home and we can 月圆人团圆！In fact, we had two mid autumn excursions this year.

Two Saturdays ago, we went to Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall. I thought of it too late so the workshop we wanted was sold out. But the big lanterns looked cute on the website so off we went. And lucky us chanced upon a PA event at Zhongshan Park celebrating the festival!

So much fun at the bouncy castle!

And carnival games with prizes to be won!

Magic show on stage!

Yang won a big balloon!

They couldn't get enough of the games...

Dinner was at New Ubin Seafood again. We ordered less this time. Expensive zichar but worth it when the kids seemed to like the food.

Put them all on one side :p

And then we went back to the PA event. More bouncy castle, more games, and even a Chinese dance! I was so surprised that they sat through the dance. Maybe full from dinner plus tired from bouncy castle. As I wrote that last line, I felt glad they didn't puke!

Hello, us! 

Yes, watching the Chinese dance

And we still hadn't been to the lanterns, our original destination! So we finally brought them across the road to the now obvious lanterns coz it got dark. The lanterns were of planets. Don't know why it was not all eight *.*

I prepared a little quiz for them - to recite the names of the planets in English, Chinese and in order. We memorised this together before and it was fun to go through again! Or it was fun for me? :p Prizes were M&M fun packs!

Kai reciting the planets in order

My three lovely earthlings :)

Yang took this :)

Needless to say, we got home late. We also had to wait a bit for a taxi. And Yu had carsick - he didn't vomit but he started crying as we were nearing home :(

Last Saturday was the day of the festival itself. After dinner at Beng Hiang at Jurong East, we went to Jurong Lake Gardens for more big lanterns of the seasons and various countries. This time, I brought along a lantern with an electric bulb.

I love to see Kai hold Papa's hand :)

These two released water lanterns... into a tub *.*

Yu decided to join me in this photo :)

We walked quite a bit and Sito was thirsty. We happened to be at the concert place - yes, so 热闹！- and some F&B stalls. The queues were very long and very slow! Sito queued up with Yang for milk tea while I queued with Kai and Yu for sugar cane. At one point, we signalled to each other to just go home but the boys wouldn't hear of it! 

So we continued queueing and they continued grumbling... The music was quite nice though and thankfully it wasn't too hot. Sito got his milk tea and bandung drink shortly before me. Yu drank most of the bandung - told him he's like Papa who likes this drink. 

We got home even later this time. Our taxi cancelled on us after waiting a long time to get into the gardens. So we walked out and waited outside a school. Another taxi cancelled on us. We were lucky on the third try! Got home past 9 pm!!

Tired Yu sitting on my feet while waiting for our first taxi

Was glad that Yu felt quite ok this time round. He said being sleepy helped, hmmm... The boys dropped off soon enough. Must be tired. We also dropped off after stuffing down all four of our mini snowskin mooncakes haha! Those were our first mooncakes this year. Had a bit more at Mum's place yesterday but I think that was it! Save the calories, save the waist...!

We spotted the full moon on Saturday - it was big! But it was partially concealed by clouds. This morning, I managed to catch a shot of the still full moon. Happy :)

I remembered that last year, I wanted to make my own snowskin mooncake but was too late to start learning. The same thing happened again this year haha! Even busier now without extra help around the house. Anyway, Yu tried mooncake and didn't like it too much. Yang liked the mooncake yesterday. Kai, nooope! Hope they will all grow to enjoy mooncakes soon enough..

This was a really nice Mid Autumn Festival! :)