The start of my journey as a SAHM, with helper leaving, coincided with LNY spring cleaning. So I cleaned A LOT. And suddenly, my fave festival is over and we're officially in the Year of the Water Tiger. Still remember we were hoping for a tiger baby 12 years ago :p And now, look, our dragon, horse and monkey are talking back to us!!
, I forgot to prepare celebration clothes for Kai and Yang. Kai raised it as he was wearing shoes. I immediately went to fetch the clothes but Kai didn't want to change into his pineapple shirt anymore :(
Yang decided to wear this top over his shirt but skipped the matching pants
Yang made this in school :)
Kai made the red one; green was from his friend - I pasted them on the TV wall :)
From the time I could remember, we always had reunion dinner at home on the eve. It started with steamboat - it was an electric one made to look like it had coal inside. Can't remember if it broke but it was really slow to boil. At some point, we used a rice cooker instead. Eventually, we switched to dishes.
We didn't have reunion dinners with the grands. I don't recall my paternal grandmother cooking much during LNY. My maternal grandma cooked a lot but some 30 plus (!) of us would gather on day one.
Now, our tradition is to have reunion dinner with the kids' paternal grands on the eve. Most years, that would be our only reunion dinner coz of work. But this year, the eve was a Monday so we had the weekend before for more reunion dinners, woohoo! Cannot do both lunch and dinner on the same day - cannot eat so much!
Reunion dinner #1 was on Saturday at home with just the five of us - our standard steamboat with tomato soup base! I didn't prepare too much so we finished everything without overeating, yeah!
Reunion dinner #2 after the accident on Sunday - I prepared and Sito cooked, plus spring rolls from Mother. Even without the planned guo tie and bah kwa, we had some leftover vege and soup. Kai, Yang and I had leftover soup with noodles the next day. The kids had fun playing Nintendo with JiuJiu; Kai even asked if he (no mention of the rest!!) could come again to play :)
Can spot the rice with mushroom and Chinese sausages? Dessert was Magnum
Reunion dinner #3 on the eve started with yusheng!
Kai and Yang joined in the lohei but didn't eat *.*
Part homemade and part store-bought - we ate too many meatballs, burp...
Kids read a bit before eating
After food, they were given some iPad time coz LNY
Free flow snacks after Rocher ice cream
We left later than usual since we were going to stay up anyway. The kids had been looking forward to this annual thing - stay up to watch TV and snack! And Yu was especially excited to finally be able to wear the Pokemon pyjamas!
Our bed is getting too small :)
Yu couldn't have enough of my mango drink topped with cheese foam!
We started with some snacks but the cleaning was terrible coz of the crumbs. But the kids were quite full so we just watched TV. There was a monster show on TV -
The Great Wall.
We were telling Kai that he was the first to doze off the past two years. Then, Papa would carry him to bed. This time, we would wake him up coz he had to go up the bunk bed himself. He claimed he would keep himself awake. But history repeated itself, haha!
Yu was the next to go. I think he was asking for us all to go to bed. FOMO :p Yang was the last one down - expected!
Monkey baby sleeping with baby monkey
Kai woke on his own somehow and we shooed the older ones to bed while I carried Yu to bed. Then Sito and I finished the movie :p
Happy Lunar New Year!
First bainian to Papa
Then it was bainian at the grands, complete with lunch and dinner! Sito and I took naps along the way.. The kids remained energetic! Also ate a lot of snacks. Let them - it's LNY!
Game during lunch - ok, let them do so coz LNY :p
Yu was shy to say hi to his great grandmother!
My baby entertained me I entertained my baby
Hub too :p
Hmm, my imagination or my front teeth are protruding more?? The right part hurt from the fall... That said, I couldn't fit into my retainers for years now!
Steamboat for dinner, yummy!
The satay sticks were actually beef shabu - too thin to shabu! The prawns on sticks were also convenient to cook. My fave should be the homemade yong tau foo, yum!
Kai has such a lovely smile!
Eating rocher by separating the parts? Ok, let him coz LNY and coz Sito and I used to do that as kids, hoho!
The next day, the boys were arguing about whether to drive or to take the train. In the end, we decided to take the train coz it was always difficult to find parking at TPY.
Took the Choa Chu Kang route which is longer but quieter
Yang decided to use the small oranges from AhMa house to bainian with WaiPo, hoho!
This one likes to grab a box for himself
Yang brought his small oranges to WaiPo-YeePo's house
Two of them spent much time trying to stack oranges
Lunch was 盆菜 - I think I shall make this next year!
Hiding in plain sight during hide-and-seek!!!
Of course must play at the playground downstairs - this one looks snug in the tunnel :p
Opening up their hongbao!
Our sofa is falling apart, haha!
I ran the robot on time so that we came back to a clean home - the mop pad was really dirty, gosh! After settling them, I did some chores here and there. Finally sat down for KFC dinner - that seems to be our choice for festive seasons? Hoho! Anyway, we were all very tired that day! The kids dropped off very quickly so we got to rest early too.
Sito found that his assistant cleared his calendar the next day so he took leave, yeah! He jogged in the morning and we went for lunch at Beng Hiang at Jurong East. Managed to get a foot massage in too - I could still feel my toes tingling at night, shiok! Also grabbed bubble teas and kids' lunch before coming home - happy day :)
Our dates would be in the day time from now onwards :)
Had a video call with Yan on Sunday. Ironically, they caught a lion dance in Durham while we saw none in Singapore :(
And now, the reason for posting this late - LNY fashion parade which concluded on Sunday!
New tops from AhMa on the eve - tiger prints, i.e. must wear this year
New set from AhMa too on day 1 - zodiac prints, can reuse next year :p
I commented that Kai had a lovely smile and Yang stole a look; Yu kept his unwarranted pout!
Parents' contribution for day 2 and tees only - space theme for Kai and Yang; no third design so Yu got Pokemon
New set from AhMa-YeePo on day 6 which is our usual Sunday at the grands - saved this from a few months back for LNY actually...
Parents also had fashion show, ok... Except that we didn't buy a single thing. Sito said he didn't need new clothes for LNY but all these years, I always got him at least a top.
Nowadays, I changed laundry habits - instead of washing adults and kids' clothes separately on specific days of the week, I wash all our clothes together on a daily basis. So clothes go back to the wardrobe in two days after ironing and there is less need to have more clothes!
So ok, no need to buy. I also didn't get new clothes for the first time in my life in Singapore. No need more clothes and also, I have no need for nice dresses now, while I have enough tees to last a while.
But I want to keep the LNY tradition on clothes going! Just nice, Sito's office issued a LNY shirt! And I brought out my cheong sam from 2015, going for traditional outfit in lieu of new clothes. But the dry cleaning cost $21.40, more than my $15 dress
last year *.*
Got tiger!
Old shirt with tiger!
Big one behind - roar!
I could fit into this, yeah!
That's all, folks! Keep the roar going!
