Hello again, fire station!

Last Saturday, we went to Alexandra Fire Station. Unlike previously, we had to register for the visit and wait for email confirmation. I had issues with the form some months ago but looks like it's all fixed...

This was our third visit there - we brought Kai in 2014, and both Kai and Yang in 2016, but none of them remembered anything!

So hard to get them up for a picture...

Checking out the heavy hose thing

Papa looks bored, haha!

My little firemen!

One for each :)

Time to hose down a fire broom!

Must use strength

Why so cool, one hand in pocket??

These two had fun playing with water too

Don't remember this sign from last time

Yu really wanted to go on an ambulance. He asked the sergeant who did the tour but was told all ambulances were out and the last one was locked. But before we left, an ambulance came back. He went to ask a paramedic and yeah, he managed to get on an ambulance!

Finally :) 

These two were very interested

May we never ever need an ambulance!

Actually, the kids didn't really listen to the tour explanations, as expected. But luckily there were enough hands-on experiences. Yang and Yu were more interested compared to Kai. Anyway, this is probably the last trip to the fire station for the rest of their childhood!

We had lunch at Ikea. Lucky to get seats coz while we were eating, the food queue extended to outside the restaurant! 

Spent a couple of hours roaming the showrooms and shopping. The kids really enjoyed the showrooms, trying out sofas and beds and fiddling with all the knick knacks they could get their hands on.

Happy to be near this Ikea again. We'll be back for more chicken wings and showroom hopping!

A very busy and full week

We ate so much last week!

Monday, 18 Dec - a la carte buffet at Peach Garden

It looked good and it was good! Sito and I finished up five bowls of chicken / shark fin's soup; Kai and Yang each tried a spoonful of chicken soup. We also had five half-lobsters. Surprisingly, Yang liked the garlic lobster :)

Each kid liked different meats - chicken chop for Kai (and the rest too coz yummy), sweet and sour pork for Yang, and roast pork for Yu. Sito and I had these plus black pepper beef, pork ribs and wasabi prawns. Oh, and a very nice fried soon hock - even Yang said that was yummy!

The staff said the fried rice was for four pax but looking at the size of the serving bowl, we ordered two plus a bowl of fried noodles. Kai had a lot of fried rice and some noodles.

Surprise - Yu can use chopsticks now! Wobbly but ok!

Monkeying around when done with food

Another surprising thing was that Kai liked the lemongrass dessert!

Kai held Yu's hands on the way home 🥰

Tuesday, 19 Dec - hotpot and tea at YX's place

It must be the first time in a long time that we decided on a gathering so quickly. And on a weekday coz YX and Kel were supposed to work from home, um... 

At first I thought we were going to be late. Yu had a baluku for no reason on Sunday night, at the same spot as previous baluku. It subsided to his usual uneven head due to past baluku (😢) on Monday morning, but swelled up at night again. I could only get an appointment at the polyclinic for 11.10 am on Tuesday - so many sick people with fast fingers at 10 pm on Monday night!!!

Sito brought Yu to the doctor so that I could finish up housework at home and bring Kai and Yang to lunch on time. But surprisingly, they were called very quickly and came home in time to shower and rest before we had to set off for lunch!

Doctor said it looked like an infection. Later at night I saw some dried blood. When I asked Yu whether he scratched himself, he said he bumped his head near the baluku during dinner on Monday! No wonder I found two bumps on Tuesday morning! I'm afraid the doctor might have overlooked the baluku due to the scratch bump, sighs... Anyway, the baluku is no more so we shall monitor...

Anyway, we got to lunch at YX's on time. The adults caught up over lunch and house tour and tea, while the kids had fun playing board games, hide and seek and even phone/iPad games.

Older boys playing Chinese chess before lunch

Younger boys never finished this game of monopoly!

Happy faces! They were chatting throughout, very cute

Eating cupcake

We had so much food! SF is a really good cook. And she prepared so much for tea as well - cupcakes, ice cream, cakes and fruits. The kids enjoyed pinching grapes and keropok.

Older boys playing weiqi while a song about weiqi was playing

When we left, A even sent us to the bus stop and waved bye. It's nice to see friendship blossom among the next generation :)

Our bus ride was shorter than expected coz the boys wanted macs. We stopped at Serene Centre to grab their dinner. Sito and I couldn't eat! We only had some nuts later at night while watching drama.

I was outside the whole time coz it was too cold inside :p

Wednesday, 20 Dec - Paradise Dynasty

Sito signed the kids up for a workshop at the Apple Store at Orchard. The kids learnt to use Freeform on the iPad to brainstorm and design an invention with cool features to solve a problem.

They were given T-shirts for the workshop

Little vampire!

Lucky I captured this shot coz his tooth dropped later on our way to icecream! Good boy had been teasing the tooth the past few days so it would drop off asap. And it dropped off without blood, yeah! 

But Kai reminded me of a tooth he dropped at AhMa's place, for which he didn't get any fairy money. I thought I did not take it out of my bag and lost it! But I just checked my memorabilia box - found the tooth :) He's just too old for fairy money already!

Anyway, the workshop needed some creativity and speed as well. Kai managed to do it quickly enough while Yang and Yu couldn't be ready in time to present their invention to the group. We got all their work saved via Airdrop though :)

Kai explaining his invention to the facilitator

It was a brain installer for his slow phone, haha! Yang invented a machine to count sheep so that he could fall asleep more quickly, while Yu invented a dentist machine to remove his tooth and give him candy!

Must take picture at the Taka Christmas tree :)

Kids too :)

Dinner was at Paradise Dynasty. As it was very cold, I decided to order a bowl of hot and sour noodles for myself instead of snacking at dim sum and leftovers. My four boys had their usual - ZJM for Sito, plain noodles for the kids plus a pork chop fried rice for Kai. And of course XLB for all. Very full...

But that wasn't all! We took a walk to Centrepoint to check out running shoes for Sito then walked back to get ice cream from a cart outside Ngee Ann City for Sito, Kai and Yu. Yang wanted to try Turkish ice cream. We found the one outside Ngee Ann not as exciting so we went further up to Lucky Plaza.

Yang had a lot of fun!

Thursday, 21 Dec - homecooked fare

Thankfully, no big meals today! I made Taiwanese egg rolls to wrap arabiki for lunch, and a one pot stirfry and soup for dinner.

Friday, 22 Dec - three full meals!

Breakfast was at the hawker centre for the second consecutive week. And again, I offered extra phone time - 20 min if they chose food other than prata and bee hoon, or 10 min if they chose bee hoon like the previous week. All chose wonton noodles :) I knew Yu wouldn't be able to finish his so I didn't order food for myself, or I would have too much food!

Forgot what the kids had for lunch :p But they had to try a tang yuan coz it was winter solstice! 

I boiled 10 tang yuans - five sesame and five peanut butter. Kai and Yu chose sesame while Yang chose peanut. Kai managed to eat his with much drama. Yang spit it out into the toilet bowl along with some vomit, no thanks to Kai talking about puking *.* Yu took maybe an hour before he tried half of it - verdict: normal.

Seriously, these kids are too picky. They refuse to open their minds to new foods! Let them starve when we go on holiday next year...

We left for Bishan in the afternoon to return and borrow books, and buy school shoes and stuff. Kai had to wear size 41 and Yang 39!!! But I think Yang's feet were not that big... A few days later, I bought 37 online for him - if they are too small, I can keep for Yu. 

Dinner was with WaiPo. Sito was right about there being nuggets and I was wrong about the vege - there were green leafy vegetables instead of lettuce! There was also extra hot Japanese curry but thankfully diluted so it wasn't too spicy for Kai and Yu; Yang passed :p And Yu finished his soup in no time... Why why why won't he drink my soup?!

Showing rubber band magic to WaiPo

There was more food but I shall write separately coz Christmas!

Sweet sweet Yang

Yang is a very sweet boy. He always says he wants to help me around the house, doing things that I would do, and not kiddy stuff. The other day, he told me the bookshelves were very dusty. So I gave him wipes to clean them up.

He also helped me with lunch sometimes, cracking and beating eggs, bringing things for me, putting cheese slices on top of hot buns, etc. 

Here, he's helping to thread a needle for me coz I couldn't see

He didn't manage to do it in the end but it was still so nice that he was willing to help :) I was sewing up his Ultraman soft toy which had many holes...

Sample of a hole - before then after

I love to put him in bed the most coz he would let me hug him properly :) Yu is always wriggling about while Kai is always trying to be funny when it should be peaceful time, sighs...

This boy also tells me often that he likes my (fat) belly and he doesn't want me to die. In fact, he wants me to live to 200yo!! And he wants to keep my ashes when I die, instead of scattering them into the sea as per my request, for two reasons: (1) he doesn't know where to scatter ashes :p, (2) so he can talk to me, awww...

I was thinking the other day that the composite face of Sito and me looked a bit like Yang. Now that I dug it out, actually only the face shape looked like Yang. Maybe it's the fringe - Yang has baby hair at the fringe line when I sweep up his fringe. 

I shall go hug him now :)

Excursion across the Causeway

We had a little excursion across the Causeway last Wednesday, 13 Dec, our second trip via public transport.

A little digression...

The original plan was to go on Tuesday. But I tested positive for COVID on Sunday - I started having a sore throat on the previous Wednesday, 6 Dec, but was ok by end of Thursday. But I started coughing weirdly on Thursday night and felt awful on Friday - I get colds all the time but not coughs. Tested on Friday morning but negative. The cough worsened on Sunday and I tested positive with a faint line. 

I didn't quarantine myself from the boys coz I had been with them all this while. Might as well let us all get it. But strangely, no one caught it. When I tested on Monday afternoon, I was negative! To be safe, we waited one more day in case anyone came down with it but nope. Everyone was fine. 

So off we went on Wednesday!

Waited about an hour to be front of the queue for bus 950 at Woodlands

It was a much faster journey from Bukit Panjang. So we decided to take another bus from elsewhere next time...

Immigration was fast enough but we still got into JB later than expected. Lucky we didn't plan to watch a movie this time.

Lunch was at Sushi House - we had wanted to eat there last time but the staff were "on a rest". We ate so much! The kids liked it there. Yu even gave a ranking of all the curry rice he had before; mine was in the rank but not at the top haha!

Yang: Papa, why do you have lines on the forehead but not Mama?

Awww, poor Papa! We had a good laugh though :)

With Snow King of Mixue before going for the ice cream

We also bought a mango bubble tea which was very yummy! Along the way, we got some underwear for Kai (big bum!), butter cookies, piahs and even snacks from a supermarket. The main activity in the afternoon was of course massage.

Unfortunately, my masseur was not good at all. I don't know if she chatted on the phone or with colleagues but she had no technique and her pressure was not uniform throughout. My feet didn't have the massaged feel after the session, and my back was hurting the next day. So sad... Lucky Sito had a better experience.

Candy in a dispenser for Yu; Yang had the same one too

We thought we couldn't have dinner but the kids wanted to eat so we stopped by KFC before going home. Kind of sad we didn't go for roast!

But glad we left at that time coz we saw many people going into JB and they would likely leave after dinner. Early dinner has its advantage...

Master Chef Sito & Junior!

Before exams, I was chatting with Yang and/or Yu at bedtime when we decided to open our own breakfast cafes. So the kids dreamt up their cafe names and (much later) wrote their menus. I also had my own cafe :) 

When we had more time in the holidays, they took orders from everyone one day, and one fine week, we finally opened our doors!

Mama went first on Monday, 4 Dec - as a demo but these kids were too busy playing *.* Anyway, my 小妈妈餐室 served up scrambled eggs and omelette on toast for all of us :)

Kai's Delicious Food Cafe opened on Tuesday. His was Yakun style breakfast only. Everyone had kaya butter toast.

Must make angry face

Yang's Sunrise Cafe started operations on Thursday. But the kitchen opened a bit on Wednesday as he served up egg mayonnaise in addition to scrambled eggs and omelette on toast.

Happily beating eggs

He made jolly nice scrabbled eggs!

Yu's Eggs R Us ended the breakfast series on Friday. He lost one egg when he cracked it too hard! And he was just tall enough for the stove plus he found it a bit hot so sous-chef aka Mama helped a lot... He served up similar fare as Yang.

Pushed a bit and... too hot!

Papa and Mama rated the breakfast, and Yang scored 18.5 out of 20 vs. 17 for Kai and Yu! He won himself the first Master Chef Sito Junior title! And a whole bottle of Mentos candies while his brothers had a lollipop each.

Ok that was a very filling week, full of toast and eggs haha! And after that, we started having kaya butter toast quite a bit coz must use up the kaya! Yu didn't like it as much (Yakun better) so he had cheese on toast.

But we're not done yet! The following week, Master Chef Sito made radish cake! He used the radish I used for soup - no waste! And it turned out fabulous!

Happily panfrying Chinese sausage, dried shrimps and a fat scallop

The steamed version with homemade sauce

And we panfried it for dinner!

Actually, we cooked very little during school holidays. Most of the time, we pack or eat out. And we eat a lot when we eat out *.* Don't dare to weigh myself!

14 years since our last proper dance

We have known each other since 19yo, i.e. 24 years. That's more than half our life already.

We have been married for 14 years. That's more than the time we know each other.

We have not danced to a full song since 14 years ago, when we danced at our wedding :p

These days, we just sit around, eating :p

Kids too, eat and drink

Since last year, we have been spending this day with the kids. Quite nice since they're bigger now and can enjoy some of what we enjoy - like BBQ! Also must take every chance to tell them that 没有这天就没有他们！Haha!

Kids, daaash!

Kai and Yang went for the StanChart Kids Dash when they were 3yo. But I forgot to register for Yu when he turned 3yo - tickets were sold out by the time I remembered, oops... And that happened to be 2019, the last time the event was held and physically, no thanks to COVID.

So this year when the event was to be held properly once more, I made sure I registered in time, and this time for all three of them! And I kept their school shoes for this day - dumped all this morning!

On our way for an early dinner yesterday

Actually, I just wanted to show the back of their tee :p I was rather upset on Thursday when I collected the race packs, as the tees were all quite small. I followed the sizing at registration and measured their chest size. Don't remember there being age recommendations. Then when I saw the tees, Kai's was for 5-6yo!! 

I managed to exchange Yu's for a slightly bigger one. Kai and Yang just had to make do as there were no bigger sizes to change for. I guess better than nothing coz I remember last time, there was no exchange booth at all.

Canton Paradise!

Yu was so busy 埋头苦干开心吃-ing that he didn't pose for the shot! 

We had wanted to check out the new mall which opened yesterday but Yu had to poop for a long time right before leaving the house so we had to head for dinner first to avoid running on a full belly later. So we came back after dinner to check out the mall - not all shops were ready yet but it looks quite nice! Looking forward to full opening...

Standing in front of spanking new mall

All ready to dash!

We had bibs too

I even wore my old Ekiden tee from 2013 - 10 years ago! - and my running shoes. But nope, didn't intend to run and didn't run :p 

Sorry, Yu had to tiptoe coz I forgot the selfie stick!

There was a very nice carnival inside, with music, games and snacks. So we were quite occupied while waiting for our turn. Kai could go in with his brothers instead of waiting for his age group. 

But when we came out, we had to show the parent's bib corresponding to Kai - I didn't see this in the guidelines and FAQ at all. We flashed our family photo. There were kids in a pen waiting for their parents to pick them up with the parent's bib, macam animals in cage *.*

Peanut butter ice cream which mostly landed in Papa's belly, while queueing for popcorn

Anyway, we set off with the boys. In the past two times, only I went with the runner as it was - and still is - one accompanying parent per child but this time, we had more kids participating! Sito went ahead with them but as it was a U-turn, I turned early - went under a loop barrier to wait for them :p I totally missed Kai and spotted only Yang; Yu spotted me.

All done and got a medal each!

Macam playing pub game, with drink in hand!

Besides the medal, the kids were given snacks and drinks at the end of their run. The boys decided to play more games after their run. There were so many game booths!

Last ones to go for basketball as the booth was closing - do together!

They also got the very last cotton candy so must share

Bye! We had fun!

This is probably the last Kids Dash for us. Glad it was a fun one!

Go go go!

The kids went for a 围棋 weiqi mini camp on Monday to Wednesday. Just an hour each day at Ulu Pandan CC so Sito and I stayed in the CC to wait for them. We only walked around the market area on day one to check out dinner options. Needless to say, we had dinner there for three days - happy :)

Also needless to say, there was whining coz they "lost out" on TV and Nintendo. But these days, they have been wanting to play the game on the iPad... We are also looking at getting a physical set for them.

Kai vs. Papa

Now I'm the only one in the family who could not play weiqi. In fact, I'm also the only one who could not play international chess :p I can't tell the chess pieces apart *.* 

But I think I can learn weiqi. Then I can be like a 古人 in the dramas, playing weiqi and holding the seed, thinking... Haha!!