Happy rabbit year!

It's going to be a prosperous rabbit year ahead given the downpour these few days! Coz 水为财 :)

The kids had a celebration in school on the Friday before LNY. Kai wore his dragon red top; Yang decided against his pineapple shirt which he agreed to just last month so he wore school uniform; Yu wore his blue top. 

Standard pose

Kai looks so small here!

When I went to pick the kids up in the afternoon, I saw many SCGS girls wearing cheongsam for their celebration - so nice! Actually, I don't remember doing this when I was in school... Even if there were such things, I'm sure I didn't have all these LNY clothes.

This year, we had two reunion dinners. On Friday, we went to Mother's place. As the kids passed the kitchen to wash feet, Yu thought he saw nuggets and took one - it was fried prawn! But he liked it and kept pinching. Then Yang caught on and joined him :p Only Kai wasn't keen on the prawns. But later during dinner, he discovered fried wantans :)

So happy to pinch food!

And to watch Netflix while eating

Notice a lobang in the plate of fried prawns? :p

Thanks to the curry, I had way too much rice... I even had a lot of potato! Soup and dessert were not in the picture. After we were all done, YQ said that the fried food wouldn't be nice if they were kept for another day. I agreed! Haha! So the few of us finished up the fried stuff and the roast pork. So full...

The second reunion dinner was at Mum's place. Started with yusheng as usual. The kids joined in but only ate the crunchy bits from my plate... Oh, Kai had a confused moment on our way out - lo hei vs. wok hei *.*

They had fun flipping food around!

A lot of food! Some meatballs were pinched off even before we had the yusheng...

Again, soup and dessert were not in the picture. I was surprised that Yu liked the steamed fish! Maybe I should try at home...?

The big pot on the right is 盆菜 which I had wanted to make after learning from Ah Yee last LNY. I even jotted down points! But no opportunity to cook reunion dinner at home this year. Maybe another time...

His belly was very round haha!

Yu fell at the playground downstairs. Went home with a bloody elbow and a bloody knee. I knew we were out of big plasters but lucky for us, Watson was still open! Managed to dress his wounds properly.

As usual, we let the kids stay up late on LNY eve. We got back later than usual and let them play a bit on their phone before watching an old Jackie Chan movie. I love such movies during LNY haha! Also brought out snacks for them but Sito and I were too full to eat much this year. 

Got space for Papa and Mama? :p

Chased them to bed after the movie ended. We wanted to sleep so they must sleep haha! They all slept until past 8 am the next day, considered late for them early risers. 

First, 拜年

Yang the photo bomber was at work again... But quite funny la so I kept it :p

Our usual LNY family portrait :)

T-shirt family this year! The boys all wore dinosaur prints. All different but they wore the same pants from Uniqlo. Kai made this face on purpose but quite funny too so I kept it :p

Mum et al went to Malacca on the first day so we would go visit them on Sunday instead. Got to AMK later than expected. The trains were quite empty. I seem to recall that the trains were more packed during LNY, strange... Anyway, we were happy to get there - parents were hungry haha! Kids were too distracted by Netflix to snack much. 

But this boy was very pleased with candy!

Next stop was Ah Yee's place. Or 阿嬷家 forever haha! Ah Yee prepared a lot of food! Finally, the extended family could gather together once more! So nice to see everyone again and to have more than 10 or even 20 of us in the little flat once more :)

So much food that so many of us could not finish!

It was raining so the kids were stuck. Luckily, there was Shaun the Sheep on TV. During a gap in the rain clouds, they went to the playground but Yu fell again on the same injured knee! I led him back to apply a new plaster. His brothers came back shortly coz it started raining again!

I let them OTOT in the living room while I chatted with the cousins and aunties and uncles. It had been such a long time since we met. A niece showed up almost unrecognisable!

We left after the yusheng. I should say lo hei coz no fish? Haha!

Special yusheng without fish but with bah kwa and goma sauce!

We packed Macs for the kids for dinner while Sito and I cooked instant noodles - perfect for a cold day!

On the second day, we wanted to go to Istana open house and River Hongbao. But thanks to the rain, we only managed the former. It was lunch time by the time we got to Dhoby Ghaut. We had all of one brolly with us and we saw the queue past Plaza Sing! Ok, lunch first...

Five Guys! Yu said it's called that coz there were five of us, haha! But in the end, he didn't like his burgers due to all the vege toppings. So sad coz it was so nice!!!

The queue disappeared by the time we were down with lunch. It also stopped raining. So we went into the queue, only to have it start raining again! Well, one brolly. We sheltered the kids. My bum was wet. Sito was all wet before he dug out a recyclable bag from our bag - instant fashion icon ok! So many people noticed, and that it was a SGSecure bag :p Good karma for making people happy :)

A photo to remember the OOTD

The kids weren't super enthu about this, especially Kai due to the rain. But the rain kind of disappeared by the time we went in and they had fun running about the sandpits. They even thought it was fake grass *.*

Just as they sped off!

Of course they must fall into the sandpit! I saw Kai and Yu slide down into the sandpit. Only their shoes were dirty, heng! I was wearing a pair of closed-toe sandals which got wet and sandy so I had to wash four pairs of shoes when we got back. Their Crocs were easy. Mine are still stinking out there coz no sun! 

Taking shelter as it started raining but these two had fun running in and out of the rain!

We decided to just walk to the main building and leave since the rain was not heavy. Anyway, Yang and Yu seemed to have had a lot of fun just walking and chatting in the rain. I shared a brolly with Kai while The Fashion Icon continued to strut about the Istana grounds.

Playing only

We didn't go into the main building since we were damp/wet and didn't want to fall sick from the aircon inside. We just walked out slowly. It would have been very nice if the weather was good.

Being very proper so that they could play Papa's phone

Steamboat for dinner!

That was a perfect end to a cold and rainy day :)

As it continued to rain, our plan for Day 3 was perfect - movie! Went to CCK to get tickets - so ex coz no student price on public holidays :( Then we went for a late breakfast at Yakun. It was a rather cramped outlet compared to downstairs. And it was crowded. We could only get a single table with a bench side so I got them to sit and wait while I went to get food. But the nice staff shifted them to a four-seater while I was queueing. 

Yang finished the two eggs for the first time! They also finished their requested number of slices - two each for Yang and Yu, four (!) for Kai. I had coffee and bought fried chicken from OCK to top up :p

We had time to kill so I decided to let them play at the arcade outside the theatre. It was especially fun coz there were tickets to be won. We pooled our winnings and redeemed two small toys. One is already broken *.*

Standard outfit for movies :p

We watched Mummies, which was quite fun! And I was very tickled by Yu's happy laughs :) I think I will always bring them to Shaw for movies - they have small tubs of popcorn which doesn't cost an arm and a leg! No complaints from kids when they don't need to share popcorn!

Came home to open hongbao!

I think this time, I'll deposit their money into CPF instead. Start them saving early.

Fast forward to last Saturday, we went to Ichiban for dinner - again. But this time, we decided to add yusheng! We saw many people waiting to collect yusheng and realised it was Day 7 人日 which is the day for yusheng. Ordered a small one since the kids wouldn't eat - happy!

Taken by Yang :)

Last 拜年 for the year was yesterday when we went to Mum's place. The kids still remembered LNY greetings without my prompting, yeah! 

Forgot to take a photo of their new outfits but here's one with Yang

Context - he was feeling hot from playing despite it being a cold day. So he made himself comfy under the fan and exclaimed, "Isn't this life?" Hahaha! It is indeed!