Pet society

Joelle is playing the internet game "pet society" on my mac. I am actually a basic facebook user until one of my friend introduce me to the fb game "farm town" and I got hooked. Then I introduce my six year old daughter to the game "pet society" and now she is hooked too. So I'm using it to get certain "difficult task" (eating, sleeping) done without much difficulty. The current agreement is a 30 minutes game time if she completes her dinner in 30 minutes. Anything more and she loses the slot. So far it's working.

Joelle the artist

Did I mention that joelle draws beautifully? I like these pictures very much. Look at the richness of the colours. By the way, I have never "taught" her how and what to draw. I always encourage her to imagine, to dream and to draw freely. I'm happy with her style so far. It's time I swift my focus and start observing the little one now.

Welcome Gerrick!

Everyone, meet my nephew Gerrick.
Gerrick, meet everyone.

The happy parents, the "missing-everything-baby" auntie and the proud grandparents. It's been three years since I hold an infant. I'm so excited. He's so small compared to my "not-so-baby-anymore" baby. I love infants and their baby smell. Aawwww.....

Happy father's day

Since the girls enjoy tee shirt painting very much, we decide to make one for daddy and give it to him on father's day. The tee shirt is a little too small for daddy. It makes him look like a little boy. The girls happily explain to their daddy what they drew. They are very happy when daddy puts it on. Even if it stays in the cupboard till it becomes a yellow tee, I think the effort and creativity of the girls and the smiles on their faces are already appreciated by their daddy.

This is joelle's side of the tee shirt.

This is isabelle's side of the tee shirt.

Orientus Resort

We were invited to a carnival cum open house at the orientus resort. It is an old building in seletar air base (previously known). We had a nice afternoon swim. The water's warm but it's deep (reaches joelle's neck). There is a small wading area at the far end of the deep pool. It's not too kids friendly as the wading pool connects to the deep pool by some steps and it is 1.8m deep. However it was not the depth of the pool that turns me off but the shower room. There are heaters in the cubicles but the water is not hot so I guess the switch to the heaters must either be hidden or the heaters are for display only. The exterior of the shower room looks like some old campsite toilet. Pretty daunting actually. They should spend a couple of hundreds to paint it, add murals or just make it bright and colourful. The place can be old but it got to be welcoming. Seems like our search for a convenient (nearby) club with pool and better facilities continues.

Safra @ Jurong

We visited the new safra at boon lay, jurong one afternoon. As it was a wednesday, the crowd was manageable.
The pool is colourful and fun with a children's jacuzzi, water play facilities and best of all, the water's warm! The girls spend an hour in the pool and still refused to leave. There is even a dedicated shower room for the children with mini cubicles, toilet bowls and doors! Every cubicle is equiped with liqiud soap and warm water. I hate pushing children into cold showers especially after a swim. So for me, this is the best bonus from safra to its members.
For the residents in the west, this is perhaps the best recreational facility so far. This place may be a little expensive but it's still affordable and worthwhile. *Think of the warm shower!

Bubble bath fun!

My girls are water babies. Always have been. Tell them "punggol swimming tub" and they can go crazy with excitement. The tub seems rather small now that they are so grown. I used to be able to sit in with joelle and isabelle individually when they were babies. Now... no way. Anyway I'm so glad we have the tub and we have the girls. Without the tub, the girls would not get to enjoy bubble bath with ease and without the girls, the tub would not be so happily utilized.

Punggol marina?

Brought the girls to the club formerly known as punggol marina one saturday. It was a hot day. We went down in the late afternoon and the sun was still blazing hot! Unfortunately for the girls, there were nothing for them to do. I think they have "long kang" fishing facility ready but not in operation and they are also in the middle of developing some facility there. Hope it's something the children can participate else punggol marina will be history. I remember when I was younger, we used to head to punggol marina to water-ski with friends. It was probably in its haydays then. Weekends were filled with tanned babes and hunks (us included) towing behind hired speadboats along the waterway. Now there is a dam seperating the sea and punggol river. It's been many years and the marina had not regain its past glory. I do hope something fun can come out of that memorable place so I can bring my girls there to relive the good o'days.
This little girl is so afraid of walking on things she can look through. She can see between the planks and she started to walk funny. She yelled out that she thinks she's going to fall through. Despite many assurance, she continued to walk only on the planks and not the gaps and kept her eyes fixed on each and every piece. Oh... she's just so funny. I love this baby.

Walking on glass!

There is an exhibition about water at the marina barrage and there is an area whereby we have to walk on glass panels overlooking the rivers and waterways that runs through Singapore. Joelle found punggol and sengkang and isabelle found a new way of walking. She's so funny. Watch the video for a good laugh.

Joelle's marina barrage

Hey check this out!
Joelle pulled me out from the office one afternoon to show me a surprise. Boy was I surprised indeed. She built a rather big model of the marina barrage complete with the bridge that divide the sea from the reservoir to the water play area and picnic area. She even included the coca-cola Booth that was giving out free bottles of coke-light that day. It was amazing I tell you. This girl is truly creative. I was so impressed. Oh and she took this picture with my canon digital camera and made her sister pose with it.

To the beach... at last

Mama came over on sunday and I decided to take them all to the beach. The girls like the beach very much and it's been a while since we head here. It was a very HOT day and the girls got pretty tanned even under their sunblock. It was scorching hot really but children will be children, they simply couldn't care less. There were many children playing on th beach. Some were in the waters, splashing around. Most of the adults (less the burnt-out mummies) were hiding in the shades. But it was still a great day for some fun in the sun. We were all exhausted in the end and dinner was ordered in.

There is this new prawn fishing corner in pasir ris park and the "big-head" prawns are really big and hmmm... juicy. This lady's 10 year old daughter caught this many prawns and she was nice enough to pull them up for me to take a picture. Wish I was invited to their dinner that night.

Family carnival @ punggol 09

We just entered June but we have already enjoyed two family carnivals in punggol. One for the residents of the blocks of flats behind ours and another for the residents from our blocks of flats. It's good that the grassroots organizes such parties for the residents as punggol is still a quiet town with little to do. So these parties are really welcome.

The girls were so entertained by the performances that day. It was good. Joelle enjoyed the puppet show so much that she almost laughed herself off the seat! Then there was a brilliant magic show with the magician performing from inside a balloon. Fantastic performances this time (compared to last year). Daddy and I enjoyed the health awareness talk so much we even approach the booth to gather more information on CPR and heart attack. Joelle even participated in the drawing competition. Isabelle (as usual) managed to dig out a bun to munch while watching the show. This is a really successful event. Kudos to the organisers for this event

Germaine's 3rd birthday.

Germaine celebrated her 3rd birthday on sunday with a dinner and a little party at home. Yes, isabelle has hair long enough to make two cute little pony tails now and we are so thrill with the idea of having her hair tie up whenever we leave the house. She looks so very sweet.

Sisters...

Jo and Issy. A pair of sisters. Very different in looks, likings, strength, characteristic and personality.
Joelle, the firstborn is very chatty, loud, affectionate, very sensitive and very creative. She doesn't like to eat and sleep and pass motion. She enjoys chatting, drawing, reading and loving. She has a very creative mind in arts and craft. Her drawings get displayed in the school boards and she likes to make personalize cards for people. I think she can draw pretty well actually. She just got to be in the mood. She's very dependent on her moods and requires plenty of attention. She wants to be a teacher now and she's always bossing her little sister around.
Isabelle, the baby doll is quite the opposite. She's only starting to talk a lot. Her voice is softer and sweeter. She doesn't respond too eagerly to affection and she's not sensitive to your pain and emotions. She is able to play by herself and she enjoys food very much. She's one child who can sit down to eat while the other children are playing wildly. Mealtimes are adhered to religiously and nap can be anywhere as long as it's after her lunch. She watches more than she plays. A very observant and intense child. She's one cool babe and she's starting to bully her sister to tears.

Happy Birthday Kong Kong!

We celebrated kong kong's birthday with a nice dinner, some donuts and a cake. We could not find any nicer cake other than this girlie heart-shaped cake from polar and hope my father would not mind. As usual the girls enjoyed the birthday song, blowing of candles and cutting the cake. It was a simple affair but a homely one indeed.
May your wish come true.