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We had a nice gathering with friends by the beach at Big Splash (East Coast) today.

Nine families altogether.

And when it started to get rather dark, we had fun with fire sparklers too!

Vai was fine with them, but Anya wasn’t too keen on getting anywhere close.

Too bad I didn’t manage to get a shot of people doing a ‘2009′ with their fire sparklers! It would’ve been cool!

Anyway, though we all didn’t have our parents or relatives here in Singapore to spend our Christmas Day with, we had a great time spending our day in the company of friends!

It was all nice.

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How did you spend your Christmas day?

We went to the concert last year, and we’re there at Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s Babies Prom again last Saturday.

And this time round, with a really big group of friends too (there were like, over thirty of us on the front left of the Victoria concert hall!)

The day didn’t start that well for us though and Anya was feeling really ‘blue’ that morning (she didn’t get a good night sleep!).

She gave me the ’sulky sad-eyed look’, and wasn’t interested in participating much.

She was feeling better towards the latter part of the day, but I can’t help but feel a little unsatisfied inside. You know, that she didn’t quite enjoy her time at the concert.

Especially since she had a pretty good time last year, with her once-in-a-lifetime ‘conducting opportunity’ and all.

[click HERE to watch 'Anya the Conductor' video on youtube]

[Towards the end of the concert, kids were allowed to go on stage and watch the performance up close]

Anyway.

As usual, ‘Peter Moore the conductor’ was really good with the young audience. The concert hall was packed with parents and children (and babies!). The tickets were all snapped up just as soon as they went on sale too!

[From left to right : Nate, Caden, Vai and Noah. They're all born between August and November 2006!]

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Tips:
If you’re planning to go next year, find out when the tickets will be on sale, and be sure to buy them within the first few hours! Really, tickets do get sold out super fast!

During our recent trip to Jakarta we went to my cousin-in-law’s wedding. And it was all beautiful.

Love her gown, her make-up, her hairdo, the decor, the classy live Jazz band, and the yummy buffet spread.

[Captured by Wilson when we're all at the wedding suite before the dinner started]

The kids dressed up too that evening. Anya put on the little cute dress she wore when she was a flower-girl at a friend’s wedding last year (yes, STILL fits!), and Vai wore a matching bow tie, vest and pants.

Now, I don’t know if it’s just a ‘boy’ thing (because Anya is hardly like this), but you see, these days Vai likes to pull a silly face whenever we’re taking photos of him. Covering his face with his hands, pouting, shutting his eyes and smiling away for some ten seconds or so, and doing some silly gestures with his hands or body. So yes, taking a ‘proper’ group photo with him can be a bit hard at times.

[With their cousin, Keira]

[This was when Vai casually played with his toy train on the floor while we're all trying to get him to take a group photo with his grandparents during our pre-dinner photo shoot. We managed to get a nice shot in the end. Yay!]

We were at the wedding dinner for a good three hours or so. And frankly, at first I thought the kids would be bored for staying around for THAT long at a wedding dinner, but hey, they proved me wrong. The whole ambiance was nice and casual, and we had a spacious area at a corner to ourselves.

They sat, ate, roamed around, giggled themselves silly, ran in circles and rolled on the ground. They kept themselves very well entertained! They were happy, and we happily let them be.

It was all good.

[Wilson spotted a really nice mirror at the hotel and so we took turns taking self-portrait shots of ourselves!]

A friend’s wedding.

Daddy’s behind the camera.

And at some point, so did his ‘little assistant’! (with Mommy’s Ixus in hand)

I like photos of little kids sitting (or standing) in a row. You know, those ‘oh-so-cute group of babies still trying to sit upright on a sofa without falling to one side’ type of shots.

I like to keep moments where my kids had fun with other kids. To look back one day and see how little they all are in that shot. How they each look like at that age. Etc.

And, I found THAT moment today!

Of Vai and his friends : Nate, Noah and Andrew.

PS: Photo was taken when parents and kids were at a fellowship earlier today

We went go-karting yesterday at Johor Bahru (JB), Malaysia!

The last time we went go-karting was over a year ago! And this time round, the group trip was organised by the Indonesian Professionals’ Association (IPA) and we joined in the fun!

There were some thirty-five of us (not everyone was in the photo above) and we all took taxis from the City Square Shopping centre.

And just like last year, we went to Permas Go-Kart Club again, BUT they’ve moved to a different location not too long ago. It’s now at ‘Plentong’, a smaller town in Johor Bahru.

The good news is, the circuit is now bigger and better.

And the not-so good news is, errr, the road leading up to the circuit is unexpectedly … bad! I mean, literally, it was offroad!

Our taxi had to slowly drive through what, more-appropriately, should be called a ‘jungle’ (on our left and right) for a good 3.5km! Gravels-and-mud-covered road tracks! And, the earlier rain and drizzle didn’t help much too.

Our driver - and all other taxi drivers who took the group there - was not at all happy. They claimed that if they had known about the bad road condition and how it’s so far into the ‘forest’, they wouldn’t have taken us there in the first place! And, they all asked for at least double the meter charge, if not more.

[We had a deal with our driver in the end : he'd wait for an hour and he'd take us back to the city]

Anyway, other than THAT, the go-karting experience itself was, refreshingly goooood!

The very first time I went go-karting was when I was in Perth. I was 15 years old then. My second time was last year. And so today was my third go-kart drive!

As I stomped on the gas to the max, I remember feeling how good it was to experience something so completely different from our daily routine! It was just, so refreshing!

Wilson and I so needed that (well, don’t we all?)

Anyway.

Here are more photos of the day!

[While waiting for the other group before us to finish, Vai observed his surroundings and Anya, well, she got herself busy wiping her Polliwalks duck shoes clean!]

[Anya's checking out daddy's hair cover, while Vai looked on, perhaps thinking how silly she looked with it on her head, haha!) Btw, every driver must put this on before wearing the helmet]

[Wilson and I took turns so one of us could be with the kids, who btw watched the many go-karts swooshing by quite intently!]

[As I sort of expected, we're the only ones WITH kids! Hehe]

Anyway.

We both enjoyed our go-kart outing today! And hopefully we don’t have to way till ‘next year’ to have another go!

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Hope you had a great weekend!

Last weekend we took Wilson’s family for a night out at Chinatown as they’re looking for souvenirs to bring back to Jakarta.

It’s a pretty nice place for tourists (even locals) to visit I think. You’d find stuff like two-dollars fridge magnets with the word ‘Singapore’ on it, merlion-shaped keyrings or some eight-dollars chinese tote bags.

We were (obviously) not looking for anything in particular, but we did enjoy the overall atmosphere there.

And we checked out Chinatown Food Street on Smith Street too, where more than twenty food stalls sell all sorts of yummy food stuff.

Afterwards we walked for some ten minutes or so towards The Central shopping centre at Clarke Quay. Enjoyed a nice stroll by the Singapore river and watched people going mad on ‘Reverse Bungy‘ and ‘Xtreme Swing‘ too!

It was a nice night-out for everyone, I think!

We’ve been to the Singapore Zoo for quite a number of times but I don’t think we’ll ever get tired of it.

We get to see and learn about God’s beautiful creatures - big and small, cute and weird-looking - AND we simply love its open concept where we don’t have ‘cages’ between us and the animals, as well as the fact that it preserves its ‘green’ landscape well too.

The kids and I took Wilson’s family there today and we were there for a good six hours! They loved it!

And I must say, one of the nice things about Wilson’s family is that they love photography!

I mean, when we go out, everyone except my sister-in-law actually brings along a camera! Even my mom-in-law carries a video camera with her during such holiday trips!

[Top photo was taken by my father-in-law]

And so there, thanks to my brother-in-law, I had that shot of me and the kids! [left photo]

It was one of those times when BOTH Anya and Vai wanted to sit on the pram.

They whined and argued about who ’should’ sit and I knew I had to carry one of them in my sling. After all, we did walk quite a lot today.

Btw, I don’t usually carry my kids on my back with a sling. Somehow I just feel this position puts a heavier strain on my shoulder than carrying the kid in front and on my left side like I usually do.

Or, perhaps it’s simply because I’ve yet to figure out how to best wear the sling for this position.

Anyway.

We had HEAPS of photos taken today and here are some of my chosen ones.

[Last photo]
Vai personally asked me to take a photo of him sitting there by the ‘actual-sized hippos cut-out posters’.

Btw, here’s one interesting fact I learned today :
According to the info sheet, each pygmy hippo (the smaller one) is, on average, about 160 kg in weight, and it’d take TEN pygmy hippos to make one Nile hippo (the bigger one in the photo)!

AND, since Vai is now 15.2kg, that means it’d take ten to eleven Vai to make one pygmy hippo and about one hundred Vai to make just one Nile hippo!

Cool stuff!

We had such a nice time at East Coast Park yesterday!

The kids enjoyed some sandplay and went on playing and running along the beach.

We rented some bicycles too and cycled quite a fair bit till we’re away from the ‘public holiday’ crowd. And how I LOVE the forested cycling tracks and the whole ‘close to nature’ feel! It was awesome!

Anyway, here are some more of our captured moments of the day! Enjoy!

[Info]
- Bicycle rental : $6 per 2 hours (for single seater, with and without child seat); $8 per 2 hours (for tandem ones). You get a bottle of mineral water too upon returning the bikes.
- As it’s a public holiday, there’s quite a big crowd along the beach nearest to the eating area. The available ’shower area’ was packed with people too and so we roughly ‘cleaned up’ our kids off the sands near McDonald’s, which was ALSO crowded.

I just recently found out that in 1954 the United Nations actually suggested that all nations observe a universal Children’s Day as a way to promote the welfare of the world’s children.

In Singapore, we celebrate Children’s Day every October 1st, and it’s a Public Holiday today as it falls on the same day as Muslims celebrate their Hari Raya!

Anyway this morning, when my kids woke up I greeted them with ‘Happy Children’s Day!’ and a big smile, AND just to get in the spirit of things, the kids wear their ‘I Love Children’ shirts and dropped by the I Love Children’s roadshow at Tiong Bahru Plaza earlier today too! Hehe.

[Btw, 'I Love Children' is a non-profit organisation that aims to promote family and children's welfare in Singapore, and I'm glad to have the opportunity to work with them closely]

…

[Top Photo] That’s them at the I Love Children booth. And if you take a closer look, that’s a photo of 4-month-old Vai (with his head covered with a blue towel), and a shot of Anya and Vai washing their hands right below it (Btw, Vai still couldn’t see how it was him on the panel even after we pointed it out to him, hehe)

Anyway the kids got a goodie bag each (given out to 300 kids today) and we got a copy of ‘Scribbles’ too, their quarterly newsletter, where my earlier blog post on ‘Staying Happy, Staying Together‘ (a shorter version of it) is featured there (Click here to read the newsletter’s first two pages in larger print).

We didn’t get to stay there for too long though (to find out the winner of the ‘Romance still happens’ family photo contest!), but we did have a really nice full-day out today with the kids and Wilson’s family who’re in Singapore for a good one week.

A great way to spend our Children’s Day, I think!

Anyway, will post more photos soon!

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What did you do and where did you go on Children’s Day? Ideas on places to visit as a family please…