Karaoke

First time to karaoke! Gwendolyn was curious about why adults wanted to sing with microphones and kept asking why she has to sing into the mic? You know what she was singing (together with Summer)? They sang the Dora the Explorer song without any music! When the adults chose some kids songs for them to follow, e.g. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, London Bridge is Falling Down, they were at lost, as the motion picture behind does not make any sense to them! Also, not sure why kids song didn't come with analogue function. Only when the adults were able to get the analogue going for Do A Deer, then Lyn Lyn started singing into the mic!

Frederick Di Di's 2nd Birthday

29 April 2007 was Frederick Di Di's 2nd birthday party, held at Northoak condo at Woodlands! We arrived at around 11:50am and Gwendolyn was already eyeing on the playground when on the way into the function room! Mama lured her to finish her food and wait for Fredrick Di Di before proceeding to the playground! Like a monkey, she liked all the climbing areas and she can climb very steadily!

It's cake-cutting time! All the kids were amazed at the Thomas The Train cake, with real Thomas The Train toy on it! Also, the cake was specially ordered with 2 flavours: chocolate (non-alcoholic) and lychee martini (alcholic)! Yum Yum...all the kids sang Happy Birthday in both English and Chinese and Lyn Lyn clapped and sang out loud! But one good thing was that she didn't fight to blow Frederick Di Di's candles, but waited for him to blow...then asked to cut the cake together!

Not sure why she refused to step aside when the happy family was taking a "family" photo and she asked to be in it as well! Somehow, she's mistaken that all "Di Dis" are her cousins and she kept telling Mama that she has 2 cousins: Joel and Frederick and Mama was trying to convince her that only Joel is a blood-relative! It's really an uphill task!

After the exciting cake-cutting. Lyn Lyn was looking for Fredrick Di Di and noticed that he was getting changed into his swimming costume. Mama didn't bring her swimming costume and she was kind of upset. Surprisingly, she was willing to get into the water in her t-shirt and shorts. Normally, once her clothings are wet, she'll ask to change/remove, but not this time! She joked that Thomas was all wet and kept asking why? It was funny seeing her trying to dunk herself under the water, showing off to Frederick Di Di that she's no longer scared of going under the water! Also, she's just learned "dog paddle" from her Topsy and Tim book on "Learn to Swim" and tried "dog-paddling" by the side of the pool! Seems like she can learn and relate very well from books and reading seemed to have unexpectedly good effects on her! This has given Mama more excuses to look out for more experiential books for her!

After all the playing, Lyn Lyn had another big piece of bread, before falling asleep in the car journey home! She had a wonderful day!

P.S. She seemed to have an exceptionally good apetite after all the morning action...dinner was at Sushi Tei @ Holland Village...she finished one bowl of udon as usual, plus one and a half sticks of jumbo yakitori, 3/4 bowl of edamame beans! That's not all...she still went for a banana split at Haagen-Daz right across the road! If it weren't for the ice-cream, she would be finishing all the yakitori. You know what she said? I can't eat the chicken...I'll die...wonder who taught her about dying and how eating too much will die?

Physical Activity @ WCP

Apart from eating at WCP's McDonalds, WCP is also a good place to get physical for the family! There are plenty of exercise facilities for older kids and adults as well! On Saturday, Papa Mama brought Gwendolyn for some breakfast, as we haven't been there for a while. As the weather condition hasn't been stable in the last few weeks, we didn't bring the aeroplane and also forgotten about the new bicycle. Instead, we just had a walk around the park...but when we have just started, Lyn Lyn got her legs all buddy by walking on the grass and splashing the mud all over...Mama brought her to the feet washing area outside McDonalds and she was busy washing herself there!

When she was all clean, she remembered not to walk on the wet grass after rain, if not, she'll get all messy again! We followed the concrete footpath and led us to the exercise area! Mama challenged Lyn Lyn for some balancing action! Without second thoughts, Lyn Lyn jumped to the idea and followed the other kids...climbing their ways! Initially, Mama thought it was a little too high for Lyn Lyn and worried that she would lose her balance and fall of with insufficient strength! Surprisingly, she's really strong and managed to climb all the way! She climbed up without any help, but needed some guidance in coming down, as she hasn't tried descending from a certain height! But after trying once and she's gained her confidence, she repeated the action all by herself!

After some climbing, we proceeded to some pure balancing on the balancing beam! Initially, Lyn Lyn wasn't very confident about walking all by herself. But with Mama standing near her, she was reassured and tried taking baby steps until she was totally comfortable in taking much bigger steps! Occasionally, she'll scream: Mama, stand near to me! Standing nearby can really reassure her that Mama is always by her side if she needed help! She can always rely on her parents to guide and help as and when she asks for it!

Her balancing skills have much improved and she's more matured like a 3-year-old!

Birthday Presents!

Many thanks to everyone who attended Gwendolyn's 3rd birthday party and surely she enjoyed all your company and generous presents!

Once again, thank you so much!

Birthday Celebration @ Aloha Changi

Gwendolyn seemed to be over-exerted before her actual birthday, as she refused to sleep the night before...dragging passed 12 midnight and woke up unusually early in the morning around 6:30am, in much anticipation of her 3rd birthday party! She knew that it was a big thing and we were going to a chalet! But she wasn't sure what a chalet was...she kept asking : who's house is that?

We left home at around 10:30am, arriving at around 11:15am. After collecting the keys, we went straight to Chalet F, right next to the Changi Sailing Club! It was exciting and also disappointing, as the chalet was rather run-down, much worse than the one that I went to for my offsite meeting less than a month ago. Nevertheless, there were 4 big bedrooms and we switched on all the air-cons and fans within reach! In order to transform an ordinary chalet to a party venue, Mama brought many many balloons to decorate the place, with some birthday banners!

Everyone was mobilised in decorating the venue

It wasn't easy to decorate the place and blowing 80 balloons (even though with the help of a foot pump) and hanging them...Mama tied a number of smiley face balloons at the entrance just to make it more prominent for the guests!

Papa Mama thought quite a lot of the guests would have gotten lost along the way, in the end, it wasn't that bad and most managed to find their ways, with the exceptions to the commando group, where they were the ones who's gotten lost and arrived the latest (P.S. the commando camp is very near to the chalet and no one would have expected them to be lost)!

Despite the disappointment with the commando uncles (without naming who)...Lyn Lyn enjoyed playing with the kids on the open area of the chalet! Initially, she was elegantly wearing her Cinderella dress...however, when she noticed that the kids were playing with bubbles, she wanted to join in. In order not to dirty her pretty princess dress, she changed back into her t-shirts and shorts to join in the fun. From then onwards, she refused to give up the comfort for the girlie dress!

Whilst playing with the bubbles, so happen that one of the party bags contained a water gun and the kids started with a water gun fight...with more kids asking for water gun, Mama had 3 on hand. Uncle Willis was the first to take revenge on the kids, followed by Lyn Lyn, wanting to follow the older kids!

What's in her hand? Water gun! This was her first exposure to the "weapon"!

Our kind-hearted Lyn Lyn was so concerned when she accidentally wet Papa's t-shirt! She kept saying: I want Papa to be dry...worrying that Papa has no dry clothings to wear and being uncomfortable!

After playing for around 2 hours, we had the cake-cutting ceremony at 3:15pm. Even though the commando groups were not here yet, we proceeded to the ceremony as some guests have to leave.

The cake, specially chosen by Lyn Lyn!

The Happy Family!

Actually, the cake was too big (3kg) and we only ate the bottom part of it. We actually kept the top portion for a second round of cake cutting, as there were still guests who haven't arrived yet!

After the cake cutting, quite a lot of the aunties and uncles left, with new ones arriving...the remaining ones, e.g. Lyn Lyn, Joel, Summer continued round 2 of the party...watching Dora vcds again, from Uncle Don's portable dvd player!

Also, if you notice how small the "parking" area was at the entrance to the chalet, you would have expected our guests parking over at the Sailing Club's chalet and got complained...with the help of our professional valet racers: i.e. Uncle Victor, he managed to re-arrange the remaining cars and fit them all nicely within the chalet "parking" area!

Remember the once broken aeroplane that Mama bought for Lyn Lyn to play at the West Coast Park? It's been fixed and Mama brought it along to play at the lawn too! At least, it's still in good condition and can fly! Gu Cheung was trying to play with Lyn Lyn, but Lyn Lyn kept trying to "climb" up the slope in slippers...

Not sure why they all wanted to be challenged by walking up slope?

Around evening time, when it wasn't so hot, Auntie Lena brought the kids down to the beach, which was just down the staircase. None of us brought any sand toys and Auntie Lena just made use of the disposable bowls and cups for the kids to play with!

The beach isn't as nice as presented in the photo!

REVENGE TIME...why? Remember last September, during Summer's birthday, Lyn Lyn blew out her candles and Summer was shocked...this time, Uncle Don and Auntie Lena purposely bought the Magic candles, so that the two kids can keep blowing and blowing until they run out of their breaths! Both were amazed and loved that...she kept blowing and blowing and still asked to blow some more. But as they noticed that the candles kept re-lighting themselves, both blew even harder and in the end, spat at the candles! Poor Cinderella...she was being spat at and later...Summer deformed her face by poking and eating the cream! What violent kids!

After the formal party...Lyn Lyn and Summer kept playing all night, running around the chalet, riding the bike in and out of the rooms, screaming in the chalet...in the end, Lyn Lyn had a very coarse voice and had to rest on Monday as well!

For more pictures from Lyn Lyn's party, please visit Patrick Fu Fu's photosite: http://fotop.net/patrickko/20070423

Birthday Present Shopping at Vivocity

Since none of us were very hungry after the heavy breakfast and birthday cake, we've decided to let Lyn Lyn choose her birthday present at Toys R Us. Since she knows the place very well, she quickly dashed into the shop and played in front of the camera for a while before entering the shop proper to look for other toys. The first thing that caught her eyes were the joystick controller from the Vtech Smiles machine. She's tried playing this numerous times, but still, can't really control it. But this time, she understood that in order to play and win the game, she needed to find 2 matching ones! She stood there and completed 2 games before proceeding onto another section.

Papa tried distracting her by bringing her a small bicycle and this time, she's able to ride on it and turn the wheels! All were amazed and said that finally, we can buy a bicycle for her birthday! Special thanks to Ms Wahila for training her everyday in school during outdoor play, so as to enable us to get her a new bike for this birthday!

After we've found the perfect present for her this birthday, the adults have decided to sit down for lunch. Whilst Papa bring the bike to the car, Mama carried Lyn Lyn to watch another kid cutting her hair at the new "salon corner" in Toys R Us. When being asked, Lyn Lyn refused to have her hair cut, but insisted that she watch! We watched until Papa came back and then set off to Sushi Tei for some food! As usual, Lyn Lyn finished the edamame beans and her udon...she asked for strawberry ice-cream after lunch and held Gong Gong's hand and brought him to Haagen-Daz to pay for her ice-cream...Yum Yum!

We shopped for a little while more before stopping at the playground for Lyn Lyn to play, before she finally fall asleep! Her belated afternoon nap!

Birthday Party in School

This year, Gwendolyn's birthday happened to fall on a Saturday and Papa Mama arranged her school party to be on the Friday before the actual day. It's a much anticipated party in school, as Lyn Lyn has specially requested for at Barney cake for her friends in school! However, when Mama received a call from Ms Angeline on Thursday, knowing that Lyn Lyn was down with fever, she was a little worried that Lyn Lyn cannot manage to have the party on Friday. Luckily, she just had slight diarrhea and medication had done the job!

Same as last year, Gong Gong Por Por came all the way from Hong Kong to celebrate her birthday and we all went for dinner on Thursday night! Next morning, both Papa and Mama took leave for the day, in order to celebrate Lyn Lyn's birthday with her! Lyn Lyn went to school happily, knowing that Papa and Mama will return with her Barney cake to share with her friends.

Papa and Mama packed the party bags at home and went over to Jurong Point to collect the cake before heading straight to the school! When we arrived in the school, all the children have finished their lunches, showered and all seated in the PN classroom, waiting for us to arrive!

When Mama arrived, Mama handed the party bags to the kids individually and Lyn Lyn was not slow in noticing her little puzzle inside was not Cinderella. Without a second thought, she quickly looked around and exchanged it with someone else!

When Mama finally opened the cake box, all the kids were very excited to see the Barney cake! Lyn Lyn's asked for a chocolate sponge cake and she had 3 slices!

Specially chosen by Lyn Lyn: I want one Barney in a circle one!

All excited about the cake, scaring that someone will blow off her candles!

It was amazing to see how much the kids loved the cake, as the 9 kids managed to finish more than half of the cake, even though they have already finished their lunches! This is an amazing bunch of kids!

Special thanks to Ms Shu Ping, Ms Angeline and Ms Lissa for the generous presents! It's so kind of you to spend time and effort in choosing a present for her!

After the school party, all the kids proceeded to wash up and prepare for their afternoon nap, whilst Lyn Lyn left early with Papa Mama, Gong Gong Por Por for some more birthday shopping!

East Coast Park

Nothing much was planned for Sunday and Bao Bei Gu Gu suggested that we meet up to do something. Mama suggested cycling at East Coast, as we haven't been there for quite a few months now. Whilst waiting for Bao Bei Gu Gu and Gu Cheung, we all sat down at McDonalds, while Gwendolyn have some fun at the playground!

We waited for a while, but Joel Di Di fell asleep after lunch, we proceeded to the beach without them. Mama noticed that the coast was very windy and there were quite a few people flying kite. Mama suggested Lyn Lyn to try flying one. We went over to the small stores to buy a colourful triangular one and without any effort, it just flew by itself...wow! Yeah...we're flying a kite!

As the wind kept blowing, Lyn Lyn got a bit of concerned about her messy hair...she requested to tie up her hair before continuing with the action! No choice, but Mama has to bring her back to the store to buy some hair bands, as we didn't expect it to be so windy! Off we go...see how much she enjoys herself after tying them up!

Enough of flying kite, we proceeded to rent a bike! This time, instead of having Lyn Lyn behind, we have her sitting in front. But this is no joke. It's very difficult to cycle with some weight in front, especially requiring skills to open up the knees to accommodate for the space for her! It was really tiring to cycle in this way!

Finally, the sky was getting dark and we all returned the bike and joined Bao Bei Gu Gu at Parkway Parade shopping centre! After reaching Parkway, Lyn Lyn fell asleep and Joel Di Di was busy playing with the toys at Isetan...we waited for Lyn Lyn to wake up and the 2 kids had some fun around the shopping complex...

Grand finale: sharing a shopping cart at Giant before we setoff for dinner at the East Coast Food Centre!