Our Founding Fathers

Life had been crazy, crazy, busy-crazy at work, yet I try not to sacrifice on family time spent in the evenings and over the weekends, which means I also have a lot to blog about!

Big Bee did another Social Studies project for school, with the theme of "The Early Settlers", and this time, she conducted her own research all by herself, with no guidance from me. At Big Bee's insistence, Hubby and I brought Little Bee for her violin lessons, leaving Big Bee alone at home to do some online research. By the time we were back in an hour, she had already completed her research, with her findings nicely typed and formatted on 2 pages of Word document, about Tan Tock Seng! My big girl is indeed growing up real quick, becoming more independent, and not needing her good ol' parents anymore! :(

Here was what she did. She bound the book in a nice little layered notebook, but I did not capture any photos of the final product.

My Family, My Best Friends

Poor Big Bee had to go to school on her birthday, so I brought her for lunch in MacDonald's after school, together with a nice ice-cream session in another cafe. We then had a merry cake-cutting session with a delectable blackforest cake in the evening.

Being with a big girl is really wonderful - it felt like we are friends, and recently, we had been gossiping a whole lot. During our alone-time during my Saturday enrichment class cum lunch with her. During her little birthday lunch with me. At home in her bedroom. And she would gabble on about her friends, politics in class, teachers and the little pressures she faces in her studies. It felt just....marvelous that I had reached this amazing stage in my life when all I could do was sit back, relax with my daughter and just yak about everything under the sun.

Little Bee is fast approaching that stage too - she is now beginning to tell me more things about her school life and friends, being the chatty little girl that she is. But they are still child-like narratives - nothing like the 2-way conversations that Big Bee and I have. However, on one hand, I am faithfully counting down to the day when I could gossip with both my girls, yet, on the other hand, Hubby and I are reluctant to see Little Bee, our youngest baby, grow up. Life is full of strange, bittersweet dilemmas, isn't it?

With the Bees being big girls and able to chill out on their own, Hubby and I had been taking brief 15 to 20 minutes walk in the evenings, so we could hang out with each other, have a little private time and get in touch with ourselves again. What was most heartening in one of the walks was when he uttered that I am his best friend :)


Daughters - my good buddies. Hubby - my best friend. I hope this heartwarming stage of life will be perpetual...

April Delights

Life had been inexplicably hectic at work recently - with me averaging about 3 to 5 hours of sleep nightly. It is getting harder to juggle motherhood and working life, but I refused to be daunted. Furthermore, there are little blessings in life this month - for it is both Hubby's and Big Bee's birthdays!

As we grow older, we prefer to keep our birthday celebrations more and more simple. And this is the same for Big Bee too. When I asked her how she would like to celebrate her birthday this year, she said she would rather spend a quiet birthday with us, and not involve her friends, unlike her big bash last year.

So, we woke up bright and early on Hubby's birthday to have a simple yet heartwarming breakfast by the pool. As the Bees grow older, we find it so easy to just sit back, relax and observe the little interactions of our 2 big girls, letting them run the show, leaving Hubby and I in the backseat. Today's breakfast comprised of scrumptious soon kueh and mouth-watering fa-gao. We munched on good food, observed the shimmering ripples of the pool and admired the verdant greenery around us. Lovely quality family time.

Breakfast by the pool with the Bees

We then plunged into the pool for a little swim, before hurrying off to The Line at Shangri-La Hotel with Hubby's family for an overwhelming buffet lunch. The food in The Line was just.too.much! And I thought it was crazily expensive and not worth its value. However, Big Bee had been bugging me to go there for its chocolate fountain, after reading about it in someone's blog, so I thought this would be a wonderful chance to bond over food with Hubby's family as well.

They were hardly away from this chocolate fountain for long!

We were also lucky that there was a roaming balloon sculptor who created a cute little flower for Little Bee and an amazingly impressive bouquet of balloon flowers - complete with a bow! - for Big Bee, whose birthday was imminent!

We ended off a rather long day with a lazy and peaceful dinner at our favourite Italian restaurant in a charming area, a relaxing trip to the library and completed the day with Hubby blowing his (all-too-many) candles on his cake!

I really love weekends like these :)

Colours Of Nature Part 4: The Enchantment Of MacRitchie

In early March, our little family descended upon the green, lush foliage of MacRitchie for breakfast. We had a sumptuous meal to energize us all for the day before sauntering off to explore the reservoir park.

I always feel at total peace in MacRitchie. For one, this entire place brought back the fondest memories of childhood where we ran cross country without fail every year, evoking saccharine reminiscences of a simpler day and age when all of us were young and carefree, unfettered and insouciant. 

Beyond nostalgia, this verdant park - with its seemingly boundless aquatic edges that stretches into the deep-seated untamed islets of dense forests - infuse a rare tranquillity and serenity in me. It is an exceptional sight for urbanites like us, where we could observe no skyscrapers nor buildings, only miles of emerald green trees, teal blue waters and cerulean skies dotted with virginal white clouds.

On this day, we strolled along the edges of the water, slowly ambling further and further into the luxuriant  jungle, away from the madding crowds. We trekked across muddy tracks and wandered across hidden bridges.

We clambered up colossal, antiquated tree trunks, and observed mischievous macaque monkeys playing in the trees.

We meandered alongside the water's edges, hushing the Bees and then enveloping ourselves in the mellifluous silence, hearing nothing but the resonant orchestra of sighing tree leaves, chirping insects, tweeting birds and the gentle gurgling of the water right beside our feet.

Our senses were sharpened and the Bees began to discern the stunning beauties of nature. Little Bee started counting the ubiquitous fuchsia pink and electric blue damselflies, and we learned the difference between a damselfly and a dragonfly.

Big Bee stumbled upon a devastatingly brilliant dead butterfly floating forlornly on the water's surface, yet the colours on its lifeless wings were still resplendently vivid.

We counted the rings on desolate tree stumps, trying to guess how old these destroyed trees were.

We even did a little reading and some reflective discussions on the importance of preserving nature in this commercial and materialistic world we are living in.

Little beauties in life that are normally masked by an urban life's meaningless pursuits of short-term electronic pleasures - now surfacing to present themselves when our senses are perceptive, when our eyes are truly discerning, when our minds are open.

I am glad we still retain little fragments of these miracles even in concrete Singapore :)