Marina Celebration

There is a place in Singapore that does not resemble frantic, urban Singapore. Where the pace is relaxed and halcyon. Where it reminds us of the origins of Singapore as a small island country with water all around us. And that is the place that we brought our parents there for their birthday celebrations a couple of weeks ago.

Raffles Marina is a charming place for dinner, especially on a day with a resplendent sunset - just like what we witnessed on the evening we brought our parents there for dinner. The sun was a bright tangerine orb hovering low in the horizon, and the sky was clear and cloudless. The dazzling sunset was nothing short of spectacular. Even the service staff commented that such sunsets will only appear a few times per year. How blessed we are!

Dinner was at a Chinese restaurant within Raffles Marina, but we almost had the whole restaurant to ourselves. So, it was a very warm yet private affair, where we could spend time bonding and joking with each other with all the privacy we wanted, yet chatted amiably with the very friendly service staff. Overall, it was a very homely experience with superb food at very reasonable prices.

The highlight of the gathering was the walk around the Marina after dinner. The breeze was balmy, the tide was placid and the night sky was so clear that we could decipher what could be Jupiter beside the Moon!

I was a little worried that Father could not walk for the entire perimeter of the Marina, but he was perfectly fine with our evening stroll, and we could admire the dark expanse of sea, looking across at the Tuas Checkpoint as well as pitch-dark land of Malaysia just across the straits. We also gazed with interest at the various yachts and boats around us, and spent a long time relaxing beside the alluring lighthouse of Raffles Marina, spotting fishes like barracuda and garoupa. The girls were thrilled with this fish-spotting activity, and my parents were delighted because of the extended time spent with their grandchildren. What an excellent way to wind down and leave behind the typical urban worries of a frenetic Singaporean lifestyle!

It was with reluctance that we left our dinner venue, but I can foresee us coming back soon!

Pancake Design

We discovered a pancake joint where the Bees could design and cook their own pancakes, with different flavours and lots of condiments.

Every table was equipped with a grill where customers could just squeeze the pancake batter in any shape or form, and then have fun creating their very personalised pancakes!

The batter was available in different flavours - from buttermilk to chocolate to strawberry to pandan!

 

The Bees loved the fact that they could create any pancake shapes their hearts desired - in all sizes! They created teeny pancakes, heart-shaped pancakes, alphabetical pancakes, and decorated these beautiful shapes with rainbow sprinkles, M&M chocolates and fruits. This was an excellent way to make picky eaters like Little Bee eat lots of pancakes!

Hubby was like a big kid - and a creative one at that! Check out his pancake creations below...the girls loved his creations!

Definitely worth a visit again and again - and such great bonding over the dining table too!

 

Her Primary One Adventures

A full quarter had passed, and Little Bee had just enjoyed her very first one-week March break in primary 1. She seemed to have adjusted really well in primary school, much to my relief. My biggest worry was that she would not be able to wake up at the unearthly hour of 6am, but she had proven me wrong (despite some episodes of her lolling around on bed, chanting incessantly "I am very tired", poor girl!).

Recess Bento Boxes
The days in primary school start much earlier these days for me. I am no longer living in a place within walking distance of the girls' school, so they now take the school bus which would fetch them at 6.30am. So, I tend to wake up at 5.30am to make bento boxes for Little Bee, who is always a very picky eater. These bento boxes can range from really simple ones to fairly fun ones which I enjoyed preparing.

Some of the bentos that I enjoyed making...

Social Life In School
Little Bee had always been a super gregarious social princess, so it comes as no surprise to me that she has plenty of friends, and she goes for recess with a big bunch of friends.

She had also adjusted well to her CCAs. She is part of a Chinese CCA (I put her there to cultivate her love for the language, and it seemed to be working!) and is also in Gymnastics. Recently, I received a slip from the school, informing me that Little Bee had been selected to go into the training development squad of the school team because they see potential in her. After some serious discussions with Hubby, we decided to forgo this opportunity for her because there are just too many practices, and I feel that Little Bee needs more time to rest at this stage of her young life. Ha, as you can tell, I am no tiger mother at all!

My Little Independent Girl!
Finally, what amazes me was her atypical responsibility in doing her homework and informing me about worksheets or notices that I needed to sign. Little Bee in kindergarten life was someone who needed a lot of supervision and monitoring with regards to academic work. But she had since transformed!

I guess she is developing the Big Bee syndrome - a syndrome of "Oh my god, my mum is really blur, so I'd better make sure I tell her what to do!"

Secretly, though, I find this approach (of me being blur, and not monitoring their work much) to be working really well with my girls - inadvertently, to say the least. I am usually very busy at work, and by the time I am back at home, I am usually exhausted, and all I can do is to spend a swift couple of hours with them over dinner and chilling around, sometimes without looking through what their homework is. Little Bee was initially very dependent on me, but after a few incidents where I forgot to sign her worksheets, thereby resulting in her being reprimanded by her teachers, she learned to be independent and take charge of her own schoolwork, which is really what I wanted for them! These days, she would remind me of what worksheets to sign, and would finish her homework by herself in the afternoon. So, I think it pays to be a blur mum like me, because it fosters lots of independence in the kids!

I will continue to blog about her adventures in primary one in time to come, but I thought I would like to share this little journal entry by Little Bee on her first day of school - which shows her excitement and beautiful optimism. I hope this optimism and zeal shines brightly for a long long time :)

Tweening It Out At Universal Studios

7 girls in their 11th year. 2 little sisters. 3 mothers. This was the group that descended unto Universal Studios last Sunday. And what immense fun we had!

Big Bee and a bunch of her best buddies had been planning for an outing to Universal Studios for quite a while. It was a gathering that the girls organised entirely on their own, with minimal parental supervision and maximum peer involvement.

The anticipation from the girls was inexplicably dense throughout the entire CA1 week, just before the big day. In fact, they were already planning the routes to explore and had even printed out an itinerary! What precise planning! This excitement really helped them tide through the CA1 week blithely. I guess this was a coping mechanism for the girls who were managing a much tougher primary 5 curriculum for their first formal assessment in school.

We were in Universal Studios from 10am to 3 plus pm. Some of Big Bee's friends were hanging out until almost 7pm! Little Bee and I spent time by ourselves in the first 2 hours upon entering Universal Studios, as Big Bee had already rushed into different rides with her friends, and started the whole momentum going.

Meanwhile, Little Bee and I ambled languidly around, taking our time with the Transformers ride, the new Sesame Street ride, interacting with Ernie from Sesame Street, and the Madagascar ride. We could even squeeze in time to eat lunch in an almost-empty food court at the Jurassic Park section! It was gratifying to be able to spend some quiet, quality time with Little Bee, listening to her never-ending sunshine-like chatter.

As this was the weekend just before many schools' CA test week, the entire Park was not crowded at all. So the restaurants were empty, the queues were short, and there were lots of spaces around the Park to stroll around. Lovely. We eventually joined Big Bee and her friends when they had lunch in a restaurant in Far Far Away, and then hung around with them as they dashed to all the different shows and rides in the Park.

Chilling out with tweens is thoroughly enjoyable - especially when they are happy, and not feeling moody nor temperamental! Big Bee's friends would chat incessantly and excitedly with me as if I am part of their group, and I am thankful that they treated me more like a friend than another stuffy adult.

One of the biggest achievements for Big Bee was taking the Battlestar Galactica (Human) ride. She had been wanting to take this ride for a long time, and was elated when she was able to do it with her friends finally! That exhilaration and thrill on their faces after their ride was priceless.

We left early at 3 plus pm because we had to walk Big Bee's best friend out of the Park. What a thoroughly enjoyable day!

Back In Business (Hopefully)

The first quarter of 2013 had trundled along, and I just realised that I did not blog a single entry in February...yet, we are now in the middle of March. The speed at which time zooms past us constantly amazes me. Memories of last October where Little Bee was preparing for her K2 graduation celebration were still fresh in my mind. Yet, in reality, she had already eased into a new chapter in her life, adjusting perfectly to life in primary 1. My mind was still speckled with memories of my little celebration with Big Bee for her 10th birthday last year, and now, we are staring at the imminent approach of her 11th birthday next month.

As I look at how crazily fast time slithers through our fingers, I decided that I cannot let this little blog of ours lapse. Remembering indelible moments in our lives is so much more important than working on that extra email or work project. So, I am trying my best to pick up the little pieces of my neglected blog, and would be posting a lot of back posts.

Work had been so insidiously busy that it is overwhelming, but I am glad that I can still spend quality time with the girls and family by attempting to be home early. It is essential that we spend quality time with the kids as working mothers, and if I have to work, I will only do so after the kids sleep. Which is why I am just so exhausted on some days.

For now, I am trying to do more blogging because I realise that I miss the writing. Let's hope I will keep to my own promise :)