The Last Frontier

Our homelearning "Farm" theme culminated with a farm stay in D'Kranji Farm Resort, right in the midst of the Kranji countryside. I thought this would be a gentle introduction to the Bees on the rigours and characteristics of farm life, since they had been brought up as creatures of comfort in an urban environment, despite our regular jaunts to the great outdoors. 

We set off with much excitement on 20 December towards Singapore's wild North. It was a Monday, hence we noticed vehicles gradually dwindling in numbers as we approached Kranji. We heard the Kranji countryside could be rather crowded on weekends, so we deliberately selected 2 weekdays to spend in Kranji. 

For 2 days, we immersed ourselves in the luxuriant greenery and last frontier of Singapore's rural countryside. We did not feel like we were in Singapore at all! The eloquent silence of the lush virgin rainforests, the regular sightings of wild animals (including a wild boar galloping at top speed into a wide expanse of field!), the rare notion of driving along empty roads without cars for almost an hour or of driving leisurely along meandering country roads with dense vegetation around us - these were poetic moments for me. 

For the Bees, let's just say it was an initiation of fire. For the first time, as they were showering in an open-air bathroom, they had a few millipedes and worms for company, much to their hysterical chagrin. Big Bee has an irrational fear of worms (much like my similar fear of butterflies and moths!) so she was terrified half the time in the countryside. But the Bees loved to chase chickens around, visited dairy farms and witnessed birds of all species doing funny things around us (including one small woodpecker pecking Hubby's car one morning!). 

All in all, it was a staycation that rejuvenated our tired urban souls, that invigorated our jaded cosmopolitan minds. A breath of salubrious, sylvan air to renew our beliefs that life consists of so many multidimensional facets! 

Some highlights of our staycation that I love: 

Day 1

1) Driving with dense anticipation along the immensely expansive boulevard (aka reserved military runway) of Lim Chu Kang road, and along unknown meandering roads with nothing but the trees, birds and blue mottled skies as company. 

2) Entering into a villa of D'Kranji Farm Resort to be stunned by the extremely small room, despite the illusion of physical space from the gate! Yet, we were aptly impressed by the automatic gate, the private car porch right inside our villa and the roomy balcony that allowed us to sit and admire the primeval forest right in front of us. 

Granted, the service, cleanliness and facilities within D'Kranji left much to be desired, but we were not expecting a five-star resort, and I think these were positive ways to introduce the Bees to the (dis)comforts of living in the countryside! Such traits of the resort slowly grew on us, and Hubby and I grew to enjoy the idyllic but sparse restaurants, scanty farming facilities and sleepy service. 

3) Hubby and I loved the open-air bathroom with dense verdant vegetation, although the Bees were not that thrilled with the prevalence of millipedes and worms around the shower cubicle!

 

4) Running after a big fat chicken and observing its every move in the almost-empty farm site of the resort, and witnessing shrubs of plump, purple brinjal growing in the resort. The Bees also observed how farmers toiled on the farm land - watering crops, weeding and harvesting ripe plants.

5) Hubby and Big Bee indulged in prawning for the first time! Seeing Hubby cut a chicken heart into tiny pieces as bait for the prawns made my hair stand, but it was gratifying to see Big Bee sitting patiently with a fishing rod, excitedly calling out whenever she thought a prawn had been hooked. Sadly, we only caught one prawn! 

6) Walking around the resort's farmland in the setting sun, hearing nothing but the incessant yet soothing calls of cicadas, inhaling the sweet smells of plants and forests and seeing the workers on the farmlands ambling back after a long day at the farm. 

7) Driving around the Kranji countryside in the descending lavender dusk, and crossing the Kranji bridge with a clear view of both the Malaysian and Singaporean waters and coastal skylines. Utterly charming. 

The Singapore coastline

The Malaysia coastline

8) Indulging in a dinner at a cosy cafe at the Turf Club Riding Centre, where Big Bee's perpetual interest in horse-riding was enlivened again. Despite her constant requests to resume her riding lessons, we are still very hesitant after what happened in a riding accident in 2009. 

9) Sitting in a short session of deafening getai singing at the beer garden in the resort, with Hokkien and Chinese singers dancing to a revolving disco ball on stage. So retro! The Bees were so thrilled that they were dancing and running crazily in front of the stage - probably the most ardent audiences these getai singers had seen in a while! 

Day 2

1) Waking up to a heartachingly gorgeous azure sky speckled with feathery and fluffy white clouds. And upon hearing a mysterious pecking sound from the porch, only to find a mini blue-yellow woodpecker pecking with much perseverence on Hubby's car! 

2) Taking our breakfast at a cosy Malay restaurant, reminiscent of kampong days. We were particularly impressed by the friendly Malay female boss who gave us a last, complimentary plate of nasi-lemak after they heard us lamenting that they ran out of nasi-lemak! Such warm and affable service, just like in kampong days! 

3) Adjourning to Hay Dairies, where the Bees understood how goats are milked for our consumption. They got to see bounteous udders in full, close-up view, as well as learned the repercussion of milking - a shrivelled udder! So we went around identifying those goats that had been milked or not milked, haha! 

We walked around the goats' pens, observing their behaviour at close range, and ended the visit with drinking chocolate goat's milk, which tasted immensely muttony to me. Big Bee liked the drink though, whereas Hubby and Little Bee could not stand it. 

4) Driving around the deserted Kranji countryside with no end in mind, and eventually ended up in a certain university in the West where Hubby and I first met! How nice! So we strolled around that exact venue a bit, telling our girls excitedly about that fateful first night way back in 1992 :) The Bees were rather nonchalant about it, though! 

5) Visiting the Lim Chu Kang jetty in high noon, thus seeing the waters in high tide, and looking at fishermen working. We explained briefly to the Bees how these fishermen worked with the distant kelongs to catch fish, and then trucking these fish to the markets. 

6) Hunting around Kranji for several cow farms that I heard exist in Singapore. Sadly, none of them are open for public visitors, and we were even shoo-ed (albeit very politely of course) by one proprietor when he saw us snooping around his dairy farm! However, I was very adamant to show the Bees that big dairy cows exist in Singapore, so we sneaked around the boundary of one dairy farm, hiding behind bushes and ankle deep in rural grasses, and we caught glimpses of the colossal cows in its compound! In full glory - of cows with black-and-white patches and even a pristine white cow! Big Bee was thrilled!  

7) After we checked out, we proceeded to Farm Art for lunch, and we all loved this quaint zichar restaurant that serves the most divine coffee-flavoured pork ribs! The Bees and us devoured our lunch in ravenous speed. We then sauntered around the somnolent Farm Art and fed some poor caged-up farm animals (goats, rabbits, hamsters, frogs, tortoises, etc). The Bees enjoyed the feeding session immensely, though I still think there was a certain amount of cruelty to these animals.  

What a memorable holiday - it is possible to escape into the great farmland in Singapore and be lost amongst all the meandering roads and little nooks and crannies of our last remaining rural scape.

I thought it was eye-opening for the Bees to see for themselves how certain farm products originated (milk, crops, fish, etc). They enjoyed themselves, albeit not liking the ubiquitous creepy-crawly inhabitants in the agrarian countryside.  

Back home, the urban girls were quickly back to their favourite activity of conquering metropolitan plots of land though - through a game of Monopoly! 

Harvesting

We learned about the concept of harvesting through some "before-and-after" craftwork for our "Farm" homelearning theme. It was really fun and thrilled the Bees to no end. Furthermore, the action-based learning allow them to deepen their understanding of cultivating and harvesting, resulting in the end products we use in everyday lives. 

1) Sheep

The Bees worked on a sheep craft with cotton wool, black construction paper (for the sheep's body!) and some crepe paper for grass. I cut out separate sections of the body, legs, ears, head and mouth, and the girls assembled everything together, in addition to drawing the eyeballs. They had the greatest fun sticking on the cotton wool to make the sheep so fluffy and pristine white!

 

Big Bee's sheep

Little Bee's sheep - can you spot the difference?! 

We displayed their completed artwork around the house for more than a month before I encouraged them to start shearing the sheep fleece to make wool. They had a most mirthful time snipping away, pretending they are real farmers shearing fleece! 

As they snipped their scissors around the "fleece", we talked about New Zealand, the entire process of shearing -> creation of wool -> end product of woolen cardigans, gloves, scarves, etc. They seemed fairly intrigued.

The aftermath!

After the shearing, we bunched up the cotton wool together and created a wool bale, which almost felt rather woolen and real! 

2) Fruit orchard

The Bees created simple fruit trees from recycled toilet rolls, construction paper (for the shapes of the trees) and crepe paper which they rolled up to resemble fruits. They created apple, orange and lemon trees, and again, we displayed the trees for a couple of months before harvesting the fruits. The long wait resembled the true cultivation of plants in a farm, where patience is a true virtue. 

On harvesting night, the Bees were eagerly plucking out the myriad apples and oranges from the trees. Big Bee persevered till the end, whereas Little Bee lost focus towards the latter part, exclaiming it was a tiring task. I told her that plucking apples from trees is not exactly a rosy task after all. 

"Fruits" of their labour

Barren trees!

After these crafts, the Bees are now bugging me to go for a farm holiday with fruit orchards and sheep! Whilst it is sad that the girls can only role-play harvesting at home, it is a good way to demonstrate to them the effort it takes to work on a farm. What I find most meaningful about both crafts is that the Bees get to understand where their foods or other products (like woolen mittens) originate from. 

Ushering 2011

New Year's Eve

We spent a peaceful, quiet New Year's Eve at home, preferring to spend the last day of 2010 in the warmth and cosiness of our home with the Bees. We prepared mushroom soup, roast chicken and some vegetables. Hubby laid out the table in the balcony with a lovely lustrous candle and sparkling apple a la white wine. Then we dined in serenity alfresco-style. Lovely! 

Big Bee wanted to count down to the new year so badly with us and stayed up till 11.30pm. Even Little Bee was up and about till then! However, the poor girls could not keep their eyes from closing, and even when I tried waking Big Bee up at 11.55pm, she was oblivious and apparently still immersed in her dreamland.

With the girls fast asleep, Hubby and I then watched the fireworks from the comfort of our sofa, snuggling against each other, ready for a new year ahead :)  

New Year's Day

My maternal cousins and I had a dinner gathering near Irene's and my mum's homes, together with all the maternal uncles and aunties. It was such a jolly potluck get-together, with so much food as usual. The 7 kids (all girls!) played so well together, while older relatives ate and chatted. Our generation of cousins were either busy chasing after our children or chatting away, and it was so fulfilling to see all our kids playing so well together! Thanks to Irene for bringing out the electric car, bicycle and alphabet mat so the kids had a blasting great time from 5 to 9.30pm! 

Past The Point Of Fatigue

2011 had been a tough year for me thus far. Since last week, my home-work-weekend schedule had been frenetic. Work is (still) like an abyss of dark whirling cyclones, the kids are back to their busy schooling schedule, and with them crossing new thresholds in school, I need to spend more time teaching them. Furthermore, their social life over the first weekend of 2011 had been nothing short of spectacular - they attended 2 birthday parties and a birthday lunch over the weekend! 

A typical weekday schedule for me since the start of the year had been:

6.30am: Up and about, ready to stroll with Big Bee in the invigorating morning air to school

7.30am: A bout of restorative yoga before I head off to work (and Little Bee tends to sleep in quite a fair bit this fortnight, which is a blessing, I guess)

9am: Wooooorrrrrrrkkkkkkkk *yawn* (I do try to come home for lunch at least once a week to spend some time with Little Bee, if work is not too overwhelming) 

7pm to 7.30pm: Back from work, and a mad rush to finish dinner so I can spend time with the girls

8pm: Indulging in some learning and fun activities with the Bees (how pathetic that working mums only spend a couple of hours with our darlings at home, sigh!)

9pm: Get ready for bed, storytime!

9.30pm+: The girls are off to Lala-land! And I am off to mark Big Bee's assessment books or plan some homelearning stuff

10.30pm: More work (which was what happened for the past 2 weeks!) with some me-time or couple-time in between

2.30am: Heavy head, end of work...and I usually need 30 minutes to wind down after work

3am: ZzzzzzZzzz

So, these 2 weeks, I had been sleeping an average of 3-4 hours a day. And I am way past the point of fatigue. Which means I don't feel tired anymore these days, but I am sleeping for the mere sake of preventing aging! 

However, I do see the faint light at the end of the tunnel tonight. Work is ebbing, albeit only so slightly...and I think I can count my blessings that I am now blogging instead of working! :)

I guess my new year resolution should be trying to sleep early - for beauty's sake! And of course, trying to reach home by 6.30pm instead of 7.30pm for the sake of my beautiful girls. 

In dark times like this, I always take deep breaths and count my blessings:

1) For having a wonderful Hubby whom I treat as my best friend and love spending every waking moment with (except on occasions when we are both grouchy!)

2) For having 2 of the most amazing beings in the world in my life, who bring such immense joy to me perpetually - my 2 Bees

3) For having such a strong support infrastructure with my mum helping to care for my kids so I can work in peace

4) For having fantastic close friends whom I can share much laughter and gossips with! 

5) For travelling much much lesser in this job so I can sleep with the girls every night  :) 

6) For living in a gorgeous world we call planet earth (which, incidentally, is our current homelearning theme!)

Despite the lack of sleep, despite the vile stress cortisol wreaking havoc in my mind, when we count our blessings, life seems immensely magnificent after all :) 

Pet Adventures

Hubby and Big Bee came back on Saturday afternoon with an exotic pet, much to my chagrin - a baby octopus! According to Hubby, it is a 2-month-old female octopus. Big Bee was immensely delighted, and always kept an eye out for it. Little Bee insisted that we name this octopus Angie, so there we are - a pet Angie in the corner of our dining room, complete with wriggly tentacles! 

4 facts about octopuses (according to Hubby!):

1) Octopuses are highly intelligent creatures

2) They are mild predators that are very territorial, so they are better off living alone

3) Recommended diet is live, fresh shrimps (yikes!), and they love to put up a good chase for their food. So the Bees were witnesses to some rather exciting battles between Angie the octopus and a few active shrimps a la National Geographic. 

4) Octopuses love to play, so Hubby bought a dozen tiny balls for Angie to juggle around with!

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On the hamster front, Hubby found Furball, our white hamster, peering at him right outside our bedroom late on Friday night! According to Hubby, when he ambled to the kitchen to take a plastic box to scoop up Furball, it scurried right after him, following him into the kitchen! As Hubby reached the kitchen, Furball looked at him expectantly, as if asking Hubby to bring him home! And true enough, when Hubby held out his hand, Furball scampered right onto his palm obediently before Hubby brought it up into its cage! How cute!

We suspected that Furball could unscrew a security cap on its cage, and true enough, 2 mornings later, as Big Bee strode sleepily to the bathroom, we heard her exclaimed excitedly, "The hamster is here!" Once again, Furball veered towards Hubby, and calmly let Hubby carry it to its cage, which is on a high ledge. We decided to switch it to another cage to prevent it from constantly falling off from high grounds. What a smart hamster! It knows how to unscrew caps from within its cage!  

To The Park We Go

On a warm, laid-back afternoon on 19 November, YM and I brought the kiddies to West Coast Park for a jaunt. Sophie and the Bees were energetically clambering around the sprawling playground, trying everything from netted bridges, flying fox and balancing ropes. YM and baby David, who was just learning to walk, were ambling alongside the shady meandering pathways. Going to a normally crowded park on a weekday was bliss - people were few and far between, the place was quiet and tranquil, and we could hear the birds singing! 

We then brought the kids to MacDonald's for a quick bite where they were busy playing and giggling with each other before YM had to leave. 

Thereafter, I brought the Bees around the peaceful park again, imbuing myself with the peaceful silence enveloping us. The Bees were happily fooling around, cooperatively and stylishly posing for pictures whenever I whipped out the camera! They were both ecstatic at a surprise afternoon gathering on a weekday! 

I shall make it a point to visit more places on serene weekdays :)  

Season's Revelry

One of the best part of the December holidays is that most of us were on leave and the kids were free from school and other enrichment classes. Which left us with much time to catch up with good friends and indulged in some jolly bonding sessions. 

Which was what we did in the last 2 weeks of December. Lots of gatherings with close friends. Plenty of gossip, catching up and laughter. Abundant action and giggling from the kids, some of whom made new friends. 

22 December 2010

We went to Viv's house for a long-awaited gathering - because Fon and Angela happened to be back in Singapore at the same time! So, Viv, Fon, Angela, Annie and I had a fabulous dinner at Viv's beautiful house - with the most scrumptious hawker food to satiate the tastebuds of our friends from far far away. Thanks to KL for putting so much mouthwatering food in front of us!

The 8 kids made new friends. As it had been years since we all gathered together, some of our kids played with each other when they were little toddlers and had clean forgotten each other (like Big Bee), some had never even met each other (like Little Bee!). Big Bee was very charmed by Andrea, and wanted to meet her again - they both got along mighty well. Children are so adaptable when making new friends. In no time, the 8 kids were zooming around Viv's house, jesting about, playing hide-and-seek, exchanging iPhone gaming tips and creating a merry din. 

Which left the 5 ladies (and KL) much chance to sit and gorge ourselves silly at the dining table, gossiping the evening away! I don't think we ever left the table except to go to the kitchen for drinks! 

Thanks Viv, for hosting us. We should do this more often! And it was truly great fun catching up with the ladies - I miss the gossips! 

30 December 2010

PF invited our family to her estate's early New Year's celebration, and we had another marvelous time feasting again! The kids went wild with balloon sculpting and games, and sped all around the function room. The 4 adults had a fulfilling time chatting and eating, while observing the crazy antics of our children with much amusement. I guess one of the joys of having big kids is that we now have a lot more time to spend with our spouses and friends - no more running after our children continuously! 

After the party, we adjourned to PF's house where the kids indulged in a game of Castle Panic (yes, Eugene bought that game after experiencing how fun it was when he played with Big Bee and Claire at our house on Boxing Day!). We left them pretty much to their own devices, and we adults continued our chatting and gossiping, before calling it a night at almost 10.30pm, which was way past the girls' bedtime! 

What an enjoyable week, filled with convivial bonding sessions with friends and merrymaking! 

Back To Reality

Gone are the carefree days of sleeping later, of waking later, of lazy mornings and long languid afternoons where the hours seemed to overflow into timelessness. For school had started in full swing since yesterday! Little Bee started life as a K1 big kid yesterday, and Big Bee stepped into the threshold of a tween as a P3 kid. 

Life seems to slip past us rapidly. I can vividly remember the days when Big Bee entered into her K1 stage of life, with Little Bee as an infant - almost as if it was yesterday. And now...they are both big girls with independent thoughts of their own. Such thoughts never fail to make me misty-eyed and a wee bit melancholic. 

Feisty Little Bee started school with much aplomb and a dash of audacity. She bravely bade farewell to us, although she did try to hug us tighter and wanted us to stay in class with her. However, the moment we stepped out of her class and peeped in, we saw her telling her friend who accidentally sat at her place with a frown on her face, "Ehhhh, that's my seat!"  The poor boy hurriedly scrambled away. This girl can definitely stand on her own anywhere. 

As for Big Bee, I am back to enjoying our early morning walks to school at 6.55am - breathing in the crisp dawn air, observing how the sleepy sun slowly awaken and feeling the entire world rousing from a long night's rest. I love these morning walks because I can have some private time with her, quietly chatting and jesting. 

This year, she will have one additional subject - Science - so I am finally succumbing to tuition for her, after coaching her entirely for the past 2 years. So, I am now shopping around for Math tuition, but I will still attempt to teach the other 3 subjects. Plus, I would need to instill more learning activities for Little Bee as she is now in K1. Hence, those couple of paltry hours after work never seem to be adequate!

Big Bee's P3 textbooks

A new school year with brand new challenges. I am confident my girls would rise up to the occasion independently. 

Meanwhile, Big Bee had written down her impressions of 2010 and hopes for 2011: 

5 things I love about 2010

1) It was a fun year

2) My hair grew! (At last!)

3) I made new friends (she particularly highlighted Andrea, Angela's girl whom she played with at Viv's house near Christmas!)

4) I finally went to Universal Studios

5) I had a fun time in Japan

3 things I want to achieve in 2011

1) Have a nice happy time

2) Work hard and play hard

3) Be a good girl

I think I might have to ask Little Bee verbally about her thoughts and hopes as well! 

P/S: Expect LOADS of backdated posts as November/December were such busy and eventful months!

Taking Stock Of 2010

New Year's wishes and crackers from Big Bee at a New Year's Day gathering with my cousins 

On the first day of 2011, I would like to wish all my friends and family a glorious New Year! I thought it might be rather meaningful to list down the top 10 most momentous events/achievements of 2010 to help me take stock of the past, and get ready for yet another exciting year ahead. I had asked Big Bee to write down her own list of top 10 most memorable moments in 2010, and 5 most important things to achieve or change in 2011, so it will be interesting to see what she will write down :) 

As for me, here are my favourite top 10 most significant moments:

1. Seeing both my little darlings proceeding to primary 2 and nursery 2 respectively, and observing how fast they grow, not just academically, but in terms of maturity and articulation, in becoming much more sensible girls with a strong grasp of worldly awareness. 

2. Big Bee's blossoming independence, as she started attending more parties on her own, and chilling out with her best friends, sometimes not seeing us for almost a day! This created waves of bittersweet emotions in me - on one hand, I am happy that she is now growing up fast, on the other hand, I am starting to understand the ramifications of a potentially empty nest in the very near future! 

3. Little Bee's natural showmanship on stage, and her emerging gregarious nature. She has no shadow of shyness in her, and veered towards everyone with trust and vivacity. She has also progressed to become a sunny chatterbox, commenting incessantly on almost everything. Her maturity and articulate nature never fails to amaze me. 

4. Big Bee's ardent love for reading. She had already devoured umpteenth books by Enid Blyton (her favourite), Roald Dahl and CS Lewis, amongst others, and read and re-read many of these books up to 10 times or more. I simply could not borrow or buy story books to match her pace of reading. She would be reading when chomping on her meals, reading when she just woke up and all of us were still snoozing on lazy weekends, reading outside when she is stuck in boring parties with us adults, reading in restaurants with us (I had since banned this!), reading all kinds of materials with words on it, right down to food labels! She gives new meaning to the word bookworm!

5. Spending wonderfully romantic time with Hubby in 2 getaways - to Bintan for a weekend getaway as his birthday treat, and to Beijing last month as part of both our work trips. The giddy happiness, delicious yet delirious emotions as well as spirited contentment we experienced with each other on both trips indicated that we just might be able to grow old together with a good amount of enjoyable and exhilarating passion together. Let's hope this zest for spending couple time with each other will last through the years :)

6. Our 2-week whirlwind tour of 3 cities in Japan, traipsing around the country by ourselves with an immensely heavy luggage, 2 impetuous little girls and countless train rides! It was wonderful to spend time in a foreign land, immersing in their culture. 

7. Other short trips this year to Bintan with PF and family, at a cruise with our parents, as well as other staycations in lovely spots off the beaten track in Singapore - at Changi Village Hotel with my cousins and D'Kranji Farm Resort with ourselves.

8. Many many bonding sessions with family, cousins and close friends at home, at short getaways and all around Singapore! The Bees had a grand time making new friends sometimes, and sealing their own friendships with their cousins and other children of Hubby's and my close friends! 

9. Our 10th wedding anniversary celebrations at the Fullerton Bay Hotel. It reinforces our love affair with each other, which had started more than 18 years ago, and had gone through much adversity. I do hope both Hubby and I can be invigorating life-long companions for each other once our nest is empty :)

10. Staying home for an entire month in June, as well as other shorter breaks on a frequent basis with the Bees. I had been balancing work and family very well, tilting more towards family life...and enjoying every minute of it:) 

Happy 2011 - may it be filled with love and laughter, significance and intensity just like 2010. 

Conversations

One of the luckiest things about being a parent is listening to the maturity and development of our children's conversational skills as they grow older. Especially when there are 2 vivacious and talkative girls at hand! These days, Hubby and I found it difficult to chat between the 2 of us, what with 2 girls yakking incessantly wherever we are :)

I thought of listing down a couple of funny conversations I had with the girls this past week:

Big Bee (one night at bedtime)

Big Bee: Mummy...
Me: Yes?
Big Bee: Do you think we will all still be alive after a million days?
Me (tired out yet still had to do some quick mental calculations): Hmmm, I think we will all not be around anymore.
Big Bee (getting excited, which was the last thing I wanted for her just before her bedtime!): OH REALLY!? You mean we will all be DEAD!? (She is at this stage where she is constantly fascinated by morbidity)
Me (struggling to keep awake): Yes, if we assume all of us live up to 100 years old, which is already a grand old age, and each year has 365 days, then we would live an average of 36,500 days (*I did not include in leap years in my calculation!*)
Big Bee: Oh. Is that a lot of days?
Me (pausing to ruminate): Hm...no, not really. 36,500 days are really not many days...which goes to show we should appreciate every single day of our lives, as our lives are so short!
Big Bee (probably wondering what Mummy was going on about regarding the brevity of life): Oh. Ok.

Thanks, Big Bee, for showing Mummy how precious life is, and how we really should live life to the very fullest :)

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Little Bee (this is more of a trend this past week, rather than a conversation)

Little Bee (in her usual cloyingly sweet pleading tone): Mummmmmyyyyy...
Me: Yes?
Little Bee: Can I call you Mum?
Me: Sure! You can call me anything you want.
Little Bee (in a calm, matured, adultish tone): Mum...
Me (feeling a wee bit strange at hearing this from Little Bee): Yes?
Little Bee: Can I call you Mama?
Me: Sure!

Since then, this experimental girl had been calling me 3 variations of "Mummy", "Mum" and "Mama" on different occasions daily.

Whatever our labels are, we will endeavour to be there for our children any time as parents (same goes to our hubbies as wives too, and vice versa!)

Children do have an uncanny way to let us see life from another angle indeed.

Boxing Day Shindig

We hosted the yearly Christmas get-together with our closest friends of over 20 years at our house on Boxing Day. It was a cheery lunch with fantastic company, plenty of food and super boisterous kids. YM, LP, BK and PF arrived bright and early around 11am, and I ordered a nasi lemak buffet with home-cooked fried bee hoon for a simple lunch. YM made delicious strawberry jelly cheesecake for dessert, complete with juicy cherries, and BK brought ice-cream. There were also waffles for the little kids from LP. Hubby ordered a roast chicken, chicken hot dogs and ham, but the food was just too much that we did not heat those up. 

Hubby surprised me with a list of party games and prizes he had prepared a few nights ago, and volunteered to be the party games host to 9 rambunctious children. He also decorated the house with balloons and a Santa Claus poster. Short of dressing up as Santa himself (which I suggested to him, haha!), he was all ready to face 9 active kids alone on Boxing Day.

While the ladies sat around the dining table, munching and yakking away, Hubby - with the assistance of the rest of the husbands - directed the kids in different games stations with skilful finesse, much to my amazement! The night before, he printed out an ambitiously long list of games stations for the kids, and they managed to complete 6 stations:

1) Snakes and ladders as the opening game, using our gigantic DIY gameboard. 

2) Word game Zingo

3) Remote-controlled F1 racing cars at the corridor outside our home

4) Fishing in 60 seconds, which was a hot favourite, comprising of each kid attempting to "fish" as many magnetic fishes from a tub of water within 60 seconds

5) Wii Sports of tennis and bowling, which got all the kids hot and sweaty

6) And finally, after most of the families left, Eugene, Claire and Big Bee indulged in a game of Castle Panic, which they won against the monsters! 

Thanks to Hubby, I could chat with my friends in peace, although the kids did create a deafening din with sheer exhilaration and excitement! Medals and small prizes were given out to winners and non-winners alike, so every child went home with something. 

As each year passes, all of us cherish such gatherings more, especially with each other's busy lives. From gawky teenagers to young adults to mothers, I am grateful that I have such close friends to share life's journey's fulfillments. It is also very satisfying to see all our children bonding so well with each other, and hopefully, they would be good friends in future as well! 

An Intimate Day Of Celebrations

Christmas Day was spent with our closest families this year. We had a sumptuous lunch at the Bees' paternal great-grandmother's home, with relatives from Hubby's paternal family. It was uplifting to see everyone coming together, bonding, laughing and merrily exchanging presents.

The Bees had a convivial time with their aunts, and Big Bee were busy dabbling in photography with young Auntie Brianna and Auntie Merrilyn. Such fun indeed!

The new paparazzi

Indulgence for those with sweet tooth! 

We went for a little break at Coffee Club, luxuriating in a caffeine boost, before heading for dinner at my brother's home. Once again, he was the chef, and we were all treated to 2 excellent choices of oven-baked rice (I forgot the actual name of the dishes!), filled with aromatic and rich melted cheese, and a choice between chicken, mushroom and asparagus, as well as mussels, prawns and scallops. Epicurean indeed! My parents were thrilled to be able to sit back and be served, and the Bees were enjoying every morsel.

More log cakes!

Val popped by with her parents for a little while, and the Bees had great fun jesting about with their little cousin again! 

Peekaboo!

Despite the cold, rainy weather, we were all revelling indoors, with heartwarming food and snug, warm-hearted family bonding. 

Good food with wonderful family time - life is brilliant indeed :)

Grilled Christmas Delights

Our usual Christmas Eve tradition comprises of an intimate and quiet family dinner amongst the four of us, with more cosy family time at home thereafter, followed by an early night's rest. This is a marked contrast to days long ago when Hubby and I would revel in glitzy Christmas parties with friends till the wee hours of Christmas Day's morning. 

Hubby had traditionally been the chef for past Christmas and New Year's eves, and this year was no exception. He decided to revive the grill, which had been standing rather neglected in the balcony, much to my delight! We went supermarket shopping for the ingredients in the afternoon, and it was really nice getting into the mood of the festival, seeing the hustle and bustle of everyone outside. 

He started work early at 5.30pm, busy grilling away, and by 6pm, the entire family was sinking our lucky teeth into succulent wagyu beef burgers! This was followed by delectable sticks of satays before we slurped down piping hot mushroom chicken soup and munched on crunchy fresh salad with piquant Italian dressing. I was joking with Hubby that we were eating our dinner in a reverse fashion, starting with the entree and ending with the appetizer! I guess we could not help but be over-enthusiastic with the grilled burgers. Big Bee relished the burger and soup, and chomped everything down in record speed!  

After dinner and some quiet downtime, we took a walk around our estate, indulging in a little voyeurism and playing our usual game of spotting Christmas trees amongst our neighbours. It was heartwarming to see most families staying home for a peaceful night. We had a tranquil time sitting down outdoors, indulging in each other's company, and enjoying the steady and gentle night breeze that is evocative of beautiful December evenings. We finally ended off the evening with the Bees playing some sparklers as a mini form of celebration. 

Thank you, Hubby, for cooking a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner as usual! 

A Happiest Christmas To All

As the festive cheer gets denser and more exhilarating today, may we wish everyone a Merry Christmas and may everyone enjoy the celebrations which will start tonight right until this weekend (and next week!). 

The Bees and their Papa had a snow globe experience on 4 December - they had a blithe, high-spirited time immersed in a tiny snow blizzard, throwing fistfuls of "snow" at each other, and generally having great fun. 

According to the organisers, the artificial snow the Bees played with is the same as that being used in movies like Narnia. It was so soft and fine that Hubby and I had so much trouble trying to get the "snow" out from the Bees' and Hubby's hair! Amazing!

It was a magical experience for the Bees to be inside a snow globe. Merry Christmas everyone! 

Farm Animals Flapbook

We did this farm words flapbook a couple of months back, and it is now a nice fixture in Little Bee's first farm lapbook! 

After she learned to read these basic farm animals from the farm animals' wheel, plus other reading activities at home with appropriate story books, I got her to choose and write her five favourite farm animals onto a flapbook, and then she pasted the pictures of these animals beside the words. She could also independently spell some of these 3-letter words, although spelling is not a priority for me now. 

After a few days where I acquainted her with the corresponding Chinese names of these farm animals that she wrote down, I encouraged her to work independently to stick these Chinese words in the relevant spaces beside the English names. 

She was able to match all words correctly, except - ironically - for the easiest Chinese word 牛. However, I read somewhere that young children do get confused by Chinese characters with simple strokes as they get them mixed up with other simple, similar words, hence it explains why Little Bee could read those characters with more Chinese strokes than 牛! She is always confusing 牛 and 羊, probably both do look a wee bit similar! 

This is a fun activity which she gained much sense of satisfaction from, especially when we attach it to her lapbook, as she created everything herself.