Simple But Blissful X'mas 2012

On X'mas day, we had a great day out with our little 'J's. We went to Tampines Mall, and let the kids chose their X'mas presents. Didn't expect the queue was horrendously long at Toysrus. Singaporean kids are simply too blessed. We settled for BBQ Chicken as our X'mas dinner for the night.  Simply fun and enjoyment whenever u r with your loved ones. Let the photos do the talking...

Merry X'mas to all!

 
 

2012 X'mas Gatherings!

Dear and I always love to host gatherings at our place. Last year, as we were still sourcing for our new place, we had to give the hosting of annual X'mas gatherings a miss. This year, as we did not have any formal housewarming sessions, we decided to make use of X'mas and the upcoming Chinese New Year to invite our friends and relatives over to make merry.

Krist & Diana

We were delighted to have Dear's uni buddy-Krist and his wife, Diana at our place. They were amongst our 1st guests for X'mas! As they couldn't make it for the annual SMU X'mas gathering at Bernard's place, we made our own private arrangement. Our little 'J's are really fortunate to have Uncle Krist who really dotes on them. Krist went to several shopping malls in search for the kids' requested X'mas presents. We told Krist no need to go to such great lengths, but he said we adults should make do our promise to kids wherever possible. So, due to the delay in search for presents, we did not manage to dine at the intended restaurant and arranged directly at our place instead. Little 'J's were elated to see Uncle Krist with their huge LEGO presents. We didn't know the LEGO Friends X'mas Advent series was limited edition, so Krist replaced the present with another LEGO Friends series. As for Jovan, they finally managed to find his Cars 2 LEGO. 

As for us adults, we had our usual gift exchange. Wonderful afternoon spent with them and we look forward to the next meet-up during CNY. Thks Uncle Krist & Auntie Diana!

Extended Family

Every year, we rotate one another's place for the family X'mas gathering. This year, all my cousins were excited to come over our place cos of the spacious living room area we have. Our cousins were 'granted' by my siblings to stay over for a night. We had a wide array of X'mas food selection - honey baked ham, satay, fried chicken, fried beehoon, fishballs etc. Thanks to our wonderful mummy! The 5 cousins had fun playing NERF gun, frisbee and we even brought them downstairs to ride bicycle and scooter. As for us the adults, besides mingling through chit chats, we watched the photos and videos of Sis's family and parents who recently returned from China trip. 

Of course, not forgetting the highlight - none other than GIFT EXCHANGE! The 5 were so happy with their bundle of presents, grinned from ear to ear. So how did we spend the night? Dear spent time playing RISK boardgame with the kids till 4 a.m! It's always a blissful feeling during family gatherings. 

SMU 

This year, the hosts were Bernard and Wenshan. They have moved into their new abode at Punggol since a year ago, but they have yet to invite us over due to busy time schedules. It was a nice and cosy apartment, perfect for the loving couple. We could see their efforts in the reno and decor. Jovin 'pounced' on the grand piano when she spotted it in the room. Jovin, despite not going through any formal music lessons, she managed to play her one and only trait song - Twinke Twinkle Little Star once taught by her cousin. Wenshan was so patient and sat through with our princess to coach her. 

We had great lunch of Popeyes Fast Food, wonderful X'mas log cake, , the branded 'Twelve cupcakes' etc. The most hilarious sight was, Jovan simply licked off the cream from the cupcakes and one of dear's friends ate the chiffon cake as she's afraid of putting on weight, haha! We stayed longer than most guests and had fun over their PS3 games. We had a mini X'mas gift exchange with our pals and got yummy chocolates! The next gathering is slated to be our place for CNY! Looks like we would be hosting various groups of pals!

JC CLDDS 




Time really passes by in a flash. Dear and I are really blessed to be surrounded by great pals and not forgetting our longest known group of friends cum matchmatckers hehe.. Our friendship has taken us through a good 18 years. It has always been a tradition to meet up with this group of long-time pals since our schooling days when we used to meet outside for X'mas dinner followed by coffee session. Now, as we have little young ones, it has become more convenient and cost-efficient to host X'mas gatherings at different people's places. This year, as we have newly shifted in, the honour of hosting inadvertently falls upon us.



This year, with the exception of some who were travelling overseas, our house was crowded with 7 kids. Year by year, our next generation increases! Hehe, the government should reward us for being so supportive in child birth. This year, we found it more relaxed as the 6 ( Reyes is still too young to join in :) organised their own programmes in the kids' rooms, digging out all toys, tools, conducting cooking sessions, played hide and seek and even made use of the night light mode coupled with the music from the organ to create mini discotheque, haha! So we ladies had a fun leisure time chit chatting at the dining area, and the men? Relaxed at the sofa area watching DVD.



The climax came when we arranged the 7 of them in birth descending order i.e 2005 - 2012 for the X'mas gift exchange. It was really a hilarious sight. From Jovin, Justin, Chloe, Jovan, Javier, Kaden to Reyes, guess we would soon be able to complete the 12 animal zodiac signs haha! The mummies were busy snapping shots of the memorable moments. Seize the moment when the kids were still cooperative. Tingting really deliberated much effort and personalised each of the kids gifts by printing mini name-cards for them. The kids seemed impatient as the adults were busy snapping this exclusive group shot.






Once we gave the go-ahead for them to open their presents, all went wild, simply tore the wrapping papers to find out what they got. Jovan got all BEN-10 presents, how well our dear pals really know him. As for Jovin, she got all the princess and craft work type of presents. Both were so happy they got another set of presents!

Of course, we adults had our fair share of fun too! We had our X'mas gift exchange and all thanks to Tingting who already arranged the lucky dip for us, so the gift exchange went on smoothly. Guess what? We got our 'eldest' pair - Jovin and Justin to take photos for us and the photos turned out well!



Junwei and Tingting left earlier as it was Reyes's sleeping time. As for the rest, they stayed behind and enjoyed the delicious log cake with compliments from our dearest Auntie Bao. The rest stayed till around 11p.m before they left. It was really a wonderful gathering with them. Looking at our next generation, we really wish for the traditon to continue on and may their friendship ties stay as long as their daddies and mummies.



We had lots of fun from the series of X'mas gatherings we had in December. Most importantly, we wish for the ever-lasting friendship with our pals too. These are really the pals who have been through dear and myself all these years and know us really well. We look forward to the next series of gatherings in CNY- year of Snake!

KL Getaway!

Usually, we will go for short getaways during December holidays. This year is no exception. What's more, Dear just started his new job, so unable to take long days of leave too. So, we decided to head for KL since our last trip in Aug 2008!

Dear and I were contemplating to travel by coach or plane. Price actually didn't differ by much, so we decided to try taking plane this time round just to have the feel. Ever since we made the booking in Oct, I have been looking very much forward to this short break. Actually, if time permits, I would have wished for a further and longer vacation but dear couldn't afford to take time off from his schedule. I wouldn't deny disappointment, but nonetheless, it's still a short trip with my loved ones.

Apart from our first time experience taking flight to KL, the trip was made even more enjoyable with the arranged meet-up with our best couple pals in KL. We stayed in the same hotel and arranged for the same day to visit the indoor theme park together!

So, back to the trip. We arrived 2 hours earlier, after settling checking-in procedures, there wasn't actually much time left. We merely had time to catch our favourite Macdonalds breakfast and after taking some X'mas shots at the airport, time to board the plane! This was our first time taking budget plane. Jovin excitedly browsed through the food menu and thought the food served on plane was for free as she did in other flights, haha! She asked me why didn't the stewardess serve her. Jovan was excitedly asking for Pocky from the stewardess. Dear and I had a good laugh over this. In a flash, before we realised, the plane was going to land. It was really fast. We hardly touched the I-Pad for 10 minutes and we had to switch it off. That's how's fast it was....


As we only had 1 luggage, dear and I decided to forgo the cab and opted for public transport instead via Fast Train Express. We first took a short coach ride to the train station, followed by a 30min train ride. The train ride was comfortable and equipped with wifi! Finally, we took their MRT and reached at our hotel's doorstep! It was rather smooth but the distance between Fast Train and MRT station was rather long, so we had some difficulty while lugging the suitcase and keeping tabs on our little 'J's.

As we arrived before the intended check-in time, we decided to settle our growling tummies and chose a HK tea restaurant. Everything tasted great when we were really starving haha... After a great meal, we returned to the hotel and the kids really loved the room which was spacious and they could run freely in the room. So as usual, daddy looked at the map, kids ran around and mummy unpacked and unpacked......



As weather was favourable, I suggested we head for Chinatown, fearing wet weather in the next few days which would upset our trip to Chinatown then. So we took the train and it was simply like our pasar malam selling all sorts of 'branded' goods -perfume, T-shirts, sport shoes etc. You name it, they have it haha... As we walked, Jovan repeatedly charmed the people there with his innocent smiles and dimples so he couldn't escape the fate of being 'molested' on his cheeks haha...We had a great meal ordering the kids' favourite Chinese food like hor fun, satay, fried rice etc.



The best part of the vacation was that Starbucks was right below the hotel, so I could catch my favourite green tea latte every night. Superb! Their cakes selection were so much more varied than ours, so our kids simply loved having cakes for supper at least for 2 consecutive nights.



The next day, we met up with our best pals at the hotel's buffet breakfast. We then arranged to go to the theme park. Our kids had a fun time with Kaden. Little Reyes also took some simple family rides and had a go at the playground too!





Of course, our trio ran wild at the playground, but they were so cooperative this time and posed beautifully for the mummies to take pictures! So for day 2, we spent almost the whole day at the theme park. Daddies sneaked out for kopi, mummies busy took photos and chit chatted and the kids played in the playground.





Our little 'J's had endless fun at the Bumper car ride. They really took the ride countless times. 15? 20? I really lost count. They also had fun at the animal rides which costed so much cheaper in S'pore. So we let the kids had a go at it.



As we parted with our pals, we stayed on a bit longer as dear tried on the exciting ride - 360 degree spinning ride. As I took the video, I really feared dear would puke but he was really good! Bravo dear! As for me, I took a spinning ride too but turning round and round repeatedly really made me go dizzy and I had to close my eyes in the later part of ride fearing my motion sickness would act up.





That was not all. After a great shower back in hotel room, we initially wanted to get our pals to join us for the late night supper at Jalan Alor Street, but they were too shagged from the day's running about, so we went ahead without them. Wow, there was even a pasar malam there which operated from 9p.m-4a.m! The streets were packed and food was definitely appetizing. We simply chose a stall and ordered the dishes. Late at 12a.m, we happily enjoyed the sinful food haha. Well, eating is an enjoyment, so the thoughts about dieting at that moment just disappeared haha.... The 4 of us happily enjoyed the food and guess what, we walked back to our hotel. Not very near though. It took us around 20 mins but dear and I truly enjoyed the leisure walk hand in hand ( not with each other, but with our little 'J's haha!)


On Day 3, it was time for our dear pals to return home. So we bade them a simple farewell. Visited their gigantic hotel room as they booked a huge Brooklyn suite for their family of 8. After which, our plan was to visit the Kenanga Warehouse City as recommended by Tingting. It was merely 2 stops away from our hotel.



The outlet was indeed huge and there was a wide array of products ranging from accessories, bags, toys. Really SHOP TILL U DROP! We first headed for the food court at the top level and surprisingly the food was delicious! We spent almost 6 hours in the outlet and 'combed' a lot of stuff - toys, kids clothings, bags. It was a good place to shop and prices were indeed reasonable. However, dear and Jovan kept complaining of sore legs haha. Only my dear Jovin was the best who's so willing to shop with me. So I bought her a huge yogurt as a reward! See how happy my princess was!




After which, we went on to Sungei Wong Plaza but didn't buy much there as we secured a lot of bargain buys at the outlet mall earlier. So, we merely walked around and didn't realise the restaurants were closed. So in the end, had to settle for Macdonalds as our legs were really so aching. So stayed at Mac to recuperate...

On our last day, we stayed within Berjaya Times Square and shopped till we were ready to leave around 3p.m. Amidst our last buys, Jovin and I secretly bought a SUPERMAN T-shirt for dear so that he and Jovan could dress alike, haha! We also bought our kids a Mr Bean's bear each as they were 'inspired' from Kaden who too bought one!





Talking about the return trip, we actually bought a taxi coupon and wanted to take a cab to the train station for convenience. Little did we expect the queue for cabs were horrendously long and it was raining cats and dogs then. Dear and I started panicking as we feared the flight timing might be compromised. No choice, we settled for the hassle-free expensive way i.e take pre-arranged cab by hotel all the way to hotel at RM 110. But guess what? We initially thought we were going to take the Fast Train so the remaining ringgit was only adequate to cover the expenses. I remembered still asking dear if we should use credit card for the last meal before leaving, in case some emergency crops up and we would still have some spare ringgit. Dear blatanly replied "No need lah, just finish the money!" Hmm, so wives are usually quite accurate in sixth sense. Luckily, after combing through here and there, we 'dug' out RM 110! So off we went in the cab to airport!

Notwithstanding, we had a good and comfortable journey as we slept in the cab throughout without the need to brave through the heavy rain and thunderstorm then. So I told dear it was still worthwhile in this light. At least, the kids could lie down comfortably in the cab.

So, that was the end of our 4D3N KL trip. Short but definitely fun and entertaining. Guess the next trip would have to be in Jun 2013. Recharged and ready for more challenges ahead!

More Holiday Shows!

Haha, the 24/7 mum once again lived up to her expectations and brought little 'J's to 2 more shows i.e the Chuggington Cars Show and the Dinosaur show. I managed to 'clear' 2 shows within a day. Brought the kids to City Square then moved onto Marina Square. Dear commented I really doted on them too much. Well, looking at the smiles on their faces tell me that this is worth it :)



Jovin once again won a goodie bag from the Q & A session!




As we walked along City-Link mall, we participated in a Xmas Wish activity and these were the wished from my dearest little 'J's!



After 45mins of waiting, we finally ROARRRRed with the dinosaurs!

Seeing their smiles melt my heart :)

Escapade to LEGOLAND!

On 25 Nov 12, House of 'J's rose early for our great mission - Yes, we were on an escapade to Legoland! The night before, our little 'J's were already feeling very excited over the 1-day trip. They have seen and heard so many Legoland related commercials and they really couldn't wait for the moment to arrive.....

Dad was such a dear to drive us all the way to the Singapore Flyer area where we were supposed to take the coach into Malaysia, Legoland. All of us were so excited about the upcoming day excursion. Throughout the coach ride, we were in high spirits and our little 'J's were even humming songs throughout the journey!



Soon at 9a.m, we arrived at our destination. We were surprised to see the long queue, all waiting earnestly to enter the land. My goodness! The weather was hot and sunny. Luckily I brought the cooling fans, shades etc., hehe being an experienced kiasu mum helps :) I was so worried we would be 'caught' for bringing 'unauthorised' items i.e tidbits/drinks into the park as they did random checks and we saw them confiscate some of these items in the front queue. Phew luckily we managed to pull through and 'smuggled' in the kids favourite snacks and drinks haha!



We had a whole long day ahead of us in the park as our intended timing for the return coach was 8.45p.m and the park actually closes at 8p.m. So we had almost 11 hours of playtime! We were really taken aback and appalled by the amazing Lego brickworks and displays. Truly magnificent! Of course, as we walked through the various stops, we paused for memorable shots with some of the Lego mascots. The kids had fun on numerous rides, not forgetting their favourite junior car rides. They drove around in the car circuit as though they were professional drivers haha in the Junior Driving School. Kids never get tired of such games. Remembered we played such such games when we were in Taiwan this Jun too.To us, the games in the theme park seem to be almost the same, just that the structure is diffferent.



Of course, Legoland has various playgrounds. Yes, huge playgrounds to entice all kids. There was even a huge sheltered playground too and it was a good place when it was drizzling in the afternoon then. Playgrounds are always kids favourite playmates.



 Apart from that, the kids had their hands on the Build & Test Centre where they could create and meddle with all the Lego bricks.



In Taiwan, Jovan was 'barred' from taking even the junior roller coaster ride. This time round, yes! Jovan made it and it was his 1st roller coaster ride with us! The 4 of us sat together and Jovan was very brave! He was so excited as the coaster went and swerved up and down at fast speed. Bravo Jovan! However, he was so brave that he actually wanted to conquer the adult coaster ride with dear and Jovin. Alas, Jovan was rejected due to not meeting the minimum height requirement. He was so upset as he saw jiejie and daddy walked up the knight's castle to take the coaster ride. Jovan threw tantrums and even buying toys didn't pacify him. He kept wailing he was brave, not scared of the ride, haha.... It took me a long while to settle my dear prince.



Finally, we bought a princess and knight's sword for our pair of little 'J's and they took memorable shots at the castle, striking various poses!



After which, we went to the normal 4D-movie show as what you usually see at all theme parks. Well, it was a cars show. Erm, personally it was a great cooling place for me to rest that I actually fell asleep. So you could gather the entertainment level of the show huh?

Well, food is of utmost importance wherever we go. So definitely, we went round hunting for food but really it was to our disappointment. The limited choices with the rather exorbitant pricing wasn't really worthwhile. Nonetheless, at least we experienced the taste of their chicken burger and fries set - Far cry from our much perceived local standards, but at least our tummies were not compromised.



One of our favourite family rides was the LEGO Rescue Academy. We were all in the fire engine, rushed down to save the 'casulties' by pulling hard at the water hoses, then we rushed back to our fire engines to 'send' the casulties back. It was a fun friendly match with the other families and all, be it adult or young, had so much fun.

 

Another major highlight of the theme park was none other than the Mini Land where we saw our dearest Singapore Fullerton Hotel, Flyer, KL Twin Towers etc. The mini landscape was truly magnificent. Wonder how much effort the people took to construct these? A breath-taking scenery which we truly find it worth the ticket-price. 



The 1 day Lego Land trip was indeed a fun and exhilarating one which all of us thoroughly enjoyed. Our last few rides were at Lego Technic Park where we had fun at the water splash area and most importantly, all of us could play and we had fun splashing water at one another! As we came out of the park, it was already 8.15p.m. We bought a memorable photo shoot from the photo studio and most importantly, ate KFC and drank bubble tea as we walked to the coach. The return coach ride was a long one as there was a bad traffic jam. So guess what? the 4 of us dozed off and had a good sleep as we took the last row of seats and our kids simply lied down flat on us. We reached home at 12a.m!



We loved the trip and definitely, we would be back!