Brunch Date

After a nice meetup with mummy JH, we finally managed to arrange another with mummy Gillian and this time round, it's a '1 stone hit 2 birds' meet-up becos we've meant to pass Gil our 1/8th violin for her Emily before their custom made one is ready.

We had our brunch at 'Food for Thoughts' @ Botanical Garden and with each family ordering pancakes for the kiddos, we were caught with lotsa pancake leftovers, hahaha(Ems shared hers with Renee, so JH and I packed ours and I was glad that I did, 'cos Renee took 1 for her tea-break and said it's still yummy, :>).

Again, a short but nice meet-up and we hope to arrange another, hopefully at one of our homes, preferably....

We didn't want to go home after the meet-up and thus we were sooo tired after Renee's lesson that we decided to go home for dinner straight away, lolz.

School and Family Fun Day

First, again, papa, mummy and baby Toh, had to wake up early this morning, to accompany Renee to her school fun day.

Fun day's began with a 'paid' entry to the Bouncing Castle:

And after some failed attempts at this booth(a younger girl was standing infront of her and she daren't quite throw properly for fear of hitting the girl...), we met 1 of her close classmates que-ing at the henna hand painting booth with her dad and we decided to join them, :) :

Then, unable to decide which booth to go to next, Renee said she's hungry and we met the same girl again at the canteen, lolz.  It is today, that we really noticed that the prices of the food sold at the school canteen are rather highly priced and this is only a primary school!  Geez...

Still unable to find a 'suitable' booth to spend her coupons, we spotted some people que-ing for sculpted balloons and we quickly followed suit and hey, this didn't require any coupon! hahaha.  Soon, a long que started behind us and we were lucky to be there before them but papa asked "why didn't you get one for mei mei", and we "oh ya hor!" hahaha.  Good thing meimei's still too young to ask for one :

Finally, not wanting to waste any more time looking around, I told Renee to give another 'aim and throw' booth a shot and this time round, we used up all the coupons we're left with and went for 5 tries, Renee managed to get 3 in!  Well done, :D

This is how the henna stain looks after the paint's being washed off:

We went for our groceries shopping thereafter and when we got back after lunch, the 3 of them quickly fell asleep whilst I assisted our helper in the dinner preparation for the evening.  Shortly, I too, couldn't withstand the fatigue and decided to go for a short 20mins nap.

An hour after we both(helper and I) began our cooking, Elsie and Li arrived and Renee wanted to go for a swim but she's made to wait til her Wayne gor gor got here, hahaha.

When Eileen and family finally got here, she noticed the pool fun fair over here and said she wanna go have a look and they all went down, bringing Rachel along, :).  I had to stay back, to 'supervise' and help-out with the cooking.

Soon, it's time for them to go home...  Just a few hours of gathering but as usual, it's been nice and cozy and although Rachel's had a good time too, she couldn't 'take it' anymore at around 8pm, having woke up early this morning...  She fell asleep on papa's lap...(if only she's this good everyday, hahaha):

Garden Festival

We've passed by this garden exhibition over the weekend and I told Papa that I want to bring the kids there before it ends and today, we went..., :).

I just have to take a pic of this, hahaha

Some of these Bonsais are really nice...

 The different types of grains

 1 of the garden landscapes/layouts Papa likes

'My Melody'

'My Melody', a favourite of mine, is now also Renee's!

Close friend Vicky had bought this lunch box set for Renee's birthday earlier this year and we both(Renee and I of 'cos) wanted to 'safe-keep' it even though the former had kept urging us to use it, haha.

Earlier, I had teased Renee about letting meimei using it and she was rather reluctant but recently, she suddenly agrees readily and since she's requested for Japanese rice to be brought to school for snack, I decided to let her use it - the main container that is(without the carrier bag though, 'cos it's too big for her bag and she might lose it in sch, :D), and she's very happy, :).

No More Climbing

Finally, the gates are up today.

We've got this safety gate over the weekend actually but as papa didn't get the actual measurement prior, we had to wait til today, for him to find some time to get it changed to the correct size.

As he was fixing it just now, Rachel saw, pointed to it and "eh eh" in a questioning tone, then she started shaking her head, hahaha. She must have known that this gate's to prevent her from climbing the steps, hahaha.

1st Performance @ School

Renee came home about 2 weeks ago and told me that she's been asked to play the violin at school(she didn't know which day then).  For convenience, we wanted her to play the piece which she'd played for the audition but last minute, she decided to change and play the piece she's learnt only 1 week ago.  For a public performance, this is definitely not advisable but since it's only gonna be a casual one, we let her decide.

We all woke up very early today, to accompany Renee to school.  Even poor meimei has to wake up as early and of 'cos, she wasn't quite happy about it(unlike the 1st few days of jiejie's formal schooling days, hahaha). 

The few of them are to perform before the asembly starts and as they(the P1s and P2s) gather at the arena,  not at the hall upstairs, thus, the audience will be limited to just the P1s and P2s but still, the crowd is larger than those at Nafa's masterclasses and I think that's what made Renee alittle nervous, especially with a new violin.

I wouldn't grade the performance a very satisfactory one but nevertheless, not too bad overall and we're just happy that she's had an opportunity to play infront of a larger group of audience(even if it's not a formal one).

As we were about to leave the school, we were stopped by her form teacher : "oh, she plays very well" and luckily for this 'delay', I(we) got to experience something which was loooooong forgotten - the flag raising ceremony! hahaha.  And I wondered, must we still stand still whilst they're singing the national anthem but I thought it's best to follow suit, to set a good example to the kids, if not for anything else, :).

Waiting...

Waiting...

(whilst teacher's announcing her performance)

The 'audience' - only the P1s and P2s

(just the centre group, din bother to take panoramic view heee)

Do you miss it? lolz

The Quarter Size

Arrangements have been made yesterday, for us to meet up with the teacher at the violin shop today.

We were alittle late due to the traffic jam, and when we arrived, a few violins had already been pre-selected - 2 of them were kinda the choice ones(~1.8k and 2.8K respectively).  Renee was told to try out the violins after the teacher has tuned them and for the quality of sound, all of us, including Renee(it is of 'cos, the choice of the teacher and Renee that's most important, :D), preferred this :

Hv also got her a new/better shoulder rest and changed the ribbon, :)

Pretending to show non-difference to the new instrument, Renee couldn't contain her excitement when we were finally on our way home after our dinner and shopping.  She quickly played it for a good 1 hour and only put it down reluctantly when I insisted that she has to go to bed, ;).

*Even Rachel could tell the difference in the sound produced by Renee's new violin(and that's even after we've spent qte abit on change of strings n accessories) , :D

A Nice Meetup and Good News...

Today, after soooo long, I finally met up with a mummy friend JH, whom I've also befriended from a motherhood forum(from the birth of Rachel).  We've chatted on a few occasions and thought it'd be nice to put a face to the names(afterall, I've already missed all the gatherings this group of mummies had arranged earlier), so we decided to meet up with her today.

Though a short meetup, we had a nice time chatting and when it was time to part, JH said she'd like to meet Renee in person.  Luckily, papa had agreed to hving dinner at where I was meeting JH and so, her wish was granted! lolz.

Knowing that I'd be passing her a belated birthday gift for her Charissa today, she bought a pair of tights-with-skirt skort for Rachel and even a dress for Renee.  Then, at a bookfair, she bought again, these 3 books for Renee, aiyoh(*oh, this reminded me that I must remember to give her e finger brush, lolz...) :

On our way home, papa told me the 'good news' but I can't really reveal what it is yet 'cos again, this decision(proposed by another teacher, or teachers I'm not too sure) will have to be re-confirmed after another meeting at Nafa but we were told that we'd need to upgrade Renee's violin to a better sounding one since it's also about time that she changes to one of a 1/4 size.  The teacher's mentioned earlier that if the child is not performing or taking part in any competitions, a S$700+ one would suffice but he told us to get one that cost around S$1K+ now and another S$2K+ next year(should the 2nd decision be finalised).  However, we're not sure what their plans are, for Renee, and felt that she might not outgrow the 1/4 size so fast and thus, we decided to simply go for the better one...

Youth Day

It's the school holiday today and without the pressure of the need to practice hard(for the time being at least), I decided to bring Renee out for the day.

We had lunch, at Breeks AGAIN and I gave her another prep talk.   It began :

M  : "Renee, I want to talk to you about something"
Re :(evading my eye contact) : "What, mummy?"
M  : "Can you please tell me, what should I do, in order not to have to 'call' you to practice and you'd do everything on your own?"
Re : "I don't want you to 'call' me"
M  : (ermmm, about to start losing it here, haha) "That's precisely what I want to talk to you about now!  I don't want to have to 'call' you".  "Everyday, I have to tell you to hurry up and get changed, wash your hands, eat your lunch, go practice, I'm really tired of all these constant 'calling' you know and I really don't like to scold you. So, can you please, tell me what I should do to avoid doing all these?"
Re : "Can we not talk about this now?"
M  : "No no.  I want to sort this out by today"
Re : "But you sure won't say ok if I tell you..."
M  : "Ok, you try.  Tell me what it is and I see if we can work it out"
Re :(after a pause) "I want to do my homework first"
M  : "But Renee, I let you do that initially, remember?  And do you remember what happened? You took your own sweet time, from 3pm, you can do your homework alllllllll the way to 5:30pm, sometimes even 6pm!  Like that, how are you going to have your practice?"
Re : "....."
M  : "Ok, let me think over this and maybe I'll have a word with Papa and see if he agrees"
Re : "....."
M  : "But Renee, will you promise me that you will not purposely drag your homework just to avoid practicing?  You know you need to practice right?"
Re : "Yes, mummy"
M  :  "Can you really promise me that you will do that and that I can trust you on this?"
Re : "Yes, mummy, I will do it"
M  : "Ok, we'll see about it then"

Well, I've finally decided and told Papa that we could give it another try.  Afterall, when she progresses to P2, I suppose there would be more homework and by then, she would need to start doing her homework first.

Surprisingly, she was even more co-operative today after the prep-talk and she even drank the mushroom soup that came with her set meal, which she normally rejects!  Then she was sooo obedient and willing;y 'exit' the toys department and whenever I said we should proceed to other place.

I had thought that Papa will join us for dinner and thus, I brought them to have a little snack but just as we were about to place our order, papa text to ask if we're ready to leave and since we weren't('cos we wanted to check out the food fest at Takashimaya), he said he'd pick us up later then.  However, I didn't expect that we'd end up hving quick dinner of packed Japanese food at the Paragon playground(which we went back to pack another before heading home, 'cos Renee loved it so much, hahaha), and hving to go home by ourselves...

Nevertheless, Renee had a really wonderful day(as she claimed), and from now on, I'd have to monitor and pray in the meantime, that our new pact works...