Windy Days Are Back?

Unlikely, not in these few months I guess, but it's been quite windy the past few days :

Percussions

After her shower, Renee took out her school's percussion set and told me that she'd like to play with them(it seems like they hvn't started using them in sch til today, hope i'm wrong...). Here's her trying out the instruments with the various songs - to see which tune would go better with each of them and she's discovered alternative ways to 'play' some of them along the way, hahaha:

It's amazing how different an instrument can sound when being held a different way:

Coin Slots

Renee has been pampered by her aunt with toys from coin slot machines and I thought it's perhaps time for her to get in touch with a 'real' one! lolz. So today, I took her to the canned drink dispensing machine located at the carpark washing bay and with only 2 $1 and a 20cts coins available, I asked her to look for drinks labelled at S$1.20 and out of the few she's spotted, I chose this and she selected it.

After her practice, I asked if she'd like to do some artwork and she requested for the 'princess' sticker artwork, so I got a new piece of the castle scene one:

And as I'm typing this post, Renee suddenly brought out an old artwork which she's done in school for the valentine's day and insisted that I opened the 'heart' up, claiming that there's a piece of paper inside. As I didn't act on her request immediately, she being impatient, removed the tape and voila! Ohh, it's nice :

Term Holiday?

This morning, holding the home phone, Renee told me that she wanted to phone her classmate, Vanessa and invite her over to our place to play and when we communicated further, it seems that she has mistaken yesterday's 'holiday' as a beginning to one of the schools' long holiday breaks! hahaha.

After the 'nap' that I've had during my facial, I felt energised and since I've still got a big piece of codfish, prawns and chicken wings in the refrigerator(plus there'd be fresh foodstock again tmrw), I decided to cook dinner for the 3 of us today, :D. Needless to say, daddy was delighted(as we're both sick n tired of eating packed food) and Renee, whom had previously complained that the baked codfish tasted different from her usual, requested for more when she's already had her own share of threadfin, lolz...

Another Mothers Day Card?

Renee's school is closed today for the holiday-in-lieu(Vesak Day) and we had planned to take her to the Zoo for some waterplay(thinking that it might be less crowded on a wkday but I later learnt from PX that most schs are closed too, lolz), so I gladly arranged for PX to come over earlier(she's mentioned that she'd like to come over earlier on alt wks dur hols or no sch for Renee) but she was a little late today, so she had to rush abit when she realised that we're bringing Renee out. However, her rush wasn't necessary as daddy didn't make it back till 3:50pm and it was drizzling... My suggestion of going to the Science Centre was put down by daddy due to the time(ya, like I'm the one who made it home late, ok ok he has work to attend to...) and when the sky cleared up a little, it was already past 4pm and I deemed it too late to continue with our original plans, thus we ended up with dinner at h mall...

Whilst we were 'waiting' and discussing on alternative plans, I took the opportunity to check into Renee's backpack and it was a good thing that I did so, 'cos I found the piece of 'homework' on the lower case alphabets in the communication book. Geez, I've forgotten about that! I quickly took it out and told Renee that she'd have to do it when we come back and she did so, after her shower, :).

Apart from the 'homework', I also found this... It's a card they've made in school. Of cos I prefer the one she's made for me at home but it's nice to know that the school has guided them in this, :).

A New Song

2 stars from her violin lesson today(1 for the previous song and 1 for the latest), however today's new song 'O Come, Little Children', though a slightly slower rhythm, she has to learn how to read these on the scores and play them the way they're indicated - 'mf' = mezzo forte, medium loud, 'P' = piano, soft, 'F' = Forte, loud, Crescendo = getting gradually louder... What makes it tougher is that this song begins on a 'up bow' and also, there're a few of double 'same' bowing, so I'm foreseeing some blood vomitting at the beginning on my part tomorrow(when she begins her 1st home practice on this piece) since it's gonna be confusing for her even though she's already touched on both of these techniques in earlier songs.

Good thing is that for such 'extra' work, she would for now, only have to concentrate on the playing of the notes/tune first and learn the rest next lesson...*phew*, else I think I'd go crazy, hahaha(now I know why alot of schools are not willing to take in younger children for violin).

Another Site

Due to insufficient vote counts to indicate true readers' preference(the last counter showed 'equal' no. of votes for both choices), thus, I've decided to go with my preference - another site, :).

Shall try to make viewing easy and I'll update you guys when the URL is ready. Please leave me a comment here or email me to let me know if you're keen to be informed of the link.

A Little Informal 'Performance'

We'd be celebrating the 'M' day for our mother today over at hers and I've got Renee prepared for a little performance - a little plan encouraged by her teacher to help her overcome her fear of performing or rather, playing infront of others. She was alllll ready for it but when the time comes for her to really play the tunes, she got nervous again. However, she's slightly better this time and she even played the few songs that she's learnt, :) but we could still tell that she's still nervous. Nevermind, just hope she'll get over this fear with more of such 'performances'(no choice since she's on a 1 to 1 privated lessons).

My sisters have long heard about her doing/dancing the 'wo men de kong ji, bu jian le' song(not sure if this is the actual title hahaha) and I've also got her to agree to doing it today. But then again, unlike the violin, she was even less willing to do the dance! It was only when she wanted to have 1 of the plastic bowls from the table of buffet food that she was finally willing to do it, but... not in the full 'swing', no 'shaking of bum bum' as she'd normally do at home, hahaha.

Earlier at home, Renee wanted to make me a card when she was told that tomorrow's Mothers' Day. However, I can't be helping her do it rite? So I gave her a colour paper and told her to get daddy to help her(he should have the initiative to start it himself in the first place...anyway, think he only guided her on e spelling whilst reading his papers, cos she only knows how to spell 'mommy' and 'papa' hahaha) and this is how it turned out :

Isn't it nice? heeee(the stamps I bought for her came in handy too!)

And this is the book Li has got for Renee from her recent trip to KL

(with finger puppet eyes)

These PJs Elsie gave her came in just on right time!

A Friday Cuppa and... Stamps!

Met Janice at the school as I was about to leave and she told me to wait... and we both went for a munch(good thing I've got Renee's bread packed up just in case). We had a nice time chatting about schools, homes, even politics, hahaha and thanks to her help, I finally managed to get my 'work' on newspaper prints photo-copied/reduced in size(so that I could put them in my portfolio-I'm currently re-adjusting my filo) - went to many places and most can't do colour copy, so, *phew*.

Eileen had passed me quite abit of stamps before but as she's given them to me much too early, they had been sitting in our storeroom for a looong time. So much so that I've donated them away when I was doing a major clean up of that room(thought I've kept some still leh...). Now that Renee is older, I wouldn't say that I regret it(since they're being donated) but for that, I'd been on the look out for nice stamps in vain. Finally today, at one of the shops @ Compass Point, I got these for her(and was even given a free limited edition of the Princesses' poster) :