The Birthday Dinner with Fireworks!

This year, after having experienced a birthday stay-in at the Marina Mandarin couple of years ago, we decided to return to the restaurant where we had our 1st spectacular 'live' view of the fireworks.  Reservation was made weeks ago and with no other plans to replace its arrangement, we confirmed its booking.

Unlike the last time, we took our time(left home @4pm but shopped at MSq and snacked at KFC) to arrive at the restaurant this year and I felt that it is not a wise move 'cos we were just 'rushing' to the restaurant when the choppers were carrying the Singapore flag across the sky - almost miss the action...

We were ushered into the restaurant itself this time round when we were seated(I think it was because we have made that option then?) right in the open then.  Some changes noted too, the open area's much smaller this time round but with 'roof' over the diners in case it rains like before, :).

When the favourite dish of chilli crab was served, sparks of fireworks began but they were merely those that 'popped' after some performances, so we were still allowed to enjoy our crabs to the full, heeee.

Although we were indoor(maybe they had put us there knowing that we have a young toddler and a kid) this time, the view was still great and Papa said, "it's well worth-it" when the bill came, hahaha.

 only managed to capture pics on these dishes
('cos papa said "don't take lah" which made me felt awkward doing it, haha)

The damage

Watching the fireworks

This is the last video captured, Rachel, influenced by the cry of an older boy

from a nearby table, also got abit frightened by the loud sounds(fireworks)

Pre-Birthday Outing II - A Simple but Pleasant Surprise

Despite the unpleasant encounter earlier today, we were 'lucky' that Papa was able to bring us out to town, alittle earlier...  We had a simple dinner at SushiTei and with nothing in mind for my present, we headed home straight away...

After my shower, I had opened but closed the bathroom door instantly('cos I've forgotten something) and this act, must have misled Renee to think that I'm ready and out, because I heard her playing the happy birthday song with her violin! hahaha.

When I was out of the bathroom, a cake, lighted with candles was placed on a small table and Renee played the full song again, :).(needless to say, papa was video-ing the 'happening', hahaha).

Although Papa's gotten the wrong 'brand' of cake(I've told him I wanted 'eggless cake' from Emicakes this year, so our kids could share them!) and he's also gotten me a bottle of perfume which both Renee and I had commented 'hmmm, not nice huh?"(and it's costly!) when we passed its brand roadshow earlier, this simple gesture's(not forgetting the hugs and kisses from my girls) enough to create a smile in my heart... :).

The Gift - wrapped and unwrapped, :)

Found this envelope last night when I went in to check on Renee.  No wonder she'd asked

me for the envelope after I've removed its content.  Times like this reminds me that she's a good girl, who wouldn't waste or pester us to get her stuffs - a pack filled with different types of envelopes and letter notes were then placed on her bedside table... :)

 This is what's inside the envelope, :)

This is the new note she wants to replace the old one with,

when she found the nice ones I gave her :)

(but I insisted that I liked the 'original' one...) 

Pre-Birthday Outing I - An Unpleasant Encounter

School ends early at 10:30am today and I asked if papa's ok that we all go fetch Renee from school(instead of her coming back on school bus) and we went for a brunch , :).

We had wanted a Macdonald's breakfast(Renee refused tim sum) but as we were late from running some work errands, we had to do with an early lunch instead.

2 'not so nice' incidents occurred thereafter..  1st, Renee almost lost her mobile phone!  Fortunately, we managed to recover it - an old nice couple had found it and answered the call we made to its number, phew...

We were heading back from Bukit Timah Plaza(where we usually go to buy our groceries) when the 2nd unpleasant incident occurred.  A Caucasian lady wanted to enter the elevator we were on, just as the door was about to close.  Although there was still enough space for her and her trolley, it would nevertheless, be very cramp for everyone.  I moved in as much as I could, whilst pressing onto the button to hold the door for her.  But my, this was one rude lady!  She obviously had seen our trolley, 'cos she paused, just that mere seconds before she decided to burge in regardlessly.  She pushed her trolley harshly in and it hit Rachel's legs!  Without a simple thanks to me for holding the door, she didn't even apologise to us when she knew that her trolley had hit Rachel(her facial expression told us that she knew!)!  It was only after papa and I had uttered "my goodness" that she said, unapologetically, "sorry legs", GEEZ!  You call this an apology?  You bet, anyone would be angry at that!  Anyway, guess what she did?...

Rude Lady : "I didn't see her", *period*

Papa(upset): "You can't see her? are you blind?"

Rude Lady : "Well, she seems ok, isn't she?"

Papa          : "She's only a baby, you should have been more careful.  What if I banged onto your tummy and say sorry tummy?"

Rude Lady : "Well, I apologised, didn't I? Are you gonna just stand here and shout or you wanna move on" (mind, we didn't even raise our voice, let alone 'shout' as she'd claimed)

Wah, that was really too much!  I really almost flared : "your apology wasn't sincere at all! you're such a rude person!" and she retorted, facing me she said "you could have moved in more" and papa told her it was already so cramp and I reminded her "I was trying to hold the door for you!".  At this point, she just kept quiet but showed us a very unhappy face and acted all high almighty, like she's the queen and we were the ones in the wrong, my goodness.

Papa muttered, but still audible(that's the purpose anyway) "all these angmos... so uncultured" and I quickly added "exactly, wonder why they're here".  Now, such incidents really tell us, it's not why we Singaporeans do not welcome foreigners(whichever country they come from), it's them who made it difficult for us to accept them.  Just look at their attitude, their behaviour towards us and we are the lawful/rightful citizens of this country!  Even after we gave way to them, gracefully...  Honestly, if they're unhappy about not getting their hauty way here, we would all be much happier if they do not stay...

The 4 Incisors

Although we've been advised by dentists(both the Consultant at NDC and the school's) to leave nature to its work but, for the sake of oral hygiene('cos Renee's afraid to brush on the 2 loose ones), we decided to call upon the school dentist to extract Renee's 4 baby incisors since 2 of her adult ones are already out!  Actually they've been out(in full size) for quite a while now but like her other 2 bottom ones, these 4 simply refused to bulge(with the 2 middle ones still going strong! that's why I decided to have them extracted) - I guess that's the result of good dental care(and the fact that she didn't take juices/outside drinks when she's younger)since she was very young, hahaha.

I phoned up her school and when her form teacher returned my call, I learnt that 2 of her close classmates had also gone to the dentist this morning, :).  Soon, the school dentist phoned me and upon some discussion,  she said she'd administered upon the loosest one on the right(of the 4) first since I preferred her to have her lunch before the extraction of the other 3.

We dropped by BT Plaza to grab our groceries and was alittle late when we arrived at the school.  Renee was sitting outside the library reading the books waiting for us and we(esp. me) were disappointed to find the food stalls had already closed for the day(forgot that it's a single session school!) and I missed the opportunity to try out the school's food...

There were some older kids at the school dental clinic when we came back after lunch and, not sure if it's due to my pressence, Renee was suddenly frightened.  She even cried in the clinic, when she didn't flinch during the earlier extraction when only anesthesia cream was applied.  She wasn't even afraid when she went for her little surgery last year...

I was still with her, holding her hand when the dentist gave her the 2 injections and apparently, either the cream wasn't applied enough or it was simply not strong enough, she cried and Rachel was frightened(I hope she won't remember this episode when she's older), she even tried to 'stop' or 'beat' the dentist 'cos she tapped(gently) her hand once, on the dentist's arm(she didn't 'hit' hard, so I think she's probably trying to stop the dentist from administering the jabs...).  In order not to cause any trauma for her in the future from witnessing the extractions, I decided to bring her out when the injections were completed, using 'get papa in' as an excuse, heeee.

When I returned to the clinic, the extractions were already done and the older girls whom were inside the clinic earlier, were there again.  This time round, they tried to comfort Renee and it's heart-warming to see such nice girls around the school.  One girl even patted Renee on her back like a little baby and told her "it's ok, Renee"(they must have got her name then & there), then she turned to me and said "the 3 teeth are extracted already".  She even made Renee a promise of ice-cream on my behalf and when I joked with her "hey, don't make promises to her on my behalf", she got alittle frightened for a moment, heeee.  Papa told me that there were some girls outside the clinic too(when I've gone into the clinic to check on the extraction) and they've greeted him politely.  Such nice girls!  Hope our Renee will grow up to be this  nice too! :)

Following the teeth extraction, Renee's exempted from practice and she's very happy, hahaha.

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.