Pre-holiday weekend – Part 2

On Sunday, Z could barely crawled out of bed. Our cleaning auntie reached at 8am so Mr H and I had to be up early. In order to clear stocks in the fridge, I made ham, mushroom & cheese omelette for breakfast. My egg was too small and i did not add water so it was very hard to fold my omelette. My success rate was 1/3 for presentation. 

Mr H had also bought me a pizza float but I let the kids test run in the morning. X loved it.  

It looked like X was on patrol.
  

The kids played till the skies rained on them. After a home-cooked lunch, we headed out to the family hairdresser. We spent more than 2 hours there as I had to dye my hair.

After shopping errands for the trip & Xmas were completed, we took photos around the prettily decked out areas.  

We had a simple dinner before rushing off to USS for the evening programs. We were just in time!

The 713pm Christmas Lights show

  

The 720pm Fairytale remix performance 
The 740pm Sesame Street Xmas show  
 

Z even squeezed in a ride before we heading home on a drizzling night. 

Random fact of the day – I found out that X knew how & when to switch his Aircon on or off. 👍🏻

Pre-holiday weekend – Part 1

The pre-holiday weekend in Singapore was utter madness. There were so many things to do in Singapore during Christmas period but the rain was not helping. It almost made me feel sorry that we would be away from Singapore for so long! One thing for sure, we would miss the Star Wars opening weekend and there were a couple of movies such as The Good Dinosaur which we had not gotten to watching.

On Friday itself, Z had to skip his wushu class for his birthday dinner with the family. We also had an impromptu visit from our relatives in KL. By the time we were done with dinner and shopping at Daiso (we had to grab vacuum bags), we got home at 1030pm.

On Saturday, Mr H brought Z to soccer class. X went along too because I had facial appointment. They had lunch and we convened at Metro. We barely made our way past 313 when it started to drizzle and my plans for my Xmas moments’ phototaking at Ion were dashed. We went to the “Christmas Market” at OC, redeemed some vouchers and popped over to OG to buy woollen socks for the kids. No thanks to our late decision, we were unable to buy the ski accessories from a local website which was also undergoing some massive relocation and could not accommodate self-collection.

I shopped at Metro alone and picked up my skincare, a swim suit, a silk quilt (20%+20%) and silk-like quilt cover (60% off). 

Thereafter, we had to rush over to catch “The Future of us” exhibition.

 The wet walk in  
Getting in soon – the entrance was so near to the fairground of Xmas Wonderland that I thought we should have parked at Gardens by the Bay.

  

Entering exhibit soon
To ponder over what made Singapore Singaporean  
 
First video clip    

There was a second clip and we were shown this exhibit room. It showed endless possibilities of how we could use technology to create our future.

Checking out urban farming 

 

Z’s favorite section was the one showing how SCDF used technology to resolve a problem and how the soldiers secured a building.

“Dreams” in the air    

Casting a wish for his future 

Enjoying a swing     

The Future of Us – visited and checked!

I felt the exhibition was rather disappointing. Great concept but the experience was too short and abrupt.

In the evening, we attended a birthday party! 
  

The kids enjoyed running around while I enjoyed the live prata station.
Live station  

Z tried his first tissue prata
Then we rushed to USS for the Xmas show and fireworks! 
    
  

Extent of smoke from fireworks – so glad that they went ahead despite the rain
For Xmas, Mr H renewed our season passes so here was to more USS.  
  

I also realized we had more Xmas shows to catch!!! 

We definitely had to come back here before the holiday trip!

Sunday at Sports Hub

After lunch at the nearby La Barca, we headed to Singapore Sports Muesum which was outside the main entrance of Kallang Wave Mall and the Singapore Indoor Stadium. It was free entry for Singaporeans. ✌🏻️

Kids at the entrance

Striking a pose

Wall of fame
  
  

An old sailboat  

Polo
  

Past medals   

Recalling YOG 2010

On a swing    

The old stadium’s benches where I also learnt that it was built in 1973 and hosted the SEAP games 

The mascot in various sports, not unlike the modern day Nila in different poses    

Winning spoons instead of medals

I never knew motor racing had been legal in Singapore!    

All in all, I thought the exhibits were good. I liked how they explained the history of sports, of the National Stadium I had grown up with and later torn down and the contributions of past sportsmen. 

When we visited the museum, it coincided with the opening weekend of Para Games.

Street performance 

Caught Nila at the stadium while watching the athletic heats and finals   
Three boys clapped, cheered and chatted on their own   
  

Rowing activity  

Z liked it so much that he tried it thrice!

X was flipping the tyre
  

We made our own certificate where X learned to make his name with sign language.  

Proudly showing their certificates 
 

It was a memorable day, even for me, as I saw the visually disabled athletes competed in 100-200m. The running guide shad to be as proficient as the athletes. There was a great deal of synchronization and trust. These athletes set an inspiring role model for the kids.

Inaugural visit to National Gallery

When the National Gallery first opened, we registered for free tickets in order to enter the museum without queuing.

We parked at High Street due to bad jams from the road closure. It was the first week after opening and there was an opening celebration. 

There were many ushers with maps to guide us. I tried going to the Keppel Art Education Centre for kids but there was a 45minutes’ queue!

We checked this out instead   

Designing their animal
  

X posing with an animal in the woods
This was Z’s  
  

X had so much fun that he didn’t want to leave.

We checked out some art galleries. 

Z enjoyed what he saw and asked me many difficult questions that I could not answer.  

He was swinging his arms so widely that o feared for this exhibit.
  

 We discussed about Chinese Ink & Calligraphy with Z
  

Random art that I liked because it had pink!

  

Enjoying the interior view 

 

We went up to the roof garden  

We saw that they were setting up an opening ceremony   

We popped over to the Supreme Court wing and were wowed by the dome! In awe due to the way they built over the existing building   

Cool exhibit 

First puppet show for Z  
  

Beautiful link bridge

 The kids’ patience were wearing thin so we went back down to level 1. We queued 20min to get in. There were 5 areas. 

The first stop – my boys loved vehicles so it was not surprising why we were here. Each kit had 2 vehicles and cost $4 per kit. We bought 2 kits.

The boat was harder to make

X loved his flying bus
   
  

Z and his completed piece  

In another room
  

Checking out 3D Woodlands City  

Colouring
  

Their favorite section was Magic Forest.  
    
   

   
 

Wedding + Zoological weekend

This was X’s first church wedding. 

En route to the church wedding   

X had been really excited about going out with me. However, his excitement sizzled when the quietness and solemn environment of the church overwhelmed him. He was also uncomfortable with the attention levied on him. 

X actually said he was scared and wanted to go home. When he got very restless, I brought him for a walk.

He saw the cake and wanted to eat it.
  

“Mummy, I want to eat this.”  

I had to persuade him that he was to attend the full version wedding party before he could eat the cake. He reluctantly headed back to the ceremony. He was so restless that he played with the wedding favor, dropped and broke it! 😱

In the end, I had to sponsor him 15 minutes of YouTube to get through the last stretch. 

Lesson learned: Never bring my toddler to a church wedding 

We watched “Tomorrowland” in the afternoon and headed to town for dinner. The boys had to sleep early for their near-quarterly zoo visit.

Spotted a crocodile 

  

And the white tiger doing its morning exercise again   

We were posing with the otters which had long left the scene
  

At the koala sanctuary   

Waiting for the Splash Safari show to start, and also hiding from the heavy downpour 
  

Sleeping lions which had newly moved to our zoo  

We got to see a baby giraffe!
  

Which really wasn’t that much of a baby size  

The entourage with the giraffes 
  

There were 3 adult giraffes and 1 baby giraffe. The kids said the 3 adults represented the mom, the dad and the helper. 👀

Being fascinated with the moving stripes   

We chanced upon a new exhibit – African Painted Dogs 
  

We also saw the polar bear nap 
We left the zoo by 1pm and headed to Italian Osteria  
  

We also swung by East Coast Park again for the boys to scoot before returning home for them to swim.  

We had to thank our blessing of good weather and friends for an awesome weekend. #nohaze