En Xi's 6th Birthday Party

January is always such a busy time for us.  After Christmas in Dec, we have to quickly change the decorations in the house to the Chinese New Year theme.  So much parties to attend and before we can even prepare for Chinese New Year.  There will be En Xi's birthday celebration.  This year's party was especially special to En Xi.  You have been asking for a McDonald's Birthday Party since Mid 2013 and finally its here.  I must say it was really great fun and all the kids had a whacky good time.

And let the craziness begin!

Princess and Super Heroes Themed

Shichida Gang (Xuan Ying, Azela & En Xi) Why is Glenn Hugging En Xi?

Glenn Ong at it again

A return hug from En Xi

Let's not forget your cousins, Charlene and Julian

And also Cousins, Shou Rei and Shou Cong

Most of your classmates turned up, Class K2B

En Jun had to put a party hat for me

Presents! Presents! and more Presents!

Another Mini Celebration on the actual day

Cheeky vs Dainty

2014 New Year's Resolution

Another year has passed and reviewing 2013 resolutions, I see that we had managed to achieve most of our targets except spending more time as a couple.  Taking breaks on the 4th of each month was tough to schedule and there is always guilt of leaving you guys with your grandparents and to a certain extent, guilty of loading Ah Ma all the time.  And you know how Ah Ma is, always so caring and compromising.  Anyway, this year's new year resolution remains the same for all of us, with the addition of me, getting fitter and practicing my magic often.

About En Xi.

You seem to have grown up suddenly.  You are such a tall girl now and is taking up more responsibilities as an elder sister to your brother.  Its funny how you can be so caring, nurturing and patient with En Jun.  Then, out of no where, start your whining about En Jun not sharing again.  I love the way you smile.  Always so dainty, shy and princess-y.  You continue to be very creative in your artwork and have an imagination that spans no boundary.  We hope you find where your interest lies in, and for now, we think you might like to attend SOTA in future.  K2 is such a demanding year and like most parents, I can't stand our education system.  There is so much spelling to do in K2 for both English and Chinese.  Pre-schoolers are expected to be able to form a sentence with 7 words.  How times has changed.  I used to read ABCs only in K2.  What really makes matters worst is that P1 teachers are not going to slow down and help kids who develop later.  Really can't understand why this mad rush to learn when its now time to play.  Not to worry at the moment.  We are both helping you with your spelling and getting external help for phonics.  Don't worry, we are not loading you with tons of enrichment classes.  Just an hour of phonics and your favorite arts and craft class on Sat mornings. We are still having fun most of the time as a family.  In fact, we just did a Sunday picnic and soccer at the Botanical Gardens.

About En Jun.

The naughtiness in you surfaced after the Taiwan trip and we guess it must be your cousins, Shou Rei and Shou Cong that have influenced you.  Mummy misses the adorable side of you, but you are still as cute and most of times, just plain silly and comical.  In fact, you and En Xi make a great pair!  School has been great for you.  You have acclimatised well to the environment.  The not so great part?  Your eating and constant harassment of girl classmates.  You are growing up so much like Shou Cong.  Your teacher in N1B, Elosia says that you are a strong will child.  I told her, she haven't met your sister yet.

En Jun's starting Pre-School

A brand new year marks the start of En Jun's Pre-School, full day child care at MindChamps, Toa Payoh together with En Xi.  En Jun had little trouble acclimatising to the new environment and was taken through his steps by her lovely sister, En Xi.

So much thoughts, so little time

Again, another big time fail on blogging for 2013.  The usual reasons again.  No time for reflections for now, only have time for fun with my family.  Nonetheless, a quick recap on the events that happened.

We did quite a few things in the month of May/Jun.  Celebrated En Jun's birthday in the month of May and in Jun, did a family trip to Desaru with Grandpa's extended family, which includes your favourite auntie Jaycee, Margarete, Ta Gu Gu, Maria, Marilyn, Uncle Eric's family, Ricky's family and of course your En Xi's all time BFF, Charlene and ever prince charming, Glenn Ong.

En Jun is such a mummy's boy

Brave En Xi at Desaru Ostrich Farm

Celebrating En Jun's 2nd Birthday

Gong Gong at En Jun's 2nd Birthday Party

En Jun with his best playmates, Shou Rei and Shou Cong

En Jun's favourite Uncle Eric

So Sweet!

Can't stand those lips of yours

Again in Jun, we had another break at RWS.  Our 1st visit to USS as well.

We wore the same T-shirt design as our photo shoot

Brave En Xi at it again

En Xi: This is the best day of my life!  En Jun: Get that Red Monster away from me!

Then in Dec, we went for a holiday in Taiwan with Mummy's family.  There were lots of family shoots together and the kids had a hard time during the drive up and down the mountains, with plenty of vomit.  But it was still good fun, one of the best trips we did for a long while.

Perfect weather for that great family shoot

Pink Ladies

Father-Son bonding time

Ad-hoc measures to contain the puke

En Xi looks like a damsel in distress with 2 heroes protecting her

At Farglory Ocean Park, Hua Lien, Taiwan

Another one of those quirky look from En Jun

We ended off the year with the usual Christmas party.  This time at Auntie Janet's place.  Theme for the party was the 'P' party, En Xi as Princess, as always and En Jun as Pirate.  Almost felt that Halloween again.

Ready to bring down the house!

Last, but not least, we started a ritual of taking photos of us as a family, as siblings and as a couple at the same spot, Singapore Botanical Gardens Main Gate on every New Year's Eve, starting from 2013.  It will be interesting to see and compare the pictures in ten years time.

2013 New Year's Resolution

As a Family:

1.  Venture into water-play at the beach, theme parks and zoo.

2.  Enhance sibling relationship through structured playtime.

3.  Build social and communication skills through structured games with other kids.

En Jun has started running and we think that we are ready for more adventurous stuff.  Lately, we started noticing the start of sibling rivalry and we do hope this can be addressed with more playtime together.  Lastly, to build confidence and various life skills, we will be getting both of you to learn how to play with other kids.

Daddy:

1.  Chart the family's journey by blogging and taking more photos frequently.

2.  Payback to the society and create awareness to my family through charity work.

3.  Start saving and stop squandering.

Mummy:

1.  Wake up earlier everyday.

2.  Start exercising.

3.  Cook more.

As a couple:

1.  To spend time as a couple without kids on the 4th of each month.

By the way, today is Lunar New Year.  Unfortunately, En Xi contracted HFMD for the forth time and will be spending time at home for this CNY.  Daddy and Mummy are taking turns to keep you company at home for the week.  No worries, it just means that we will be doing more arts and craft, drawing, painting and bonding more at home.  Get well soon, En Xi.  Today, you missed the Reunion Dinner at Great-grandma's place and your boyfriend, Glenn Ong kept asking for you and even drew a get-well card and a little present for you.

En Xi's Passport Photo (5 yrs old)

En Jun @ 20 months

By now, you should realise that the blog is heavy on your darling sister.  Heck, even the blog link is your sister's name.  In case you are wondering, No, you are not an accident.  We always knew we will have a 2nd child.  Its just that we are not too IT-savvy when we first created the blog.  No, we love both of you as much.  The reason why there is significantly less post since your arrival and is due to the different nap times you both have and we are just too burnt out at night to turn on our laptop.

Anyway, this post is about you and you only.  You started pre-school in Jan 13 because we wanted Grandma to have an easier time, so that she can cook and serve us a hearty dinner.  You probably didn't know, we have been eating take-aways or catered food 'ting kart' since you were 4 months old.  That was when Mummy went back to work after we had you.  Unfortunately, you didn't settle well in the school (Nurture Stars @ Safra Toa Payoh) and Mummy wasn't comfortable with the child caring standards either.  To top it off, the place was also inconvenient for Grandma to pick you up after school.  So, now we have enrolled you in a 2hr playgroup that is just next to our block.  Hopefully things will turn out good.

Finally pointers from Mummy.

All set and ready to go!

This way ahead!

Oops, I think home is better.

Let me do some last minute reading first.

En Xi's 5th Birthday

Mummy proposed we do something different for your birthday this year.  As highlighted in the earlier post, we bought you to "Hello Kitty Town" and "Little Big Club" theme parks on the weekend before your actual birthday itself.  Thereafter, on the actual birthday, we celebrated it in your pre-school, MindChamps.  It consist of 3 parts to it, (1) a birthday cutting session complete with the usual singing, wishing and photo-taking; (2) a magic show by myself with you as my assistant; and (3) a balloon twisting for all kids to wrap up the day.  You had great fun and was indeed thrilled by our dedicated attention to you.  However, you didn't like my magic show as you kind of felt that too much attention was given elsewhere to your friends instead of you.  Nonetheless, it was still a hit, your friends were still talking about it on the following day.

 Your teachers (N1C to K1B): Jermaine Wu Lao Shi. Organizing the kids to complete the experience for you.

 Your class K1B.  Your BFF, 1st girl on your left with the wide open mouth, Tricia.  Also, girl in green long sleeves top, Cammie.

In case you are wondering, En Jun is back home sleeping.

You were my assistant, in charge of choosing volunteers for my magic show and giving out treats thereafter.  Good job, En Xi!  You did great!

There you are in action choosing volunteers.

Check out your reaction, despite me performing it countless times for you at home.  

You even had a chance to perform your favourite trick!  Flower from a magic wand!

Chilling out with your BFF, Cammie.

En Jun, we promise to uphold the standards for your birthday as well.  Rest assured, you won't be shortchanged.