USS for the 3rd time

 Some months back, daddy told us abt his company's family day coming up at USS...this is his company's 3rd visit to USS and each time we see how the kids grow to different stages and how each time they up their level of enjoying the ride... we rem how Ian enjoyed his 1st roller coaster at this place and then Joann was really a baby coz we rem having to bring her stroller along and 2nd time was better coz we could roam the park till really late...this time we were glad to invite ah baa and ah mu's family along coz we could split the group as the girls weren't into the super duper rides while the boys hmm went on and on and on...

 It was a rainy evening to start but glad we roamed some rides together which were opened earlier than expected....got the whole grp into the Transformer ride hhaha before the girls screamed they had enough of such rides hhahaa but it was a super good ride, very well stimulated ride even tho the 'car' wasn't quite going the wrong way...turned out to be the boys' best ride but was too long queue so they din ask to take again so glad we took it before the crowd really came in....

 The boys really enjoyed this puss in boots ride coz we took like endless times even had encore when we were going to leave the park last ride and they even knew where the camera is hidden

 We managed to catch the Madagascar photo taking as it was the only meet and greet photo taking we managed to get for the evening and we chose the penguins family, at least Joann not scared of such mascots this time unlike our last visit when we saw Shrek and Fiona

 Another of the boys' fav was the canopy flyer so u can guess who ride with them to capture these happy shots before taking the ride and they enjoyed taking the backward way although we felt it was scarier...hmm but we sat the right way and heard them screaming their lungs out hahaha but they enjoyed the ride v much altho Ian was scared his shoes might drop as it was totally exposed at the bottom

So glad we had such good fun throughout the park even the fireworks eating at Mel's drive in,..so much we are contemplating to get the annual pass but seems like the kids are all so enjoying the park

Ian got an award!!!

Some wks ago we received this letter for Ian to attend an award giving ceremony and were pretty surprised as we thot the award giving was already over and we never attended 1 by our GRC and Ian din like going such shaking hands ceremony hahaha and was very reluctant to go since it was a wkday nite (its past their usual zz time) but mama bugged him to go since it was a rare chance. Saw almost the whole neighbourhood there and not joking coz it was all sorts of school uniforms there as they were asked to wear sch uniform there and there we saw a number of Ian's kindy friends. We were seated at tables with numbers so we could go up with the flow to take pic with our MP - Indranee and had crafts for kids and food so we could eat at the allocated tables. But its past our dinner time and couldn't wait to take pic and go home haha saw our immediate neighbor too and like us abit puzzled how they got into this ceremony too tho Indranee did say its good grades hhmm and telling the kids to have good grades with skills too (hinting to parents too huh)

 Had photo booths ard to take pic and print on the spot and liked the tiong bahru background

 And here is a pic with Indranee after a handshake and she was telling Joann next time ur turn hhaa a lot of siblings went together to collect the awards too

 Here we are seated in front of the stage and made ian take a pic with his new cert tho very unwilling again hhaha

 Here is Ian's kindy friend, Javier and coincidentally we were seated at the same table and saw a few of his current classmates too

This is the original shot the guy took with our hp camera and with photo shop they added the background...the boy went home richer than before hhahaa tho its only popular voucher but he is grinning ear to ear already...good work, son and continue to work hard coz it was totally unexpected that he got this Education Merit Award

Going home on his own after school

Just a random pic of the boy who has been going home on his own only when he stays back in school...1st started when he had his SA oral exam and it is hard to tell his oral timing and he used to use public phone to call mama to pick him but realized it takes time for mama to walk and he then told mama he is ready to walk home for such days and it has been good coz told him to take a safer and longer way and to look out for traffic. So he has been walking home on days he stays back for math Olympiad, creative writing, his recent Nafa test and guess more to come with his stay backs and its a bit grown up feeling as he could walk home and chat with his friend till tb plaza and its a short way home and he feels happy abt it and was teasing him next yr he could walk home with mei2 since we do spot a lot of siblings walking home together but just wonder with mei2 whether they will wander off for some ice cream breaks as the mei2 is the sweet tooth gal haha

Ian's 1st table tennis tournament

Last yr Ian started his CCA and we still rem the time when he had trouble deciding which CCA to choose and he was worried he wont get into his choice CCA. He was ill for the 1st session and was v apprehensive when he went the following wk. Some mths later, he told us he is into the sch team which totally caught us by surprise but we didn't fuss coz we were glad he could stay back for more practices to hone his skills. Beginning of this yr, he told us he is going to participate in the tournament which made our jaws dropped coz we knew his standard haha but guess they had limited people in the so called sch team and so they were asked to take part in the tournament. It is very different from our time but it was good exposure for him. Last Tue was his 1st session and he had to skip some lessons coz of the tournament but it was just missing PE and MT so seems quite fine. Tho their sch seems to be the weaker sch, he had a good time really challenging the other kids as they were in junior team but coz his sch has very few P5 kids so the P4s were challenging against P5s from other schs. Hopefully he will gain experience  and hone his skills this yr and come up a stronger player for next yr. But his sch has several good P3s kids who weren't allowed to play this yr so we wonder why. But for the time being, he is keen to stay on this CCA for another 2 yrs as they get to change again next yr....more practices hopefully make him a stronger opponent. But in the meantime, hope he doesn't lose hope after this tournament!

March Holiday getaway

For some time, our ah gong has been asking if we are keen to go Sitiawan for March hols as he gotta settle some stuff and also to shao mu. The long daunting drive is sure something to consider before we decide. But thot we needed to ferry the folks and to fulfil the shaomu wish of the folks and so we decided to go however wondering where to stay coz some of the grand aunts also decided to tag along after small ah baa decided to go along as well. As it was the start of Mar hols, we were worried of the jam and so we met at 6am but it was not early enough, we were still stuck in jam for an hr and then we hit straight to Sitiawan after breakfast at JB. It was a long drive before we stopped by genting for a lunch break which was a nice lunch which we chanced upon the last round as it was near a toll stop and glad we found it again this round. Then was another few hrs to Sitiawan which was a lot tougher drive as roads were narrower and taking over of cars, buses and lorries. It was 4pm by the time we reached Sitiawan and we checked into the nice B&B house small ah baa found over internet. It is a gated security terrace, v different from the last house we stayed as it was 3-storey. The kids had a great time running up down for the next 3 days.

It felt like CNY as we had lots of visitation of relatives still at the town but food sure feels good, coz we do enjoy foochow food and its a lot cheaper here and with crowd we had more choices of dishes. It was endless feasting as we hopped from restaurant to restaurant and small ah baa took pics of most of the restaurants we went, good memory as the kids feasted at every meal too and the adults were surprised they enjoyed such food too haha easy travelers maybe...sleeping well along the trip and late nights there as we were going out to meet relatives at nite....

Market was good too hahah everything felt so village and so laid back and shopping was good too...guess its a good break from the city and we even had a family hair cut as we came b4 and it was super cheap. Where to have hair cut for whole family for RM$21 only!!!

After having fun and feasting for 3 days we were making our move to Melaka, a pit stop b4 we come back Spore as the drive was indeed too long. By the town we reached Melaka town it was past our dinner time but Beizhan is a never to miss stop for Chinese food. We stayed at Hatten while the folks stayed at The Shore coz they decided last min to come by with us. Time to soak in all the kuehs and food and shopping heeee we had another good 2 days here b4 heading home. It was a nice but tiring trip this Mar hols and the kids enjoyed away from the norm. They were good although they didn't have much other kids to play with except this other cousin which they had a blast of fun at the house!