March Hols 2015 too

So on Tuesday, we had piano lesson in the morning and we headed to City Sq Mall as Teacher Hari had arranged a special one-to-one session with Jie to prepare her for the upcoming ballet exam. 

went to toy r us, you kids were obedient, you knew you had to save up and buy toys only during Christmas. Xun had taken a fancy to some singing bird..ha

we went to the playground and there was a little pony fiesta going on. You could take photos with the little ponies' cutouts...

and for $15, we got to ride a pony, feed the pony and take a photo with the pony. Here was tong looking all dapper like a real jockey.

then jie jie waited for her turn in the cute little pink helmet 

it was blistering, i could have melted under the sun.

jie was more daring, she dared to use the little shovel to feed the ponies some carrots, ha, tong did not even want to try

Teacher Hari was such an enthusiastic and encouraging teacher. For almost one hour, she praised you to be brilliant, musical and assured you that you would surely pass the test...though...mama could tell that you were obviously off the rhythm at some points...hahaha...well...maybe that was how ang mohs worked, always affirming and seeing only the best...it certainly influenced you to try the steps over and over again...though i had great difficulty making you do so at home..ha

one night, xun could not sleep so she accompanied mama while mama marked the worksheets. mama set her on the task to do up the frames for the photos. ta da.

while waiting for ah gong, we saw lots of pigeons on the grass patch and you two started chasing them

Ha, you claimed it was really fun to chase the birds...mean, eh?

then at night, after much waiting, xiaoyi came with her friend to fix up xun's playmobil castle. ha...we had bought this for a long time and never got the time to do it. good thing xiaoyi got this friend as he was really skilful and knew exactly what to do

the kids pretended they were in a boat

xiaoyi could not help much as she injured her hand

the kids clamored to help and Uncle Alston was really patient and indulgent, allowing them to paste stickers on the castle, though it would be far easier for him to do it on his own

almost completed

left with all the teeny decorations

it looked so deceptively simply but took 3 long hours. in fact, mama read some online reviews that the min time seemed to be about 3 hours, there were lots of bolts to put all the parts together so it was really sturdy, you could not see the bolts but they were painstakingly put together.

maybe this was what parenting was all about. the excruciating pain that went into all the discipline, imparting of values, sacrifice in order to grow you, to inspire you, to lead and guide you into what Jesus had destined you to be...all the invisible nuts and bolts that went into your psyche, all the tears and sweat and blood (literally at birth), all these unseen work, yet one day, you would stand tall and shine...my Jesus' kids, light and salt to the world

Alston seemed to me a decent and sensible chap who seemed to know what he wanted out of his life. Eh...he smoked and wore earrings..so prob Wai po would mind that...but otherwise...I thought...he must be quite a caring person to make xiaoyi feel cared for enough to want to start a rshp. Xiao yi was so used to be looked after by all the sisters and brother in laws. ha...we, sisters and brother in laws had such an active chat 

ha, tong was sad as he had drawn on this board and I wanted to recycle it, so we agreed to keep it for 3 days

jie was so thrilled with the end product, spent some time tinkering with it. 

Currently, our ex prime minister Lee Kuan Yew was critically ill...mama read his daughter's words about her family, how the parents were so in love with each other and their love for the children...brought tears to my eyes...

being parents...definitely one of the greatest blessings in the world...though sometimes it felt like the shittiest job in the world...

so....know that, I always love you...that my love for you will never waver..that it is as deep as the deepest ocean and as high as the highest point in heaven