(Jan 17) Blessed 5th Birthday, little tong tong

Wow, gor gor would be turning 5 exactly on the first day of the Lunar New Year. Cheekily with a glint in his eyes, he asked if he would be getting two ang baos?

Celebrated at wai po's house.

Jun totally enjoyed being the centre of attention.

Went to tong's school. He boasted to his friends that he would be getting an ice cream cake even before he asked if I would allow it. Well...we did get him one in the end, milo and cookies & cream flavor...

We even had a piñata game! Did not know that it was quite hard to smash it and the kids had a whale of a time, taking turns and going at it multiple times before I asked all of them to just tear up the cardboard. Ha, there was a huge rush when the goodies were spilled...haha...tong had put two shopkins in it, and he got them back.

Lele loved the celebration so much and gushed about it to his mum. ha.

For his birthday celebration, he asked to go Diggersite. Well, they had three different machines to operate. 1) picking up the balls; 2) picking up sand and 3) picking up logs.

jie liked picking up sand the most while tong liked picking up the logs as you could roll the logs down a ramp to strike some pins and the logs made a thunderous sound as they rolled down...hahaha

the prettiest construction worker in the world

Jun had a good time just being pulled around in the wagon ha

he also had a ball of a time in the ball pit

even jie joined in the fun...

oh, big prize big prize! A baby as the reward if you manage to catch him.

We took the animal ride, it was excruciatingly slow...well...quite value for money I would say, considering the three could squeeze on one.

Then photo taking before we went to Saizeriya for dinner - their favourite kids' meal of cream pasta and yakult, finishing with brownie and ice cream!

Lele gave tong a present, he loved it so much that he brought it out to play.

A picture of jie when he was a wee 1 year old...oh my...6 years flew by in a blink of an eye? The cheery girl loved school, was made the Chinese and English classes' monitors, so she was taking down names and ensuring that the students were well-behaved...so comforted that she was taking to school like a fish to water. We prayed for God's favour over her...that she would learn and prosper and be a great testimony of God's goodness.

That day, it started raining when we were at Chinatown. It was quite dampening for me...but jie remarked cheerily, "God has a better plan." You recalled how once we encountered the rain when we were at the guppy fishing place and you were sorely disappointed. But later on, we went to the East Coast facility, had great favour with the boss who gave us extra time and pail FOC, we even checked out the new playground. I talked about how God held things in His hands and His plan was way better and how great things turned out. That left an impression on you. With such a faithful and trusting attitude, you would go far, my little Jesus' girl.

And, blessed birthday, my little tong tong. Three resolutions for the year: 1) Be thankful; 2) Listening ears; 3) Honour words, less whiny bouts....with your smarts and looks, if we could guide you well in God's ways, you would surely be a mover and shaker. so fly, my little eagle. The world is your oyster, fair winds and following seas ahead. Even if the sea was tumultuous, we would always be your safe harbor. And God, would always be your anchor, He would never let you down. We love you, to the moon and back, all the days of your life.

(Jan 17) The beginning of a new year - 2017

It felt like so many things had happened in the first month that Christmas was like a distant memory when we had just celebrated mere weeks ago. 

The trishaw had been done up with the inclusion of Jun's name! Could not wait to bring it out, I could imagine curious and envious looks from the onlookers..haha

How many kids could lay claim to a painstakingly customized handmade trishaw from their granddad? It was definitely one unique gift of love.

Brought tong to his extra soccer lesson on a Tuesday evening. With jie having extra ballet lessons on Wed in preparation for her exam, tong having extra soccer lessons in preparation for his league...Chinese enrichment lessons on Sats...the week had seemed pretty packed.

Imagined how busy mum would be juggling three little beings' schedule, plus papa's on top of mine? and...not counting sch CCAs, compulsory remedial and perhaps more academic lessons? Oh My.

Jun was having a ball of a time...hahahah how punny.

Jun always relished playing at the school playground with tong...eh..while tong wished that jun would join him at sch next year, I was not so sure as...it was pretty costly...and he probably would not learn much at pre-nursery too? Might as well hang out with mama?

it was jie's birthday and papa was away in India. He sent a jar of beautiful blooms to jie jie...

 

the brothers wearing matching wear to church

Jie and her favourite pals from class. Jie, Jovi and Jervis. Oooo all the Js. Jervis was an especially cute boy, greatly independent too, he could take the bus home on his own.

Never forgetting to stop at the balloon sculptures...the Monkey year was coming to an end...I wondered if they would have a rooster sculpture this coming Sunday?

Went to Uncle Daniel's baby shower and jie was reading most of the time. This little bookworm. I betted Tong and Jun would start reading earlier as they looked up to jie as their role model...here, jun seemed to be savouring the story with his darling sister

Aunt Val claimed the three of you were her happy pills.

Jun seemed readier to take the car seat! He asked to be in it and actually fell asleep!

Recently, the two of you requested for swimming lessons and we got a coach to come for a trial. Well, at one point, both of you adamantly declared you did not want to learn, you were afraid to dip your heads underwater too. So I was pretty amazed and surprised that the coach said you two had great water confidence and learnt fast. papa and I learnt to trust your leadings, that you would learn when you were ready, and you would learn better when you were ready. We should trust and believe in three of you.

pie face game from Uncle Sally. Well, we used baby lotion instead, so it was not such a harrowing experience. Quite fun to be sure.

 

We brought out the pram again! Woohoooo and all three of you could sit in it together, how cool that was!

Chilling out on the swing at the vegetarian restaurant where we had this year's reunion dinner with Wai po and Wai gong.

Went shopping in JB with ah gong and ah ma, we made a special seat just for JUN! Lodged between two seats at the second role, it was perfect for him. The elder siblings were fighting to sit in it too.

We even got a car trolley at the mall for Jun. Really handy, the kids took turns to sit in it.

 

Now that Jun was older (14 months), papa could fetch the trio on Saturdays to ah ma's house when mama was at work. Papa penguin remarked that Jun took to the car seat rather well. So...he just liked to whimper and snuggle with mama in the car?

Ah gong became the penguin ah gong as he had to fetch jie for her wed ballet class while mama was at work. Here, they were having a snack before class started.

ha brought jun to fetch jie and he liked Jervis too. jie commented that she wanted papa to meet him too, sounded like bringing the boyfriend to see us

on the way to papa's office and passed the kindness gallery. should check it out sometime.

would you believe it, the Lunar New Year would be here really soon. time for celebration again!