Magical pond with magical babies!!!

Recently I've won 2 adult tickets + 1 baby to the Magical Pond show organized by the Singapore Innovative Children's festival. It was a giveaway done by Mother & Baby Singapore. Too bad it was on a weekday thus mr. Hubby wasn't able to join us...
But nevertheless, baby Si and mummy had lots of fun! Especially baby Si...

It was a cool setup where it wasn't an actual physical pond...u don't want babies aged 7-18 months to be wandering around near a pond right? That was what my mama thought when I told her I'm bringing her granddaughter to a magical pond...she said, "aiyahhh, so dangerous, mosquitoes, water..." But no, they actually projected up onto a big screen a "magical pond" where fishes, frogs, dragonflies, etc were dancing around to the soothing background music. They had comfy cushions laid right below the projector where both mummy and baby can chill while watching it. Too bad they didn't have any popcorn for mummy!!! Hehehehe....baby Si laid down right away and enjoyed the whole 45 mins show!!! I was surprised and other mummies were too at how quietly baby Si sat there... The rest of the babies were all boys...so definitely they were all active, moving around, just didnt wanna sit still... I guess that's the diff btwn baby boys and girls...

In between they had people blowing bubbles, and bringing in props like flowers, fishes, balls, rubber duckies, etc to enhance the babies "touch" sensation! All the sensations sight, sound, touch were covered except for smell and taste! Well does poop-y diaper count for smell??? Just kidding... Hehhehe...

At the end, each baby were also given a free gift "goodie bag" worth $50 sponsored by Abbott!!! But too bad baby Si doesn't take any formula milk :(

More info on this event...click here!!!

King of all fruits buffet!!!

For all my "ang moh" aka western readers, the king of all fruits is DURIAN!!!
You either love it or hate it! No in betweens...
Durian is very famous in this part of the world, south east Asia...people pay exorbitant amount of money just to eat the best of the best...
I have heard from westerners that have tasted it describe the taste as "smells like sewage but taste like butter"
Whereas we people that love it will describe it as eating...okay cannot find the word to describe it...so it's indescribable. Priceless!!!

Recently I won 2 spots to a mega durian taste test!
See link (or pics below in case website is no longer up)

Who better to take along as my date? None other than mr. Hubby (n of course baby Si)
Wanted to give this a last shot at my effort to convert mr. Hubby into a durian lover... Cause its buffet style and u get to sample 11 different types and species... From bitter to sweet! Actually there are many varieties of durians!!! I'm not sure if anybody knows the exact number as they keep cultivating new species... And plus it was the start of the durian season...Thus only 11... Plus Singapore is such a tiny island that land is scarce here...so all durians need to be imported from none other than my home country Malaysia and some from Thailand...

U can see from the pics below of the contest being described in more detail and also included is my winning entry!!!
The question asked was, "which is your favorite variety of durian and where is it available?"

So on 28th may evening, after mr. Hubby got off from work. We made our way to Hong Lim Park, "speakers corner"...they told to be there rain or shine! Since all durians were already bought the night before... The editors and employees of HungryGoWhere.com were out and about Singapore looking for the best durians...
We were the first few to arrive ("kiasu" mode on) as "we" more like "I" couldn't wait to devour! But as soon as I thought I could start devouring the buffet spread, the HungryGoWhere team handed us sheets of paper to fill in our feedback, each durian numbered from 1-11 without revealing to us which species... We had to rank the aroma, sweetness/bitterness, texture, etc and overall rating... In a way, it was good as it slowed us down to actually appreciate each bite! Too much of a good thing is good for nothing as mr. Hubby always says...surprisingly mr. Hubby sampled all of it and he liked no.3 (Hong Xia), 2 (Shan Ba Durian) and 6 (Mao Mao Wang) the best whereas I liked no. 10 (Hu Lu Wang), 1 (XO Durian) and 3 (Hong Xia) the best... We both prefer the sweet ones compared to the bitter ones...
Here is HungryGoWhere followup write up on the result

We did try to tempt baby Si with some durian...she had taste tested some previously in Malaysia... But still rejected!!! Yay, that means more for mummy to enjoy... We returned for seconds, for the ones that we liked the most... This mummy then returned for 3rd, 4th and so on...

By the end, I was pretty full. Then mr. Hubby suggested to go for dinner! Oh boy....we ended up having 2 big bowls of Japanese ramen for dinner at ramen play restaurant..baby Si helped us by finishing it ;)

So was my mission accomplished? To convert mr. Hubby to be a durian lover? NOPS... And I'm secretly happy with it ... Hee hee hee...
But mr. Hubby did say give any food for him to try a dozen times, he will eventually like it...which in his case is very true!!! When we moved to Singapore, all he ate was mostly Indian food, western food, and chicken rice, chicken rice and chicken rice...but now, his taste bud has "blossomed"...
Question is: will this wifey offer mr. Hubby more durians to eat in the future...u think? Think again...*evil laughs*

More pics can be found on mr. Hubby's Facebook...
Click here!!!

Sarah & Caleb's wedding

This will be baby Si's 8th time attending a wedding!!!
(Kaishan & su mei, John & Julie, Madeleine and wang Chung, an qi and phil, andrew and sena, Luke Choo & wifey, cousin's son)

The wedding ceremony was held at city harvest church, jurong west in one of the halls. Our cellgroup did a fantastic job on the DIY deco!!! I was impressed especially by the heart shaped balloons!!!
Kudos to our cellgroup... U guys did a great job, staying up late the night before (including mr. Hubby)

Baby Si sat through the entire wedding like a trooper...even managed to sneak in a lil' snooze!
And woke up just in time for the food after...!!! That's my girl...good food shouldn't go to waste...

Too bad baby Si can't walk yet to be prancing around as a flower girl...next time perhaps ;)
Mummy can't wait to dress u up in a flower girl dress and do hair n "makeup"...
Oh wait...ur hair need to grow longer first... Hehehhe
Plus this wedding had 2 cute ring bearers...coz they are twins!!!

We still remember the day when Sarah first started dating Caleb!!! She was so happy and excited
and gleaming from ear to ear...

Wishing the both of you a blessed marriage and a lifetime of adventure...
Faster make cute babies so baby Si can have playmates and keep the cellgroup buzzing with lil' ones!!!

Ok now, who's wedding is coming up next?
And if u need a cute CHINDIAN flower girl, don't hesitate to ask baby Si!!!
(Hopefully she can walk by then!!!)

Happy 14 months old baby Si!!!

I promised that this will be a super short post cause my previous post was super duper long...

Baby Si turned 14 months on 6th June 2013!!! Which is today....yeayyyy!!!
First time this mummy is on time...hehehe...
(13 months old post <~ if u missed it)

Here's our monthly family tradition of taking Polaroid pics.

Hopefully baby Si pics will cheer up ur day!!! It did cheer us up when snapping these pics... :)

Mummy decided to tie baby Si's hair into a coconut tree for this photo shoot before cutting her fringe off as it was getting way too wild.
Every baby girl needs to get a photo taken with their coconut tree hairstyle!!!
I'm sure u have one too :p

Happy Mother's Day!

Sorry for the belated post as mr. Hubby has been extremely busy these past few weeks. Only now he's a free man to upload pics.

So here's the Mother's Day post!

This will be my 2nd year celebrating Mother's Day!
Last year was kinda all a blur and we didn't get to celebrate it...
As mr. Hubby put it, we were blur "sotong" new parents!

So this time, mr. Hubby made sure it was a memorable Mother's Day weekend!

What we did...

First:
We had a staycation and did some chillaxing over the weekend. It was nice to have a short getaway! No cooking, no cleaning, no laundry, etc...
We had a good rest and relax, did lots of reading (which by the way we hardly read)...did some swimming...no tv, no electronics, no fb, no emails, etc... Just quality family time...

Second:
The Fullerton bay hotel chocolate buffet with mr. hubby's MBA friends...
We would never ever have gone for a chocolate buffet if it wasn't organized by someone.
So when mr. Hubby's MBA friends organized a choc buffet experience, mr. Hubby decided to take the opportunity to take the wifey and baby si to a night of pure chocolate indulgence.
And it coincided with Mother's Day weekend. Mr. Hubby knows that the way to a women's heart is thru CHOCOLATE and lots of it ;) mr. Hubby also learnt from the very beginning when we got married that there's a saying in Chinese, "a happy wife, a happy life!!!" Not sure from which china man did he learn this from...but I must thank him ;)

Me n mr. Hubby were pleasantly surprised to find that the choc spread was not just pure chocolate...it had so much variety to it... Cakes, macaroons, choc fountain, fudge, etc... And the best part is it included all types of coffees (cappuccinos, latte, etc) which are my cup of "coffee" and all types of teas (peppermint, earl grey, etc) which wasn't my cup of "tea"
So by the end of the day we were high on caffeine...and we ended up rolling in bed wide awake while baby Si happily snoring in between us!

Baby Si did try some real expensive chocolate but unfortunately she didnt like it... It's ok baby Si, next time u will learn to like chocolate just like mummy...what's not to like about it, it's dark, rich and brown! Just like mr. Hubby!!! Hee hee hee... :p okayyyy corny joke aside....
Baby Si made lots of friends...

The Fullerton bay hotel has a nice romantic ambiance to it... U could sit next to the windows to enjoy the beautiful sight of marina bay sands by the river. Anyone wanting to propose to their gf??? Why not do it there ;) after getting ur lady high on caffeine, she will definitely say YES!!!

Click here for a video montage made by one of karthik's MBA friends!

Third:
The next morning was Mother's Day! Woke up to a nice surprise! Mr. Hubby thought the first thing I would get was my iPad so he left the "surprise" on top of it. but he was wrong...this mummy had to get baby Si's breakfast ready and change her diapers...so mr. Hubby had to divert my attention to the ipad... Found a nice customized pendant of a pic of baby Si and mummy! Lovely surprise...
Mr hubby didn't get any flowers as this mummy had pre-warned him during our dating days.

Fourth:
headed to church and as always city harvest church puts up the best drama ever!
Such talented people... All the efforts, sacrifices, creativity that went into it...just wowwww!!! Every time they never ceased to amaze mr. Hubby and me... Baby Si sat thru it all ;)
After the service, they had a makeover for all the mummies in the house! After doing my makeup, we took advantage of the photobooth! Baby Si was knocked out by the end of the day...thus she was sleeping while we smile for the cameras ;)

Click here to view more pics...

Oh yeah not to forget...thanks to my ex jetstar crew who made a Mother's Day photo collage of all the mothers in her friends list...how sweet of her la...thanks Celine RoxyBabe!

Sienna wrote:
"I'm really blessed for over one year,
that mom has always been so near.

Been feeding me every few hours
And giving me my daily showers…

I’m never hungry and always clean.
She’s hardly angry and never mean.

When I cry, she always consoles me.
When I scream, she comes scolds me.

When I pee, I don't feel too crappy,
But then I poop, she cleans my nappy.

I can’t talk yet, but heard my father say,
“Sienna, wish ‘mie a Happy Mother’s day!”

My emotions are too young to show ‘em,
So I wrote mom through this lil poem.

In a few months I’ll express my love,
To the best mom sent from above!"

LAST but NOT the least...happy Mother's Day to the my own mama!!!
I never knew how much u sacrifice for us 3 rascals...
Until I became a mum... And I only have 1 very sweet obedient one!