Happy Children's Day!

'Children Are A Gift From God'

God sent me one package
That needed special care
"Take care of this tiny gift
For she is very rare."

"Watch over her with all your love
And let her feel your touch
Take care of her every need
For you are needed very much."

"This gift will grow up very fast
As you soon will see
Love her with all your heart
And let her be what she will be."

"When this gift has fully grown
Look at Heaven up above
Know she exists because of God
And all his precious love."

A very Happy Children's Day to all the children in the world. Remember you are precious in God's sight.

For us, Children's Day didn't start off very well. On the eve of the celebration day, both princess & I fell ill. It was a wham bam sort of virus, no warning whatsoever. I did notice that there are more people around the island coughing away and the doctor's was more packed than usual. I believe much of it has to do with the very persistent haze which has been a real pain. The skies are clear today and I pray from today on, but even if not so, at least for tomorrow when the girls go out to play learn, that the haze has lifted from our tiny island.

I wanted to do snack boxes for the kids in princess' class for the celebration day, and already informed the teacher. But was suddenly struck by this illness, and wasn't sure if I was up to it. Anyhow, I put it aside and set my alarm for an hour and half before the girl had to leave for school yesterday morning. But alas, it was not what I planned it to be. I didn't sleep well all night with my nostrils blocked etc, so I got up and saw that the time was 3.05am. Gosh, it was like I had been in bed for the longest time, and it was only 3??!! Oh well, so got up and not knowing what to do with my time, decided to start work on the snacks for the girls. But of course, had to search for a mask first.

In the boxes, I prepared nutella bread, which were cut using a sandwich cutter, so that was easy. Chicken franks were secured with pretty toothpicks and there were some grapes and a lolly each. It was quite tricky thinking of what to put in. I decided Nutella bread would go well with most kids (who doesn't like a Nutella sandwich?), and sausages too. At least even if they don't like grapes or lollies, there's still half the battle won. ;P

My girl was adamant in wanting to go to school, but at the last minute, she complained of a tummy ache and decided not to. So this mummy had to go deliver the boxes to school else what was I going to do with 28 boxes of food?!

I hope the girls enjoyed their boxes, although it would have been most wonderful if one little sick girl was able to join them too. She did have a little box at home which I put aside for her.

Happy Mother's Day

A very happy Mum's day to all mothers out there! Enjoy your special day!

Happy Valentine's Day

A very Happy Valentine's Day to all. I baked some cutout biscuits yesterday using my new Cinnamoroll & My Melody cookie cutters. However, I won't be posting the recipe here as I wasn't too pleased with the result of the dough. It was too soft to handle and really tough just putting these few pieces together. Have to hunt down a good cutout cookie recipe.. Do you have one to recommend? :)

Yesterday was hubby's birthday, so we went for an early lunch before sending little one to school. Since she was having a proper lunch, I decided to just give her some cookies and fruits for her snack. Bought 2 punnets of blueberries at $4plus for 2 at NTUC.

Happy birthday Singapore

This post is 3 days' late, all because silly me left my camera at mum's. We made plans to have a pohpiah session at mum's on Saturday and watch the parade together. But in the end, the kids were more interested in playing than watching. I have to say I wasn't too impressed with the parade. Well, I only watched the first part of it till the President arrived and did his inspection of the contingents. The poor man had to walk in the rain throughout the downpour. And what have they done to the national songs? It's all jazzed up and weird and you just can't sing along. Well, anyway, I guess the important part of the day was the food. :)

Mum and sis prepared the ingredients for the pohpiah. Thanks very much for all your hard work. :*

Uncle C bought the skin and condiments from Joo Chiat at a shop called Kway Guan Huat. I've found an interesting post with descriptions and photos of the place if you are interested. By the way, the plain skin costs $18/kg now on weekends.

I made some burgers for the kids in case they wouldn't eat the pohpiah. Mini burgers using butter rolls. I used a mix of minced pork and beef, cut the florets off the broccoli, shredded some carrots, diced some onions and added them to the patty. I used oyster sauce, worchestershire sauce, white pepper for the seasoning of the patty and pan fried them. I then assembled them with a slice each of tomato and cheese. Voila!

I also made curry chicken which didn't look very pretty so I'm not showing it here. :P

What I did make, which were rather pretty, were custard tarts with strawberries and blueberries as topping, as well as some chocolate eclairs. You just can't stop popping them in. ;) I used Peony's custard tart recipe, and instead of using jam, I used melted chocolate. I also did not bake the fruits in with the custard. I opted to decorate them after they were out of the oven. They were nice. I will try the creme patisserie for the filling another time as it would have been more appropriate for the topping.

My aunt bought these cute little donuts from a stall in Suntec called Mumsie's Oven. They are very pretty and perfect for parties. They cost $9 for 24pcs. Ok, they do not have a website but I just googled it and found that they are actually under Puteri Mas. I love their durian puffs and I think they were refrigerated together with the durian products, which explains the durian taste in the donuts. No wonder hubby wasn't too keen on them.

Happy Valentine's Day

The party - part deux

We had the second party last evening at Safra Toa Payoh. Princess was really excited about it. All her classmates were invited. Some kids had to cancel last minute as they had fallen ill. It IS flu season and the latest bug is one which attacks the throat, and that is what princess succumbed to last week. Apparently now, me and hubby are both coming down with it. I'm glad party season is over, well, at least on my part. Hehe. And after this year, I am not going to do anymore large scale ones. It's too tiring. A sign of aging? I shudder at the thought. People who know me well, know that I love parties, planning them, and having them. There are simply not enough occasions to have them and maybe it's because I am unwell but I really can't imagine planning another party. Haha.

It was with regret that I had to pick a Friday evening to have the party but it so happened that it was the actual day yesterday. The traffic jams along the PIE, and rain made it worse. And being a Friday, people were rushing out of the office or heading into town to shop, party, etc. I had initially planned on a weekend party but I missed the booking by mere minutes. I was calling the wrong number till someone eventually answered the phone and some parent who called before me got the Saturday slot. Shucks! I'd like to thank K for getting me the booking using his membership. Thanks much.

There were 3 caterers to choose from and we went with Kate's Catering who had 'party packs' on their menu. I made some pasta for the kids, fried broccoli & corn, some fishballs courtesy of Aunt Nana, jelly made by mum. Thank you all.

On the menu, we had -

1. Traditional Fried Rice with Crab Bits
2. Fried Bee Hoon garnished with Lettuce
3. Fish Fillet in Sweet and Sour Sauce
4. Mild Curry Vegetables
5. Japanese Tofu with Vegetables
6. Chicken Satay
7. Macaroni and Cheese
8. Broccoli, Baby Corn and Crabsticks in Oyster Sauce
9. Fried Fishballs
10. Konnyaku Jelly

Baked cuppies in the morning and had P and her boy J over for breakfast so no time or energy to prepare lunch. Cooked some Japanese rice, and put some seasoning in it and put them in mould to shape. So that was princess' lunch.

These are pics of cuppies in case I couldn't get them photographed in the evening. My camera doesn't do well indoors. So I wasn't taking the risk.

Time for cake... thanks Uncle Joe for lighting the candles.

Here's the birthday girl blowing out the candles on her cakes.

Last but not least, thanks to everyone, for making the effort to attend the party. Thanks to P for ferrying the drinks in the boot of her car. ;P and hope all the kids had a great time. I know princess did. Thanks, too, for all the wonderful presents.

For those who had posted comments in the past few days, I'm sorry, I will try to reply soon. And little corner of mine, thanks for the award. Will claim soon. Meanwhile, I need a break to rest a little after all the upheaval of the past two weeks. See you soon.

Happy Birthday!

Happy 6th birthday to our dear Princess. May she be blessed with a good life, free of worries and be in good health always.

O Christmas Tree... O Christmas Tree...

Today is one of the days in November which I most look forward to. Took an hours' bus ride to Ikea to select my tree!! But am very pleased. Missed the first tree which was selected by the lady in front of me in queue. That was a lovely one but nonetheless, am excited.

It will be delivered only next week as I took advantage of the one week free storage. I would love to have it earlier but one week in cold storage will keep it fresher till Christmas.

I love live trees and will never go back to artificial ones. Unfortunately I have started K & A on that path as well. Hehe. We got them a tree last Christmas as a surprise Christmas present. And A has decided that they will start buying live ones starting this year. Just waking up to the fresh pine scent in the morning reminds me each day that Christmas is drawing near and since we have no snow or cold cold weather, we can only make up for it with the smell of Christmas. :)

The thing about having live trees in our hot and humid Singapore, is that we have to try to keep them as far away as possible from sunlight or any heat source. There is, fortunately, a corner of our house which is just perfect for it. In my dad's house, his tree did not last at all the first year they got it as it was just beside the balcony where the sun shone all day. But also, he, being very sensitive to smells, did not enjoy the lovely pine scents. Said it gave him a headache all day. Ha ha.

So have to wait a week before tree is up. :)

Selamat Hari Raya

I would like to wish my Muslim friends (Hani, Lin, Zarina, etc) a Selamat Hari Raya. A month of fasting, now a month of feasting. Enjoy!

Happy Children's Day!!

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A very busy day we had yesterday. Sent princess to school for a couple of hours, as she didn't want to miss school. Then picked her an hour before classes ended and rushed to pick up Mum's friend and kids and went to Ikea Tampines for lunch and an hour at the playground cum ball pool. The crowd at the cafe was alright, but the queue to get into the play area was madness. A half an hour wait. Was very happy that the kids played very well together. There will be another playdate planned soon.

After an hour of fun for the kids, during which we mums got to go shopping, we headed off home to change then rushed down to the Swan Lake dance appreciation at Esplanade at 4pm. Thank God for my mum who drove us around. Thanks mummy!


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The dance appreciation wasn't really a performance but rather to introduce kids to ballet, although a friend did feel that it was rather commercialized and not too suitable for very young children. Pas de deux (dance for two), although I think what they did also comprised of the Pas De Deux, grand (dance for two, grand), was what they featured yesterday. The dancers were wonderful and I believe they make up the actual cast of the full performance of Swan Lake this December. Whoever thinks males who dance ballet are girly, think again! They need plenty of strength as they are the pillar with which the female dancers lean on, and oftentimes to carry them. A lot of upper arm strength is needed. And the amazing thing is that they make it all seem so effortless. Am glad that my little girl enjoyed the performance at the end where they showed a little of Swan Lake. She was like, 'wow', as she's not seen proper ballet before. Although I doubt she can sit through 4hrs of Swan Lake. Neither can I hahaha. We went with her little friend Cheyanne and bumped into a few other friends, 2 of whom are from her ballet class.

After the performance we stayed back to take photos with the dancers. Odette was the most popular as all the children liked her sparkly white costume.

Children's Day Mass

Today we had a Children's Day mass. The kindy kids have been practising the last couple of months in anticipation of today. The hymn they performed was 'Everybody ought to know'. Princess was very excited about it, although last night when I tried to take her away from bbq party, she was having too much fun and bargaining to stay on. She even said she wasn't going to perform because I wanted her to go home to sleep and get ready for this morning. So I told her to call her Cathechism teacher to inform her that she won't be performing. Of course, having said that, she quietly went home with me, but amidst some displeasure, complaining on the way home that 'it's not fair'. Hahaha.

They were very cute and I think they all did very well. Of course there were nervous ones, and princess couldn't put a smile on her face no matter what. I think she was worried she'd forget her actions. The first communicants did a great job too with their number but unfortunately I didn't take any photos of them. 'Mary' was adorable in her specially sewn costume, and 'Jesus' refused to put his robe on. Haha. The crown will suffice.

It's party time! Wow, look at the wide spread of food! I'm happy to say that my cuppies were all snapped up. Hehe, princess being guilty of having 3 of them. Everything was lovely and the most popular being the spaghetti, baked mac and cheese with mashed potatoes, fishballs, sugar donuts and of course the sweets.

A special pre-Children's Day dinner. Thanks Karen, for the fishcakes. They are adorable. They were the first things she ate on her plate. She was of course thrilled with the set. The jelly drink she was eyeing right from the start but I insisted she ate her veggies and rice first. She didn't take too well to the sake (salmon) rice flakes in the rice. So first and last time using it then. And popped some corns for her as well. Was easy to do, thanks Pam for the tips.