[It's the HOLIDAYS.... again?!?!]

Wow.... didn't we just have our vacation???? This month and next is shaping up to be a holiday packed month - this week alone we have "holiday in lieu of the election", "hari raya", "teacher's day" - the girls only go to school 1 day this week and it's their term excursion! O the fun!! And the whole of next week is term break.....
Unfortunately, we are deskbound with some deadlines so it was only sporadic mornings that we can spend time with the girls. The weather has been incredibly kind though, the whole weekend was super cool and rainy!! Perfect weather for long long snoozes in bed (although it would have been even better if there was no early alarm clock in the form of the girls!). After polling (no, he was not elected), we indulged in curry fishhead (well, me rather as V is so not a spice loving person). G is shaping up to be a "peranakan in training" as she loves spicy food and will gamely try anything.
Some highlights of the month of August:
Our dear friend's dd turned 2, and she had the most wonderful cake ever! Cake's from here - www.crummb.com (sooo nice right... :) Since they have relocated to Hongkong, we hardly get a chance to catchup, so it was really nice to just chill and yak non-stop while the girls get hyper on cake and helping to open up the pressies! They even spent the whole afternoon there with a very generous birthday girl who shared all her presents!
How many architects does it take to cut a stacked cake?
G's list on what she wanted off the cake.... (i like the last sentence)
Group shot - this is what 4 architects with their respective offspring look like.
The girls and the cake.
K looking sleepy

We usually spend sundays now with the girls either at ECP or Sentosa, so that they can ride their bikes and we can have some outdoor time. Unfortunately, this Sunday, poor G fell off her bike and her lower lip took the brunt of the fall - resulting in a rather large graze below her lip. Lots of TLC was required and of course she was jumping about in no time with seemingly no traumatization towards riding again (phew!)The bruiser of a lip. It's totally healed now! I'm always amazed at the resilience of the kids and their healing speed!
K at ECP with her favorite iPad / iPhone game.
Have a great (cool!) week ahead and hopefully I will get to take nicer outdoor photos soon if the rain stops!

[staycation : Aug 2011]

We were very lucky to have been able to book a room at the Marina Bay Sands & also received VIP tickets for the NDP event over the National Day holiday period :) *thks F!*The girls chilling out on the super big bed and giant fluffy pillows. :) They loved the big big bathtub as well and it was as with any other hotel stay - pool, bath, pool bath....
The sky park on the 57th floor was astounding! No matter what one's opinion of the architecture is (re: massively expensive eyesore, etc) this building has succeeded in creating a space that is pretty amazing! The knife edge pool, the paranoma views, even the sheer crowd can't detract from it's gravity defying experience. I would have thought it would be vertigo inducing, but somehow, when you're floating on the edge of the pool, it takes away quite a bit of the "falling off the cliff" sensation. Even K, the notorious scaredy cat of the family, really enjoyed herself floating on the knife-edge and pointing out the various floating barges that were preparing for NDP 2011 on the water 57 floors below!
Here's the little missy, all hot and bothered. She loved the pool, especially after arm bands were procured!
Kong kong and Po po joined in too on National Day itself for a little dip!
On National Day, we took a short drive from MBS to the nearby Marina Barrage. There were lots of people there already in the morning, the girls chilled out at the water fountain, while I sat on a picnic mat and caught up on my reading....
This must be one of my favorite shots of them for awhile! Look at their expressions... G as usual the creative one that found a cool space to hide (behind the water fountain), while K follows her big sister there but refuses to look through the water as it makes her feel "blurry".
After the splashing about, there were BIG big bouncy castles and slides to play on! It was super expensive though, $3 for 3 minutes!! Crazy! and even more so when K took one turn on the slide and declared it was "too scary"... sigh.. G of course loved it, that's her right at the top and K following closely behind.
After the day spent at the barrage and the afternoon spent in the pool, we dressed up and headed over to the convention side of MBS for our VIP reception and the long awaited fireworks.
G LOVES food!!! I'm always astounded to how much she can pack into her little body. And am often so glad that she's always so hyper, as I can imagine it all that eating must lead to a weight problem otherwise! Here she is literally "vacumning" the food into her mouth, whilst tiptoeing to get to the right table height.... O, and next to her is a tray of ketchup which she summoned a waiter to specially get it for her.
K waiting impatiently for the fireworks to start.
And getting a teeny weeny bit impatient about it all.

Here's the video of the fireworks display..... really really great and our seats were just perfect!!
The next day, we rushed to the pool to have one last swim before checkout.
2 sweet little girls :)
1st time at Marche at 313. Highly recommended if you would like an uninterrupted lunch as the kid's play area is awesome! Quality toys, a REAL heidi cottage... what more can the kids want! They wanted to spend the whole day there... and we would have let them if only we didn't have work to complete. boohoo.
Recently the kindie's website had a little bit of a malfunction, so when i check the website to see the girls' weekly antics in school, it brought me back 3 whole years, to when G first started at the kindie. What a delightful find! Brought back sooo much memories. Coincidentally, the 3 closest friends of G are also in this page (of course they were not best friends then) and o! how much they have all grown....

[July Highlights]

Wow, time really flies by and yet again, it's almost been 1 month since my last post! Lots of last minute packing happening (mostly V) as we'll be spending the next few days at the MBS for a mini stay-cation. The girls are oblivious to all this harried activity happening around them, as they have no idea and it will be quite a pleasant surprise! I'm a fireworks junkie, and when living in London, have been known to drag poor V all over the parks and rivers of the city when there were major fireworks displays :) Can't wait to experience this thrill with the girls, the last time we came anywhere close to fireworks was when G was about 2, WAY before K was even born! The logistics of 2 of course made it all the more difficult to trek to the various vantage points to watch the fireworks, although I'm sure after witnessing it firsthand this year, the girls will make us bring them to future fireworks displays (shhh.... that's my secret plan, so it'll be 3 against 1.... *evil laugh*)
Pics of this month:
My little indian princess in a sari (which she absolutely hated... but obliged for the start of the morning cos we begged her to!)
Attended little baby E's 1st month and love how the candid pics of the girls and their cousins turned out!
Little miss Atas
G being the clown as usual
Me and K sharing a little joke
Trying on sil's sunglasses.... nice?

Otherwise... we have been keeping up with the Sunday "excursions" as the girls call them. We will head out in the morning, have a leisurely breakfast out, then it will be the beach, cycling or other outdoor stuff, before heading the library to cool off and stock up on the weekly staple of books. The girls love it and we reckon it is something that is truly making use of where we are geographically! Today especially was amazingly great weather, after a downpour in the morning, the air was cool and windy, we had the best time outdoors, having a cheap and good lunch at the lagoon before G totally wow-ed us with her almost instant progression from training wheels to a 2-wheeler! The joy and pride of watching her ride away on her own is soooo bitter sweet :)
Here's the link to the vid on FB




ETA: more pix from the iPhone
K and her iPrincess app on V's phone
Me and K after our bike ride
K on the tennis courts. The girls love their weekly tennis session with kong kong.