[movie nite!!]

Thanks to the nice people at Sony Pictures and the even nicer people at Qais consulting, we were given a whole bunch of tickets to preview the movie - Arthur Christmas.

Ever wondered how Santa manages to deliver the presents to every child all over the world? This movie starts with a really interesting question that is on every child's lips come christmas. It definitely was on the girls - same as the tooth fairy questions :) But I suppose because Santa is always depicted as some western big beard man, they don't really "believe" in his existence as much as those little kids in the west. It was a totally enjoyable show though, the girls totally loved the fact that it was in 3D - it was their first 3D movie - and they looked so adorable in the little kid-sized 3D glasses. I quite enjoyed it too! There were a lot of special effects, lots of fantastic sets, and the characters were great... totally believable and very heartwarming.
Here's some pix from the press pack :
The girls LOVED the elves, they all had little personalities that were really cute - there's even an "indian-sounding" IT elf! haha....
Santa's behind the scenes operations on Christmas Eve
The elves and Arthur - the protagonist who is Santa's youngest son
Arthur again....
Santa's command centre - it was a delight for the girls - i keep forgetting they grow up in a digital age and something like that is just so believable to them!

The more familiar Christmassey mood sets - the richness in colour was incredible in 3D
More elves
They loved this little elf best! Little packing elf.... :)
So, bring your little ones to watch Arthur Christmas this holiday, as G says - it's about Santa forgetting about 1 present, but it's also about how every child is important. Spot On!!

There's a current "Arthur's Mailbox" promotion going on at Cathay - Go HERE to see more details.

While we were there, these are the other movies that we'll also be catching this Dec hols :
BARNEY - mostly for K
PUSS IN BOOTS - another 3D movie

will be trying out this Moms & Tots promo too!!

[Junior Gymnastics Meet]

We attended G's very first Gymnastic Meet at HCJC today. It's an annual event that was organised by the girls' regular gymnastic centre. Of course, it took quite a lot of persuasion to cajole her into actually joining the meet. Plus we had to get there by 7.15am in the morning!! Too early.... we are so glad the girls will not be attending the morning session when G starts Primary school next year....
Understandably, she was equal part excited and apprehensive about the whole event. I think this photo captures that mood exactly!The event floor, this was during the warmup sessions.



Sample of photos of G's routines. They had to do 4 routines in total - Floor, Unequal Bars, Beam and Vault. Incidentally she won silver for this event!Receiving her medals
She was thrilled to receive 5 medals in all!
Her team won 2nd and she had an individual 3rd place overall! Not bad at all for a girl who "did not want to join the competition" a single bit! heh....
Whilst the older girls were busy at the competition floor, the little ones had a blast playing with their friends and running around the spectator stands.
Life is so fun when you're 4!
Giggly giggly little girls. They are all in the same class and have older siblings competing in the competition. Plus most of the parents were busy video-ing, taking pics of the competition, so these girls had pretty much free rein the whole morning!
After 4 whole hours, the competition was finally over and G could have her well-deserved sandwich! She was absolutely starving as she refused to eat in the morning due to pre-competition nerves.
Happy G with proud grandparents.
Group shot.

The girls
The competition was also a great place for making new friends - G with her new friend B. So nice to meet another 6 yr old of the same height! :)

[Graduation Day!]

This post is all about G's graduation from Kindie..... As mentioned on my FB update -

"Tissues check, camera check, video check.... All set for g's graduation. Can't believe 4 yrs of Kindie is over for my firstborn...."

Unfortunately, I didn't check the BATTERIES in the camera... grrrrr....! So, this post will sadly be only with iphone photos of G in her graduation gown (until I get the proper ones from school) But it's the sentiment that counts right?!!
The girls have been looking forward to this day for a loooong time. G especially so! Throughout these years, she has always maintained a very close and warm relationship with all the teachers. We love hearing them talk about their 'babies', how each and everyone of the children that passes through the kindie is special. They remind us on the good points of our children and raise alarm bells on the not-so-nice points. Luckily for us, we can continue this relationship with them as K is still in kindie :) I think we will miss this warmness and closeness most of all when G goes to the "big girls" school. She will too, perhaps that is the main reason why she went through a phase of acting up so that she can be 'baby-ed'.

I still remember so vividly the first time we stepped into Bethany. Even though we do not share the same faith, somehow it was by such chance that we walked into this church kindie, that it was almost like divine intervention that led us straight in! From Day 01, we always had a good feeling about sending our girls there. The love and passion that the teachers and support network had for the children really made us very thankful that they both can spend their formative years under such care. It's not the sort of place where everybody is all about appearances, there are no designer toys, and no 'prescribed method' of teaching, no doing this or that just because it's the current "in" think in early childhood development. It's more about the love for the children and it really does show in the way the girls learn and grow, emotionally and academically. So.. a BIG BIG thank you! from the bottom of my heart to all you hardworking teachers and pastors and all the aunties and uncles at Bethany (yes, i know you will read this :)

Indulge me in more reminiscences....
- here's a post of G's 2nd day at Kindie - so super tiny and so so cute!!
- on school friends and the activities in school
- more on that 1st year
- G's 3 yr old bday in school - she looks so much like K now... it's uncanny, down to the Barney obsession.....
- End of year concert with bff Gis - incidentally they will be 'reunited' in P1! :)
- another End of year concert - can't believe I haven't blogged much about school! although there were many many outings together with pictures to prove!
- a more detailed post on the girls and what they do in school

And finally, here are the pics of Graduation Night!!
G with her fav teacher S
Principal / Teacher EH with G - she looks awfully grownup here!
K with her little friends and me in the background taking a vid
comparing sticker tattoos
Waiting patiently for their turn to go upstairs to the dressing rooms.
my little monkey with pigtailsThe graduating class - 18 kids!!
Walking to stage in her graduation gown and mortarboard... she was thrilled to bits... look at her smile!
So proud of my little girl!
More pics with Teachers S and HM
Last but not least with Lao Shi!
And yes, at the end of the night, they all were super hyper and no more prim and proper! hah!

[Gap Casting Call 2011]

We interrupt the regular programming to bring you a little blurb from GAP!!
Remember the previous feature I did (was it already a year ago?!?) HERE? Well, it's back again! YES!! Your little one might be the next face of GAP kids asia. Wow.. I know it's a huge huge thing, and I guess GAP knows as well, so they have extended their casting call by another weekend and also made a few additional locations - our nearest will be at Vivocity again. Go HERE - https://www.facebook.com/gapsingapore for more info on the various locations and good luck!!!

Here's what we did last year! :)

[last day of kindie]

Tomorrow will be the girls end of year concert, and G's graduation concert from her kindie. Both of them are super excited about the concert, G especially, she has been telling everybody that it will be a super "special" concert cos it'll be the 1st time she's GRADUATING!! She literally "grew up" at Bethany, where she first attended as a super blur and rather obnoxious 2yr old little tot! Hard to believe that this is the same 'baby-face' girl who was decked in those cute bloomer shorts and pinnie :) Look at her now! I wish I could just let her know - cherish those moments, cherish your friends, your teachers.... life is going to get slightly harder from now on! But of course, she's so so anxious to grow up, to be a big girl, to do all the big girl things. I just want her to slow down and not grow up so quick!!

I recently attended the last excursion of the term (and year!). Managed to capture all these fleeting moments as they enjoyed themselves so thoroughly. I must remember to make time to attend more of these as the delight in the girls faces when I said I was tagging along was absolutely priceless :)
The Peace class children - most of whom have also 'grown up' in the same kindie.
Best friends!!


The girl gangs!
Her 'boyfriend' M who used to ask her "will you marry me grace?" when they were wee 4 yr olds... of course I had to almost drag him over to take a pic with her now!
Look at that face! hilarious!
Little ones...
becoming Not so little ones.... too quickly!
awww.... she was soo happy I was there for excursion!


over the weekend, we baked some cupcakes
in princess cupcake liners no less.
and.... I finally completed my necklace!!
Here's a pic of me wearing it :)