RVHS Gathering

WF wanted me to put this up for the benefit of his school mates (River Valley High School) who couldn't make it for this gathering on the 5th July.

Here are some photos we took:

There were a lot of catching up during that afternoon. And like he commented, everybody had changed so much (in terms of outlook) since he last saw them in the RV uniform.

Hopefully, there'll be more turnout the next time round.

Ning's New Keyboard

Ning had upgraded and progress to Yamaha Junior Music Course which involves playing on the keyboard and recognizing the notes. Because there are practices involved, we needed to get a keyboard for her.

After asking her teacher and some of our friends/colleagues, we went to Carrefour and got a Casio. It seemed like this is the place to get a value-for-money keyboard.

Everyone including Zhi and WF were all excited about this new "toy" at home. And the three of them had been "practising" diligently for the past few days.

Here's a clip:


Keyboard Playing

Mimicking His Sister

Lately, Zhi has developed a trait for mimicking whatever his sister is saying or doing. Particularly during physical play, he likes to follow her actions. And its always such a joy to watch the two of them monkey-ing around.

Here're some shots we took. You can see how their actions are pretty much similar. That is because Zhi had been following what his sis is doing.

Ning's Birthday Celebration - At Home

Because she wanted to invite some of her friends like Zhi Rou and Yi Rou over to celebrate her birthday like what we did last year, we held another round of cake cutting and singing at home over on Sunday.

As expected, she insisted on the 'Princess' theme and we decorated our place with all the girly stuff. Thank goodness, I kept the banner and cut outs from last year's birthday party so we can reuse it again this year.

We had some fun packing the goodies bags as well as stocking up the door gifts like Princess cookies, tiaras, blow-outs and even tatoos the day before. Zhi even got into the act of helping (or rather eating).

For the adults, we prepared Japanese food for the occasion like Japanese curry, miso soup, teriyaki grilled chicken and varieties of maki etc.

The party was so wild (the kids were running and hopping all over) that both of them only managed to sleep at 11pm plus. But I bet they definitely enjoyed themselves that evening because Zhi only woke up 12hours later.

Ning's Birthday Celebration - In School

Last Wednesday, 8th Jul, was Ning's 4th birthday. And we had a celebration for her in school as well as at home over the weekend.

Last year, she was crazy about Snow White and insisted on having a Snow White's cake. This year, it's Sleeping Beauty.

For her school, we got her a really huge cake and the two classes of Nursery celebrated for her. As usual, our birthday girl insisted on wearing her tiara to school to show that its her 'special day' that day.

Zhi got into the fun as well. And amazingly, while I was busy distributing out the cake, he managed to feed himself with a piece of cake.

Tick Tack Tock - How the Tiger Loses its Stripes

Last Sunday, we went to watch the drama by Tick Tack & Tock: How the Tiger Loses its Stripes.

Getting them ready to leave the house was a challenge. Particularly dressing up Miss Vainpot. She insisted on wearing a knitted cardigan over her dress, put on her accessories like ring, bracelet and necklace and not to mention choosing her socks and shoes (not that she's got a lot of choice for shoes).

Because 'monkey see and monkey do', Zhi insisted on wearing Thomas & Friends cap while acting up like a doctor by bringing along the ice-cream stick that the PD uses to check his throat.

Ok, back to the main topic. Basically Tick Tack & Tock are the three actors in this drama and they're going to share the story of how this Tiger Snigger loses his stripes while playing in the mud (the mud covered his stripes and made him looked different).

It was Zhi's first exposure to drama/play since it was written that the drama is suitable for children above the age of 2. We wanted to see how he reacts to shows because in the next half year, there're definitely a lot of kids' play coming up by the various theatre groups. We would like to bring him along if he's 'tame' enough to sit still and appreciate. Too bad, he was too distracted and was jumping around. Until his sister volunteered to participate in one of the acts that he finally look up at the stage. And thats when he started screaming,"jie-jie... jie jie.." Like Ning was some super big star.

Nevertheless, we did have some fun time after the show at 'Colours by the Bay' playing hide-and-seek with us and some other interested kids.

The funny part of this entire thing was Zhi pointing at the Merlion and shouted,'Dinosaur!'. And keep insisting even though WF told him is a Merlion.

Music Wonderland - Giant & the Clown

Besides trying out simple playing at the keyboard, the kids attending this music class do a lot of singing and dancing.

The music philosophy for Yamaha is that they want to make learning music an enjoyable experience and they believe kids at this age should appreciate music through rhythm and hearing.

This video is a segment where she and the rest danced to the song 'The Giant & the Clown'. The giant's footsteps are identified as heavy and low pitch while the clown's steps are identified as fast paced and high pitch.



Giant & the Clown