Friends of the Zoo

Even when we were in US, we already knew one of the 1st few things we would do as a family was to sign up for FOZ (Friends of the Zoo). What we did not expect was the amount of fun we would eventually get to enjoy.

For a $180 family membership for a year, we had already "broke even" today when we made our 3rd trip in 6 weeks (since we came home). Yipee! The boys love the Water Play area so much. Each trip was to go & have a splashing good time.

There's also a Playground to cool off.

The 1st time we went, we only managed to look at the exhibits. There was no time or energy for Water Play. The 2nd time we went, it was in the evening. The water features had already been turned off. The boys still had a good time though.

The 3rd time we went (Today, give me some time to download the pictures) was absolutely the best. The weather was cloudy so there were probably less people than usual. The boys really had a lot of fun. Going up & down the slides, splashing in the shallow water, shooting huge water jets, listening out for the bell - afterwhich a HUGE bucket of water would tip over from above & get us all wet.

Hmm, what are we going to do with our SAFRA membership since the boys are probably going to ask to go to the Zoo every Sat morning now? The plan then was to enjoy the SAFRA Yishun water slides. Sigh, looks like we really have to go check out the SAFRA Jurong to make our membership worth.

Adele? As usual, our little dear nursed & slept while her boys played. Our little pink angel.

summer fun @ sentosa

Our fun day @ Sentosa starts with the Luge. A thrilling (scary) Skylift ride up the hill with legs dangling in the air. Followed by a fun ride down winding slopes. Whee...

A short walk over to Palawan beach. With the June holidays, there were tons of activities for families. Foam party!

The day ended with a loooong dip in the shallow pools

What does our pretty one do the whole day? Look pretty in her car seat & pink Pooh bear outfit. Perfect life - nurse & sleep. What a co-operative darling she is.

playdates

There are fun playgrounds in SG too. Just that we enjoy them in shorts & sunscreen at 32 degrees & above, not winter jackets & pants at 5 degrees.

jacuzzi @ Kin & Tommy's. 6 boys & 1 girl. The gender of our kids is so "yang".

All smiles @ home. Tea party with toys. Note his animal bowling pin seated on his green stool.

When we first arrived home from US, the boys would slip & fall on the wood laminate & tiled flooring of our parents.

Jerome : Why is the floor in SG so hard?

M: The weather in SG is very hot. It is very cold in US, so we need carpets on the floor.

J : We can do puzzles on the floor.

The floor in US is fully carpeted except for the kitchen & bathrooms. The only place they could do puzzles was on tables. For huge floor puzzles like the one shown above, the only place was in the kitchen. Now they are spolit for choice where they want to do puzzles.

happy daddy's day!

Happy Daddy's Day!

To the one who gave them life (the other half of the puzzle to their creation), their Driver (to all fun places), Bob (the Builder who build robots from cardboard boxes) , Handy Manny (they break it, he fixes it), Piggy Backer (from the Elephant on land to the Alligator in the water)...

To their Heavenly Father who gave us the wonderful job of parenting them...

animal bowling pins

What better way to reuse Chicken Essence paper boxes than make craft out of them?

Decorated bowking pins soon evolved into Animal Bowling Pins. Yipee! A time to name & paste animal parts. Stack them up & bowl them over. A timeless source of entertainment.

lessons from diapers

Call it a teacher thing.

Everything around us can be a lesson in itself?

Adele's infant diapers from US comes in the cutest designs. These are from Pampers, with adorable Sesame Street characters.

Lessons?

1)Identify the characters & corresponding animals

2) Count them - 1, 2, 3, ... ( I can't think of a faster way to get them to clear up the mess of diapers strewn around than getting them to count the diapers as they put them one by one back into the plastic. Am I smart or what? :)

3) Match them - Cookie Monster & Cookie Monster!

4) Do patterns - Grover, Big Bird, Grover, What comes next?

Once while I was nursing Adele and the boys came over & start playing these "games". As usual, it would start with either one or both of them taking ALL the diapers out to look at the pictures. Jerald started counting them as he puts them back. Jerome starts his matching game" & Jerald rewards him with sincere "Good job! kor kor". They then progressed to Jerome quizzing Jerald with "patterns". WOW! I told them I was SO impressed...

A is for apples

A is for Apples, B is for Bear, C is for Cat

After a crazy week of jetlag & adjusting to the heat, we've finally got a chance to settle down to a sort of routine again ... to establish some form of homeschooling till the boys get to a proper sort of school.

For them, it will exist in the form of PCF - more commonly known in our era as PAP. Jerome will start on July 1st while Jerald will do so in Jan next year. Till then, they'll continue on their ABCs with Teacher Mummy. :)

I try to vary the activities with matching the colours, practising writing the letters & joining the numbered dots for now.

On my mind is also learning how to use a pencil correctly, phonics & the latest... Mandarin - the speaking & reading of it. What a task in this bilingual nation of ours. Sigh...