Funny faces

The many funny faces of the boys.. all captured in a day!

 

Cycling

The boys didn't have swimming class today and so we went down to East Coast Park to cycle. The original plan was to get them the four-wheel car-like vehicles but we found out that they didn't rent that anymore. So we put them on kiddy bikes with training wheels and got ourselves on a bike each too. We rode for about an hour and throughout the entire hour, there was just yelling at the boys (especially Kiefer) to keep their bikes straight and not crash into anybody!

Hermès - The Gift of Time

Brought the kids (and cousins) to the Hermès Gift of Time exhibition at the Tanjong Pagar Railway Station. It is a small exhibit with installations meant to define time.

Friends of the zoo, again!

Brought the boys to the zoo on Tuesday and with both the boys at a paying age, it definitely made more sense for us to buy the zoo pass. Tickets for the 4 of us for a single day pass would come up to $82 (including the tram ride). The annual pass for just the zoo is $180 (excl gst) and this means that we'll break even in about 2 visits.

This zoo visit feels a little different from how we used to visit the zoo in the past. For one, we didn't have to bring the stroller anymore! The boys walked the entire time we were at the zoo. We didn't really check the show times and we really missed most of the shows. Only caught the last 10 minutes of the Splash Safari.

What a mischievous face!

The highlight of the day would have to be the water park at the children's world. The park is amazing. There are slides, water shooters and there is this huge bucket that would empty whenever it got filled up. Kiefer didn't like that one. On the other hand, Kieran would go sit under the bucket, waiting for it to tip.

Paid $6 for the pony ride. It was a very short ride. I don't think it even lasted 3 mins! Here's Kiefer going Yee-Ha!

We went into the fragile forest and saw this magnificent  iguana. It looked like a wise, old man sitting at the top of the stairs. I didn't really dare to go near it but the boys did. There was a young man there that encouraged them and held their hands as they stroked the iguana's belly. It even turned around and looked at Kiefer. At that moment, I was a little scared that it would snap at Kiefer. But then again, iguanas are vegetarians aren't they?

Ain't it a gorgeous creature?

I'm looking at you boy!

I'd like to move it, move it!

With our zoo pass, we'll definitely be visiting the zoo loads this year. We may just pop in for a tram ride or just for the water park!

To the beach!

It's the holidays and since we are not out of the country, we decided to take this opportunity to bring the boys out into the sun a little more. It's been some time since we last went to Tanjong Beach at Sentosa and so that's where we went!

Funny little poser!

We were all suited up this time, knowing that it was going to be a really sunny day. Loads of sunblock, caps and long sleeved rashguards, off they went into the water.

We even caught the NDP flypast rehearsal. We first saw 2 groups of F16s flying in the V formation and a little while later, we saw the chinook flying the huge Singapore flag across the sky! It was a really nice sight to see.

We really like Tanjong Beach at Sentosa because it is usually not very crowded there. The water the sand there is fairly clean (other than the many rusty bottle caps we find in the sand because of Tanjong Beach Club). And because there's Tanjong Beach Club is there, we can also easily grab a bite if we want to and use their day beds to lounge. Food's rather expensive there though. We usually order a side of fries and a soda and that comes up to $22 already! Still a rather nice place for the boys to play. The crowd usually start coming in after 12pm and that's when we start packing up to leave. :) In any case, there are usually not many people on weekdays.

There's a little lap pool at Tanjong Beach Club. We didn't allow the kids to go in the last couple of times because it is usually very crowded. (It's only a small lap pool.) Also, their daddy always thinks that we are at the beach to play with the sand and the sea and not the pool. :P We allowed them to get in for a splash that day and they had quite a bit of fun. It was a 1.1m deep pool and so even Kieran couldn't reach the bottom of the pool without having water over his head.

Last activity that day was to bury Kieran in the sand! Kiefer dutifully patted the sand down on his brother so that he would be nicely packed in. :P

 

Going back into the water the wash off all the sand before we leave.

  

Chuggington Ride @ Downtown East

Had some free tickets to the preview of the Chuggington Ride at Downtown East. I think I wouldn't have brought the kids if I had to pay for the tickets. The boys had fun though. However, I don't think it was very well organised. The ride consist of 3 stations where the children have to pass through. At each station, they get to do some small activities and have their photo taken. Each turnover (to pick up a load of 10 children) took at least 0.5 hour. And there was only 1 train running. The ride was not in an enclosed area, and so as the kids hop onto the rides, most parents would walk along with the train as  the train takes them to another location about maybe 5 minutes train ride away. They do have assistants (very polite and helpful, I must say) helping the kids out, but half the time, I don't think they recognise the kids on the train, thus it is very easy for the children to run astray. So it would be safer if the parents follow along.

Station 1 (Downtown East Station)
It was just waiting for the trains. It was a preview of the ride and we waited more than an hour to get onto the train. While waiting, the boys got their arms painted tho'. The waiting area was not airconditioned and it was really warm even though we were there in the evening.

Station 2 (Safari Station)
Here, the boys had their photos taken against a green background. And they played a game of Simon Mtamba says. It was quite messy, and then suddenly, one of the helpers asked "who's wants to go to the bathroom?" and moved the kids away without informing the parents!! Lucky we chased Kieran down and told him that he shouldn't have followed (cos it felt like it was a structured activity) and that he should have asked us first. Tsk.

Station 3 (Round House Station)
Eddie was there to entertain the kids. Nothing much. Another game of Simon Says and some monkeying around and that was it. I was just a little urgh that they made the kids sit on the yucky floor.

Photo souvenirs that the boys brought back. I think this wouldn't be free when the ride opens to the public today.

Don't know who taught this fella to pose like this!

Unless you have a lot of time to spare that is... the kids will like it, can't say the same for the adults waiting around for the kiddos!

Weekend fun

Being so busy on weekdays, we try to bring the boys out on weekends to have some family fun. And as far as possible, we try to go for outdoor, free fun! :P So where have we been to in the last couple of weeks?

Lor Halus Wetlands
The park connector at Punggol Promenade is finally open and the park itself is a nice place to go and have an evening walk. It faces Sungei Serangoon and seriously, the view there is really quite amazing. At the end of the park is a bridge that connects Punggol Promenade to the Lor Halus Wetlands. The wetlands is not completely done up yet, but it is already open. It is a pretty nice place to visit as it is different from the usual parks. Lor Halus used to be a landfill and now they have developed it into a wetland. We are supposedly able to see various bird species there, though we saw none when we were there that day. However, the boys had a great time running about and spotting dragonflies, pondskaters, looking at water lilies and playing touch with the mimosas.

Lots of space to run about

Great view of Sungei Serangoon

I huff and I puff and I blow the seeds away?!

Bridge linking Punggol to Lor Halus

Touching the mimosas to close them

Lovely cattails

Tanjong Beach Sentosa
We found Tanjong Beach Club by accident when we decided to go to the beach at Sentosa. Tanjong Beach Club is really a nice restaurant at Tanjong Beach Sentosa. Well, the food is pricey (as expected) and there's just loads of ang mos there. But with the nice sun beds and clean sand, it is certainly a great place to lounge and spend a weekend morning there.
We'll go there at about 10ish (they open at 10am on weekends) and that's when they do not have a lot of people yet and we can get hold of a deck chair or a sun bed. The crowd start coming at about lunch time. When we there on Friday, the staff was quite nice and they actually came to us to tell us that they have a reservation at noon and that we could use the sun beds till then. So yup.. not too bad service. In return, we'll usually order fries for the kiddos. And I must say, the fries there are really quite good.

The daddy bought the boys a dinghy and they had fun sitting in it while daddy towed them all over the sea.

The sand at Sentosa is nice and clean. Unlike the other beaches on the mainland.

This silly boy had a ball of a time lugging the dinghy, saying that he is shielding himself from the sun!

The tide was really low and we caught a starfish! And yes, we released it before we left the beach.

A sun bed, fries and ketchup. What more can you ask for?

The night we saw Pele & Cantona!

Pele and Cantona were in Singapore on tour for the New York Cosmos. They were appearing at the Courts Young Lions vs Geylang match at Jln Besar Stadium. And somehow, hubby managed to get free passes to the match. Even better, we actually got great seats (i.e. one of those exclusive passes type of seats). From where we were, we had a great view of the 2 soccer legends!

Great view of Cantona and Pele at half time.

Hunting for passes to a photo opportunity with the legends at half time. Sadly, we could not find any!! :(

It was a fun evening for the boys as it was the first time they watched a real soccer match live. (I think it was a first for me too!! :P)

so what have we been doing?

Hubby is out of town for a couple of days and so it's just the boys and me for these few days.

Yesterday was a rainy day and so we stayed indoors, playing with toys, watching DVDs and made some little knick knacks for Christmas.

The boys were really quite good at this but both crafting sessions probably only lasted 20 minutes. Just had to find more things for them to do.

So, we woke up this morning, checked the weather forecast and yipee, it said cloudy! Cloudy is good. Means no rain and yet not too sunny. And so, off to the zoo we went.

We reached to zoo fairly early and we managed to catch the Splash Safari show. The boys were very well behaved. I made a "deal and promise" with Kieran that he had to let Kiefer sit on the stroller and he stand behind it at the zoo. He kept to his deal and didn't whine whenever Kiefer sat on the stroller. :) I think they are always well behaved when they are only with either one of us. When both of us are present, they know that there are more hands to cater to their wants!

Here are some photos from our zoo trip today.

Just arrived at the park, all nice and alert.

Kieran had fun feeding and patting the kangaroos. Kiefer was really enthusisatic about going into the enclosure,  but decided that he didn't like the kangaroos all that much. :P

 

 

Well, he wanted to take pictures with the macaws too..

2 very hungry little boys by lunch time.