Papa Isaiah brought us to check out the Singapore Arts Festival at Esplanade Park. It was so educational!

When we were there, there was not much crowd, so we didn’t have to wait and queue. It was a good thing we went early!

This mobile truck is a mobile Karaoke! Anyone can choose a song from the catalog and sing their hearts away right there! The emcee was funny, and kept interacting with the audience. Pretty entertaining, I would say. But you need lots of guts in order to sing in such a public place!

There were volunteers going around giving out Haggen Daz ice-cream! It was so awesomely yummy.

To encourage people to learn more about the digital lifestyle that we are living in now, the festival gave out booklets that look like an IPAD, and you can go around to the various booths, learn about different applications available on IPAD and how they can help make our daily lives easier and more convenient. Then you’ll get a stamp after you’ve completed the tasks at the various booths. With the stamps, you can then go for lucky dips and win prizes for yourself. Sounds fun! =)

The kids couldn’t wait. They immediately dashed to one of the booths and started. Of course, Baby Jayne could not do any of the tasks set on the IPADs, but Joey was happily fiddling with the IPAD by following Papa Isaiah’s instructions as he read them off the screen. Pretty interesting, I must say! Each booth focused on one application such as Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, etc and the instructions guided them to test out the applications and eventually post a message or find out certain information. At the end of each exercise, you’d be able to know how to use that particular application!

Baby Jayne spent most of her time playing with the volunteers at each booth, and making them stamp her booklet even though she did none of the exercises. =P Don’t you think my girl has the most charming expression?

Joey was just having a great time! I think she’s such a digital savvy girl!

Caught Baby Jayne stoning and staring at the grass. Haha! She was given a total of 4 balloons by different people. We had to tie the balloon to her wrist because all 3 balloons flew up into the sky! haha.. This final 4th balloon also suffered the same fate eventually. It was therapeutic seeing it fly up higher and higher and then disappeared! =)

The whole setup of the place was relaxed and comfortable. As you walk around this place that looks like a mini village, you’ll see little corners and places where you can sit down, have a drink and just take your mind off for a while. Pretty relaxing.

Learning in such a manner is much easier than having information forced down your throat. Joey enjoyed herself tremendously. =)

Look! She got her stamps!! =D

Kudos to the Singapore Arts Festival 2011!

Before I became a mum, I really, really thought that I would be a modern and cool mum who’s more concerned about the happiness of my children rather than their academic performance. I would be one of those mums who would encourage my children to pursue their loves and interest, even though it meant dropping out of school to learn music or art. Quite frankly, that all sounds like a really neat idea, but in reality, we’re really all just stuck in the rigid and harsh education system in Singapore.

Whether I like it or not, I will have to be concerned about my children’s learning abilities, if they can catch up in school and if they’re remembering their spelling, additions and subtractions. It all begins at age 5. What a tender young age to deal with all these!

And that is why Meet-the-Parents sessions are so stressful. I’d love to tell the teachers face-to-face that I am not concerned about my kid’s academic performance and whether she got all her spelling correct. I even prepared a speech in my mind and the contents mainly comprise of how I am a mum who cares more about my kid’s happiness, social skills and EQ. I’d tell the teacher firmly that GOOD RESULTS IS NOT EVERYTHING. Yes, I would. I resolved to do that.

Joey was undoubtedly more excited about the Meet-the-Parents session than me.

We were waiting in queue for our turn, and she couldn’t help but kept peeking at her teachers. It’s funny how she transformed into a giggly shy girl in front of her teachers! I’m half suspecting she’d behave like this in future in front of boys she likes. =P

Anyway, to cut the long story short, I did not manage to tell the teacher what I resolved to say. Yes, I’m ashamed to say that I chickened out. The moment I saw the teachers, they started to tell me things like, ‘It would be good for you to read together with Joey.’, ‘Next semester, we’ll be starting on creative writing and the children would have to start creating their own essay pieces, so it’d be good for you to take this school holidays to prepare her.’.. bleh bleh bleh.

You see, it’s all about academics. I was a little freaked out to hear that they would have to start writing compositions next semester. I even asked the teacher, ‘Errrr are you sure the kids are able to do that? My Joey can’t even read now. How to write compositions??’ The teacher simply replied as-a-matter-of-factly, ‘Oh, we’ll guide them. They’ll have to catch on anyhow.’

Thanks ah. Very reassuring.

That just added 500 times of pressure on me, and I think I have to start drilling my girl on reading, recognising words and also start writing simple sentences during this school holidays. Argggghhhhh, it’s making me sick in the stomach.

God bless the children.

After walking for more than 2 hours, the Kidzworld in the zoo was definitely a place we were all looking forward to see.

Papa Isaiah was right. This big mass of water known as the water playground was what everyone was waiting for after walking for so many hours. Nothing beats soaking your dirty, smelly and warm feet in those cool water. Agree?

And I did. I stepped right into the pool with my girls, treading carefully in case I get wet. Unlike my girls, I didn’t bring extra clothes for change. But I must say, it was OH.SO.GOOD. The water was so cooling and I had to stop myself from diving in. The weather was so hot that day!!

Baby Jayne was just enjoying the water, walking here and there under the sun. She does not dare to attempt the slides yet, and of course, I’m glad.

Great improvement actually. The girls used to be fearful of such water playgrounds and would shun away from shooting jets of water. Now, they enjoy playing it so much.

Joey spent all her time going up and down the slides. So much fun, I wish I could play.

The sun was scorching, so I dare not let the girls play for too much in case they get burnt! And so, we adjourned to the Children’s World, where the kids could get up, close and personal with the animals. It’s another favourite section of the zoo for the kids!

The zoo is really a fun place, though by the end of the trip, Mummy Kless felt achy all over the body, and legs felt like giving way. Haha! But it sure felt good to be near the Nature. Way better than getting stuck at home watching cartoons!

I know it’s a ridiculously long title, but it’s the most apt.

It was Baby Jayne’s 1st trip to the zoo, and her maiden happened right after she turned two. You’d have thought that I should have brought her much earlier, but hey, the admission tickets were not cheap at all. For a family of four, we’d need to fork out close to $60 just on admission fees alone, and that’s excluding tram rides and boat rides + food+drinks+ice-cream+hotdogs+toys+chips+nachos. You get what I mean.

Thank God for the kids’ Godmother who got corporate membership and we managed to save quite a bit on the admission fees. Even if the kids wanted to go home after staying just 1 morning in the zoo, we’d be fine. If I paid the full fees, I might insist we stay in the zoo from 9am to 5pm when it closes. Yes, I’m cheapo like that.

The kids probably thought that the entrance of the zoo was the zoo itself. We spent super a lot of time there. By the time we finally entered the zoo, I was already quite sleepy.

The crocodile was a favourite spot for everyone to take photos with. But of course, you can’t do this on a real croc, can you?

Pardon the unglam pose by the birthday girl. Ahem.

The parrots looked pretty pathetic and un-lively. I thought I remembered this photo-taking booth used to be filled with all kinds of colourful parrots that made it almost scary to go near the branches?? Now, it’s a miserable duo holding the fort.

It was a nice long walk through the zoo. The kids were of course attracted by the different animals. I have to say that the Singapore Zoo is really one of the best in the world. It actually feels like a paradise, save for the crazy crowd on a Sunday.

These got to be the cutest in the zoo. I mean the real ones. Made Joey take a photo with these metal structures. Same principle as the crocodile.

Lovely. The elder sister is fulfilling her duty in educating her little sister about the animals. Nei, probably trying to convince her sister why they can’t swim inside.

It might be a little too much for Baby Jayne to take when I told her those were fishes and reminded her, by the way, that she loves to eat fish.

The Outback section of the zoo was my personal fav. At least you don’t need to watch the animals from 500km away or behind a piece of glass. But also, quite nerve-wreaking to watch. I was paranoid whether the ostrich would suddenly turn around and snip Baby Jayne’s finger away. Don’t ostriches have the ability to turn their necks 360 degrees without turning the body at all? No?

Another reason why the Outback is awesome is this jeep. I’m sure we all secretly wish we own a jeep. It’s like the coolest thing, except that it can’t be really that cool when you can’t switch on the air-con at all in mega hot Singapore.

Okay! I promised you yesterday I’d show boring animal photos. Here are my fav:

Hairy Hog, with amazingly huge nostrils and teeth jutting out from the sides of its mouth. Poor fellow.

Moody Monkey with bright pink backside. Seriously, with this kind of hairstyle, how can he ever feel less moody?

Boring Bats. They hang around with their friends all day long. Literally. How they hold their bladder, I never know. I was scouring the floor for bats’ droppings but found none. Got toilet breaks?

Thirsty Turtle. There was no water source anywhere near him, and I bet it takes him at least a day to crawl 50 metres. He has to start crawling way before he gets thirsty, I bet.

Kind Komodo Dragon. He was kind enough to stay still while everyone of us snapped a shot of him. Very cooperative and not-so-common among their species. What’s with the wrinkles, man?

As you can see, the zoo trip was pretty much a blast! More tomorrow!

Last Sunday, in celebration of Baby Jayne’s 2nd birthday, we went to the zoo with some good friends. It was a glorious sunny day – The best kind for a zoo outing! And yes, we roamed the zoo like bosses, especially Baby Jayne. It was her special day.

You should totally check out how the tall, dark and handsome manservant in our house pulled in a wagon…

… and the beautiful Princess climbed right in.

Like a boss, no less.

And of course, it would be more of a miracle if she DID NOT get down from the wagon and attempt to pull it herself. Yes, that would be a great miracle worth celebrating.

But she did, and she did successfully drive some tourists nuts in the process. No, she did not almost knock down a Caucasian little girl, nor did she run over the toes of mummy with the wheels, or snipped off a teeny bit of a monkey’s tail. No, totally didn’t.

Drove it like a boss.

And so, to make all our lives easier and safer, we got both princesses to sit inside the wagon. Just for a bit. Like five glorious minutes?

If you are hoping to see the animals, you’d be disappointed. Cos those are the boring bits and I’m going to leave them till tomorrow. I know you’d absolutely love to just see my kids, but the boring basics are necessary. See you tomorrow! Good day, everyone.