Under the kind invitation of The Science Centre, we brought Joey for their blockbuster exhibition – Dinosaurs Alive! last week. It turned out to be a very informative excursion. For dinosaurs fanatics, you’ll be amazed by the extensive research that went into putting the exhibition together – You’ll learn about the different types of dinosaurs that ever lived, who discovered them, what type of dinosaurs they were, feeding habits etc. The impressive life-size dinosaur exhibition will give you a feel of what it would be like, walking among the dinosaurs!

Dinosaurs have always been creatures that caused much interest, because basically nobody has seen them before they became extinct. What we know of them are stuffs we read of in books. Truth be told, I am not a fan of dinosaurs, but my girl is a curious girl, who’s interested in everything. She basically went ‘wow!’ at everything we saw.

The whole exhibition was in dim lighting with green and blue light, which added to the mysterious image of dinosaurs. Life-size dinosaurs line both sides of the pathway, and certain parts of every dinosaur exhibit will move from time to time, either the eyeballs, tails or head, which added to the ‘realness’ of it.

I reached out to touch some of the dinosaurs, and they actually felt like ‘skin’! A little ekkkssss escaped my lips, but it really goes to show how much effort was put into the exhibition, to make it look as real-life as possible.

I was amazed by the amount of research work that went into the exhibition. Every dinosaur has a signboard that explains who discovered the existence of that dinosaur, who named it, the temperament of the species, what it fed on and where it lived in, etc. There were so much details! A dinosaur lover would definitely enjoy reading all the information. It was a little too much information for me though. =P I was just in awe at the sheer sizes of the dinosaurs and how magnificent some looked.

You can see that much thoughts have been put into creating the habitat of the dinosaurs to make it look interesting and as real as possible.

Ashamed to say, this was the only dinosaur I could name without referring to the signboards – T-Rex. =P And I could proudly tell Joey some facts about it… My daughter must have thought that I was a smart lass!

My most fav exhibit has got to the this tallest dinosaur in the hall. Was a little surprised that Joey could tell me that this was a very gentle dinosaur that only fed on plants! Looks like she’s the smart lass! =P

The final part of the exhibition had some interactive elements for the kids. They could trace out drawings of dinosaurs with crayons or do some colouring on sheets provided..

And this sandpit was a great idea! There are fossils hidden in the sand, and the kids can use the spades and brushes provided to dig out the fossils! It would be fun if the kids could bring home some toy fossils though. Haha! But the kids had fun digging, that’s for sure!

If you want to learn about dinosaurs, this is definitely the exhibition to go to. There’re lots of facts and information for you to pick up! =)

The Dinosaurs Live! Exhibition is open from now till 26 Feb 2012. Entry tickets: $20/adult & $15/child (3-16 yrs old).

Everyone seems so excited about the opening of Punggol Waterway that we decided to bring the kids to check out the place during the Deepavali public holiday.

We wanted to explore the place before the kids’ nap time, so we reached around 12pm. Such a bad decision! ALL of us almost melted there in the park under the relentless hot sun!!! We started off the park from the heritage area and it was such a long walk to the water playground that we were all looking forward to. SADLY, THE WATER PLAYGROUND WAS CLOSED. No water splashing on such a hot day??!!!! Sorely disappointed. =(

Still, the park looks like a really good place for cycling, jogging and generally taking long walks with your family. Perhaps we will go back again another evening after the sun sets. The large water catchment area and lots of greeneries make the place a rather lovely place for some relaxation, I believe. Without Mr Sun, that is. =P

From the main road, there is a staircase for you to walk down to the park. Quite a pleasant sight of the park from up here. I thought it looked like an amusement park of some sort. =)

I like the bridge and how it looks.

Nice! It’s a signature landmark in that place!

Nice architecture always attracts my attention. And definitely, one plus about photo-roaming a park on a swelteringly hot day is that your photos are filled with beautiful blue skies and fluffy white clouds.

Even though the park officially opened last weekend, construction work is still being done on site. Many construction workers are working hard to get the park all ready for families to enjoy.

Awesome skies there, I say! I couldn’t stop snapping at them even though I was blinded by the bright sun rays most of the time. =P

I was worried the kids will get heat stroke, seriously. But they couldn’t care less - They were running everywhere.

This part of the park is the heritage section, and you can find useful and interesting heritage & historical facts about Punggol on the stoney walls and on panels that line the water catchment.

We kept walking and walking.. The only thing that kept us going was the water playground! Think about the cooling water splashing down!

But we just didn’t see it after a long walk… =( We took shelter in one of the tents for the workers, while Papa Isaiah went walking around in search of our ‘water paradise’..

Finally, we reached the area for the water playground…

But like I mentioned, it was not opened!! The park should look into the opening hours of the water playground! Surely, it’s good to switch on the taps when the sun is blazing hot??! Then again, the water playground is really small. Hopefully we’ll be able to catch it splashing when we next visit.

This is my personal favourite part of the park – The bridge. Built very nicely.

As we were almost all melted, we decided to leave the park and come back another day. Thank goodness we left in time. A heavy downpour came just when we exited the park! The weather of Singapore is just ever changing! Hopefully, our next visit to Punggol Waterway Park would be a more fulfilling one!

Eating has always been a very enjoyable thing for me. I love to eat, and I de-stress by having a good meal in a nice place. So, I am constantly on a lookout for kids-friendly restaurants so that both my kids and I can have a good time feasting together without wanting to pull each others’ hair out.

Even though there are quite a few such restaurants in Singapore, I sometimes wish there are a lot more choices for us parents. After a while, we are always going back to the same few restaurants. If I can run my own business in future, I want to start a chain of kids-friendly themed restaurants that will make both parents and kids happy!

For now, the most common one we go to is the Sembawang Shopping Centre rooftop restaurants. There is a pretty big playground there, divided into dry and wet areas, and 3 restaurants line the playground. That makes it perfect for parents because while the kids play at the playground, the parents can dine in peace and yet have a clear view of the children at all times. All three restaurants have indoor air-conditioned dining area, as well as alfresco, so it’s good for all patrons. Those with children playing at the playground may like to take the alfresco seats, while those without children can dine indoors without having to bear with noise from the play area.

This was the table Hubby and I were sitting at, while our two girls dashed from slide to slide… We had some difficulty getting them to sit down and finish their lunch before dashing off to play again, since the playground was just right in front of their eyes. But still, it was nice to just sit and watch them laugh and play at their favourite place.

It was Aston’s we settled down at for lunch, and as always, I was happy with their food! The other two restaurants in that place are Ajisen and a HongKong cafe. Both are not bad too!

For us parents, the venue for meals makes that much a difference. =)