Sunday 5 January 2014

Reflections of 2013 and Embracing 2014

Hi all! Happy New Year!!! I hope you have a good year in 2013.  

My 2013 is quite eventful. Let's do a quick recap okay?
  • Seeing Princess Ivory growing stronger and healthy each day.
    • She stayed in ICU for almost a month, hence we were quite worried. Now she is damn playful and naughty.






 

  • Isaac caught chicken pox and missed 1st week of school.
    • Good grief! Not sure where this boy caught chicken pox from. He got it on chirstmas day, which means he gonna missed 1st week of school. We must be real "lucky". Buy 4-D also never so "zui".And he spread to Imax too.
Imax and his chicken pox cheeky face

  • Isaac went to Primary 1 on the 2nd week of Jan.
    • Finally, we see our eldest child went to P1. But he had an eye infection on the day he returned to school. Poor boy!!
Isaac plagued with swollen eye after he recovered from chicken pox
Forcing a big smile for mummy
So small build but carrying so big bag
  • I returned to work after 16 weeks of maternity leaves. New colleagues, new challenges and new boss.
    • CNY celebration with family and friends.  
CNY celebration with family

My ATS primary school CNY gathering
    • CNY "lo hei" with SQA-team. 


  • Our overseas trip - to Genting Highland 


  • Isaac, Ivory, Imax and me down with HFMD. 

  • My kids' colorful life in school - journey to learning and have fun
Isaac acting as "Xiao Ren" in his CME performance
 
 
Imax's school excursion to Sea Aquarium at RWS





Here's a quick check on my 2013 resolutions!
  • Control my temper and adjust my way of disciplining the kids at home i.e. no more caning   X  
  • Save a fraction of my monthly income    X     
  • To lost weight via exercise and lesser food intake     X                        
  • Attend parenting workshops     ✔
  • Create a conducive learning environment for the kids at home     ✔
  • Have a big birthday bash for baby Ivory     ✔
  • Fulfilling the kids' wishes as much as possible e.g. visit to River Safari, Sea Aquarium, Genting Highland etc     ✔
I did not fulfill 3 of my 2013 resolutions. Hopefully, I will be able to do so for year 2014.

My 2014 resolutions are as follows:
  • Control my temper and adjust my way of disciplining the kids at home i.e. no more caning   
  • Save a fraction of my monthly income    
  • To lost weight via exercise and lesser food intake         
  • Coach Imax and Isaac to achieve better results
  • Visit Taiwan

Have a good galloping year ahead and wishes all my friends good health, good weath and happiness. May all your dreams come true!

Friday 3 January 2014

Family outing to River Safari, 14 Dec 2013

On 14 Dec 2014, my family and I went to River Safari for the first time. We arrived at the zoo at around 10.30 a.m. We met a monkey mascot at the Singapore Zoo entrance. Isaac and Imax quickly took a photo with the mascot. 
 
 
We booked our tickets online. There was a long queue to book the Amazon River boat ride. We managed to get the 4 - 5 pm time slot. First, we visited the Mississippi River.
We saw the Mississippi Paddlefish and Alligator Snapping Turtle. The American Beaver was sleeping.
 
Alligator Snapping Turtle

Mississippi Paddlefish
A normal terrapin swimming with the Mississippi Paddlefish .

Next, we visited the Congo River. We saw the Giant Puffer Fish.

After that, we visited the River Nile. There, we saw the African Arowana, Tigerfish and Giraffe Catfish.

Giraffe catfish

At Ganges River, we saw the Indian Gharial. It's a kind of crocodile, feeding mainly on small fishes.
Indian Gharial

 
Next, we went to the Murray River. There, we saw the Australian Lungfish and Murray Cod. We continued walking to the Mekong River. We saw the Mekong Giant Catfish, Giant Freshwater Stingray and Crab-eating Macaque.


Mekong Giant Catfish


Giant Freshwater Stingray
Crab-eating Macaque
Stork
After that, we proceed to the Yangtze River. There, we saw the Chinese Alligator and Sturgeon.
Chinese alligator

The children are looking at the Sturgeon.
We reach the queue to the Giant Panda Forest. By this time, Ivory is already very tired. Look at the children bored face.

Queueing to enter the Giant Panda Forest
We saw the Red Panda, Golden Pheasant, Giant Panda "Kai Kai" and "Jia Jia" here.
 

Greedy Jia Jia eating bamboo 


Cute Kai Kai

Walking to digest the bamboo
It's already 12+ pm. The children were starving. Ma Ma Panda Kitchen is so crowded. I asked Xieyi yo queue up to buy food while the rest of us waited for a table.
 


 

Panda bao $3 each. Chocolate flavour


Our lunch



 
Ivory slept through our lunch. After our lunch, we walked towards the Squirrel Monkey Forest.




Next, we visited the Amazon Flooded Forest.
This is the elctric eel.



 
Isaac loves Piranha. And he's very happy to see this kind of fish.


We walked to the aquarium where the Manatee are.



 
Ivory had woken up from her sleep. She was amazed by the fishes and Manatee at the aquarium.



The giant Otter taking a sunbath.


 
 
There's an animal show outside the Panda souvenir store. Isaac and Imax taking a photo with a mini size vulture.



Taking the Amazon River Boat ride.







We left River Safari at around 5 pm. It's a tiring day for the parents but the kids enjoyed themselves.