Educational Outing at Science Centre

We - Marieann, Juliane and I had a girls' outing with Marieann's classmate, Jewel and her mother at the Science Centre. Jewel's mother picked us up from the Botanic garden at 9:30am. When we arrived at the Science Centre close to 10am, there were quite a number of cars in the car park. Everyone must have had the same idea as us, start early lol.

We browsed around the halls and at one of the halls, the girls saw a chick hatching which enthralled them completely. We went over to the Omni-theatre at 11am to catch "The Alps" followed by "Wild Ocean" at 12pm. Both movies were pretty interesting. But I think sitting in the omni theatre for 2 hours were too long for the girls hahaha.

We had lunch at McDonald's before going back into the Science Centre to explore the halls. We also saw the Magic Exhibition. The girls were fascinated by the truth about magic haha. Our last stop was the shop. Girls being girls, we have to shop hahaha. :P The girls each bought an item that was not more than $2 - an hour glass. :) Jewel's mother sent us home around 3pm.

We had a really interesting and educational outing and day. We all took back some new knowledge with us and I spent quality time with my girls. Not to mention, the girls had a fun time with their friend and I also got to know Jewel's mother better. :)

Afternoon at The Singapore Flyer

After reading a promotional advert in the papers about a seafood restaurant, we decided to try it out for lunch.

Seafood Paradise is situated at The Singapore Flyer. The girls were pretty excited when they saw the Singapore Flyer. They thought they were going for a ride. Sorry, girls, we are only here for the food, lol. :P

The girls had the Seafood Thick Soup in Fragrant Coconut ($10). The soup was really sweet and fragrant. It was infused with the flavour of coconut. There was the usual seafood - prawn, scallop, crab meat in the soup with egg white. The girls totally enjoyed the soup, especially when it was served in cute little coconuts. :)

We ordered to share:
Stuffed BBQ Pork in Crispy Beancurd (Small, $12): the beancurd was mixed with some vege, stuffed with BBQ Pork (bak hwa) and fried till crispy. It was really fragrant and there was texture to the beancurd with the extra stuffings in it.


Wild Fungus with Asparagus (Small, $14): the asparagus was tender and there were several kinds of fungus in the dish.


Sambal Kang Kong (Small, $10): this one is for my mom. She thought the spiciness was there but a tad too sweet for her liking. Sorry, no pic as my mom refused to let me take a photo of it, lol. :P

Fragrant Crispy Duck (Half, $20): the duck was really crispy and fragrant. I really like this dish a lot.


What's the point of going to a seafood restaurant if we didn't order seafood? Lol. We had a Traditional Spicy Black Pepper Crab ($3.80 per 100g). My mom, the girls' father and the girls shared the crab. I didn't touch this dish as it was too spicy for my liking.


Stewed Ee-Fu Noodles (Medium, $18): the noodles were nicely stewed with mushrooms, bean sprouts, chives, and crabmeat. It wasn't too salty which was nice.


For desserts: the girls' father had Cream of mango with pomelo ($3.50), Juliane had Mango pudding ($3.50), Marieann had Honey dew sago ($3.50) and I had Double boiled Hashima with red dates ($6.50). They were pretty standard fare so no pics.



After lunch, we walked around The Singapore Flyer place to de-frost as the air con at the restaurant was really cold. There were some complimentary activities going on, sponsored by The Singapore Flyer - Balloon Sculpturing, Caricature and Face-painting. To compensate the girls for not bringing them on the Singapore Flyer, we allowed them to go for all the activities. Hahaha. The girls loved their balloon sculptures.




They enjoyed getting their caricatures done. Well, my mom and I couldn't resist it too and we also got our caricatures done, lol. :P


Top left corner is my mom, top right is me, bottom left is Juliane and bottom right is Marieann. Looks like us or not?! Lol. :)

Last but not the least, the girls had their face-painting done. :) They were the first kids who were enthusiastic enough to have their faces painted! The other kids only had their hands or arms painted, lol. Hmm, wonder where they inherited their gungho-ness from? Lol. :P




We left for home at 3:30pm. After all that excitement, the girls were really tired and they fell asleep even before we could reach home. :)

It has been a really enjoyable day!

Eventful Day for the Girls

Today was an eventful day for the girls.

* Fieldtrip to Farmart Centre
The girls' pre-school organised a fieldtrip to Farmart Centre. As the girls are already in N2 and K2, I didn't have to accompany them on this fieldtrip. According to the girls, they had a talk about the life cycle of a hen/ quail (here the girls differed in their accounts, lol), about eggs and its nutrition. They had a guided tour round the farm and the girls got to feed goats. They saw hens, chicken, rabbits, fishes, tortoises, ... Both of them enjoyed the trip to the farm. They also brought home a dozen of quail's eggs which they both finished at dinner! :P

* Goodie Bags Preparation
Tomorrow, we are going to celebrate Juliane's birthday with her friends in pre-school . Her actual birthday is on 1 March but since it is a Saturday, we will celebrate it one day earlier in her pre-school. After dinner, the girls helped me to pack the goodie bags, 22 of them. I had to be real watchful, in case they might accidentally pop one of the lollies into their mouths instead of into the goodie bags, lol. With their help, we finished packing the goodie bags in no time. To thank them for their help, I allowed them to have one of the excess snacks. :)

Field Trip to The Science Centre

Today, the girls' pre-school arranged a field trip to The Science Centre for the children. Parents are often invited along to such field trips, 1) can keep an eye on their own children, 2) to be involved in the children's schooling. This is the fourth field trip I have been with the girls as the days happened to coincide with my non-working days. (I just love working part-time! Lol.)

It was raining in the morning but the girls were still as excited as ever about going on the filed trip. When we arrived at the centre, it was PACKED with students!! It seemed every school has decided to choose to go to The Science Centre as their after exam excursion! Seeing the HUGE crowd, my excitement was already dampened by half but not the girls. The centre was also very confusing like a maze, it seemed as if we were walking in circles. The lighting wasn't very bright too, trying to be green perhaps?? But quite dangerous, especially for the little children who couldn't see clearly where they were going. What irked me the most was the rowdy students who were running and dashing about the centre most recklessly with no care about others. "There are little children around, you idiots!", I swore under my breath. Throughout the time at the centre, I was always in front of my girls like a mother hen protecting her chicks from being knocked down by the students who were dashing around. Argh!

When a good friend heard my girls were going to the Science Centre, he mentioned that when he visited Science Centre during his school days, he did nothing but push the buttons, what more little pre-school children. He was so right! Lol. My girls did nothing but just push at every button they saw, and pull or push every lever they came across before moving off to the next button or lever, lolol.








We returned to the pre-school at 12pm. I let the girls take their usual school bus home at 1pm while I went to Borders for a look around. I got home at 1:30pm and went to sleep. I was really exhausted mentally and physically from today's field trip. I had a real nice nap until 4pm. =)

Packed Saturday

We are fast running out of places to bring the girls, lol. We went to Suntec City for lunch at Tony Roma's. We had wanted to try it the other day but it was packed so we ended up at Orchard Cafe. Finally, we got to try Tony Roma's.

we shared a Starter: Onion Loaf (half) ($8.50) - onions were hand-cut, breaded, deep fried and served with BBQ Mayo dipping sauce. The onions were really sweet and crunchy. But the onion loaf should be eaten while it was hot, otherwise, it would be a little too oily.


The girls shared a Mushroom Soup ($6.50) which was creamy, full of mushroom bits and yummy as well as a Kid's Tenders ($8.50) which was slices of chicken breast fried in batter and served with french fries and a glass of ice lemon tea.



Hubby ordered a half slab of St Louis-Style Ribs ($18.90) done in Carolina Honey which was a blend of honey and molasses. It also came with his choice of two side dishes: coleslaw and french fries. I thought the ribs were a little too sweet but it was really tender and soft.


I ordered a Southwestern Chicken ($21.50). The chicken breast were marinated, covered with BBQ sauce, Monterey Jack cheese and cheddar cheese, and then charbroiled. The chicken was then topped with a generous sprinkling of freshly diced tomatoes and green onions before being served. The chicken was full of flavour and juicy. It also came with two side dishes: coleslaw and rice. The rice was flavoured and fragrant and it went really well with the chicken. It was really tasty.




We walked around Suntec City for a while. The girls started saying they were thirsty and we saw Gelare. We decided to have dessert, lol. The girls had their Wild Strawberry ice cream, hubby had a small waffle with a scoop of Cappuccino ice cream and I had my scone and Earl Grey tea. The scone was really huge and ended up passing half to hubby, lol.



***
We got home and the girls rested for about 1.5 hours before we set out for Chinese Garden at 5pm for the girls' pre-school's Mid-Autumn Festival school-cum-family outing. The girls were really thrilled to be at the Chinese Garden. We had a simple buffet dinner (which was included) before walking round the Chinese Garden and snapping pictures. The girls also had their caricatures done. We managed to walk one round to see the various giant lantern displays before going back to the central stage at 7:45pm to watch the performances from Si Chuan: Chinese opera, acrobat, and the famous "Change Face". The girls were really amazed by how fast the performer could change each mask within 1/2 seconds. We didn't stay for the 10pm fireworks finale because it would be too late for the girls. We left after the Si Chuan performance. The girls couldn't stop talking about the Chinese Garden in the car and asked their father to take them there every day. Hahaha.












***
On a side note, who said all men can read maps?! Hubby couldn't. He got lost despite reading the map. The silly man got angry and wanted to just go home. He never cared that the girls would be devastated if he did that, especially if they have been looking forward to this school-cum-family outing for 2 weeks. In the end, me (a non-driver!) had to direct him. He went the wrong way again trying to get home and no prize for guessing who told him the correct way home. Lol.

What an Adventurous Outing!

Today, there was a family outing organised by my daughters' pre-school - DUCK and Aerophile (DHL) Balloon Tour. I swopped a working day in order to accompany my girls since I have heard good comments about the DUCK tour and the hot air balloon ride. What an adventure this outing turned out to be! Hahaha. Read on... :)

We left the pre-school around 9:15am in two coaches (about 30 children and parents in each coach). Our coach went to the Aerophile Balloon Tour first while the other coach went to the DUCK Tour. Our coach got to Tan Quee Lan St. around 9:30am. But the strange thing is the Aerophile Balloon tour office was still closed. There seemed to be some sort of miscommunication. Half an hour and several phone calls later, the teachers told us that the Aerophile Balloon tour operators were not ready and we would go to the DUCK tour instead and come back for the balloon tour after that. Aiya, wasted half an hour waiting for nothing... the sky was overcast... looked like it is going to rain... Touch wood.

We arrived at DUCKtours @ Suntec around 10:10am. The children and parents from the other coach were waiting for their turn to board their DUCK. Our group of children and parents joined them in the waiting queue. While waiting for the DUCKs to come, it started to rain. What a bummer! I can't take photographs for sure in this weather and I thought there goes the hot air balloon ride too. Hmm... outing not going well. Wasted half an hour and no air balloon ride and now the rain. Let's hope the DUCK will live up to its name!

My girls and I boarded the second DUCK, Darcy. Both Marieann and Juliane were thrilled. "Hello, girls and boys, if you look to the right, you will see the Fountain of Wealth...", went the DUCK tour guide... "And now, we are going into the water...". Splash! DUCK Darcy was in the water. The kids all started cheering and clapping. See this DUCK go. Lol.

As it was raining quite heavily, they had to put down the plastic covers to prevent the rain from coming in. I couldn't take photos at first because of the plastic covers. Then as if my prayers were answered, the rain started to let up. The guide drew up the covers and I was snapping away like nobody's business. Actually, I was the only parent who was snapping photographs, no not just of my girls but also of the scenery along the Marina Bay. Lol. The guide was giving away those things that make quack sounds (whatever you call that) as prizes. A good friend who knew my girls and I were going on the DUCK tour smsed me to answer the questions. Hello, this is a kiddie group. The guide was asking the kids to sing kiddie songs and for those who did, would receive the duck quacking thingy. NO WAY, am I going to sing for it. Hahaha.

When DUCK Darcy made the turn and was heading back to land, it started to slow down. At first, I thought nothing of it, thinking it was part of the routine, slowing down for us to snap photographs. Then the engine went "splut, splut, SPLUT" and the DUCK really slowed down, like 5km/hour. After a while, the engine died totally on us. See this DUCK die. Lol.

We were one stranded DUCK! We were just drifting there with the flow of the tide. We became "Ladies and gentlemen, on your right, is a stranded DUCK" to the other DUCK tours. As the other DUCKs went past us, they were taking photos of us and waving at us as if we were a landmark too. Hahaha. They didn't radio for help until half an hour later. During all that time, the rain got heavier again and we were drifting aimlessly. With each DUCK that passed us, we bobbed up and down even more... there were some who were getting seasick... thank goodness, my girls and I were fine, lol. It was quite funny, the whole situation. Soon, our rescue came. It was another DUCK. They were going to transfer us over to the other DUCK, Orleans, over the water. So FUN. Hahaha. I was the only one who was definitely snapping photos of the transfer from stranded DUCK to the rescue DUCK. Hahaha. After 45 minutes of being stranded, we were finally back on land. However, the rest of our DUCK tour was also cut and we went straight back to Suntec. Not fair! It was close to 12pm. The hot air balloon ride was gone-case. We took a quick lunch at Toastbox before the coaches arrived to take us back to the pre-school at 12:45pm.

Off we go!

Waiting for our DUCK

Our DUCK Darcy

US!

The Rescue Mission: Transfer from DUCK Darcy...

...to DUCK Orleans

Bye bye, stranded Darcy

Yeah! We are on the move again

Nothing comforting like FOOD!

It was really an adventure today. It seemed nothing was going well. But it was indeed an experience to remember, a funny one I guess, maybe for me only. Hahaha. Yes, I have been told I have a weird sense of humour.