So with house moving, having a baby, and general busyness...we finally only made it back to hokey pokey some 9 months after we celebrated Josiah's 4th birthday there last year! 

The space at their new location looks to be about the same size, and the structures and many of the toys there were familiar. Josiah & Joanie had 2 hours of great fun playing with the toys, dressing up, jumping in the ball pits etc...and we wouldn't have left if not for the fact that it was waaaay past Joanie's nap time and she was getting pretty sleepy (and whiny).

The main area that was new (and that Josiah especially loved) was the dress up corner. They had a great selection of superhero, whimsical and cartoon outfits for boys and girls, and even one that fit Joash! :) 

The kids still loved the old favourites of course - the kitchen sets, slide and ball pit. 

We really like that Hokey Pokey provides a relatively safe space for the older kids to explore independently and stay entertained for a good long stretch of time, while also catering to the babies, like Joash.

We had only just stepped out from Hokey Pokey when Josiah asked "Let's come back to Hokey Pokey soon, ok?" TIme to make plans to make use of his free birthday month visit (one of the membership perks) coming up in October...

I brought Joanie for a free trial rhythmic gym class at Fun@Giggles on Sat. Joanie seems very interested in music & movement, often doing twirls and mimicking dance movements, so we thought this would be a great way to see if she's interested in and ready for a more structured dance/gym class. Plus the location is really convenient for us.

She was the first to bounce (literally) onto the mat when the coach started the class, wide smile on her face and brimming with enthusiasm :). And this lasted pretty much through the entire class, although her focus waned occasionally. I think she would probably have been less distracted if I wasn't there.

The class was taken by Coach Cherrie from Relevé Rhythmic Gymnastics and Dance Academy and I thought she was able to connect pretty well with the little kids. She would also help them individually for the more difficult movements, like pointing toes and back bends. The exercises were fun and reasonably easy to follow, although Joanie probably still lacks the physical coordination and length to do some of the stretches properly. It was really fun and funny watching Joanie do the exercises though. Movements are just extra cute when they are performed by such tiny bodies :P

We'll probably let Joanie try out a creative movement or ballet class first to see which she enjoys the most, but rhythmic gym is definitely an option when she hits three next year and is less dependent on her afternoon nap. 

Releve will be conducting these sessions at Fun@Giggles on Mons & Weds at 1-2pm. 
Fun@Giggles will also be having balloon sculpting sessions on Weds 4-5pm in August, so check out their facebook page for updates on more activites.

We've been looking for a way to store all the drawings, paintings & crafts made by Josiah & Joanie so we don't feel guilty about having to throw them away. And we came across this great idea by a parent who photographed her kid's art works, shrank them down and made it into a montage.

But since Josiah comes home with a drawing almost every day, we're still going to end up with a ton of art montages and not enough wall to display them. This idea is probably only good for the really noteworthy pieces. 

So we've found another solution - this free app called Art My Kid Made! Basically you create a profile of your child (just once), take a picture of their work of art, caption it, save it and voila...online art gallery, timestamped and all! What I really like about the app is that it allows you to save the pics to either Evernote or Dropbox, and you've the option to share it to facebook too. The app is currently only available on the apple app store though, so android users will have to look for an alternative.

Now to find time to photograph their massive collection...

It wasn't that long ago when I would purposefully avoid the crowds during the NDP and choose instead to watch the parade from the comfort of home. But somehow having kids changes your mind about such things, so we traipsed our 3 Jos down to the Marina Barrage to enjoy a live screening of the parade over a picnic with good friends - Joce, Se & Jon, and family - Ji Chek, Jonah, and Amber. 

The kids were mighty excited of course, not just because of NDP, but because they were meeting up with good pals Asher & Ellery and Emma, Hannah & Becky. 

There were quite a lot of people by the time we arrived at about 4.45pm but thankfully the Nairs had arrived earlier and choped us a nice patch of green. 

We enjoyed the parade...the kids especially loved the planes and the helicopters, and we get a really good view of them from the Barrage. The performances were entertaining too, very impressed by the story-telling segment where the stories were illustrated by a large contingent of people changing the colours of their coats...impressive! Must have been rehearsal intensive and harkens back to the old times when LEDs and laser displays were not available. I also thought the merlion was pretty cute...cheesy but cute. 

And then the fireworks of course. We had a better view of them than we did last year, but still would be much clearer if MBS weren't there...hah:P 

As for the controversial national day song, Josiah & Emma were singing it non-stop post parade and Josiah kept singing the chorus the entire walk back from the Marina Barrage to Bay East...guess it's pretty sing-a-long and catchy for little kids after all :P 

As you can tell from the poorly updated blog, I'm not on the ball with posting here. This post, or least the title of the list, was created as a draft some 2 years ago when Joash was still a wee thing, and I'm reviving it now as Jolie has reminded me of it.

There's few things less precious and amazing than the way your baby looks at you. It's a look of total trust and love. And when I see myself reflected in their little pupils, I just feel so amazed, so undeserving of this pure love and at the same time, wishing that I could properly capture this look of love.

If there ever was a purpose for the google glass, this is probably it, so I can photograph and video and have the best chance of capturing this look. But since I don't have a google glass, and any attempt at taking a photo of it has failed, I shall just have to rely on the imperfections of my memory and savour it while it lasts!

Can't believe Jolie is 3 months old already! My little baby is growing up so quickly *sob*

We brought the kids to the beach for a play date with their schoolmates, JJ, Talia and Stefan and they had a fun time in the sun, sand and sea!

Josiah and JJ each caught a wave in their face and all were pretty sandy messes. Best part is we've tuckered them out sufficiently for them to take an afternoon nap to recharge before our next date with the NDP :)

No tix to the parade, so we're gonna soak in some Singapore spirit at the Marina Barrage! Whee! Can't wait :)

The Singapore flag proudly hanging in front of our living room window (bottom left) - view from the overhead bridge as we made our way home after the playdate.

I had a mummy date with secondary school friends, Yanxi and Chris at Yanxi's place at Strathmore. We had ambitious plans of letting the young ones entertain each other while we catch up over tea. Ambitious because the little ones are only 10 weeks, 5.5 months and 6.5 months...haha...And Yanxi had whet our appetite the day before by promising us lava cakes from Smoulder, as her husband is one of the owners. 

So anyway, as it turned out, we were mostly occupied with entertaining the babies, stopping them from crying, getting them to sleep, changing soiled diapers...and chatting in between. We did get to eat some jagabee and get a photo of the three babies, awake and not crying (or not crying too badly anyway :p) 

Thoughtful Yanxi had already prepared nine different flavours of Smoulder cakes for us. I guess she wisely expected that we wouldn't be able to relax and have tea. Josh likes the name...Smoulder...

Yummy cakes from Smoulder...bite sized pleasures indeed

The verdict: Good! I like my desserts dense and rich. And even though I didn't have a working oven and had to eat them cold out of the fridge, the cakes were rich, still moist and not too sweet. Depending on the flavour, some also had little pieces of cherry, raisin, nuts etc that adds to the texture of the bite-sized dessert. Sadly, without an oven to warm up the cakes, I didn't get to experience the oooze of the softcore...that would have made them even better! I think it would probably be most satisfying to eat them right after purchase at either their China Square Food Centre (#01-04) or Raffles City (#B1-68) stores. 

I finally bought a flag from our CC over the weekend (a little late I know given that National Day is this Friday...) and on Sunday, I put it up! 

We hung our flag outside the living room window using the 2 hooks provided. Did you know that most, if not all, HDB flats have hooks outside their windows/parapets for us to hang our flags? I only noticed it at our current place but it certainly makes things simpler. 

Since we can't see the large flag from inside our home, I also used 2 of the smaller flags (the ones designed to clip onto car doors) and hung them up at home. The kids are so excited to see them, calling out 'Singapore!' and belting out national day songs every once in a while. 

Yes, we love Singapore...This is our home :)

Looking forward to celebrating national day at the Marina Barrage on Friday!

Joanie points in excitement as the wind blows the flag into view