Chloe's 3rd Birthday Party!

It was cousin Chloe's 3rd birthday party today. Unfortunately, Zoe still wasn't feeling too well from her cough.

We were one of the first to arrive and Zoe was the recipient of a goodie bag from Aunt Iris. Not showing much interest in the food (including her favourite fishballs), we quickly retreated to a kiddy ride.
It wasn't long before the goodie bag came under attack... what's this? A jam filled marshmallow!
Let's try to get it out...

Got it! Happiness...Followed by some fun at the indoor playground...
Decided to have some food in the end... fried tofu...
Went outside for a breather before cake cutting... What's this?


Daddy! I found a piece of history...Let me feel it to bring me back in time!
And finally! The cake cutting. All the kids were super excited when the cake was brought out. It is a Barney cake this year.
Zoe in the thick of action...
Taking out the cake...
Briefing to Chloe on the procedures...
Lighting the candles...


Photo with all the kids in the house... Look who's not looking at the camera??
Birthday girl and family..
Cut Cake time!
P.S. The cousins have the same top!

Young and Flexible

I can't remember being able to do splits....

But no issues for Zoe...

Sushi Chef

Here's our very own little Sushi Chef at home... They learn how to peel eggs in school so we let her do it at home too.


She's an expert... can peel without looking at the egg.... looks very professional.

Job's well done!

Only thing is... this little Chef eats her own creations...Ooops, the egg yolk dropped out.

Swimming!

Went to Yio Chu Kang Swimming complex for a swim today... I think it is the first time Zoe went to a public pool. And definitely my first in a long while...Toilets are much better with individual shower cubicles for men and a dressing area within the cubicle. Used to be one whole open area of shower heads.

Anyway... Zoe is outgrowing her swimsuits pretty fast but this pink outfit that she wore for the cruise still fits.

Hanging around at the edge of the pool.
The kids pool is really nice and at 0.4m deep, Zoe can stand and climb out easily. They have a nice shower area for kids.
Learning how to swim...
She had fun...
And the best part is... a great big slide for kids! Parent's aren't allowed to slide though as the water is shallow.
Went to AMK Hub after that. There seems to be a lot of kiddy rides in shopping malls nowadays and it is difficult to walk past one without letting Zoe sit on it.... There's Thomas the Train..

And some Snoopy Kennel thing...

Ouch! Hit my head!

Anyway, it was a fun swim. We were all pretty tired after that and had a good nap.

Vivocity Again!

We went to Vivocity again today... almost 1 year to the day that we been there with Zoe. Great fun as usual... she was happy walking around and use her legs to splash around.
It's a really nice place to be, especially in the mornings before the crowd and the exhaust from some restaurants or food court start polluting the place with their fumes...

Again... sharp pebbles... footwear is a MUST for kids and HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for adults!

Neighbourhood Playgrounds

Remember these? Depends on which generation you belong to, a lot of us played in these sand playgrounds before and the "Dragon" and "Pelican and Tortoise" are pretty standard and popular back in those days. If you know what Yaohan is, you know what I am talking about.



Nowadays, its hard to find playgrounds filled with sand. Maintenance is a pain and most of it use some form of resin. Sand playgrounds also attract cats and dogs to do their business there. Anyway, I think the playgrounds nowadays are safer and more fun for kids. Today, Zoe went to Grand-aunt's place. There is a playground between the carpark and her place and it is one of those days when we HAD to let her play.

Posing for a picture before the fun begins!
There is a steering wheel thing...
And a tic tac toe thing...
Seriously, I don't think anyone ever plays tic tac toe on them... its so much easier to draw on a piece of paper then to rotate these... Kids just love to rotate them though!
And nowadays... these rocking things are very popular...
And there are loads of places where you can peek out from. The playground was totally empty this morning so it was our "house" for a while and this is Zoe's favourite window.
They have a lot of poles as well. The larger kids like to do the firemen pole slide... while Zoe is contended just to hug a pole with her hands and legs!
And of course.... the slide!
Overall, it was a lot of fun! Zoe totally enjoyed herself. There's no traditional see saws and swings but I guess the rest of the stuff made up for it.
Another random and blurry pic (sorry, but 90% of photos taken these days are using iPhone 3GS with no zoom and flash) of Zoe and her "other" family.

Thomas the Train

Conventional Wisdom - Trains are for boys. Dolls are for girls. Girls attend Home Econs, Boys go for Technical.

New Age Wisdom - Boys and Girls go for both Home Econs and Technical.

Ok... the above is a bunch of excuses to buy a train set for Zoe. She saw one in a shop in Taka and kept playing with it. So we brought her to Taka to buy a set of Thomas the train! (~$35)

She really liked it... posing with the train set...

The train runs on batteries and it is fun just to see it go round and round... even when tired...

Looking boyish sitting in the tracks...

She also knows how to toggle the switch to make the train go in big or smaller rings...

A random picture...


We also brought Zoe to the Taka mooncake fair and she had fun trying many different sorts of mooncakes.... and oh... she likes durian!