National Day - Singapore's 43rd Birthday

National Day happened to fall on a Saturday this year, so all the enrichment classes Kieona is going to were halted. Mommy had envisioned it to be a very relaxing weekend. How wrong I was. It turned out to be one of the most stimulating weekends we've got for a while.

On Saturday itself, we visited Uncle Hsiang Hui and Auntie Hwee Ming's home and met their baby, Ee Sheng who was already four months old. He was such a lovely young boy, with smiles for everyone. And boy, he looks really happy. What a joy! Kieona displayed her sisterly love for babies again - by going to talk to him and trying to "sayang" him. Kierra was her usual self - just playing around and trying to engage the two younger boys.

Little Ee Sheng

Uncle Hsiang Hui and Ee Kiat

We went home after lunch so that the girls could nap before we visit Auntie Wendy's house to see her newborn. Although Auntie Wendy was Daddy's cousin, we don't meet very often and even though Nathalie (Auntie Wendy's elder daughter) and Amanda (Auntie Audrey's daughter) were around the girls' age, they didn't really play. Perhaps they should be meeting a little more often. We only stayed a short while, as Mommy had arranged with Antoine's Mommy for a playdate cum fireworks watching party.

As this was the first time we were meeting out of gym classes and it had been a while since we last met them, everyone was a little slow to warm up. But we soon did, as we had our dinner and chit-chat while the kids watched the Playhouse Disney channel. Of course, from time to time the Daddies and the kiddos were just happy to catch the aerial displays - fighter jets and helicopters and what not. When we were almost done with dinner, we were wondering if we still can make it to Marina Bay area to catch the fireworks. Uncle Oliver (Antoine's Daddy) suddenly said that we if we want to, we need to quickly get out of the house to catch the bus to his office. So all of us ran and ran to the bus-stop. It turned out that he had checked for the bus schedule and it was arriving in 7 mins when he checked. Poor Maria (who was carrying Kierra) almost did not make it. What a sight - the way we were all running with kids in tow.

First explosion

Blue and Yellow - one of Mom's favourites

Looks like CNY, doesn't it?

It gets cloudy with smoke

We ended up watching the fireworks from Uncle Oliver's office. It wasn't quite as fantastic - as the display was a short one. But it was overall still quite an experience to go together. The after-fireworks part must have been the kiddos highlight of the day. They held hands - Antoine, Kieona and Kierra - and ran ahead of us, played catching and climbed around. Of course, that also had us adults worried as they ran like crazy and it was quite difficult to rein them in. Then again, no harm done at all and the kids certainly enjoyed themselves as we made our way back to Antoine's house by foot.

Kierra, Kieona, Antoine looking cheeky

US & O in OUB Building

Little kids enjoying night life

Happy children - fit for a commercial?