Thomas the Train

As the kids grow older, the differences between boys and girls become more and more obvious!

Nicole is just more 'girly' and she likes to play with dress-up, makeup and Barbie.

Nathan just loves his Trains! Whenever he see ones, he just goes - "Choo...Choo...Chuga..Chuga...Choo...Choo!!!"

We spent some time alone with him this week, and we brought him to the toy store.

Nathan paced up and down the toy store, and stopped at the Thomas the Train section. He examined every item, that he could get his hands on!

Mummy just couldn't believe his love for trains ... When we left the toy store, she bought him his first "Thomas the Train" toy set.

Here's a video, that expresses Nathan's love for trains...

Thomas the Train from Edmund tay on Vimeo.

By the way, do remember to vote for me in the Blogger's Choice Award ... Thank you for your votes in 2008, now this new vote will be for 2009!

Technorati Tags: Thomas the Train,Children's toys

Christmas with the Leaders

We had our 1st party at our new place over the Christmas holidays, and it was a real blast!!!

We had great food, thanks to Edmund Tan - and what made it better was the chocolate cake. It's a real steal at $28, and much better than many of the cakes that are sold at the shops! If you want chocolate cake, his sister has got my recommendation!

We started the games at 9pm but, I did not know that so many of the leaders were fans of "The Little Nyonya" (A MediaCorp 8 Chinese Serial that runs on weekdays). In fact, I had to cast out the "Nyonya" addiction, by turning off the TV during the commercial break. :)

The games were fun, as our creativity was tested using Plasticine. However, I think the most challenging part of the game was not molding the Plasticine, but trying to decipher the instructions from our games master! (He is not very clear with his instructions)

We all had fun with the Christmas gift exchange, and I am sure many of us got the gifts that we wanted! The speeches that came with every gift was also very encouraging and funny as well (Zhifu's 6 pack present from Tian Yi was the funniest!)

Many Thanks to the leaders for making this party possible, as it was mainly due to their hard labour, that made the house so clean and homely!

Looking forward to our Year End Countdown together, where we will get to fellowship and close the year together!

Technorati Tags: Christmas party

Christmas Eve

It's Xmas Eve and I am looking forward to our services tomorrow.

The children are excited as well, as it means one day closer to opening their presents! (We are trying to teach them that, good things can wait! :))

Was looking at some of the old videos (about Christmas) and old articles, such as the one I posted on Santa Claus.

It's like a walk down memory lane...and the blog has certainly grown since the early days...

One of the Videos I featured last year was on the 12 days of Christmas...It's really funny...Click here to watch it! (It's the 2nd video on the post!)

The makers of the same video, made another parody called 'Single Bells' (Based on Jingle Bells, of course!). Merry Christmas!

Technorati Tags: Jingle Bells,Single bells,boymongoose

Candlelight Services in City Harvest Church

We had a great time at the Candlelight Services over the weekend!

It was really a wonderful sight seeing the whole of Singapore Expo Hall 8, lighted up by the candles we were holding.

The Best part of the service was when my dad responded to the altar call and accepted Jesus as his personal Lord and Savior.

PTL!

If you missed the Candlelight services over the weekend, you got to catch the Xmas drama on Christmas Eve and Day.

We will be having services in Jurong And in Expo.

Timings are:

24th Dec - 330pm, 530pm (Both in Jurong), 730pm (Expo)

25th Dec - 10am, 1230pm (Both in Expo), 330pm (Jurong)

It will definitely be fun and entertaining!

Hope to see u there!  

Technorati Tags: City Harvest Church,City Harvest

Straight No Chaser – A Cappella

Christmas is just round the corner, and everyone is getting into the holiday mood.

We had one of our Christmas CG meetings last night, and we hunted high and low for our Xmas Carols.

At that moment, I remembered about this 10 men accapella (Singing without instruments) group, which I stumbled upon last year. The group is called Straight No Chaser, and they were a Youtube Sensation in 2007, with over 1 million hits!

Here's a video of 1 of their songs:

Cool Right! It all started when they were going to have a class reunion, and they posted some old videos of themselves singing in college. People liked it so much, that it became a hit on Youtube!

This just shows the power of the Internet and mass media!

Straight No Chaser just launched a Christmas Album, and it seems to be the perfect CD for this Christmas. I went to the shops at the Suntec Area and I was disappointed, as they did not carry the CD at all.

I was thinking of ordering a copy from the States. Only thing is that, it will only arrive after Xmas! (Who will be in the mood to listen to carols after Xmas)

I made a call to HMV and they happened to have a few copies. That's great news, as it means that I can save on my postage and shipping! Yaah!

Looks like for the next few days, I will be getting into the Xmas mood even more...as I listen to my new CD :)

Technorati Tags: Christmas Carols,Straight no chaser,Christmas Services

Share this post :

A New Chapter

Check out the glorious mess, as we packed our life into boxes and prepared for the big move!

This was our first move after staying in our previous place for the last 7 years. It proved to be a very hectic week for the whole family.

Nathan felt lost with the whole mess... (btw, the entire lot of boxes behind him are ALL toys!!!)

We are so glad that the leaders and members made the whole move easy for all of us! Couldn't have done it without their help!

In fact, we managed to move all our belongings to the new place in two full days! Quite a miracle!

Today is Day 3 in our new home. The Good News is that the kids have been sleeping well, but we are still trying to find holes and corners to stuff all our boxes.

I just tried walking to the kitchen in the dark, as I wanted to make myself a hot drink. Not as easy as it used to be! :)

There is still a lot of things to get used to... just now, I took a stroll round the estate in the middle of the night while my wife strummed the guitar. I wanted to find out how loud the noise would be, when I played the guitar in the middle of the night! Sounds like I can't really play very loud!

But I am very thankful for a great environment, and looking forward to my new adventures in the East!

Ho Yeow Sun is Home!

This morning at 5.26 am, Sun Ho landed at terminal 3 in Changi Airport.

She has been America for 1.5 years, recording her English Album, and Sun is back for a short holiday.

All of us are really happy to see Sun and Dayan, as it has been some time since they came back to Singapore. It is going to be a time for us to catch up with her as well! :)

Many of the fans came early in the morning to receive her, and when she was spotted at the arrival hall, everyone was really excited!

Here are some pictures of the fans:

Before I go, here's a short video clip of the fans singing to her.

Sun with Fans from Edmund tay on Vimeo.

Technorati Tags: Sun Ho,Ho Yeow Sun

Happy Birthday Popo!

Last Sunday was Popo's (Grandma) Birthday!

We celebrated by bringing Popo out for dinner and we had the cake cutting ceremony in our home.

Coming from the restaurant, we reached home before Popo. In a bid to surprise her, we turned off the lights in preparation for her arrival (So as to give her the idea that she arrived before us)

Check out Nicole's expressions as they came into the house!

As usual, Nicole and Nathan loved blowing out the cake the most!

The Durian Cake was of course a hot favorite, as we got it from our private baker!

Happy Birthday POPO!!!

We love you!!!

Technorati Tags: Grandma's birthday

Our New Home

In a few days time, the whole family will be kicking off on a new Adventure! We will be moving from our current home to a rented apartment in the East.

Financially, we have many great things to testify about.

When we got married, we wanted to stay near my parents and make use of the government grants. So we bought a flat in the central/northern area of Singapore. As this was a resale unit in a matured estate, we did not expect to make much of a profit when we eventually moved.

After 7 years, we felt that it was time to move.

Coming home from work one day in June, I felt that it was a 'kairos' time to sell the house. I told my wife about it, and we immediately contacted our property agent.

She evaluated the house, we did a bit of spring cleaning and painting...and within 2 weeks the house was sold!

The Good News is that we managed to make a healthy profit from the sale of the house! PTL!

Within the same month, newspapers reported that resale prices were at it's highest (Which means we got the best possible price for the house) and in the month following, the American and European economies reported a new wave of financial troubles with the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

The sale of the house was truly conducted at the best possible time!

On Mon, we started cleaning the new apartment.

There was really so much to do, and we really want to thank our cleaning crew for coming down to help us.

With their help, we managed to clean the house in a day! If not, it would have probably taken us at least a week!

This is what one of our chief workers looked like!

Many Thanks to: Jared, Jerblinn, Jin Lian, Suting, Shiying, David, Joanne, Amber, Stephanie, Delphine, Sandy, Bernice, Joycelyn, Tianyi, Richard, Alfred and Yan Ming.

You guys made cleaning the house FUN! :)

Really appreciate all your help, considering many of you hardly clean the house at home. Love you guys!

We will be moving our furniture soon...will keep everyone updated!

Technorati Tags: cleaning house,shifting house

New Milestone - Madagascar 2

Just the other day, one of my close buddies (Stanley Quek) who works in the financial industry did something really nice. He got into contact with a community organization called CityCare, and he invited about 100 orphans for a private screening of Madagascar 2 at Golden Village.

It was a really nice gesture on his part, and we were very happy to be invited as well.

The movie was extra significant for the kids, as it was Nicole's and Nathan's 1st visit to the pictures.

We got the kids ready for the new adventure, by making them take an afternoon nap.

Well, that kinda backfired a little: when they reached the theatre, they were still in their 'sleepy mode!'

We took out the camera, and got them to take some pictures outside the theatre. Check out their nice smiles! :(

I will not be sending this photo to KODAK!

The good news is, when the movie started, the kids began to soak up the atmosphere and enjoy the movie.

Nicole likes the song - 'You got to move it, move it!' She kept on giggling to herself, as she saw the animals move to the Song.

Check out the Kids after the movie!

It was a whole new world!!!

They were laughing and hugging after the movie, and they even asked me to take pictures of them.

Proves that adults just can't live their lives based on emotions alone too: if we do, we become very irritable people!

(That was my revelation)

If these photos do not convince you that my little girl is happy. Check out the video of Nicole "Moving It".

Look out the back-up dancer (Nathan) trying to get into the act as well!!!

Madagascar Video from Edmund tay on Vimeo.

Before I go : I've got an announcement to make!!!

I will be removing my TAG BOARD / CBOX (The comment board you see on the right toolbar)

- Not because I don't value your feedback and comments. On the contrary, all Bloggers love feedback!

- It is because the tags don't stay with the posts, and they disappear after a while

- I would really appreciate it if you could leave me comments instead, by clicking the comments icon after every post!

- Leave your comments there and after I confirm they are not SPAM comments, they will appear at the bottom of the post.

- Will really appreciate your continual feedback, comments and VOTES!!! (Hee..Hee!)

Btw, do you know that the TAG BOARD is a very Asian thing? You don't find it on American Blogs!

Technorati Tags: Madagascar 2,milestone for kids

Singapore ZOO - Kidzworld

The Zoo was really fun!!!

Natalie has been asking for details, so here goes...

Entry to the Singapore Zoo is really expensive, so we bought the Family Pass at $180 (which by the way is not cheap as well) But a normal ticket for an adult costs $18 and $9 for a child (>3 years). That would mean $63 dollars for the whole family.

In typical Singapore Kiasu style, we calculated that we must go to the zoo at least 3 times this year (that is if we want to recoup our losses!)

Making the investment was not that difficult, as we heard that the new kid's park was really FUN, and we were definitely NOT DISAPPOINTED!

Called the Zoo Kidzworld - The Water Play for the Kids was really really FUN!!! If you have kids, you got to bring them there!

I went in my T-shirt and Bermudas, and I thought that I would just let the kids play.

But in order to get them involved, I had to go in - And I was thoroughly soaked.

It was a water theme area and the kids were encouraged to run through obstacles with water spraying everywhere.

Nicole, the one who was more conservative, started off with the 'tame' water fountains.

This is Nic - Enjoying the water spraying at her 'butt'. She was so tickled by it, that she kept on laughing :)

Nathan was braver, and he was really gung-ho about running through the water arches.

He was running so fast, that he was practically dragging me!!! :)

I was thinking...."Oh No..Oh No...I did not bring any dry clothes...the things that we daddies must do..."

The best part of the park was that while you were playing, there is a BIG TUB that is filling up on top of the whole structure.

After about 5 mins, the TUB would be filled, and if you were near the structure, the TUB will tilt...and you will be totally drenched by an avalanche of water!!!

I brought Nathan in and it was really COOL!!!

The kids really loved the park and Daddy had fun as well. If you are looking for something interesting and FUN to do this weekend...HEAD DOWN TO THE ZOO!!!

A BIG THUMBS UP TO THE PARK!

Hope you enjoy the photos!!!

Technorati Tags: Singapore Zoo,kidzworld,water theme park

Blogger's Choice Awards 2009

The competition has been going on for some time, and I think it is time for me to do my 'Sales pitch!'

The results of the 2008 Blogger's Choice Awards was announced in early Oct and I managed to get 2nd place.

Many thanks to all my readers and members for making it happen.

I have only been blogging for about a year, and I aim to strive even better this year. It really has been encouraging to hear from all my readers and I look forward to all your comments :)

The blog also got mentioned in the Bloggy Award Review. and it managed to get quite a good reviews :)

This is my way of engaging the Cultural Mandate, and influencing the popular medium known as the Blog-sphere.

This year, in the Blogger's Choice Awards, I will be running in a few categories, namely Parenting and Hottest Daddy.

1) All you need to vote is to go to The Blogger's Choice Awards (click here) or go to http://www.bloggerschoiceawards.com

2) Create an account by choosing “sign up” at the top - you do have to fill in everything, except “choose a picture”, and you do have to give a real email address. Don’t forget to uncheck the “send me email box” (if you don’t want spam).

3) On the top right hand side of the screen is a “search” box. Type in the word “Edunloaded”.

4) Click on the drop down menu called “Choose a Category to View this Blog” and you will see a list of all the different categories I have been nominated for.

5) It will load up a little profile of my website, and there will be a yellow “vote” button. Hit the vote button! Then you can just quickly click on the other 3 categories listed to the right as well, to vote for me in those categories.

or

Alternatively, you can Create an account and Click on the buttons on the left toolbar!

Thanks for Voting in advance!!!

Technorati Tags: Bloggers Choice Awards,Bloggy Awards,Blog awards

New Milestone - Family Outing with Nadine

Yesterday was a significant milestone for the whole family.

Usually when we go out, only Nicole and Nathan come along with us. But yesterday, our domestic helper was on leave, so all 3 kids went out with us.

That is the whole complete family!

Nadine was so well-behaved that bringing the 3 of them out was no problem at all!

Here's a picture of the whole family after our day-long adventure.

It was a day of great victory for the Tay family, and we felt like very successful parents. (I am sorry, give us a few moment to bask in our glory :) Haha)

Just to keep everyone updated, Nadine was also recently dedicated in church.

There were really a lot of babies dedicated, and we are so glad to be part of it.

Here are some photos:

 

Nadine is now 7.5 months old and she can sit up unsupported and has started crawling. She is a very easy baby to take care of, and she is a favourite in the church nursery!

Ok! Gotta go... we're going to the zoo today!

Technorati Tags: Parenting,baby dedication