Family Fun Vacation

We are flying off to Hong Kong today and we are so excited!

Mummy is a bit worried as it is the first trip off, and she is worried whether if they can sit through the 3.5 hour flight.

She is worried if she has brought enough milk…enough diapers…enough clothes!

Btw, Nathan needs 5 diapers a day (Daddy thought 2 diapers is enough – 1 in the morning, and 1 in the night). That is about 1 dollar/day for diapers.

Sigh…Going on a trip used to be so easy…I just used to chuck everything into the bag, and I was off!

In fact, the way I pack my bags – makes me feel so garung!!! Like Rambo!!! Ready to face the new world and the challenges ahead!

Things have changed!!!

Today, I had to make sure that all of mummy’s worries are dealt with. Even have to pack seedless grapes, bananas and toys for the flight over to Hong Kong  (We are not even talking about Hong Kong yet…)

I even packed Walkie Talkies! This is my 1st time doing this…Am I getting old…or am I just getting more resourceful! Please enlighten me?!?

One thing I am sure of, is that the children will enjoy the trip.

Technorati Tags: Family holiday to Hong Kong,Packing for a vacation,Family prepartion for trip,Hong Kong

Great Singapore Sale

I have to admit it…I think I am a shopaholic!

When I saw the advertisement in the newspaper…I quickly called my wife!

It says limit 2 per customer! I told myself that I must get everyone down to the shop so that I can BUY MORE!

What was it?

No…it’s not Louis Vuitoon…

It’s not Prada….

But it’s milk powder!

I could not resist it.

NTUC was having a promotion on Friso 4 milk powder.

This milk powder for kids, 3 years and above, would normally cost $60 dollars.

Now… they are letting it go at $29.95. 1 can of 400g milk at $5!

That is a whopping 50% discount

How many cans should I buy?

Hee…hee…What a wonderful mountain of milk cans! (You can read about previous promotions here!)

For the uneducated – U may think that he would probably take a year to finish so much milk!

Well, I think 4 year old Nicole can probably finish all the milk in 3 months!

That’s how expensive it is to have children….and especially children who love to drink milk!

If your wife is still breast feeding – Start Praising the Lord!

Btw, you can still buy the milk powder at NTUC Fairprice. It is while stocks last!

Technorati Tags: baby milk powder,baby powder milk,ntuc fairprice,cheap baby powder

Child Development Milestones

Nicole has just crossed a milestone! :)

Milestones are important in the children’s lives, and recently our oldest girl just crossed one. The most recent Milestone was crossed by 1 year old Nadine.

Singapore is filled with food courts, and our 4 year old suddenly had the courage to order food by herself.

It’s a little complicated over here in Asia, as most of the hawkers speak a local dialect or would rather converse in Mandarin.

On that fateful day, we armed Nicole with $5 and she willingly went up to the Hawker to order her own food! (We were so proud of her! Even Grandpa who was there, was smiling in approval!)

Well, she ordered “economic rice” (rice with dishes), and this is what she ordered:

Mum is extremely happy with the order. She says it is all “greens”, and very healthy!

Daddy did not even realize this revelation, until she pointed it out!

 

Parenting Tip – Do record your children’s milestones, as they make great reading, and also subtle reminders about how far they have gone!

Technorati Tags: early child development milestones,milestones in child development,childhood devlelopment

Baking cakes & cookies with the kids

We are constantly looking for new things to do with the kids, and with the success of the last bake out with the kids, we decided to something along those lines again.

The picture is really enticing – and the moment I picked it off the shelves at the supermarket, Nicole was super-duper excited! She was jumping up and down the trolley!

Upon reaching home, the kids were more than ready to bake their Oreo Cake.

Advice for parents

The kids actually love getting involved in the whole process of getting the cake done.

Here are some pictures of the kids getting the cake done:

Little Nadine was fighting to get involved as well. U can see her peeping from the the bottom of the table top! :)

At the end of the day, making the cake was more fun than eating it…as we did not even manage to finish eating the cake.

But mummy and the kids certainly had fun in the kitchen!

Technorati Tags: Advice for Parenting,Cake Baking,Children in the kitchen,Cooking with the Kids,Baking with the Kids

Restore Deleted Photos

Just recently I accidentally deleted some of my photos in my hard disk.

What happens if the photos cannot be found in the recycle bin?

Can you still retrieve those precious baby photos? Can you restore deleted Photos?

Before you panic, there is good news for all you parents out there!

Pictures speak a thousand words, and I can’t imagine losing photos like these!

Please don’t fret, as anything is possible in this computer world.

Well, I went to download.com and I found this program called Pandora Recovery

This program is highly rated by the CNET editors as well as users alike (Gets a near 5 star rating)

Best of all, this program is TOTALLY FREE!

It can not only retrieve photos from your hard disk, but also from your SD/CF cards as well. Therefore, even if you overwrite your photos in your SD card, you can still retrieve them!

Just how powerful is this program?

Currently, I use a company notebook. When I took over the notebook a year ago, I deleted away the previous users photos.

Guess what?

After using the program, I saw the previous user’s photos and any photos before that as well.

What’s more – you don’t need to be a computer genius to use this program. The interface is simple and easy to use.

So no need to key in any codes, or interface with any funny and weird symbols :)

It is no wonder that the computer geeks can retrieve anything from your notebook.

Remember the series “Prison Break”, the FBI was still able to retrieve information from Scofield’s Hard Disk, despite the fact that he had thrown it in the river!

Well, the good side is that – don’t despair!

We may make mistakes, but the photos are still retrievable.

Technorati Tags: Restore deleted photos,Retrieve photos from SD card,Photo Recover,Retrieve Lost data

Driving Trip: Visit Malacca

The kids were excited! We were going as a family on our 1st road trip to Malacca.

We were all packed into our little Toyota Wish and were ready for the drive up to Malaysia. Setting off at about 11am, and we reach Malacca at 130pm.

Upon reaching Malacca, we were very hungry, and the kids were excited about trying out the Chicken Rice Balls that are served in Malacca.

Rice in Singapore and in most parts of Asia is just served in a bowl practically.

However, Malacca is filled with shops that serve Chicken Rice Balls, instead of the normal manner. You can see the difference in the rice served by checking out my earlier post on a recommended chicken rice stall in Singapore.

The thing that I like about this restaurant is that it is air-conditioned and behind the Hotel Renaissance Melaka (This was a hotel that I stayed in previously). This made it easy for me to find my way there.

 

We ordered roasted chicken and steamed chicken, just to see which was better.

However, we were disappointed with the chicken, as it was rather “boney” and “dry”.

The rice balls were a hit with Nathan, as he has been a bit fussy with his food lately. He had only been eating fish balls at meal time…and therefore when he saw the rice balls, he instantly took a liking for them.

Daddy’s thoughts about the food?

I think the rice balls are a bit over rated! There were quite dry, and u had to break them up to add with the rice. Normal chicken rice seems to be more fragrant.

Malacca seems to be filled with these chicken rice stalls at the moment, and the original hawker who sells the rice balls, still sells them in a dingy little coffee shop near Jonker Street.

Parenting Advice:

I might not bring the kids to the original stall, as the coffee shop is a bit cramp, especially when i have 3 kids and a stroller to worry about. 

However, Chicken Rice Balls are a must-try when you go to Malacca. It’s just like when you go to New York, U have got to go up the Empire State building, regardless of what u hear about it!

Technorati Tags: Driving Trip,Fun activities with the family,Chicken Rice Balls,Visit Malacca,Visit Malaysia,Hotel Renaissance Melaka

Parenting: Science at home!

Singapore is such a urban society, that we hardly get to see much of mother nature around us.

As we need to expose our kids to as many things as possible, it may be difficult to find nature in the surroundings around us. Parents therefore have to have that extra dose of resourcefulness when it comes to Science at home!

For children’s day this year, each child was given a Pet Caterpillar, so that they can discover natural science at home.

It seems that Entrepreneurs have found a “gold mine” by supplying Nicole’s preschool with caterpillars!

I am sure that a lot of other parents have brought these natural science kits directly from them as well :)

The novelty of the whole pet, is that it comes in a nice tupperware container, and it has feeding instruction for the parents as well.

A whole bushel of leaves is also given, so that parents will have enough food to feed the caterpillar.

Currently, the caterpillar has went into it’s cocoon, and we are awaiting to see it’s transformation into a beautiful butterfly!

Actually Daddy and Mummy are also quite exciting about seeing the whole process – as we have only read about it in textbooks and seen pictures of the development.

Who says that can’t learn anything when u parent your children?!?

Technorati Tags: Parenting,Science at home,Caterpillars into Butterflies

Christian Retreat in Malaysia

City Harvest’s ETzone gathered for it’s Inaugural Adult Christian Retreat at the Mercure Hotel in JB last week.

We left after attending the Saturday 330pm service at City Harvest Church, and from there, we made our way across the causeway via the 2nd link.

As many of us are 1st generation Christians, this was going to be our 1st Christian Retreat! We were excited and yet ready to meet God and make many new friends.

To facilitate the event, we played a lot of team building games, so that we can get to know each other better.

Team building games would not be complete if we did not go outdoors…and we had Tele-matches and Water Bombs in the outdoor field as well.

  

And what Christian Retreat would be complete, unless there is the preaching of God’s word and ministry time as well. God showed up for us, and this made the Christian Retreat very memorable.

 

We had a tremendous time, and all of us enjoyed the retreat.

We made many new friends and many of us met God!

As we packed our bags, many of us were already talking about the next retreat in 2010.

City Harvest Church - ETzone Adults from Edmund tay on Vimeo.

Check out the photo montage I made of the event as well! Hope you guys like it! (Do wait a while for the video to load, as Vimeo is getting slow…)

Parenting Advice:

What made the trip enjoyable for the parents was that we arranged for help to look after the kids. Without them around, we would not have the liberty to participate in the events. A big thumbs up to the Children’s Church helpers!

Technorati Tags: Christian Retreat,City Harvest Church,ETzone,Edmund Tay,Adult Retreat,Christian Ministry,Retreat in Malaysia,Parenting Advice