CNY 2015 – Year of Sheep

Woah! My last blog entry was actually in April… Since the June school holidays have just begun,  I finally found the energy and time to do some updates here. Obviously I’m going to have quite a bit of backlog posts coming up.

As I was going through my account, I realised I still had my Chinese New Year 2015 draft pending. Like seriously, Chinese New Year had already past for 4 months you know! But I feel that this significant occasion certainly deserved to be remembered. To me, it is not exactly about the goodies, yusheng, steamboats, liondance, the new clothes and redpackets but more of a yearly affair where everyone makes the effort and time for each other. You get to see those people who you hardly see in a year time. So how can I not love celebrating such a happy occasion in Singapore. Hence CNY 2015 would be my first post for the start. 🙂

***February 2015****

This CNY had been quite a crazy tiring one, given that the first day of CNY was on a Thursday, we had the luxury of having four continuous days of visiting all over the island. Although I love having the four continuous days to visit our friends and relatives, it was really tiring.

In fact, Wednesday seemed like the start of CNY already. As usual, reunion dinner was at my in laws’ place. Now that we have kids, having the reunion dinner at home would be more ideal for us. She had pre-ordered a set deal from Soup Restaurant and we thought food was mediocre only. Anyways it’s our custom for married woman to be having reunion dinner with the husband’s family. Though I miss having my mom’s steamboat, she can prepare anytime if we want. So it’s seriously not of an issue.

 

As usual, CNY Day 1 was spent at both the parents’ house where all the relatives gathered around. The first half of the day was at the in laws’ place before we popped over to my parents’ for dinner. The good thing is that they are both living few blocks apart which really made travelling so convenient. So the entire day was all about poker cards, foods, foods and more foods… Oh ya my mom cooked a feast! Her cooked from scratch, Deluxe Treasure Pot (aka Buddha jumps over the wall) was marvellous! We were totally amazed at her superb cooking skills. It was a pity that we didn’t take a picture of our delectable dinner. My father was telling us how early my mom woke up just to prepare the dinner all by herself. Yep we definitely appreciated her efforts and hard work but I guessed we appreciated her yummy food more. heehee 😉 With that, CNY day 1 ended nearly 12 midnight!

 

The next three days and the following weekend, we went around Singapore, from the west to the east, visiting our relatives and friends. It’s always such a joy seeing them during CNY. We even attended baby Tyler’s mini first birthday party. I’m sure double Ds were both elated throughout the festive period. I could see that they were totally immersed in the festive mood. Now, I’m already looking forward to the next CNY with new little ones coming. 🙂

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Thanksgiving Day

***28th November 13***

We had the privilege to celebrate this Thanksgiving day together with the Dowell family along with Caleb’s. It was absolutely wonderful having to experience Thanksgiving the way a typical American family does. Awesome! 🙂

A big Thank You to Caleb’s parents in law, Alan and Krystal for graciously inviting us over to spend this special occasion with their family. We definitely had a delightful dinner. The turkey, mashed potato and pie were certainly yummy! We sat around the long extended table, passing down food, solving some Thanksgiving riddles( alright Papa yap and I were purely listening.. Haha) and lastly saying our Thanks. Yes Papa Yap and I did express our gratitude too! We thought it is meaningful to say our thanks during such occasion. Anyway sorry folks, please do not expect any pictures over dinner. I don’t think it is nice to be doing the ‘I shoot I eat’ action over such dinner. So just use your imagination. heehee 😉

Once again, thank you the Dowells for the warm hospitality and being such friendly hosts! We truly had an enjoyable day. Last but not least, thank you to Caleb and Hannah as well, for the thoughtful initiative. It was surely a great Thanksgiving day! 🙂

🙂

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On turning 4

***26th November 13***

Darian is 4! 😉

On this special day, we had a simple celebration; a dine out at Chick-Fil-A (where they have a little playground for the young kids) followed by a cake cutting session at home. We were glad to see that Darian was totally surprised and happy over dinner and cake. Simple celebration yet he was gleaming with joy. I bet he had sweet dreams that night too. Heehee 🙂

Our dinner and we thought the burgers were quite tasty.

My little dashing son!

On the slide

Finally giving me a pose!

Act cute! Heehee 😉

And Baby Dyann joined in the fun.

Dearest Darian,

It’s like a blink of eyes and you are already 4! Oh where did the time go? It’s simply amazing to watch you transform from a little adorable baby to a dashing little boy! You definitely have grown a lot. You have been a loving son and brother to Papa, mama and meimei. We all love you so much! ❤

Thank you for being such an awesome big brother to Baby Dyann. Other than the times when you two brawl over toys and iPad, we can see how much you love meimei. I love seeing how you two greet each other with hugs and kisses in the morning. It sure warms my heart. It is great that you know how to share mama’s love with meimei. Whenever meimei gets upset seeing me hugging you, you will ask her to join in the hug together. Awww… absolutely wonderful brother you are! Whenever meimei walks too slow out of the elevator, you will get worried and run back in while urging her to walk faster. It’s such simple acts that show how much you care, love and protect her.

I know you love me as much as I love you. You care so much for me that you told me, you don’t want another sibling because you don’t want the doctor to operate on me and worry that I will bleed. Just tell me how can I ever stop loving you?

Yes, papa and mama are strict in your upbringing mainly because it is our duty to educate and teach you to be a better person. Son, you have to understand that the world doesn’t revolve around you and there are certainly ups and downs in life. This is part and parcel of life and that we want you to have a strong and determine personality to overcome whatever obstacles you may face in life. Having said so, your love for us is still as strong as before. You enjoy papa’s companion and mama’s attention and is always yearning for more. ❤

Papa and mama want you to know that, every single day since you were born, you’ve added something so amazing to our world that we can’t even imagine life without you in it. Happy 4th Birthday dear son! Stay happy, healthy and safe always. We love you to bits! Muacks! ❤❤❤

Happy birthday Darian!

Haha! 😉

We love you so much! ❤

He loves me so much! ❤

Kissing papa. 😉

Aww… meimei giving gege a birthday kiss!

Making a wish and his wish was “I love mama!” Really melt my heart boy! 🙂

Let’s cut the cake.

First slice to be given to Papa.

Finally his turn to eat the cake. 🙂

Last but not least, his birthday presents from us! 🙂

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Baby shower

***5th October***

Unlike Singapore, baby showers here are typically celebrated before the birth of the baby and is usually hosted by either their relatives or friends. Traditionally it was a all girls party, to welcome the arrival of the baby and at the same time for mommies and mom-to-be to share birth stories and parenting experiences. Over the years, it has been increasingly common for the guys to attend the event as well.

It’s our privilege to attend Papa Yap’s classmate, Steve, first newborn’s baby shower. Our first western baby shower experience was definitely an eye opener. Awesome! It was totally different from ours. Other than food, they also had games and the unwrap the gifts session. We had a fabulous time at the party. To add on, the hosts were really nice and friendly. Shall let the photos do the talking instead! Once again congratulations to Steve and Tina on their little bundle of joy! 🙂

It’s a boy!

Yummy and soft cake!

Baby Dyann exploring the place! Heehee 😉

This is soo cute. The first game: Guess how big is the tummy of the mommy-to-be. And guess what… Papa Yap got the closest estimation and won himself a prize. I wondered if that was pure luck or was he really that good with his estimation! Heehee 😉

The second game: Placing an inflated balloon underneath your top and try to untie the shoe laces around your ankle . Papa Yap was telling me how difficult it was. See it is definitely not easy being pregnant right? 😉

Third game: Drinking up the beer in the milk bottle. This was really one tough game. Most of the guys including Papa Yap only managed to suck a little of it.

The fourth game was to search for as many safety pins in a big bowl of rice. I didn’t take any picture of it as I was one of the participants.  Anyway I won that game. Yay! 😉

The last game: Making a baby sculpture. We attempted to mould a baby using the playdough in  5 minutes. Interesting!

The pink ‘playdough baby’ was done by me and it totally looked like an alien. Haha…

The mommy-to-be getting ready to unwrap all the gifts.

So we came home with two game prizes and two goodies bags! 🙂

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