Graduation Party

At his last day of school, Ace had a wonderful time in Horizon..

Apparently, after they arrived in school, they started their day long party! And for the whole day, other than breaking into their own classes to have seperate parties and eat their snacks, they also had a day long party where the music teacher, Mr Malanger, was the DJ

On top of that, Ace told me that his teachers also put up a skit for them... it is loosely based after British's Got Talent. His form teacher, Ms O'Donnell put on a mask and was playing the role of someone in the royal family... and the principle and teachers were all supposedly contestants... and they all gave themselves super silly names tat made Ace laugh really hard...

For example, the principal Mrs Sinclair called herself STINKY SINCLAIR... and then the deputy headmistress, Mrs Black is BLACKY BLACK and Mrs Prosser is PRISSY PROSSER.. Me and Max are so amazed that these teachers are that willing to laugh at themselves.. I mean I can see singaporean teachers doing the skit and being funny but i cannot imagine a principal calling herself stinky sinclair here in Singapore!:) I love it that they are so serious in their role as educators but really see these kids as their partners and friends...

Ace also laughed really hard at this movie that they showed them.. apparently, it was some video that the year 6 (the graduating class) made and it is called The Great Escape where they try to escape out of school so that they could go to Burj Al Arab.. pretty cute idea..

Here is a video of it I found in youtube:


Ace says he was laughing so hard he cannot remember some parts of it..

Ace said afterward, they also had a disco party.... And a few children from each class were chosen to go out and teach or lead the other people in the dances.. Ace was chosen to lead the boys and he said someone took photo of him.. alas, I din see any pics of the last few events uploaded on the school website...

While he enjoys singapore... i think Ace is also looking forward to start Grade 3 in Horizon in september:)

Previous Post: Kor Tak Mummy

Kor Tak Mummy

If you have ever been invited to my house.. You are very lucky:) Hahahaha.. It means I really consider you my friend to invite you into my territory....

I am not kidding.. because while I am a friendly person, I am also a very private person, I cannot tahan having outsiders in my house.. as a result of that, I never quite invite people to my house even though I enjoy visiting others in theirs.

When I had to help a friend maid-sit while the whole family went on holiday, I was super stressed.. even though it was just for 3 days.... and she was actually really nice as in when i woke at 9am, she already sweep the floor, mopped the floor, washed my clothes and dired the clothes and all folded and toilets all washed and she is a wonderful cook too! When my confinement nanny came to stay with me for a month, lagi stressed!:)

If people come to my house to party, I usually require ample notice so tat i can get ready physically (cleaning) and psychologically.. hahaha...One of the reasons is tat my house is perpetually messy.. but of cos, it is also becos I am dam kor tak:)

Since Ace started playing with the kids on the apt we live in, they have been trying to find NEW locations to play in.. and of cos one of the targetted places is my house (since the watchmen forbids them to play along the corridors already as they are TOO NOISY and VIOLENT and there are many pple coming into our building to view rooms to rent)!

I told Ace, however, that I do not allow other people to come play in our house. If he wants to invite his friends, he can.. provide he gives me at least one day notice.. no last minute can xxx come to my house to play sort of requests...

Whenever they asked if they could come in and play, I ask if they could play outside please..

Sometimes is cos my place is too messy and dirty already! Sometimes I am just not in the mood as I like enjoy my peace and quiet as I tinker on my netbook and write my blog, post my FB comments and reply emails...

But kids being kids, they still ALWAYS TRY to get it.. maybe the more I want to keep them out, the more they want to get in..

One of the kids, JH is always curious about my house... he keeps trying to come into our house and one day, he finally did come in and stay for the afternoon... and I think it was somewhat an ingenious ploy too...

The kids usually play in J's house (which has a big living room since it is a 2BD and 2 helpers to clean up after them) and after playing for about 30 mins, J's mum says they are going out. And just as Ace is about to come home, JH comes to join in the play group only to find that the playdate has ended... I said they should stop playing and all go home in that case and JH asked if he can come to our house because "I cannot go home now as everyone is sleeping at home..." HUH? What sort of excuse is that...

Okie, nevermind, I let him come in... but he is not going to get away this this! This mummy is not just kor tuk but also very KL one...

As I had some homework in mind for Ace, I asked JH to come in and told him that Ace will not be able to play with him. I told him he cannot watch tv as well as it is distracting for Ace. I told him he can play with Ace's toys as I taught Ace his homework and I gave him some water and food too...

As we were going out as well, I told him that we can only keep him till 5pm cos after that we will have to prepare to go out...

So I think he was quite stuck..He can't go home.. but neither is staying quite fun... Ace, was also happy to study with me and paid no attention to his friend! hahahaha..

He started getting restless and started opening the drawers anyhow... I told him sharply that those drawers belong to Ace and the toys belong to Ace.."If you want to play, you will have to ask Ace's permission first.." I told him.

I dun usually like to tell other people's children what to do.. cos i feel it is their parent's job and right... But I was already slightly annoyed cos I keep having the feeling that the excuse was some sort of lie just so he can come to my house and continue to play with Ace when I already told him NO.. It is like their way of "beating" the parents...

Ace being very generous said, "It's ok, you can play.." and continued to revise how to write 1-10 in chinese with me.

But playing alone isnt very much fun... and all of a sudden, when it turned 5pm, before I had a chance to say anything, JH came to me and said, "I have to go already... because my mother is looking for me to do homework.."

There was no sound of anyone opening the door or anyone calling out along the corridor.. unless he has telepathy with his mum (whom I know is working in office and the one at home is his grandma), there is no way he can know tat lor! I asked him how did he know since there is no sound and he just quickly hurried away. This one is even more DUH than the "I cannot go home cos everyone is sleeping.." thingy lor...

I told Ace tat I find JH a little fishy.. I suspect that JH lied to me and I explained why I think so. I told Ace I don't really like that. I told him that he is still allowed to play with JH but I dun like people who lie and so I would prefer if Ace did not invite this particular friend to our house to play again... I told him if they asked to come to our place to play, just say, "My Mummy prefers that I play outside the house as our house is too small for many games." which is also the case..

I do feel a little bad as I only suspected that JH is lying wor.. it is not as if it is confirm guarantee that he is lying.. so I was being judgemental and in telling Ace that, I seem to have passed on the judgement to my son.. but well, I am glad Ace was not bothered by what I said and still continue to enjoy playing with JH... And as I am human and not perfect, I forgive myself too...

Just too bad for JH he meets someone who is very kor tak and very KL.. maybe some other friendly might be please to welcome him with open arms.. hahaha..

Anyway, after that, if J says her house is not available, JH automatically says he feels like going home:) He never tried to come into our house after tat... hahahha.. and if he does and steps all over my floor with his slippers, Ace will push him out and say, "No, no.. don't come in and don't wear the slippers.." Cos I also told Ace I dun like his friends to come in and walk in slippers on my clean floor.

Once, JH said he wants to go home and when he went home, Ace asked if J can come to our place to play.. As our house was super messy tat day.. (thanks to Ace who threw his toys all over the place), they had very little space to play.. they in the end got tired of playing here and went back to J's house to play... and because they decided to play with Ace's remote control car and it was something new, they went to knock at J's door and soon they three of them were making lots of noise in J's house..

I wish the watchmen will loosen up though.. cos I prefer Ace to play along the corridor where I can keep an eye on him...

Anyway, no more playdates for them till september when we come back from our two mth holiday in Singapore:)

Previous Post: Ace's BFF

Ace's BFF

After always hearing about how who doesnt want to play with him and how he has NO FRIENDS, it is nice to hear for a change, for Ace to talk about having BFFs...

He has been playing regularly with the neighbours' children... we have two other Filipino families on our floor and it started with him playing with the girl who is in the same school as he is.. since about two weeks ago, the other boy on the same floor stopped having homework to do and started joining them for games in the afternoon as well...

Ace came home one day and declared tat him, J (the girl) and JH (the boy) are all BFFs... "But me and J are VERY VERY BFF cos we knew each other first and started playing with each other first.. JH is only little bit BFF cos he only just started playing with us..." he declared..

But hor, I think that their BFF is no commitment type.. cos they are only BFF when they are playing together or on the school bus.. according to Ace, when in school, they actually pretend not to know or like each other... Duh???!!! ("We jia jia that we dunno each other.." he said..)

When i repeated this conversation to J's helper, she laughed..

And I think it is interesting to listen to him talk about his play dates too...

Once, he came and complained to me how it was difficult sometimes to play with them because "Today, JH and J are both in a bad mood.. I am the only one who is happy today and so I have to try and try to make them both happy... and finally, they are happy... so tiring..."

And yet another day, he talked about J's little sister A and said that A is very mean. she kept calling JH a loser (incidentally, the interesting fact is that she learnt this word from JH) and because A is mean to his friend, Ace decided tat A is too naughty to deserve his birthday donut...

I had to explain that firstly, A probably did not understand what the word "loser" means.. since she probably learnt it from JH (when he played a game of "I am a loser" and giggled repeatedly during one of their so called games..) and also, if she shouldnt call someone that because it is rude, as a gor gor, he should teach her.. not get mad at her and dun give her a donut..

I asked him how would he have reacted if A is his sister.. he said he would explain that she is too young to know better...

So I told him that he should treat A like his sister..

And then, there is the matter of this golden rule.. what happens between A and JH is between them.. it has nothing to do with Ace.. so I told Ace that they have to settle whatever happens between them themselves.. "But I dun like people to be mean to my friends!" Ace said..

"Yes, but A is your friend too, right?" I asked him.. he nodded his head grudgingly... And thankfully, he stopped complaining about the issue betweeen JH and A..

I liked it that this group of children like to share their toys.. usually, the case is that J will provide ingredients to do science experiments.. and also her house as the location of the play date.. and sometimes food... Ace will supply his lego toys and engineering set and bey blades... (apparently, to the other two children, his toys are very interesting cos all J has are girl toys like dolls) and JH being a little more tech savy will supply ipad and kinect... They have so far been taking turns to play and never had a problem with snatching toys...There is such pleasure and joy I see in Ace's face when he gets to share his toys with them...

Only A, who is three years old cannot grasp the concept of taking turns yet and so always has to be distracted with something else when the older children start playing:)

The good thing about this play date thingy is tat it is an incentive for Ace to quickly finish his work. I told Ace that he has to complete certain tasks before he can go out and play for 30 min... I really think Ace is a very good boy... he might ask for an extra 5 min of play time but he never complains.. and if I asked him to track the time himself.. he will try to remember to come home on time (even though he is always like 5-10 min late).. If I ask him to do his work first.. he just does it instead of trying to fight or quarrel with me over it:)

On my side, it is great lah.. cos the work he usually takes an hour to complete can now be completed in half the time:) hahahahah

Win win situation for us both:)

PS: Ace started complaining he has no friends again and when I asked him a few more questions.. he was just upset because some people he did not know gave him a mean face when he walked past and never smiled at him! Wah lau eh! I told him if he wants pple to smile at him, he has to start smiling at them first lah! Just smile and say hello everyday and after a while, they will smile at you and talk to you.. because some people are slower to warm up to people... he accepts what I say but is still a little upset.. I asked him why is he wasting time to be upset that people he does not know never smile at him.. he says it is because he wants many many many friends and he wants the whole world to be his friends..

I told him that if there is one thing I know he can do super well.. it will be MAKING FRIENDS! He is an expert at doing that and an expert in bringing happiness and love to people.. so he will surely be well liked and make friends easily.. just look at how he charmed all MY friends!:) "You needn't worry about this at all!" I told him...

Previous Post: Sofa

Sofa

Because we spend so much time sitting on the sofa at night watching our Kdramas, we discovered that there is like a dent in the place where Max sits most often and it is sort of annoying him.. hahaha.. so he has been bugging me to go shopping for a new sofa with him since it is now the Summer Sale:)

And like any other activity we do in Dubai, we have to always go as a family.. hahaha.. We told Ace that he has to help choose the sofa too since he is part of the family and uses the sofa too.. and so Ace came up with some coding system to "rate" the sofas..

We are looking for something really soft and comfy... so if Ace sat down and finds it too hard, he will say "Ouch" and we will cross it from our list..

If Ace sits down and finds it really comfy, he will start to sing London Bridge Is Falling Down.. dun ask me how this came about.. Ace was the one who invented the system.. and so we went store to store and ouched tthis, london bridge that...

Then we saw this really comfy one seater and Ace gave it a very LOUD rendition of London Bridge.. however, he noticed it is a one seater and exclaimed... "Then where I sit???" (He thinks that we have to buy a three seater at least because there are three in the family and does not seem to like two seaters cos he says it is too squeezy if all three of us sit in it).

Max says he can lie down on him.. just like the above picture.. hahahah

Look very comfy hor?:P

Anyway, one of the stores that we went to had these really expensive sofas.. they are something like 10 thousand dirhams at least.. they all look really pretty and nice but each and every single one that we tried on, Ace always gave an :OUCH" rating..

Our conclusion is that very rich people just need to have beautiful sofas... cos they are too bz making money to sit on the sofas.. only lazy pple like us.. always in front of the tv and not bz making money will want cheap and soft sofas:) hahahahaha

I still can remember one of my mentors saying that you dun get rich sitting in front of the TV.. so I guess if you want to get rich.. buy a super uncomfy sofa and a super laoya pok tv.. better still, dun have these things at home.. then you will always be outside and doing something productive to make more money:) hahahha

Anyway, we havent decided which one to buy.. there is a really nice full leather one we saw that is on 43% discount but we also quite like those tat you can press a button and you can lie almost all the way down type.. Problem is.. we dun want to spend too much cos if we did.. I dunno where we can put these sofas when we do get home from Dubai for good cos we dun even have a house in Singapore now...

Previous Post: Ace's Art Works

Ace's Art Works

Since it is the end of the school year, they had to take down all the decorations in the classroom and so Ace got his artworks back..I don't know how I am going to store all of then and so i think the easiest way is to store them HERE on the blog...

This is just a flower tat he made gluing and cutting two pieces of paper together...

I am very surprised that at 7 years old, their art classes actually exposes them to different styles of art.. quite different from the art and craft lessons I remembered having when I was 7.. think then.. we were just asked to draw and colour and because I was in a girls school, we were doing more of sewing cross stitches and stuff like that....

Ace actually got a chance to study diff styles of art.. for example, pointillism...

It is using dots to make art...

That is Ace hard at work making his pointillism art..

The one on top is him using pointilissm to create art using a computer software:)

The one below is one of his fav super heroes-- Captain Underpants!

This is an alien mask.. gosh, I think he must have used up the whole silver pen!

This is a repeat of what I showed in the previous post.. his SPY job sheet..

Erm.. he wrote ARABIC at the pack of this piece of work and I asked him what it is supposed to be.. why is this linked to arabic and he said that he few this druing their last arabic lesson... quite nice.. :)

Oops.. this one is upside down.. wahahaha.. anyway, it is art and sciece all into one as they made the butterflies and had to cut out the different parts of the butterfly and paste it at the relevant places.. how clever!

This one Ace said is an Animation that he made using some soft of computer software.. they they training them to become graphic designers??:P

And so the rocket is getting ready to take off and starts counting down... 5, 4, 3..

2, 1, and then the rocket starts to burst into flames...

And slowly, he becomes smaller and smaller as it flies off:)

Quite cool hor?:P

This is picture of a garden.. Ace says they ran out of blue paint and so he says he used yellow for the clouds.. hahahaha

This one is quite interesting to me... First they are exposed to famous artist MONET.. and they learn how to use computer to recreate this famous painting..

This is how Monet's painting- Water Lilies, look like...

This is how Ace thinks it looks like!:) hahahahah

Then they were to recreate one of Monet's painting that they like and Ace chose THIS ONE....

Somehow it came out like tat!:) hahahahahahahah.. Ace said he forgot to put the bridge... I am so curious as to what Ace was thinking when he was doing this!:) hahah

This is a name poem that Ace did based on his name.. i think this is what he thinks of himself.. see all the stars? I think he is trying to say he is super good.. super expert...

This one is just some design.. i dunno wat it means and Ace says it is just a pattern..

This one is the very first painting he did on his first day of school in Horizon School:) Time does fly, doesn't it?:P

Previous Post: Happy 7th Birthday, Ace!

Happy 7th Birthday, Ace!

As Ace's birthday falls on a Monday, we decided to celebrate a little earlier during the weekend instead... Initially I was contemplating doing a party for him and inviting our friends but Max thought it might be
better to just celebrate amongst ourselves and so we did...

Over the weekend, we brought Ace to this new restaurant we have never been to before. It is called Cafe Ceramique and it provides food as well as materials for you to paint your own ceramics:)

First you got to pick the ceramic you want to paint and then out of all the colours they have, you have got to choose like 5 colours and they will provide you with everything... and then you paint!:)

They have quite a huge selection of stuff for you to paint.. they have piggy banks, cups, plates, saucers, decorations etc...

Max says he wants to paint this little angel cos she looks like me.. BUT I already knew wat my son will want to paint and think we have more than enough on our hands if we painted just that.. so I told him we can paint another day or another time:)

Before we started painting.. we decide to order food first!:) Tat's Ace saying that he wants onion rings... whatever birthday boy wants, birthday boy gets:) hehe:)

Egg and mushroom with cheese omelette with onion rings:)

Birthday boy requested for a Veggie Bagel Burger only to inform us that he doesnt like most of teh veg inside.. hai..And dun say earlier.. tell me only after I almost finished everything on my plate and cant even exchange with him...

Max ordered a lasagne...

Thank god for the onion rings with mayo and sweet chili sauce:)

Ace reading all the instructions first before getting started...

He decided that he wants to paint this piggy bank in the shape of a truck of some sort.. and he will first draw out the designs he has in mind on the white surface..

Then he pics and chooses his colour and wets the car first before he starts painting!:)

Max was feeling sort of bored just staring at what Ace is doing..

Then he decided to join in..

After he finished painting one wheel.. my son already xian liao lor... so we, the two parents got to continue SLOGGING away..

This is the end result... I painted a number 7 on it since it was Ace's 7th birthday...

Ace says he wants to draw hearts and LOVE and a smiley face on it.. I drew it using a pencil as the paint brushes were too thick for this... I am not quite sure if we will be able to see it once it is dried and baked and glossed over...

Adding the finishing touches:)

Anyway, we will get the car one week later..

On Monday, Ace brought some donuts to school as part of his birthday celebration.. I asked him what did he want to eat for his birthday dinner and he said he wanted to eat GONG GONG MIAN... Din know what he was referring to and after asking a few more questions, I realized he meant gan lao mian... so I made tat for him  for dinner lor...

As for me and Max, we had CURRY noodles:) YUMS!

Since we had bought donuts, I just asked Max to buy slightly more so tat we can use them as birthday cake lah...:)

That is Max trying to make Ace's hair look nice as it was messy previously...

Ace waiting for us to sing Happy Birthday for him...

Ace waving along to the music as we sang Happy Birthday...

Ace singing along...

That is him making a birthday wish.. I asked him later what is his birthday wish and his wish.. is to get LOTS of presents.. and some dunno wat Twisted Temple Bey Blade.. hahaha... little wonder lah.. cos our present to him is a one week holiday camp in Singapore.. so he did not get any extra presents from us.. but we figured tat when we go back to Singapore, there will be alot of pple who will want to celebrate BELATED birthday  with him and give him presents anyway... so, no issue:)

Time to blow the candles...

Then time to eat the "cake"

And then, it was time to brush teeth, pee, read storybook and shui jiao...

I was thinking that I din seem to have done much for his birthday but this week is a busy week as I am preparing to pack and clean before I leave dubai for two mths.. I am glad he doesnt mind just having a simple celebration and never once clamoured to have birthday parties like his peers...  and also, after all his week long birthday extravaganza  for the past two years, I was afraid he might be expecting more of the same this year...

An eg of his birthday extravaganza when he turned 5......
5th birthday celebration part 1 with Karen and ZG
5th birthday celebration part 2 with Yeye, Nainai and Shushu,
5th birthday celebration part 3 with my friends,
5th birthday celebration part 4 at Kinderland with his classmates

Nevertheless, I know tat Gong Gong and Popo and Yeye and Nai Nai are all going to hold two seperate "parties" for him with cake and jelly and even durian!:) And his godmas already starting to book appt to meet up to celebrate later... I guess he wouldnt feel short changed at all once he got back to Singapore....

Besides, it is the first time in two years tat he got to celebrate his birthday with his dad.. which much have been the biggest present of all:)

PS:  Collected the end product liao.. this is how it looks like;)

Previous Post: Helping Parents Concert