Weekend at Sentosa

We've been wanting to bring the kids to the beach for some time now and we finally got a chance to do that over the weekend. Lexi's first beach trip was actually to Bali but that was a dud since the beach we went to wasn't one of the main beaches and it was quite dirty. We wanted to make it up to her. It would also be my younger daughter Andi's first beach trip, so we wanted to do it right this time as well.

Woke up at 9am and got everyone ready, or rather, everyone was ready by the time I woke up at 9am. In fact, my daughter Lexi was so excited she slept in the clothes she was going to go out in.

Our first stop was Palawan Beach. We haven't really gone swimming there so it was our first time too. But I remember the water didn't look nice to swim in before. It's quite clean now. The weather was quite nice, not too cool and not too hot, and it wasn't too crowded either.

 Andi feels the sand for the first time

Andi spent 5 minutes in the water before she decided 

she had had enough and burst out crying  

 Brand new beach accessories for the bargain price of SGD4!

Pail, rake, shovel, watering can and sand castle molds

 Lexi mixing sand and water

Lexi getting water from the beach 

Father and daughter going back and forth for more water 

 Lexi at the beach tram stop

After about an hour, we decided to move onto our next destination which is the Port of Lost Wonder, touted as the first kids' beach club in Sentosa. We took the tram there and paid SGD15 for Lexi's entrance, everyone else, us adults, got in free. The place though was quite packed with tons of kids running around. The main attraction was this pirate ship with lots of water fountains and cannons and water slides. At first I just let Lexi go inside the water play area with her Dada since the rules said that only 1 adult allowed per 1 child, but later on I saw some other parents with their kids so I just stayed with them. Such a strange rule though, I understand there may be concerns with overcrowding but how can you expect parents to enjoy the attractions if they can't enjoy them as a family. In any case, our time there seemed so short. We didn't even have time to go to the bubble machine area. Lexi didn't even feel hungry come lunchtime. We had to drag her away from the water play area to have a quick pizza lunch before heading on home. All in all it was quite a fun trip and we can't wait to go back again.

Make Your Own Jewelry

I was reading about bead toys in one of the blogs I was following and it made me interested to buy some for my daughter.

I found this really nice bead toy above which you can use to make jewelry. The B.Pop-Arty has 500 beads of different sizes, forms and colors. The beads can be connected to each other and can form different jewelry - necklaces, rings, bracelets, you name it. It's funky-looking enough that it can suit both kids and mommies alike.

I couldn't find it in Singapore so I ordered it from Amazon in the US. When it arrived, I realized it might be a bit difficult to handle for my 2.5 year old daughter so I set it aside until she was ready to play with it.

When we did bring it out, she didn't immediately know what to do with it and she wouldn't let me demonstrate. So instead of a jewelry-making kit, it became a sorting toy at first. She would empty the contents and then carefully put back the beads in the canister. After some time, she figured out other uses for it - like she would lay out all the beads and would step on them, in the same way a firewalker would step on hot coals. Another time, she started throwing the beads up in the air and then would watch as they fell to the ground. Only recently did she really start to make her own jewelry. Here's Lexi with her jewelry creations. Notice she's got a tribal thing going on...

   

First Day of School

We found a lovely Montessori right near our apartment and enrolled Lexi for Term 3 which started today. We've been so excited waiting for school to start. Every night she would pass by the school on her after-dinner walks with Dada and she would point the school door out to him and try to peer inside. We tried to get her to sleep early last night but it was a bit difficult and she took awhile to get to sleep. In any case, the whole household woke up early and we trudged off to school together, even her baby sister Adi came along to see her off. The principal was at the door welcoming the students back and it was such a comforting feeling to see the principal there, she's so warm and friendly. She invited us parents inside and told us we could stay with Lexi for awhile, but we thought it might be better to let Lexi acclimatize to school on her own, so we left after a couple of minutes. Here are photos of Lexi on her first day.

 

ELC Going, Going, Gone!

I had an inkling that the ELC sale would be a big one and that I should have gone on the first day. Turns out I was right. When I received my mailer via yahoo, the sender was Forum The Shopping Mall, so I thought it was only limited to that branch. As it happens, the sale was occurring in all ELC branches - including the ones at Paragon and United Square. In any case, by the time I went to the Forum branch, it was pretty slim pickings. I browsed and thought - where are all the stuff? I usually window shop at ELC in Paragon and there were usually tons of things I wanted to buy but the prices were so expensive. At ELC Forum, most of the stuff I wanted was gone. There were a few science and discovery kits and the arts and crafts stuff that I managed to get but I wondered whether I would have gotten a better selection at the other branches. However, when I overheard the cashier talking to some customers about how stocks were getting sold out and they had to replenish more than once, I thought darn, no use going to the other branches then. In any case, I'm still quite happy with my ELC loot. Here's some of the stuff I got....

Note all sticker prices are before discount so most of the items I got were SGD11 each. Quite a good deal. Anyway, the last day of the sale happens tomorrow. There's still some build-it kits, toy cars, pretend play sets and games. There's even face paint sets priced to clear- originally at 19.90 now going for 2.00!

Everything's 50% off and additional 5% off for DBS cardholders.

ELC Sale

Changi City Point Playground

Another one of Singapore's wonderful wet playgrounds, this one's at Changi City Point at Level 2 beside Koufu Food Court. This one's a bit bigger than the Tampines wet playground and had the usual water features such as a wading area, some water fountains, a water jet area that you can run through and it would spray mist from all sides and water guns for the older kids.

Lexi had a great time jumping up and down, walking around and just submerging herself in the wading pool. 

She also tried to make friends, that's her in one of the pictures below, offering up some dried leaves as a nice-to-meet-you gesture to her new playground friend.

And this is Lexi running back and forth through the water jets.

Another great place to go if you have young kids. Makes me wish there were wet playgrounds near central Singapore but hey, it's still just a bus + train ride away so definitely worth another visit.

I Got Smoked By A Windows Phone

Well actually it wasn't me. It was my husband who got smoked. But boy, this was a great viral campaign and an interesting challenge at that. We almost had that 100 SGD but unfortunately my husband was unfamiliar with my Iphone and couldn't find the Post button (i.e. the challenge was to post an update on Facebook). Anyway, see what the buzz is about. Oh, and my husband is in there somewhere in the montage.