Universal Studios Singapore

It was a playdate organised ages ago; a day of fun for the kids - and it turned out pretty good! I had fun! And I'm sure the kids did too!

The only bummer was that the husband had to go to work last-minute so he didn't spend the day with us. Here's a pictorial capture of our day at USS!

Little friends with big mascots. We were quite fortunate that we bumped into a few along the way as we were strolling around the park. Awesome!

Awwww, look at that!

Trying-to-be-brave Kate with her 3D glasses before the Transformer ride. This ride scared her a little and I got a headache from it because I had to protect her head (from bumping into the hard seat) and she had her hands over her eyes - duo-purpose; to keep her glasses from falling and to cover her eyes throughout at the scary bits. She just qualified the height limit and I think she didn't enjoy the fighting much at all.

Kate's favourite ride of the day - Elmo in space, spaghetti and meatballs!

That's us on the rides. The pic on the top right is Treasure Hunters, one of our worst rides of the day. The Q was too long, the ride too short and did not justify our time queueing for it! 

Brave little Jake. He's so little but he's so game for all the rides he is allowed to go on! That's him sitting alone on the carousel. 

Little Lloyd with Kate. This is them anticipating the Shrek show - it's pretty enjoyable! Jake sat in his own seat too and I think this is quite a good show for everyone, young and old.

At Jurassic Park, we bumped into the keeper with his baby dinosaur. Kate's face cracks me up! And for the record, she chose that gift by herself (no surprises!)

On the other end of the spectrum, here's Jake who was all game to touch the baby dino. He was slightly squirmy, but still wanted to try. 

"Mommy, 抱抱！” This, people, is the key reason why I have muscles. #maybenotthatbadathing

It was past 6 when we stepped through the exit, and we were all feeling pretty tired, yet pumped up from the exciting day of activities. I managed to convince the kids to do a mandatory-must-take picture with the Universal Globe. They even obliged when I asked them for jump shots! Love it. 

Grand finale. Water play!

Some random thoughts of the day:

• I learnt from my experience in Disneyland and brought a pram along. Prams (of different shapes and sizes) are available for rent at the park, but our sturdy Maclaren did the job well (it's been around on our holidays the past 4 years!)
• Jake took an hour's nap in this pram on-the-go. The timing was great and coincided when we took two rides that he did not qualify for anyway (too short). 
• Kate chooses the most inconvenient times to want to go pee. So we have done a dash-to-pee on two occasions while we were in the Q (three, if you counted once in Japan. We were lucky that we managed to run back in time to re-join the Q - yay)
• Jake is really a very brave boy who enjoys shows and activities. On the rides that he took, he was mesmerised. On the shows that we watched, he was mesmerised. He's a pretty good audience really!
• Apparently, Jake no longer likes Kiki Maus. His new favourite is now Elmo. I know this because when I ask him (more than once), he will tell me firmly "I like Elmo!" (I'm going to try asking him again on another random occasion and see if it was merely a diffusion effect of being at USS)
• Being out makes us tolerate crap food. We had the most icky lunch of fried food - and we devoured it all. We also had chocolate milkshake. I guess that's calcium?
• I love, love, love doing adventurous new things with the kids. To watch their faces light up with apprehension, delight, happiness... really these are the moments that make it all worth it!