Lunar New Year Eve - the evening

Dinner was at the BIL's home. We have been doing this for a few years and it works. The new thing this year, is that the brother had moved and the family was at his home. His home is not too far from the BIL's and after our dinner, we made a pit-stop to the brother's.
The first thing that greeted us was this amazingly big ong lai! (Ong lai in hokkien literally means prosperity come). Of course, we had to take a picture with it!

ONG LAI LAI LAI!

We finished the night with some adult game play with the adults, and it was nice to kick-start with the family with both sets of family. We made it home just past midnight, to welcome the new year of the rooster in our own home.


HUAT AH!

Lunar New Year Eve

Today, the husband was off work and I had time before work; so we joined the girl in her school celebrations, and bringing the boy along too. The household was up and noisy at 6am - I had a reveal of how it may be like in 2 years, when the boy starts Primary School.

We all left the home and headed to school. It's the first time we are joining the school celebrations, and I was quite happy to be there. It felt surreal and familiar to be standing in the courtyard, singing the school song, saying the national pledge and singing the school song.

Once an SC girl, always an SC girl!

Waiting for the performances to begin

First up, lion dance performance! It was such a stunning performance and I was enthralled. What a lovely start to this LNY holidays.

I was so impressed!

Rooster mascot appearance

After the lovely dance performance, everyone adjourned to the hall for part 2 of the celebrations.

Dance by the girls, and an invited guest to perform the 'mask-changing' dance

I did not stay for the whole performance.

I have some lovely reflections from this morning:

1. I was so happy to be in school with the children and husband...

2. I felt pretty emotional singing the school song in the court yard (gosh, it's been too long!)

3. I am so proud that my daughter is an SCGS girl.

4. I am thankful that the school holds such celebratory sessions for the girls, to expose them to different culture and happenings outside of what textbooks offer.

5. It is such a lovely and appropriate start to our Lunar New Year celebrations, on this Eve

I am looking forward to the long weekend of play and time with family and friends.

GONG XI FA CAI!

Progress

I can still go straighter, will keep practising!

200 runs

A friend started on a running journey early January. She tagged it #target200runs and seems to be on a mission to well, run 200 runs. I should clarify with her if there is a minimum distance to cover, or other conditions; but so far, several friends have joined in this fitness journey. I run anyway, and I figure there is no harm joining in. All I need to do is include the same #hashtag and number my runs as I accomplish them. I have been slacking in the running department, and this was the right motivation to get me started.

My first run in this #target200runs

So while I did some short runs (2.4km) early Jan, they were just warm-up types with no motivation to do more, this was just the right trigger to get me going. I still do my workouts, I still have my yoga stretches, I replaced some cardio with combat classes but running has taken a back-seat. 
So now, this is a boost for me to run when I feel lazy, and I simply number my runs as I accomplish them.

#target200runs (Current count: 2)

Growing

One of her front tooth is growing!

Jiggle like a jelly and our night routine

Part of the school routine kick-off is homework, spelling and Chinese spelling. I feel a need to highlight Chinese spelling as a separate item because it does take a ton of effort to accomplish that.


So anyway, last evening, the girl and I revised her spelling and one of the phrases was 'jiggle like a jelly'. It's pretty known that the sister does a mean jellyfish dance/jiggle and we were talking conversationally amidst the spelling and look what the girl wrote:

Number 7.

That cracked us up for a bit... and as much as I hate to be the naggy (boring) Mom who does work with them always, I think it's just a necessary phase of life.

Ting xie

Seeing the sister on her nightly routine of work in the evenings has set the boy off too. I roped him in to do some work with the primary intent of having him do sit down as he is always running or bouncing off the walls (playing). Turns out, I have discovered the innate drive in this boy who wants to do well. He asks for spelling (basic words from his reading classes) and I am very proud of his abilities!

Life.

Just for the record, here is a snapshot of our usual evenings:


Between 6-7pm: I will reach home
7pm: Dinner (the husband will join in if he finishes work early enough)
7.45pm: Shower


8pm: Work - there is always something to do.
Papers to sign, homework the girl couldn't do on her own (still training her to have the initiative to do what she can in the afternoon), spelling or ting xie to revise. The boy will join in on some days to do some writing (he practises ABCs and in the last 2 weeks I began giving him spelling to reinforce what he learns in class). Some days, we revise Chinese words on flashcards from Chinese enrichment class.


9pm: Head to the room
We have a mix of activities - read some books, play UNO, play minion game, chit-chat or play. It depends on what the children prefer and the amount of time we actually are in the room (there is some variance - some days we go in earlier, some days later)


10pm: Bedtime
I do prefer if this was 9.30pm, because there is still some time before they actually knock out. It's a trying process to get them to sleep and I have been trying to bring their bedtime earlier - since day 1! I shall not give up, and I firmly believe that the earlier they go to bed, the more rested they are. Afterall, the wake-up time is fixed and the only time we can manipulate is this bedtime.


It's nearly the end of January and our routine is pretty accomplished. It will be a bit messed up with Lunar New Year (holidays!) coming up, but that will be a break we all welcome.

Playing with guns

The boy revived his love for guns and was on a shooting rampage this weekend. He brought along 3 of his NERF guns everywhere he went and it was pretty adorable (while annoying).


I joined him for some moments and managed to distract/occupy him for some moments as he tried to play the game I set up. It was hilarious watching him trying his best... but not being very good.

Face of concentration

Elmo, the unfortunate target

This marks the week before Lunar New Year!