Assembly Performance

Little C has been excited about this day for weeks !! And my, did they put up a wonderful performance. She had so much fun with her friends on stage ! In keeping with the 'Around the World' theme, they sang 3 songs (1 hindi, 1 jap, 1 english), did 1 Indian ala bollywood dance, and sang another 3 mandarin rhymes. A rare treat :) My favourite - the bum shaking during the bollywood dance - wish I could do it so naturally !! hahahaha !

Model pupil

Rachel came back with exciting news today - An Award !! Model Pupil 2008 presented by the VP at assembly today ! Wow ! I thought she was kidding... until she actually showed me the commendation cert.

ummm... my girl is really doing super well in school - far beyond my expectations, and most importantly, enjoying herself tremendously :)

Rachel's birthday card

I decided that for the girls' birthdays from this year on, instead of cards, I would create little booklets capturing the key pictures of that year past so they could have little albums year on year to look at and enjoy when they are older

Here's a glimpse of Rachel's 6th year.... Rachel being rachel, lots of pink and glitter on hers... and the new Laundry line by MME is just perfect !

Now need to go find time to do Faye's ... and her request... polka dots and lots of hearts !!! yikes!! Gosh... can you imagine how that's gonna turn out ?! :)

a new layout

This layout was inspired by sketch #1 over at Inspired Blueprints. Founded by one of our very own Anne-Marie from Singapore, also a classmate (yonks ago!!) of mine, i was very happy to support her.

I love this picture of Rachel - so carefree, loving life. This layout is a reminder to her to always be so. Journaling reads: "Its always easy to follow the well trodden path. But you, magnetic you, need to lead life the way YOU want, the way You know best!"

Personalised boxes for Kids

Commissioned to alter 2 boxes as gifts - one a drawer combo, and another a tray (they are the wooden ones from Ikea). The verdict is out and my recipients - a 7 yr old girl and a 5 yr old boy love it !!

This is great for kids who just love to hoard stash - and lends a personal touch. The assembly itself was a killer but decorating this was so fun !!!

On the pretext of being sick (actually i was la..), playing with paint, glue and pretty papers and of course gorgeous photos of the kids cheered me up lots ... what better way to spend the last 24 hrs :)

Here are the creations ....

Close ups of the drawer combo....

Boy's "throw-it-all-in" tray

Close-ups

Now i've got C, R and Soph repeatedly chanting "where's my box ? where's my box ???"
Christmas k, darlings :P

Birthday Party on Ice

She had a blast - In perfect COOL fashion, while learning a new skill, and having a great time with her best pals. As a parent, it was just so heartwarming seeing the kids have so much fun together. Some who had never been on the ice looked like seasoned pros in all of one hour. The coaches did a great job and the girls enjoyed themselves tremendously. As for Rachel, she said a soft "thank you" to me and papa with tears in her eyes at the end of it ... i guess that says it all, and i couldn't ask for more...

Little C did exceedingly well too - managing to move independently after a while, with papa at her side. Bestest friend Ash was of course such a champ !


Thanks so much to all our guests ! You've made it such a memorable 7th birthday for Rachel....

Jacob Ballas Children's Garden

I took the girls for some outdoor fun today, and this was what they got up to. Urbanites to the core, they lasted all of 1 hour before they exclaimed "Mommy, we are sweating like pigs !!" and i had to take them indoors. Nonetheless they enjoyed themselves ...

At 7, she's still very happy to go down a slide

C checking out whether it's worth her while to actually climb this 'thing'

Rachel didn't care...

C opted for the easy one instead (ummm... guess one has to start somewhere...)

But the rickety bridge was 'easy peasy'

the Calabash fruit

For those who haven't been to the Children's Garden at Botanics, do give it a go. There's a treehouse to climb, a maze to get lost in, a fountain for wet play, and playgrounds to spend some energy. The many storyboards put up are also fun to read, and Rachel went round taking down names of some of the species that fascinated her. I particularly liked the Calabash tree which was in fruiting season, and it was oh soo tempting to pluck those huge melons :) thankfully, i didn't set a bad example...

Gifts

So much to update since it's been a while since i posted.
Here's a couple of gifts i had made recently.

This was a commissioned embellished photo frame for a beloved Doc.
Had lots of fun with this and the labels from Jenni Bowlin Studio were just so apt.

This was a bookmark i made for my sister, reminding her to smile lots even in dark moments. (yup, she's going through a rough spot but is coming out of it slowly... hopefully).
Of course those cheeky grins of her nieces had to be featured !!

Thanks for looking..... :)

Prepping for THE Party

We're all excited for Rachel's birthday party with her classmates this Sunday ! And Rachel and Clarisse were such a great help getting all those goodie bags ready.

It's really so nice to get the girls involved and we all enjoyed the process tremendously. I got the girls to paint the wooden pegs and after, they used glue dots to stick the flower and button center for each peg. Rachel also stamped all the thank you labels herself for her friends.... they weren't perfect, with smudges in many places but they were her own effort :)

C helped to stick the paper flower and (her favourite part) put all the goodies into the bags. As you can see, they were already in they PJs but they didn't want to stop ! Clarisse is now bugging me incessently to start preparing for HER party but mommy needs a breather !

Thanks too to my two wonderful friends Shir and Jaz and of cos' Rusti who i mercilessly whipped to help me make the personalised notebooks for all of R's friends. :) :) :)

Punch away

Check out these packs of thousands of 'punched-out' flowers. Yup that's what i've been also up to this weekend with sore palms and thumbs to prove from all that 'punching'.

Tomorrow, i, together some other parent volunteers would be teaching some 200 P6 girls scrapbooking.

This is part of the 'lifeskills' programme that the parents run for the kids after their exams, where they are taught to cook, sew, craft and keep-house. I'm smarter now... cos in May after the mid-years, i volunteered for 'homeskills' and had to teach the kids how to change bolster/ pillow cases and bedsheets. There were something like 8 classes so demonstrated 8 times, and i wondered why my arms ached that night :P

Being unable to sew and not wanting to be in sweltering kitchen heat either- i opted for craft :P ...hehheh..

It'll be fun hanging out with the P6 girls tomorrow, and to catch a glimpse of what R might turn into in 5 years !!!! (Gasp !!!)

Invites

As promised, this was the invite we made.. umm... handphone cameras really are the pits... so sorry !

Anyways, R did the inking with chalk-ink around the sides and the pasting of the pink card stock photo and ribbon. I didn't dare take the chance of pronounced smudging so did the stamping - the owl, swirls and words. C of course wanted to chip in. Her tiny fingers proved most useful in sticking on the flower and the little diamante center.

Voila !

back to work now .... And thanks for stopping by ! hope your weekend has been good :)

this and that

It's exam week ahead. Don't think my girl has quite got the concept yet. Evidence ?? -
Me:"Rachel tomorrow morning we've got to do some work ya" (she's got papers Mon, Tues and Wed)
R: "Why ?? I know already, what ?"
ummmm....

Rachel's also celebrating her birthday next Sun and she's all excited about it - that certainly outweighs the exams in her mind - guess she's got her 'priorities' right ??!! Me as usual had a late start in organising it and invites were just handmade and completed (can you imaging crafting some 20 similar cards - almost died ! So of course had to solicit little hands to help). Will post them soon when it's sunny and bright to take pix tomorrow.

Thanks for dropping by ! Will leave you with some shots of our lil' dancing queens and what they usually get up to at home (some of their antics do give me a heart attack !!)