Oil Painting!

Another food colouring post! (Hey, I have so many bottles, gotta find some way to use them up….)

Porthos asked to make volcanoes the other day. We didn’t have sodium bicarbonate on hand, so on the spur of the moment, I suggested something different. We know that every time we use food colouring with water or vinegar, the solution completely changes colour. I asked Porthos what would happen with oil and he assumed the same thing would happen.

“Let’s see” I said.

So we

Ebay Meets Blogger

I found this by way of Raising Mustard Seeds. It was so funny I had to re-post the link here. Having many kids is a sure-fire recipe to developing a sense of humour. You’d go mad otherwise!

Edited: The eBay listing is no longer valid but the seller reposted the piece on her own blog.

Junk Art

Am I the only crazy mother around who collects toilet rolls like they were precious gems?

Anyway, we have a large box at home where I toss stuff like toilet rolls, paper towel rolls, empty tissue boxes, old magazines, egg cartons and other odds and ends. The kids call this the Junk Art box, and they are free to use it whenever they like, to create whatever they like.

 

Here is the space shuttle Porthos made a couple of weekends ago, without any assistance from me.  He used a paper towel roll, two toilet paper rolls, part of a cardboard egg carton, and covered it with wrapping paper and green paint.

And God blessed the seventh day…

Wildness And Wet On St John’s Island

Last week, my work department went for some team bonding at St John’s Island. Many of us hadn’t been there in a long while, and for me, it was a sheer delight to be out of the office and in the wild on a workday afternoon.

The only way to the island is by ferry from Marina South Pier – $15 for adults, $12 for kids (which includes island admission). Click here for the schedule. If the group is large enough, it’s possible to charter a ferry. I didn’t realise this but there is even a holiday bungalow and campgrounds – read more here. If you do intend to go though, please note that there are no shops of any sort on the island, so you’ll need to bring your own food and water.

Here’s our boat approaching the island:

Paper-Plate Frisbee

This term, Athos’ class is doing a project on toys. He came back from school with this lovely contraption (which I at first mistook for a sunshade, much to his annoyance….) Turns out its a frisbee made from gluing together two paper plates with their middles cut out. It flew pretty decently too!

Something for all crafty mothers out there to try with their kids.

NDP – An Artist’s Impression

Evidently, the National Day Parade made quite an impression on Porthos. I came back from work and he presented me with this drawing:

Learn To Read With Starfall

A good friend sent me a link to Starfall, a free website that aims to teach children how to read. Created by the husband-wife team that was also responsible for the popular bluemountain.com e-greeting card site, Starfall has both visual, audio and animated elements, and can be used at home or in schools. The site also incorporates online reading games, and lots of printables.

I’ve used the site with Porthos because he’s not especially keen on reading. After the first 10 minutes, he was completely hooked, and I notice he’s now a lot more interested in learning and trying to read words.

Check it out!

And God blessed the seventh day…

Sunset on Tanjong Beach, Sentosa (Singapore)

Looking For Lumps? Read This.

I’ve been meaning to write this post for a while now.

As women living in this day and age of the common cancer, we’ve all been told that we should go for mammograms and do regular self-checks on our breasts.

If like me, you feel for lumps every once in a while to reassure yourself that all is well, please read this post from Whymommy at Toddler Planet.

Doing Something About It

You are reading the blog of a grown woman of calm discipline and steely resolve. I will not let mere kilograms cloud my judgment nor weaken my sense of self-worth.

I have a plan.

And Step One involves buying shoes.

With one of the pole vaults as my shoe consultant (she runs marathons and climbs mountains for fun), I have procured this pair of beauties.

Now for Step Two. Buying a new bra.

(Hey, try breastfeeding three kids and tell me you don’t need the additional support.)

Aaargh!

To my very great horror, I put on my favourite pair of jeans only to find that they were Too Tight.

Can’t be, said I to myself, as I forced my way into them anyway. But spilled over the waist of my jeans like a baked muffin, I couldn’t deny the truth any longer. And as I stood on the weighing scales, wondering where oh where these extra kilograms came from, I resolved that I would have to Do Something About It.

A Parade for the People

Despite the downpour earlier in the afternoon, the Pilgrim family decided to go ahead with our plan to watch the National Day Parade.

I remember attempts in previous years to watch the parade from the periphery. It was always fun, but I felt distinctly outside the real event, part of the Ticketless Masses.

But oh the wonders of having it on the bay this year!

And God blessed the seventh day…

Happy Birthday Singapore

Singapore turns 42 today! She’s young by developed world standards, sometimes breaks my heart, but is otherwise an extraordinary nation, and a place we are glad to call home.

The Pilgrim family loves to watch the National Day Parade. The highlights for us are the heavy machinery (the flypast, the Chinooks with the flag), the Red Lions parachuting down, and of course the fireworks.

This year’s parade will be the first of its kind, held on Marina Bay on the largest performance floating platform in the world. A nod to Singapore’s perennial ingenuity.

I happened to be at the Esplanade for lunch yesterday and here is what I saw:

Viva VivoCity Playground!

I’m not big on bringing kids to a mall as a way of passing time. But I have to say, the open-air playground at VivoCity is quite something. The space is huge, the equipment unique, and there are sheltered seats for weary parents like me. There’s also a nifty water feature that kids would love running through, great for the typical sweltering Singapore day.

Some pictures for anyone who’s curious

Birthday Cakes For the Fun-Loving And Frugal

When Athos celebrated his first-ever birthday at school (aged 3), I bought a magnificent chocolate cake for the whole class from the delectable selections at Room For Dessert.

Thing is, it set me back by something like $45 .

I rationalised that:

1. With three kids and Heaven-knows-how-many birthdays ahead, this practice was not going to be sustainable.
2. What kids really care about is how the cake looks. The taste, not so much.
3. Making a cake could be a thoroughly fun activity for mother and child, BUT I had to find some way around my feeble kitchen skills.

And once again, invention (with necessity as her ever-faithful mother) came through. The solution?

And God blessed the seventh day…

…and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done. (Genesis)

Why I Love My Sarong Sling

How did I survive a two-hour walking tour with three boys under seven?

I don’t quite know. But I’m sure my sarong sling had something to do with it. Months ago I wrote a comparison of the baby carrier and sarong sling. Since then Aramis has outgrown the carrier, but the sling is still extremely useful as a baby hands-free kit

The more interesting comparison now is between the sling and a pram. Although the pram is less physically demanding (I don’t have to bear the baby’s weight), I’ve come to the conclusion that most times, the sling wins hands down. Here are 5 reasons why:

Labrador Park: Where Nature Meets History

Over the weekend, a friend who works for the National Parks Board arranged a walking tour of Labrador Nature Reserve with a nature guide.

It’s been a while since I’ve been there, and I must say I had some reservations. The sky looked threatening, we are still in dengue season, we would have three kids in tow, and the walk would last about 2 hours.

As it turned out, I absolutely LOVED it.