Noah's Playground for Everyone

This afternoon after the boys got up from their nap we decided to go bring the boys to the park. I told PaPa that we should check out on Lawson Park since it was next to the lake and Lighthouse beach.

Within the park there was a relatively new playground (read clean!) called Noah's Playground for Everyone. This playground was privately funded in memory of Noah Cutter who died at the age of 2.5yrs old. You can read more about him here.

The park was not only kids friendly, it was blind friendly too! Here' a map for the blinds to find out the location of attractions in the playground.

The boys had a great time playing!

Even Baby Aaron got to sit in the swing for a fair bit!

PaPa took care of the triplets while I sat on our beach mat on this big field, just next to the park, with Baby Aaron. There were two families there setting their tents for their BBQ gathering.

This is a very nice and shaddy park. And we get all the breeze from the lake as well. It got a little cold later so I went to the car to get their sweaters. But poor Baby Aaron was so under dressed that I had to wrap him in the sarong and held him against my body.

We stayed like an hour before I called it quit coz I was freezing from the cold chill! Next time we will come prepare with thicker clothes, kite and our picnic basket!

Botanical Garden again!

The weather was so good that we had to make a trip to the Botanical Garden again! This time we came prepared! We got some food for the boys from burger king, organic grapes and pizzas from Wholefoods and a change of clothes for the boys.

We arrived at 9.40am as I wanted to start the day early, knowing that this being the Memorial Day weekend, it would get crowded later in the day.

I insisted that we made a trip to the Japanese Garden as we never made it that far. On the way to the Japanese Garden, we passed this path that was decorated with big round stones along the sides. The boys were facinated with that as they hadnt seen stones that big.

Theodore created this activity where they tried to balance the tiny peddles on the big stone.

The Japanese Garden was built on a small island separated from the main attractions. We had to cross a small bridge to get there. To be honest, I was pretty scared of the boys falling off the bridge coz the edge was quite low.

I love the Japanese trees! They were well maintained and so tiny. I think the Japanses believe in asymmetry as a balance of elements coz the trees are so well-trimmed. I dont know this represent really...maybe a form of order?

I learnt that path formed an important role in the Japanese Garden. The path set the mind before one enters the garden. The path was laid with stones and stones represent the earth. When stones are small, uneven and of different sizes, the objective was to slow down one's steps so that one can view/appreciate the flowers/plants. When the stones were placed apart, it was to encourage one's to look up and see the trees. It was amazing so much thoughts went into the making of a garden!

Along the way, we also saw stone walls beautifully constructed. The boys couldnt resist the temptation to do a balancing act!

We also came across beautiful, blooming flowers. The boys just had to pull the rope that fenced the flowers. They started to sing "Row Row Row your boat"!Before we leave the "isaland" PaPa got the boys to hold hands so that we can all walk together. Alas, they started playing "Ring around the roses"!

Then it was time for lunch and we headed to our favourite spot which was right across the Bruce Rose Garden's fountain. Needless to say, after lunch we headed for the fountain. We got the boys into their swimming shorts and they were set to go! The boys were so into the fountain that they even climbed onto it. Lucas, being the cautious one, preferred to stay at the edge.A picture of Theodore doing his superman's stunt!I supervised the boys while PaPa had a personal time with Baby Aaron on our beach mat!We left after 45 mins of playing and the boys this time, had a fresh change of clothes!

The boys had some time to play in the field. This is a picture of them starring at the teenage boy who was lying in the grass, limbs apart, getting his picture taken!

Just before we moved off, the boys discovered this giant tree with "holes" and decided to check out if there was an owl there!

Singapore Idol 2009

Theodore loves to sing! And this hobby of his started 2 months ago.

And like the rest, his favourite song is "Jesus loves me", a song that we played before they sleep since their birth. We kind of stopped playing the song when we were were in USA because the CD player wasnt working.

Enjoy the show by our talented Theodore! The video was taken on April 30, 2009.

Mischief of one kind

I have since been looking after the 4 boys alone for a week as our nanny quitted on us. More about the drama another time...

Today, I had a drama of another kind..from the triplets of course!

Actually, it was a mistake on my part to re-arranged their beds. I placed them side by side instead of the usual arrangement where the beds were separated. This was done because I wanted them to get used to sleeping next to each other since I would be selling the beds for our move back to Singapore and the boys would be sleeping together on the floor.

So I sent the boys off for their afternoon nap, warning them to behave themselves. Then I hopped over to my room to give Aaron his shower. When I was done with Aaron, I heard loud laughers coming from the triplets' room. I bundled Aaron in his towel and quickly dashed to their room.

What I saw was shocking! There were poo everywhere - on the carpet, on their bedsheets, bed frames, their shirts, on their hands! Yes, I kid you not! Lucas was so scared that he literally dropped the big piece of poo on Joshua's bed when he saw me! Guilt was written all over his face! Theodore and Lucas was bottomless! Joshua's hand was also covered with poo, evident that he was also bouncing the poo around. There were actually 2 big pieces of poo and 1 small poo...1 on Joshua's bed, the other two was on the carpetted floor! And the bed frames as well! I was so furious though the boys were still laughing away. I told them to stand still (so afraid that they start to touch everywhere...) and I put Aaron down in his crib, with only his towel on.

I gathered all the toxic chemicals, cloth, paper towels, disposable gloves and plastic bags and stormed into their room. Then I sent them to the shower while I changed their sheets, scrubbed down the beds, the drawers, doors, and of course the carpet and in between checked on them just to make sure that they were not drowned. Though I was pretty sure they were drowned in guilt.

While cleaning up their act, I noticed that the changing mat was on the floor. I was pretty sure that was not there when I left the room. Of closed observation, I found poo on the mat and realised that the boys actually pulled the mat out and attempted to change their soiled diapers. Alas, they found more interesting stuff to entertain themselves!

Anyway, the boys had a good time showering themselves and of course throwing water on the floor. And when I went in, I saw that my step stool and my pails were in the bathtub and of course the entire bathroom floor was flooded! Another place to scrub down! Grrr...

I quickly dressed them up and sent them to bed - this time arranging the beds back to their original positions. Strange that the boys didnt protest. Probably they knew they did wrong. Anyway, I kept their door open so that aside from drowning in guilt they wont drowned by the smell of chemicals!

Then I dashed off to Aaron, keeping my fingers' cross that he didnt poo or pee in his bed. Well he didnt! So I dressed and fed him. Then it was time for his nap. As for me, I was back in the bathroom scrubbing the floor, and washing off their soiled bedsheets and shirts. By the time I finished cleaning, had my lunch, cleaned up the dishes, threw away the poo mess, Aaorn, our short napper got up! What a busy afternoon!

That night before the boys were put to bed, Theodore said, "Dont touch poo poo. Hands dirty." At least he got the picture! On hindsight, maybe I should be calm and took a picture of the dirty scene but I was too angry to see the cuteness of it. I doubt there would be a next time.

Farewell Rachel!

Our dear Rachel is leaving Evanston for good and heading home on Sunday. So on Wednesday we had dinner with her at her favourite restaurant, Renga Tei. We are also joined with Yenling's mum and Rachel's mum.

Excellent company and food!

Me, Rachel, Emily, Aunty Jennifer, 许妈妈 and Yenling

We are truely blessed to have a great friend - Rachel, who is always feeding us information on cheap/free stuffs and great places to go! We will miss you Rachel!

More take on this posting at Rachel's blog.

Happy 6th year anniversary!

Tomorrow marked our 6th year anniverary! Oh how time flies! In 4 years time, I would love to renew our wows, with the boys as my page boys and hopefully I can have my long awaited Patek Philippe watch! Hahahaha....

Anyway, this time we headed to a non romatic place as compared to last year as I was craving for my hamachi sashimi. So we went to Renga Tei for a great pigout!

That night, I joking asked PaPa if he believed in the seven year itch. He said the itch is meant for the woman!What??? Well, I am glad that we have a 3rd party in our marriage. And that 3rd party is God who has truely blessed us well and I am thankful for a wonderful marriage, a good husband and wonderful kids.

What itch? Lets hope mine and PaPa's eczema does not flare up next year!

A rare moment of peace!

This was a rare moment - 4 boys playing along side without fighting over their toys! And Lucas and Thedore shared the same set of toy! I took the opportunity to clean the triplet's room, otherwise I will have to do it over the weekend when PaPa is around...

Hand Prints from the kids!

Here's a picture of the boys' handprints for Mother's Day! Speaking of which, I need to locate those that they gave me for the previous Mother's Day and my last birthday!

Thanks guys! I love you, forever!