Countdown to Joash's 6th Birthday

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Countdown to Jayna's 5th Birthday

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Countdown to Jaide's Birthday

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Countdown to Joram's Birthday

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Friday, July 31, 2015

"Frozen" 6th Birthday


My children have 4 choices when it comes to celebrating birthdays:
1) An expensive birthday gift
2) Going to a special place with the family e.g. indoor playgrounds or places of interest
3) Birthday party at home
4) Birthday party in school

So far, no one has yet to choose option 4... till now. And I realised to my horror that it is the option that costs the most!!! 

The cost mainly came from the party favors. There are 22 students in Jayna's class and I didn't want to fill the goodie bag up with cheap junk food. A lot of time, effort and money went into getting nice and appropriate gifts which match the Frozen theme. We hunted around party supplies stores, toys departments, stationary shops and, yes, even online sources to get everything we needed. This is truly a birthday party that blesses others much more than the birthday girl herself!

At the very least, I did buy Jayna the humongous Frozen balloon which she had been eyeing for the longest time. She enjoyed it for almost three weeks before it deflated. We also found an Elsa wand to complete her snow queen outfit.

The Elsa side

The Anna side

The pretty wand

Totally love these Anna and Elsa inspired
hair scrunchies for the girls in her class.

Pink for the girls and blue for the boys

In the girl's bag

In the boy's bag

All dressed up for the party!

The cupcakes:
Jayna gave ALL the pictured ones
to her friends. What a sweet girl!

The candles

Friday, July 17, 2015

苦尽甘来

What a beautiful scene to wake up to!

They already made their beds.

These days, I wake up to the children happily eating breakfast by themselves. The older ones serving the younger ones; all four of them enjoying some interesting conversation. I smile at the giggles and laughter, loud enough for me to hear even from my bathroom while I wash up. As I step out of my bedroom, a chorus of "Good morning, Mummy!" greets me. I will then proceed to do my chores and cooking and the kids will continue to finish their meal, clear up the mess and go play in their room.

Gone are the days of waking to crying and temper tantrums. There is no need to attend to the needs of the children first thing in the morning, even without brushing my teeth. My alarm clock is no longer based on the earliest riser in the family. No more heart palpitations and panic attacks with everyone demanding my attention all at once before I even have the chance to rub sleep from my eyes. 

God has been so faithful and merciful to have seen me through the toughest days of child-raising. I am starting to taste the fruits of all the training and growing in independence. I am indeed blessed beyond imagination... Praise be to God!

Saturday, July 11, 2015

New Furniture


Not long ago, I bought 4 colour-coded baskets to be placed on the bookshelves for the "treasures" that belong to each of the kids. This was especially done for the sake of the older two who have personal toys which they prefer not to share with others. 

However, the younger two are now tall enough to easily reach the door knob and open the shelf doors and access the forbidden items, much to the dismay of the elder children. It takes up too much of my time to mediate among the kids when somebody took something without permission, and worse, damaged it. Apart from that, Joram was also constantly rummaging through the stationary drawers of the older ones and getting into various trouble. The youngest boy was also very often blamed for tearing up the pictures or craft work which the other siblings made. 

So I thought, enough is enough. I invested in drawers with individual locks: one column for the stationary and artwork, another for their precious things. The older three wear their keys as necklaces and become totally responsible for their own belongings. I left the bottom-most drawer unlocked for Joram's personal toys. He is utterly delighted with it, taking great pride in keeping his favourite items properly inside. The hilarious thing is I actually also caught him secretly trying to open the rest of the drawers to no avail. Hiak hiak hiak... He can't be up to his usual mischief anymore!

While I was at it, I also bought a cabinet specially for the children's bags. There are just so many of them: school bags, weekend bags, BSF bags, ballet bag, bags which were gifts from friends... I was starting to have a hard time looking for places to keep them. And it'll only get worse as the children grow older. I'm glad that the kids can now have an easily accessible place to store their 'barangs'.


Right before my firstborn entered P1, I bought him a set of ergonomic, adjustable table and chair for him to do his homework at. It was a great investment because, although he grew so rapidly since he first used it, he could continue to use it after we adjusted the height. In fact, it still has more capacity for growth. 

Now that Jayna is going to primary school next year too, I fulfilled my promise to her that I would buy the pink version when she is older. The sad part is, this model is no longer available locally and I had to spend almost twice the amount of money to get it from overseas. Nevertheless, I find it worthwhile since I still have another boy and girl to inherit these two sets of furniture in the future. 


All along, the children have been using the towels from their baby era. Those towels were more like swaddling cloths with hoods attached. Since even Joram is starting to exit the toilet with the towel wrapped under his arms, I decided to get new ones which are smaller, making it easier to wrap around the body and for the older two, who are bathing on their own, to dry themselves without dropping the towels on the wet floor. Now, they are even able to hang their own towels back on the rack without any help too! Indeed, smaller towels are far more suitable and manageable for children to use.


Monday, July 6, 2015

Growing Up


A few months ago, I described how a day in my life was like and I mentioned that my mornings were times when I had to multitask like crazy. However, over time, Jayna has grown so much and has become my best helper with the eldest not around on weekday mornings. She has taken over full responsibility over the breakfast table on her own volition. She not just serves the cereal and pours milk for the younger ones, but also feeds the youngest sibling water with a spoon while he eats. (Unfortunately, Joram refuses to drink from a straw and has yet to master the art of drinking on his own straight from a cup) She has also learnt how to clear the table and wash the dishes! 

Now, I can simply concentrate on my chores and cooking while she handles everything else. Mornings are no longer so hectic anymore. Praise the Lord! I'm so proud of how my elder daughter has grown. I will surely miss her help next year when she goes to primary school with her older brother in the morning...

Tea break has officially become easier too because I am finally letting my eldest handle a fruit knife. He now can help cut the fruits and the older two can scoop out the flesh to eat all by themselves. This is especially helpful now because golden kiwi is their current favourite fruit. *grin*