Kids Cafe & Beer Time

Oh no, please don't misunderstand. LOL. I didn't bring my gals to the Kids Cafe for beer. My girlfriend met me at the department store and after a short while, we got tired lugging the girls around. She then exclaimed, "Hey, there's a kids cafe here!". I was baffled, "What's that?", even then, I already found myself heading towards this place because I really needed to take a breather.

Apparently, there are many kids cafes dotting the city. Most Korean stay-at-home mommies often take a breather from looking after the kids and housework by meeting up with other mommies or friends at kids cafe. It's a very simple concept, eat, drink, chat, while your children enjoy themselves at the playpad within sight. Why can't we have more of this in Singapore? Then I wouldn't need to limit myself to eating at places that have high chairs....

Dinner appointment with my ex-colleagues at our place. Junghwa bought braised pork knuckle, steamed kimchi dumplings and bottles of soju and rice wine! Reliving the days when we often drank the night away after work. Then, PapaKim came back from work and offered to bring us for beer. On lah! No way the girls wanted to sleep with all the commotion, and having a late afternoon nap didn't help, so we all made our way to the hof downstairs for a drink. This also marked the end of our stay in Seoul.

Day 2 in Seoul

A bit of "Dibo" fresh milk to line the tummy before we head off for breakfast... Remember? No cooking while I'm on holiday.. hiak hiak.

I didn't want to venture off too far with "1 Big and 1 Small", so I went to the restaurant opposite the residence. We visited this restaurant the last time we were in Seoul. Awesome shabu shabu beef noodles! So, don't get deceived by that plate of salad in the picture, that's just the appetiser. When the noodles came, it was slip slurp time, mouth overtook the hands that were supposed to take pictures.

Now, for the gals to exercise off the breakfast in the playroom.

And then off to the supermarket ^.^

Day 1 in Seoul

Surviving the night flight without much fussing, we arrived in Seoul in the early morning. Greeted by the crisp air as soon as we stepped out of the airport, we were all really excited and feeling happy to be in Korea.

We hopped on the "Airport Limousine" to our residence in Seoul and arrived a "wee bit" early to check-in. At 7 a.m., we had 7 hours to kill before check-in time at 2 p.m. Ok, that was the "urgh" part. Alright, no whining. We left our bags with the reception, and took a walk in search for breakfast.

I was in familiar territory. This was very near where I used to work. Just as I was pointing out this famous Kalguksu (knife-sliced noodles) eating place to PapaKim, we noticed that it might be open. We made our way there and "Yay", breakfast seemed to be in the line for us. There you go, 칼국수!

Now, to walk out the breakfast. We happened to chance upon this pretty garden just beside the building that we went to "visit the toilet" at. Beautiful weather just makes simple things seem nicer.

Finally, we ended up at the shooting location of "Iris" (the Korean hit drama of 2010) - Gwanghwamun Square 광화문 광장. The girls had a ball taking photos with "Haechi" (the mascot of Seoul) and life-sized posters of Lee Byung-Hun (scream "AHHH!"), the lead actor in "Iris". That would be a place to visit if you happen to be in this part of Seoul, on your way to visit Gyeongbuk Palace.

That was all done before we checked-in.... after that, zzzzzz......

Batmobile

Just wanted to post a picture of En Bi on the Batmobile ride... Haha...

My Day

PapaKim brought us girls out for dinner today to celebrate my birthday. In order to reminisce the days we had yummy BBQ clams by the sea, he decided to bring me to eat BBQ clams at a Korean restaurant that brought the clams in from Jeju Island.

But of course, how could a air-conditioned restaurant setting compare to the beautiful sight and sounds that are found by the sea? Nevertheless, I think I enjoyed the quality of the clams and most of all, the company!

The girls were having fun looking at the clams go "Pop!" when they were cooked, but they drew the line there. "Uh uh, no way, Mom, I'm not going to eat that strange looking piece of flesh in the shell." So, great! PapaKim and I had the clams all to ourselves! Not to forget, a cool, refreshing bottle of soju to complement these fresh clams. Oh, and there were 3 mini octopuses too..

The Full Monty! on Father's Day

I never thought I would have the chance to see such a wide "variety" of men stripping for me. Think "fantasy". Haha... Cat granted me this couple of months back when the tickets were available for sale. She managed to get us lovely circle seats right smack in the centre!

I was very excited to see Adrian Pang (one of the local male actors that I really admire and favour) and Hossan Leong. Cat also mentioned that Bernice's teacher, Daniel Jenkins, was acting. The actors were all wonderful on stage, giving their all for this famous movie-made-musical set in Chicago. And Cat and I agreed that Andy Hockley was also good to watch with his effortless ways of bringing out the character he was playing.

I loved the fact that the director, Tracie Pang, tried to tell the story on "how far a man would go for his family". This heartwarming story struck a chord with me. Though I am not a man, I could easily relate to this story as it reminded me of the extent that I went to for my daughters when I decided to take a break from working.

I think Pangdemonium!'s inaugural production really worked for me! Like-minded friends, please do go watch!  

So, what happened to Father's Day? Well, we already had a celebration for the Fathers in the family the day before by dining out at a newly-opened Japanese restaurant (buffet) at the Heeren. So do not worry, we did not forget the Papas!

Art Boot Camp - Flowers! Flowers! Flowers!

Ta Da! Presenting En Bi's inaugural painting! I decided to enrol En Bi for a holiday art program at Art Boot Camp just simply because Cat passed me the brochure when we were at Turf  City. It  was simple for me, I was looking for a holiday program and wanted En Bi to try Art, and that was my answer!

En Bi was excited when she knew that she was going to paint. However, she got a little hesitant when we were at Art Boot Camp and she was holding on to my hand and telling me not to go. But as soon as her hands got hold of a paintbrush, voila! Mommy seemed to have become non-existent.

At the end of the 3-day "Flowers! Flowers! Flowers!" workshop, she was proud to present me with:
- 2 beautifully hand-decorated flowerpots;
- Handmade "Butterfly" and "Ant" made of foam;
- Photoframe painted and decoated with a Butterfly;
- A painting of Flowers and Trees!

I love those works of art that my daughter made. You might say it could also be replicated at home, but I guess, I excuse myself from doing it because I'm neither too creative nor artistic, plus, I really like her to be placed in a classroom environment even during the holidays to keep the momentum going.

 

My 1st Book Depository Purchase

Just had to blog about this. For the longest time I have been buying books from amazon.com. Heard about Book Depository and finally got down to buying some books from them. Finally received the delivery today. "Royal Mail", Woo hoo!
These are the titles I bought:
- "The Grouchy Ladybug" by Eric Carle
  (one of the books used during Seo Yeon's Zoophonics Holiday Program);
- "I Wonder Why - Caterpillars Eat So Much" (inspired by Sharon's new encyclopaedia);
- "The Magic School Bus - Inside the Human Body".

Now, to read them to my beautiful 2 littles Missies. Yay!

Cat!

We had a date with a "Cat" today, but that was just one of the animals among many others that were involved in "A Day of A Cat". It goes without saying that there's a Dog, and a Mouse. There was also a Rooster, Frog, Bird, and Fish from a pond.  

We made a date with Cayla, Estelle, Kimi and their mommies, to watch the show. Boy, we were all very glad that Corinne and Tona was there early to stand 1st in the line for us!

We gobbled down our fast food lunch after getting the ticket to watch the performance, and before we even knew it, the show was about to start!

The children thoroughly enjoyed the performance. My personal favourite, and I believe the girls' as well, was the "Dog". His acting was fantastic, very good "doggy impersonation".

We stayed behind  after the performance to listen to the story "Cat" being told and even had the chance to touch the puppets that were used in the performance.

Verdict: Good fun!

Wine Tasting, Cantonese Zi Char, & World Cup 2010

My good friend and her good friend (I like her good friend, and she's now also become my friend!) decided to celebrate my birthday for me a little earlier this year. So where were we heading for?

1. The Wine Gallery
Apparently, that's a place they like to frequent. To taste wine and then buy bottles of wine back to drink. Yes, they drink wine like water.... It was a first wine tasting session for PapaKim and I. We enjoyed ourselves lots! They ended up buying about 3 bottles each while PapaKim and I were happy munching on some crackers at the end of our wine tasting session. Oh, by the way, did I mention that the kids were at home, babysitting services complimentary of their lovely Grandparents. *Big Smile*

2. Cantonese Zi Char @ Keong Saik Road
Ok, not the coolest place to be seen, in fact, sleazy? Haha... But hey, the food was great! So, who's complaining? They even opened a bottle of wine to make the celebration a little more yummy!

3. World Cup Match: South Korea vs. Greece @ Mana Mana Beach Club
We had to swing back home to get the girls as the "complimentary service" only lasted us that long. The place was terribly crowded. I mean, seriously, like the TV was Beyonce or something. The number of people that surrounded the huge screen showing the soccer match was unbelieveable. I went nowhere near them and was pretty much content sitting at the table since I had to feed the 2 girls and try to make at least 1 of them fall asleep. The day ended on a beautiful note for PapaKim as South Korea won the match! 대한민국! 필승 코리아!

Thanks Xinyi & Lena!

At Zoophonics Too

En Bi also went for Zoophonics Holiday Workshop for a week. Hers was a drop-off in the late morning. Teacher D was sick for 2 days and so Seo Yeon's teacher, Teacher LJ, took the class on Wednesday & Thursday. En Bi enjoyed Teacher D's fun-loving teaching as she was always telling me what Teacher D taught her today.

On her first day after the workshop, she recited the colours of the rainbow to me. In fact, previously, she could already recite the colours of the rainbow, just missing out "indigo". This time, she could recite fully the all 7 colours of the rainbow. My mother was impressed! Haha. En Bi went on to tell me excitedly about the shadows that the her friends and her cast during the workshop. Sounded fun!

The second day, she presented me with 2  words, "chlorophyll" and "photosynthesis". Woohoo! Now, not only were the words impressive to me (coming from a 3YO), the articulation was also good! The only thing was, she was not able to explain what these words were clearly. All I heard was "long.....you know.... the grass...". Absolutely hilarious!

On the last day, she brought back a "skunk" folder containing the week's worth of craft and worksheets. I definitely think she enjoyed the workshop as she kept talking about going back to Zoophonics!



Verdict: Definitely going back!

Building, Playing

En Bi had 2 boxes of Playskool "Clipo" (1 box from "you know who you are" for last Christmas) and took it out today to play. I challenged her to build whatever was shown from the box and the results are seen below. 

Examples on left  

She gets an 8/10 for accuracy and a 10/10 for having fun and efforts!

Panda Bear & Binoculars

Day 2 at Zoophonics Holiday Workshop went on fabulous too! "Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?" was the book of the day. Seo Yeon had great fun doing the craft work which consisted of making a pair of binoculars and decorating a picture of a Panda bear.

There was a cute Panda bear on the loose on the work tables just before snack time. The kids 'fed' the Panda bear with bamboo leaves while it 'walked' around with the assistance of batteries. Haha! The kids really enjoyed this part!

Teacher LJ then dished out some Panda biscuits (those with cream filling inside) just to reiterate the 'Panda' theme for the day. Cool idea!