Soap Making

I arranged for the Sunday School teachers under my charge to go for a Soap Making Workshop and brought the children along too.... and this was what we did...

Making the soap using moulds was fun! I allowed my children to do the two tiered soap, so they ended up with soap that had two colours!


This bear came out of a mould... made by Stacey.


And these were from Zach's batch if I am not wrong. There were more, but I didn't take pics of them all... all in all, lots of fun! I think I'm going back again with the children in the near future!

Academic Year 2011

Attended the SAJS Awards Night again this year because Zach received the colours award for Choir yet again. And they made it slightly different too. See the rose? Each award recipient was accompanied by a parent, who was presented with a rose, in recognition of the parents' role in moulding and shaping their children. That was such a nice gesture.

In other Academic news, Stacey did quite well for her exams this year, almost topping her class in Maths (she scored 87, the next highest child scored 99 which was the top mark in class) and doing well enough overall to get into the 2nd best High Ability class for P5, 2012... according to her that is. Anyways, I had to make sure that she understood what that meant - more work, faster pace, more higher order problem sums and so on. I also reminded her that it meant that she would be with people who would be scoring as much if not more than she would, and that if she wanted to be amongst the top, she would have to work hard and not get disappointed if she didn't come in near the top anymore... but use that to push herself forward. Her competitive streak can be scary sometimes, so hopefully, she will use it to her advantage....

Shannon did very well too... she was amongst the top in her class and standard... and although the teacher did not reveal her position details, she mentioned that Shannon would easily qualify for the top HA class in P3 if she kept it up. We also received the forms for the Edusave Merit Bursary - an award given to all pupils who are in the top 25% of their cohort in their school. To actually get the money, you have to have a household income of less than $4K, so we couldn't apply, but it was nice that they included a certificate of achievement with the forms, so that even if you didn't qualify for the bursary financially, you were still acknowledged for doing well! This was a first for us, so we were pleasantly surprised. After two children with learning difficulties, having one who seems to have an easier time of it is a relief. :)
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Escape!!!

We woke up one morning to find that Winky had escaped from his cage. Again. We hunted for him and even pulled out everything at floor level in our storeroom, but we couldn't find him. Finally, we had to leave the house, so we determined to look for him again after coming back.
He must have been hungry, because guess where we found him? In the TV console thing that his cage sits on. The clever hammie knew the general direction and location of his cage... he just had no way of getting back into it... and when I found him, he must have known that we were trying to help him because he walked (as opposed to zipped or dashed) towards us and allowed me to pick him up and return him to his home, where he made a beeline for his food bowl. Sigh. Silly Hammie.

Dance Concert 2011

Kids were involved in the Dance School's smaller scale concert this year. Here they are after the first show... with both Zach and Stacey dressed for their Jazz/Hiphop item, and Shannon in her Tap item outfit. Shannon also got to present the Guest of Honour with the bouquet this year. What a privilege!

They were also in a later show as well, but I only have this one photo of them really... because I was terribly busy running all over the place. Hurhur.

OT for Shannon too...

Somewhere in the middle of this year, I wrote to the head Therapist/Director of the OT Clinic that Zach is at to ask about Shannon. When Zach was growing up, he displayed a lot of idiosyncratic behaviour that I figured he would eventually grow out of. Behaviours included things like being afraid of balloons and thunder and lightning and certain noises like the crowd at a wedding dinner cheering "YUM SENG" and so on... then there were other little things like always needing his back to be scratched and his tags cut off, and gagging on certain vegetables, which we were certain was just his melodramatic way of saying he didn't like them and trying to get out of eating them... and so on... (there was a whole lot more... too lazy to write it all). Then he got to be around 10, and I realised that he had not outgrown a lot of the things I had expected would disappear... and that was when the red flags started to go up.

So after Zach started OT and I began to be introduced to the wonders of the world of Sensory Processing Disorder, I looked at Shannon and saw many many things that were the same - both seemed to have "sensitive scalps" - one hated his hair cut with the buzzing shaver thing, the other hated her hair tied and combed. Both were averse to loud noises of various sorts, both complained about being stressed by noisy classmates. Both had issues with clothing - Shannon only ever wore t-shirts and dresses made from t-shirt material... she hated the underwear I bought for the girls because of the elastic "lace" around the legs, and much preferred to go without until I discovered why and bought her girls' briefs with hems around the legs instead. Both were easily anxious and worried, and there was no convincing them otherwise with logical and sensible talk.

After consulting the Head Therapist, she felt that there were issues that were affecting her quality of life because she was becoming overly anxious and oversensitive to attention of others. However, because she was doing well in school, we didn't want to start therapy so as not to upset her system with the initial introduction of extra stimulation. Thus, we put it off till after the school year.

As a result, Shannon went for assessment in mid Nov and started therapy soon after. Here she is swinging on the square swing, and enjoying herself thoroughly.

Due to her tactile aversion, the therapist introduced playing with dried pasta... she wasn't too keen about it, but complied nonetheless.


All in all, she is enjoying the session, though the therapist is allowing the activities to be more Shannon-initiated for the time being, rather than it being mostly imposed. It's been about 4 sessions, and already we can see that she is being more receptive to trying things she was not open to trying before. :)

Real Irlen lenses for Stacey

Finally got round to getting Stacey's Irlen glasses done... this time with the real Irlen Clinic in Singapore. As this was our family's third pair with them, Dr Doris Ang was kind enough to give us some discounts. :)
Stacey's old blue glasses were helping, but I felt that they could do so much more, because they weren't UV layered, she couldn't wear them out of doors.

Now that she has her proper Irlen glasses, she wears them all the time, except when she is in dance class. She no longer has to deal with the very bright lights everytime she is going from classroom to out of doors... and that's great. With her new glasses, she reads for longer periods and is less cranky and finds working a great deal easier. I'm so glad...
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Backblog - Birthday Girls

As November rolls around each year, the girls get more and more excited as their birthdays roll around. This year we decided to do away with getting a cake because the rest of us are getting older and finding harder and harder to stomach an entire ice-cream cake between the few of us... so the girls settled for a scoop of ice cream and a mudpie.

They also always get to celebrate at Grandma's house... but Stacey always has her birthday celebrated with Nephew 1, as their birthdays are Nov 10 and Nov 14...


Then Shannon gets her turn a week later and she will share her birthday cake with Nephew 2, as they are only 11 days apart... that's right... born in the same year... Shannon on Nov 19, followed by Nephew 2 on Nov 30.


To my big big girls.... blessed blessed birthday... you are growing up so fast it's amazing... and it's awesome watching you mature. I love you both to bits... Muaks...

Day out with the Twinkle Girls

Zach was invited to his cousin's birthday party one day, and the girls were not invited because his cousin was going to have a Nerf War Party at his place. *shudder* So we brought the girls out for a treat...

We decided to go take a cable car ride as Shannon had last been on one when she was less than a year old... and we had never been on the new black cable cars as yet.

The view was spectacular as always... and the scenery was pretty nice too... :)


The girls were thrilled to be able to have one of us all to themselves the whole time without having to fight for attention. :)


All in all, we had a nice time with them... I love my girls...

Backblog - Twinkledaddy's Birthday Surprise

I promised the kids that we could decorate a cake at the Icing Room for Twinkle Daddy when his birthday rolled around, and I made good on my promise. Here's the naked cake... with the beginnings of some decoration.

And here's the final product.... taaaadaaaa!!!

We surprised Twinkledaddy when he walked in, with lights off and candles lit and everything! The kids were super thrilled that we managed to surprise him (although he already knew about it... hahahahahaha)

Rabbit Adventures 3 mths down the road

So we brought the rabbits home about 3 months ago... and this is what has been happening in our Twinkle household with the Twinklebuns. Shortly after the first bunnies-are-home post, we brought them to the vet for a general checkup. And we found out that I was right all along... Marsh is a girl, while Liquorice is a boy... :) I scheduled to have them both sterilised on Nov 14... around the time that they would be almost 4mths old.

The Twinklebuns love grooming each other and themselves. Here are Liq and Marsh enjoying some together bunny-bonding time... before the awakening of the bunny hormones....

Then one day, when they are about 3 months old, we catch Liq quite enthusiastically ummm, indulging in some bunny-action.... atop Marsh. You get the picture. This told us that Liq was ready... even if Marsh was not quite ready... yet.

Some frantic calls to the vet told us that we could not bring forward the Operation. We were advised to keep the bunnies apart. Now with only one cage, that was to be quite a challenge. But I still managed to create some kind of separate but together enclosure. I was mighty pleased with myself...

I even managed to partition the cage into two...

But bunny hormones are strong and mighty things, and despite our best efforts, we still find Liq in Marsh's enclosure in the mornings... so we tested and strengthened our partitioning efforts and built an Alcatraz of sorts... which worked well... mostly.

Despite our blocking the way, Liq was one DETERMINED bunny... and one day, we came home to see this....

The two were so sweet... they would stick their heads through the partition and groom each other that way. They also worked together and were systematically biting through the wooden fence. :|

The day of the op finally came, and I realised to my horror, that I had only one rabbit carrier and two buns that needed to be transported... and who couldn't be housed together. So I transformed my hammie cage into a bunny cage. It brought about quite a few amused re-glances... a bunny in a hamster cage... haha.

We continued to keep them separated for a while longer while they recuperated. We also needed to rebond them so that they would stop being territorial. To add to the joy of all that, we also bunnysat for our friends who would be leaving their buns with us for the next three weeks.

Finally, after about two more weeks, we successfully reunited the two buns, who were delighted to be together again... Here's Liq asking Marsh to groom him...

And finally, the other buns went home. And all was quiet and well in the land of the Twinklebunnies. See the contented look on Marsh? Love the packaged look when they tuck their paws under them...

Backblog - Scrapbooking Adventures

During the time that twinkledaddy was on leave, I took the opportunity one night to go attend a scrapbooking class... something I'd wanted to do in a while, but didn't have the opportunity to due to the timing of the classes and the many classes the kids have.

But I finally made the time, and this was my first LO done during that class.


And because dear Liq had a LO, I had to make one for Marshmallow too.... which I eventually got round to doing.

But this is as far as I have come in scrapbooking adventures. Hopefully I will get round to getting a few more done. Especially since my supplies have been steadily increasing. :P

Backblog - Universal Studio Staycation

During the 4 PSLE marking days in October, we took the three Twinklets to Universal Studios Singapore for a short one night staycation. The USS has been open for a while now, but we always resisted going because it was new and expensive, plus one of the three Twinklets was not yet quite tall enough for some of the rides. So we reasoned with the older ones that we would wait till everyone could go on any ride they wanted (or would possibly want to go on) and that way we could all enjoy ourselves. So the day finally came.

We took the mandatory picture with the Universal Globe outside the USS...

Here, we are in the Potion Store and fooling around with Donkaaaaaaaaaay!!

This was the accelerator... and we went on this a good TEN times... thanks to the rain and the little one enjoying it so much. Thanks to it being pre-exams for most schools and the wet weather, we could get off the ride as soon as it was done, run right round back to the entrance and get on the very next round. :)

Shannon loved the carousel and here she is striking a pose remarkably similar to that of Gloria (the hippo that she is sitting on).

Evening came and saw a very hungry Twinkle family sitting down to a GINORMOUS pizza. It was very yummy but very thin and didn't quite fill our stomachs the way we thought it would. But that was OK. Cos after the Twinklets were in bed, we snuck out for supper... just Twinkledaddy and I... :)

We stayed at the Festival Hotel, and there was a loft bed and a sofa bed that opened up, so it accomodated our three Twinklets nicely. Zach got the privilege of sleeping up in the loft bed because he was the only boy, and the oldest.

All in all, quite a nice experience despite the rain. Twinkledaddy only had the courage to go on the Human, and not the Cylon, the two biggest rollercoasters and the main attractions at USS. The older Twinklets did go on the Junior Rollercoaster while Shannon enjoyed her trip on the Flyer. Think we will be headed there again sometime next year. Maybe around PSLE marking days again. Hahahahahahaha.

Life the last 6 weeks or so...

...has been terribly busy. With the descent of exams, the arrival of the bunnies and the accompanying mayhem that is the day to day schedule of the three Twinklets, this blog has been sadly sadly neglected. So what's been happening?

Well, firstly, a trip to the vet confirmed that Liquorice is indeed a male rabbit, while Marshmallow is a female... we then made an appointment for this coming Monday to fix them both... but Liquorice, being the high-achieving bun that he is, decided that he would mature a tad faster than Marshmallow, then prove his man... err, buck-hood by proceeding to umm... engage Marshmallow. After a frantic phone call to the vet determined that we couldn't bring up Liq's appointment for surgery, we proceeded to fashion two enclosures and divide up the cage and the enclosure. After 4 more successful jailbreaks by a very determined Liq, we managed to tweek the designs and cover the gaps... effectively building a Rabbit Alcatraz. So far, the Alcatraz remains un-jailbroken. And I have to keep him separated from her for another 4 more days (to the surgery) then another 2 or 3 more days after while Marshmallow recovers and can put up with his nonsense... by which time, I would also have brought home L&M's mom Alice and their sister Fromage, as our friends head out of town for a spell... of two weeks. And her rabbits are jumpers. Not that Liq needs any encouragement. Just this morning he decided to hop right up onto the cage. ZZZZzzzzzzzzz

Meanwhile, in slightly less rabbit-y news, we took the kids out to the Universal Studio for a Staycation. They enjoyed themselves tremendously, despite the rain. We managed to complete one round before the heavens opened and the rain poured down on us. Thankfully we were well prepared and moved around in our ponchos. The rain caused us to miss the Waterworld show, which we had heard was good... so that means that now, we will just have to go back again. Sigh... ;p We stayed the night at the Festive Hotel, and after the children were in bed, snuck out to have supper... just the two of us. That was nice. :)

So now that the exams are over, it is a crazy time of slotting in sessions to see teachers, preparing for not 1, not 2, but 5 performances within the next month, and trying to get Zach better help for Maths. Sigh.

Will write again... hopefully with pics next.

Our new arrivals - Bunnies!

Posted a while back that we are expecting bunnies... and today, the bunnies came home! They are finally weaned from their mom, so we took the opportunity of it being a weekend to cart the bunnies home. It was difficult at first to know which bunnies to pick (we had to choose 2 out of an offering of 3) so today we went to our friend's house to play with the bunnies again before finally deciding. 

It was actually decided late last night that we would go today to pick the bunnies, so I woke up at 7am this morning to set this up in anticipation of the bunnies coming home. We were blessed to be given the cage and the fencing from a fellow bunny lover who also happens to be my friend from my Bible Study Group as well as my neighbour from the next block!

Here are the bunnies, still somewhat dazed from their car ride home... and given time and space to settle into their new home without their mom and 4 other siblings. They are approximately 9 weeks old.

This little darling is the only all white bun from the litter of 6. Named Marshmallow for obvious reasons... we still aren't 100% sure if they are boys or girls, but I tend to think of Marsh as a girl...

This is Liquorice... one of two brown patchies from the litter. I love the little white streak he has on his forehead. Again we don't know if Liq is a boy or not, but I have a tendency to think of Liq as a "he". Hurhur.

Another tooth gone...

Just as I had posted (albeit a little belatedly) that Shannon had lost her front tooth, today, she went to the school dentist to yank out the other front tooth that had gone all wobbly and terribly askew the night before. Today, she smiled at me when she got home and I noticed...

Isn't that the most adorable toothless grin? Sigh. They never look this cute again...

- posted from my iPhone

Outing to Sentosa...

During the school holidays, we decided to spend a day at Sentosa. Unlike previous trips, this time, we decided to splurge on a Day Play Pass... one that gave us access to 13 attractions from 9am-7pm that same day. As a result, we ended up doing things that we had never done before!

Here we are on the sky-lift... Well, actually, that's daddy with the girls... and Zach and I were in the chair in front of them. We started at the bottom of the hill, so this was what we did first!

We went to catch three 3D "movies" that were more like simulators and rides... Desperados was great fun because we got to shoot bandits while sitting on a moving saddle! And we got to go two rounds, where I came in 2nd and 5th respectively! Woohoo! Not bad eh?

Included in our pass was the Trapeze... and Stacey was super keen to try this out, so after going on the Luge and the shows and the sky-lift and the Sky Tower and having lunch, we headed down the beach to give this a go. Only Stacey was keen at first, but then daddy decided he wanted a go too! After watching daddy and Stacey have fun, Shannon too decided she wanted to give it a whirl... and she did! So the girls had two turns each, while daddy only did it once, because he was so pooped after that he could barely move!

Here's Shannon having a swing!

The three children wanted some time at the beach to play with sand, so that's what we did. In part for Zach's Sensory input as part of OT, in part just to have fun, and so that mom and dad could just sit and chill. The weather was beautiful that day - not too hot, but no rain at all! It was superbly awesome... I couldn't have asked for more!

- posted from my iPhone

Soon to be our Pets - Bunnies!

A friend's rabbit gave birth to 6 baby bunnies about 8 weeks ago... and we've been watching their progress and growth through Facebook. Slowly, these little critters have grown on me, and what started out as a simple suggestion (which I initially rejected) grew on me.... and now, we are slated to adopt two of these darlings.

Over the school holidays, we made a date with our friend and went to visit the bunnies... in part for me to see how the children would react to them. Surprisingly, the older two took to the bunnies very well!

Here's Zach holding Oreo... Given his tactile issues and so on, I thought he did well with the bunnies. My friend observed that he was very patient with the bunnies, and cultivating that patience can only be a good thing. Now if only he would show the same patience towards his sisters!!

Stacey loved the bunnies too... Here she holds Marshmallow - the hot favourite to be adopted by the 3 children. We might possibly be adopting this little one, together with Liqourice, one of the brown patchies (we didn't get a photo of that particular darling that day, cos I was busy holding him...)

Now, where's a picture of Shannon, I hear you ask? Well, Miss Shannon has some issues about actually holding a bunny herself, though she is most delighted to stroke and love a bunny, as long as said bunny is being held by someone else. Ah well, we hope to cure her of that once the bunnies are used to us and not as skitterish as they were that day!

At one point, 4 of the babies decided to gather under the day bed... and so we took a pic. The one with one ear up and the other down is Marsh... isn't that adorable? Now we are just waiting for Mummy Alice to stop nursing them before we take them home and claim them as truly ours. Watch this space for more updates!

- posted from my iPhone

Brave and Toothless

Little Miss Shannon had to have her tooth pulled to make way for the big tooth... She had it pulled at the dentist in school... and was given a reward for being brave. It's been a while, but the adult tooth has yet to really peek through...
- posted from my iPhone

We've finally got our Irlen glasses...

Here's Zach in his Irlen Glasses. He totally digs the frames, and the tint makes the glasses look super cool. His tint isn't as dark as Stacey's or mine, but already it's made a difference. He tells me that things look a lot clearer and that they look more 3D. He also says that the words don't move around anymore and that the black lines and dots are gone and it's easier and faster to read now. I'm glad.

Here's mine. Looking a great deal less glam than his, I was more concerned about getting a pair that was big enough so that when I have it on my face, I don't see a halo of bright around the too-small lenses... hence the boring-ness of the frame. The one that I had originally picked out was rejected by the Irlen people because they felt the bottom was far too thin and I risked having my lenses pop out and smash into smithereens... and at $500 a pair, that is truly the last thing I want happening. So I opted for a more sensible pair. Ah well.

I've had them for about 3 days now... and I find reading off the computer so much more comfortable. Reading books also means that the words don't threaten to spring out and the white doesn't outshine and drown the words... such respite. I am so glad that I have them. They do make me feel so much more comfortable. And despite how dark they look, I don't notice a difference in the colour of my world... until I deliberately do a comparison... and comparing my old glasses with this pair, I am surprised at how uncomfortable my world was... with the too glaring screens and the discomfort from the words that threaten to disappear.
- posted from my iPhone