Autumn School Excursion

Jonathan went on a school excursion to the park to collect autumn leaves and acorns last Wednesday. I love the change of season from hot summer to cool autumn, when the leaves start to turn red. It was really fun watching the kids collect the autumn leaves. An even prettier sight when the wind blew and swept the leaves away from the trees.

After the kids picked up the autumn leaves and put them into their zip-lock bags, we proceeded to the centre of the park to play with the parachute. The kids gathered around the colourful parachute, flung it into the air and watched it drift down. Next, the teachers piled up the leaves on the parachute, and everyone tossed them all over.

On our way back to school, we found acorns near the entrance to the park. The kids spent some time picking up the acorns under the tree. After that, we returned to school for lunch and circle time.

A wonderful day at the park with friends, teachers and moms.

Halloween 2009

Our neighbourhood organised a once-a-year Halloween trick-or-treating event. There were 55 houses participating in hosting the event by giving out candies. More than 300 children were expected to turn up for this event which took place from 4pm to 7pm, 31st October.

Justin was excited to wear his Peter Pan costume. Jonathan, on the other hand, didn't want to dress up. Even a bribe of candies or the idea of him having to stay at home didn't make him change into his Superman costume. Oh well, we have to be flexible at times. This was what transpired the day before.

Papa: Jon, look at this cool Superman costume. Come and change.
Jon: No, I don't want.
Papa: Common on, you will look very nice in it. Even Kor Kor has changed to his costume.
Jon: No.
Papa: Jon, wear the costume. Superman can fly.
Jon: No. I don't want to wear that. (*Almost in tears*)
Papa: Why?
Jon: Because I cannot fly!

After a (long) while, we managed to convince him to try. And he did for a few minutes before taking them off. Managed to get a picture of him. I doubt the costume will fit Jon next year because the pants were getting a tad too short.

Red Ninja & Superman

Anyway, back to the Halloween event. It was really fun for the kids. Even the adults joined in the fun. Most of them were witches and magicians but there were some interesting costumes, a big-bellied chef with a bag of bloody heads and the Joker. The kids wore different costumes, witches, fairies, ninjas, demons, pirates, Snow White, pumpkins, cheer-leader, skeletons, knights, etc. All of them were out on the streets trick-or-treating.

The houses were very well decorated too. Some houses had black & orange balloons, scary masks on the hedges, spiders on walls, skeletons, lovely pumpkins with lights. There was a house with a white ghost that made scary noises while moving from one end of the garage to the other.

We all had a pretty fun Halloween.

Pony Park

Justin went to the Pony Park with his friends during the school term break. They were at the park just in time for feeding. The kids fed the ponies carrot sticks. I used to think that a pony is a baby horse, but in fact, a pony is a grown-up horse with height under 147cm. Besides carrots, ponies also eat hay and apples.

Feeding carrots

Thereafter, the kids sat down to make a drawing of the ponies at the park.

Drawing Time

As the kids were interested in the pony rides in the afternoon, we decided to adjourn for lunch at a nearby organic restaurant.

Justin with Mayuki and Rui Le

After lunch we returned to the park. They had to wait in queue for their turns. Everyone was excited, patting the horse and running around the outer ring of the mini-course when the other was on the pony. Justin described the ride as "bumpy" and giggled all the way.

The kids had so much fun that they wanted to try it again. Unfortunately, the next pony ride was one and a half hours later. Being wonderful parents (*ahem*), we decided to go for tea and come back again so that the kids could have another go.

Heading for our tea break

We went back at 3:45pm. This time there were fewer children and the kids rode around the circuit twice. Justin was elated. And then on his second round, his pony stopped halfway on the tracks and pooed. "Hey, why are you stopping?" Justin exclaimed, only to turn his back around and hear the droppings go "thud, thud, thud" onto the ground. Everyone laughed. The girls shrieked.

Second time on the pony

The day ended well. Except for the sudden realisation only at 4:25pm that the park closes at 4:40pm. I had parked my car in the park, which was 15 minutes walk from the Pony Park. I quickly left the kids and ran all the way to my car. Managed to drive out of the park before the gates were closed. Well, at least the running accounted for my exercise for the day.

Disneyland, Here We Come!

This post is finally up!

Jonathan has been asking us to bring him to Disneyland since he saw photos of Justin with Mickey and Minniey at HK Disneyland. So we decided to bring him there to celebrate his third birthday. With tickets purchased the day before, we headed for Tokyo Disneyland at 7:45am. There was already a queue in front of the entrance when we arrived at 8:30am, even though the park opened at 9am.

TOMORROWLAND

Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters

Once we were in the park, Papa went to Monsters, Inc. to get the fast pass while we made our way to Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters. Using the Astro Blaster guns to shoot the robots and target boards was really fun. I enjoyed the ride as much as the kids.


Grand Circuit Raceway

The kids were excited behind the wheels of the race car. Jonathan was at the driver's seat while I helped him to press the accelerator. There is a rail in the middle of the track so that the driver does not swerve to far out or leave the track.

StarJets
We went in pairs for this ride - Jonathan & I, Justin & Kakak Uci. The rocket ride was about 2 storeys above ground level and we could see a good view of the park from above.

Disney Halloween Parade

MicroAdventure

This is a 3D animated show about Professor Szalinski from "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" who won the "Inventor of the Year" award. I absolutely love the photo of Justin in the oversized yellow 3D glasses.

TOONTOWN

The kids spent some time exploring Toontown - climbing up Chip n Dale's Treehouse & Donald's boat. The kids also loved the Gadgets Go Coaster, a children's mini-roller coaster which Jonathan could ride. Justin said that everyone including Papa and Ah Mah screamed, except him.

ADVENTURELAND

Next stop - Adventureland to take their favourite train ride on the Western River Railroad around the wilderness. The Jungle Cruise was also enjoyable with wild animals looking very real, hostile tribes, people chased up a tree by rhinoceros, baby elephants playing with water, crocodiles and many more.

We took a break at the outdoor terrace of Cafe Orleans before our fastpass to Monsters, Inc.

At about 4:30pm, we headed towards Tomorrowland again for our fastpass to Monster, Inc. The waiting time for the people without the fastpass was about 1 hour 15 minutes. The ride wasn't as fun as Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blaster though.

Backdrop: Cinderella Castle

FANTASYLAND

We queued up for Peter Pan's Flight. The kids got pretty tired waiting in line for more than an hour. The ride was good, seemed like we were "flying" in the air amongst Peter Pan, Wendy and Captain Hook. We went for our last fastpass for the day - Pooh's Honey Hunt.

And additional 2 more rides just for the kids: Dumbo the Flying Elephant & Castle Carousel.


Our stomachs were growling by 7pm. We had dinner at the Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall, finished dinner just in time to watch the night parade. A wonderful and magical finale for our day at Disneyland.

Looking forward to another trip to Disneyland with Wei Jie soon!

Tired & Drained

I have a few more posts (including our trip to Disneyland) which I want to update. Haven't had the energy. The kids usually fall asleep by 10pm but I would be so drained that I don't have the mood to blog. Taking care of kids isn't easy. We worry about their diet & nutrition, how to provide a healthy learning space for kids, their social, physical & emotional needs, general well-being, etc. But these two boys of mine, are the best thing that ever happened to me as a mom.