​We are invited to Loverboy’s school for Christmas celebration and the children are told to dress up in Red / White or Christmas dressing theme costume for the celebration. This year, we decided to order his costume from Lazada since he has been singing songs on Santa Claus. 

​There are a couple of DIY stations prepared by the teachers which keeps the children engaged for the hour before their performance. It is also our first-time seeing Morris performing since he was previously on Half day session in school which means he do not get to participate most of the time. Pretty engaging for the activities planned by the teachers~ THUMBS UP!

​Morris was deciding between Paw Patrol and Peppa Pig for his Big FOUR birthday celebration this year. After almost 2 weeks of changing here and there, he finally decided he wants to do Paw Patrol Theme for his Birthday. Luckily, this is one of the popular themes among the children these days and there are plenty of available templates available online in Pinterest. 

​Decided to pen down the preparation separately with more information provided on the process. The whole preparation and researching for templates took me about 3-4 weeks and is usually during evening or night time after Morris is asleep since I am working full time. With his 3 years old birthday celebrate as my first official dessert table set up, I am pretty much confident that I am able to do a good one this year as well 😊
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Started doing Hama beads since 2017 for the boys at home and decided to utilize them for this year’s birthday theme as well. The template is available HERE and you can make the same as well. It took me almost an hour to re-create each Paw Patrol characters and it is rather tedious. Will suggest making them across different days to prevent straining of eyes. Forgotten to take a family photo for the 6 Paw Patrol doggies after completion though~

​These works well as decors, cup coasters as well as bag charms for the family 😊

​Morris enjoys coloring so I went online to find some coloring templates downloadable online and print them to create into an activity book as part of the goodies bag. Here are some of the templates which I have uploaded and pls use them for personal use only. 

​Bought along the kids coloring pencils along with the sharpener from Qoo10 to add in to the goodies bag. Found the printable labels for cupcakes / bottles from online and find it suitable to paste over the coloring pencils and gosh, they are so pretty and personalized. 

​Another of the snack treaties with Milo wheat balls breakfast cereal packed into individual packet of doggie bags. I used ziplock bags to hold the cereals just in case the kids are unable to finish the cereal within day of opening, it will still be fresh. 

​We added a unique touch to the party celebration with the napkin folding ideas which adds fun element to the dessert table, low cost but color popper during the celebration.  A must-do if you have a couple minute or two to space on making each of them 😊

​Ordered the Paw Patrol Theme balloons from Taobao and I am glad they came in time for the celebration. Shipment was slightly delayed due to the China Golden Week holiday but so happy that the parcel came just the night before the celebration. YAY! These are very affordable from Taobao and a hit for the kids during the party.  Adds a great touch to the celebration as well!

​Do buffer at least 3-4 weeks for the shipment to arrive. 

There is no picture so beautiful as smiling, bright-eyed, happy children; no music so sweet as their clear and ringing laughter. 

There you go, one such great moment where lover boy caught an octopus 🐙 ! Keep the smile going for as long as you can my love. ❤️

“Laugh as long as you breathe and love as long as you live “ ​

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MORRIS! Today is Morris’s actual day birthday celebration! We took leave to head down to his school for celebration with his friends before heading to USS for the celebration. It is our first celebration in school since he only started school early this year. He wasn’t really excited for school but after seeing the huge cake delivered, he started chasing us to go to school for the celebration. The beautiful rainbow cake is made by The cakerie club and we have picked the strawberry shortcake favor which we felt is more suitable for the kids.

​Was afraid that the cake will be insufficient for the school since we need to cater for 42 kids + 30 adults. Last minute decision and we made the Nutella blossom cakes as well! The school recommended us to cater sufficient cake size so that whole school can enjoy the birthday celebration today. This is also something that I like how the school thinks for the students. 

As we requested for the celebration to be held in the morning 9.30AM so that we can head to USS thereafter, it ended up being a quick celebration which runs slightly over 30 minutes. Morris was so happy when the whole school sing Birthday song for him as he was beaming widely throughout the whole celebration. We have also catered sufficient gifts for every student in the school to leave no one behind. It is a happy occasion and we wish every kid to share Morris’s happiness. We also requested Morris to hand out the gifts to each of them so that he gets to interact more with others. 😊

Next’s up! We are heading to the UNIVERSAL STUDIOS!

Morris’s BIG THREE Minions celebration was a huge success! Thank you to our families for taking time off to attempt our little terror’s celebration and it mean a lot to our family. This time round, we hold it within our humble premises with only immediate families invited to the party for about 15 of us. We intend to DIY the decors as well as dessert table on the day so we have taken almost a week to prepare all the props beforehand. We also made the right decision to cater the mini buffet spread as well as ordering his birthday cake from The cakerie club because it save time and quality is assured. This is pasted at the door prior entrance.

 Best thing is that self-collection is in PUNGGOL which is really convenient for us!​ I will definitely order from her again next year! :) It comes in a beautiful box which enhance the whole decoration for our dessert table. This is how our Dessert table looks like!!!! Drum roll............!

Morris‘s favourite character is Minion. Weird thing is that he doesn’t watch the Minion movie at all and shows little interest in the banana song so I am guessing that it is the striking yellow color that caught his attention. Either way, he demanded for a Minion theme birthday celebration for his BIG THREEs! On and off will be asking us about his Minion birthday if it is coming and also if he is getting a Minion birthday cake? LOL! Kids these days are definitely getting smarter as they grow to know of things they want at such a young age.

To satisfy this small wish of his for a minion celebration, we begin brainstorming on what to do for his birthday celebration. Since 2 years old celebration, we have been keeping it a rather cosy event where we only invite immediate family members from both sides and come together for a meal and a cake cutting session. This year is slightly different as he begins school and we will be celebrating in school as well as his party at home. School wise, it will be simple with a cake cutting and gifts for his fellow classmates.

For the home party, we decided to stick to Meihao99 for their mini buffet catering since the review was good last year. We love their curry chicken and it is fuss free ordering since MOQ for mini buffet is 15 pax which is about ideal for our small party. Next question is whether should I bake a birthday cake for Morris this year but after much consideration, I decided to chicken out this year because I felt pressurized since he has been so excited about his upcoming minion birthday cake.

After hearing some reviews from the JJB mommies, we went ahead to order his Minion birthday cakes (for both school and home celebration) from The Cakerie Club. This home baker is located in Punggol and her price is really reasonable. I will review again upon trying the cake. 

Some of the free printable links for your reference if you wish to create a minion theme like mine :)

http://halegrafx.com/printables/12-free-minion-printables-for-your-upcoming-despicable-me-party/
http://halegrafx.com/printables/free-printable-despicable-me-minions-birthday-banner/
https://www.skiptomylou.org/free-printable-minions/
https://www.skiptomylou.org/free-printable-minion-stickers-for-twinkies/
http://www.birthdaypartyideas4u.com/free-birthday-interview-printable/

Bought the stationery set for Morris's gift to his friends in the childcare. Something small but it excites Morris as he immediately requested for 1 set for himself. It comes with Notebook, pencils, ruler, eraser as well as a pencil case. I added it to the Prime wishlist and ship out via EZBUY since shipping is cheap despite these are bulky.

Bought perler beads and made some of these minion coaster to fit the theme as well. Very easy to assemble but just a little time consuming because we need to put them 1 by 1. Definitely love how it turn out to be!

Morris requested to see the Pandas again for the zoo trip this time round so we decided to cover River safari for the weekend journey as Friends of the zoo. Love the layout and structure of River safari better as it is mostly sheltered which is less humid and some of the sectors are fully air-conditioned as well.  We are very fortunate this time round to see huge actions from the Pandas especially Kai Kai who was stretching up the tree to take carrot to eat.

Morris's Childcare plan a combined  celebration to incorporate both Children's day and the Lantern Festival together. It was held under the void deck with some games and surprising, many of the children attended for the event. The void deck was bursting with families and it was a loud celebration since the kids are like shouting here and there. There is also a lantern-making competition by using recyclable materials on the day of the event. PapaTan took charge of the lantern-making with Morris as i was occupied the night before the event. 

The poor boy was running fever throughout the week and ended up not attending school. He recovered on the day of the event and we thought to bring him down for some celebration instead of missing out for such get-together session.  He was rather sticky initially perhaps because he was overwhelmed by the # of children around but shortly after, he warm up and things were better. 

The kids made mooncake in school as a surprise for the parents but because Morris dint attend school that week, His favorite teacher made 1 for him to bring home :) Adding on, despite he did not join in to the sports event, he was also given a medal in encouragement! Such a sweet gesture of the school! 

PapaTan's lantern won the best lantern award! YAY! And also, plenty of snacks and presents from school as children's day present.

After chatting with a friend regarding her contribution to her mom’s CPF Special account, I begin to research more about this investment as well as how to go about it. Basically, CPF is composed of 3 portions: -

1. Ordinary Account (OA)
2. Special Account (SA) which will become Retirement Account (RA) by the age of 55 years old.
3. Medisave Account (MA)

OA is primarily used for payment for housing while MA is for our healthcare. Standard interest for OA is at 2.5% while SA and MA are at 4%. Additional 1% given on 1st $60K combined across all three (at least $20K in OA), that means 5% compound interest on the MA and SA a/c!
For members below 55, when the Ordinary Account has zero balance, the first $60,000 in the Special Account savings will attract 5 per cent while the remaining balance will enjoy 4 per cent interest.
 
TOPPING UP YOUR CHILDREN’S CPF ACCOUNT
Each Singaporean newborn has a CPF account set up by the Government as they were given $4000 Medisave Grant. With compound interest being powerful, by topping up into the child’s special account will allow the sum to compound over up to 55 years. I was reading online, there are some rich family who top up straight $161,000 (Maximum for the FRS as of 2017) into their newborn a/c and with compound interest of projected 5% per year, these could easily compound to some $1.5 million over the next 55 years.
 
Alternatively, to top up your children’s CPF account is to use the Voluntary Contribution scheme which is currently capped at $37,740 per year. Contributions will be split between the Ordinary, Special and Medisave accounts.
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We felt that positive about building up excess money in the SA and will be treating the contribution as though it is a form of Fixed deposit. Just a mere sum of $200 per month over 10 years will allow the amount paid for to compound to over $250k at 55 years. That is about 10x growth in the initial contribution amount. Off we go and started the first round contribution of $2.4k via IBANK to his CPF account.

To submit the topping-up application via our online services, please:
1) Log in to my cpf Online Services with your SingPass.
2) Select “My Requests” on the left-hand navigation menu.
3) Select “Building Up My/My Recipient’s CPF Savings (eg. Transfer OA to SA savings, Topping up to my RA, CPF Minimum Sum Topping-Up Scheme, etc)”.
4) To make a cash top-up, click on this option on the screen and follow the instructions to submit the topping-up application.

We are also able to have access to view our children's statement via online by calling CPF to request the CSO to mail the MAC FORM 4 over. We will need to fill the form and return. Once the linkage of the account , we can view the CPF statement online. 

Since we have morning to spare this weekend, we decided to head to the zoo again. While papaTan suggested to cover the area in sectors, it makes the whole journey a breeze because we no longer need to rush around hoping to complete the whole zoo and river safari within 1 day. With the membership, we can slowly walk around and stay put for events if we wishes to. 

For the morning session, we went to watch performance instead!
Elephants at Work & Play Show @ Elephants of Asia : 11.30am
Rainforest Fights Back Show @ Shaw Foundation Amphitheatre : 12.30pm

The second year where Changi Airport have initiated on a campaign call “Changi Loves Kids” where the group wishes to create a kids’ friendly destination for families to shop, dine and play in. Basically, the campaign is to create awareness of the shops in the Airport by organizing a series of activities and enhancement initiatives to focus on offering the best for the little visitors.
 
The organizing committee seems to have some serious thoughts to the promotion as it is rather extensive. There are many restaurants collaborating with the Airport as they provide “Kids Dine Free” promotion (solely for lunch time on weekends only). This is especially good for us as Morris started eating more each day and we thought it might be good weekend activities for the boy.  We invited grandparentsKWAN and UncleKWAN to join us for the lunch and carnival games as we picked ThaiExpress for lunch while Xin Wang Hong Kong Café for desserts.  

​Riding on the kids Dine free promotion, we managed to redeem Complimentary Honey Chicken with Rice and Iced Lemon Tea from ThaiExpress as well as the Cheese Baked Rice with mushroom from Xin Wang (both value above $10). Sharing below with the requirements at both restaurants. 

I would think that this campaign entices our family to head to Changi Airport for meals. The rides are indoor and the queue today seems rather manageable for us. There are many restaurant choices available varies across cuisines. Just that the parking is expensive at the airport that makes us think twice. Morris likes to see airplane and he loves roaming around the airport which makes the trip worth it.
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If you have yet to visit the airport for the event, do check it out! It is a good place to spend half a day while getting your active toddler KO. 😊

We have been chatting about heading to the Zoo for while a while and finally work out on a date to the zoo with Noelle and myself taking leave from work. With terrible 2 toddlers in hand, it will be better for us to go on a weekday if we wish to cover more animals and shows. Else the zoo is always extremely crowded.  

Spoken to papaTan and we have the intention to sign up for Zoo membership as we thought that it will be good as a monthly activity with Morris while letting him explore around seeing animals. 4 parks in 1 membership for 2 adults + 1 children is at $259 with additional $20 optional if you want free parking at zoo for the year. Do note that this additional carpark premium is payable at the zoo only. 
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​ZOO-RASSIC PARK
Transport back in time and stroll through the misty path to learn all about dinosaurs.

Admission is FREE for Singaporean which includes access to some of the exhibition. We visited the exhibition "WE BUILT A NATION" as well which explores the first ten pivotal years of independence (1965 – 1975) that shaped Singapore’s history, and the important roles and leadership of Singapore’s first Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and his team who laid the foundations for modern Singapore.

We were lucky to get a slot for the childcare centre right under my block. It is under the institution - My world. We decided to let him start school half day first despite paying for the full day session as we want him to adapt better before even considering full time. 

Putting him to school expose him to friends and also rules and regulations. These might be good experience to the king to the house. First day of school and we hope for the better! :)