The Phang Family: Re Cap 2012

First half of the year started with big sis going back to school and got promoted to “Kindergarten 1”. Back to school was not much of an issue for her since she did attend holiday classes during the long break in December. But being promoted to K1 meant the start of weekly homework as well as spelling and 听写. Anyway teaching her was not all fun and easy. We had our difficult times but through trial and error, I finally told myself to manage my expectation of a 4 year old. That I shall be patient and tell myself she is not an adult and do not assume she can pick things up as fast as an adult. So for the rest of the year, I tried my best to keep a balance between getting work done correctly and finding the best way to teach her the concepts and helping her remember. In terms of other activities, Hazel has started Ballet. In Jun, I received a call from Singapore Ballet Aacademy that Hazel could attend their try out to see if she’s suitable for the school. She made it through (we receive the letter 2 weeks after try-out) and so July was the start of Ballet for Hazel. At the end of the term in Dec, teacher said she has improved, though she probably has a long way to go in terms of technique- she is not as flexible as some of the girls in class.

August, marked our dear son’s 2nd birthday. We had a Disney Car themed birthday bash for him at home and it was a humble celebration with our families. Since we had to be fair, we also gave big sister a small birthday celebration at the BB Civil Service clubhouse for her 5th birthday. We booked a small private room at the Chinese restaurant which provided us with free karaoke! In between we also took time out to take the kids to Universal Studios, Sentosa's POLW water playground, Night Safari and The Zoo. [USS and Night Safari were complimentary entry thanks to hubs company].

2012 saw us taking 3 trips and 1 staycation. In May, we decided to take a trip (longer flight) with the kids to South Korea along with grandparent and my sister. We covered Jeju and Seoul on our own in 8 days. The kids enjoyed it as they got to visit Pororo land; sat in a submarine; enjoy nature with Sunrise peak and waterfalls; and eat lots of favourite roasted seaweed. The second trip was a short weekend trip to Bangkok, just me and the hubs, to celebrate our 7th anniversary. We ate our favourite Thai Food, birds nest and mango sticky rice, did massage as well as shop - all this uninterrupted and without rushing through! The year-end trip for the kids, we decided to treat them to HK Disneyland. It was our first time handling the 2 kids on our own on an overseas trip but I must say we managed quite well, or maybe the kids were happy and cooperative. The boy at 2 yrs 4 mths was better able to appreciate the trip. Both siblings were happy and enjoyed everything from the airplane ride, hotel stay, eating and sightseeing. The hubs and I also enjoyed the 6 day trip with the kids, it was not as tiring as we had expected. The last few weeks of December was spent together with the kids, as my Mom suddenly had to go for a minor eye surgery so couldn’t take care of them for 10 days. We decided to get the kids out of the house so chose a short staycation at Rasa Sentosa. 3Days2Nights at the resort made the kids super happy and wrapped up 2012 with a happy and wonderful time spent with family! I'm glad we got to spend so much time together with the kids.