Girl's Concert and the Hubby's 35th Birthday

It was a 3-day birthday celebration for the hubby again this year, just like it was the year before.

However this year, he'll be starting the celebrations with his girl's annual year end concert! We were told that she'll be leading the class in singing the national anthem and taking the pledge in both English and Chinese (I don't even know the whole pledge in Chinese) so we were excited to see her in action!

Leading the rest of her class in saying the pledge

I was really nervous that she will be scared but she performed like a pro. I am very proud of her!


The finale pose!

Her brother slept for most of it, only waking when the concert was going to end

Good job girl!

After the concert, we had dim sum at Imperial Treasure at Great World City.

You must try the porridge and noodles here; delicious! 

The mum-in-law and I love this restaurant, which in our opinion is better than Crystal Jade.

After lunch, we headed to Volvo to pick up the XC90 7-Seater SUV. The hubby and I tend to have different ideas of our dream car (mine is the Mini Cooper or Volkswagan and his is a Ferrari or BMW) but owning an SUV was something we both always wanted! Therefore we were more than thrilled that we got a chance to experience it before deciding whether to own one in future or not.

Volvo XC90 at the Volvo showroom

It's so nice that Volvo has their own kids play room to entertain the kids while we do the adult stuff!

Both the hubby and I love how high up and sturdy the car was.

Hubby absolutely enjoying his drive

I also love the enormous boot, which is already large enough even without the seats down but if you lay the back seats down, it is huge!

The back door is split into two parts so that the lower part can be used as a stand (to put your stuff on the roof) or even a seat (to sit and enjoy the sea breeze) as it can hold the weight of up to 100kg

With the seat down, see how much room there is for me to put our Baby Jogger double stroller. Easy peasy!

According to my know-everything-about-airplanes-and-vehicles brother, the Volvo XC90 was designed by a family guy, whose objective was to have a parent carrying a baby in one hand still be able to operate the car with only the other hand. I tried exactly that, carrying my baby in one hand while loading the boot, opening the doors, and pushing the middle seats to the front and back. Well what do you know, my know-it-all brother was right!

There's also the added bonus of a built-in booster seat and more than enough seats for everyone, which makes it a really great family car =)

This car fits our family perfectly

We drove the car to pick my mum, sister and brother for dinner and for once, we were able to squeeze everyone into the car and still managed to find space for our double stroller in the boot.

More than enough space in the boot for our double stroller

Selfie of the whole family
(although you can't see baby boy who's in his car seat)

The sister and brother were really happy that they don't have to take the bus for once!

We had dinner at Jang Shou Korean Charcoal BBQ located at Esplanade because the last time I was there I enjoyed the food. The food was awesome and quite authentic albeit a bit pricey.

Kimchi soup and BBQ beef at Jang Shou Korean Charcoal BBQ

As the XC90 has a sunroof, we thought it'll be fun to take a joyride down Orchard Road to see the Christmas lights!

Christmas lights along Orchard Road

My girl was thrilled. The sunroof was possibly her favourite part of the car! =)

The next day, we went for our free staycation that came with the hubby's membership, just as we did last year. This year however, we decided to stay at Grand Copthorne Hotel rather than Orchard Hotel.

Sitting on the steps of the hotel lobby

Our Room

Beautiful view of the Singapore River and Clarke Quay
(You can even spot the Singapore Flyer and MBS)

A boat along the Singapore River
(Captured using the minature function of my Olympus OMD)

Chilling in the pool

Good as the hotel was, I personally did not like it as it was just too close to our house. It didn't feel special you know.

In any case, our friends joined us for dinner later that evening and we had a nice drive to The Grandstand in our borrowed Volvo. It was big enough to accommodate all of us, including both of our boys' almost identical Ferarri car seats.

Two car seats? No problem.

Parked at the Grandstand

We decided to have dinner at the Treehouse Cafe because I knew they had toys to occupy my girl while we had dinner.

Climbing up to the "treehouse"

I have no idea what this is but I think it's stewed pork knuckle; surprisingly delicious!

After dinner, we continued our journey to Punggol Settlement as our family had never visited it before.

Baby Boy's buddy (born just 7 days earlier) riding our double stroller with him. Felt like I have twins for a minute there.. really can't imagine taking care of two babies at once.

A group photo at the pier

There're two playgrounds and a huge turtle pond there! My girl was really happy. I quite liked the place for hanging out. Think we'll be back again =)

The next morning, we checked out of our our hotel and had lunch at Grand Shanghai, one of Grand Copthorne's restaurants.

Fulfilling my girl's request to take photos by the river

Cantonese dim sum (again!) and cuisine

And with that, our 3 days of birthday celebration (looks like it's going to be a 3 day affair every year!) came to an end. It was also time to return the Volvo, which made my girl very sad =(

After driving the XC90 for 3 days we're quite convinced that perhaps one day we'll own it. No offence to MPV owners but we prefer SUVs and the Volvo XC90 is one of the few SUVs in the market that can sit 7 people!

Do note though that there are few of the current model left because a new model is going to be launched next year. That's ok with us because I like the old model and can't afford a new car anyway (crazy COE prices!) We'll just see if we can get a 2nd hand one as our weekend car =)

Happy birthday dear!

Disclosure: Complimentary 3-day loan of a Volvo XC90 (inclusive of fuel and parking) was received from Volvo Cars Singapore for the purposes of fulfilling the hubby's dream of driving the whole family in a luxury car on his birthday. No monetary compensation was received; all opinions are my own.

Daddy's Xing Mama Opens in Shanghai

Words cannot express how proud we are of the official opening of my dad's Singapore-themed restaurant in Shanghai, China. After working long and hard in China for the last 20 years, my dad has finally been able to fulfill his dream of being a business owner.

The poster says, "Xing Mama, a Singapore Style Restaurant"

Named 星妈妈 Xing Mama (also known as Simon Mama), the restaurant was inspired by the Singaporean dishes that my dad has grown up eating. In those days when my dad was growing up, most mothers stayed at home, looked after the kids and cooked for the family. All children love their mother's cooking, even if it wasn't restaurant quality, because it was made with love. Hence the name Xing Mama was partly inspired by my grandmother's cooking. To go one step further, daddy decided it was apt to bring Singapore to Shanghai (I think he really misses Singapore and would like to bring a little bit of home to a foreign land).

My dad, standing at the entrance of Xing Mama

The restaurant has a minature Merlion at the entrance so you won't miss it!

The dining area with waitresses donning the signature Singapore girl kebaya
(The Chinese words say, "Singapore Style Bak Kut Teh", the restaurant's signature dish)

Photos of Singapore landmarks on the wall

The signature dish is our beloved bak kut teh (pork rib soup), which is authentically Singaporean as the ingredients are sourced and exported to China directly from Singapore.

Example of the food they serve
(Bak kut teh is at the top left)

Many of the mainland Chinese have visited Singapore and love our food and culture. Hence, since its opening, Xing Mama has been bussling with people eager to rekindle their memory of or try out Singapore food.

Xing Mama was also recently featured on Shanghai TV. Here's the video:

We're so proud of daddy and what he has achieved by the grace of God. God has indeed blessed us above and beyond what we can ask or imagine.

Do visit Xing Mama if you can when you visit Shanghai! =)

星妈妈 Xing Mama is located at

2B13 世博源，浦东新区上南路，上海，中国

2B13 The Rivermall, Pudong, Shangan Road, Shanghai, China 200126

P.S: Photos in this post were provided by my daddy. I'll take my own photos when we visit in 2016 =)

The 3-Day Birthday Celebration

It was the hubby's birthday last Thursday and we had a long weekend of celebrations, starting with his favourite seafood dinner at Unique Seafood.

Too busy eating, no time to pose..

Cheese-baked lobsters and lobster with Ee-Fu noodles

Hubby specially requested for lobsters so his mother ordered 3 for him! And to top it off, his girl sang him a birthday song and gave him a big birthday kiss!

Celebration with cupcakes
(this is for show only as hubby doesn't like cakes.. I ended up eating all 3 of them!)

Family photo

The next day we both took leave to stay at the Orchard Hotel, which came complimentary due to the membership that the hubby bought.

Premium room at Orchard Hotel

My girl had been looking forward to this all week and was super excited to check out the room and the hotel's facilities. Since the weather was still good, we decided to bring her for a swim before we headed out for a late lunch.

At the swimming pool of the hotel

I didn't manage to take a picture of my bare, protruding tummy during my first pregnancy as at that time I was too self-conscious and depressed but I've since regretted not doing it! As this might be the last time that I'm pregnant and I might not get another chance in future, I decided to put aside my self-consciousness and to just do it!

"My baby brother is in my mummy's tummy!"

I guess you only live once so this time, no regrets! Anyway, there's always Photoshop.. =P

Anyway, that was one of the only photos we managed to get the cooperation of my girl as she soon got really impatient to jump into the pool! My girl has really improved a lot in her swimming and can now swim on her own with just her arm floats =)

Swimming solo!

Both her daddy and I agree that it is definitely time to sign her up for swimming classes starting next year. Just as well, since I will be able to get my weekly swim while she goes for her lesson.. kills 2 birds with 1 stone! =)

After our swim, we had a late lunch at the Noodle restaurant located at the first floor of the hotel. The noodles and dumplings were all handmade by the chef upon order so it came to us really fresh and springy. We both loved it!

My girl was so exhausted from the swimming that she fell asleep and missed out on the awesome handmade noodles!

It was a great time of bonding and relaxation. I think the hubby had a blast! Probably one of his best birthdays ever =)

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This post is part of my Family Staycations collection in my Fun in Singapore Guide!

   

Click each staycation destination below to read about our staycation experience:

   

You can also stay up-to-date with our staycation experiences on Instagram via the hashtag #mpmstaycations

Daddy See, Daddy Do

So it seems imitation runs in the family.

Similar Adidas shirt

Similar need for afternoon naps
(otherwise both will be extremely cranky)

And recently, I stumbled upon this:

Similar "eye covers"

Daddy's girl.. or girl's daddy? *laughs*

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