The Littlest Girl woke up this morning with the worst case of hives I had ever seen all over her legs! I was quite sure that she was allergic to the wool blanket that the hotel had given us because, well, I have the same allergy! It's just sad that my Littlest has it too 😢😭
We decided to head for breakfast anyway since all of us were hungry. There was a long queue and when we finally got a table, it wasn't clean. The buffet area was messy and dirty. Someone had also spilled food on the floor but no one had time to clean it up because it was a peak period and the hotel was understaffed. Once I saw the condition of the restaurant, it immediately gave me flashbacks of an allergic reaction (to the dirt) and triggered my "OCD". I already didn't have much of a mood to eat because my baby wasn't well but this definitely broke the camel's back. I headed back to the room with the Littlest Girl, who also did not have an appetite, while the rest of the family continued with their breakfast.
It's times like this that I'm grateful that I always remember to pack medication on all our trips! I fed the Littlest Girl her milk and Zyrtec and got her to sleep so that she didn't feel so uncomfortable.
My mum offered to watch the Littlest while the hubby, boy and I headed to the pool for a morning swim.
The boy enjoyed his one-on-one time with us at the pool. Poolside drinks were relatively cheaper than Singapore so we ordered a couple.
Loving our very colourful drinks! 🥤
When we returned to our rooms, the Littlest Girl had woken up from her nap. As she was doing a lot better, we headed out to explore the Hard Rock Roxity Kids Club.
We decided to give it a miss and let the kids play at the playground next to the kids club. They only played for 15 minutes as it was too hot!
We explored the street behind Hard Rock Hotel and decided to have lunch at Little Italy.
The simple looking restaurant lived up to its name. The Italian food was very good!
We loved the soup and pastas but our pick for the best dish had to go to the ravioli! It was so yummy!
Of course we had to order desserts, which were really tasty too 😋
After lunch, we shopped along the streets and bought quite a lot of things despite having to endure the intense heat from the afternoon sun! The fashionista Eldest Girl bought cute little handmade bags.
We headed back to our hotel and spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool since my girls didn't get a chance to swim in the morning.
The Littlest enjoyed playing with the sand while the older two enjoyed the slides.
We were happy to laze around in the pool all day but if you prefer to explore more of Kuta, you can visit the following places nearby:
Dream Museum Zone Bali
Upside Down World Bali
Waterbom Bali
Bali Sea Turtle Society
We ended the night with a simple dinner of KFC and McDonald's in our hotel room. It's nice to just relax and not have an agenda once in a while 😀
It has become somewhat of a tradition to write about my kid's graduation from preschool and their first time at formal primary school education in the same post as I had done the same for my eldest girl.
Last year, we celebrated the boy's graduation from his childcare in the usual way at his childcare's annual concert. It felt like just yesterday that I was blogging about his first day at pre-school and now he's about to graduate!
Excited sisters in attendance
My boy with his graduating class
Although my boy does not particularly like dancing, we signed him up anyway so that he can learn perseverance and confidence.
One of the dance performances that my boy was involved in
I'm very proud of my boy for doing his best even though performing is not one of his strengths. He has come a long way since his first year in pre-school where he refused to take instructions from anyone. My boy has always been fiercely independent and has his own unique way of thinking. However, he has really improved a lot after going to pre-school and learning to follow rules and routines.
Our family photo to celebrate this milestone!
The boy took a break from school for the whole of December as we were overseas for most of December. I was so afraid that he will find it hard to transit to Primary 1 when the time came.
Although this was not my first time transitioning a child to Primary 1, it is still just as anxiety-provoking as every child is different. The concerns I had for my girl were very different from that of my boy.
For my girl, I was concerned with the fit of the school for her needs and her ability to wake up every morning for school because she is a night owl like I am. After 3 years in this primary school that I've chosen, I am very sure that we had made the right choice.
For my boy, I was concerned that he is literally 1 full year behind his peers, being born 4 days before the end of the year on 27 Dec. I was also concerned about his proficiency in the Chinese language. Even though he grew up with a Mandarin-speaking grandmother, he does not seem to have acquired the ability nor the interest in the language. We decided to enroll him in Chinese tuition even though I'm usually against sending my kids to tuition unnecessarily. In this case, it was absolutely necessary as he was really behind.
Prepared my boy's bag for school a week in advance
The boy wakes up together with his sister every morning at about 5.45-6am in order to catch the school bus at 6.20am. So far the boy is doing great, sometimes even better than his sister, who has a lot more trouble opening her eyes in the morning. I think it really helps to have a big sister to orientate you to taking the school bus and getting around in school. She taught him how to buy food and where to wait for the bus to go home at the end of school (she is a really great big sister!).
Later that morning, we joined all the excited parents to observe the very first morning assembly of our little Primary 1 kids. I can tell that my boy is still finding it hard to follow the structure of the school system as he is a free-spirit and generally goes 'where ever the wind takes him'! 😂
I'm really grateful to his form teacher, who has had to nudge him in the right direction, help him find his missing library books and patiently correct his misbehaviours.
He is such a free spirit that we almost couldn't find him during recess despite spotting my girl being a P4 buddy to a very cute Primary 1 girl right away. She was right in her element, being a good big sister to her junior. I'm so proud of her!
As for my boy, it turned out that his buddy had brought him around the school to introduce him to the school compound and we only saw him when recess was about to end. He seemed to be doing ok so far and we were happy with his transition.
I observed that my boy does better when he is given a lot of time in advance to learn something. Hence, I made it a point to teach him his spelling (both Chinese and English) at least one week in advance. That really helped him to learn a little by little, with a lot of repetitions to commit them to memory.
Nowadays our routine after dinner on weekdays (and sometimes Sundays) consists of me giving tuition to my 2 kids for at least an hour before they got ready for bed. If you've taught your own kids before, you'd know exactly how challenging that can be!
I usually focus on their weakest subject, which more often than not, starts with A LOT of tears and grumbling. Then it goes into negotiation, more grumbling and then dropping of their pencils repeatedly on the floor. This totally brings out the Tiger Mum in me and I would dish out demands and various consequences until they do what I say. It's tough, but I know eventually it will benefit them at the end.
Bear in mind that I do all this while handling a very active, sometimes cranky, baby and dealing with sleep deprivation due to disrupted sleep at night! I think I only survive everyday relying on God's strength!
It also explains why it took me so long to write my blog posts, including this one! 😩
It's only the first half of the first term of the year. I've still got a long year ahead... Wish me luck! 😐
It's Christmas and I woke up to the sound of "So This Is Love" playing in the courtyard. Ahh, it was not a dream! I'm still at the magical Tokyo Disneyland Hotel! 🤩😍
Enjoying the lovely view and atmosphere from the window sill
I really didn't want to leave our Beauty and the Beast room but we had to if we wanted to make it for Happy 15 priority entry for Disney Hotel guests.
Tokyo Disneyland Hotel and Tokyo Disneyland Station in the morning
Tokyo Disneyland Station in the morning
We decided to spend our final day of the trip at Tokyo Disneyland even though we were here two days ago because I personally can't get enough of the castle.
Thank God for Happy 15 early entry passes because the queues were crazy on Christmas morning!
The regular queues!
The Happy 15 queues All the way in the front yay! One of the perks of staying at one of the 3 Disney Hotels
You can't tell but I'm really excited, just not a morning person haha
The moment the gates were opened, the sister and I ran towards Stitch Encounter, the only ride opened for guests with Happy 15 passes (only certain areas of World Bazaar and Tomorrowland were opened).
As we were running, we spotted Mickey and Minnie! Initially I didn't want to fight with the kids to take a photo with my favorite Minnie Mouse but the sister pushed me forward exclaiming, "how often do you NOT have to queue to take a photo with Minnie?!? GO GO!!!!"
So I sheepishly jumped in, caught Minnie's attention and managed to get a photo with her! Sooooo happy! =)
With Minnie at Tokyo Disneyland
(this was my phone's wallpaper for a long time!)
After jumping with joy from getting a lovely photo with Minnie, the sister and I continued our fast walk to Stitch Encounter, which had a really short queue so we didn't need to wait (yay!).
The welcome show at the holding area
Stitch Encounter is a very unique attraction in that it was an interactive show where a computer-animated Stitch interacts live with the audience. Even though the show was in Japanese, we could still understand what was going on based on Stitch's body language and my limited Japanese. Both the sister and I found it very entertaining and funny!
After the show, we ran to Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters to get the FASTPASS before joining the already 30-minute queue to ride Space Mountain. I was panicking because I thought it was a scary roller coaster (like Universal's The Mummy!) but it turned out to be a thrill ride that even kids as young as 5 years old can ride!
Clockwise from left: Space Mountain;
Riding the escalator up to the ride (very futuristic);
Escape Pod for people who freak out halfway and want to leave the queue!
I love Space Mountain! I wouldn't mind riding again if only the wait time was not 60 minutes by the time we were done! 😞
Loving Space Mountain
We went to ride Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters next and utilised our FASTPASS.
Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blaster
This one is much like Toy Story Mania, with a lot of laser pointer shooting. Personally, I feel if you've done Toy Story Mania, you can afford to give this a miss and vice versa because they are very similar. I actually regretted not getting the FASTPASS for Monster's Inc instead.
We headed to the park entrance to meet up with the family. While waiting for them at the entrance, we spotted Tigger and Eeyore! They were on their way to the photo spot and since we didn't want to queue, we tried to "steal" photos with them while they were walking! 😆
Failed in getting a photo with Tigger
The failed photo that the sister took of me and Eeyore versus the awesome photo I took of her and Eeyore!
Oh well, this is payback for Minnie! Hahaha
After meeting with the family, the sister ran to Tomorrowland Hall to get the FASTPASS for Star Tours.
The rest of us headed to Pirates of the Caribbean while waiting for her (we communicated via walkie talkies). We walked right past it because the exterior looked nothing like what I had imagined!
How is it that this dainty looking building actually housed the Pirates of Caribbean ride?!
Pirates of the Caribbean
In fact, I found it strange that this ride was not in Tokyo DisneySea. Shouldn't it fit DisneySea more?! 🤷🏻
In any case, it's probably precisely because this ride was often missed by people that the wait time was only 15 minutes!
Boats awaiting passengers for the journey
It turned out to be a better ride than we had expected! The girl loved it so much we went on it twice! 😁
We caught the same Christmas Fantasy parade that we saw on our first day at Tokyo Disneyland. I made sure that this time, we were right at the spot that the Frozen float would stop and my girl would be able to see Elsa.
Left: Right at the Photo Spot, can't miss Elsa this time!; Right: My girl wearing her Elsa dress again even though she had already worn it the day before.
More photos of the floats of the Christmas Fantasy parade
Elsa and Anna!
Unfortunately, we were sitting on Anna's side of the float so we only managed to see Elsa when she exchanged places with Anna for a short time.
Anna, Olaf and Elsa
In that short instance though, Elsa spotted my girl wearing her Elsa dress and gestured her own dress to show that she had noticed it! It must have been really quick because the sister saw it but I didn't. My girl kept waving but Elsa had gone back to her side of the float and the girl couldn't see much of her after that. She was rather disappointed.
Waving like crazy to Elsa!
After the parade, the hubby, sister and I went to ride Star Tours: The Adventure Continues while the mum watched the kids.
Star Wars
It was a simulator ride that had really nice special effects! By the time we were done with the ride, it was time for us to head back to Tokyo Disneyland Hotel to check out. Sadly, all good things must come to an end... 🥲
A group selfie before we leave
The sister and I wearing Mickey and Minnie hats
Tokyo Disneyland Hotel in the day
Enjoying the view from our room one last time!
Girl with the dollhouse at the lobby
Left: Girl wanted to take pictures with everything before we left; Right: Baby Boy wanted to be fed while we were eating our lunch at the lobby
(might as well since it was such a nice place to hang)
We left our luggage at the Bell's Desk before heading back to Tokyo Disneyland for our final rides of the trip. The last one was Pinocchio's Daring Journey because it had the shortest queue at the time.
As you can see, Girl was not happy that Pinocchio's Daring Journey was going to be our last ride at Tokyo Disneyland
We actually got the FASTPASS for Monsters Inc Ride and Go Seek! but we couldn't make it as we had to leave for the airport to catch our flight back. It was with much sadness that we gave it up and blessed a random family instead (at least someone else will get to enjoy it).
We spent the rest of the day hanging out at Cinderella's castle, which is the most magical place in my opinion =)
Final photos with Mickey and Cinderella's castle
Group photo
(too bad Baby Boy was asleep)
View of the square in front of Cinderella's castle
I think we would miss this castle the most, the girl and I
As we were leaving Tokyo Disneyland, we came across the Christmas Fantasy parade yet again! This time, we were on Elsa's side of the float and I told the girl to try and get her attention.
Left: Waving as much as she could to Elsa; Right: Elsa and Elsa =)
Although we were further away, the sister managed to get Elsa's attention by waving very frantically (it also helped that we were standing in an area that had less people). Elsa waved back and blew my girl a kiss! I caught it on camera just in case you don't believe me (at 1:05 minutes of the video below):
My girl was so happy and star-struck that she literally walked back in a kind of elated daze! *laughs* Dreams do come true! 🤭😍🤩
We headed to the bus stop at Tokyo Disneyland Hotel to wait for our airport transfer.
Waiting at the bus stop for our bus
Taking pictures with the pretty outdoor fountain while waiting
We were all really sad to leave! I will miss you so much Tokyo Disneyland!!! *sob*
Group photo by a kind hotel staff
We arrived at Narita International Airport and cleared customs just in time for dinner at Tatsu.
We were so hungry! Yum!
The kids also had a little bit of time to play at a small play area for pre-school kids.
Play Area at Narita Airport
We had more food on board our plane back home to Singapore!
Our dinner/supper
By the grace of God, we arrived safely back in Singapore (and feeling the "warmth of her embrace" as we walk through the gates to the taxi). As always, it was a pain trying to unpack and more so since we bought a mountain of Japanese snacks from Tokyo!! 😅
I think we have enough snacks to last us for 6 months!
Special mention: More pins to add to my already large pin collection =D
This has got to be one of the most epic trips of my life! I will never forget it for as long as I live! 😍🤩
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