Golden Jubilee Singapore
My Jubilee Weekend started at 7:30am on 6 Aug with a fabulous morning breakfast with my mummy-friends, followed by some, erhm… retail therapy.
My retail therapy consists of buying a can-opener,
some hangers and vegetables.
The joy of this, is something only a SAHM can understand.
That was followed by a Marriott Cafe lunch buffet, after the kids returned from school. Family time need not be expensive, but sometimes it is…
We took advantage of a one-for-one offer.
But we had to pay weekend rates…
Yes, there was more food than desserts.
But the dessert display was as yet untouched since we went early,
and looked so perfect, I had to take pictures.
After that, was the Normality of Family Life (NFL). The older boys did their school work. Daddy and Samuel hung up the flag, visited NTUC and got dinner. Elias still managed to play (he is gifted that way).
We hung our flag inside the house!
Elias and Samuel made cute little creatures
by filling balloons with water and drawing faces on them.
There are six of them – five of them represent the five of us,
and the sixth is Pac-man.
We call these little creatures “Baloons”, for “Baby ballons”.
They are pronounced bay-loons, in honour of Singlish for this special SG50 weekend. Lol.
Lastly, Elias created a cable-car tower with his SG50 Lego set.
It is an original design. *Proud*
After dinner, Samuel and I baked muffins for the next day’s Family Picnic.
Samuel helped to smash the bananas.
Elkan helped too, but reluctantly.
He does not like the smell of bananas,
which makes me appreciate his help so much more.
I baked BOTH chocolate chip muffins and Banana muffins this time!
Three cheers for me!
We woke up bright and early the next day. But by the time we reached the Marina Barrage at 8:10am, the carpark was full! We parked along the road, ILLEGALLY, in FULL sight of the traffic police. We were a bit nervous, but he was smiling, and just advised motorists not to block the road… The MAGIC of SG50!
Here’s me with the irresistible Cows…
I loved them! I thought they were soooo cute.
(Samuel was the photographer! Good job, Sam!)
We registered prior to the picnic and received a confirmation e-mail, so we could go directly to get a fun pack.
We went early, so it wasn’t so crowded.
Later the place was packed!
It was great seeing so many families eating their “char bee hoon”.
We picnicked at the rooftop. It was not our first time having a National Day picnic, but it was the first time we were at a Families for Life Picnic. I was so busy trying to set up the picnic at the windy rooftop that I did not have a chance to take a picture of what was in the funpack.
From what I recalled, we had picnic mats, raincoats, umbrella-hats, an electrical fan, water bottle(s?), kite(s?), and a singtel pre-paid data roaming card. Besides the fun pack, we could purchase a picnic basket for $10 (for which we sent Elias, the most capable and fastest of us all!) and there were lots of freebies.
We had these cute looking umbrella hats,
which proved to be useful later, in the rain.
Edmund and Samuel flew a kite.
(Edmund managed to take a We-fie, with him, Samuel and the kite!
Wow, my husband is in a class of his own…).
We were also given our very own Terrarium! We collected two. Heh Heh.
We brought our own balloons to give away too 🙂
Of course, we had to have a drink from the Milo Truck!
They gave us free tidbits – ice popsicles, jellies, chocolates and wheels!!
We ate the muffins we baked, and all the snacks.
At first we were at the rooftop.
Then we shifted down near the carpark, in preparation for the Black Knights.
We managed to play the board game “Ulcers” we brought!
We met friends!
We bumped into friends from Church, and Royal Rangers.
I also bumped into Jeff, who did “Singaporean of the Day”.
Then we met friends in the carpark!! LOL. It was such a thrill.
We ended the picnic with the Black Knight’s aerial display. They were marvelous.
Then it poured and we were also stuck in the carpark for at least an hour. But we were with each other and we had food and games (and even a “toilet”… having boys has its advantages *wink wink*). So it did not bother us.
See how nice and dry we were…
Then the rain came…
The kids played in the car… Bubble Talk again!
After that we had a normal heartland coffee shop lunch (Chinese Nasi Lemak which every Singaporean knows… the $2 one…Ban Mian and Korean Hotplate), and went home to freshen up for the evening programme.
We skipped the free attractions and visited the only museum that did not offer free admission that weekend – the Lee Kong Chian National History Museum. I felt so proud of Singapore!
The kids know I am terrified of lizards,
so they are always trying to scare me with them.
Elias loves to visit souvenir shops.
I realised that day, that he got the genes from the Daddy…
The boys tried to climb up the walls. I hope it was not illegal.
Actually, I expected no less from them.
The museum looks beautiful from the outside.
It looks like Noah’s Ark.
Then we went for Day of His Power. The children were very tired (Samuel fell asleep near the end). But it was a family tradition, which we were glad we managed to keep for one more year.
“We feel “fatherless”. We behave like orphans.
Tonight, as a Jubilee Generation, we open a new chapter for renewed beginnings…
Hear the Father say to you: Come to me.
You are my beloved son, you are my precious daughter in whom I am well pleased.”
(Photos taken from LoveSingapore Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/LoveSingapore/105020416243097)
Saturday was the NFL again… Most of it was housework, rest and school work (not very happening, but essential).
It was Samuel’s turn to do the socks.
Over time, I found that each one of the child has his own preference
for hanging up the socks to dry.
It is interesting watching the children work.
It is an excellent way to know them.
Samuel had more free time than the older brothers.
So he went to the playground with daddy in the morning,
and played “pick-up sticks” with daddy in the afternoon.
It is a game which Samuel loves to play.
This time he beat daddy 42 to 19.
We went for church service at night, which was part of NFL too, except that we sang the National Anthem and said the pledge as part of the service.
On Sunday we were at a Community National Day Observance Ceremony. There were more freebies and good food! The kids really had a lot of fun, and best of all, we got ourselves two more SG50 bags!!!
We split up.
Edmund and I took turns to be with Samuel,
while the older boys wandered around on their own.
Our tickets entitled us to a Lucky Draw, a T-shirt, an exercise book and a breakfast.
There was Western, Roti Prata, Teriyaki Chicken rice, and Nasi Lemak (forgot to take picture).
They did a cake-cutting up on stage, and Elkan was very interested in it,
so he ran forward take a look.
I forgot to pass him the camera, so we have no photo of it.
Instead, I stole a picture taken by a friend at another community event.
Elkan said it looked something like that, but it was very big.
We sent Elkan to get two pieces of cake when they were being given out.
They taste delicious! (It tasted like Polar).
We established ourselves near the food collection point
and the children went round playing the games
and getting the other snacks (Kacang putih, Cup corn and the Malt sweet).
We won an SG50 bag via a lucky dip (the one with the iconic buildings),
and Samuel won us another bag (the Khong Guan biscuits!)
by answering the emcee’s question.
After that, it was the NFL again till the live telecast of the National Day Parade.
In between we had a bit of fun watching Elkan played Agar.io.
He named himself SG50 and found a fellow patriot!
They both teamed up. See, he made it into the leaderboard!
It is a really engaging game to watch…
As usual, we ate pizza while we watched the parade.
The difference this year was that
we heated up our own instead of ordering.
And besides pizza, we also had seaweed chicken
(Not in picture. Was still in the oven!)
The next day was mostly NFL, but we went to my mother’s place for dinner, which was actually quite NFL too.
So that was our Golden Jubilee Weekend. We celebrate National Day every year (Here is an old post I wrote about our National Day in 2012. We were at Marina Barrage too), but this is the first year where we had enough time to have fun, rest and work. At the end of the 4.5 days (since our holiday actually started on Thurs afternoon), we felt really satisfied.
There is no better way to celebrate the nation’s birthday than with the family, and at home. That’s why it is called 国家。
Thank you Singapore, for giving my family a home. Thank you God, for giving us Singapore.
