Season's Greeting

It's not our tradition to celebrate Christmas with presents ... but this year, we got a very special tiny present ...

it glows

Kate used about 2 dozens of sticks and spent hours playing with it.

birthday celebration

Last Saturday, we had Kate's 8th birthday celebration, combined with her friend, Annisa's 7th birthday. We had it at Annisa's place at Regent Ville, Hougang. We invited some of our Indonesian friends who stay in Singapore like us. We are sorry couldn't invite all of our friends because of the space matter.

Some of the pictures can be seen at multiply site of
Mum's, Annisa's Mum, Tante Ari's, and Tante Ellen's

Last Day at HWS

Today is my last day at Hong Wen School. I am very sad, because it means I will be parted from my best friends, Mandy and Jun Ning. Even though if I stay at HWS next year, I won't be at the same class with Jun Ning, but we still could see each other at recess time.

This parted thingy is really difficult for me to handle. Yes, sometimes I quarrel with Jun Ning. But it's still better rather than to be parted like this.

I wish I don't need to change my school, but our home is very far from the new HWS at Towner Rd and it will be very tiring to travel that far every day.

Yesterday, I gave bookmarks made by my mum to my classmates and some teachers. I hope they like it.

miaooow ...

I have finished my second cross-stitch. It is a cat. I took about 2 months to finish it, much faster than my first cross-stitch.

I had another similar cross-stitch. It is a dog. But I gave it to my best friend today because she wants to learn cross-stitch. I hope she enjoys cross-stitching, just like me.

And my mum crocheted a simple colorful headband. It has flower attached. I love it so much. Thank you, Mummy...

math exam treat

One day before math exam,
Mum: Kathleen, where do you want to have lunch? At foodcourt near new MRT station or foodcourt near CC?
Kate: The one near CC.
Mum: Are you sure? It's further. And it's quite a hot day.
Kate: Yup, I'm sure.

On the way to foodcourt,
Kate: Mum, let's have KFC for our lunch
(Aha! This is why she chose it! There's KFC near the CC)
Mum: Well, if you get full mark for your math exam tomorrow, you can have KFC.
(not that Mum expects a full mark, but just an excuse to not having KFC so often)
Kate: No way ... How about 95?
(wow, she is so confident)
Mum: Ok, if you get above 95, we'll go to KFC. If you get 95 or below, you won't have it until your birthday.
Kate: It's not fair ... my birthday is still one month away. How about until end of the month?
Mum: Nope. End of the month is only about 1 week away.
Kate: Hmm ... ok, deal.

Few days later,
Kate: Mum, it's not fair. My friend has 90 as his target and his treat is going to New Zealand. My target is 95 but my treat is only KFC. I should have bigger treat.
Mum: Hmm ... what treat do you want?
Kate: I don't know. But something bigger than going to New Zealand.
Mum: How about another big hug from me?
Kate: Hoorraaayyy !!

Dwarfy

Today, when Mummy and Daddy were out, when it was almost time for dinner, I remembered that I forgot to feed my hamsters. When I just filled in Dwarfy's bowl, I noticed that she was curled up right beside the bowl. I used the small spoon to rub her back, but nothing happened. So I figured out that she was dead.

I was so sad, even though I never play with her, because she was very shy and didn't let anyone to touch her, not even pet her. Even when I used something to touch her, she would just run away to her hiding spot.

So, I was eager to tell my parents about the bad news when they came home. Since we just lost Snowy, I was very very sad. Now I only have Flora left as my pet. I hope she will stay with us longer.

Snowy

I am very sad. When I woke up from my nap, my mother told me that Snowy has died. I was surprised because when I came home from school, Snowy was fine. It didn't even look weak. But, when my mother was about to feed the hamsters, (I have three) she found out that Snowy didn't react at all and its body was stiff. When I checked it out after dinner, I saw Snowy's body was a bit smaller and more curled up than usual. Its eyes were also closed thighter.

I miss her so much ...

diamond tunisian

Mum found a cute baby blanket pattern from library. Since Kathleen doesn't like to put blanket on, Mum decided to use thicker yarn and adjust the size to make a play mat instead. But when it's done, seems Kathleen likes to snuggle in it :)

The "technical" description about this blanket can be found here

quack .. quack ..

I've just finished my first cross-stitch last night. It is a duckling.

First, I used yellow for the body. Next, I used red for the beak and webbed feet. Then, I used purple and green for it's bow. After that, I used white for the background. Finally, I used black for it's eyes. At the back, I slipped in the tail of the strings so it became a bit tighter and neat. If I didn't slip it in, it would be loose and messy!


Well, that took me more than one year to finish it because I seldom did it. But now, I want to do some more !!

skirt that grows

Mum made this skirt when Kate need a leotard plus tutu for school concert about 4 years ago. Surprisingly, we can say that it still fit for Kate up to now.

horse riding

Kate went to Vivo City with her youngest Aunt, and enjoyed this horse riding :)

National Day Celebration

Yesterday I had National Day Celebration at my school. We had to sing 4 songs. The first song we sang was ''My People My Home''. The second song was ''Shine For Singapore''. The third song was "No Place I'd Rather Be" and the fourth song was "Will You?".

After that, P1 and P2 had a sports day while the P3-P6 had their fun walk. For my class, the teams were orange, red, blue, yellow, and green. My team, the green house, got 2nd place for the basketball bouncing. I had so much fun!

kreativ blogger

Looks that we got another award ...
This time we received it from Melisa.
Thanks a lot, Mel!

Rules:
1. The winner may put the logo on her blog
2. Put a link to the person you got the award from
3. Nominate 5 blogs
4. Put links to the blogs
5. Leave a message for your nominees award

And this time we are passing this award to:
1. my honey girl
2. princess wina and fresha
3. cul-de-sac
4. prettyjewel
5. arleen's site

color

yellow is a banana,
yellow is a marker,
yellow is a crayon,
and some colored water.

blue is the sky,
blue is the water,
blue is a cd case,
and so is a container.

green is the grass,
green is the folder,
green is the seaweed,
and so is the paper.

white is the clock,
white is the whiteboard,
white is my scarf,
and so is my cupboard.

black is the keyboard,
black is the speaker,
black is the tv,
and so is the monitor.

red is a fire-engine,
red is a cherry,
red is a rose,
and a ripe strawberry.

purple is the bag,
purple is a grape,
purple is the handle,
and a sick ape.

blog award

We received this award from mamahoney.
Thanks, Ken ...

The rules are:
(1) Put the logo on your blog
(2) Add a link to the person who awarded you
(3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs
(4) Add links to those blogs on yours
(5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.

And we pass it to ...
1. Risna @ Chiangmai
2. Melly @ Jakarta
3. Katrin @ Bandung
4. Linda @ Jakarta
5. Ari @ Singapore
6. Melisa @ Jakarta
7. Ira @ Jakarta

Choral and Solo Reading

On Monday, 4 August, there was choral and solo reading at my school. My class got 2nd prize for choral reading .. Hip, hip, hooray !!! But wait, wait! What prize did my class get for solo reading? It's BETTER than that ... We got 1st prize !!!

Solo is done only by one person, so it does not become messy. In choral reading, lots of students talk at once, that's why it becomes a little bit messy.

Xin Yue was the solo reading performance. I was the reserved. Kenshi was the helper. He helped us to practice and decide the actions. So on Thursday and Friday, the three of us had to stay back at recess to practice our actions and reading.

What are the titles? They are "My Puppy Punched Me In the Eye" for choral reading and "I Went To The Barber" for solo reading.

walk in the city

Last month Kate's youngest Aunt came to visit us on her way to Taipei. She is taking master degree at NTU, Taipei. Wish it was NTU Singapore :D

Here is some of the pictures when we took an evening walk. The weather that time was cool ... just nice for a walk.

flower girl

This girl loves flower ... so her mum added some simple crocheted flowers on her plain t-shirt.

She likes to wear it in pair with the skirt her mum made quite some time ago.

skirt and scarf

Just a couple of mum's made for Kate. The skirt was crocheted using the thread from mum's old cardigan while the scarf was knitted using Kate's choice of thread.

barbie collection

old vs young

Kate: Mum, let's go skipping downstairs at level 5. We'll have skipping competition.

Mum: *tried to make an excuse* I think I'm too old to do some skipping.

Kate: Muum .. you are not old. Old are not based on age, you know. My grandma even of course older than you but she is still young. And some people even more than 80 years old but are still young. It's about how you feel yourself at heart.

Mum: *wow, my daughter is lecturing me now* How do you know that?

Kate: From Yang Sisters on the tv :D

Playtime

Today is sports day for P3-P6 pupils. So P1 and P2 pupils have an extra one-day holiday.

I invited four of my classmates (Jing Wei, Nicole, Kelly and Wan Yong) to come over to my place. Jing Wei and Nicole did not come. So only Kelly and Wan Yong came to play today.

Wan Yong came first. My mother ordered pizza for lunch, but it took long time for the delivery. So Wan Yong and I had some snacks while waiting for the pizza. Then Kelly came. After the pizza came, we had our lunch. Kelly did not want the pizza so she ate chicken wings. Wan Yong and I ate pizza.

My mother put up a small tent. We played shopping. I was the shopkeeper. Kelly and Wan Yong bought lots of thing from my shop. I also lent them money to buy things from the shops.

Then, we did some crafts. After that, Wan Yong's grandmother came to fetch her. Kelly and I played some more until Kelly's mother came to fetch her. We had a great playtime.

My Maths Exam

I finished my exams last week. I got high scores. My maths is the best.

One of my classmates, David, got full marks. He must have done it very carefully.

I had 99/100 marks. I only did one careless mistake on question 18. My form teacher, Miss Tan, told me that actually, I can get full marks, too.

My mother thought that my maths' marks would be 90. She is very happy with my results. And so is my father.

I'll try to be more careful and recheck my works next time.

bought a cat in a bag

For the last few weeks, Mum was busy looking for a new flat. When the viewings were done at night in the weekdays, Mum left Kate at home by herself. A couple of times, it was done at the day time in the weekdays and Kate became a latch-key girl because Mum wouldn't be home when Kate came back from school. When the viewings were done in the weekend, all of us would went together.

Actually Kate wanted to come along on every viewing, but Mum said that the weekdays' viewing would be done by Mum alone. If the flat looked suitable, there would be a second viewing before we decided to buy it, and that time we would all go together.

But one morning,
Kate: "Mum, are you going to see some houses again today?"
Mum: "No, we bought one yesterday."
Kate: "But ... I haven't seen it!"
Mum: "Neither me nor Daddy. None of us have seen it."
Kate: "How come???"

Well, it was quite a long story (click here to read it -- in Indonesian). It happened so fast. Hopefully we wouldn't regret it.

how much?

As the landlord of the flat where we are staying wants to move back in by November, we need to start looking for a new flat.

With the rental price now hikes so high, we decided to buy a flat instead of renting. One request from Kate:
"Can we find a house that is not far from my school? I want to keep Hong Wen as my school."

We can see that Kate loves her school, eventhough there are not many facilities, yet. The school, too, will move to May Road on January 2009. According to Kate, the new school building will have swimming pool and sports halls (and many other new facilities). Surely this makes Kate doesn't want to be transferred to another school, even more.

....................
Mum: "The house nearby your school is very expensive."
Kate: "How much is it?"
Mum: "Around five-hundred-thousand dollars."
*wondering whether Kate really understands how big that number is*
Kate: "That much??? It's so expensive."
Mum: "Yes, it is."
Kate: "And how much money do we have? All of it. The one that we keep at the bank, in Daddy's wallet, in your purse, and the one in my saving box."
....................

that's mine

Kate was very happy when she saw her poem, which she made as part of library reading bear programme last year, was on display at Central Lending Library.

The poem was on display since last month. May be it will be there for another few weeks.


The "Ready, Set, Read ... and Laugh" book by Joanna Cole can be found at nearest library at children collection area. If Mum is not mistaken, Kate borrowed this book four times and read the whole book over and over again. She must be enjoying it so much.

tooth fairy -1-

Yesterday evening when Kate was eating watermelon,
"Ma, gigi Kathleen lepas. I didn't feel it at all. First I thought it was the watermelon seed. But it can't be. Watermelon seed is not that hard. I spat it out, and there was my tooth."

Last night Kate put the tooth under her pillow for the first time. We flushed down the 1st and 2nd tooth. The 3rd, 4th, and 5th were done by the dentist.

This morning when Kate checked under her pillow, she found a dollar coin instead of her tooth.

Kate: "It's real.."
Mum: "What is it?"
Kate: "Tooth fairy. Look ..." (showing the coin)

After a while,
Kate: "Or ... was that you, Mum? Or Daddy?"
Mum: "Udah sana, waktunya pergi sekolah. Nanti terlambat, loh."

old friends

It has been two years since we left Bangkok and moved to Singapore. What does Kate miss the most from Bangkok? The answer absolutely not the famous sight-seeing sites like Wat Po, Wat Arun, Grand Palace... Nor the famous Thai food like som tum, pad thai, tom yum gong... May be a bit of Children Discovery Museum and bird feeding at the park ... But what she really miss are the adorable friends on the picture above. Though now most of them has been relocated to other countries, too.

We miss you, guys ...

Asian Civilisation Museum

For a change (and while the admission was free for linkpoints members and their family :D), we went to visit Asian Civilisation Museum last Saturday.

Though none of us really fond on museum/history kind of things, we spent almost 5 hours visiting the galleries.


Kate was not much interested on the display objects but she enjoyed so much reading some books about the displays and watching videos at touch screen displays :D

Jurong East Swimming Complex

School holiday last week was full of rain and strong, cold wind. When finally the sun shone brightly on Friday, Mum took Kate for an outing. The choice fell on Jurong East Swimming Complex with IMM's indoor playground as back up plan in case the weather suddenly change. Kate didn't have a single swim since we discontinued her swimming lesson last month so she looked forward to have one.

This was the first time we went to this swimming complex which was located in walking distance from Chinese Garden MRT. The weekday admission was $1.50 for adult and $0.80 for child. There were bubble jet station for toddler, a fun pool for kids, 0.8 m depth lazy river, wave pool, 3 water slides, jacuzzi pool, and a competition pool. There was also a cafetaria inside the complex. Well, you know how kids get hungry after playing with water. If this was not enough, the KFC cum Pizza Hut restaurant was just outside the entrance to the swimming complex.

As we arrived around 3 p.m. (Kate had skipping rope CCA at school in the morning and Chinese lesson afterwards), we 'only' had about 3 hours to spend there. Kate fell in love with the lazy river and wave pool, and didn't bother at all to play at the kids fun pool. :)

it goes up

Looks simple but enough to invite curiousity from some passerbies to touch it and made little splash around.

she likes it

Kate was very happy and ate a lot when we had dinner here. Was it because of the food or the 'strategic' table we got? :D

2 for $3.00

Even though library in Singapore is very convenience, we could borrow unlimited book (4 or 8 at a time), but how could we miss '2 books for $3.00' offer while the original price was $9.90 each?


Kate loves to read and Mum loves discounts :D

So when today we went to Bras Basah Complex to buy staples, we ended up spending hours there and came home with 2 big shopping bags.

myself

When Kate had no idea on what to write for her journal...

Myself

I am Kathleen. I am a girl. I am 7 years old. I am a happy girl.

Jacob Ballas

Kate and her friends had so much fun playing at this garden.

short term memory loss

Sunday afternoon, Kate was having chocolate ice-cream with M&M and chocolate rice. "Look, I could make the ice-cream melt faster," said Kate as she stirred the ice-cream. "I did this at school at Bangkok. I mixed different color of ice-cream and it was so fun."

Few hours later,
Kate: Mum, do you see my wallet?
Mum: No, I don't. Where did you put it?
Kate: I put it on the coffee table. But now it's not there.
Mum: No, I don't see it there. May be you've moved it somewhere else.
Kate: No, I'm sure I put it there.
Mum: Are you sure it was today?
Kate: Yes, I'm really sure.
Kate asked Daddy who was working near the coffee table and Daddy didn't see it, either.

After searching here and there, Kate gave up. She looked so sad and confused. Suddenly, "I think it's in my pinafore!" exclaimed Kate as she hurried went to her room. And it was there!

Then Mum remember that in the morning Mum has praised Kate for getting her uniform ready for the next day and seen the string of the wallet hanged out from the pinafore's pocket. But both Mum and Kate forgot about it.

Kate: It's weird. How could I remember something that has happened few years ago, but I forgot something that has happened today.

I Wish ...

From many wishes in Kate's mind, she chose to write this one down for her journal:

I Wish ...

I wish to have an older sister. Then she can help me with my homework. I also wish to have a younger sister. Then I can take care of her. I also could play with her.

Lost & Found

On Monday, Mum got a phone call from Kate's teacher, informed that Kate has left her school bag in the SBS bus on the way to school.

Amazing ... how Kate didn't realize it until she reached the school hall and was about to put her bag (which was not with her). And about an hour before her teacher called, Kate has called Mum about other thing, but she didn't mention about her lost bag.

Anyway, Mum called lost & found of SBS Transit. For more than half an hour countless dial, it was always answered by machine, saying that the officers were busy. When finally an officer got on the line, she gave Mum another phone no, which was took only one ring to get through.

Apparently, as the bag was left on that day, it was still kept at the control office at the terminal. In this case, Kate took SBS Bus 80, Harbourfront-Sengkang direction, so the officer at Sengkang Interchange kept it.

When Kate came back from school (she didn't know that her teacher has contacted Mum):
"Mummy, I have a bad news.. I left my bag in the bus this morning... Luckily, I still have a spare bag, don't I? So we don't need to buy a new one... But how about all the books? The textbooks? The spelling book? The journal? ... Oh, no! I need to write those all over again, and I need to get spelling tests again, and my teacher will need to mark those again ..."

Kids ... their way to think is so simple ...

nick name

When Kate was born, Mum and Dad gave Kathleen Kiera as her name (the meaning is here), and we call her Kathleen.

About two years ago, she got boring with everyone calling her Kathleen, and wanted a different name: Kate. So we started to call her Kate. Sometimes even she called herself as Kath.

Recently, Kate wants her Kathleen back, but to keep Kate as well. So here is the deal: we'll call her Kathleen and keep Kate in this blog.

new routine

This week was difficult to wake Kate up in the morning compared to last week. It started with just one single nap!

One day, Mum needed to go and Kate wanted to read a book, so Mum left her at home for about half an hour. When Mum came back, Kate was sleeping. She must be so tired.

And the cycle begin:

............... *) ................
....... afternoon nap .......
..... late sleep at night ....
.. sleepy in the morning ..
..... tired after school .....
.......... back to *) ..........

who is the baby?

Mum was giving Kate a bath and Dad was just outside the bathroom.

Kate: Do you want to join us, Daddy?
Dad: No, thank you. I'm not Kate. I'm not a baby. I don't need Mum to give me a bath.
Kate: Hey!! I'm not a baby. You are a baby. You need Mum to sleep with. I sleep by myself.

morning session

This year Kate has morning session, which is 7:15-12:55 on Mon, Tue, Thu, and Fri. On Wed, the school finishes an hour earlier, but since Kate joins with one of CCA, she comes home later than the other days.

Mum was worried that it would be difficult to wake Kate up in the morning, because she used to wake up a bit late for the last 2 years (when she had afternoon sessions). And last month during the holiday was even worse. But it came out that Kate is ready for the morning session, not so difficult to wake up early. She is happy with her morning session, which means she has more time to play after school.

Kate is in Primary 2. She gets lots of new classmates (only 6 who were her P1's classmates), new teachers, but the same form teacher (which means the same English and Math teacher) and the same classroom. Hope she could cope well with her subjects in P2 as well as in P1.

december 2007

Unlike last year, we spent the holiday last month mostly by just staying at home. The one and only attraction we went was to Tangkuban Parahu. But we still managed to meet some friends and visited some relatives. And of course, we went out for dining a lot :D

Without Iih Iing as "driver", Mum improved her driving skill, as she needed to drive by herself for the trip Jakarta-Bandung-Jakarta and while at Bandung, with only Kate as navigator :D

At Bandung Kate got diarrhea, and at Jakarta she got flu. Those are common illnesses for children, but didn't go just in couple days. Guessed those happened because Kate was too excited so we slept past midnight most of the time, and of course it made her woke up so late, and have late breakfast, late lunch, late dinner. Well, the silverlining is Kate could spent more time with her grandparents. They must missed each other a lot, as we don't go back there too often.