What Dreams Are Made of

Today was a super tiring super rewarding day. Our ENTIRE family, Alex included work
up early to head out in preparation for the girl's dance school's 38th Anniversary concert. This is the first ever concert we've done in Singapore since we arrived.
Letitia was part of a 3-part Chinese dance troupe doing the ribbon dance and she's practiced a whole term. The dance performance was spectacular and she looked like a proper acrobatic dancer minus all the bends and twists.
Alex was asked to help out with the photo taking of the concert, post and pre rehearsal etc. He did a pretty good job and even roped in his camera buddy to help enhance the experience. We've got these pics to keep for a long time to come..

I am so amazed at how Letitia can still hold a smile and happy attitude amidst all this hard work. She did not miss a step within the entire series of steps....I would be tripping all over the stage!
Mathena was dancing a midst 6yos and some 7yos. She's a 6yo waiting patiently to turn 7. She looks a sight in this outfit and this dance is aptly named "Classical ballet".
Don't they ALL look sooooo professional!!

Mathena managed to laugh and giggle most of the time, enjoying herself on the stage.
Well done! My dear girls, mommy and daddy are soooo proud of you both!

Mother's Day 2010

Simple dinner at Swensens....

Girls treat of 'Volcano'Now,...THIS is my treat! A coke float...except I will be up counting the stars tonight!Been a mom for at least 9 years now..I thank GOD for my children, without whom this journey will not be worthwhile. Thanks also to my dear hubby who's loved me and stood strong as a father to the girls. I cannot ask for anything more.

As usual the girls were bursting to celebrate it
with me and yes, we celebrated on Saturday night, gifts and all.
Sunday at church this season is a time for serving. I have chosen
to be with my girls instead of alone in the church sanctuary!

Pulau Ubin-Labourous Day

We ventured as 2 families and 2 ladies on this trip...
Off we go on a 20min boat ride. We can see lots of the East side of Singapore along the way.
On arrival, we met with lots and lots of bicycle rentals...and this is before the crowds set in..

..then the bike adventure started. ..for the 6yos and 9yos, this is the start of many spills, falls, pushing of bike uphill etc...very tiring for the other adults (they had to help them!)
We saw inland lakes..
Walked and walked through preserved forestry...cool shades, phew!
From the mangroves, it opened up to the wide, sunny sea..
See the tiny hut, that's the only respite on the entire plank walk..
All in all a lovely adventure but we soon found out that we are creatures of comfort. The heat was too much, the ride was too painful and the mosquitoes were too hungry. Total kid count of mosquitoe bite were about 30 bites, sigh! Good to have met you, Pulau Ubin. Here's the site, of the nice resort we didn't go to.

Words

Recently, our family has been experiencing quite a few 'learning'
moments from life at school. One thing leading to another, it
has come to my realization that 'words' are indeed powerful
things that comes out of our mouth and unless we make an
effort to curb it, it creates plenty of damage.

This happened in one of my daughters class. To protect all parties
involved I will not be naming anyone. During class time, some boys,
namely boyA, boyB and boyC was happily teasing each other with
the rude "F" word. We were shocked when we found out about this and we were
somewhat disapointed that most families allow such words in their
child's vocabulary and have not made any efforts to teach them self control.
Anyway, as my daughter continued to explained, this is NOT the
first occurence. These words were used in a rhymes, to create jokes,
and also used to stir/tease each other. Soon being annoyed, my girl noted that boyC have finally succumbed to the teasing and was in tears. She tried to ask the other 2 (who was at that
point laughing) boys to stop but with angry tones, they teased her instead.

Here lies the issue.
All this happened because these boys had a heart to tease, embarrass
and victimised boyC. They were actually laughing when they could
see their 'friend' in tears. Instead of stopping, they further rubbed it in
that he's always crying etc. Why has bullying become so 'easy' and without conscience in the hearts of these kids? This 'pack behaviour' only stood strong as it was a ratio of 2 against 1.
The poor crying kid was actually bigger in stature yet he was helpless.As a result, we had to teach into our daughter,
which child to avoid and be careful with her dealings of them. For
her sake, we had to make it known to her that these boys are not
'desirable' company. This is just primary school, sigh! We also had to
teach her how to help the 'underdog' and comfort the one
who's being hurt. We had to re-introduce the idea that bullying of all
sorts 'hurt' and very much to our discomfort, the one who's bullying
is actually the one who has in-depth 'issues'.

Words hurt or words heal. We have to choose how to use them!
These 2 weeks, our girls have been memorising:
Proverbs 15:1 A gentle answer turns away wrath,
but a harsh word stirs up anger.
We've had an open window to teach this lesson into their hearts.

See another blog about a mom who knows the power of words
to encourage her child.