Carnival Fun @ City Square – Good Ole Fun In The Park [Media Invite]

We recently visited City Square Mall again so that the kids could try out some of the rides at its Good Ole Fun In the Park Carnival. Honestly we have been spending quite a lot of time at this mall, given that one of Jah’s favourite shop is at this mall (haha care to guess which one? :p)

The kids especially Jah was ecstatic when I told him we were going to a carnival. I’m not quite sure what he really imagines a carnival to be like but I suppose the word carnival just appeals to him. He was also really excited to know there would be bumper cars as well and insisted that that was THE ride for him.

However that all changed when we got there and mummy ended up on the teacup ride with both kids. Don’t laugh! The teacup ride was quite high on the dizzy factor but we all enjoyed it! Do note though that they don’t exactly allow an accompanying adult to go for free and so the adult also has to pay for a ticket. Not sure about the other rides though but that was what happened for the tea cup ride.

Jah was tempted to try mummy’s favourite childhood carnival ride, the pirate ship but he was a little put off by the genuine screams of the little ones. 🙂 Maybe next time..

Highlight of the day for everyone was the Choo Choo Train ride..the ride that would go round the City Green thrice. The kids loved it when the train driver would honk at people to get out of the way. The last time we took this train, it was around Christmas and Bella was still a little clueless at 18 months old. But she throughly enjoyed herself this time around. While it was definitely a squeeze for the 4 of us to fit into that little coal car, it was really good fun and you can see from all our happy faces. 🙂

So if you would like to bring your kids down for some good ole carnival fun, head on down to City Green (in front of City Square Mall).

Good Ole Fun In The Park

Date: 29 May to 28 June

Time: 6pm – 10pm (Mon – Fri); 12pm – 10pm (Sat, Sun & P.H.)

Venue: Level 1 City Green park

Enjoy!

JahBella’s Mummy

19Jun2015

[Media Invite] Barney’s Jukebox Party ‘Live’ Meet and Greet at City Square Mall

Posted in Media Invite, Weekend activities with kids by jahbella

So if like me, you have two kids who are of different genders, you will know how hard it is to find an activity that is a perfect fit for both or a cartoon character that both adore or can relate to. Actually scrape that, if you are a parent with at least 2 kids, you will probably be able to relate to that anyhow. The constant competition to either go for the exact same toy or both deciding that they want to do something totally different for the weekend. :p

Have you seen our house? It’s like a toy shop because we basically had to cater to both their preferences. Kids 1 Parents 0

Which is why I get very excited when there shows or appearances by cartoon characters which they both love. Of course even better when they are free for them to catch. Yes I admit that I’ve had to exclude Bella from watching Peppa Pig Live because it was just not economically viable to bring both kids with 2 adults and pay top $ for good seats. We had to pick who we thought would enjoy it more and the jury is still out on whether we made the right choice.

So it was fantastic when we heard that City Square Mall had Barney and Friends over for the June Holidays! City Square Mall has always been known to put up a good show so we knew we wouldn’t be disappointed. 🙂 The last time JahBella ‘met’ Barney and Friends it was over Christmas and Bella was so much younger. This time around she knew all of the Barney songs that were played while we waited and she sang and danced along to them.

Oh my goodness!!!! I’m really going to meet him!!

The wheels on the bus!

Is that barney???!!!

The show seemed to feature very new/ original tunes which maybe I wasn’t familiar with :p If anything I wished that there were more sing-a-long tunes like the ones they played before the show started. But of course there was the all time favourite “I Love you, You Love Me” at the end of the show. What I do love about these character performances at Ctiy Square Mall is that they are always of a decent length. Not to short that you feel silly queuing or waiting for it and they almost always have some fringe activities to entertain the kids with before or after at their City Green (outside the mall). More on their Uncle Ringo Carnival (happening till the end of this month), in our next post.

So if you have not been done to City Square Mall yet for their latest show or if you are still wondering where to bring the kids this weekend, this might be a good reason to head down there. Take note that this is the last weekend it is happening!

Oh yes and don’t forget to grab your meet and greet passes for the show too! With a minimum spending of $60, shoppers can redeem an exclusive pass for the Meet & Greet session and a carnival ticket one hour prior to each show. Limited to 50 sets per show and terms and conditions apply.

Barney’s Jukebox Party ‘Live’ On Stage

Date: 6 – 21 June (Daily except Mondays)
Time: 1pm & 7pm (Tue – Fri); 1pm, 4pm & 7pm (Sat & Sun)
Venue: Level 1 Atrium

Smile! it’s still the holidays! 😉

JahBella’s Mummy

18May2015

Cold Storage Kids Run 2015 [Media Invite]

Posted in Media Invite, Weekend activities with kids by jahbella

Jah and Bella participated in their first ever run on Sunday during the Cold Storage Kids Run 2015. In fact it was also the first run for Joel and I :p and I have to say we had quite abit of fun.

The morning started really early for us! With the reporting time for our category (the Jolly Kiwi for 2-4 years old) starting at 8am, we made sure that we were parked and on our way to Gardens By the Bay (GBTB) by 7am. Honestly we would never have been able to catch such an awesome ‘sunrise’/ morning view if not for the race. We parked quite a distance away at MBS, just to make sure that we didn’t get caught in any jam or no parking situation.

Rewarded with an awesome view for waking up early

With our (more than 1 km) walk to GBTB, I was quite worried that the kids would be exhausted even before the race began. I noted Jah’s solemn face and quietness while we were waiting to enter our holding area and was wondering if he was thrown off, tired and perhaps almost tipping over to meltdown mode. But I soon realize that his ‘stillness’ was actually him mentally focusing and psyching himself up for the run. Wow!

Well organised and well ventilated holding area

Mr Super Focus did not want to be in this holding area family pic

I don’t know what everyone else is looking at…5 secs to flag off!!!

When asked if he wanted to walk or run, he very determinedly shouted Run! And boy, did this little fella run. In fact he ran for the entire 800m and even caught up with the kids from the first wave of his category, only stopping to check if I was still behind him. I stopped him shy of the finish line to ask if he wanted a balloon which they were giving out to the little runners. He paused, considered and said no! lets go! I saw the determination and the competitiveness in his eyes and I had a proud mummy moment. 🙂

I can’t believe he is only 3.5 years old..call me bias but I think he did fantastic..

Congratulations my boy!

If you are wondering why there are no photos of Bella running, its because Jah and I blazed off right from the starting line and Papa Joel was left to deal with the little sister who insisted on papa taxi (riding on Joel’s shoulder) all the way. :p Nevertheless it was still really nice to be able to participate in the same category for their first run and to do it as a family (the advantage of having kids close in age).

I have to say that the organization of the run and the choice of venue was superb. We loved that the race was kept confined to a ‘safe’ location versus the ‘roads’ but yet we had tons of space and greenery to enjoy post-race. The process from holding area to start of race to the picking up of kids was very smooth and I have heard from a lot of friends who were equally impressed and very surprised at how well run the race was. Jah and Bella met up with friends after collecting their medals and certificates and had a nice time just chilling and savouring their ‘victory’/ achievement.

Jah with his first medal…a moment worth documenting

Enjoying a birds eye view

Celebration!

JahBella and Friend(s)

Jah was especially pleased with himself and wanted to go for another round right after. My worries about having to drag tired children across GBTB to MBS were unfounded as the kids were so upbeat and ready to continue racing each other.

I’ll race you to MBS!!

I am really glad I brought Jah to experience his first run..possibly and hopefully developing a new found interest. Super proud of him and the competitive yet sensitive spirit he showed. He couldn’t stop talking about his first race experience and in fact was still so pumped up all the way till bedtime. Despite his excitement, he stopped to remind me that he nearly bumped into some ‘babies’ in his hurry to get to the finish line. He wanted to know if the babies were ok and if he hurt them because he was ‘not careful enough’. 🙂

I expect to be hearing his ‘victory’ story for many more days to come and answering his questions so that he can relive this fun experience in his mind over and over again. I’m absolutely sure we will be joining many more races to come and hopefully Bella will be there for the running and not just the apples :p

Until Cold Storage Kids Run 2016!!!!

Disclaimer: We were invited to participate in the Cold Storage Kids Run 2015 and we had an awesome time! Thank you for the invite!

4May2015

A Night of Magic at Raffles – Joe Labero (Media Invite)

Posted in Media Invite, Plays/ Theatre by jahbella

I’m usually a cynic when it comes to magic or perhaps I have watched one too many episodes of shows that reveal the secrets of the trade. So when I was invited to catch Joe Labero’s a Night of Magic at Raffles, I figured well at the very least it would be a decent excuse for a date night (which Joel and I haven’t had in eons!)

On our way to our first date night in eons!

The Jubilee Hall at Raffles Hotel really lent some spookiness and old world to this magic show

The show was approximately one and a half hour long with no interval and the show went back and forth between ‘simple’ tricks to slightly more intriguing ones. Of course to be honest, the cynic in me was always looking out for the loopholes and trying to figure out how the trick was done. (Note here that I said trick and not magic). While I think I figured out the ‘loopholes’ of a couple of the tricks, there was of course also the question of how it was executed so cleanly and swiftly.

Then came the real deal which left the cynic in me dumbfounded and it was at times, literally jaw dropping. I honestly have no answers to how he managed to connect the wedding rings of random members of the audience or for that matter anything that involved audience participation and their own belongings. I understand that with the right props and the right amount of practice, most tricks can be perfected but the ones that involved the audience simply looked like magic! In fact just when you think it’s over and he wasn’t going to be able to pull out a bigger showstopper, he does!

This is truly a show that I’m glad I caught. In fact I expected Joel to be even more cynical than me but he was surprisingly very entertained and impressed. Trust me, he is not easy to impress! :p

For those who may be partial to magic shows like I was, you will at least be entertained and tickled by Joe Labero’s humour, sarcasm and wit. This guy would have had a good career in stand up comedy if he wasn’t an illusionist. 🙂

We even got one of his autographed ‘flying’ cards 🙂

So yes thumbs up for our first live magic show and I would definitely recommend watching it, if and when he returns to Singapore next.

JahBella’s Mummy

Disclosure: We were invited by Joe Labero and Krall Entertainment to the show for a media review. No monetary compensation was received; all opinions are my own.

3Apr2015

Cold Storage Kids Run + Discount Code for JahBella’s readers

Posted in Media Invite, Weekend activities with kids by jahbella

With two extremely active kids (ok 1 extremely active and 1 extremely hungry kid :p ), we have been contemplating bringing Jah and Bella for their first race/ run for some time now. However our main concerns have also been whether they will be able to cope with the length of the run, whether they will be able to cope with the crowd of adult and kids runners and of course safety especially when the run takes us to the road.

I was very excited when I heard about the Cold Storage Kids Run which is back for its 8^th consecutive year, because it is designed specifically with the kids in minds! With 13 categories consisting of competitive (sprint) to non-competitive (family fun) races and ranging from 800m to 1.6km, kids from 6 months to 12 years old will be able to participate.

The fact that the run is a kids-focused running event (Asia’s first and Singapore’s only!) that is conducted within the ground of Gardens By the Bay, addresses a lot of my concerns.

Jah and Bella will be participating in the Family Fun Category which allows for 1 parent to accompany 1 child and they will be attempting 800m under the Jolly Kiwi Category for 2-4 years old. Super duper excited that we will be able to run in the same category as a family (perks of having kids close in age 😉 )

This year, the Cold Storage Kids Run will also be introducing a new 3Gen Family Run category to promote inter-generation fitness and bonding so those who want to include grandpas and grandmas can also do so.

See the chart below for more details on the race categories.

Race Categories

Categories

Kids’ Ages (yrs)

Distance

Sprint (Individual, Boys / Girls)

Speedy Orange

Sporty Apple

Boogey Banana

11 & 12

9 & 10

7 & 8

1.6km

800m

Family Fun (1 Parent + 1 Child)

Happy Grapes

Merry Berry

Jolly Kiwi

Stroller

11 & 12

9 & 10

7 & 8

5 & 6

2 – 4

6 – 23 mths

800m

3Gen Family Fun

(1 Grandparent + 1 Parent + 1 Child)

4 – 12

800m

When I told Jah a few days ago that we will be participating in his first run and he will get his own little race t-shirt (which has green – his favourite colour) and a medal if he finishes the run, he was ectastic! I’m confident that this will be an awesome introduction to the world of running for Jah and Bella! So if you are looking to introduce your kids to a race/ run as well or a fun and healthy way for them to burn some energy, sign up for the Cold Storage Kids Run now!

Do note that this year’s run is limited to the first 5,000 registered participants so do register early. Running Clinics and Dynakids Classes will also be held every Saturday in the month of April and slots are running low for these fun fitness classes so check out this link – http://www.kidsrun.com.sg/fun-camps and register fast!

Oh yes and before I forgot! All readers of Jahbella.net will be entitled to a 10% discount on top of the early bird rates (before 9 April) and off regular rates (after 9 April). Just quote G3TACTIV3JAhB311A when registering for the race! 🙂

Scroll down for more details or visit the official website at www.kidsrun.com.sg for more information.

Happy Running!

JahBella’s Mummy

Race Day Details

Date: 17 May 2015 (Sunday)

Location: The Meadow @ Gardens by the Bay

Time: 7am – 12pm

Registration period: 19 March – 16 April at www.kidsrun.com.sg

(Early bird discounts available if you register before 9th April)

Activities on race day include a sports-themed carnival, running clinics, sports introductory classes and more.

Registration Fees