iTheatre’s Aesop’s Fables (Media Invite)

Posted in Media Invite, Plays/ Theatre, Reviews by jahbella

Theatre boy (Jah) and I were invited by iTheatre to their latest production Aesop’s Fables at the Raffles Hotel Jubilee Hall and we decided to bring Papa Joel along. Papa Joel usually hates it when I ask him to join me for a play or musical because he just doesn’t have the attention span for it :p But he was more than willing to come for this production because he wanted to witness Jah’s interest in theatre for himself.

This is our second time at an iTheatre production (the first was Hop and Honk) and I have to say that you realize how super passionate they are for theatre and super good at what they do when you see the effort that goes into their programme booklet, stage set and props.

Mandatory Poster pic

Checking out the programme and activities in the booklet 🙂

Thanks for the goodie bag iTheatre!

Programme Booklet

Awesome backdrop

The 50 minutes show (no intervals) revolved around a theatre troupe, the Crowfoot Troupe taking us through 8 fantastic fables. The show was filled with catchy tunes, intelligent humor and great acting! Jah had declared a few times to me that he was scared of some of the characters even though he understood that it was all pretend, just like in his speech and drama classes. He even said “the uncles and aunties act so well!” :p

Wefie!

The show is suitable for theatre goers ages 3 years and up. Although they do say till 13, I’ll have to say “up” because adults like Papa Joel and I enjoyed ourselves immensely too! Papa Joel actually thanked me for bringing him along for the show!

Not only did I enjoy the production elements of the show, I also truly enjoyed the storyline. It was nice to be reminded of the moral of the story behind each Aesop’s Fable. Yes the ones we had learnt as children but somehow had forgotten that they apply to us even in today’s world. It also has given me a lot of ‘material’ to work with for the next couple of months when it comes to introducing Aesop’s Fables to Jah and telling/ reminding him of the moral of each story.

So if you are looking for some good fun for the family and something educational for the little ones then check out iTheatre’s Aesop’s Fables! We can’t wait to catch Gingerbread Man by iTheatre when it premieres in May! 🙂

Next up!

And I leave you with some ‘moral of the story’ that we took away from the show 🙂

“When you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one.”

“Never trust flatterers”

“Don’t let your greed overpower you or you will lose everything”

“Never swop your friends for enemies”

JahBella’s Mummy

3Feb2015

SofzSleep Pillow Review + Promo + Giveaway!

Posted in Giveaway, Kids health, Media Invite, Reviews by jahbella

Jah has been using his ‘baby/kiddy’ pillow(s) for the longest time. Yes, I can’t even remember when we bought him the pillows but it has become 2 very flat pillows. Thinking about it now, I feel rather bad for making the poor boy put up with such uncomfortable pillows. Pillows that were too flat to be used in singles but too high to be stacked up in pairs. 😦

So when I heard about the Sofzsleep pillow I was really excited to let Jah try it and I couldn’t wait to ‘set it up’ for him in his bed.

Junior Pillow (S)

I initially had problems convincing him to just try out the pillow and lie on it. You know how kids are sooooo resistant to change! But once he put his head down on the pillow, it didn’t take a lot of convincing to get him to relinquish his old pillows. 🙂

Woooo

The Sofzsleep Junior Pillow is made from natural latex and it is highly durable and able to retain it shape for years (no fluffing needed). It provides a really good support for all sleeping positions and has a contour design that can gently cushion the head while cradling the neck. I no longer have to worry if I am placing Jah too high or too low on his pillow and his head naturally falls into the ‘groove’. The pillow also has anti-microbial and dust mite resistant properties which makes it ideal for young children. The Junior Pillow comes in 2 sizes (S and M) and at 3 years old, Jah uses a Sofzsleep Junior (S) Pillow which will be suitable for him till about 5 years old.

Jah absolutely loves how soft the fabric of his Bamboo cover is and in fact Jah calls it his ‘soft pillow’, how apt! (true story!). The bamboo cover is an ultra cooling cover despite it feeling rather ‘thick/ plushy’, it is perfect for Jah whose head perspire a lot when he sleeps.

Washable Bamboo cover for the Junior Pillow

Jah started having such good sleep from his new pillow, that not only did we decide to get another one for Bella (who has been using her poor flat infant size pillow since birth) but Joel and I got really jealous of him and decided to get the Adult Range for ourselves. The Adults range has a really wide selection to fit and accommodate all sleep types and preferences. We decided to give their Contour Pillow a try which is apparently ideal for back and side sleepers and because we never had a contour pillow before. Lets just say I think I hear less snores now, possibly because I am sleeping so much more soundly. 😉

A goodnight’s sleep for the whole family!

Adult Contour Pillow vs Junior S Pillow

For all those parents who are looking for a good night’s rest too.

Sofzsleep is currently running a special promotion till 28 Feb 2015. Available at all their retailers. See poster for promotion details. 🙂

What are you waiting for?

GIVEAWAY

Sofzsleep has also very kindly offered to give away their wonderful Sofzsleep Junior S pillow to 2 lucky readers of Jahbella.net.

To join the giveaway, just complete all the steps below.

Be a Sofzsleep Facebook page fan
Be a Growing up with Jahbella Facebook page fan
Share the Facebook Post and Tag 3 Friends. Make sure your post is public! (For those who are not familiar, just copy this link – http://wp.me/p4Wg2R-hh and paste it as your status update and tag a friend)
Like and comment on the Facebook post so that I can note your participation

The giveaway will end on 28 February 2015 2359hrs.

Congratulations to Casey Ang! and Andy Seah!

You have each won a Sofzsleep Junior Pillow for your little one! We will be contacting you via PM shortly. Please remember to reply within 48 hours! 🙂

Thanks for everyone’s support and do stay tuned for more giveaways!

Terms and Conditions: The winner shall collect the prize directly from the Sofzsleep office during office hours, by
appointment only. We reserve the right to select another winner if the selected winner does not reply to our email within 48 hours.

JahBella’s Mummy

Disclosure: JahBella received a Sofzsleep Junior Pillow and a Bamboo Cover (Junior –S) for the purpose of this review. All additional Sofzsleep Junior Pillow and Adult Contour Pillows were purchased by JahBella. No monetary compensation was received. All opinions and photos are my own.

9Jan2015

Zoom Park Asia – Trampoline Park – Media Invite

Posted in Media Invite, Reviews, Weekend activities with kids by jahbella

We were recently invited to the newly opened trampoline park, Zoom Park Asia at Pandan Gardens. We have been wanting to bring JahBella to a trampoline park for the longest time but have been abit apprehensive and uncertain if they will be able to handle it. I worry about the people jumping out of control all around them and whether they will find jumping around boring.

I honestly don’t know why I worry so much but I’m so glad that we had the perfect ‘excuse’ to bring them to one.

Jah has been jumping on his bed a lot recently and a trampoline park is just the right place for our boy to get that jumping out of his system (or well get more jumping into his system ;p)!

Zoom Park Asia is not exactly your regular trampoline park. Apart from the usual trampolines, it also has tons of activities like dodgeball and slam dunk (basketball) that are combined with the trampoline jumping. Jah was extremely happy to be jumping around and throwing balls at people. Actually I think Joel was very happy to throw the balls at me while Jah went about collecting balls. (don’t ask me why). My worry about people landing on my kids were also unfounded as we were all briefed on the safety rules prior to starting our session.

Dodgeball

Slam Dunk

The kids were very excited to explore the entire Zoom Park, trying out all the different sections and then coming back to the ones they enjoy the most. There was also a very challenging rock wall which jumpers can attempt to climb horizontally. A foam pit awaits you at the bottom if you should fall and trust me you wouldn’t want to fall because getting out of that foam pit is equally challenging! Yes I was unable to get out of it, too fat, too heavy! Don’t laugh, you have to try it for yourself to know what I mean.:(

Mummy is this a slide?

Rock Wall and Foam Pit

Other innovative ways of playing with the foam blocks according to Jah

Not sure which kid enjoyed himself more :p

The park also has a very good system for tracking when each session starts or ends. Every jumper is given a colour tag that indicates the time of their jump session and announcements are made when the session for a particular colour ends. All in all, very organized and impressive.

You will also find a café in the park who currently serves simple cakes, snacks and drinks. While most parks or indoor playgrounds may choose to charge an arm and a leg to their captive audience, Zoom Park Asia charges very reasonably for the F&B at their cafe.Great for that 5 to 10 minutes break for kids (and for me) before they re-charge and continue their jump session.

Taking a break but extremely happy!

Even though Zoom Park Asia may be on the other end of the island from us, it has definitely been placed on our regular go to places. In fact we brought JahBella’s uncle and aunty there with us last weekend and even they admitted it was really tiring good fun! We will be heading there again this weekend at the request of the rest of the Village :p. After all which parent can resist an outing that = fun for them too and results in a hungry child all ready to eat his lunch and take a 3 hour nap after!

JahBella’s Mummy

12Dec2014

The Chuggington Winter Snow Party – City Square Mall (Meet & Greet Dec 2014)

Posted in Media Invite, Reviews, Weekend activities with kids by jahbella

JahBella’s first encounter with a mall’s Live Show/ Meet & Greet was almost a year ago. My then wide-eyed babies were thrilled at meeting a ‘live’ cartoon character that they recognized from TV however the experience itself was somewhat underwhelming, with the live show being only 10 minutes long. Safe to say, I have been very hesistant since then to bring them for any Live Shows/ Meet & Greet.

After almost a year since their first rather disappointing encounter, we finally mustered enough courage to brave the crowds and take a ‘leap of faith’ :p We were invited to attend City Square Mall’s The Chuggington Winter Snow Party and I have to say it was awesome fun! There was song and dance, playful banter, a light-up and even a snowy finale! Both Jah and Bella were in their own little world and while Jah is still pretty shy when it comes to following the dance moves, he was really transfixed on the show. What I really liked about the show was the fact that the cast came on stage to engage restless kids, 10 minutes before the actual showtime. Consider it a pre-quel but it was very helpful for kids who have been waiting for almost 45 minutes to an hour. A useful tip which I just ‘discovered’ yesterday, is to provide your kid with your own pre-quel. We let Jah watch an episode of Chuggington on Joel’s handphone and he was able to be kept entertained. He only switched it off when Lorie appeared on stage during the pre-show warm up.

Waiting for showtime!

Its showtime!!

Live shows are not just for the big kids! 🙂

This is his focus face, not angry face 😉

Meet & Greet Photo time!

Lots of Chuggington photo ops in the mall

I also have to say that City Square Mall probably has one of the better Christmas experiences this year. Apart from the Live Show/ Meet & Greet that other malls may also do, City Square Mall has a host of fringe activities which is happening outside on the City Green (just outside the mall). The activities include Kiddy Carnival Rides, Christmas Light Show and Snow Playtime and the Choo-Choo City Express. We were fortunate that the rain settled down while we were watching the live show and ended just in time for JahBella to enjoy the Choo-Choo City Express and the Snow Playtime. JahBella really enjoyed their train ride and while I didn’t think much of it at first, I could see why the kids were so taken by it. The train with a real driver and not just a kiddy train ride on little tracks, would take you round the entire City Green (3 times!) and JahBella were happily taking in the sights and people-watching, even I enjoyed it! While I didn’t allow Jah to play in the ‘snow’/foam (sorry mummy is a bit of a control freak with these things) but I saw tons of kids enjoying the ‘snow’ and Jah was equally happy and contented to have me carry him and get ‘snow’ on our hair, face and eyelashes. 🙂

Baby its cold outside!

Lights and Snow Play time

A real driver? Wow!

Say cheese!

Taking in the lovely sights!

Event Details

The Chuggington Winter Snow Party will run from 6 December to 21 December (daily except Monday) at City Square Mall. Fans can also get up close and snap a family photo with their favourite characters by redeeming a Meet & Greet Pass with $50 spent in the mall (terms and conditions apply).

Chugg-ful of Fun At The Park will be on from 14 November to 28 December at the City Green(Park).

Kiddy Carnival Rides

Time: Weekdays from 6pm to 10pm; Weekends from 12pm to 10pm

Christmas Light Show & Snow Playtime

Time: 8pm & 9pm (Daily)

Ride The Choo-Choo City Express

Time: 12pm to 10pm (Daily)

Interested to cuddle up with a Koko, Wilson or Brewster cushion? You can redeem an exclusive

Chuggington cushion with $200* ($250* if inclusive of NTUC FairPrice receipts) spent!

Insisting on hugging his Koko cushion and even for bedtime…zzzz

JahBella’s Mummy

29Oct2014

Hop and Honk ( I Theater) – Review

Posted in Media Invite, Plays/ Theatre, Reviews, Uncategorized, Weekend activities with kids by jahbella

Media Invite

Jah and I were invited to watch the latest I Theater production, Hop and Honk, a musical weaving two familiar tales – the Ugly Duckling and the Frog Prince.

I was initially worried that Jah might not make it through the entire 85 minutes show and that he might ask to leave during the 15 minutes interval. However my fears were unfounded and I was surprised when he started to ‘whine’ as the curtains came down during the interval. He wanted the show to continue and who could blame him.

The show was extremely entertaining with its larger than life props, elaborate costumes, talented performers, catchy tunes, amazing backdrops and intelligent play with lighting. Continue reading →