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

15Jun2015

And We are Back!!!!

Posted in Our Thoughts by jahbella

I know that we have been rather quiet over the past couple of weeks and honestly its not because we were short of things to blog about. Rather it has really been quite an eventful couple of week with tons to blog about but I just haven’t been able to do so. I guess you can say it was partly due to the lack of time/ energy but also because I just needed to focus on our lives for awhile without having to think about what I ‘needed’ to blog about.

Ironically I am choosing to restart the engine now, just as we are heading back into the school term but I guess this also means I will be heading back into a set schedule again (perfect working condition for a Type A control freak ;))

So a quick recap of what we have been up to during our ‘blog silence’ weeks….

Bella’s 2^nd Birthday!!!!

Yes, we celebrated Bella’s 2^nd birthday (countless times over) at the end of May. Our little preemie baby finally turned 2. I was actually going to use the occasion to document and blog about my tough pregnancy with Bella and her birth story but well time just didn’t permit for that so perhaps a story for another day. 🙂 We did our customary birthday celebration in school however this year there was no special outing for the Birthday girl/boy since both siblings are now in the same childcare.

Bella from birth till 2…

And of course she had to be eyeing the cake 😉

We celebrated her actual birthday with a wonderful meal at The Boiler…our first attempt at having seafood with the kids! And I have to say we all enjoyed it thoroughly..yes even my picky little eaters! More about this, on the blog later 🙂

Wow! Another cake for me after that awesome meal!

I promise…no drooling on the cake..

Do you think anyone will notice if I finish the cake?

We closed off the long weekend with a nice little BBQ with the extended family and the kids got to enjoy a fun time with their Uncles, Aunties and cousins… So yes Bella blew out candles on 3 birthday cakes this year and I am still waiting to see who will eventually break the record with 4 birthday cakes…

Mummy turns a sweet 32! :p

Haha for all those who are frowning or shocked by the age giveaway…I really have no issues with revealing my age. So yes I turned 32 a couple of days after Bella turned 2. I would only like to tell Joel, I told you so! I told you so because I really really didn’t want to have to share a birthday with Bella or have birthdays too close together (but that girl was too eager!!). I don’t know…it kinda takes the special out of the birthday if you have to share it with someone else (perhaps I’m just mean :p) But I now totally sympathize with my siblings, the 3 of them had to share the exact same birth date all their life (and no they are not twins) haha…

In any case, case in point is the fact that Bella had 3 cakes while Mummy had well 1…I guess everyone had birthday fatigue by then…;p

No pix from my ‘surprise’ party..so heres one from my Peppa Pig birthday date with Jah

We moved!!!

Yes amidst all the birthday celebrations, test paper markings and me coming down with a horrible horrible case of antibiotic allergic reaction, hives, skin allergy, bad itch, rashes, swollen face, swollen ears or all of the above…(you can take your pick because the verdict is still not out on this one), we packed up 7 years of our lives in 1 place and we moved. J

The kids are really happy in our new dwelling and the transition could not have gone better. We hired a moving company to relocate us and we also got them to pack for us (phew! best decision ever). More on our blog later, on who we used and our review of them.

I would say this was about 1/5 of the boxes? It took 2 full truckloads to move us..

We started out like this..:) With an empty and echo-y house and now our hearts are full…

So maybe the above doesn’t really seem like much but trust me..it has been an overwhelming couple of weeks and I am really glad that we seem to finally be settling down alittle now (finally!) and getting back to ‘scheduled programming’ :p Apart from having to figure out what this dreaded itch, rash, hive thing is about..I am really glad that we are almost back to ‘normal’..well that is until our next adventure in a month’s time..travelling with two kids to an unfamiliar city on our own 😉

So yes you will be hearing more from us now…until the next post..have an awesome week! 😉

JahBella’s Mummy

27May2015

Bella’s First Time at the Theatres – The Gingerbread Man by iTheatre

Posted in Plays/ Theatre, Weekend activities with kids by jahbella

Bella attended her first play (The Gingerbread Man by iTheatre) over the weekend with her big brother Jah and us in tow. :p Well it was technically her second exposure to the world of theatre (her first was with her school last month). But we all know how differently kids behave in school and with their parents.

I was extremely apprehensive about taking her with us, given that she is often little Miss Ants-in-her-pants. However I have to say I was alittle surprised at her level of understanding and enthusiasm.

As usual we arrived about 45 minutes ahead of time which gave both Jah and Bella time to settle down and Bella was more than happy to follow her brother around for the ‘mandatory’ photo-taking. Jah was also extremely happy to have his little sister around to ‘show off to’.

Before even purchasing the tickets, Joel and I had agreed that we would divide and conquer. We decided that Joel would take Bella outside when she starts to misbehave/ cry. Note I said when and not if because we didn’t expect her to last the entire show at all!

Yes this is how we divide and conquer

But not only did she last through the entire show, she also looked like she enjoyed herself quite abit. The catchy tunes from the show definitely helped! While she was definitely still Miss Ants-in-her-pants, moving from Joel’s lap to her chair more than 10 times in that 50 mins, she was also quite transfixed by what was happening on-stage and was bobbing along to the music at various points of the show. 🙂

The serious theatre goers

The jolly theatre goers

I probably had the better end of the deal because I was in charge of Mr I’m a Big Boy and I can use my indoor voice (Jah) but I was very glad that he was not thrown off by his sister’s constant fidgeting.

Nah..we are happy theatre goers

I love the fact that the show had so much audience interaction that it was perfectly acceptable and fun to watch Jah and Bella shout out responses to the cast. The audience was a boisterous bunch and the storyline made it fun for them.

The show is targeted at children 3 years and up but given that Bella is just shy of 2 years old and we made it through ‘unscathed’, I’ll say it would work perfectly fine for a 2 year old as well. That being said, while it was all fun to hear kids shouting out responses and the cast being ever so game to entertain and interact, I fully appreciate and thank the ushers for stepping forward to request that crying babies be soothed at the back or outside the theatre.

We are totally looking forward to bringing Bella with us on all future plays! (in fact we already have 3 of those lined up! 🙂 ) At the end of the day, there is no crying that can’t be soothed by quickly stepping out of the theatre (if and when it happens) and the ability to let both siblings spend a day out at the theaters together far outweighs everything else. 🙂

One of our next few adventures 🙂

My theatre boy and theatre girl

Theatre Boy and Theatre Girl’s Mummy

22May2015

Alvin and the Chipmunks are back on TV!!!

Posted in Event Listings by jahbella

Don’t we all sometimes wish that our kids will get a chance to watch the cartoons that we grew up with as kids. Well then some of you will be glad to know that Alvin and the Chipmunks are back on TV! 🙂

Nickelodeon and Bagdasarian Productions are bringing Alvin, Simon, Theodore, and The Chipettes back to television in the all-new, CG-animated series. ALVINNN!!!! and The Chipmunks is currently airing every weekends from Saturday, 16 May at 10.30am (TH/WIB), 11am (PH) and 11.30am (HK/SG) and Saturday, 23 May at 9.25am (MY) on Nickelodeon. Season one of the series will feature 52 x 11 minute episodes

ALVINNN!!! and The Chipmunks follows the friendship of Alvin, Simon, Theodore and The Chipettes as they face growing up and learning new life lessons. Each episode will feature an original song produced by Bagdasarian.

Honestly, my kids aren’t exactly familiar with Alvin, Simon or Theodore, perhaps Jah more so than Bella. But they were definitely excited when they caught a glimpse of what was in their Alvin and the Chipmunks goodie bag (Thanks Nickelodeon Asia!) and wanted to know more about the various characters.

Our own Alvin…Alvin!!!!!!!

This one probably needs to join the Chipettes :p

After countless questions from Jah, I could only muster up the fact that there were 3 boy chipmunks (Alvin, Simon and Theodore) as well as their ‘Uncle’ Dave. When they asked me for the names of the girl chipmunks (The Chipettes), I was drawing blanks. So to help everyone along and to familiarize all of us with the characters from Alvin and the Chipmunks…here are some character descriptions to prep ourselves for our kiddos’ countless questions during the show. 🙂

JahBella’s Mummy

ALVIN

Alvin is full of enthusiasm and confidence…and never does anything halfway! This charming Chipmunk is always coming up with hare-brained schemes—but to him, he’s just daring to be different. Alvin acts on impulse, fully believing in his brilliant vision—until it ends in disaster! But he’s got a good heart, and even when he gets into trouble, he learns some lessons along the way.

SIMON

Simon is the oldest brother (by all of 8 seconds). He’s got an IQ just north of Einstein’s and a keen, dry sense of humour. His Chess Master brain can predict how Alvin’s schemes will end in disaster—AND figure out the solution. Simon loves Alvin…but it secretly worries him that they share the same gene pool.

THEODORE

Theodore is the baby of the group. He’s sweet, shy, and trusting…in other words, an easy target for Alvin’s tricks! But just when you least expect it, Theodore can come up with powerful words of wisdom that actually make Alvin reconsider his hare-brained scheme. (Just not for long.)

DAVE

Like anyone trying to raise three hyperactive chipmunks, Dave has his patience tested on a daily basis. He juggles being the Chipmunks’ songwriter, father, and confidant. And although he struggles to remain calm, Alvin often pushes him over the edge…which is when you’ll hear his patented yell, ‘ALVINNN!!!’

BRITTANY

While she’s no astronomer, Brittany is pretty sure the world revolves around her. She’s a slave to fashion who firmly believes that you are what you wear. True, she might come off as vain and self-centered … but when push comes to shove, Brittany has a heart of gold and does the right thing.

JEANETTE

Jeanette is more interested in understanding the universe than making sure her socks match. She’s a deep thinker, and unlike her sister Brittany, knows that looks aren’t everything. Jeanette is incredibly sweet—but she’s got a steel backbone and will stand up for what she believes is right.

ELEANOR

Eleanor is outgoing and athletic, with a ‘can do’ spirit. No wonder she’s got friends in every social circle. She’s the shortest of her three sisters, The Chipettes… but you can always pick her out in a crowd, just by following the sound of her infectious giggle.