Happy Birthday!

Today I wanted to share a few pictures from my friend's awesome 8th birthday party (happy birthday again Chloe!). It was actually about a week ago, but I didn't have time to sit down and write about it properly.

Chloe held her birthday party at a restaurant called Swensen's. I think Swensen's is most famous for its yummy ice-cream desserts. They have these really nice stained glass lamps which my Mom said are called Tiffany lamps. The restaurant is huge, and they set aside a big space at the end of the restaurant for us to have our party. Chloe had invited our whole class, and even though a few of our friends didn't turn up, there were still a lot of us!

That's Chloe, the birthday girl! She was wearing a really pretty party dress. Here she is calling all of us to get our balloons!

And here we are playing with our balloons! They were shaped like pirate swords. All of us made a ton of noise. Kirthi (in the pink top) won the sword-fighting contest!

Here's Kirthi telling me some funny new actions to add to our special handshake. We have to wobble and say "Jelly jelly". She's so funny.

Here we all are having lunch. I had fish and chips. There's Mandy doing the peace sign; she's lots of fun.

We played lots of games like Duck, Duck Goose and Ice And Freeze. Then we had an ice-cream contest to see whose ice-cream concoction was the best! These were the ice-creams...

And these were all the different toppings. Don't they look yummy?

And here we all are with the birthday girl and cake. What a fun day! See you again soon!

Happy Racial Harmony Day!

Hello! How are you? Here is a picture of me wearing my blue cheongsam! Everyone had to wear traditional costumes to celebrate Racial Harmony Day at school. A cheongsam is a dress Chinese women wear. It is also called a qi pao in Mandarin. On this day we celebrate our country's many cultures and racial harmony. It is so nice to see everyone in their different, colourful costumes, like cheongsams, baju kurung and saris.

One of the fun things we do on Racial Harmony Day is kebayarobics. This is a sort of exercise workout that we do to Malay music. There are a lot of arm and leg movements. It's almost like a dance. This year I was so happy to be given the Kebayarobics Queen badge.

Here is a picture of my hair! My Mom told me that in some parts of China, young unmarried girls would wear two buns in their hair. But I think she did this style for me just because she thinks it's neater.
See you super-duper soon!

Name Day!

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Hello!

Today is a beautiful day!

I am happy!

Can you see what I am wearing on my wrist?

Let's go closer!

Yup! My Mom made me a new bracelet! She had made some for some of her shop customers, and I said I wanted one too. She said okay! Isn't it cute? She calls them "Name Day" bracelets. I think I would like another one that says "Peace" or "Happy". Or maybe "Avenger"! If you would like one, you can find it in her shop here.

See you again soon!

Learning Journey!

Yesterday we had our class excursion! Let me share some of my pictures with you. Here I am on the bus with one of my best friends, Kirthi! The bus was huge, because it had to carry our whole class and two grownups -- our form teacher and my Mom!

Can you guess where we're going?

Yup! The National Orchid Garden at the Botanic Gardens!

Here we are walking through orchid-covered arches into the garden.

See how tall the palms are?

Here we are in front of some fountain.

Here we are walking a very long bridge to get to the Cool House. It is so nice to be surrounded by so much nature.

Here we are outside the Cool House. Our teacher is explaining what the Cool House is. The Cool House shows what it's like in a tropical mountain forest. There are lots of orchids here, and carnivorous plants from all over the world too! The air here is cool (I think my teacher said it's 20 degrees), and there is a heavy mist which got us all damp.

Isn't this orchid wonderful! Like something from another planet.

And here you can see us getting wet in the mist.

Of course, because this was a "Learning Journey", we had to do some work. We all had worksheets we had to fill out along the way. Here I am writing about the orchids I liked the most.

I don't know why I am glowing here.

Here I am in front of some Vanda Miss Joaquim.

Finally we got to have our snack time. A lot of us were quite tired and hungry by this time. Here I am snacking with two of my good friends, Harmony and Emma. We are sitting in a colonial bungalow.

Before we left the Gardens, our teacher said we could play for awhile in the field. Here we are looking at it. Our teacher is telling us how far we're allowed to go.

And here we are playing Duck Duck Goose! For some reason, there are people who actually want to be Goose.

Harmony, Emma and I played some jump rope.

And here we are back in class. We had been at the Gardens the whole afternoon, so we just had about an hour of school left. Our teacher wanted us to go over our worksheets. What a fun day!

Now, I will show you some of the beautiful plants and flowers we saw. Actually, there are thousands of species and hybrids in the Gardens, so this is just a small handful. I hope you like them!

Competition Time!
To get a special mention in my blog, just leave a comment with the correct answer to any of the questions here!
1) Which orchid is your favourite?
2) Have you been here before? Do you plan to?

My Sylvanian Chronicles

Let's see what's happening up on the roof garden today! As you can see, the Sylvanian mommies are having a nice chat while looking after the babies. Mrs Reindeer was just explaining that reindeer are sometimes carnivorous. She said she had tried lemming and fish pie before, which her cousin in Norway had sent her. She said it was quite good.

Mrs Siamese Cat is agreeing enthusiastically. She is trying to get baby Ella to nap. Mrs Kangaroo is looking a little anxious because she thinks her joey is about the size of a lemming. But the Sylvanians really do try not to eat each other. In the background you can see Mr Owl giving Melody Monkey her piano lesson. She has not been practising, so Mr Owl is saying "No dessert for you!"

Here at the trellis wall Nora Raccoon and Lulu Deer are having tea. Lulu is describing the Kids' Club marshmallow eating contest which she hopes to win. Earlier, she had told Nora that deer have a special stomach that lets them eat poison ivy. She think she might do well at the marshmallow eating contest because of her four-chambered stomach which helps her eat things quickly. Nora Raccoon is saying she hates the green-coloured marshmallows.

See you again soon!

Kipper

Hi there! How are you? I hope you have been having a super week! Well, I've already introduced you to my cats, so today I thought I would introduce you to my doggie Kipper!

Can you tell what kind of dog she is? Yes! She is a West Highland White Terrier. People like to call them Westies for short. They are called Westies because they are a breed of dog from the west coast of Scotland. They are working dogs and were bred to hunt foxes, badgers, otters, and other vermin. They are medium-sized, and have a white double coat of fur, which means they have a soft, thick undercoat, and a rough outer coat.

Kipper is four years old, which my Mom says is about 32 in human years. We rescued her from being put down when she was just three months old. When we first brought her home, she was so tiny I could lift her up in the palm of my hand. Now she is so big and heavy, even my Mom complains when she has to carry her!

In the first days of being at home, she was very quiet and sad. She would just sit all curled up in my lap. I think she had had a bad time with whoever it was she was with before. My Mom says she was the quietest puppy she'd ever known. Usually puppies cry a lot when they're left alone, but Kipper never said a word. She was also really skinny, so I think she had not been taken care of very well.

But slowly, she started becoming happier! She started eating better and playing more, and after awhile she stopped being shy and sad. She is very energetic and loves to play with our cats. See, here is a picture of her with Ming when she was little. They look like they are having a nice chat.

Kipper is also really smart -- when she needs to poo or pee, she just opens the back door herself and runs to her pee tray. She doesn't do her stuff anywhere else, not even if she's out with us a whole day at the park.

When she was about six months old, we started bringing her for obedience training. My Mom said this would also be a good opportunity for her to socialise more with other people and dogs. Puppies need to be properly socialised so that they will behave well with other animals and people, and in different situations.

The training classes were every Saturday morning for a couple of hours for two and a half months. Kipper learnt all sorts of things, like "sit", "down" and "stay", and how to walk nicely on a leash and off it. When my Mom stops walking, she is supposed to stop walking too and sit down.

At the end of the whole course, Kipper had to pass a test so that she could get her certificate. The most difficult part of the test was walking with your dog without a leash. One lady's dog even ran away across the road and a few guys had to go looking for it. But Kipper did great! She kept walking close to my Mom, and she sat down when my Mom stopped walking. So she got her certificate!

Well, I've read that Westies are "the most friendly and jolly of all the Scottish breeds of terrier", and if you knew Kipper, I'm sure you'd agree! She is sooooo friendly and always loves a good cuddle.

Here is a picture of Kipper in the newspaper last year. Isn't she cute? OK, see you soon!