U Picnic @ Marina Barrage

We haven't gone for a picnic since I was pregnant with Alex - yes, and you know that's more than a year ago! Hubby was apprehensive about how picnics would turn out with a baby in tow, so we never really got down to going for one until NTUC U Family's U Picnic last Saturday (6 Oct 2012).

With two fussy and troublesome kids and eaters, I decided to stick to the safe options:

Fruits

And

Hard-boiled eggs

I knew we were going to receive a goodie bag of some food etc. so I hoped that with the healthy additions of egg and fruits, the kids could somehow still get a healthy meal. Feeding porridge there was totally out of the question since Alex and Alicia would never be able to concentrate on eating the boring stuff porridge at such an exciting event.

The goodie bag which came with a kite! The best item in the bag I thought!

After we set up the picnic mat, we laid the lil man down - his first time on the grass, well erm, ok, ground.

Like a boss!

You can tell that he felt really weird but my little girl was all smiles!

A picnic basket filled with food!

Trying to fly a kite for the first time

ready to be a satay man...

Alicia brought her own fan! We didn't know there were two little fans included in the goodie bag! :) Another thoughtful item!

Kite-flying while there was still some breeze

We got a good place for our picnic even though we reached at 5.40pm.

There was a huge crowd but the venue was perfect because everyone still had plenty of space

The distracted one - well, who wouldn't be with such breathtaking views?

Officially the hoarder - the baby bites and eggs are MINE! :P

Still trying to fly the kite - but without much success

And so we pose for a photo instead

while Mummy snaps more pictures of the sunset

And Daddy captures a spontaneous shot

The beautiful skyline

It was our first picnic at Marina Barrage and it is a perfect venue for picnics - not sweltering hot in our weather and comes with a perfect view!

Pardon the blur photo - point-and-shoot camera fails me at night and I was carrying Alex with the other hand as we made our way to the carpark

In the goodie bags, we received coupons for various activities and food but as you can see, there was quite a crowd and we're really not into queuing since it is so inconvenient with a baby around.

There were also food stalls and a stage where fun games were played (which we took a backseat of course since we were already thankful that lil man didn't start fussing big time during the 2 hours that we were there). There was also story-telling on the stage later in the evening - that's about when we left because it was getting really dark and the noise was a little loud for the lil one.

We had a wonderful time at the picnic and this is the first time we attended an event as a family! We are not crowd-lovers so we usually don't attend mega events but this event has shown us that mega events can be fun and we are looking forward to the next mega event organised by U Family:

Mega Dance!

Cable car ride! :)

Did you know that our Singapore Cable Car has been around for 36 years? :P It has undergone a major overhaul and the once multi-coloured cable cars are now stylishly black and sleek. The cost of taking the ride has also changed with the appearance of the cable car, as expected. :P

We decided that it was time to introduce Alicia to the cable car and just pop by the Underwater world at Sentosa as part of our short expedition on 13 Nov. We haven't brought her to the Underwater world since our staycation at Sentosa and she didn't quite enjoy it then because she was ill so we hoped she would enjoy it this time round - and she did... :) She was quite hooked on the touch pools, especially the one with huge stingrays. :P

Here are the photos!

At Jewel Box:

The view from Jewel Box

Time to board!

Here we go! :P

Look at that little apprehensive face as the cable car heads out into the sky

Hmm... enjoying the bird's eye view for the first time in her life

Still looking apprehensive... and she was almost clingy... lol

Mummy-daughter time... enjoying the view together

The construction works at Sentosa... 

Touch pool!

Checking out the fish in the tunnel...

A morning with flowers and leaves :)

Last Thursday we had fine weather so after marketing, I brought Alicia downstairs with the intention to explore the flowers in our neighbourhood as part of the series of activities for teaching the letter F and simply for appreciating nature.

As expected, she ran excitedly to the playground immediately so my plan had to be shelved, or so it seemed.

It turned out that someone had plucked ixora by the bunches and left them strewn all over the playground compound so we still got to erm, spend time examining flowers. And in the end, I'm glad to say, Alicia's attention was not so much on the playground than it was on collecting and examining flowers and leaves. :)

She ran round in search of more flowers and leaves that were on the ground and played with them in her way:

wow! flowers!

More flowers!

She remembered what she did the previous time with the ixora and I must say her fine motor skills have improved!

Nice?

Going round in search of more flowers and leaves

Look what I found, mummy!

The tired gal in her pram - but still holding on to leaves...

We collected some of the flowers she played with for a follow-up activity... stay tuned! :)

Fun with flowers

I brought Alicia down to the playground on Tuesday morning since she had a filling breakfast and there was time to kill before lunch... plus the reno works upstairs was freaking her out so I thought it was best to get out for some fresh air and let her work out a bit so she'd be hungry for lunch!

We were greeted with lots of ixora at the playground - someone had plucked them and left them at the playground.

Alicia, being the nature-lover that she is, was thrilled to see sooo many flowers and she started to fiddle with the flowers and 'decorated' the playground:

Placing the individual flowers into each hole requires her to practise her fine motor skills :)

This activity kept her busy for a long long time... lol

Pretty?

It never fails to make me happy to see her enjoying herself :)

Farmart

We took Alicia to Farmart today, thinking that it'd be good to expose her to a farm-like environment. However, the place was quite a letdown since it was really rundown and there was only a very small animal section with very, very few animals (there were only turtles, bullfrogs, some rabbits in shabby-looking cages and three mountain goats)...

Anyway, we were greeted by two beautiful, vibrantly-coloured lilies:

and a crimson dragonfly!

Taking in the sight of the flowers and dragonfly...

Evidence of someone being extremely clingy!

She was afraid of the turtles and bullfrogs... and while checking out the rabbits, we smelt the foul smell of....

GOATS!

Alicia had a tug-of-war with this old mountain goat...

and she only agreed to feed the goats again after much coaxing...

Daddy demonstrating that it's perfectly fine to feed the little goat..

Agreeing to give it a try...

Still apprehensive, but only willing to feed the 'prettier'-looking goat

Starting to enjoy herself... see that subtle smile

Someone's finally smiling!

Feeding the other little goat

Feeding from a different angle

Darling Alicia, will you feed the old goat again?

Mummy, you feed the old goat first!

Daddy demonstrating again...

Alicia telling the goat to "ahhh....", open mouth :D

Ok, I'll try to feed him... he's been sticking his head out all the while! Poor goat!

Old goat super happy with the food....

Back to feeding the young goats

Daddy, I want to feed the old goat again!!!

Feeding from an elevated angle

Someone's obviously enjoying herself feeding the goat!

Enough of goats... we end off the trip with a kiddy machine ride! :P

Incidentally, someone was easier to feed last night... we wonder if she was inspired by the goats! :D