Happiness is... enjoying a vacationless holiday

The mid-year long school holidays is always a period that we look forward to.

I feel relieved and thankful to be able to turn off all my alarms and sleep in a little longer every morning, the kids feel happy to have breakfast together without having to rush to and fro, we lead life spontaneously and decide where to head out on the spur of the moment, the baby is ecstatic to have so many older siblings to play with him all day long, we gets lot of family time since the kids have no tuition and minimal enrichment classes, we attend events which usually involves lots of fun, play and sightseeing, we get to slow down our pace of life a little and enjoy the joy it has to offer.

While we didn't head overseas in June and still have not planned for a vacation this year, we enjoyed the June holidays very much and are thankful for each day that we got to be together. I think if we look hard enough and learn to appreciate what we have around us, we can still have lots of fun on our sunny island, don't you agree? 

That's not to say we don't have a sense of wanderlust or feel bitten by the travel bug every now and then. I do yearn to travel as a family in the future and bring Ansel on his first overseas trip. But, I don't feel a sense of urgency for that and I think the right moment will come one day. We just have to patiently wait and meanwhile save up because travelling as a family of six won't be cheap.

In this "Happiness is..." post, it's about enjoying a vacationless holiday, learning to be contented and sharing all the fun experiences we had.

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We made our way to S.E.A. Aquarium because the kids are always thrilled to get to admire marine creatures up close. It was a fun-filled mum-and-kids outing for us and we even did an upcycling craft where we transformed milk cartons into beautiful LED lights. 

Every school holiday, we will definitely make our way to at least one or two of our wildlife parks.  School holidays are a great time to let the kids gather with the grandparents, don't you think so? Not going abroad means we have lots of time for gatherings and bring our parents to explore the island too.

This time, we visited the zoo and River Wonders and brought my Dad along for some fun too. The pedal go kart was the highlight for the kids and we enjoyed that very much! I love trail activities and we will always try to complete every station and collect every stamp. It gives the kids and I a sense of satisfaction and that is a priceless feeling.

Talking about Go Kart, the girls got to race each other at RaceHub as they navigated the race course and went round after round. Asher is not old enough to participate yet but he did get to ride an electric car, much to his delight. Even Ansel got to ride too - his was controllled remotely by the big sister - and he had a blast! 

One of the things that we enjoy most is a good movie! Yup, my kids are all avid movie lovers and they are always excited to go for any movie premiere. We caught the preview of Jurassic World Dominion and Minions: The Rise of Gru in June and we enjoyed both movies very much! The first was a thrill for the kids and the second made us squeal in delight. Well, I don't take these opportunities for granted and we truly appreciate any movie invite deeply. 

Besides movies, we also caught the renowned magic how The Illusionist at Marina Bay Sands and it was so breathtaking and awesome! The kids were baffled by the tricks and kept asking me how they did it (of course I had no idea!), they loved the audience interaction and we just felt so thankful to be able to head back to the theatres again after the long hiatus. Can't wait to bring them for more spectacular shows!

Are we halfway through the holidays yet? Haha, I don't think so, we still did so much more!

Let's see. We went on our first shrimp farm tour and even though it was such a far journey to travel to Neo Tiew Road, it was a unique first experience for all of us and I am glad we did it. The kids learnt more about how shrimps are harvested, see the different types of shrimps and we got to enjoy a delicious three-course shrimp meal too.

I love bringing the kids out to eat and when they are older, I will wanna go cafe hopping with them too! For now, we are happy to try out new food at places we have not visited and it is a treat we cherish because we understand how costly it can be when you have so many kids. This time, we visited Gram Pancake and the kids all loved the pancakes and breakfast sets too. Yummy!

We love having eggs and kaya toast for breakfast and school holidays give us plenty of chances to do it. Mealtimes are a good way to bond with our kids, don't you think so too? Even though most of the time, I am busy with feeding the toddler and making sure he doesn't do anything dangerous, I still love to listen to the stories told by the elder siblings and they always, ALWAYS have lots of stories to share.

They also accompanied the little one for his checkup and I think he secretly loves it because they dote him so much and gives him so much hugs and kisses after his jabs, haha. Yes, you are very much loved, my baby Ansel.

Ariel and Asher went for their first holiday camp, thanks to the invite by De Kinder Club which is located in Marina Square. It was a three-day camp, two hours each day, filled with lots of fun activities, crafts, games and science experiments. They said they enjoyed it more than they thought they would and I was thankful to hear that. Well, I guess all the early waking up and rushing down to town was worthwhile!

Since we spent a few days in Marina Square, we also dined there, went to the arcade, shopped around and took lots of photos with the Tokidoki display too. Oh, and there is a nice playground at Level 2 where kids can play for free so don't forget to check that out if you are there too.

Now that we mentioned playgrounds, I hope you found time during the holidays to bring the kids to neighbourhood playgrounds too! My kids loved them and it doesn't matter how small the playground is or even if we go to the same one over and over again, they are still very happy! I guess the good thing about having siblings is that they can always play with each other, like hide and seek or a game of tag. They are also very excited to teach the baby new things too, like climbing up the stairs or going down the slide. Sweet, happy moments.

Water play is something we enjoy too and I think we need to do it more often! I specially went to buy these inflatable logs to let the kids battle it out in the pool as they tried to knock each other over. So fun, right? Haha. Well, even though they usually end up in bickers, they will also remember all the happy times we had together and that is enough for me.

We also spend time at home since we did not travel but staying home doesn't mean it has to be mundane or dull. In fact, we can always come up with new ideas and new games. Thanks to our sponsors, we had an awesome media drop filled with these awesome new dinosaur toys for the kids too! Lego is one of our favourite toys and we can spend long hours just building them step by step together.

Oh, and we also did homemade ice cream too! Chocolate flavoured topped with chocolate chips. Haha. This was done using the simple method of using salt, ice, ziplock bags and lots of shaking. Easy, fun and yummy!

Our weekly Heguru lessons still took place during the holidays and it's a class that the kids totally enjoy so I don't mind bringing them here every week to learn and have fun. The youngest has also embarked on his Heguru journey too and I'll be sharing more of our experiences on my social media, if you are keen to find out. It's his only class for now and I love that he gets to interact with kids of his age. Even though the class is only 50 minutes long, it is jam-packed with lots of activities and so far, he seems to find it quite fun!

Just before the school holidays ended, we had a pirate themed party in the comfort of our home! The kids made effort to dress up - check out their outfits, accessories, scars and Asher's beard - and it was a good two-hour party filled with lots of brain racking, puzzle solving and teamwork. It was an escape room concept and all the puzzles came ready to be printed in the kit that was sent to us. This is the kind of games that I love and being able to DIY and make it our own version of a pirate party, that made it even better. I hope the kids enjoyed playing as much as I enjoyed setting it up. See, we don't have to travel far to have fun or have interesting experiences, right?

Last but not least, as always, family time is something that we cherish very much and always make time for. In June, we celebrate Father's Day, invited my aunt who stays in Malaysia to dine at our place and let the kids spend time with their grandparents too. Thanks to the chef hubby, our family dinners are always home cooked instead of takeaways too. These are the memories that will hopefully stay in my children's hearts as they grow up. 要记得家人是最重要的，希望这些温馨的回忆能陪伴你们长长久久。

That marks the end of yet another month for us and as we step into the second half of 2022, there are still a million things that I want to accomplish yet feel like time is not enough. Do you feel the same too? Anyway, when it comes to the kids, I guess all other things can wait as long as they are safe, happy and healthy for now.

Till the next update! Vacation or not, I sure hope you had a fun-filled June holidays yeah!