Hokkaido Cup Cakes @ Munch Ministry

Remember when I had my last make-up adventure? No, it was real! Me, ol' tomboy Pamela, actually willingly signed up for a class to teach me how to put on make up! And this time, I signed up for a baking class! Wonders never cease, eh!

Baker Pam in action! I am whisking real batter - this is not a posed picture with nothing in the bowl, okay?!
Photo courtesy of my bake partner Evelyn of Evespiration.com :)

I like baking actually. I remember fondly the days in secondary school when we learnt to bake in Home Economics class. During the school holidays, my friends and I would even have gatherings where they would come to my home and we would spend the whole day baking, and watching dvd movies. It was hilarious - there'd be like 10 of us, baking one cake or two batches of cookies - because we didn't have any electric blenders, so we would manually pix the ingredients and would tire quickly. So we would pass the bowl around and everyone chipped in with whatever muscles they had! Ah I miss those days! 

So when Munch Ministry agreed to host us for a class of baking Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcakes as part of the Singapore Mom Bloggers (SMB) first birthday celebration - I jumped at the chance to go baking with my blogging buddies.

The baking session was held at the newly renovated Civil Service Club at Tessensohn Road. I loved the venue. It was centrally located, and the parking was ample on the weekday morning when we were there. Apparently, Munch Ministry has a tie up with the Civil Service Club to provide baking classes there, which I thought was great! The place was very clean, and had electronic blenders (Kitchen Aids, I think they were called), ovens, sinks ... it was just like my Homec class all over again, but 100 times better equipped! I didn't have to bring anything at all when I went for class - only the empty containers that I was going to bring home my bake goods in!

Pauline and Louisa of Munch Ministry were there to teach us, guide us and help save our mistakes if (or when!) we made any. The recipe was provided, and instructions were clear and easy to understand, such that even I (who hasn't baked in at least a decade) had no trouble following. It helped that I had Evelyn, my bake partner, to bake with. She was no expert either, but it was like at least I wasn't in this alone to sink or swim - I had a partner to help and be helped! Teamwork's always best, as I often tell the kidzes! :)

There we did it! We were supposed to bring it home and refrigerate it coz these were meant to be eaten chilled... but I couldn't resist! They smelled so heavenly that I simply had to try one of the cakes right there and then. And it was quite delicious indeed!

Apparently Munch Ministry can host a party or organise a team building event... Hmmm, this would be a great activity for all my cousins and aunts, if they want to attend a bake class together! That'd be fun!!! I'm gonna contact Munch Ministry soon to find out more! :)

SAS White Elephant Sale 2013

About a month or so ago, fellow mom blogger Evelyn Tan-Rogers of The BottomsUp Blog told us of the (then) upcoming annual Singapore American School White Elephant Sale - which was to take place on the 11th of May this year. She even shared with us her loot from last year's sale. Oooh! I love a good yard sale and thrift store! I was determined to go. I even thought of what I'd say to hubbs if he was reluctant to go: "Make it my birthday treat?" - but thankfully he was quite game for it and I didn't have to use my lame line on him. 

Held at the SAS Junior School foyer, it was a hive of activity and I could see people carting off their loot, even though I arrived relatively early (I thought!) at 9 plus. Thankfully, there were three playgrounds surrounding the foyer area so hubbs kept the kids busy with those while I shopped to my hearts content. And shop, I did! Scored many good buys. Shall list them, and perhaps you can spot them in the pictures! :)

Our loot from the 2013 SAS White Elephant Sale!

• $20 - 20" wheel bicycle of a decent brand. We've been wanting to get Isaac a bigger bicycle and this was perfect! :) Took it out for a spin to check that the gears were in good working condition before confirming :) great buy!
• $5 for a Star Wars tshirt for Isaac
• $3 Goodnight Moon board game based on the book of the same name. Heard of this children's board game and wanted to try it.
• $3 Dinosaur Floor Puzzle by Melissa & Doug
• $2 Cluedo board game that still looked pretty new
• $10 Batman costume complete with cloth half mask and cape
• $10 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Audio Book CD set - been searching for the audio books for ages! And they are usually much more expensive than $10 per book, so this was a great find!
• $10 for 2 Winnie the Pooh DVDs, 1 Tigger DVD, and a Roald Dahl's BFG DVD - Shawna likes Winnie the Pooh so this was mostly for her. But Big Friendly Giant dvd?! Wooohooo!!!
• $5 for a Christian Dior white shirt (for Asher) that hubbs got conned into buying (by some very charming young ang moh ladies trying to raise funds with their sales for charity)
• $5 for the pair of Mad Rock children sized rock climbing shoes! I grabbed this as soon as I saw it. It was still very new. Hubbs says a pair like this probably costs $70 or more. Fantastic buy, this!
• $1 green hammock that hubbs bought. I saw this earlier but it was marked $5 so I didn't buy it. Guess when hubbs went for a look around, they'd marked down stuff already.
• $1 for 2 Angry Birds melamine cups
• $2 for a very new "The Boys' Book: How to be Best at Everything"
• $6 for two thick Batman comic books and 25 comics!!!
• $7 for a Melissa & Doug magnetic responsibility chart, complete with the magnets - bargained down from $10!
• $4 for a Cake Pops tray (bought for my sister!)
• $4 for a whole bag of white craft glue
• $1 for a newish red address book

Total damage: $99 !!!We'd definitely be going again next year! :)

Pictured below are the comics that I bought that cost me a grand total of $6! Mighty pleased with this buy! The two Batman books right at the bottom are hard cover 1cm thick good quality comic book. I couldn't believe they were hawking it for $2 each! I know the shops would sell something like this for a minimum of $20, most likely more!  

The other comics were still in their clear plastic bag, going at 5 for $1. Asher asked to get 2, so I told him and Shawna to pick 5 in total. Isaac came back from the loo, and I told him to pick another 5. We paid up. And then, 15 minutes later, while waiting by our loot coz hubbs brought the twins to the toilet to change diapers - the stall holder's Mother (I think) came back, and lowered the price to 10 for $1 !!! I couldn't help but go:"I just paid $2 for ten of those!" And she said:"Oh go ahead and pick 5 more!" I was stunned, and said meekly:"Oh, really?" And she said :" Yes yes, go ahead. I was too busy shopping myself to man this stall earlier. Go ahead!" And so, I selected another 5 more, without paying anything more. Reaching home, when we took the comics out of the plastic bags, we realised that some packs had 2 comics in it! That's how we ended up with 25 comics for $2 !

I even found Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind by Hayao Miyazaki comics! Wow! I have never seen that! I first knew of this from the Studio Ghibli movie of the same name. Way cool!!!

 

And there you see Isaac trying out his new bike! :) We're getting closer to our dream of making cycling trips as a family together! :) Shawna is already proficient on her balance bike, and Asher is very fast on his scooter as well. Looks like we could do a family biking/scooting adventure soon! :p

My Birthday Notes This Year

My birthday falls on the 12th of May and it so happens this year that it falls on the second Sunday of May, which is Mother's Day. But that's not all that is unique about my birthday this year... Despite Facebook having been around for a few years now, it is interesting that this year, I got 3 lengthy birthday notes, in addition to the approximately 100 happy birthday wishes that friends and relatives have dropped on my Facebook Wall. I loved them so much, that I'm going to put them on my blog, so that I can always look back and read it instead of having it lost in Facebook.

From my dear Cousin James:

Happy Birthday couz and Happi Mother's Day too!! Thank you for joining me in my crusade to charting our family history and sharing my passion on writing, blogging and developing closer relationships with our families. You're a great mother! Matthew and you are such great modern parents and your kids are so lucky to have loving accepting parents! May you have an absolutely glorious day filled with love and kisses and a healthy, prosperous year ahead! 

Thank you, James! It's my pleasure to be able to be with you on this journey of using the written word, and technology, to help chronicle our family's past, present and future! Thank you for your compliments and well wishes! ;)

From my dear Uncle Dave, who is my Sui Ku (my mother's youngest brother)

Hi Yew Mei,
Today is your responsibility to receive all good wishes bestow upon you. In God's grace and wellness, you are bound into both 'The Tan & The Lee' family. You have placed yourself in a minority role as to get involved in whatever and whenever you can, on all activities or occasions, but that doesn't mean it went unnoticed.
I need not have to elaborate much, but I know and I dare say, for those who knows you, couldn't agree more. You're blessed with a loving husband and adorable children. This is His gift to you. May you have many many many good things coming, in whatever you do and wish for. 

Love, Sui Ku. "Happy Birthday"
PS. Do me this favour, give your mum (my sister), a hug and a peg on my behalf. Thank You.

Thanks, Sui Ku! Hehehe thanks for noticing whatever it is you do! haha and also, I totally agree! My husband and children and loving family like the Tan and the Lee families are the best birthday gifts I have! :)

 

And most of all...

Pamela & Petrina - when we both could fit in one bath tub! :p

From my one and only, dear sister Petrina

Dear Pam,
 
We grew up fighting a lot and our main source of entertainment back then must have been to see who can irritate the other party more. The car rides were the worst, with Daddy invariably turning back and pinching us to get us to stop. Haha...I am probably suffering the retribution for that now with my girls.
 
But as we grew older, we have become so much closer, esp after we both have kids. Sharing experiences about our kids, marriage, jobs - has tighten our bonds. I am especially grateful for the efforts you take in bringing your kids over to my place so that we can all spend time together.
I have also seen you blossom from a lizard/ant collecting tomboy to a wonderful, patient and fun mother. I am also proud that you have followed your passion and stayed true to yourself in all you do. You are an inspiration to those you meet.
 
Thank you for being a big part of my life, and for being my sister. Happy birthday little sis. Don't think i have said this so here it goes 'Love you'.
 
Jie.

See, when you do this to your baby sister - she take the next 20 years to take revenge... :p

Thanks, Jie. This means a lot to me.

I still remember climbing on you and punching you when you irritated me. And how I cornered you with my arms coz I was trying to share my chicken pox germs with you (it was for your own good, you know).  I am also having my retribution now coz Shawna's EXACTLY like me in almost every way. I shudder when I think of my puberty years, and I am hoping that my efforts with the kids now will alleviate the growing pains in their teens. Whether that works remains to be seen! :p

Yes, we have come a long way, haven't we? :) I pinpoint Rebecca's birth as the start of it all :) thank you for always welcoming us over whenever and even at short notice and always cooking for us and baking all the wonderful treats. I always look forward to meals at your place for both the food and company and the kids love going over too. 

Thank you for being my sister. If I could choose who would be my sister, I'd still choose you. I have never said this too... I love you :) 

;)pam

Happy Birthday Mummy!

Nope, it's not a typo! Today, on 12th May 2013, Mother's Day - I am wishing my Mummy "Happy Birth Day, Mummy! Thank you for giving birth to me!" Yes, it is MY birthday today. But then, my Mummy's real, actual day birthdate is on 14th May, and that's just two days from today. Besides, it's true you know, all mothers should be wished Happy Birth Day on the day they gave birth to their children :)

Apparently, I was a naughty one from even before I was born - I refused to turn upside down like most of you did. Yes, I was breech! The gynae apparently reached in (eeeuuww gross...) and tried to turn me upside down - but nope, I was having none of that nonsense. In the end, I was delivered by c-section, or as my Popo would say, I was "carried out" into the world. Also, my mum wanted to deliver me on her birthdate, but apparently I wouldn't wait that two days either.

So, not only did I have a not-so-normal birth, I grew to be the more difficult child compared to my elder sister in more ways than one. Well, no, nothing major, and I did grow up relatively okay. But I remember I puberty as a very bad time for me and my parents. Those years, I barely spoke to them at all.I was forever in a bad mood when I was at home, and being a real pain, in general to my parents and my sister.

The puberty years took a toll on my relationship/s between me and my family, since we hardly spoke twenty words to each other the whole time. After that, we were at best cordial to each other. It wasn't until my sister had my eldest niece Rebecca, that I started to be closer to my mum and sister. Why? Coz I really love kids, that's why. So it was little Rebecca that started to thaw the ice...

God blessed me with a husband who could talk to my parents and get along with them very well. It helps that hubbs is a Teochew as well, same as us. We speak mostly English at home, but we're one of those families whose Singlish consists of English + Teochew, and not English + Chinese. Hubbs was, and is, a great bridge between my parents and I.

We got married one day before Isabelle was born. (So every year when we are told of the day when we will celebrate Isabelle's birthday, we will be reminded of our own wedding anniversary.) Hubbs and I both loved kids. And so we loved Rebecca and Isabelle like they were our own. Or I thought we did. But you know how they say that one wouldn't understand it until they became a mother themselves? It's true. The depth of feeling is incredible. I thought I loved my nieces very much before, but after I became a mother and had my own children, there was a different dimension of love added to it.

My sister delivered Natalie slightly more than three months after I delivered Isaac. Asher & Shawna came about 2 and a half years later. The amazing thing about a mother's love, is that it multiplies indefinitely as and when required. Once, when the girls stayed over at our place, hubbs said to me:"So that's how it feels like to have 6 kids. Not bad eh?! :p" (Nope, sorry, this is NOT a "I'm pregnant!" post)

Christmas 2011

So this year marks the 6th year since I have become a mother. And do you know what I am starting to realise? I'm turning into my mother! I say the same things to the kids and to hubbs, I do the same things, I even have the same sort of thinking! If you had asked me on my wedding day what my mum has taught me, I couldn't tell you for sure. But now, I can tell you, I am what I am because of my mum.

I didn't even realise it actually. It sort of crept up on me and suddenly one day, I was talking to hubbs and saying things that, I suddenly realised, would be exactly the sort of thing my own mother would say! At first I was horrified. I was like "Yikes I can't believe I said that! I'm turning into my mum!!!" And then, when I thought about it, I was secretly pleased.

My mother isn't perfect, but she brought us up with a very good value system, and that makes her a great mummy. She isn't entirely the most affectionate sort with lots of hugs or kisses. But she is very humble, she is very caring and giving and has no qualms about sharing. I remember, as a child, how I used to be angry with her because she would give away the best things to others and would only keep not so perfect things for ourselves. At that time, I didn't understand at all why she did that. But she's like that. My own Popo (my maternal grandmother) used to tell me how when they were young, in their schooling years, my mother would give all of her pocket money to her youngest brother for him to buy food with, while she went hungry. These stories have always stuck with me and remind me that I should be a generous person and always be giving.

Now, she's a great Grandma to her six grandchildren. Any time, we need her help to babysit the kids for awhile, she'd say okay, even with short notice.

Mummy, I know we don't say this out as we should but, thank you for giving birth to me, and thank you for being my Mummy, and thank you for taking care of me all these years. I am what I am today, because of you. Happy Birth Day to you, Happy Mother's Day, and Happy Birthday in advanced! I love you! :)

Style Essence adventure!

How do you define "adventure"? Venturing into the unknown? Doing something that you don't often do?  Well that's kinda how I define "adventure" - so guess what?  I had a Style Essence adventure!  

We Singapore Mom Bloggers are celebrating our birthday you see - we are one year old! :) we've come a long way in this one year... As such we are celebrating our birthday with a series of cool activities for us mommies starting with the Style Essence workshop. 

So what is this Style Essence workshop? It's a workshop to teach us how to look good. Literally, that's what they tell us. But I understood that one of the things they'd teach us was the basics to applying make-up... and so I thought to myself "Perhaps it's time I learn about this!" For those of you who know me, I'm the sort that never puts on make-up unless I absolutely have to. Or when someone else puts it on for me :p

And thus, with other moms from our Singapore Mom Bloggers group, we went for this sponsored event... and had a great time. Our trainer was Florinda Tay, Creative Director and Founder of Style Essence. She was also one of our fellow mom bloggers. That evening, she taught us many things. I found it useful to learn how to identify our body shape, the corresponding type of clothes we should dress in, and also about colours we should or shouldn't wear. Very interesting!

It kinda reminded me of those basic deportment classes at Shatec that they made us attend when we were in secondary school? But it was fun, and a nice refresher. So after all the talk on shapes and colour , came the part I was terrified of: putting on make-up!!! But first, they got us to clean our face and apply a mask. The products we used were all Mary Kay products that Style Essence was retailing and distributing. For a greenhorn like me, I was pleased that the mask was easy to use: Just wash your face, apply the mask, wait awhile, and clean it off! Tadah! I had nice skin as smooth as Shawna's! :)

That was the easy part - then came my nightmare! Applying make-up!!! Florinda taught us, demo-ed a bit, but we were left to our own to gain some on-the-job training. I wasn't used to it, so I had to ask for a little assistance. Also, I wasn't comfortable with having too much make-up on, so I went pretty easy on putting on the stuff.They even took "Before" and "After" shots to enter us into the Mary Kay Singapore makeover contest. Gosh! Let it never be said that I have never gone for a makeover!!!:p Though seriously, I like the picture of me on the extreme left below, that the extreme right one hehehehe...

I learned a lot that evening, and even got a chance to use some wonderful products. But wearing make-up... is just not my cup of tea. Though I must admit I did like the eye-liner very much (I do quite like the gothic look hehehe). So, I may start using that. I'd see. But overall, I had a great time and would highly recommend Florinda and her Style Essence team for conducting workshops of this nature. 

So that was my Style Essence adventure. I think you'd agree that it was certainly something out of the ordinary for me. But hey! That's what mixing around with a bunch of great mummies do to you! Stay tuned for my next adventure with the Singapore Mom Bloggers! :) Eye candy for you below!!!!

Tuesday Ten Tunes Test #3

Tuesday Ten Tunes Test! 30 April 2013 

Here are this week's tunes! What are the song titles and artist/artists who sang them? Again, if this is too easy for you, just give another line in the same song, without giving away the title. MummyMoo, feel free to provide the answers... after... 5pm? hahhaha :p

1. “A long long time ago I can still remember, how that music used to make me smile…
2. “Like a river flows surely to the sea. Darling so it goes. Some things are meant to be…”
3. “Something in the wind has learnt my name. And it’s telling me that things are not the same”
4. “We’re so enchanted how clever we are. Why should one baby be so hungry she cries?”
5. “Say my name, sun shines through the rain. A whole life, so lonely. And then you come and ease the pain”
6. “Say nighty-night and kiss me. Just hold me ctight and tell me you’ll miss me.”
7. “Loving would be easy if your colors were like my dreams, Red gold and green, red gold and green.”
8. “Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea. Joy to you and me…”
9. “We’ll put out to sea. And we’ll perfect our chemistry. By and by we’ll defy a little bit of gravity”
10. “I’ll get over you. I know I will. I’ll pretend my ship’s not sinking”

View the links below for past Ten Tunes Tests! :)

#2 Tuesday Ten Tunes Test 23 April 2013

#1 Launch of Monday Movies Music Memories - has the first Ten Tunes Test!

MMMM: School Memories!

Monday Movies Music Memories: School Memories!

Some of my earliest music memories are school related. Like this first one, a very catchy number: The Twist by Chubby Checkers

We had to learn this mass dance, that involves said twisting (obviously) when we were in Primary 3. Before you ask, no, I can't recall the dance steps at all - except for the twisting action of the ball of the foot grinding into the floor. I just have this vague impression of us practicing it during P.E. lessons, and finally when it was performed on the school field, en masse. Think it was Sports Day, maybe? 

And this other music memory was from Primary 6...

Before then, the song Vogue by Madonna didn't exactly catch my attention nor my fancy. But after that school camp, I forever had strong memories associated with this song.  It was a school camp, I believe. And each class was tasked to come up with a dance/skit to perform in front of the cohort during the ... campfire? I don't recall any fire. Hmmm... I remember it was performed in the hall, on stage. 

There weren't many people who actually did the dancing, just 6 girls, if I recall correctly. (It was a girls' school). They stood in a triangular formation, and did all these cool dance moves. Now that I see the music video (my first time seeing it!), I can definitely see where the inspiration for the dance moves came from. But still, it took a good bit of choreographing and improvisation to produce a very classy and cool dance without being too risque for 12 year olds. I remember being very proud of our class event and of my classmates who were in the dance. Me? No no, I wasn't dancing. I had the very important task of playing (and rewinding) the tape recorder during their practice dances, which would explain why I remember the song very well now, given the number of times I heard it then...

Looking back, I am amazed that we were as organised as we were, to come up with a dance at such short notice, rehearsed, and presented. In secondary school, we also had class items we had to put up, and I even recall writing the script for one of them, and directing it (it got me out of the actual performance) - it created quite a stir - mainly coz I put a toilet bowl on stage (it was a commode, masquerading as a toilet bowl). Hmmm... I must go see if I still have that script...

But I digress, what I wanted to say was... it was fun. I had lots of fun doing all these class items/dances/skits/performances, whatever. I had always taken it for granted that it was required of all school students, no matter which school they were in. However, there was a CCA campfire we were  (through hubbs') invited to attend, that had students from many schools in attendance. And they were supposed to put up an event per group. I was looking forward to see the items... But when the kids (secondary school kids) put on their items, I was aghast! The performances were ill conceived and badly executed. I was shocked. I told hubbs what I thought of it and his comment was:"You were in a good school last time." I was like:"Huh, that makes a difference meh?". But, according to him, it apparently does.*flummoxed*

Oh I have another music memory! This one from secondary school!


Crazy Little Thing Called Love by Queen. This was when I was in Sec 2. It was an event that the club I was in ELDDS contributed for one of the school celebration concerts. Think it was some anniversary of the school or something, so it was held in Kallang Theatre iirc. This one I danced in. But I was just one of the minions. Who danced a step wrong in the finale move. Which caused my entire class to burst out in laughter - cause it was obvious that I made a mistake. Thankfully my class was seated so far away from the stage that no one really noticed (except me.) Thank God for small favours (and big ones too!).

Anyhoooos... moving on... what about you? What school music memories do YOU have? :)

By the way,  if you're from my primary school - you know who you are, girls!!! - please make a comment and fill in my memory blanks with more information!!! :)

Bloggers! Do you have a movie/music memory to share! Join us on Monday's Movie Music Memory! :)

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Thursday Trivia: What's our favourite colours?

This week, on Thursday Trivia, we're doing some Tan Family Trivia! Colours are a very personal thing. Different people like different colours, and there's really no explaining why. It's one of those things in the universe that you can't really explain. It is really quite individualistic. Do you know what our favourite colours are? :)

Isaac @ 4 years 8 months, circa April 2012

Isaac didn't really have a favourite colour till he was about 4 years old. Red was a clear favourite. He was very vocal about it and would consistently choose items that were red in colour, if he were given a choice. Sometimes he would come back from school and tell me how upset he was that he didn't get to get the red piece of paper to do his artwork on coz a classmate had already taken it. He was seriously into red.

Then toward the end of his 4th year, he started to say that he liked the colour blue too. That when he was 5 years old, he would like blue, that blue would be his favourite colour.  Red was his 4 year old favourite colour, he said. Blue was 5 years old favourite colour. He seemed to think that you had to change a favourite colour every year. Later, I found out that one of his friends had a change in favourite colour, so maybe that prompted this about. So I explained to him that, yes, he could change his favourite colour if he wanted. but also that it was okay to be 5 years old and still like red. "See, Papa, so old also still like red. It's okay." I told him. 

After awhile he stopped harping on his change of favourite colour. And it was clear to us all that his favourite was still red. However, now, whenever he is choosing something and red is not available, he would say "Okay, I like blue too." so that's good. At least he has a second backup choice, and won't throw a fit over not being able to get something in red. I remember how he used to do that, and my sister, trying to coax him out of his tantrum would say to him "You don't need to have everything in your favourite colour red. You like to eat chicken rice right? But it is not red, right?" 

Hmmm... he likes to eat char siew rice even more than chicken rice nowadays...

Asher @ almost 2 years old, circa December 2012

This Incredible Hulk above, is our dear Asher. Guess what his favourite colour is? That's right! It is green! Asher is amazing. Even before he turned 1 year old, he liked green. He luurrves green. No, wait a minute. Isaac lurrves red, Asher, he is obsessed with the colour green. He likes it so much that he wants everything in green. Everything. He's worse than Isaac in his colour obsession. And it's really inexplicable that he likes green coz he is not exposed to it at all. Neither hubbs nor I have a preference for the colour green, and neither does Isaac. As a result, almost none of Isaac's clothes (which get passed on to Asher), is green. 

So poor Asher, who loves green, didn't have any clothes that were green. AT ALL. None of his clothes, toys, bags, shoes, whatever, were green at all. So, whenever I buy anything new for Asher, it'd definitely be green. And he loves them. When I was printing out masks to make for the kids' Halloween costumes last year, I just searched for green characters for Asher. Think I had Incredible Hulk, Shrek and Oscar the Grouch - he chose the Incredible Hulk. He loves that mask and still plays with it constantly, to this day.

When he was younger (than 3 years old), this green preference of his proved to be a big problem when we played boardgames with the kidzes. Coz Asher would just take the green components and run off with them! He refused to let us play the game properly coz he insisted on holding on to those pieces, or cards, that were green in colour. Thankfully he has outgrown doing that, and now allows us to play the game in peace without kidnapping any of the game bits.

Shawna @ almost 3 years old circa December 2012

What really amazed us about Asher and his green obsession is that he developed it at such an early age! Before 1 year old! We wouldn't have believed it if it didn't happen to our own son! Now, Shawna doesn't have any clear favourite colour yet. Generally, she likes and is okay with pink, yellow, red, purple... But I feel she has no clear favourite. Not yet.

My theory as to why she currently likes those colours is coz that is what the colours of her clothes and stuff usually are. Whenever people get the twins anything, they usually buy blue and pink: blue for Asher the boy twin, and pink for Shawna the girl twin. Clothes for girls at this age tend to be generally all pink in colour too. My sister has three girls, Rebecca, Isabelle and Natalie, with Natalie the youngest being the same age as Isaac. And Natalie's favourite colour is yellow. So lots of the girls clothes, bags, shoes and stuff that gets passed to us for Shawna... is pink and yellow. So! My guess is, that Shawna has come to associate the colours pink, yellow, purple, sometimes red, as HER stuff. Not so much as that those are her favourite colours. 

If you ask her "What's your favourite colour, Shawna?" She will usually have to think for awhile... before she answers. And sometimes she says yellow, sometimes pink, sometimes purple. Often, I notice that she will pick up on a suggestion that the person questioning her proposes. Like:

"What's your favourite colour, Shawna?" 

"Erm... let me think..."

"Is it yellow?"

"Yes! Yellow!"

I have heard that same conversation in the colours pink and purple too. Hence my conclusion above. :p  It'd be interesting to see what she eventually chooses to be her favourite colour. Or maybe, she never will.

 
And what about hubbs and I?

Hubbs likes red. Clearly. Like Isaac, yes. When we only had Isaac, before we had the twins, I used to be convinced that the reason why Isaac liked red, is coz hubbs likes the colour too. So yes, hubbs would have lots of red tees that he wears. His road bike is red and he would have no qualms with carrying a red water bottle or something.

As for me... when I was a child, my favourite colour was blue. Right now, one of my favourite colours is black. Black started to overtake blue as a favourite colour when I was in late primary school, secondary school time. Black = Gothic ya know, and back then, and to me now, actually, Gothic's kinda cool. More than half my wardrobe is black - as most of you would attest to. Black makes me look slimmer!!! See this picture above!? (Well yes, it helps that hubbs is blocking me with his body... but still...).

But being sentimental me, I have a secondary school best friend whose favourite colour is maroon. And because of that, I started to like the colour maroon since secondary school days. Now, decades on, maroon is one of my favourite colours too. It is my favourite shade of red. So when we got married and was thinking of a dark shade of colour to paint the wall of our home theatre - I suggested maroon. And since hubbs liked red, maroon was fine with him. We even have our curtains done in maroon. My sister even said to me:"Considering you practically hated the colour red when you were young, it's quite ironic that so much of your house is in red!" "Maroon!" I said "There is a difference :p"

Just the other day, we were driving home from school when 

Isaac:"Look Mummy! There's a maroon coloured car!"

Me:" Yes, it is."

Isaac:"Hey! That's your favourite colour, right? Maroon?"

Me:"Yes, that's right! You remembered!"

I'd been trying to teach him the proper names of different colours like cyan, maroon, vermillion... I was pleased he remembered the colour maroon, and that it was my favourite colour :)

What are YOUR favourite colours? :)

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Tuesday Ten Tunes Test!

Are you ready for your Tuesday Ten Tunes Test!? Let's see how well you do this time?!

1. “I can go where no one else can go. I know what no one else knows”
2. “Please lady, please, lady, don't just walk away. Cause I have this need to tell you why I'm all alone today..."
3. “I’m not denying. I’m frightened as much as you. Though I’m barely touching you. I’ve shivers down my spine...”
4. "With all my heart, I pledge my love forever. You've got my word. You and I will always be together..."
5. “She’ll see I’m not so tough. Just because I’m in love with an…”
6. "The rain has stopped, the storm has passed. Look at all the colours, now the sun's here at last..."
7. “He walks on, doesn’t look back. He pretends he can’t hear her”
8. “Though it’s hard to let you go In the Father’s hands we know That a lifetime’s not too long…”
9. “Sometimes I just forget. Say things I might regret. It breaks my heart to see you crying”
10. “”When you comin’ home?” “Son, I don’t know when. We’ll get together then…” 

Ah hah! I bet you think this is sooooo easy! But you know what? This week, we shall not ask you for the singer nor the song title - that's really too easy! No, now, you have to give me the next line, or any other line in the song! So if you know the songs, you'd be able to provide any other lines in the song... And that would give additional clues to others who don't know the song, and are trying to guess it! :) So scroll down and click on "Comments" for some clues!!!

Fire away! :)