Happiness is... showing my love in little ways

While I might not be able to achieve great things in my life, I can do lots of small things with great love. At least, that is what I've always believed in.

So since young, I like showing love in little ways, like making handmade cards and cross stitch bookmarks for my mum and grandma, making friendship bands for my secondary friends, going door to door to give out goodies and personalised notes for my hall mates during exam time, and making lots of stuff like a poem book, personalised calendar and nagomi art for the hubby.

After becoming a mum, I like to make birthday cards, children's day gifts, exam packs and write personalised notes for my kids. Yup, my presents for them are never lavish or costly, but they's always done with love and that's how I like it to be.

Other than handmade stuff, showing love also means spending quality time with the kids, understanding their needs, listening to their never ending stories and going on adventures with them. In this post of "Happiness is...", it's about showing my love in little ways.

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No matter how big the kids grow, they are always my babies and thus I always like to give them a token of love for Children's Day. This time, I used a Swedish Dala Horse shaped mirror from IKEA to make a card for each of them. I added sequins, beads and wrote a personalised message for everyone. Sweden was the place where I stepped into motherhood and gave birth to the firstborn so it will always have a special place in my heart.

There are times when I suddenly feel like crocheting and this month was one of them. I made small amigurumis for the kids and in particular made two snakes for Angel (it's her favourite animal) to wish her all the best for her 'O' Levels. Yup, I hope they will be her good luck charms.

Showing love also means taking the kids out for some fun and as the girls get bigger and busier with life, I am mostly left with the boys and just like how I've always been, I still like to take them out for fun adventures and don't like to be cooped at home. This time, we went to play Floor is Lava and we also went on VR rides at the arcade.

The one who spends the most time with me is still the 5-year-old who only goes for three hours of preschool. I love that we get to walk to school every day hand in hand, I love seeing him dress up for special occasions, I love how we go on mother-and-son adventures and do things that fill up our love tanks.

On days that the Korkor is home because of HBL, we also make it a point to spend time together, like how we went for McDonald's breakfast after sending the little brother to school. We also made raspberry and blueberry sorbet for the first time and it was yummy!

On Children's Day, the kids and I decided to go to Teo Heng for a karaoke session and we love how we can dabao our dinner in and have a good time singing our hearts out. I hope they will one day look back and remember these kind of days as the happy, carefree ones filled with nothing but joy and love.

The boys and I still go for Heguru lessons every week and I love how we always get to hang out after that, be it going for dinner or having fun at the playground with our friends. This is the one enrichment class we've stuck to for a long time because the kids truly enjoy the classes and have benefitted from these right brain training lessons, made a handful of close friends and got to know some pretty awesome teachers too.

I hopped into my room one day and saw this scene of the brothers hugging each other to sleep and sharing a earphone. Yeap, the big brother was using YouTube to play music on my laptop and somehow they ended up sharing and dozed off together. Too, too sweet.

It isn't always that the big sister has time to join us for outings so this kind of meal was deeply cherished, and me bringing to her favourite fast food chain was a way of showing her my love too. Yup, I even bring them out for supper after midnight but that's only because we are not strict on bedtimes and love eating nuggets, hot fries and ice cream at the weirdest timings.

As for Ariel, I brought her out on a rare one-on-one date and we caught Cirque Alice at The Sands Theatre. We were both mesmerised by the impressive circus acts and I was glad to have her company and that we got to spend time together.

Compared to family time, time with friends is much more rare but every time we get together, we always have so much to talk about and it's like nothing has changed. I love my 姐妹s from secondary school so much and will always be thankful for their presence in my life.

October also marks Halloween which is one of our favourite festivals of all time. This year, we didn't just have an intimate celebration at home, we even dressed up and went out for Halloween parties too, woohoo!

The first was a Halloween themed escape room at Waterway Point. The place was set up to look like a hospital and had live actors dressed as scary nurse and coroner in a morgue. It was terrifying! Not surprisingly, I ended up screaming the most because these thrills really get to me. 想玩但是又害怕，hahaha. Anyway, I was so glad my three older kids were there with me and Asher was the bravest of the lot, not backing away when the live actors asked him to do tasks.

We managed to 'escape' in the end and it was definitely experience that would be stuck in my mind for a long time to come. Still, it makes me excited go for more fun escape rooms with my kids soon!

Next, I also brought the boys to Kiztopia in Marina Square for the Halloween night. We were expecting it to be chill and cool and kids-friendly but it turned out that they set up a haunted 'house' filled with jump scares from their staff which terrified the young kids, including Ansel who started to scream "I wanna get out!". So we stuck to the friendlier activities while Korkor went around completing all the scarier stations. Kudos to the staff for dressing up and there was even a guy with a giant pumpkin on his head.

We also joined in our estate celebration and it was so madly awesome that it totally blew our minds. So many households took the time and effort to dress up their gates, doors, corridors and ceilings and there were many treats tables set up too. Some even went the extra mile to dress up like how there was a scary nun giving out goodies and at our place, our neighbour dressed up in the 'Scream' outfit while the hubby hid in the stairway to scare visitors with his skull mask and light sabre. Haha. So fun!

Of course, we also had our very own pirate party in the comfort of our home. Once again, we played so many games and made so many cherished memories from that night, which is the motivation that keeps me going year after year. Read here to find out more about what happened at the party.

It's been a while since we did a family photoshoot so I was very thankful to have had the chance to do a Christmas shoot with Bloom Photography. It was for a good cause somemore as proceeds were donated to charity.

We had this amazing looking backdrop made out of cardboard and we took so many beautiful pictures here. I love that we managed to dig out these matching outfits from our wardrobes so we didn't have to spend and I think they turned out awesome.

My favourite was this Christmas collage we did which was done bu filming us separately. The poses were spontaneous and we thought of them on the spot but when everything pieced together, it was just perfect.

Every year, we also try to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival together and this year was no exception. We made our way to Gardens by the Bay and took a stroll to check out the cute exhibits.

Then we lit our candles and took our lanterns for a walk. I am still pretty amazed by how well our DIY lanterns have held up over the years and are still going strong.

I brought along mooncakes and sparklers and the kids had a good time playing on the grass patch. When we tried to write our names in the air with our sparklers, I suddenly had an idea, let's play Win Lose or Draw!

So we started drawing in the air with our sparklers to let the others guess, be it an animal, object or phrase. Some turned out to be pretty funny as we had no clue what the person was drawing while others were pretty obvious. Even the teenagers joined in too and that was rare so we cherished all the family bonding moments and fun times we had that night.

We ended off with a race across the grass patch where all six of us dashed side by side. Yup, my kids like to compete that way and love it when Papa and Mama join in the fun.

That marks the end of October and I can't wait to share with you more about our year end holidays before we move on to our family happenings in 2026.

Thanks for being here all along and let's all remember to show our love not just in big ways but in every little way we can, every single day. 🩷

Ahoy, Matey! It's Halloween 2025!

Ahoy mateys! Are you all set to sail on a pirate adventure with us? Well, climb on board as we celebrate Halloween 2025, arrrr!

I've always imagined having a pirate themed party and it finally happened at our last Halloween, an occasion that we usually make effort to dress up, party and celebrate as a family. Yup, not with friends or strangers but just the six of us in the comfort of our home.

I love the outfit colours this time with the coordinated red, black and white. What's noteworthy is that only that I only bought one full outfit for Asher, a vest and hat for Ansel, bandanas and fake earrings for the girls and the rest were all dug out from our wardrobes, toy boxes, and stash of Halloween supplies. For instance, my skirt was actually just a piece of red fabric I had kept for years.

I thought it all looked pretty good when we stood side by side. Right? The hubby was smart to pretend to be Captain Hook by rolling up his pants, wearing a sock and walking with a limb. The girls matched their own outfits and Angel took Papa's white shirt and a gold sash from me while Ariel took a toy telescope which was the perfect accessory.

What was most heartwarming was how everyone still made the effort to dress up and play the games even though we are getting bigger, busier and older. I'm not sure when we still stop this tradition but I know everyone had fun that night and the memories we made are priceless.

Here's a look into what went down and everything we did at our pirate party.

The Decor

The kids drew this on our whiteboard and the ghost looked really cute! So I also hung a ghost at the side and draped some cobwebs over the board.

Party invites are part and parcel of the party and it just helps us to lock in the date and the kids feel special to receive a customised card too. This time, the invite featured a pirate ship sailing on the ocean.

Our feature wall looked like this and the highlight was a skull that I used four pieces A4 paper to piece together. The rest were decorations from our supplies, the letterings were printed and cut out and the black background is made of garbage bags.

We also decorated the rest of the house and one of my favourites was the dining table that contained some of our memorable pieces from past Halloween celebrations. Precious memories for sure.

A Spooky Dessert

Last year, the girls made chocolate chip cookies and chocolates and although we didn't do it this time round, we did make something special - Frozen yoghurt!

This was easy to make - we simply scooped and put the kids' favourite yoghurt into Halloween moulds, place them in the freezer and ta-dah!

Tattoos Time!

Ever since I discovered Halloween themed tattoos, we've been mainly using them for our parties instead of having to make up or draw fake blood. These are so easy to use and not hard to wash off too. For this pirate party, we mostly chose scars, bullet holes and blade tattoos for a more rugged look. Ansel also let me draw moustache and beard on him too so he wouldn't look too 'clean'. Hehe, so cute!

The Final Look

And we are done with dressing up! As always, it is mandatory to take some family photos first before we start ruining parts of our outfits or makeup, haha. 谢谢大家的配合!

Now for a closer look at each of us. 大家的表情都很到位，对吧？

So, we are all set to begin!

Game #1 - Captain Hook Ring Toss

The games are usually what the kids most look forward to so I always try to come up with something new and make the activities in line with the theme too.

Like for this ring toss game, I modified it by adding a hook over a 1.5L bottle wrapped with black paper. The rings were actually made of aluminium foil and had varying sizes so as to increase the difficulty.

Game #2 - Face the Cookie

Since pirates have many menacing expressions, this next game was a way to train our facial muscles. It's time to.... Face the Cookie! Yeah, we've seen this popular game a few times and it was finally time for us to try doing it ourselves with Oreo biscuits.

It was really hilarious as each of us tried to move the cookie from our foreheads to our mouths and we came up with many funny expressions. I, for one, couldn't seem to get the stuck cookie going while the hubby could do it rather easily. But it was fun trying and I probably had stitches from laughing so hard.

Game #3 - Guess the Emojis

This was a game that I knew the kids would love, especially Ariel, as we have played it a few times on YouTube. By guessing emojis, they had to guess movie titles, song titles, idioms and so on. I think we had around 40 questions in total and it was a lengthy but fun game to play. Check out our video below if you wanna try guessing some of them too.

Dinner Time!

As usual, we ordered McDonald's takeaway for dinner as it has somehow become a tradition over the years. Plus, who can say no to burgers, fries and nuggets? The kids always look forward to this meal and I guess that is more important than worrying about eating junk food once in a while.

Game #4 - Pirate Dance

I always like to start the second half of our night with a family dance and this time, of course we had to do a pirate dance! See the video for snippets of us dancing together, I think these are invaluable and fond memories to look back on in future.

Game #5 Walk the Plank

The next game is a simple one that I invented myself. Using a piece of rectagular cardboard, I drew six planks on the sea and each of them had numbers 1 to 15. The aim of the game was for each of us to roll the dice and move our corresponding token till we get exactly to the end. Beware of crocodiles too, haha! I did our tokens using Photoshop and cut our faces onto the bodies of pirates, pretty cute, right? We had fun cheering each other on and each person had to do a victory dance when we finished too. Fun!

Game #6 - B-I-N-G-O

The kids simply love to play Bingo so we did a Pirate theme one this year. It was fun trying to match the different pirate objects and accessories and the kids asked for one game after another.

Game #7 - Captain, Hook!

In building up to the finale, it was time to get moving! I modified the Blindman Bluff game and if you know a game called Marco Polo, then you will know this. For instance, Ansel would be holding his inflatable pirate sword and he would shout "Captain!", and the rest of us had to reply "Hook!". This was so that he would have an inkling of where we were since he was wearing a blindfold and had to depend on his sense of sound.

It was really fun playing this and the rest of us did the traditional Blindman Bluff with no shouting but once we caught someone, we had to feel the wrist and guess who it was. I thought it was quite straightforward so you can imagine my surprise and how hard I laughed when the hubby got it wrong not once, not twice but at least thrice. Yeap, he couldn't tell the kids apart by feeling their wrists. Haha. Too funny.

Game #8 - Solve the Puzzles

Next, the kids had to work individually, in pairs and as team to solve a series of pirate themed puzzles, including crossword puzzles, maze, spot the differences and the last one was to determine a three-digit number code by solving the clues.

Finale - Treasure Hunt

Lastly, the kids had to embark on a treasure hunt to find the pirate treasure and 'save Treasure Island'. Yeap, I usually incorporate a story and will let the hubby do a voice recording for the finale. This time, the kids' task was to locate a treasure chest before Captain Hook and decipher the code to open it.

Along the way, they could look for treats and skull tokens, which is a task they usually enjoy. Yup, chocolates and gummy bears, I guess it would be hard to say no.

We also played a game of tag by trying to grab each other's sash which had one end tucked into the pants and was hanging on the waist. This was something I learnt from the girls and it was fun seeing them trying to chase after one another.

It didn't take long for them to find the treasure chest and they were given a series of 3-digit numbers. The trick was to add all the numbers together to get the final code and with a little hint from me, they finally did so and opened the chest, woohoo!

And the prize was.... Rochers, pirate 'gold coins' and $80 Popular vouchers. Yes, that mean each kids got $20 to buy their favourite book or stationery. Not bad, right?

It was then time to return home with a chest full of treasure, a body full of fatigue and hearts filled with warmth and joy.

But wait... it wasn't the end of the night yet!

Time for Dessert

We didn't forget our desserts so it was time to tuck into some frozen yoghurt. Yay!

Bonus - Abby Saja

The little one decided to put on an impromptu performance when he heard the songs from Kpop Demon Hunter and it was so cute when he said he was Abby Saja and tried to show off his 'abs', haha. Check it out in the video!

Movie Night - Five Nights at Freddy's

By the time we got everyone to bathe and settle on the sofa, it was already nearing midnight. But nope, we were not done yet and everyone was still looking forward to a late night scary movie, which is what we always do on Halloween.

This time, we watched Five Nights at Freddy's and it was quite a good choice and we enjoyed the thrill and the little scares here and there.

Then, it was finally time to call it a night and yes, it was yet another successful, memorable and fun-filled Halloween celebration for our family. Till the next one, if we can make it happen. AHOY!

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Here's the video compilation of all the fun highlights at our Pirate Halloween Party 2025!