Ear Piercing

In the past year, Meg's taken to putting on 'earrings'...in sticker form. She looked quite nice in them and has been pleading for me to let her have her ears pierced, thanks to her friend Elizabeth at school, who recently got hers pierced and thus, Meg's insistence that she follow suit. So since it's the holidays and I did promise her that I'd let her do it after her K2 graduation concert, the day finally came and although she was rather afraid, she plucked up her courage and will surely and proudly tell you, if you ever ask her about it, that she didn't cry and it was not as painful as she'd expected it to be. I must say she was pretty brave but you take a look at the pictures and judge for yourself if her eyes glimmered with a little hint of a tear? Shh...I don't want to ruin her self-pride for putting on a brave front. The new earrings look nice on her. Shows what a 'hiao' girl she is (definitely not from my genes), to want to do this at such a young age, overcoming all fear and anxiety in the name of 'vain-ness'! Ah...but better now than later, cos I think kids tend to handle pain better than adults!
Notice her hand clutching for support...

Operation Pierce takes place.

The cringed look. Is it over? Still trying to decide if that was painful or not.

It wasn't so bad!!!

"I feel pretty...Oh so pretty!"

Goodbye to sticker earrings!!! Uh-oh, how am I going to sleep on my side tonight?!

Goodbye Marymount!

Well done Meg!!! She's finished with the first and easiest phase of her academic career. Now our real worry begins. I thought Primary 1 is relatively easy, but looking at my godson's (just completed Pr 1) work, suffice to say, 'it ain't what it used to be during our time'. I have trouble with some of her K2 Chinese work, and the Mathematics at this level was probably our level at Pri 3 or even 4! Well, one step at a time I guess.
On the whole, we are quite happy with Marymount Kindergarten. Not only is it a Catholic kindy - which was a major factor in deciding which one to choose - we like its open-aired classrooms, wide walkways and the knowledge she gained there. Although the teachers and principal kept changing, - something we didn't like - but at least the form teachers stayed with the kids til the end of the academic year. Would I recommend it to others? Yes I would. It might not be the best kindy around, but Meg learnt a lot and turned out alright in every aspect and it's thanks to the teachers and the environment at Marymount.
Now I await anxiously for her to being P1. It's going to be a big change for the entire family...

I should have photographed her outside of the (in)famous front steps of the school that's usually a human traffic jam during the 11.15am overlap of the am and pm sessions! Behind Meg is the path we take to the carpark above the slope.

She was allowed to wear butterfly wings on her last day. We usually discourage her from putting on something that would attract attention upon herself but this is probably one of the last chances she'll get so we agreed. There were others who wore similar wings too!

Lining up for her last performance of the year with her classmates. They sang and danced to "Little By Little, Day By Day", a lovely song.

A Fiery All Souls Day

A smokey sky greeted us as we approached the Choa Chu Kang cemetary at noon yesterday. We try to make it a yearly ritual to visit my dad's grave on his death anniversary and All Souls Day which falls on Nov 2, the day after All Saints Day. At first, I thought it was the candles and offerings that people left behind that must've ignited some grass that led to bigger flames, but there were actually pockets of grass fire, brought on, no less, by the scorching heat at high noon.
The kaypoh in me made me wander over to the source of the smoke to try to get some shots and low and behold, some SCDF firemen arrived at the same time. Pix opportunity galore! They paid no attention to me as I began to photograph them beating the flames out, cos I was using a compact camera, and they must've thought I was a harmless busybody. I made some shots and then went back to help my mum clean my dad's tombstone. The heat was unbearable but God was kind and about 10 minutes after we started, the clouds arrived and provided us with temporary relief.

Meg Graduates from Kindy!

The little one did us proud when she got on stage with her classmate, Thane, to introduce her class performance item, a dance to Aqua's "Cartoon Heroes". There was brief banter between the two and then they moved to their positions in a slick manner to join their other classmates. The dance was pretty impressive (our practice sessions with a crappy version of the song from youtube paid off) and parents like myself beamed from ear to ear. Actually, I was concentrating more on shooting some pix rather than actually watching her dance. Of course, one of my CF cards had to jam during her performance and I was anxiously trying to fix the problem. She then received her 'certificate' later on but I'm pretty sure it was a dummy cert, as I've yet to see the real one.
It's now on to the next phase of her academic life, Primary One. I think I'm more anxious than she is, worrying if I'm over taxing her if I sign her up for ballet and art class, in addition to her swimming, chinese and creative thinking classes! Am I kiasu or what?!

Meg with Thane
Shaking and hip-thrusting
The boy in front of her, Aaron, has declared that he wants to marry Meg when he grows up...we'll see... ;)
Meg and one of her several 'best friends', Bernadette with their teacher from pre-nursery, Ms Lok. She has been very caring towards Meg and has kept in touch with her all these years even though she doesn't teach her anymore.