Both boys are tuckered out. It’s been a long day. Long but fun day, albeit we met with a little disappointment along the way but hey life’s not a bed of roses.
After some homework, learning spelling, practicing words, the boys went down to play ball and swim with Hubby. I joined them after my chores, and after cooking a small pot of chicken porridge for their lunch. We had fun playing ‘ride the whale’, timing little pea free style and breast stroke in preparation for his silver certification.
Oops but i digress.. i meant to talk about our day out at the Marina Barrage. The last time Families for Life organized an event at the Marina Barrage, it was so jammed pack with ALL carparks filled from Meadows to Gardens by the Bay with slow moving traffic all the way to the drop off point at the Marina Barrage. We didn’t even make it in even though we pre-registered for the event. We couldn’t.
So this time, we tried to be early. But having errands to run, tasked going to the paternal grandpa’s place to water the plants and pick up prayer fruits, and having late lunch, we finally made it to Marina Barrage at 3:20pm. All my worries about not getting a carpark lot dissipated, we had our pick! Starting at Meadows, 128 lots available. Another hundred more at Gardens by the Bay, 55 lots available at Marina barrage herself. The roads all clear. I guessed maybe others were turned off the previous event? ( Not true given the huge turnout later in the evening, we were just early. So the saying the early bird gets the worm rings true)
Anyway little crispin fell asleep, so spent some time letting him sleep a little more in the car with me while little pea and hubby went up to fly some kites. An hour later they came back to get us to go in together, about time little crispin wakes.
The registration booth was near empty. The first wave of people were done and have moved on to the activity booths. So we had it easy registering ( just showing them the email confirmation of our registration) and collected 2 Singapore flags, 2 orange frisbees, and 2 red light sticks.
The activity booths were all queued up. Lines of humans. Not wanting to jump right into the queuing business, we went looking for the bouncy castles which were conveniently in the area next to the food van. While Hubby queued for food and snacks ie cotton candy, tea coffee, wheels and chips, i went to the bouncy castle with the boys. There were 5 in all, small in comparison to those we have seen at the children’s Biennale at the National Museum but the boys still managed to have some squeals and laughs at the biggest one till i signaled it’s almost papa’s turn at the food van. At which, they slipped into their shoes and hurtled towards Hubby just in time for a big white ball stick of cotton candy each. Almost the only event they ever had cotton candy. The last one was at Families for Life at the Padang more than a year ago. The glee on their faces. Priceless.
With the food loot, we went on to set up camp at one of the many benches available, since Hubby knew i wanted to let the boys try some of the activity booths. There were kite making, telescope making, fan making, and glitter tattoo. For some reason only glitter tattoo caught my eye. And i asked the boys if they would like to do it and they all said yes! So of course this faithful mum went to queue. and boy what a queue. After over an hour of wait, the lady doing the tattoo decided the boy before us will be the last she will tattoo. Imagine the devastation. Mine. Well at least while i was queuing, the boys went up and found a picnic spot with Hubby and tried to fly and successfully did fly a kite till the announcer says all kites are to come down in preparation for the flyby.
The boys took it well, no tantrums no crying, just ” what a pity” from little crispin. My precocious little one. I was the embarrassed one. Wasting over an hour for nothing. Remind me to send a feed back letter to the organizers. Surely they can do crowd control and specify the exact no. of tattoo places available. I don’t mind being told places are full, but to be told after spending hours queuing is just.. No.
Anyway, the boys led me to our picnic spot, now completely surrounded by other picnickers. Just in time to see the majestic fly by. Oh wait we saw the huge giant flag flyby at the lower level, it was still awesome. Here at the picnic spot we saw the fighter jets zoom in with their skillful turns and climb up the atmosphere. Awesome. I had goosebumps.
Then it was a good hour before the fireworks. We picnicked properly. Eating all our snacks and drinks. Watch beautiful kites soar into the beautiful sky against the magnificent skyline ( even though they were not suppose to be flying till after 8 pm) not the most obedient bunch but oh so beautiful.
The air was cool, the breeze was going strong. & finally fireworks. To ahh and ohhh.. and wows…A real sight to behold. So blessed we are to be Singaporeans, to be there enjoying that view with my love ones, my precious babies. I hope they will never forget. Regardless, I will always remember. Making memories. Families for Life.
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