The Family Songs

Brandon's Friends...

... and sons of daddy's colleagues (Click son's name to see who their daddy's are)

Ethan & Brandon

My daddy finally graduated from the Trinity Theological College (TTC) on Saturday (May 10)... The graduation was held at Wesley Methodist Church. It was interesting to see my daddy, his classmates and his teachers walking into the santuary with robes. Some of their robes were more colorful than the others.

After the pastor shared the Word of God from the Bible, one-by-one, the names of the students were called... the principal then put the hood onto every one of them. We had to wait for quite a long time before my daddy's name was finally called.

My mommy told me that not many children get to see their daddy (or mommy) graduate. Although Brandon was also there, he was not paying attention. He was walking around and screaming occasionally until mommy had to bring him out of the sanctuary.

Just The Family Songs

Here's a picture with Grandpa, Grandma, Gu-Ma, Gu-Chay, Uncle Steve and my cousins, Nigel (standing next to me) & Nicholas

Me and my Gu-Ma (Daddy's elder sister)

I wonder what Brandon is starring at...Gu-chay (daddy's kid sister) or her mouth...??

Happy 1st Birthday, Brandon!!

Brandon celebrated his first birthday today. Looking at the picture, you'd think Ashley is the one celebrating her birthday.

May 5 is Tango-no-Sekku, or the Boy’s Festival - this is to honor the healthy growth and development of the young boys in the family. Jiji & Baba (Grandpa and Grandma) sent Brandon a Koinobori, carp-shaped wind socks from Japan.

In Japan, these koi are hoisted up on long bamboo poles and, along with pretty ribbons, are mounted up on the rooftops.

Girls are not left out! Girl’s get their own day on March 3rd, called Hina Matsuri, where families display traditional Hina Dolls. Here's a picture of Ashley taken on March 3rd - the doll display behind Ashley is a miniature version of this actual doll display.

Just had to include this pix in

Brandon Walks Before He's One

From Ashley's Camera-phone

Brandon with Shrek's ears

Brandon had a hair-cut recently. This time, mommy didn't have to carry him. Nonetheless, it took 4 persons to give him a haircut - 3 to distract him (mommy, daddy and a hairdresser), and one to trim his hair.

At The Park

Ashley & mommy "working out" together

Managed to capture this of Brandon crying... don't remember why he cried.

At the park just behind our apartment

What's So Funny...?

Was having dinner - it was something that Ashley did that made Brandon laugh. So, what did Ashely do - continued to make him laugh, of course!

Happy New Year...!!

"What's this..." - this is Brandon's 1st "ang pow" from daddy & mommy. Happy 1st Chinese New Year, Brandon...!!

Mommy getting pampered - having her manicure and pedicure done right in the comfort of her own living room just before Chinese New Year. Well, it didn't last long - her nicely painted sculptured nails started to peel the very next day - thanks to cooking, house chores and milk bottle washing.

Chinese New Year Reunion Pix

Brandon enjoying his arcade ride (for the 1st time) at MotherCare

Jie-Jie (elder sister) just had to have her picture taken with her adorable kid brother

Went to "Kam Boat" at Shaw Center for our Chinese New Year Reunion Dinner - doing the "lo-hei" or "Yu-Sheng". The higher the toss, the better it is...

"年年有余! (Let there be surplus year after year!) 捞啊！捞啊!发啊！发啊! (Toss ah! Prosper ah!) 捞起运气, 捞起财气，捞起福气, 春节捞起风生水起 (Toss to good luck, Toss to wealth, Toss to good fortune, Toss to good returns this Spring Festival!)"

Susan, if you are reading this and wants to know what our "Yu Sheng" salad looks like, here it is... and there's actually meaning behind its ingredients.

Here, the waiter was helping to put the "Yu-Sheng" together. As he emptied the ingredients into the salad, he'd call out the meaning of that particular ingredients.

Brandon with Gu-Ma and Gu-Chay

It about time... here are some new pictures and videos

Brandon's Crawling...

... and Clapping too!!

Are they just adorable...??!!

Brandon standing tall AGAIN

Here's a picture with "Gu-Ma" - Vernon's elder sis.

Christmas Morning (2007) - Brandon's First Christmas

It's Christmas Morning... finally, Ashley gets to unwrap ALL her Christmas gifts. And for the first time, Brandon joins her.

Brandon enjoying one of his gifts.

Enjoying a meal with some of the students from the Republic Poly on Christmas Eve.

Daddy was away on a Youth Leader Equipping Retreat at Telunas Beach located in one of the Riau Islands (Indonesia) - an excellent place to go to get away to. They have to take a 45 minutes ferry ride from Harbor Front to Batam. Then, it was a 90 minutes boat ride to Telunas Beach. They were all greeted with warm smiles, icy cold towel and a welcome drink. Thought they stayed at bunk houses on stilts, it was clean and even had proper shower facilities. Imagine having the whole stretch of clean white beach all to yourself... and needless to say, the food was excellent!! Daddy highly recommends Telunas Beach if you're going on a retreat or just to get away with your family. However, do go with a big group to 8 - 10 people or more to really have fun.

Time To Update New Pix

Standing Tall in shorts - Brandon wearing his denim shorts from Target. Wanna know how much it cost...? US$0.98.

Caught in the act - What a mess!

Friends from the Sylvanian Families (UK / Japan) having tea together. In US, it's called "Calicocritters" - anyway, besides High School Musical, this is what Ashley enjoys these days

Trip to Arizona (Nov 15 - Dec 1)

Scroll down for NEW pictures

Brandon's first plane ride - look at the mini-bar behind them. On the non-stop flight from Singapore to LA, you get to snack round the clock and they feed you all the time.

Ashley enjoying her dinner - and TV. She watch "High School Musical 2" AGAIN!

At the International Students Club table at Cady Mall

Marisa & Ashley baking the Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake for Thanksgiving Dinner. It was pretty good - well done, girls!!

Brandon on the high chair for the first time - but it didn't last. He started to slides down and we had to remove him from the chair

Brandon "achieved" so much during this trip - he got to sit in a shopping cart at Target. He could also sit on his own (but not to long and with a little help from daddy)

It can be pretty cold in the morning - Brandon looks so warm in his sweater.

Here are pictures of the kids - from L-R: Ashley, Brandon, Joshua and Marisa.

"Most Eaten Food" during our trip cos this is Daddy's favourite - PANDA EXPRESS - half rice and chow mein, sweet and sour pork and Beef Broccoli... AND Hot and Sour soup.

Ashley relaxing during our flight to LAX

Thanks to a Singapore Girl (Shirley Chia) who took this pictures of Daddy & Brandon while mommy and Ashley were having their breakfast. By the way, we took us 14+hours to fly to the US and 17+ hours on our way home. SQ is not just "a great way to fly" - it's an EXCELLENT way to fly - great service, excellent food (Yoko even finished her food), wonderful in-flight entertainment, friendly cabin crew, spacious seats (daddy liked the 2-3-2 cabin seat configuration). They even served Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. I guess you can tell Daddy is one satisfied customer, heh...??!!