ABA Productions: There's a Monster in Your Show

By now, every reader probably knows what a huge fan we are of ABA Productions. The latest one - There's a Monster in your Show once again impresses. Among all their shows we have went to, I found this the most engaging. Even before the show starts, the cast would be all around, speaking to the children, letting them know when applause would be nice. 

One of the things I really like about all their shows is how much effort and thought they put into the props and backdrops. They never fail to surprise me, how they change the scene with very little disruptions. We got corner CAT 1 seats this time round and it was super near the stage. It was great because there was space at the side for the children to gyrate along to the catchy music. 

Both my kids grew up watching ABA Productions (literally). And they have learned to enjoy the live shows. It tickles me to see them blossom to seasoned "patrons of the art" and they just instinctively take booster seats to their chairs. Just imagine, my 2YO dragging her little booster chair and putting it back right after the show. 

After the first show, it is quite effortless on my part. I can now bring them alone as they don't need much egging to prepare themselves because they are eager for it. The darkness of the theatre is also something they got got used to. I personally prefer the weekday shows sometimes because you get better rates and bang for your bucks. If you haven't gotten your tickets yet, here's some discounts you can use. 

	Promo Type	Details	Redemption
1	10% discount	Applicable to all ticket categories Only applicable for weekend shows	Use promo code “SHOW10” at checkout
2	15% discount	Applicable to all ticket categories Only applicable for shows on Thursday and Friday	Use promo code “MONSTER15” at checkout

By the way, The Very Hungry Caterpillar is coming back again next year (you can read our review here), and it is a great production to start them on. You can keep a lookout for Kids Fest for all their other productions if you have caught this one already!

Pinkmas at Plaza Singapura

One of our favourite celebrations is Christmas because there is always so much things going on and the kids calendar gets packed. This year, Plaza Singapura collaborated with Museum of Ice Cream (you can read our review here) for a Pinkmas Celebration. My daughter's favourite colour is pink so she is beyond thrilled. 

All the Christmas magic happens in a wintery igloo. Within, you will find a giant globe which you can pose and take beautiful photos. But nothing was really more exciting than the sprinkler pool for the toddlers. You can definitely join in to capture pretty photos if you are an adult, but you probably won't be able to jump in like the children. Hehe. 

Apart from the sprinkle pool, there is also the Dessert Squishy Painting Workshop for $15 pax. My kids work don't look the best, but I did some adults with very gorgeous creations. Please put aside some time if you intend to give this a go because work of art usually take a bit of time. Apart from that, there is also ice-cream with exclusive flavours such as Brown Butter Ice Cream with Pecan, Double Chocolate Ice Cream with Chocolate Fudge and Marshmallow, Peppermint Chocolate Chip and Strawberry Sorbet with Gold Glitters

There is a light show that takes place from every Friday to Sunday from 22nd Nov to 15th Dec at 7.30pm, 8.30pm and 9.30pm. If you are game for some free ice-cream, post your sweet memories on social media and the first 50 redemption after each light show will get a cup of free ice cream. Because you read to the end, use the code "GIFTNGLEE" on the CapitaStar app to get a $5 eVoucher.

Novotel @ Stevens Staycation Part 1 - Room and Facilities

If you have toddlers like me, and really need a recharge, I would say a staycation would do the deed. I always feel a lot more fresh and less stress after one. This time round we went to Novotel @ Stevens! We always go past it a few times and was always curious. I am glad we made the visit because we were so blown away by the design and the hospitality. 

Our room came with a toilet with glass walls. A blind could be lowered for privacy. For parents, this room worked really well cos we could keep an eye on the other children while showering one. And the kid left in the bedroom didn't feel too left out, so there were no fusses. However, if you are staying with a friend of an opposite gender, you must have a lot of trust. Otherwise, you might want to pick something which provides more privacy. 

We had the Premier Room which came with access to the exclusive Novotel Premier Lounge service at L’Apéritif Lobby Bar with cocktail and light bites from 6:00pm to 7:30pm and also complimentary access to the fridge in my room. If you are on business travel, the lounge is great because there are meeting rooms and printers available. 

As the first day was very gloomy, we ended up checking out the Kid's Room at Level 2. It is not really a drop-off place. The kids were tickled when the staff allowed us to bring some orange juice (in takeaway cups) from the Lounge. They felt so much like little adults. 

The facilities were also pretty awesome. I thought it was cool that the place held a tennis court and foosball table. As I didn't bring my sportswear, I didn't had a go at their gym but I loved the fact that the treadmill had a great view of the busy roads. We spent quite a good amount of time at the pool. There was a lap pool, infinity pool and baby pool. The kids adored just splashing around independently at the shallow baby pool. As the infinity pool had such a pretty view, we couldn't resist taking a dip there as well. 

The place also came with a laundromat. I took a peek at the prices and found it pretty affordable. I have so much photos and things to share that I would need to split this post into parts, LOL. In any case, I spent 3D2N there and this is our itinerary.

Day 1: Check In at 3pm

• Checking out the Lounge and Kid's Room 
• Free Shuttle Bus to Orchard to check out the X'mas Lights (Read Post here!) and Christmas Village (Read post here!)
• Dining and Shopping at Orchard because there is a lot to eat and shop there!

Day 2: Full Day of Fun

• Breakfast at Food Exchange (Read our post of food here!)
• Picnic at Botanical Gardens  (Read our post  of the experience here!)
• Swimming at the pool
• Dinner at Smiths Fish and Chips (Read our post of food here!)

Day 3: Late Check Out

• Breakfast at Food Exchange (Read our post of food here!)
• One last Swim because the kids loved it!

You can book a stay with Klook here! Or direct from their website to enjoy exclusive promotions!

** Use the discount code "BABYNFAMKLOOK" for 5% Discount For All Klook Activities with min. spend of SGD50. Discount capped at SGD15.

Gallop Stable at D'Resort

Given how much the kids love animals, we just had to visit Gallop Stable at D'Resort (You can read about our experience at the Pasir Ris Park's Stable here). Generally, the horse-related activities are similar apart from the stable visits which the kids got to groom the horse. If your kids has never seen or been into a stable, purchasing feeds for $5 each would allow you to enter. We did noticed that the feeds given were a lot more here and the kids could feed a lot more horses. 

As there will always be horse groomers around the stable, the adults had the opportunity to ask horse-rearing related questions. My parents went along and it was quite cute to see how excited my father was. Feeding is not just a kids' activity as you can see. Haha. 

The children were not very sure what was grooming, but they were initially very excited about "combing the horse's hair". As my son could quite effectively understand instructions, he was allowed to groom the horse on his own. I joined my daughter and it was pretty fun. Both of us liked it, but my son wished he had picked horse-riding instead. Haha. 

The groomer at the side was also very informative. He does speak pretty loudly so my introverted son felt a little intimidated. Overall, I still thought it was a pretty good experience and you get to be up-close with the horses. Would really recommend this for the young and old given that it is not really expensive. 

D'Resort Leisure Review

A while ago back, we spent a 2D1N at D'Resort @ Downtown East. It has been a while since I went there so it was pretty exciting. By the end of it, I was quite bummed because there was quite a lot to do internally and even more to do, should you be travelling out (you can refer to this post if you need to find things to do). I definitely will be going back soon. 

The room was really nice and spacious, but a bit poor on lighting at the table. So I couldn't really work at night. It is definitely nothing like a hotel in terms of its amenities, but it was clean enough and we don't really spend much time indoors. There were also a lot of BBQ pits. By evening, you could smell the aromatic grilled food.  For the price of less than S$200 a night, depending on what promo is on, it was really value for money. 

I think it would have been way better if it had been a 3D2N. Here's how we would have planned for a 3D2N.

Day 1 (Check in at 3pm): 

• Gallop Stable 
• BBQ at night (wish we had done that)

Day 2: Full Day at Wild Wild Wet (can tap in and out)

• Meals at Downtown East Shopping Mall 

Day 3: Check out at 12noon

•  Cycling Trail

The hard truths about Long Kang Fishing

 

We have always read how fun Longkang Fishing was and how great it was as a family bonding activity. So this had always been in our "to-do-list" as a family. A family friend told us about Bloop Bloop from People Up, but unfortunately it was no longer operating, so we went to Nature Kindred (Jurong outlet) instead.

The outlet we went to was not the main outlet so it was basically a pond with guppies and goldfishes. For $18, we were given a net and a pail to fish for an hour and you could only bring home 4 fishes. We topped up for another $12 more for the Lego fish tank and some lightings. It was really pretty, but note of caution it is way too small to be a permanent home for the fishes. 

Initially, I felt the 1 hour was insufficient, especially when the fishes could swim really fast. It was seemingly hard to catch. But the truth was the kids got bored within 30 mins. I managed to get the hang of the the technique and was soon catching buckets of fishes. To be quite fair, it was really fun but my wise son told me "there was no need to catch more than needed and it was cruel to put them into unnecessary stress". 

From an education perspective, because I was so bad at it initially, I think it made a good case of "practice and you will achieve". I tried to use this to let the children know that nobody was born skilled and we just need to put in effort to excel. And it was great when the mother was a living testament to it, LOL!

What we wished everyone could be more truthful about was that these creatures don't really live well in captive. Within a day, half of our fishes died in its tiny tank. Initially, we wanted to slowly introduce them to the new water in the bigger tank. But, we didn't really have the luxury to do that. The emotional trauma that I went through was real. The kids were a bit cooler telling me they would breed, but I did have doubts that they could survive till then. 

I was later told by other fish lovers that such fishes tend to be under a lot of stress and require the bacteria in the pond to survive. For the Longkang fishing place we went, there was the option to release back. And I wished we had picked that option. Fortunately, we managed to keep the remaining 3 alive. But to be frank, they still behave very differently from our reared fishes. They prefer scouting for food at the bottom and display signs of anxiety. To be quite frank, this might be the last time we do this activity.