On Saturday, for Church life-story at the Kids for Christ (Junior Sunday School), YowCH impersonated Benny Prasad, who is the world’s most travelled man having visited all countries, and a Christian gospel witness. You can Google “Benny Prasad” for more info.
David took this nice photo.
Here’s a nice photo of the children on the slide at the playground downstairs of our flat.
We played against Taman Jurong this morning. Both David and Joseph played well, and won both their groups (Under-8 and Under-10). YowCH coached the Under-8 team for this match.
Nice photos, taken by Esther.
Esther is 12 years old. We had a birthday dinner with parents and Gene at Sakae Sushi, Tiong Bahru Plaza. Crowded, hence the squeeze.
At home, she received her present with great joy – iPad mini!
Also a small cake from friends, which we placed a candle and sang the birthday song.
YowCH brought Esther, David and Joseph, together with friends Isaiah and Nathaniel to hike at Macritchie, covering both the Tree-top Walk and the Jelutong Tower this morning. Please click on the photos below to get to the page:
Good news, Joseph is now a cyclist. He can go around unassisted and makes good turns and stops. Time to teach him traffic rules.
Esther and David took the time to practice slide-braking and tight turns, and to help guide Joseph. Each clocked max speed of 25km/h at this carpark. The full-face helmets look very fierce.
The three older children had a good time cycling around the carpark at the school near our flat.
Samuel enjoyed the shade and the fun, too. He sat nicely in the Aprica, not once crying!
A short update on our terrapins, they have grown rather large, twice the length they were when we got them. The colour has also gone rather dark, and they eat much more than before.
The tank will probably have to be upgraded someday, but we won’t have the space for them…
We had dinner at Far East Square and here are the children posing with some bronze sculptures of Ching Dynasty children playing.
Today, we had our first match for the “South West Little League” – West Coast CSC vs. Bukit Batok East View RC. There are 5 categories – Under 6: 1 game (Joseph), Under 8: 4 games, Under 10: 4 games (David played 2), Under 12: 1 game and Above 13: 1 game. Grace was working (on a Sunday) so YowCH had all the children with him. Esther helped with the photos (together with another parent, Mr Liew) and looking after Samuel. Parents of the teammates also helped look after Samuel when both Esther and YowCH were in the field.
Here’s the team photo:
And here’s the pre-game photo of the two teams:
Coincidentally, both teams are red (we remembered BB as green).
YowCH was the manager for the Under 6 team. Joseph played goalkeeper for one half and striker for the next half. His game was a 1-1 draw.
David played goalkeeper and defender. He played two games, both won with 3-1 and 9-0.
Both David and Joseph played well and had a good time.
Here are some photos of Samuel during the game:
Thank God for nice weather and great games. We won 7 games, drew 3 and lost 1, scoring 24 vs. 6. A good chance for Esther to practice photography, too. Liew was using the 200mmf2.0 lens, fantastic DOF blur!
Esther and David had an evening to play and we started on Bloodbowl (2nd edition) which was the set and rules that YowCH played with his friends in his teenage years.
YowCH brought home a rubber mouse-pad (Acer) from office, and we stuck it to the cajon to make is a non-slip seat-pad. Much nicer to sit on now.
Joseph helped peel the 3M double-side foam tape.
This is probably the last thing we add to the cajon. We had also bought a sports duffel bag (medium large) for the cajon at $27.
We gave David a Cajon (pronounced “car-horn”, Peru beat-drum) for his birthday, and got it last Wednesday (when stock arrived at Swee Lee). He had learnt to play it from Church friends and plays it pretty well. The good news: it is branded, a Meinl, and cheap at $70. The bad news: we must assemble it on our own (well, we also see this as good news for DIY practice and bonding time).
Ready made cajons are generally from $150 to $800. This piece costs $70, plus another $15 for brackets (YowCH’s idea), screws, white glue, brush, wood stain, lacquer spray and sandpaper. We also needed a drill, screw drivers, wood file, G-clamps, pencil and ruler.
Step-by-step:
1. Apply white glue to the boards and assemble them.
2. Screw in the brackets (for additional strength and stiffness, not in the included instructions).
3. Hammer the boards into place neatly.
4. Apply white glue to mount the back-board (with hole).
5. Put some weight to press the back-board while the glue dries.
6. Glue the timber batons and clamp into place.
7. All batons clamped for glue-drying.
8. Mark out the drill holes on the front panel (the drumming part).
9. Assemble the snare (for the ‘tsk-tsk’ sound).
10. Mount the snare into place with white glue and clamp to set.
11. Screw the front panel in place, 4 corners first to fix the position.
12. Drill the front panels other screw holes. All screws installed after this.
13. Sand down the edges and make any roughness smooth.
14. Clean up after sanding.
15. YowCH showing David how to apply the black wood-stain.
16. David applies the stain. He chose black.
17. Esther helped, too. Total of 2 coats for the front (lighter colour), and 4-5 coats for the rest (darker).
18. After the stain dried (with help of a hot air from a hair-dryer), lacquer was sprayed-on.
19. Screw the rubber footings onto the bottom of the cajon.
20. All rubber footings installed, cajon completed.
In truth, there was much adult supervision needed for the handling of tools and brush or spray painting, but a child of 10 should be able to follow the instructions and complete 80% of the work.
Here’s David playing the completed cajon. The completed cajon sounds good! It is a Meinl after all.
Here are some rare photos of Esther during her ballet lessons. The teacher helped take these photos.
We got Esther a second hand iPhone4 for $200. She is now responsible for her own phone and control of communications.
We also got a nice purple silicone cover, just as she likes.
YowCH checked the Isis as the aircon is not getting cold and found a hose that was just floating about! After checking with a friend’s Wish, he got it connected back again. Will see if the aircon improves.
Here are some family photos, the children at the “O”:
YowCH with Samuel:
