The Annual School Concert - Behind the Scenes

The practice session:

I mean 'the many practice sessions":

The full dress rehearsal. Yes, this is serious showbiz business. And a guaranteed sell-out with full-fee paying audience (who apply for leave from work on a weekday, weeks in advance and pray that the performing child does not fall sick on THE day):

The 'diva' getting dressed for the Show of the Year:

"I'm already dressed":

Girls get more attention:

Compare with previous photo; now, you know who's Peanut's fave girl in class:

Check out that smile - this one is a born Casanova:

Getting ready to board the bus:

There's always time for another photo:

Leaving the school for the MGS auditorium:

Back stage - it's obvious that Oli adores S.P:

The Winning Pose:

The K1 class (split into 2 dance items):

Peanut's group - I see some potential cheerleaders. This is one of those instances when I comfort myself that I wouldn't know what to do with a 'princessy'-sort-of daughter if I had one:

What a cool bunch - they could have been performing 'Grease' (I could almost hear Mr M saying that all mothers are deluded when it comes to their sons ... ):

The Annual School Concert

Date: 24 November

Venue: MGS Auditorium

Let the show begin:

Guess who is performing the first act:


Yeh baby, let's rock (Peanut's class):

Here is Peanut (before the lights went out and all we saw were 'dancing' lit-up sticks forming patterns with intermittent of 'ooh' and 'ha' a.k.a. shouts by pseudo martial arts experts). Still we in the audience enjoyed the performance. Mr M who wasn't there and saw the replay on video, was totally disappointed if not flabbergasted as to why the school even bothered to have such a dance:


The little ones from N2 class jiving to the beat:


Finally, my other dancing darling who simply embraced the limelight:

He had a good time alright!

The very entertaining act from the toddler class cheekily rocking their bottoms to a Chinese song that actually went si si pi gu (washing your buttock) Incredible! I had no idea that such a song existed ... have you heard the song? But then if Andy Lau can have a song about a toilet seat ... who am I to question.

The Grand Finale - see if you can spot Peanut and S.P:

This should help ... if you don't have a pair of magnifying glasses (or can't find your reading glasses for those who are vision-impaired, like me):

Post performance:

Roll call for the ardent fans who unfailingly attend year after year:

The biggest fan of all:

Thomas and Friends - Live!

5 December, 10 minutes before 7pm @ Indoor Stadium

Interval time (a.k.a toilet break for all kids)

To sum up, S.P loved it ... every minute of the 2-hour long show which hailed from UK, he was mesmerised from the start, pointing to and naming each engine excitedly as it appeared - Thomas, Percy, Gordon, James and of course, the Fat Controller; Peanut is so over Thomas, the musical (though he still plays with the train sets) and wanted to go home during the interval. Ok, maybe next year, we'll watch Ben 10 -Live! (Peanut had wanted to go as some of his classmates did) that is, if it is still popular - and I hope not; I'm having major difficulties distinguishing the various monsters Ben transformed into and then to add to the complications, there's Bakugan. Help! I wonder if having a daughter would have saved me some headaches ... apparently not, I was shopping for Christmas toy gifts and came across Disney princesses which can transform into some heroines with capes and superpowers ... what next???

So Busy Busy

13 Dec @ 1pm Sesame Street performance at North Point

17 Dec Peanut's school excursion to Changi Airport

19 Dec @ 1pm Sesame Street performance at Centrepoint

19 Dec @2pm Le Cirque de la Ville performance at Orchard Central

19 Dec Photo taking with Santa @ Orchard Central

20 Dec Snow Castle @ Changi Terminal 3

20 Dec Tea time @ McDonald's, Changi Airport

22 Dec Peanut's School Excursion to Hollywood Dinos @ Jurong Bird Park

24 Dec Getting Ready for Christmas party in school in mama's handmade costumes

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!

Swimmy, Frederick & Inch By Inch

15 Nov

The Mermaid Theatre of Novia Scotia from Canada was back in Singapore. Last year they brought us The Hungry Caterpillar at Victoria Theatre. This time at the same place, they performed 3 stories using shadow play/puppets adapted from Leo Lionni's books bearing the same titles:

Swimmy was about a clever black fish who devised a way to save a school of red fishes from being swallowed up by a big fish. He taught them how to form and swim in the shape of a big fish (if you have watched and remember Finding Nemo where the fishes formed all sorts of shapes to communicate with Marlin, the papa clown fish; you would know what I mean) with Swimmy as the black eye.

Frederick was about a mouse who composed poems throughout spring, summer and autumn whilst the other mice were working hard to gather food for winter. When the food the mice stored for winter ran out, Frederick narrated his poems to the other mice to 'wrap' them in the warmth of the summer sun and 'see' the colours of flowers.

Inch By Inch was about a worm who escaped falling prey to birds by using his measuring skills (using the length of his body) to measure the beak of a toucan, the tail of a swallow, the leg of a flamingo.

It was the first puppet show in a theatre setting for S.P. And it was the first time I brought both kids to a performance (followed by lunch) alone. Glad to report that the kids were mostly well behaved except for 2 minor incidents: (1) Peanut was bored during the 2nd act and wanted to leave; cereals and biscuits saved the day (2) Sweet Potato tore a ball from the Christmas decor lining the door of Dome's cafe on our way out.