The Days when YiYi was here... (Part 2)

Daddy had a study trip t0 New York City from Dec 13-19, so we tagged along. Since he had been to NYC previously, we went around on our own without him.

Here's some pictures taken at Times square :

Took the free Staten Island Ferry to see the statue of liberty. It wasn't very near the statue but we could still get a good view from the ferry.


This is Wall Street. Aedan looked grumpy in these pictures as he had just lost his pink balloon (Amber lost hers too at the ferry terminal).



We took the Grayline bus tour around NYC during the first 2 days of our trip. The kids were mostly asleep when the bus was moving.. haha.. It was quite cold sitting at the open top end especially during the night.

Here's the famous M&M store in Times Square. I didn't know M&Ms has sooo much merchandise.

We went to Central Park on Wed afternoon. The kids finally saw a playground and they had fun playing there. See the video of them eating oranges at the park. Amber finally 'likes' YiYi!

Here's one and only picture daddy took with us at Rockerfella center coz he finally finished his exam.

Last but not least, this was the kids' favourite past time at the hotel!

The Days when YiYi was here... (Part 1)

Haven't been updating this blog lately for 2 reasons :

1. Daddy was busy with his school work in the month of November and we didn't travel anywhere.
2. YiYi came for almost a month in Dec and we travelled too much!

Anyway here's some update:

YiYi arrived in the evening of Nov 28. Yup, that's Aedan's birthday. She arrived just in time to sing the birthday song and to cut the cake.


YiYi couldn't wait to shop, so we drove to the outlet mall at Wrentham for her to begin her shopping . Here's a pic taken at the outlet mall :


Brought YiYi to boston common and Aedan wanted to ice skate. YiYi gladly agreed, which she probably regreted later on coz she was literally pulling and carrying Aedan around the entire ice skating rink.


We went for a party at Aedan's school on Dec 10 and YiYi baked her famous shepard's pie there.


While Aedan's in school, Amber and myself went sightseeing with YiYi. Here's some pictures taken with Amber.

There was a free ice skating show at Kendall Square, just next to our apartment and we stood in freezing cold for half an hour to watch the show.

All thanks to YiYi, the kids had a chance to bake some cookies (even though it's ready made dough!). Think they had fun putting the sunflower seeds/M&Ms on the cookies.

And here is a video of Amber singing. Enjoy!

Niagara Falls (Oct 2009)

Went to Niagara Falls over the weekend of Oct 23-25. I've always wanted to visit the falls and pestered Siew Min to bring us there for the weekend coz the maid of the mist (a boat tour to bring you real close to the falls) will stop operating for the year on Oct 24. It's been really cold all week in Boston. In fact it snowed one week before the trip. Luckily temperature came up again (~10DegC). Though it drizzled a little, but it's still a good trip!

The 2 kiddos at the airport. They were surprisingly well behaved that day even though they need to wake up at 5am to catch the flight.

Pictures taken at the Niagara Falls State Park in US. The trees along the river were in a mix of green, orange, red, yellow, brown... so beautiful. The bridge in the background is the Rainbow bridge that links to Canada.

This is the American fall on the US side. The one further in the background (you can only see the mist) is the horseshoe fall.

One of the highlight of the park is the maid of the mist boat tour. The boat will bring you real close to the waterfalls. It became too close of comfort nearer to the falls coz we were trying to protect the kids from the water and strong winds. The ponchos did help but still our feet were drenched at the end of the ride. Watch the 2 videos below :

We also drove over to the Canadian side to take a look at the falls. Parking cost 20USD! but it's worth it coz watching the horseshoe fall from the Canadian side is spectacular.

Another highlight of the trip is the Caves of the winds walk. You literally walk next to the falls. There are steps which lead right up to a section of the waterfall. Amber was terrified after trying on the yellow poncho and in the end Shoumin and myself took turns to bring Aedan there while the other look after Amber. That boy was brave! We walked right up to the waterfall. You will feel the water splashing down onto you at the very top platform of the steps. My feet were numbed walking through that becoz of the cold water and yet this boy was soooo excited. He asked to go up again so i had to do it twice. When it was Shoumin's turn, the water was almost knee deep at the top platform and Aedan made him do it twice too! He had so much fun there while we were shivering in cold.

Btw we actually let the children put on their snow suits.. cute right? haha....

Davis Farmland

Brought the family to Davis Farmland last Saturday. The weather had been cold and gloomy all week, but we were lucky to get sunny weather when we went. Though it was sunny, temp was still around 5 DegC and Amber was shivering when we first got there. The farm was really nice. The farm animals (sheeps, goats, cows, lhamas etc) roamed around freely and the children can touch and cuddle them.

Aedan feeding the baby cow. He fed the cow from his hand, but the cow had its saliva all over his hand. Becoause of that, Aedan didn't want to feed using his hands anymore!

Hayride to tour the other parts of the farm. The cows actually came up to the lorry and ate the hay.

Aedan on a pony ride. Aedan riding on a pony. He really enjoyed the ride and was so proud riding the pony by himself. Here's a video of him on the pony.

We went apple picking at an orchard just next to the farm. There were soooo many apples that we quickly filled up out peck bag. The kids (and us too) really enjoyed picking the apples and eating straight after plucking.

Here's a video of the apple picking. Listen to Aedan's famous "I got it!"...