The risk of watching a play with unfamiliar storyline is that you worry that the kid may not be able to comprehend, follow, lose focus etc. My kids are not familiar with Peter Rabbit, though its an Old Classic so I had to borrow the books from the library just to familiarize the kids with the characters in Peter Rabbit.

What I can say is even if they are not familiar with the characters in Peter Rabbit, the younger kids will be able to appreciate the different animals featured in A Peter Rabbit Tale and the moral behind the story.

A fairly straight forward storyline revolving the life of Peter Rabbit with his sisters and mother. They were tasked to clean the house while the mummy was away and were told not to leave home. Peter Rabbit was clearly not happy doing the cleaning and wanted to go out and try a different life.

So he went out to try to life the lives of other animals.
First, he met Benjamin Rabbit at Mr McGregor’s vegetable patch. As they were feasting with all the fresh vegetables, they bumped into Mr McGregor himself and was chased out.

Peter Rabbit met the squirrels and wanted to learn the life of a squirrel but he failed as he couldn’t climbed trees and was frightened by the owl when they were out picking nuts.

Next, Peter met the mice who sew for the tailor. But Peter Rabbit also couldn’t even put the thread into the needle and was frightened by the house’s cat.

Then, Peter met Mrs Tiggy Winkle , the hedgehog who talked some sense into Peter who came to realize that he actually misses home and there is no place better than home. The antics and character of Mrs Tiggy Winkle was well liked by the adults especially, brute and loud but really wise.

Every story has a good ending and A Peter Rabbit Tale is no different when Peter Rabbit reunites with his family.
My kids were able to follow the storyline despite being unfamiliar with it. It was a heartwarming tale to watch as a family. Despite a new cast and new music, A Peter Rabbit Tale has all the winning formula of an TLC productions with catchy songs and a strong cast.

A Peter Rabbit Tale
Dates
28 Feb (Fri) to 14 Apr (Fri) 2017

Weekends and Public Holiday : 11am and 2pm
Weekdays: 10am
Venue

KC Arts Centre Home of Singapore Repertory Theatre

20 Merbau Road
Robertson Quay
Singapore 239035
Ticket Pricing

(Excludes Booking Fee)

Weekdays: S$28, S$25

 Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post. All photos at the musical are credited to Singapore Repertory Theatre.

My husband asked me why are we watching Disney on Ice again and again. I am sure many mummies get the same questions from daddies too. To many daddies, it’s the same old same old. Well, I do agree with him to a certain extent, Mickey and his friends are always there, some characters are always there and some new faces but the underlying performance ie the ice skating remained the same.

However, there are many families especially mummies who are fixated with Disney characters and who doesn’t mind bringing the family year in year out. I belong to that category of mummy.  It is like no one ever get bored of going to Disneyland right? It is the same for me and my kids. We do not get bored of this. It’s a once in a year affair. We don’t get to do Disneyland annually but I do hope that we get to do this as we do not have to fly out of Singapore to experience some Disney magic even if it is just for 1 night. It is like adults going to watch a rock concert or a musical productions. This is the kids version and it still appeals to some kidadults like me.

I believe this is my 4^th show since I starting watching in 2013 – my photo proof..of coz the boys went to, but they are always dressed in mickey mouse t shirt year after year. I think there was a year that Disney on Ice didn’t come to Singapore but I generally have weaved into our family calendar unless I am travelling. March school holidays is only 1 week long , hence we generally do not travel as it is too short.

Last year was by far the best show as it was the first year featuring the cast of Frozen for the very first time. I got all goosebumps watching that one song..no prizes for guessing which song I am referring to.

For this year’s edition entitled The Wonderful World of Disney on Ice, the organizer knows what sells and what is better than the entire cast of Frozen for all the little girls who wants to be Elsa or Anna. Even after the movie debuted more than 4 years ago, it is showing no signs of losing its popularity. The matter of fact, big C insisted on a Frozen theme birthday when she turned 6 in February this year.

dressed as Belle as its Beauty and the Beast fever now

With high expectations from last year’s show , this year’s show has big shoes to fill. I always love Lion King as the movie and also we watched it once as a theatre musical productions at MBS (side note, it will be coming back to Singapore I heard next year!) Mostly recently, we watched the Lion King performance at HK Disneyland and we can’t get enough of all the majestic animals in the Circle of Life. I watched Lion King during my teenage years, yes it is a 20 odd year old animation. The show started with the songs from Lion King and I knew that we were off to a great start especially for the bigger boys in the crowd.

Then we had the princesses one by one from Snow White, Ariel to Rapunzel though I missed the floating lanterns from last year. The princesses segments were kept shorter so that there are more contents for the boys in the house..from the cast of Toy Story to Finding Dory which was the opening for the second half.

Mummies of boys rejoice! For the first time, Dory made its first ice skating debut. Dory was huge last year when the movie premiered. Small J was having Dory fever for the longest time, and was over the moon seeing the character from the movie at Disney on Ice. The skaters mimic the swimming moves very well too.

And saving the best for the last is Frozen. Fans of Anna, please do not missed this year’s show as Anna was prominently featured in this year’s production maybe even more than Elsa. Olaf too has lots of air time this year and Elsa was as mesmerising as last year! Even though she was dressed as Belle but she is Elsa in her heart. She even asked to be called Elsa after the show!

I liked that there is a mixture of the new animations- Finding Dory and old animations –Lion King. As for for the finale as most apt, the one that all girls and their mummies were waiting for and little boys who are fans of Olaf ,(actually small J also loved the song Let it Go very much too) -Frozen. Shall not delve too much into it, please catch it yourself as not words or pictures can described our once in a year magical night.  As always there is something for everyone maybe more so for the boys this year. If you were to asked me will I watch it again next year, I will answer YES without a skip of a heart beat even without knowing who will be featured in the productions.

9 performances left till 19 March 2017, tickets can be purchased from www.sportshubtix.sg, with family friendly tickets starting at $25 online.
If you were to ask me if I will go next year’s edition, I will go without a skip of a heartbeat as long as my kids have not grown out of it! I am sure one day my boys especially will say they no longer wanna watch Disney but some rock concerts…till then, my family will be regulars at Disney on Ice every year!

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored giveaway.  All opinions expressed are entirely ours. 

It’s back! Cold Storage Kids Run 2017 is back for its tenth year at a brand new location ….. Sentosa! And a new starting time of 7.15am. If you have been to previous races, the race timing can start as early at 6am for the older kids race on  Sunday. Its quite difficult to get the kids up so early on a weekend especially in different race categories and older kids who start the earliest! Especially when you have multiple kids, it’s a battle before the race begins!

Another first would be for family fun race, they are allowing 2 adults to 1 kid. Especially for single child family, it is a family event! I hope in future for big families like mine, they allow 2 kids to 1 adult too!

This will be our 3^rd race (do you know there are kids who has ran in every one of their race, like all 9 of them, so I guess they must be born around 2005 to 2007 to participate in the race since they were infant and probably by now they are 10-12 years old participating in their final few CSKR race) but it is our first as a family!

I conveniently omitted small C for the recent Safari Zoo Run as I know he wouldn’t be able to last through 2.5km and he also wouldn’t sit through 2.5km.  For CSKR as the distance is shorter, and he will be close to 2 years of age during CSKR, I will be omitting the stroller entirely. All of us shall walk, run , saunter wantev needed be to accommodate small C. This will be his first ever run.

Can’t wait! Read all about our experience last year  in this link.

With my promo code (MPKREF17)  you can get 10% of the already discounted early bird prices! Valid from 6 to 10 March!

Cold Storage Kids Run 2017

Sunday, 28 May 2017

Palawan Green, Sentosa

I am proud to admit that I am a kidult – an adult with a kid inside me. I loveeeddddd Disneyland…I love Mickey and Minnie…maybe not so much the Disney princesses or my girl’s favourite, Elsa but I can go crazy over all things Mickey. Last September I realized one of my biggest dreams , to bring the kids to Disneyland. It was a dream come true for the kids but more so for me as I am their biggest fan. Last year, 2016 was a year of theme parks for my family, we did Everland in Korea, Legoland and also Disneyland. All the theme parks were great, but if you ask me to choose one, it has to be Disneyland! Simply because I grew up with the many Disney characters and now I can share the same love and memories with my own kids.

I can’t be going to Disneyland every year as it already burnt a hole in my pocket last year, but we are very fortunate to have Feld Entertainment’s Disney on Ice visiting Singapore during the March school holidays every year.

This was my review last year with my 4 kids in tow. It was my third time watching Disney on Ice last year and every year, it always exceeds expectations. There is always something new every year. Last year’s highlight was the cast of Frozen especially Elsa. Just 1 song..Let It Go and the way the skater skates, dances and pyrotechnic that accompanied THE SONG…it was even better than watching the movie! I got all goosebumps all from just that song.

This year’s installment of Disney on Ice is entitled the Wonderful World of Disney on Ice.

This year’s Elsa is definitely back ( in fact’s big C birthday theme is Frozen too this Saturday!) but what I am more interested this year on behalf of the younger boys is  Dory. Finding Dory will be making its ice skating debut on this year’s show and small J will be mightily pleased as he was on Dory fever last quarter of 2016 when the movie came out.

Besides the permanent fixture of Mickey, Minnie , Donald and Goofy , this year show will be featuring the perennial favourite Frozen, Rapunzel, Lion King and your favourite Disney princesses. There is a character for every kid and adult catching this.

I cannot afford for a yearly trip to Disneyland but I definitely will keep their dose of Disney through Disney on Ice.

For 10 performances only from 15 March to 19 March 2017 (which is the March school holidays especially if you are not travelling, this is in my opinion the best way to spend the holidays in Singapore), tickets can be purchased from www.sportshubtix.sg, with family friendly tickets starting at $25 online.

If you have been following my blog, beside being a fervent supporter of local children productions, I am also big on exposing my kids to the outdoor events like Cold Storage Kids Run, Spartan Race etc. In our day to day, my kids have little outdoor play time as they spend long hours in school and child care. By joining such fun run, we are “forced” to go outdoors and sweat it out on the weekend!

So the lure of Safari Zoo Run was too big to resist, especially to be running at my kids’ favourite place –  The Singapore Zoo! I would think that running at the zoo will bring running a whole new experience –even me as an adult was excited to be running for the first time at the zoo!

I wanted to bring along my DSLR to take photo of the run and of my kids but I decided to rely on my handphone and really run with the kids..ie not walk. And I had hopes that they will running so fast that I wouldn’t be fast enough to capture them. So I wanted to enjoy the run with my kids sans the photo-taking (of course i will still take some photos )

That was also the reason why I didn’t want to bring along the baby in the stroller, as I wanted the older  kids to really run and sweat it out. When small C is big enough to run with us, I will definitely bring him along!

I was contemplating whether to do the 5.5km or the 2.5km for the longest time. With small J in mind, I decided not to be too ambitious. Big J and Big C had attempted 5km run bef0re so I am sure they will push through the end but the longest small J has ever “run” was the 800m at the Cold Storage Kids Run last year. As I am definitely leaving the stroller at home, I do not wish to carry small J if he gives up half way, hence, I decided not to be too ambitious and opt for the  2.5km family dash as it is also our first time running at the zoo.

The race started at 9.30am which was a decent time to get the kids ready as the longer leg of the run (ie the 10km and the 5.5km started very much earlier). We decided to not drive to the zoo given that the open car park was closed for the race village and the starting point. We were worried that it will be difficult to get car park lots but on hind sight, we actually saw there was ample car park spaces at the multi storey car park when we arrived, so I think we can opt to drive for next  year’s run.

This year’s Safari Zoo Run theme was  Run for Wildlife.The run focuses on raising awareness for wildlife conservation with the introduction of 4 animal icons, namely Ah Meng the Orangutan, Chawang the Asian Elephant, Canola the Manatee and Sunny the Hornbill.  Each animal icon team supports an endangered wildlife species that we would like to raise awareness for. Each runner get to choose which icon they will be supporting!

This year, the participants get to choose between the 4 animal icons in deciding the division of funds. At the end of the race,  this run has helped to raised SGD 100,000 for wildlife conservation with #TeamAhMeng coming out tops , garnering additional funding support of SGD 40,000 for Sumatran orangutan  projects.

all raring to go!

every kid supporting a different animal icon

at the starting line!

we were blessed with beautiful weather!

off we go!

Throughout the race, the lure to stop and look at the animals was too huge! But I had to rally them to tell them, we can do that after the race!

they stopped as they spotted zebras!

a very good way to spend time as a family on a Saturday morning

We completed the run as a family within 25 minutes. Mightily proud of small J for persevering all the way and it was his longest run to date!

A close friend of my mine asked me if it’s worth it and I have yet to answer her. I thought I should do the review and gave her unbiased opinion here on this blog. For the price of the race slots for kids and adults, you not only get to enjoy a run , start the day early at the zoo(we finished the run by 10am) and we get to enjoy the zoo and river safari for free for the remaining part of the day – yes you could stay till the closing hours.

I do not think there is any other running events that offer free access to a Singapore attraction after the race. I say it is one of our most memorable visits to the zoo ever!  The participants of the 5.5km even got to run around the Night Safari in the day time (major envy!) Typically we will not arrive at the zoo so early but “thanks” to the run we are already at the zoo way before the opening hours. Then we did a quite zoom through before the public crowd and lots of photo ops and mascot throughout the zoo as part of the run! Its killing many birds with one stone! I am actually glad that there is a 2.5km race for family dash category as I personally feel 800m run is a tad too short for a run (most kids fun run) but 2.5km is a very good distance even for the very young to attempt a fun run! (think of it as a 30 to 45 minutes activity if 2.5km sounds too intimidating)

so proud of their finisher medal!

the mascots obliging the kids for an after race photo!

After the race, we decided to utilize our free entry to the River Safari (remember to not throw away the race bibs as they are the proof of entry to the River Safari). As the kids didn’t manage to see Jia Jia and Kai Kai during out last visit(we did go to the River Safari during Safari Boo, but we couldn’t access the panda enclosure as it was a late evening event), we decided to pay Jia Jia and Kai Kai a visit this time!

off we go to the river safari

We even took the opportunity to try the Amazon River Quest for the first time. Finally big C is tall enough to ride, but poor small J is not tall enough, he had to wait outside with daddy while I took big J and big C on the ride. I didn’t have much expectation of the cruise, but it really reminded me of some rides at the theme parks ie USS and Everland in Korea except the “exhibits” along the cruise weren’t robotic creatures but real animals! After we completed our maiden ride, we are offered a free re-ride too! At SGD5 for adult and SGD 3 for children, I must say it is totally worth the price.

We would love to stay longer at the zoo but big J had swim class in the afternoon, so we spend a good half of day before heading back home. It was a morning well spent for a 2.5km run and also a visit to the zoo and the river safari. For next year, I am definitely getting the older kids do the competitive kid dash now that they are familiar with experience of a run/race at the zoo!

I shall leave you with a video my small J running! Next year, he will be the big brother to rally small C to run!

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post.  No monetary compensation was received. All opinions are my own. 

I had watched the same musical 3 years ago with my older two kids and had loved it. It was one of the more memorable I Theatre productions to date and one of the first productions of I Theatre that I had watched. That’s big J and big C, and they looks so small then, aged 3 and 5 back in 2014.

So when I saw the 2017’s ITheatre lineup featuring this show, I have already ticked this on my t0-watch-list more for the benefit of the my younger kids (who didn’t get to watch it in 2014)  as a fun and musical introduction to Aesop fables.

photo credit: I Theatre

The bees opened the show before the main characters ie Antoinette the Ant and Criminy the Grasshopper come on stage to tell the story that all have been waiting for. The bees often provided comedy in between the “serious” conversations between Antoinette and Criminy.

photo credit: I Theatre

Antoinette would work all day long without rest and always stressed. Hence, it is not all good to emulate the ant which she would later realised there should be a balance between work and rest.

photo credit: I Theatre

Criminy with his ukulele would sing and dance through summer and autumn, and ill prepared for the winter despite endless advise from Antonette and the bees. He suffered through the winter only to be saved by his friends.

photo credit: I Theatre

This is the Vanessa the caterpillar and she doesn’t like change, frankly most adults don’t like change to. Little does she know that her next change would be into the beautiful butterfly, hence it is a change for the better.

photo credit: I Theatre

Lady Coco, the ladybird had my husband laughing in stitches (despite doing the zoo run and a late night on Saturday, he didn’t doze off). Thanks for entertaining the daddies in the audience who had to follow their wives and kids along. All the kids will look forward to a happy ending and with all Aesop fables, the moral to the story. I grew up reading Aesop fables but I do notice that it is not so popular among the children nowadays. Old is gold and I am reminded through this musical that I should reintroduce  the many stories from the Aesop fables to my kids.

Thanks for making this a show for the family – true to I Theatre’s conviction of producing musical for the whole family from anyone 3 and above!

The cast were largely the same as the 2014’s cast with the exception of 2 new cast members who played the Bee and Caterpillar, so they reprised their role effortless, like their second nature.

What I really loved about The Ant and The Grasshopper.

1. There isn’t any scary creature or evil characters for the younger ones and new to theatre productions/musicals. For newbies and kids who are newly introduced to theatre productions, some kids may actually be afraid of the big bad wolf in Goldilocks and the 3 bears or The 3 little pigs, or the troll in The 3 Billy Goat Gruff but in this production of The Ant and The Grasshopper there is no such “bad” or “evil” character. I have not such concern for small J as he is a veteran in this, but for small C this was one of his first. I wouldn’t want small C to burst into tears if the character gets too intimidating.
2. Relatable characters  – ant, grasshopper and my favourite Ladybird!Most kids will able to relate to insects like ant, grasshopper, bees and ladybird and they have the most beautiful costumes!
3. Simple story line and the values from Aesop’s fables:-There is no complicated storyline , for some one who has not read this Aesop fables will be able to follow the storyline. For younger kids like small J, it is also not hard to follow. Maybe the one concept reiterated by Vanessa the caterpillar about change is harder to be understood by the younger ones, but this is one value that will be closer to the adult audience’s heart!
4. Catchy songs:- It is often easy to lose focus and concentration when there is too much dialogues, especially my younger kids. So, there was a good amount of songs and musical peppered through this show keeps the younger kids’ sitted and enjoying the musical.

My impression of this show as compared to the last show was the props were more elaborate and I prefer this theatre at SOTA as compare to the previous venue.

All in all it was an entertaining show for the weekend for my family…for my younger boys and even for my “old” boy!

Everyone will have a favourite character/insect. Small J loved the grasshopper…oh well, i prefer that he liked the ant more, but he say he likes to be lazy like the grasshopper 🙁 . He also understood that if he is lazy, he will never be prepared for the future (ok maybe he is tad to young to understand this fully).  As for me, I loved Lady Coco , the ladybird, for adding a humourous and fun twist to the show (shall not elaborate too much because it will be a spoiler!). With all I Theatre’s performances, there is always a meet and greet for all patrons for memory keepsake , just like the first photo I had of the older kids in the 2014 productions. Here’s one for the memory, our first 2017’s I Theatre show with the younger boys!

The Ant and The Grasshopper
Presented by I Theatre
Dates:

Venue: SOTA Drama Theatre

Recommended for three year olds and above
Ticket prices: $32 (excluding booking fee)

Tickets available from SISTIC.

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post. All photos except the photo of my kids are credited to I Theatre.