Chinese New Year… one of the few times during the year where you can unabashedly dress match-match! And this time, we have a family of FIVE, so I think we turn heads when we rock up in our themed outfits. Well, we can only get away with it while our kids are still young, so might as well make the most use out of it!

This year, the First day of CNY was all of us decked out in Elly outfits. We decided to go “the whole hog” and rock out in really bright and vibrant colours. Love how festive we look! And the boys’ shirts are fantastic – really soft polo material, lovely embroidery, and can be worn throughout the year.

 

I thought this outfit of Carter’s was particular cool. It’s actually from his school performance last year, but I call it his dragon trainer CNY outfit. At first, he was a bit unsure about it as it was so *loud*. But after loads of exclamations of “Oh wow! Cool” from his friends, he grinned and happily wore it for his school’s CNY party and on CNY Eve.

 

All of us in red, on CNY Eve. It’s Chloe’s first time celebrating! We’ve discovered that she, unlike her brothers, just cannot deal with the lion dance. She’s a bit of a scaredy cat when it comes to loud noises, and the lion dance is ALL about loud noises. She freaks out, and wails like the sky has fallen on her head. So thanks to her, none of us have actually seen a lion dance this CNY!

 

My Kung fu masters… complete with badass (?) chopsticks. These guys are ever willing to pose for a photo… provided they get to do their ninja pose. Well, whatever it takes..

 

A very lovely (extended) family photo on CNY Eve. I LOL at this shot, because Chris has a diaper sticking out of his back pocket, ever so nonchalantly #dadlife

 

Look at our rugrats! It’s like the mixed kids convention here. We went to my friend’s mum’s place for dinner on the First day of CNY… we gatecrash theme every year 🙂 The kids are decked head-to-toe in Elly!

 

On the Second day of CNY, Chloe and I went matchy-match in Joli Pretty outfits. I’ve been eyeing their gorgeous – and super unique – clothes for ages! This dress I’m wearing is made with one of my favourite Sarah Jane fabrics, and in my favourite colour combination, pink & turquoise. Best of all, their clothes can be tailor made to suit your exact measurements, which is why the dress fit my mom-bod (ahem) really well.

Chloe is wearing a matching romper. It’s the first time they’ve done a baby romper, and they knocked this one out of the park, IMHO. Nice cotton fabric for Singapore’s weather, complete with pretty flutter sleeves. It’s absolutely adorable!

 

Despite being so teeny tiny, this girl can EAT. She’s now realised what’s going on when people eat around her, and is super noisy and restless. So, I always have to make sure I have suitable food on hand for her to munch on.

Here, I actually didn’t bring any suitable baby food, so she’s munching on a chunk of ripe mango. She’s my only child that I’ve done a fair bit of baby led weaning with (ie. letting baby hold and eat chunks of food by themselves, instead of blending everything). By her choice, not mine, cos she’s always so noisy when she sees me eat that I end up giving bits of fruit or avocado off my plate to her!

 

I look at this photo and just think, oh man.. are we really parents of THREE kids?! The shock value is still there, and I wonder how long it takes to go away. But here we are…. Here I am… with three kids. I love our family and I love our family dynamics. I love how the two boys are best buddies (and worst enemies!), and have each other’s backs. And I love the big age gap between them and our surprise third child Chloe, because the boys are old enough to look after her and adore here, without being jealous.

I’m just so grateful for our family unit, and so so delighted with our family of FIVE! I can barely remember life a year or so ago when Chloe wasn’t born yet, and we were so certain that all we wanted were our two boys and no more kids.
 

Our extended family! Hmmm.. missing Gerry, our lil cousin. I have no idea where he is?!

I ought to do a comparison pic of every year we take this group shot. It would be kind of depressing to see all us adults getting older, but it would be cute to see the kids get taller each year!

 

Chloe’s and my third and final matchy-match outfit, this time from Chateau de Sable. It’s not Chinese New Year themed at all, but is ultra soft and has a pretty Liberty print skirt. I managed to stuff myself in a kids sz14 and Chloe is wearing (albeit oversized on her) sz 6m.

So that was our first CNY as a family of five. I thought Chloe would be totally freaked out with so much activity and attention, but she’s changed a LOT in the past 2 weeks and suddenly gotten heaps more chill (touch wood). So she was content with “passed round like a puppy at the kindergarten” (Chris’ words!) and soaking in the attention. And me? I was just happy that I didn’t have her permanently attached to me for the CNY weekend 😉

Wishing all of you a wonderful and blessed Year of the Dog!