The girls and I love Hello Kitty because this Japanese bobtail cat is just too kawaii and over the years, we've acquired Hello Kitty stuffed toys, dresses, shirts, bags, stationery, accessories and more. We also had a blast when we visited Hello Kitty Town a few years ago and even went for a tour in her house too. This was going to be our first time taking part in the Hello Kitty Run, which is the 4th edition in Singapore, and the kids and I were stoked to receive the pretty purple race tees before the event. Definitely one of my favorite tees so far!
The Hello Kitty Run: Moon Walk Edition was slated to take place on 7 Sept at 7pm. However, it seemed that the sun loved us a little too much that day because it refused to set and therefore the flag off was delayed in wanting for it to truly be a night walk.
That was good news for us because guess what? For the first time, we forgot to bring along our race bibs! 怎么会这样？
I had made sure that I packed everything in our bag the night before, including ironing our shirts, charging my camera battery and packing the Hello Kitty LED lanterns and race bibs into our backpack. So what happened? Well, I conveniently left the bag at our shoe rack area thinking that the hubby, who was the last to step out, would take it along with him. On the other hand, he assumed that I had brought it out with me already. Somehow, we didn't realize what happened UNTIL we reached The Meadows at Gardens by the Bay and had found a nice parking lot.
I went to the information counter to ask if we could reprint the bibs and they said yes, at $14 per bib. As for the lanterns, we could get one for $18. Uh oh, not cheap. So we decided that the hubby would rush home to retrieve our bag while I took the kids to jalan jalan and check out the booths at the event square.
Look! There were so many Hello Kitties all around for phototaking and you could spend a long time just queuing up at each of them. This topiary of Hello Kitty was too cute and creative and was immensely popular with the run participants.
The kids were quick to spot the huge balloons floating in the air and the giant inflatables of Hello Kitty. If you ever have to meet your friends and choose a point to gather, I think these make pretty good and obvious spots.
One of my favorite backdrops was the tunnel formed by over a hundred lanterns, so beautiful! I am so thankful that the kids are quite cooperative when it comes to phototaking, even the boy who was probably more interested to come down and roll on the grass or do something more fun.
We heard that the Ribena booth was giving out free Ribena but a look at the queue made us decide that we would just go for the plain water instead. Haha. That came in at the perfect time because whaddaya know, our water bottles were all left behind in the bag too. So my thirsty kids were only too happy to drink cups and cups of water.
After we had checked out most of the Instagrammable spots, we took a walk and realised that the J'Kids Amusement was just beside and there were a few fun rides for the kids. So yup, thankfully I had my wallet and our fun card with us and the kids were too happy to go on a ride as we waited for the flag off and for Papa to return.
There were thousands of participants that evening and I was impressed by how many people came to join in the race. Look at that queue! That was only a small part of the crowd for the first flag off - we had a total of three flag offs!
Finally, the sky darkened and the race was going to begin! But........ the hubby was nowhere in sight yet because there was apparently a jam so we decided to wait for the last flag off in the hope that he could join us. In the meantime, we managed to see a little of the LED performances at the starting point, which even included a dragon and lion dance too. Of course, Hello Kitty made her appearance to welcome the race participants too and the kids, and many of the adults too, were delighted to see her on stage.
Just before the third and last flag off, the hubby called to say that he was nearing but wasn't able to park as the carpark was full. So he passed us the bag, drove off to park somewhere else and told me to start the race with the kids and he would join us after. Sure, I thought, no big deal for someone who solo parents on weekdays, right? Or so I thought.
We set up our lanterns, dropped our lucky draw coupons and queued up for the final flag off. I loved how pretty our lanterns looked and was reminded that this night walk was such a great way for us to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival as a family.
It turned out that less than 10 minutes into the walk, the littlest was starting to feel overwhelmed by the crowd, the darkness and the I-don't-know-what-else and started wailing and demanding to be carried. I tried bargaining with him and even bribing him but all failed and after a while, I was quite sure that my arms were breaking and couldn't go much further. 老公，你到底在哪里？
The good thing was the girls were sweet to spring to my rescue and offered to help me carry my bag and all the barang barang so I could focus on carrying their baby brother. Awwww, thanks my dears.
We decided to take a break at the field opposite Marina Bay Sands because the hubby told us he was walking over from there and I reckoned I needed his arm power. It didn't matter that as a result, we were almost the last ones in the race because all I hoped for us to do was to complete it as a family.
Thanks to the organisers, we had a couple of water breaks in between and to the kids' delight, we were told that we could have a yoghurt drink to replenish ourselves. Yay!
I have to say that walking 5km at night feels different from walking 5km in the day and after quite a long time, we realised that we only finished 2km! Haha. It's probably because we were all feeling famished as we were unable to rush for dinner before the race.
Thankfully, the kids have a smart Papa who somehow knew that they would be feeling hungry and he had bought food along the way! So the kids managed to get a boost of energy by eating sushis and gyozas - we even stopped for a toilet break and had a few quick mouths of Udon soup - and I think we were the envy of many along the way.
After nearly two hours, we finally made it to the finishing line! Hip hip hooray! Yup, I was so glad we did it together despite the few hiccups at the start.
This was our only family photo of the night but it was too dark to capture a decent shot, haha. Better than none, right?
So while we had a picnic and finished the rest of our dinner, we got to enjoy the performances on stage too. The kids wanted to stay till the end because of their high hopes for the lucky draw, haha. I love their sense of wonder and innocence, and hope that they will never lose it. Even though we didn't win anything in the end, we took home loads of precious memories and a sense of achievement for completing our first moon walk.
The good thing about staying till the very end was that we managed to get to the front of the stage and get up close with Hello Kitty and enjoy the lion dance before we called it a night.
This was surely a night to remember and I hope it will be the start of many more night walks for our family! A family that walks together stays together, yeah?
Disclosure: We received a media invite to join Hello Kitty Run 2019: Moon Walk Edition. All photos and opinions are my own.