That said, while the girls get to celebrate, I know I will inevitably become the photographer who goes around to help them capture the moments as best as I can from the viewing window. The hubby resigns himself to the fate that he will likely be tasked to look after the 2-year-old in the toddler play zone since he will not be allowed to join in the activities until he reaches the age of four (read my review on KidZania Bangkok to see how they solve this by having a list of toddler-friendly establishments).
Guess what? All that changed when we were invited to join in a night of fun at the Family Night at KidZania Singapore last weekend. For the first time ever, we, the parents, were able to join the kids for all the activities and let me just say that that was so awesome and fun! Here's sharing with you more about what we did.
The theme for the night was racing and not only were families asked to come in their best racing outfits, they could also get a chance to join in a racing contest and battle it out with other families! Check out more of the race on Life's Tiny Miracles and A Million Little Echoes' IG posts. That said, we were told that there were only going to be three races and a total of four families per race (one family can only send in one parent-child pair to participate), which to us meant that we would have to spend a long time in queuing up early to 'chope' seats and still, there's the big problem of which one of the three kids gets to drive the racing car and which two get to
The hubby and I then decided that since it was our first family night, we just wanted to stick together as a family and not let the desire to complete more activities split us up. So, we chose to visit a few of our favorite establishments together and despite it being merely a 3.5-hour event, I think we did pretty well by conquering four stations with some of them being highly popular ones.
Our first station was one of the girls' favourites - Ice Cream Factory, where they get to understand more about the making of ice cream and get a stick of Paddle Pop each at the end (which is what excites them most).
For popular stations like this one, there is a limited numbers of slots per session (six, in this case) and if you are to factor in the fact that some of the parents are also joining in the activities, you can expect the waiting time to be long. We were lucky to be there at the right time, thanks to May of A Million Echoes for giving up her spot to one of the girls so they could be together along with Faye meimei whom they adore a lot.
One tip is to arrive on time and once the event begins, make your way to your kids' favorite activity so that at least they get to be one of the first ones to play and hopefully, the queue is not too long. Yet.
Since we haven't really had our dinner yet and the event was from 6-10pm, we were thankful to know that the fast food 'restaurants' were open! Yup, what better way than to make your own dinner as a family, earn KidZos in the process and then gobble everything up together after?
I asked the toddler if he would like to make pizza - it would be his first time - and his enthusiastic "Yes!" meant that we made our way straight to our second station, the Pizza Shop. Even though queue wasn't that long yet, we had to wait for over 30 minutes for our turn because it takes that long to complete one session - which takes in a maximum of 10 participants.
Nonetheless, the kids were very excited because this was the first time the three of them were able to do an activity together and to top it off, Papa and Mama were going to be with them too! See how happy they were to put on their hair nets, masks, aprons and chef hats? Yup, they couldn't wait to begin but were as patient as can be during the wait. Phew!
This has to be my favorite activity that night because it made me feel happy knowing that all five of us were in it together. The nice aroma of handmade pizzas baking in the oven only made everything even more appetising and enjoyable for all of us. Even though photo and video taking were not allowed once the activity began, I think it could be a good thing for me because it meant that for once, I was able to concentrate on just enjoying the moment with my kids rather than trying to capture everything with those lens.
See how my creative hubby tried to do something different? While everyone obediently did a circle shape with the dough, he wanted a Batman shaped one. Anyway, I wanted to applaud the staff not just for letting him do it the way he wanted, they even came up to ask him if he would like the pizza whole or for them to slice it up like they usually do for the rest. Very considerate of them!
Yummy! When we were all done, we took a short time of well, less than ten minutes, to gobble up as much as we could because we had to proceed for our next activity already!
The Aviation Academy has to be one of the most sought after activities at KidZania Singapore and kids love to try out being the pilot or cabin crew inside the full-wing fuselage of a Boeing 737. Our friends told us that we had to be swift in making our way to this station so that we could get a time card so this was the first place we dashed to once the event started.
Even so, we had to queue up for 15 minutes just to get the time cards and our allocated time was for 8:20pm so you can guess that not many people behind us managed to reserve slots for this highly coveted activity. For your next visit, if you are planning to join the Aviation Academy, do make sure to arrive as early as possible to get your time card or it will run out before you know it.
It was the first time that we, the parents, got to dress up as pilots and enter the cockpits with the kids! How cool, right? I was so happy that the toddler got to join in too because I knew he would love it to the max - even if he didn't understand anything about the gears or buttons and was too short to reach them without getting out his seat every time. Haha.
We had to enter the cockpit in pairs and the hubby gave feedback that the instructions given to them on how to 'fly' the plane were very vague, which I agree so it ended up that the kids kind of took it in their own hands and did what they deemed best in that situation. It was also a pity that a lot of time was spent by the staff in trying to photograph each of us when I think it would have been better spent on educating the little ones more about the functions of the plane or the job of a pilot.
Our last station for the night is always a hit with the kids because for some reason, they just love Window Washing! Armed with a bucket, water spray, cloth, sponge and squeegee, we made our way through the city to get to the convenience store. Contrary to the last station, the instructions given here were thorough and the kids totally knew what they needed to do, even though there were different steps to follow.
I was to pair up with my little man who was only too happy that he got to carry a bucket and he seemed to understand that he had an important job to do!
Let's just say that all the windows were very clean in the end because the kids were only too happy to wash them.... over and over again! Yup, once, twice, thrice and more, it was hard to get them to leave and the little one would even plead with me "One more time, can can?" Well, let's see if you are as enthusiastic about window cleaning when we get home!
Still, the best about it all was seeing their huge smiles and it made everything worthwhile for us to stay in Sentosa till so late despite that we had a sports event to attend at 8am the next day!
This time round, I can say that not only did the kids have a blast, but we enjoyed it too as Dad and Mum and it was one of the wonderful nights where many precious memories were created as a happy family and will last us for a long time. We definitely hope to visit again the next time there is a Family Night at KidZania Singapore and hope to see you there then!
Disclosure: We received a media invite to attend Family Night at KidZania Singapore. All opinions are our own.