Families For Life Picnic and NS50 celebration

We had been to a few Families For Life picnic (FFL) before (Istana and Punggol), but this edition is different. We are celebrating NS50 too 🙂

Families For Life Picnic

 

Organised last weekend at Singapore Discovery Centre and Army Museum, there was plenty of activities to keep families busy. The Safti-MI bus tour must be one of the highlights 🙂

 

 

Kids did not like the combat rations. Funny, I used to love the desserts (especially red bean and or2 bee2 bur2) when I was still in green :p

 

Families who registered for “Families For Life Picnic” will get a picnic goodie bag. Just lay out the mat, enjoy the cookies and fruits, and watch a movie in the evening #IchooseFamilyTime

 

I brought the kids into one of the corners to QR code Singapore’s history.

The highlight for many would be touring Safti MI (old name is SAF Training Institute, wiki). It is a different feeling when you are sightseeing, and when you are running up Peng Kang hill in fatigues.

 

Our narrator shared the history of Safti. The old colonial-like buildings, parade square. Not many will see real “cooks” in today’s army camps.

 

The iconic Safti Tower, with 265 steps to symbolise number of days before an officer cadet pass his course.

The triangle tower is symbolic for training all three services of SAF (Army, Air Force and Navy).Safti tour s

 

The sergeant standing outside SCS (ex SISPEC). He or she has to lead the men from the front.

Skyhawk, another relic. Kids grew up with F16 and F15.

NS50

Pedal boat was popular with families, but long queue.

 

We noticed many mini-SOC (Standard Obstacle Course) in recent events, but this one at Army Museum is the original.

Kids like mini SOC now, not sure whether they will like the real-size low wall and Jacob ladders (applies to the Cheekiemonkies too hee hee) .

 

That ended our trip to SDC and Army Museum. I told the kids they can alway visit SAFTI MI again, just join OCS or Sispec.

Do pop by links below for more FFL and NS50 events.

Families for Life
NS50 (50 years of National Service)

SG50 Picnic at Istana

FAMILY is everything to us. Many Families bond over a Picnic at Istana last Saturday.
FFL Families for Life

As part of SG50 celebrations, Families for Life(FFL) will organise monthly picnics throughout Singapore. Picnic at Istana was the first of many picnics for 2015.

Look out for the bright red FFL mobile cafe.
Istana open house activities
Picnic at Istana

Istana offers huge open space for families to roam, kids to run, and we even saw toddlers rolling down the gentle slope!

Perfect weather and clouds to layout your picnic mat and basket.

But kids chose soccer over picnic! They must have figured that it is a rare opportunity to kick soccer on the Istana’s beautiful lawn!

Families can have fun on the bouncing castles (old playground designs) too.

There was a mass diy Terrarium session for families too.

FFL SG50

You do not need to be a horticulturist to craft your own pot of Terrarium. Add soil, stone, plant and decoration, that’s it! Our own Terrarium is now blossoming at home.

President Tony Tan made a Terrarium for himself too. We did not manage to photobomb him, but we did grab EnLai (Noose!)

Lovely weather, stately Istana. Families had an enjoyable picnic day.
Thank you FamiliesForLife for the invitation 🙂

Video: Checkout the Fun playground for younger kids. A popular corner at every Istana open house.

Additional Information :
– You hear SG50 everywhere (Singapore is 50 years old in 2015)
– Do pop by Families For Life Fanpage for the latest activities and events.
Istana Open House 2015 (Free)
– Our previous Istana Open house experience