Art Class & Lemon Cake

Didi attended his first art class today. The art lessons are conducted in his kindy after school, once a week. He had catered lunch from kindy. I'm glad to hear the principal commented that he ate his lunch on his own and very fast too.

~ posing with his lantern ~

So he came home 2 hours later than normal. By the time he finished bathing, it was already 3+. I decided to let him skip his nap so he can sleep earlier at night. Since I don't have to accompany him for his nap, I baked a cake, using the cake mix which I didn't buy. So who "bought" it?

During our last shopping trip at Tesco (3 weeks ago), didi put a box of Pillsbury cake mix into the trolley without me realising it. I had a trolley-full of stuff, so I didn't notice it when the cashier was scanning the items. When I looked through the receipt and saw the item, I remembered that he was holding the box and checking it out. That's the problem when the kids offer to help put things into the trolley. Sometimes they just dump whatever they fancy without asking our permission. However, this is the first time he did that. I must warn/remind him not to do it again the next time we go sundry shopping. Luckily it's not something that we don't use. Just that the "slave" got more work to do. hehehe

~ Pillsbury cake mix ~

I don't know what other flavours are there, but he took the lemon one. Good thing it's very simple to do. Just mix all the ingredients together (cake mix, water, oil and eggs). But I tried to be smart and didn't use up all the water as the mixture was quite runny with just half the amount. So the cake turned out to be quite dry. :-( Taste wise, it's quite alright, not too sweet. The kids have no complaints though, they love it. Well, they are very easy to please, where cakes are concerned. :-)

~ the end result ~

Lanterns

I saw many DIY lanterns in the blogsphere and since I was in the mood, I made some to decorate the house. Our house usually has minimum decoration -- just a pair of lanterns hung in the porch and some wall decorations indoor. So this year, we have some DIY lanterns hung indoor. Must give credit to XY for helping me out. I gave her simpler jobs that doesn't require much precision, although she had wanted to help more.

~ ball lantern ~

I've made this before but have forgotten how to. When I read about Merryn's colleague making it, it sort of triggered my memory after I looked at the lantern closely. And lucky for those who doesn't know how to make this, she's just posted the guide in her blog.

The red looked quite dull to me so I cut out some round pattern from other red packets and stuck them on the "ball". The end result looks rather weird to me, but never mind lah, lazy to change it already. :p

~ 6-point star lantern ~

~ CE's school project ~

Also referring to Merryn's blog, I made this star lantern. But it's slightly different from hers as I used the bigger red packets (length = 2x width) so I needed 6 to make one side of the star. Later I found some smaller red packets (length < 2x width) so I made another one. I let CE bring the 5-point star lantern to school as his school project, although he didn't help at all. Actually he wanted to help, but I didn't want him to ruin MY lantern. hahaha

~ "grand" lantern :D ~

This is my favourite. It looks very complicated, but thanks to Angeline's step-by-step guide, it wasn't that difficult actually. But I'd like to add a note here, when you are sticking the red packets to get Step 12 and Step 34, don't stick them too close together. Leave a small teeny weeny gap (less than 1mm). Reason being, they are the outer layer, so the little extra space will make it look tidier after fitting the inner section. Errr... you've got to read her post first before you know what I'm talking about. :-)

Now there's just the porch lanterns that need changing. Still haven't found nice and not-too-expensive ones. :p

Oh ya, thank you for your feedback on the bracelet. Looks like it's a close fight between the twisted and as is version, with as is winning by 2 votes. hehehe So this CNY, I'll be wearing it as is. And say, a few months later, it's twisted's turn. :-)

First Week Of School

Day 1
PaPa played chauffeur, fetching didi to school in the morning and jie jie, in the afternoon. So I got to goyang kaki (relax) at home till my "shift" in the evening (to fetch jie jie back). :-)

He didn't accompany didi, the little boy walked to his classroom by himself. He's just like jie jie when she was in kindy, quite independent. At home, he told me they played dough and games in school.

As for jie jie, PaPa accompanied her to the classroom as he needed to settle the school fees with the teacher. Jie jie cried in the classroom because she didn't manage to get a seat at the front. She was sitting behind and was afraid she can't see the white board. The manja girl needed to be pacified by PaPa before she stopped crying. *shake head*

She received the time-table. I didn't expect that coz last year (in Standard 1), she only got the time-table in the 2nd week. Looks like they are not THAT slack actually. hehehe

Day 2
Jie jie forgot to bring back her Science pack (I prepared individual plastic bags for her to put her books according to subject). Her text book and note book were inside the pack. She claimed she left it under her desk.

Day 3
Couldn't find the books. So when I picked her up from school, I spoke to her class teacher and she said she'll help me look for it the next day.

Jie jie wore her rain coat for the first time. It was raining very heavily. I bought it last November and since then, she's been waiting for the chance to wear it.

Didi wet his pants in the school toilet. He didn't position "it" properly, so ter-sprayed on his pants too.

Day 4
Jie jie found her Science pack. *phew*

After sending jie jie to school, we (didi, Kakak and I) went to Tesco. Had lunch at The Chicken Rice Shop. We shopped till it was time to pick jie jie up = spent 4 hours in Tesco. I've never shopped so long there. You must be wondering if I bought the whole Tesco huh? :p Actually we spent quite some time at the clothes department coz Kakak was looking for some t-shirts.

Day 5
Didi started having runny nose in the morning and woke up with a fever after his nap. :-( First week of school already fallen sick. Haih... Up till now (Day 6, night), he's taken 3 doses of paracetamol. Highest temperature recorded was 38.2ºC. Hope his fever will not come back later.

Jie jie forgot to bring back her water tumbler. Aiyo... so forgetful like an old lady.

1.1.11

It was our 10th Wedding Anniversary (ROM date). The day started (at midnight) with a gift and card from hubby. He was upstairs accompanying the kids in bed while I was watching tv downstairs alone. After the clock struck 12, I got an sms to "check the bookshelf". When I read the card, I was so touched and my eyes were watery (well, they do get watery very easily :D). The wordings made me felt so loved and appreciated. You see, hubby's been very busy with work and his own stuff that I felt a little neglected at times. I know I shouldn't feel this way or complain but it's just that sometimes, the hormones are playing tricks on me. No, not pregnancy hormones, in case you're jumping to conclusions. hahaha Probably aging hormones. :p

This is the gift. Nice or not? :-)

~ gold bracelet ~

~ Which do you think looks better? Twisted or as is? ~

And you know what I got for him? Nothing. Not even a card. Terrible or not, you say? So I'll just do my "declaration" here.
S**** B***, Happy 10th Anniversary! Thank you for... everything! I wish to spend many many more 10 years with you. I love you!

Then in the morning, I went to Critter Land for a mini bloggers meet with Jacss, Chin Nee, Anggie and Alice. It was the first time meeting Alice and the Little Sprouts. I saw Juan Juan first. So I asked her where her Mama and little brother were. She was very friendly and showed me where they were. Both the Little Sprouts are so adorable. Juan Juan speaks very fluent English and Ah Xuan was very generous with his "hi"s, together with the waving gesture. He even gave us a flying kiss before we left. Alice also gave us some yummy gifts. So thoughtful of her. I felt so 'paisay' coz I didn't prepare anything for her kids. Thanks again, Alice!

Jacss came with Sean only coz Scot wasn't feeling very well. The poor boy didn't seem to have fun as he missed his brother and partner-in-crime. I think he was bored as he preferred to play with his electronic gadgets.

Chin Nee's twins are so grown up already. The last time I met them was when they were just born. This June, they'll be turning 3. And like the rest, I can't differentiate who is kor kor and who is didi. :-) Their loving jie jie, pretty QQ, helps her mommy to take good care of her little brothers in the play land.

I finally got to meet the super cute and chubby little Jareth. Anggie and I have met twice during our boys' school events but I have yet to meet little J. He's now walking already, and quite fast too. Jeremy was playing excitedly that he lost one sock in the pool of balls, not long after he got in. Must let him wear tighter socks next time ya. hehehe Sorry, no photos to share here. For more updates and photos, you can check out Anggie & Jeremy boy Online Journal and My Little Sprouts!.

After 2 hours plus of play, we went separate ways as we have our own plans. I had a lunch date with hubby. Jie jie requested to eat dim sum. So we went to Cheras for dim sum lunch and spent money shopped a bit at Leisure Mall.

For dinner, I wanted to eat crabs so we headed to our usual go-for-crabs restaurant (not too far away). Unfortunately, they ran out of crabs! :-( So I can only look at the next table's crab dish... and drool. No lah, just kidding. hehehe Never mind, I'll get my crab fix another day.