Super Simple Celebration

Oh yeah, I’ve grown another year wiser. In other words, another year older. :p Although last weekend was a long weekend, we didn’t go anywhere. Basically just laze around at home. We didn’t even hang out at the malls as didi was having runny nose. The weekend before that, the kids requested to go play at Megakidz, MidValley. PaPa offered to stay there while Kakak accompanied the kids inside the play area. And I got to walk around the malls (Gardens and MV) by myself for 3+ hours. What bliss! I actually walked till my legs cramped. *aiyoyo* Managed to buy some tees for myself (and inner wear too :D). On our way to Madam Kwan’s for dinner, we went to Crocs coz I saw earlier that they’re having a promotion where you get 30% discount if the said day is 6 days prior to or after your birthday. Not sure if this promotion is valid at other outlets as well. I got hubby to “approve” the design I chose (A-Leigh Mini Wedge Leather) and he said he’ll get them for me as my birthday pressie. This is my 2nd pair of Crocs. The pair of Crocband I bought in Hong Kong hurts my toes so I hardly wear them. Waiting to pass them over to jie jie. Y’know, her feet is almost as long as mine, just a little less meaty. o.O She can already wear my sandals. And she’ll try on my wedges whenever she gets the chance (high heels mah). Girls... *shake head*

~ take a wild guess, whose feet are these? ~

Back to d-day, we went out for dinner of my choice -- Korean BBQ (haven’t had it for so long, the outlet that we’ve been frequenting in Sri Petaling has closed down :D). So we went to another one nearby, Daorae Korean BBQ Restaurant. Food’s not bad. The barbequed meat were yummy. But they don’t have a very big variety of side dishes. And the waiters ignored my requests to top up some of the side dishes. *hmmmff* Maybe they didn’t understand me. Or they were just too busy to attend to us. :-(

~ didi and jie jie at Daorae ~

Before going to the restaurant, we went to Tong Kee to choose my cake. We only cut the cake at home as I felt shy to be “sung to” in the crowded restaurant. hehe When I looked back at last year’s blog entry, I realised that the cakes were the same pattern, just different flavour. Hubby chose the cake last year so it seems like we have the same cake preference. ;-)

~ vanilla fruit cake... yummy ~

I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank my family and friends for all the lovely wishes. Thank you for making my day extra special! *muacks*

10 minus 1

My little girl is no longer very little anymore. She celebrated her 9th birthday 2 days ago. One year short of being a decade old. haha As usual, we had a simple celebration at home. We have a (slightly) bigger group this time because Yeh Yeh and Mah Mah are here. Food was all bought except fried noodles. We had Subway sandwiches, Kenny Rogers roasters, cocktail sausages and satay. 7 adults and 3 kids couldn't finish all these food.

food to feed an army? :D

Subway platter - bought 3 foot-long, free 1 foot-long

After the kids have finished their meal, they played Wii games. I didn’t prepare any special activities for them, so what else is there for them to do? I didn't pump any balloons so no decorations and no balloons to play with. At least they won’t run around and make too much noise. :-)

XY chose pandan layer cake with dessicated coconut

sing-song session

After eating the cake, XY opened her presents. We bought an ambulance Lego set for her, which she chose herself. CH and family gave her a tutu while Yeh Yeh and Mah Mah gave her an angpow. Po Po and Zi Mai Po also gave her angpows which I took back from Penang in June. She even got a present (stickers and stationeries) from her piano teacher when she came for lesson yesterday. So sweet and thoughtful of her.

big princess and little princess

The Celebrations

This is another very backdated post. As mentioned earlier, we had a small party at home for CE’s birthday. I was really lazy to make balloon decorations. I told ah boy and he was okay with it (wah, so considerate hahaha). Then while he was napping, I felt bad so I pumped a few balloons and hung them on the curtain rail.

super simple deco

We had our usual “party food”. Bought satay, ordered pizza and Kakak fried bihun and nuggets (just a bit for the kids) and cooked curry chicken. After the kids finished their food, they played Wii games, as requested by the birthday boy (coz usually no pc/tv games on school days).


jie jie, didi, kor kor and mei mei

blueberry cake

presents



For the celebration in school, I bought a black forest cake for him and prepared party packs for his classmates. I planned to make the paper bags myself by referring to Sasha’s post. Thanks for the tutorial, girl! After buying the brown papers, I found it so tedious to cut the papers into the right size, fold, stick, fold, stick, fold some more and open it up. And I had to prepare 24 of them (including for jie jie and his cousins)! I wanted to give up so I went hunting for those ready-made paper/plastic bags. But can’t find any suitable/nice ones. There aren’t many choices around my area. The patterns are very girlish, not that suitable for his class where majority are boys. So I had no choice but to make the paper bags myself. Luckily I bought a steel ruler and a penknife (really sharp!) so it made the work a little easier. I cannot imagine the amount of work needed if I were to do exactly like Sasha. Cut out the alphabets to make the kids’ names? Oh, forget it. So I just printed some characters (decided by birthday boy) as decoration. I also eliminated the strings and just folded them over. Jie jie helped me a lot with making the paper bags and sticking the cartoons. The birthday boy wrote the names of his friends on the paper bags and put the goodies into them.

contents in party pack

party packs for friends

I also prepared some gifts (chocolates and sweets) for the teachers as they were celebrating Teacher’s Day on the same day as well. Got this idea from mom2ashley’s post. Thank you, D! Found some white plastic bags in the drawers, printed some wordings on coloured paper and cut out rectangular shapes from manila cardboard. Again, I got CE to write the names of the teachers himself.

gifts for teachers

Long Disappearance

*cough cough cough* Gosh, so much dust and cobwebs in here. Some of you might have thought I've abandoned this blog or retired from blogging... or something. :-) Well, I don't want to bore you with the excuses. So let's just have some updates. Hmmm... where should I start? Okay, in some sort of chronological order :

CNY 2012
The journey back to our hometowns were rather smooth and uneventful, thankfully. As usual, it's feasting non-stop and gathering with family, friends and relatives during the festive season.

We attended the CNY potluck party in CE's kindy. I brought sausages and nuggets (too lazy to prepare anything creative :p). Every year, they have lion dance, which never fail to fascinate the kids. The lions were very playful. So when CE put his hand near its mouth to feed it oranges, it "bit" him. I think his hand was pulled a bit too hard till it hurt so the silly boy cried a little. hahaha

~ CE got "bitten" by the lion ~

St. John Ambulance
XY was assigned to join St. John Ambulance and Maths & Science Club for her co-curricular (Ko-K) activities. If we don't agree, we can ask the teacher for a change but I think it's good to learn some first aid knowledge in St. John. I had a hard time looking for her uniform. The smallest sized t-shirt they have is so big on her. The smallest sized pants were too loose. I bought them anyway and the pants had to be altered. Even the belt was too long and I had to cut it myself. She has Ko-K once a week and it alternates between uniform units and clubs.

Valentine's Day
Received a bouquet of flowers from hubby. It didn't turn out to be a surprise coz when hubby called around noon, I didn't mention anything so he had to ask me about it. They haven't delivered it, although they said it'll be delivered in the morning. So hubby had to call them to check. Turned out they can't find my place and a taxi guy actually delivered the flowers at 4+pm. Apparently the delivery fella sub-contracted the job to him. o.O

~ a dozen of red roses ~

Slithering visitor
SIL's maid saw a little snake, about 1 foot long, in my kitchen. It must have entered through the small opening underneath the door. She quickly grabbed the broom and whacked it. It was hurt but still alive, squirming on the spot. Both the maids were scared, so I continued to whack it till it stopped moving. I was totally freaked out (thus forgot about snapping pictures :p) but someone had to do it, right? Hubby was out running errands and when he came back, he got the honour to scoop the "dead body" into a plastic bag. Afraid that the mommy snake was nearby, I called the Fire Department to lodge a report. They came in their big red truck, all ready with the snake catching tools. When we told them the snake is dead, they took the plastic bag and wanted to leave. We had to ask them to check the compound to make sure there were no snakes hiding around. One of the men said that the little snake must have been catching a rat and followed it to the house. o.O Later in the day, I bought sulphur powder and sprinkled it around the backyard.

Surprise for mom
In early March, I went back to my hometown alone for my mom's birthday, without telling her in advance. I called my brother that morning itself, to pick me up from the airport. Didn't want to tell my brothers earlier, in case they accidentally leaked my plan. hehehe And it worked! She was VERY surprised when she saw me. Mom's birthday fell on a Sat this year. I actually bought AA's tickets in May last year during their sales. I only spent 1 night at home but it was really great to spend quality time with her as when I'm back with the kids, I'm usually distracted by occupied with them.

Kids' health
Didi had fever on the Thursday before the 1-week school holiday. He was coughing badly. Paediatrician said it's lung infection. He was feverish for almost a week. Luckily it was during the school holiday, so he had a good rest at home.

2 weeks later, it was jie jie's turn. She started having fever on Mon (26/3). It started with runny nose, then cough. Her fever lasted for 5 days. During that time, I brought her to the clinic 3 times. The first antibiotics didn't work and had to be changed before completion, to the same type as didi's. So I guess they were attacked by the same bacteria (lung infection), although 2 weeks apart. She was absent from school for a week. She also missed her first school outing (a full day outing to Pusat Sains Negara, chocolate factory and don't-know-where-else) on Saturday. She was really disappointed.

Last Wednesday, it's back to didi's turn. :( He's got ear infection, both ears. Complained of ear pain on Wed night. PaPa came home at 11+pm and brought him to the hospital (most clinics were closed already) coz we don't have any medicine at home. He was still in pain after putting the ear drop so I gave him paracetamol. The next morning, brought him to our regular paediatrician coz I don't really trust the doctor at the A&E. Although he didn't have any fever, the doctor started him on antibiotics coz he's usually more aggressive when it comes to ear infection. Luckily he didn't complain of pain after that.

Photobook
I've just received my second photobook. I bought 2 vouchers in Sept 2010. After procrastinating for more than a year, I completed didi's book in Jan and got it just before the CNY break. I was busy slowwwwwly working on jie jie's book last month. Finally it was done and uploaded for printing just before the expiry date (end of Mac). :p

~ from birth till 3 years old ~

~ from birth till 4 years old ~

~ inside XY's photobook ~

Another Year Older Wiser

When the clock struck 12 midnight, we were at the Immigration check point at LCCT. We just came back from Singapore. The main intention was to bring the kids to USS. Will blog about it in a different post. But I'd like to write about an unpleasant incident of the trip here. Our 9:20pm flight was retimed to 11:20pm. That's TWO hours delay! Gosh, we were already so tired and can't wait to get home. Although our baggage has already been checked in, we managed to change to the next flight, which was slightly earlier at 11pm. Luckily everything went smoothly after that -- 11pm flight was on time, boarding was swift, our baggage didn't get lost and we didn't have to queue for a taxi. We reached home at 1am.

We all slept till 10 in the morning. Didi skipped school to get a good rest. The kids are more excited than me. They said they wanted to behave on my special day. Although they failed miserably (especially didi), I guess I should appreciate their effort. :-) PaPa surprised me with a bouquet of flowers. Actually it was jie jie's idea and PaPa executed the plan. In August, I made a new pair of spectacles and PaPa paid for them. So when he asked me what I wanted for my birthday, I said the spectacles are considered my present. I'm so kind to him hor?

~ a dozen gerberas ~

PaPa asked me to decide where to go for dinner. Since it's a weekday and we just got back from Singapore (have been eating a lot of "restaurant food"), I decided to just have a simple meal at home. We had pandan kaya cake for dessert. The kids love it. Less than a quarter of the 0.5kg cake is left for tomorrow's breakfast.

~ pandan kaya cake from Tong Kee -- nice! ~

Aaaah... I feel so blessed and loved. Received so many greetings via phonecall, sms and FB wall from family, relatives and friends. The greetings in FB were really overwhelming. Thank you so much for your warm wishes.

Happy Birthday, Princess!

Today is ah girl's 8th birthday. She's 130.9cm tall, weighing 23.05kg (measured on 6/7). Looks like she'll soon be taller than me. :-) We had a mini celebration yesterday night with a simple dinner at home, together with Po Po and BIL and family. Po Po came to KL to attend a wedding dinner last weekend and she'll be staying till Saturday. The menu was chosen by XY and mostly very unhealthy. hehehe We had KFC, pizza from Pizza Hut, satay and Kakak's fried noodles. As usual, we ordered too much food and had to clear the leftovers today.

~ balloons decoration requested by birthday girl ~

After dinner, she opened her presents. Chik Chik and Sen Sen gave her a Swatch watch and a tiara. My kids are so lucky. Chik Chik and Sen Sen always shower them with very nice gifts. Didi got a blue Swatch for his birthday, now jie jie received a pink one. CH already has an orange one. Wow... we've got a bunch of Swatch kids. :D

As promised, we bought her a bicycle. Brought her to the shop on Saturday to choose. I asked about Raleigh and LeRun. The guy said Raleigh is of better quality. Decided on BMX instead of mountain bike coz I think a higher handle is more suitable. Moreover, it's just for city riding, the mountain bike may be underutilised. There're only 2 colours -- white and blue (don't have pink as there's no market for it) and she chose blue. :-) I also gave her a "surprise" gift. I wrapped up the stamper pen set which I bought in Hong Kong Disneyland 2 years ago. I've kept it aside and almost forgot about it. Luckily the ink hasn't dried up. It's a surprise coz she doesn't remember it at all. She also received angpows from Po Po and Zi Mai Po (Po Po's younger sister).

~ Raleigh Laguna ~

~ posing with her cake and presents ~

This year, I managed to convince her to get a normal cake, without fancy pictures on them. I really don't like those sugar sheets. I usually remove them before the kids eat the cake. She chose a blueberry cream cake (one of our favourites) and requested for a number "8" candle. Easy peasy.

~ 'tai kar cher' blowing the candles ~

Today is also Slavery Bliss' 4th Blogoversary. Although I've not updated much recently, I hope to keep this blog alive. Through the years, it has given me many great friends. Really appreciate the friendship we have and even though some of us don't blog that often nowadays, I hope to keep in touch in other ways (I probably have to be more active in FB :p). Blogging is really helpful for someone who has a terrible memory like me coz in the near future, I can read back about the kids and my life.

CE's Birthday Celebration

CE turned 5 on Sunday. We had a small do for him at home, together with BIL and family. The birthday boy wanted to eat pizza so we had pizza, KFC and fried noodles for dinner. I did some simple decorations with alphabets (from the alphabet mats) and balloons (a must-have for their birthday parties). I don't think the balloons are hung nicely (and always at the same boring place) but I doubt the boy minded. As long as there're balloons, he's a happy camper.

~ I asked him to pose near the wall deco, he wanted
to "pose" with his artwork from Art class ~

~ the very simple balloon deco ~

As for the cake, he actually requested for a number 5 cake. I checked with the bakery, the minimum weight is 2kg. Last year, we got him a 2kg number 4 cake and we took many many days to finish it. I'm not going to torture ourselves again. So I drew a big circle with a number 5 inside it and showed it to him for approval. Luckily he agreed. Phew... problem solved. I ordered a mango cake from Suki Bakery. It was very nice -- soft and fresh, with mango chunks inside and mango slices on top.

~ mango cake with number 5 on top ~

In order to make the kids sit still after dinner, I let them do sand art. Haiyo! It's not so easy to do when you don't have big containers for sprinkling the colours. And messy too! Luckily I covered the table and floor with newspapers. I'm not sure if those are of low quality stuff (RM3 per pack), but the boys had difficulty peeling it off. So I peeled for them but they decided on the colours to use. Good thing jie jie can do it all by herself. They really enjoyed it and were very proud of their masterpieces. Now that I know they like it, the next time we see sand art at the malls, will let them try again. No more doing sand art at home. :-)

~ sitting still doing sand art ~

After the arts and crafts activity, it's sing-birthday-songs (have to sing in 3 languages -- I guess they followed the custom in kindy :D), blow-candles, cut-cake and eat-cake time. XN (CH's mei mei) missed this part coz she was napping on the sofa.

~ halfway through singing the 3 birthday songs, he put his
hand around jie jie's shoulder. Awww... I think he was shy ~

~ the boys giving their thumbs-up ~

~ his presents -- the t-shirt he's wearing, a cheapo tool set with
belt and helmet, and a Swatch watch (from CH and family) ~

Hello Everybody!

Long time no see! Wow... this is the longest break I've taken in the cyber world. Whoosh! 3 months just flew by. Better clear the cobwebs and get back in action before I lose all my blogger friends. hehehe As it is, some have already given me warnings. o.O But seriously, it's really heartwarming to know that there are friends out there (you know who you are) who care and wonder how you're doing when you've been "missing" for some time. Thank you so much for your warm thoughts, girls!

Hmmm, where do I start? Ok, here are some random updates :
* Mother's Day 2011 -- we went back to PaPa's hometown on Saturday to attend his grandma's 80th birthday celebration. We only spent a night there. Didn't even celebrate Mother's Day for MIL as we left after lunch. No celebration for me either. No mood anyway coz CE was sick. I got a card each from the kids.


* CE had his first exam last week. But he has 2 more papers to go because he was sick. Had high fever due to throat infection/gastroenteritis -- diarrhea and stomach cramps.
* Due to his prolonged cough, doctor suggested that CE take Alvesco Inhaler (started on 24 Mac). It's not sprayed directly into the mouth, but used with the AeroChamber. His condition improved after 1 month of usage. He still coughs every now and then, but for a much shorter period compared to last time.
* 19 Mac -- went to the dentist to extract XY's lower right lateral incisor.
* XY started piano lessons in March.
* CE started Mandarin classes in April -- once a week after school hours in his kindy.
* Brought the kids for a haircut in April. Finally snipped off XY's over-the-shoulder-length hair to chin level.
* I went back to Penang for Cheng Beng, alone. It was a good 3D/2N trip away from the kids. :D But too bad I had diarrhea so didn't get to enjoy all the hawker food that I've been craving for. Never mind, will be bringing the kids back again end of May, during the school holidays. Then it's payback time. muahahaha
* Have been watching a lot of tv series -- Hong Kong and Singapore dramas.
* Started eating oats for breakfast (not everyday though) and exercising on the trampoline 2 to 3 times a week to control my cholesterol level. Really hope to keep this up.
* Will be busy preparing XY for her mid-year exam, which will start on 23 May.

CNY 2011

The weather's been rather crazy. As written in my previous post, it was a wet wet pre-CNY down south. It was flooded (luckily PIL's place not affected) due to non-stop rain while it's hot hot hot up north. When we travelled back to KL on the 2nd day of CNY (Friday), we passed by a short stretch of flooded area in Parit Sulong. Luckily it was not very bad as cars can still pass through.

~ the houses by the road were flooded up to knee height ~

The next morning (Saturday), we took the flight to hot hot Penang. It was a short trip as school will start on Monday for XY. She had to skip school for a day. Although it was only 3D/2N, this trip was quite fruitful -- gathering with schoolmates and Uni-mate, visiting relatives, hanging out with very 'old' friends (some I haven't seen for almost 20 years!). I didn't get to enjoy much of Penang food this round. For our family dinner on Sunday, we tried Young Heart Restaurant @ Pulau Tikus, which promotes healthy and delicious food. Unfortunately, the food wasn't as good as the published reviews. Probably coz it was during CNY and the sets were prepared much earlier. So the reheating must have affected the taste.

Tuesday (back in KL), we attended the CNY party organised by CE's kindy. This is our first time as we missed the event the past 4 years (not back from my hometown yet). But this year due to XY's school schedule, we managed to make it. It's a potluck party, I contributed nuggets. There was lion dance, a short drama by the 6-year-olds, games and food.

~ lion dance ~

Saturday, visited my relatives in the morning. At night, dinner at BIL's house with friends and their families. That was the first time (and last, I guess) I 'lou sang' this CNY. Luckily still got chance to 'lou' this year.

Monday, Valentine's Day. Hubby's away so no celebration. :-( Anyway, I doubt we'll dine out even if he's in town. 'Lou foo lou chai' already, we don't really celebrate V-day. But I got a pleasant surprise when a van honked at my gate this afternoon. Flower delivery! *big big smile* So what did I get for my Valentine? Only a card. hahaha I put it in his luggage bag pocket, without his knowledge of coz. Last night after 12 midnight, I sms-ed him to tell him where to find it. Well, at least still got some element of surprise. :D

We don't have any programs for the rest of the week. Will just laze around at home and prepare XY for her assessment next week. Happy Chap Goh Meh in advance!

A Wet Wet Pre-CNY

When we travelled back to PaPa's hometown yesterday, it was raining all the way. Luckily not too heavily. And one small part of the highway was a bit flooded (half a lane). It's been raining non-stop for a few days. Good thing the sun came out to play today, otherwise the clothes cannot dry. And the dirty clothes are piling up very fast. Hopefully the weather wouldn't be too gloomy and wet the next few days. Moreover, going visiting is not so convenient during rainy days.

Our last trip back was during CNY last year. So we've been savouring the local food as much as we can, before they close for the festive season. And there'll be continuous feasting the whole week. Ahhh... happy happy stomach. :-)

To those who celebrates CNY, here's wishing you...

Picture courtesy of http://chinese-new-year-cards.blogspot.com

Have a safe journey, wherever you're travelling to!

And to those not celebrating, have a good holiday!

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.

His First Concert

CE had his first concert last Saturday night. I thought it was going to be difficult to put lipstick for him. Surprisingly, he didn't make much fuss. Although he said "No" at first, he was very cooperative when I told him everyone will have to put on make-up for the concert. I applied lipstick for him at home and SIL applied blusher for him at the venue (waiting room). We left the boys (CE and CH) with the teachers and went to wait at the hall, where I bumped into Anggie. It was really great chatting and catching up with her, without any distraction from the kids. :-) Hmmm, Wyson's mommy, where were you? Missed you again this time.

Jeremy's performance was the 2nd one, while CE's was the 4th. Jeremy was the leader of the pirates and the introducer of their dance. He did very well, giving the speech fluently. He's one very cheerful and smiley pirate. I didn't recognise him in front of the microphone because he was wearing fake hair with long curly locks. I was thinking, "Why is this girl giving the introduction, instead of Jeremy?" Ooops! But my question was answered when he started giving the speech. hehehe

I didn't know what is CE's performance as he didn't show me much at home. For his costume, I was only given a plain white round-neck t-shirt and a pair of black long pants (sheer-like material). Only at the venue I saw the teacher putting on a yellow shiny vest for him. So I was really surprised (and amused) when they announced his class is performing an Indian dance. He walked out looking around for me. I was below the stage, taking his photos. I waved at him and he saw me. Then while dancing, he kept looking at me. *shake head* But it was rather entertaining to see my cool boy shaking and dancing on stage. *syiok sendiri* hahaha

~ check out my Bollywood star :D ~

~ having fun on stage ~

CH took part in 2 performances -- percussion and pom pom dance. His dance was the last performance. It was accompanied by a fast-paced Chinese song. Very entertaining and they looked quite coordinated too. Well done to all the kids and teachers!

So Blessed

I feel so blessed. I received so many birthday wishes via Facebook, sms, e-mail and phone call. The wishes started coming in as early as 3 days before the actual day (Wednesday). It really made my day(s). ;-)

Although I didn't get any presents from hubby (to be redeemed later :D), I'm very happy that :
1) Hubby made it a point to come home for dinner even though he was supposed to have dinner with his bosses.
2) CE wished me Happy Birthday the moment he woke up in the morning. *sweet*
3) XY tried very hard to be a good girl. Although she didn't really succeed (or maybe my expectations were too high), I'll give her credit for trying real hard. hehehe

Hubby bought back a green tea cake from Tong Kee. We had a simple dinner at home together with SIL #1, CH, baby and FIL. MIL is currently in Hong Kong visiting SIL #2. CE kept pestering me to let him eat the cake, from the time PaPa brought it home till after I finished my dinner. So I had to keep asking him to wait as we're still full from dinner. Finally it was time to cut the cake. The kids helped me blow the candle. Everyone loved the cake. It's very nice, not too sweet and has red beans in between layers.

~ green tea cake with layers of red beans ~

Being at home full time with the kids, life isn't very "interesting". And sometimes it feels like I'm trapped (with them) within the four walls. But there are many things to be thankful for. So even though life is pretty routine and uninteresting, I am very contented. Yes, I feel so blessed.

On Her Birthday

~ take picture first before going out ~

We ate dim sum for brunch at Tai Thong. As usual, she had dessert after she's finished her meal. But for her special day, I allowed her to finish the whole portion herself. She chose jelly with longan dessert and was very generous to give me a few mouthfuls. :-) Later on, she had another treat of ice-cream cone when we passed by McD. She was very happy coz she had the whole cone to herself.

After that, we headed home for the kids to have some rest as there'll be a "party" at night. As usual, I've to make balloon decorations. I think it'll be a ritual for years to come (till they outgrow it) as when you do it for one sibling, you've to do it for the other. This time, I just hung the balloons at the curtain rail -- a bit lazy lah. Well, as long as the lil boss gave the green light, anything will do.

~ standing on the sofa ~

It was a very simple dinner. We had Domino's pizza and Kakak's fried bihun. As for the cake, XY chose the design (she's starting the "princess" phase) and I chose the flavour -- blueberry vanilla sponge cake. First time I ordered from Sugar Bun. Not bad, not bad.

~ princess cake ~

~ didi was crying coz he got scolded and whacked
by PaPa for breaking one of the candles ~

Knowing that she loves presents (who doesn't, right? :D), SIL and I purposely wrap her gifts individually. So she got 6 pressies all together. I even wrapped the swimming suit which we bought the week before (she tried before buying) and treated it as her birthday present. hahaha

~ she especially love the musical jewelry box
and custom-made bracelet from MLTB ~

School Holidays June '10

School started yesterday after a two-week break. Didi had no problems waking up in the morning as before. He seemed happy to be back in school. But jie jie was a little manja. She complained she didn't feel very well and said she didn't want to attend school. Well, she's actually coughing a little and having a little runny nose but is overall fine and not having any fever. So too bad, no valid excuse for extending her holidays. hahaha

I've been away from the blogsphere for almost a month now. Have been busy with visits from our family during the holidays and rushing for the submission of income tax. Phew... finally it's done, and so near to the deadline. :p And we've been nursing a very stubborn cough (we = the whole family *sigh*). Still not completely healed yet. Yup, even didi, who's been coughing for more than a month already. And when he seems to be getting better, his condition worsens the next day. Then better again. *scratch head*

PaPa recently bought a HD MediaBox (multimedia player). So I downloaded some movies for the kids to watch on tv. We watched Alice In Wonderland, How To Train Your Dragon and Shrek (all the 4 movies).

Tuesday, 8th June ~ The kids went for a Happy Camp (half day) organised by CE's kindy. It's open to siblings aged 4 to 8 so we decided to let XY join them. They attended a session of Kid's Yoga before visiting High 5 Bread Town in Shah Alam. I was at the recreation club where they had the yoga class but said bye-bye to them when their bus left for Shah Alam. They had fun stretching and running around in yoga class. And I guess the Bread Town wasn't too interesting for them. All they remembered was the magic door where they had to say "High 5" to make it open. :-)

~ doing yoga ~

Thursday, 10th June ~ Po Po (my mum) and WQ kor kor (my 11-year-old nephew) came visiting from Penang. They stayed till Sunday. The kids played Wii games from morning till night. :-| I brought them to the amusement centre in Jaya Jusco on Friday (at least that kept them away from the tv for awhile). They had no problems finishing up RM30 worth of tokens (mainly used by XY and WQ coz CE can still be cheated -- let him play without putting any tokens hehehe. He especially love steering wheels).

Tuesday, 15th June ~ PIL were here for 2 nights in conjunction with Duan Wu Jie (Dumpling Festival) and school holidays. They bought dumplings from Johor and we've been eating dumplings for breakfast/lunch the last few days. And I've still got some in the fridge.

Sunday, 20th June ~ Father's Day. We didn't have any celebration for PaPa. Gave him a day off. So he's off duty from fetching us around (for food or shopping hahaha). In the morning, I guided the kids to make a craft for PaPa. The template was given by CE's kindy and I made a copy for XY. They coloured the hearts and circles and wrote the words themselves (I had to spell for didi). I did the cutting, gluing and stapling for them.

~ artists at work ~

~ dragonflies for PaPa ~