Bits and Bobs

Had these photos in my draft, so might as well just post them.  Pretty outdated though!  Hehe.

Homemade Tong Yuen during the Winter Solstice Festival 

Puppet Stage made by Elyssa

She made it all by herself.  I was really impressed! 

But barely an hour after this photo was taken, Elyssa was tears.  Cos little Erin saw it, got jealous and tore the box apart!!! (aaarghhh!) 

The next day, Elyssa made an improved stage with curtains that could be opened and closed by pulling a string at the back. 

Food for our Christmas potluck party 

I baked cupcakes, made a simple Christmas log and cooked pork rendang. 

Simple pleasures in life -  Mamak breakfast! 

Carousel Ride at a shopping mall 

My planned "peaceful coffee break" at one of my favourite cafes

Didn't go as planned though. It was peaceful for all of 10 minutes but then they were both in an argumentative mood and started squabbling soon after.  Aargh!

Girls were playing upstairs then Erin came downstairs announcing she was "pregnant"!  (she stuffed her baby bear up her shirt. hehe) 

Ok, that's all.  Really a rojak post today!

Concert

Few months ago, reached my parent's house for our weekly "family makan" and the kids were excitedly standing by the door telling me about their concert.  I went...... huh?? what concert?

And someone passed me this Concert List.

Concert List 

Wah, not bad eh??  Got Program somemore! Everyone told me to quickly eat cos concert was to start at 8.30pm. See..... even starting time was stated on the list. 

Puppet Show time

Title was "Goldilocks and the 3 Bears". We sat there for a while waiting for the show to start then only realised it ALREADY started cos the puppets were actually being moved IN the blocks.  Wuahahaha. 

Singing Song time

Final Bow! 

My parents said they spent their afternoon practising for the concert.  Actual execution wasn't so smooth but just love, love, love the concept!!  

CNY 2016 - Lion Dance

Just like last year, we invited a lion dance troop for CNY.

Pics -

Simple performance before going into the house 

They had nice new lions this year. Yay!

 (The lions last year were a little old and dirty. hehe) 

Garden Blessing

Entering the house

There was a lion dance performance on the tv too! 

Bedroom 

Playful lion trying to "eat" Erin's Barbie doll

Love the expression on her face :-) 

Receiving the "blessing" tray

Forgot to take a family photo with the lions this year tho.  

But luckily snapped a photo before the lions came. (they were almost 1 hour late this year! )

2 days after the lion dance at home, the same troop came to the office. Recommended by me la...;-)  

Entering the reception area 

Blessing my room 

With so many blessings, hope that it will be a GREAT year ahead  :-)

Jungle Gym, Atria

Went to Jungle Gym sometime in October last year ( yup, another backdated post!)  It was actually in conjunction with a meet-up with 2 of my friends. We each have 2 kids around the same age so this was a good venue.  We get to chat-chat-chat, while the kids get to play-play-play  :-)  Not cheap at around RM50 PER KID though.

Photos :

Giant soft starfish 

Toddler Area 

Giant slide!

They went down this slide a couple of times. I was surprised Erin wanted to try. 

Going down another smaller slide 

Suspended Bridge 

Play Area - few stories high!

Hello! 

Rotating Pillar 

Rotating Circular Seat

Monkeys in a coconut tree  :-) 

This kiasu mummy let the kids play from around 10am to 6pm! haha. Make the admission fee more worth it!  My friends had to leave around 4pm but we stayed on for a while longer.  While the girls played, I managed to work on my latest crochet project as well  :-) 

First week of school

Happy 2016!

9 days into 2016 already!  Girls are back in school...... Elyssa in Standard 2 and Erin in kindy.

Big smiles for their first day :-) 

Elyssa's update 
I was thrilled that her class teacher last year will be her class teacher again. Yay!!!!!   I really like the teacher and have written about it here and here  :-)   Daily updates in the whatsapp group continued until end of school year.  Love the dedication!

First day of school was uneventful. I parked my car and brought her into school. Bumped into my friend and when we said our hellos, Elyssa confidently just walked on.  So I followed behind her while she walked through the corridors to her classroom (her teacher already sent whatsapp earlier about classroom info), found a place to sit and then started chatting with her old friends. That was quick!!!  Hehe...I could have just dropped her off at the school gate!

So far so good for her first week. Some change in subject teachers (she prefers the new teachers, so that's good news) and on Friday she told me she enjoys school. I asked her why and she replied with a big grin : "Because for this whole week, teacher didn't beat me!!!"   I was like....uhm???????  Asked further and she said no lar, teacher typically beats really soft unless some boys are really naughty.   Okayyyyy.  Anyway, for the whole of Standard 1, she got hit lightly on the palm twice only (for forgetting her books) which is considered good for chinese school already.  hehe.

Minimal homework so far and she's happy in school, so I'm happy too  :-)


Erin's update
New kindy for Erin this year! She never really liked her old kindy and it was such a dread to send her to kindy every morning.  At one stage, I even considered pulling her out completely but in the end, we just continued till end of school term.

So, new beginnings for her!  I was both excited and worried. To get her all excited for kindy, we bought her a new Tinkerbell trolley bag, a new pencil case and even a new water bottle :-)

First day of school went ok! Chinese medium so she probably didn't understand what her teacher was saying half the time, but she did join in when the teacher taught them hand actions for a song. Parents shoo'ed out after a while, so I didn't know what happened after that. When I picked her up, she was all smiles so I was relieved!

Only 3 days of school in the first week, and so far so good. Then again, she was also fine during her first week of kindy last time, so fingers crossed that she will like her new kindy for the whole year!

Ipoh Family Holiday - Nov 2015

*Blow, Blow Cobwebs again*

Started new job on Dec 1 and it has been absolutely EX-HAUS-TING! The past 3 weeks felt like 3 months. New industry, new work scope, new management level, new culture, new team....... new Everything! So many things to take in. So much adjusting to do.  But I do like what I've experienced so far and fingers crossed this will work out. (my predecessor lasted 9 months and then the position was vacant for exactly 1 year, on the day I joined. So on my first few days, I was frequently introduced as "this is our new XX, the one we waited one year for". Aiks!.... talk about pressure!!!)

My days have been a blur of meetings after meetings and even lunches were mainly welcome/intro/ working sessions, but things have finally settled down somewhat. Or possibly because most folks have started their year end leave.  So finally, on my 3rd weekend, I feel like life is creeping back to normal.  Baked cookies yesterday and today, I finally have the mood to sit down and blog.

Will start off with our family holiday to Ipoh last month. Finally, a long awaited holiday with lets see.... Ah Kong, Ah Mah, 3 siblings and partners, 7 kiddos and 3 maids. Full quorum. Yay! My sis already blogged about this, so I'll just add on some additional photos I have.

Early Morning of Day 2 

Ah Kong was initially watching his Ipad quietly in a corner. Before long, SEVEN heads popped in  ;-) 

Then, Ah Mah wanted to go for morning walk. Can just go like that? NO.. ...one-by-one, the kiddos wanted to follow. But some had to go pee pee first, eat first, wash hand first bla bla. About 30 minutes after announcing her morning walk intention, Ah Mah finally managed to leave the house. 

I just had to snap a closer photo of Elyssa and Justin

Such a sweet photo! I'm guess a day will come when they will be too self-conscious to hold hands like that. 

Oh, from the first photo, can see only 5 kiddos in the photo.  The remaining 2 kiddos (whose mummy was earlier trying to stuff them with food, as usual. hehe) wanted to follow too.    So, Round 2 of morning walk was with the complete 7.

After breakfast, we all went to Sam Poh Tong.

Tortoise Feeding Session 

Finally, a family photo!  (minus hubs who had to go back to KL a day earlier)   Pinched from my sis's blog. 

Quite a picturesque place

Fish Feeding 

Looking forward to the next family holiday! 

My Little Dancing Queen

At my cousin's wedding last night:

E : I like the music performed by the live band.  I really feel like dancing! 

And when I feel like dancing, I just dance...... 

And dance and dance

Oh what a night!  Erin was in a super duper happy mood.  I've never seen her dance in public like that.  

Managed to take a short video -

Kekeke.... my little exhibitionist!  

Really reminded me of Elyssa when she was younger and danced at the dance floor during our Bansai Cruise in Vietnam.  

Erin danced and danced for a pretty long time last night  (much to the amusement of her grandparents, granduncles and grandaunties) , with a little curtsy at the end of each song.  

Loved it , loved it, loved it  :-)   Loved seeing her dance, loved seeing her so happy, loved the simple innocence of childhood, loved the smiles she brought, loved so many things!!!