Jared with his funny acts

What a funny act, he just loves to slide down on his bed.

Father & Daughter Adventure Day Out

Last Tuesday, hubby and Emily went on an adventurous outing at Penang National Park. They walked for a distance of 4KM which took them about 3 hours, excluding the boat ride that ferried them back to the entrance point. Both had a great time and Emily is looking forward to go back again.

HomeMade Oink Oink Burger ..

Few days ago, my ex-colleague told me that there is a stall selling Oink Oink burger at Sg Nibong pasar malam on every Wednesday night. She said it tastes really good. I could also find a few blogs mentioning about this burger.
Today I decided to prepare burger for lunch. I minced and marinated the minced pork since last evening. It turned out to be good, hubby said it is even better than TGIF's (BIG GRIN!!). I think the fried onions make it even tastier. A good year end lunch!!

Thank you for a great 2011.

Wishing Everyone A Happy New Year 2012, may 2012 brings Good Health, Happiness and Wealth to All.

Christmas & Year End Lunch

It's the time of the year again where every department will organize free lunches or dinners for their employees as a token of appreciation for all their contributions throughout the year.
Our team decided to have lunch at The View, Equatorial Hotel. It offers a french cuisine semi buffet menu. We were quite disappointed with their services, considering the price that we had to pay. Firstly, 4 of us ordered lemonade and when the drinks arrived, it came with cans of 7-up lemonade.. what the xxxx!!! When my colleague told the waiter there has been a mistake on her drink order, they came back with 1 glass of "true" lemonade and the rest of us didn't get our replacements.. don't they check their order sheet??? We had to tell the waiter ours were wrong too before we got what we have ordered. C'mon, there was only 1 table occupied at the time of order.
Next, my boss's main dish arrived, he has asked for baked potato as side dish but it came with roasted baby potatoes, he had to ask for change.. another disappointment...
Finally the bill arrived. I paid using my credit card as they offer 10% discount. I didn't check the bill, trusting that there wont be any mistakes. When I wanted to make my claims back at the office, I then realised that they have over-charged us for 2 of the main dishes, DAMN!! I called up the front desk, they tried to make excuses, like prices are different because the cod is prepared differently, but I insisted they are the same as printed on the receipt. Guess what the guy on the phone said, oh, the cashier must have pressed on the wrong button. What an excuse...To cut short, we got back the shortchange.

Enough of all the complains. Here are some of the main dishes that we have ordered.

Desserts

Total bill, RM644++ after 10% discount

Holiday Camp, 2011

We attended Emily's daycare concert last night held at Sunshine Square theatre. It was a very impressive concert, thumbs up to the principal, teachers and students who made the night really special with their so many wonderful performances. We had to purchase entry tickets, rm10 for us adults and rm5 for Jared and the proceeds went to Tsu zhi.
Here's a snippet of one of the dances that Emily participated. She was also awarded the most diligent student prize on that night :)

Emily's 8th Birthday

Emily has turned 8 today. We had a modest celebration within the family. Early in the morning, she got a surprise birthday present from daddy and mummy. Infact, she has been hinting us that she wants a hardcover pencil case with princesses pictures on it, so we decided to give it to her as a birthday present. We are glad she is extremely happy with this little gift and she kept thanking us for it :)

After work, we went to fetch the kids and headed for Japanese food, which is also Emily's favourite.

After dinner, the waitress served ice cream to Emily and Jared as complimentary for her birthday. Both enjoyed their ice creams very much.

We ordered a blueberry chocolate cake with princess sugary paper topping. Seems like the theme for this year's birthday is princess.

Making her birthday wish, wonder what is it that she has wished for... :)

Below is a letter that we have written to you for one of your holiday camp programmes.

Dearest Emily,
We look at you today, and our mind flash back to when you first entered our lives as a tiny baby, and our hearts are immediately filled with love for you. I can't believe you are going to be 8 years old in just a few short weeks! We will miss your baby years and look forward to your growing up years.
We understand that being a student is not as fun when there are so many exams to prepare for. Daddy and mummy have been strict with you when it comes to school homework and results. We have heard you complained many times and sometimes even refused to follow our instructions. We have punished you many times when you disobeyed us. But we want you to know that we are doing all these because we love you and hope you will grow up to be a successful person. You are NOT Alone!! We will always be around to guide you on the right path.
When your little brother came into our lives, it hasn’t been easy for you too. You don’t get all the attention that you used to be getting from daddy and mummy anymore. We are proud to say that you have been a good sister and hope you will continue to be his role model. No matter what, we want you to know that we still love you as much as before and nothing will ever change that.
Mummy cherishes the time when you enjoy the food that mummy cooks for you. You have been mummy’s greatest supporter whenever mummy baked a cake. Mummy also enjoys reading bedtime stories with you on most nights when mummy is not too tired.
 
Since young, we have always brought you along whenever we go for holidays. We are very proud to say that you have behaved well each time and enjoyed yourself very much. During your last holiday trip, daddy enjoyed going on the roller coaster rides with you. Daddy and you definitely had a great time together.
Whenever we think of what you have told us, mummy and daddy feels proud for having a thoughtful child like you. Each time we passed by the Old Folks Home, you will surely tell us that we won’t be staying there when we grow old. You promised to care for us and bring us for holidays.
You'll always be our beautiful baby girl. We hope you will be obedient and stay focus in whatever you do. Last but not least, we would like to leave a few phrases for you to ponder.
 When in doubt, tell the truth
 Today is a GREAT day
 You know you can be better
 I don’t need easy; I just need possible… quote from Bethany Hamilton.

We love you always,
Daddy & Mommy

Grade 2 - bah ba doo bah

Emily with her grade 2 song. However we have decided to let her skip Grade 2 practical exam next year, and take Grade 3 in the following year.

Movie : Soul Surfer

Two weekends ago, the kids and I watched a very interesting movie on the DVD, Soul Surfer. It was a very inspirational true story about this girl, Bethany Hamilton, who has lost an arm while surfing in Hawaii, bitten off by a shark. And how she was so brave and determined to surf again after that incident.
I was surprised to see Emily cried while watching, as she seldom did. The next morning, she tried to use only 1 hand to do things like brushing teeth, wearing clothes, etc. And finally she told me, mummy, it is not easy at all to work with 1 hand only.
Since then we have watched the movie twice, looking forward to watch again this weekend with hubby.

Here's a clip that I found on youtube.

Hubby's 'XX' Birthday

We celebrated hubby's birthday last night with a little home-baked cake. Thanks to my chicken pox infection, we were not able to go out for a nice dinner.
Kids were excited about daddy's birthday the moment they woke up in the morning and greeted daddy with birthday wishes.
Look at Jared with the plate in his hand, as he refused to let go even though we told him he will get to eat the cake after singing the birthday song and taking photos. His reasoning was, his cake will drop on the floor if he doesnt have a plate... what an excuse.... :)

This is the birthday greeting "card" that Emily has given to daddy. In fact it was given to him last week as she was too excited to keep it till yesterday :).

Another Scribbles of Hers....

Found this in Emily's school bag while doing some spot checking :). Wonder how she has time to draw this when she never has time to complete her school work in school. Anyway it is cute..

Pyssla Beads : Angry Birds

Just like any other kids, Emily is a fan of Angry Birds. I guess she has been influenced by her daycare friends. She doesn't play the angry bird games at home but she seems to know the game pretty well. Even taught me how to play when I downloaded the game in my laptop the other day :)
Jared has also contracted the angry bird fever, calling out "Angry Birds!!" very loudly each time he sees any advertisement on the road with angry birds pictures.

Recently, I found a blog post where the blogger has used pyssla beads to make angry birds key chain and coaster. Since exam is over, I thought it would be fun to let Emily work on it. She was very excited to make them when I showed to her. I think it is a good craft as it does take some patience to arrange the beads.

Here's the red and blue angry birds. I do think they look cool and would use them as coasters if she would allow me :)

Just another Saturday..

Today is just another Saturday. Not much have been done except chauffering Emily from morning till late afternoon. While waiting to pick her up, Jared and I went to hang out at the mall today.
When we were back home, Emily got to watch a DVD and enjoyed her tuna sandwiches.
Food & TV == HAPPY KID (^^)

Happy faces with their V Signs.

Fun with Legos

Hubby, Emily and Jared had some fun assembling Lego sets on a few weekends. These are some of the sets that have been assembled.

Emily with her Robot

Fun evening for the kids

I have wanted to bring the kids to visit Logos Hope but we couldn't find time to do so during the short school holidays last week as we had quite a few visitors and Emily had to attend a 3-day motivational camp. After yesterday's dinner, we decided to pay a visit to this ship and we were glad there wasn't any queue, I guess many people were flocking to the tanglung festival held at Straits Quay.

Emily and Jared were very excited to see the ship, as it was their first time going on board. There were some interesting displays and Emily enjoyed listening to the story narrated by a crew about the Journey Of Life. And we also bought some books for the kids, a key chain which Emily wanted and a beach ball.

After that we headed to Gurney Drive and let the kids played with the lanterns that we have brought along. They definately had fun walking in dark places with the lanterns.

Our 18th Anniversary

Today marks the day we got together 18 years ago.. once upon a time ago ..... :)
I have actually set a reminder to remind me of this important day many months ago and the alarm went off last night. However due to the busy schedule this morning/afternoon, I have totally forgotten about it today until hubby wished me "Happpy Anniversary".. Ooppss..
Throughout these years, there were many ups & downs, temporary separations due to his many overseas assignments and most importantly, we are blessed with two wonderful kids who can be rascals at times.
Sine the kids love cake and singing birthday song, we decided to get a cake to celebrate. And there they were happily singing the birthday song over and over again as if it was someone's birthday, LOL.
May we have many more Anniversaries together ......

Weaning Off Diapers

For the past 1-2 months, Jared has been off diapers during daytime. It took us (including babysitter) about 2 weeks to train him, initially he would pee and poo in his pants. Each time we would tell him that it is dirty and smelly and he should inform us earlier and do his "business" in the potty. We also noticed that the interval between each pee is very short initially but now he seems to be able to hold for a longer time and will come to us each time he needs to do either one of his nature's call. After that, he would show his "thumb's up" signature and say "Good Job!!", as if to tell us that he has done something really good :).

He is still on diapers during naptimes or at night even though he refuses to wear them. I had to wear for him only after he has fallen asleep. On some mornings, we would find that his diapers are still dry, infact there was one night where I overslept and thankfully he didn't pee .. phew.. Hoping to totally wean off so that we can save some money on those diapers :)

Precious Hours

Tonight I had more than 3 hours of quiet time all for myself, reason being, hubby and Emily are away attending a motivational talk in her school and the little boy is already in his dreamland :). It may sound pathetic but indeed these hours are so precious to me.

I took the opportunity to do what I love to do most, Baking... Since I didn't have much ingredients on the shelf, I had to settle for a simple butter chocolate cake from the recipe in this blog with a little improvisation, as I do not like to eat whole chocolate cake :) The cake turned out to be moist and soft, taste wise, it is pretty good. Better than any other recipes that I have tried previously.

I still had some time after that to go through an interior design magazine, prepare some materials for Emily's revision and something that I wouldn't miss; surf the net :).

Pot Luck On A Weekend

We had a pot luck lunch with a close friend and her family over at our apartment this afternoon. It was a fun gathering, with a lot to eat :). I prepared spaghetti, BBQ chicken wings and some salad. She brought her mum's best springroll and wantan, simply delicioussss..

I also baked a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, Joyce, as her birthday is just around the corner.

The kids, too, had alot of fun playing with toys, though most of the time they were actually playing on their own :) Love to see her son who is always smiling till your heart melts....

Father's Day 2011

Today, we celebrated Father's Day modestly, as we have already had our Father's Day dinner with my dad last weekend. Few days ago, I managed to get a photo frame which I wanted to frame a photo of the kids for him, but due to time constraint I ended up printing the photo using our home printer :).
When Emily gave it to him as a present this morning, he was indeed surprised and delighted and told her that he will place the photo in his cubicle.


Emily has made this so called card at her daycare centre but she refused to give to daddy as it was just a piece of torn paper. I tried to convince her that it is the thoughts that count but she stood firm on her decision :(


So last night I had to give her a card (is actually an unused birthday card) :).


Thank you for being the kids' BEST DADDY as well as a TIGER DAD whenever necessary :)

My Birthday ....

My birthday is pretty special this year as it coincides with Wesak's Day, which means holiday for everyone, Yippee..
I woke up early and went to Than Siang temple for prayers. When I returned, hubby was still lazing on the sofa due to jetlag, the little boy was already awake and playing with his favourite toy, Thomas The Train and my girl was still fast asleep in the room.
After taking breakfast, we took the kids down to the swimming pool. Jared wasn't as frightened as before and after awhile he was actually enjoying himself in the water. Emily is also showing improvements in her swimming skills.
We opted for Korean food during lunch even though it wasn't my favourite but at least a change of appetite for everyone. Surprisingly the kids loved the pickled lotus root.
After that we wanted to bring the kids to the beach, unfortunately it rained when we arrived at one of the hotels in Bt Ferringhi, so we could only linger at the hotel lobby.

I got this mug from hubby, THANKS.. but I don't think I will have the heart to drink my coffee from this lovely mug :)


See what my girl has written in the birthday card that she gave to me :)


Both My Darlings whom I love most but they are also there to make my hair turns whiter each day :)

Poem Recital : Turn Off The TV

Grade 1 - Andante

Mother's Day 2011

I got this sweet card and a rose from my girl this morning (actually she gave to me yesterday but I told her Mother's Day is today :) ). After that she asked Jared to wish me Happyy Mother's Day, instead this little boy said "Happy Birthday to u" in his baby words, the only greeting he knows, LOL.
Happy Mother's Day to my Loving Mum and all Mothers out there..