We had a good excuse reason to indulge in yummy, creamy, delicious ice cream last Sunday when Ah Kong and Ah Ma came for a visit. Now, who could say no to that? 🙂
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What do we do when both Ethan and Hannah receive two separate party invites on the same afternoon of the same day?
Why, one parent to a kid, of course….in my case, it’s one parent to a kid and a toddler! Oh, did I mention that the parties were both pool parties?
Ambitious, much? 😛
I’ll let the pictures do the talking.
Hannah’s school’s Family Fun Day is an annual affair celebrating Mother’s, Father’s and Teacher’s Day, and this year was no different. So last Sunday we got up bright and early and made our way to Occupy at Beach Street, an area which is cordoned off from motor vehicles every Sunday morning as part of Penang’s Smoke-free campaign. Believe it or not, it was our first time there, and it was also the venue for the Family Fun Day.
We all had on identical t-shirts, with the exception of Emma of course. We parked a little ways off the site of the event, so we had to walk together with a bicycle and a scooter too…not to mention a baby in a stroller! We then quickly registered, grabbed our Subway breakfasts, and dove right into the hustle and bustle of all the activities.
We did trishaw rides…
We had fun on bicycles built for two:
While Ethan’s legs were long enough to pedal on the bikes, Hannah had to leave her legs up, and let Daddy do the pedalling:
There were traditional games, like this one..I think it’s called Flying Feather…
… and vainpot activities like Face Painting:
Fun with sidewalk chalk! This was the boys’ creative contribution:
…and this was the selfie we took for Ethan and Hannah as part of the task list for the Treasure Hunt competition:
Coincidentally we won a prize for that competition! 🙂
It was a fun-filled day, albeit a scorchingly hot one, but definitely a great day to spend Sunday morning! 🙂
Last Sunday, Ethan woke up bright and early, took a shower and got dressed in his not-so-usual long sleeved shirt and jeans for church. He told me it was a special day because he was going to be singing in the kids’ choir.
That Sunday was the day some of the 9-year-old kids were going to celebrate First Holy Communion and Ethan was part of the kids’ choir, who had been practicing for the past 2 months as part of the kids-animated church service.
Doesn’t he look handsome? 🙂
Next year it will be Ethan’s turn to celebrate Holy Communion for the first time…exciting times ahead 🙂
Yes, yes…I do know I am more than a week late in doing this, but trust me, it has been one hectic day after another. But that’s another story now, ain’t it?
Here’s a handmade picture frame Hannah made in school:
My 2 older kids surprised me with handmade cards in the a.m. on Mother’s Day. I was so touched..and still am. All entirely their own ideas.
The card Ethan made during Catechism class:
Hannah gave me a card she had been working on for a week. Here’s the front of the card:
The inside of the card (She even included a lovely blue glitter fan and a word search activity!):
And the back of the card:
The following day, Hannah made me another card, “just because” 🙂
I am blessed beyond words, aren’t I? ♥
Hannah’s school gives out recognition medals to kids each month based on merit and behaviour. These awards, called the Star Kid award, are given out during the monthly assemblies, and since the beginning of the year, Hannah has been trying her best to get the award.
She told me she had been helping out in class with the cleaning up and had been extra attentive in class. She thought she would get the Star Kid award for sure in March but she was a little disappointed when she didn’t.
So it was with utter joy and happiness when she came back home last Wednesday displaying her Star Kid medal! Actually she was feeling a little under the weather that day, but she knew it was Assembly day and she wanted to go and see if they would call her name.
Such was her determination. And paid off it did. 🙂
Well done, Hannah! *hugs*
Last weekend, we had a small family event to celebrate Emma turning one. Can’t believe it has already been a year since she was born!
We decided to invite our guests to a lunch buffet at Sarkies in the Eastern & Oriental Hotel, so that meant I would only need to work on the birthday cake. 🙂
I’d been researching possibilities for a cake for baby Emma, but only decided after I finished baking Hannah’s cake. Daddy suggested a cake in the shape of Mommy since Emma is totally attached to me, but I could not bring myself to make such a cake. In the end, I decided on this adorable cake which had piqued my interest.
It’s a … Cute as a Button Cake! …for a little baby who is as cute as a button 🙂
I had so much fun making this cake, especially crafting those cute lil’ buttons!
Emma enjoyed some fruits from the fabulous buffet spread.
She enjoyed being carried around, and thankfully, she was rather okay with other guests at the party, giving me a little bit of time to fill my tummy.
There was also evidence of trying to tempt Emma with pretty purses! 😛
Two days before her actual birthday on March 2nd, we had a little birthday celebration for Hannah in school with her classmates. As was always the case pre-birthday, Hannah was rather undecided on what kind of cake she’d wanted. I would say she changed her mind almost every month leading to her birthday, so when she told me she finally decided, I had to ask her a few times to really confirm it.
Here’s my birthday girl with her Sofia the First inspired dress and tiara cake. She chose the design herself after looking through tons of ideas on Pinterest.
The entire cake is edible, even the fondant and gumpaste tiara, but I had to make some last minute modifications because errr….. there was a slight cake decoration mishap. But my little girl was happy nonetheless… 🙂 I had tremendous fun baking and decorating this cake too, the highlights being the tiara and the floral designs on the skirt. Not bad an effort for my first two-tier cake 🙂
I even painted an airbrush glimmer sheen on the tiara to make it sparkle!
Now that we have all welcomed in the year of the horse with all the neighs and brays, and the cookies in the jars are dwindling fast, here are some shots taken during our recent Chinese New Year “balik kampung” extravaganza. From Penang to Taiping to Ipoh and then back to Penang, all in the sweltering heat that is reminiscent of Chinese New Year.
Some photos were taken by photographers on the scene, at times when both my hands were full; usually one holding a 10-month old and the other a cookie or two. 😛 Heaps of gratitude goes out to these kind photographers…you know who you are 🙂
We had a simple tea ceremony when we were back in my hometown in Ipoh. We served tea to my parents and the kids served tea to their grandparents, whilst getting ang pows at the same time.
Some pictures of Emma…she’s only recently become more camera-friendly.
One of the many Hannah pictures. She wore this bright yellow summer dress on the 2nd day of Chinese New Year. It’s hard not to smile when I look at her.
I wanted to make some cookies this year but could not find the time before Chinese New Year. So I figured it would still count if I did so during the 15 days, yes? My kids helped me bake these easy-peasy German cookies…so crumbly, so melt-in-the-mouth, so more-ish….well, actually I HAD to bake these because I almost finished eating the German cookies my Mom gave!
And lastly, as a tradition and also just for laughs, here are our several attempts at obtaining a good family picture. 🙂
Gong Xi Fa Cai to all! How was your Chinese New Year this year?
About a month ago, Ethan had asked if he could invite some friends over for his birthday party. We were hesitant, but since he rarely asks for anything, we obliged. Well, Pete was a little concerned about pulling off the party and all so soon after we had moved, but I decided to go ahead with it because Ethan was really looking forward to it. So last Saturday, we had a small do for Ethan with a few of his friends. We decided to have it about a week earlier than his actual birthdate because the actual birthday falls on the 1st day of Chinese New Year this year.
In deciding a theme for his party and after taking like 5 minutes to decide between a Diary of a Wimpy Kid party or a Lego party, Ethan decided on the latter. He left most of the party planning to me, but he was very specific about the cake.
He asked for a cake shaped like a Lego 4×2 brick, where he could put a candle in each of the studs,given that it is his 8th birthday and all. When asked for the color of the cake, he wanted red.
It was a good thing baby Emma decided to nap a couple of hours the day before the party, allowing me some time to bake and decorate the cake.
I prepared birthday invites in a Lego theme and tried to make everything as Lego-like as possible. If I could, I would have created a Lego minifigure costume for Ethan..haha.
On the day of the party, Daddy hung up the birthday banner I made. Had to tweak the Lego font a little but it was well worth it. Printed out the letters on white paper, cut them out carefully and glued them onto red colored paper, which was glued onto black paper to achieve the black-outlined effect.
When the guests arrived, they were treated to some Lego Star Wars movies on the telly. This was Ethan’s idea. Took me a while to get the little guests away from the TV and to start on the games.
Oh, and we also asked the guests to participate in the “Guess the Number of Lego Bricks” game. Some adults wanted to participate in this one too.
We had some “Lego” food, made with love of course, such as Lego sandwiches, Lego pizza and errr…fruits cut up to spell the word Lego 🙂 (Sorry, I had no idea how to shape fruits like Lego without making a mess of them all!)
I also made Lego chocolates and Lego ice cubes with a Lego mould I borrowed from a dear friend.
