Little Miracles

A Billy Goat Experience

May 30, 2012 in Ethan, Growing Up, Parenting | 1 comment

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Ethan and his schoolmates recently had a field trip to visit the Saanen Dairy Goat Farm in Balik Pulau here in Penang. Since I could make it, I decided to tag along, along with a handful of other moms.

The trip to Balik Pulau took about an hour, and when we finally parked, we had to walk for about 15-20 minutes through kampung-style roads leading to the farm.

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Once we’d arrived, the kids had their snacks and then we proceeded to the stable/barn where the goats are kept. These were Saanen goats, and according to the caretaker of the farm, they originate from Switzerland, and they are what we know as the mountain goats. How they survive in our hot Malaysian weather is totally beyond me!

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We were provided with shoots of Napier grass to feed the goats with. Some goats tugged and pulled at the grass while others chewed and chomped gently.

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Ethan had a blast and kept asking for more grass when he ran out of the ones he fed the goats with.

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Here’s a picture I took of a majestic looking Saanen goat. Looks like the leader of the herd!

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The kids also had the opportunity to watch the goats being milked. The milking process is performed using a mechanical/electrical pump, while the goats are busy *snacking*

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The kids even got to sample some fresh goats’ milk too! Here’s Ethan cooling down in front of a huge fan at the farm.

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The trip was really fun and I’m sure everyone learnt many things. We even got to see a gigantic spider perched on its spider web while walking back. Not your typical city scene, I’m sure.

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Day 5 Singapore Getaway: Universal Studios Singapore!

May 24, 2012 in Ethan, Hannah, Vacation | No comments

Last installment of our Singapore Getaway posts… 🙂

Our 5th day was spent entirely in Universal Studios Singapore. We already had our electronic tickets ready with us, so it was just a matter of waking up early, having breakfast at the hotel and then gearing up for our exciting day.

We were all overwhelmed by all the different things to do once we got in. In many ways, Universal Studios Singapore was similar to Universal Studios Hollywood, but the jarring difference was the heat! The kids didn’t seem to mind though…

They had fun on the Madagascar Carousel…

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We watched the cast of Madagascar do the “Move it Move it” in the Madagascar Boogie, and of course, the obligatory photo session…

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At the roller coaster ride: this ain’t the look of fear…au contraire, excitement was more like it!

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Hannah didn’t want to go on Shrek’s miniature ferris wheel (Magic Potion Spin), so it was just Ethan and Mommy…can you spot us?

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Hannah preferred to pose for the camera while waiting for us…

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Happy kids ready for what’s coming up next!!

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Batik Beach Family Day

May 8, 2012 in Celebrations, Entertainment, Ethan, Funny Moments, Growing Up, Hannah | 1 comment

Hannah woke up with a big smile, and with big brown eyes, she asked me, “Mommy, is today the day for our Family Day?”

I said yes, and she smiled even more. 🙂

This year, instead of the usual Mothers’ Day and Fathers’ Day celebration in school, we had a Family Day celebration in Golden Sands Hotel outdoors instead. So 2 Sundays ago saw us all making a trip to Batu Feringghi.

The kids were, of course, excited about the whole thing, because part of the program was a play session in AdventureZone!

The event was themed Batik Beach Day, so I got them all to dress up in batik attire:

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Weather that day was slightly threatening, and we were treated to intermittent showers during the event.

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Nevertheless, we all had a lot of fun, as can be seen in the pictures I managed to capture below:

Getting ready for…

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Every Limbo boy and girl
All around the Limbo world
Gonna do the Limbo rock
All around the Limbo clock

Jack be Limbo, Jack be quick
Jack go under Limbo stick
All around the Limbo clock
Hey, let’s do the Limbo rock!

Initially, our little princess was feeling restless and rather sleepy…

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…but soon warmed up and participated in the fun activities (although some were quite haphazard LOL)…

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Daddy also participated in the tug-o-war on the beach…look at Daddy go! 😀

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The tug-o-war event was divided into 3 categories: Daddies, Mommies and kids… let me just say that it’s not very flattering to be pulling hard on a rope when you’re dressed in a sarong pareo. Good thing Daddy forgot to use the zoom on my camera 😛

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We then adjourned to AdventureZone for a little while (no pictures, sorry!) and then moved on to another fun activity which we all enjoyed: The Sand Castle building competition.

It took some practice to get the ratio of sand to water right in order to erect structures on the beach. The kids had a blast helping to collect water, pat the sand into buckets and then create our sandcastle.

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We had no plan in mind whatsoever what to build, but ended up creating a fish-shaped castle. Can you see the fish? 😛

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It was a truly fun-filled Family Day and the kids especially had a whale of a time! We were all exhausted but everyone enjoyed themselves 🙂

Fire Trucks – A Story by Ethan

May 4, 2012 in Ethan, Growing Up, Milestones | 4 comments

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While I was busy sewing the tooth pouch, Ethan decided to write his first book. Yeah, no kidding. All his own ideas and words, with no help at all from us.

He finished the book on that day itself, and I’d asked him if he would like to color his illustrations too. He agreed.

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So after a few days of coloring, he finally completed his first masterpiece: Fire Trucks. 🙂

Here’s Ethan reading the book he wrote:

I love how detailed he was, for instance his book is from the Baby Kids series, and he even wrote the recommended age group for this book on the cover (2-4); according to Ethan, kids older than 4 might find this book a little bit boring (LOL!). On the back, he wrote a personal message to the readers: “I hope you love my first book!”

Yesterday, he started on Baby Kids Cars, his second book; and he told me he would be working on a Bumper Issue next! He’s wondering if anyone would buy his first book now…Anyone? Anyone? 🙂

Yo Ho! Let’s Go!

May 3, 2012 in Celebrations, Christianity, Ethan, Hannah, Parenting | 1 comment

It was Hannah’s first time being personally invited to a birthday party and it was the birthday of her good pal in school, Max. The party was aptly themed Jake and the Neverland Pirates. Just look at how creative the invites were made…”message in a bottle” 🙂

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I got the kids involved by getting Ethan to write the birthday message on the presents.

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Pete was supposed to touch down in Penang that very day, so I single-handedly brought both Ethan and Hannah to the party. They were absolutely excited and kept asking me when it would be time to change into the pirate “costumes”. I even added a little shell necklace for Hannah (after I took the photo below) – she claims it contained pixie dust! 🙂 – You’ll catch glimpses of the pixie dust necklace in some of the photos below.

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All in all, the kids had a splendid time, as the pictures below prove. I didn’t bring my camera along, so most of my own pictures were taken with my iPhone. The others were *borrowed* from someone else… 🙂

One of Hannah’s favorite snacks of the day: sliced orange pirate ships on blue jelly water!

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Kids being briefed on their first game, by a very gracious party host, Tess, Max’s Mom. Notice Hannah is multi-tasking by listening AND snacking on yummy popcorn too!

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Ethan trying his VERY best to burst the balloon, to get the promised “treasure” captured in the balloon.

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…and VICTORY, finally!!

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Hannah and Ethan taking their turns at “Pin the Sword on Jake” (a la “Pin the tail on the donkey”)!

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Walking the Plank… 🙂

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Getting ready for the next game: Passing the Parcel…incidentally, Ethan won this game and he was ever so proud of it 🙂

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Birthday cake time, and it’s a beautiful pirate ship with candle canons at the side. Awesome!

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Can you tell she’s totally enjoying her cake? 🙂

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She finally got her turn on the swing! Patience definitely pays 🙂

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Non-watermarked photos credited to Picsy Studio

“Tried & Tested” Squishiest Playdough Recipe

April 27, 2012 in Entertainment, Ethan, Hannah, Parenting | 5 comments

Ethan has been complaining that the playdough I have been making is becoming too crumbly. Sometimes he will say it’s too soft!

Well, that’s when I chanced upon a very interesting Playdough recipe from How Does She?. It claimed to produce the squishiest Playdough ever.

And I couldn’t wait to try it out.

This recipe had one ingredient I did not have in my original Playdough recipe, and that’s cream of tartar. Cream of tartar helps to smoothen the texture of mixtures in baking and cooking, so I assume that was the secret ingredient.

With this new recipe, the kids could also choose their Playdough color, which added to the excitement.

You will need:

1 cup flour

1 cup water

1/4 cup salt

2 tsp. cream of tartar

1 Tbls. vegetable oil

Food coloring (I used 4 drops, or mix two colors to make a new color!)

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How to do it: Just mix everything together in a pot and stir well. Cook it over medium heat on the stove, stirring constantly till it thickens and forms a Playdough paste-like mixture. It’s all edible so it doesn’t matter if you use your good ol’ cooking pot.

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Remove from the pot and place on a plate to cool down. My kids wanted neon blue for the first batch, so that’s what they got.

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Now, let it cool down for about 10-15 minutes and knead it to the consistency you like. It is absolutely SQUISHY and SOFT and kids just love to work with it.

Ethan happily announced, “Mommy, this Playdough is WAY better than the one you made the last time!” 🙂

I had some flour left, so I made another small batch of orange playdough.

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Guaranteed smiles, guaranteed fun!

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Going crazy with creativity, and the kids will TOTALLY, absolutely LOVE you for it! 😀

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Happy weekend, everyone!! 😀

Time to “Be Prepared”

April 24, 2012 in Ethan, Growing Up, Parenting | 4 comments

It’s inevitable. We all know it is.

It’s merely a matter of when.
And Ethan is as excited as ever…for whatever reason, I have absolutely no clue.
He has, on occasion, in an ecstatic manner, announced, “Mommy, I think my tooth is wiggling! Come check and see!”

Of course, they have all been false alarm after false alarm. But we know the day will come when we will see a fallen tooth.

And it could be any day now. Or week….. or month.

So.

To prepare ourselves for that momentous occasion, I decided to get a Tooth Fairy Pouch ready for him. Ethan knows all about the “Tooth Fairy” (although he did ask rather skeptically, “Mommy, how will the Tooth Fairy know where to get the tooth?”)

Anyways, it’s all for fun…and my googling led me to a site that provided instructions on how to make/sew my own tooth fairy pouch! Very very cool. Hey, I only had a small plastic box when I was a little girl, ya know…

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It was also something Ethan could relate to at some level, because he told me a classmate of his brings a tooth pouch to school in case her tooth dropped in school.

I got this done in about an hour (including kid interruption time) and well, now we are *prepared* 🙂

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Easter Eggs with a Twist(y Thread)

April 11, 2012 in Entertainment, Ethan, Hannah, Parenting | No comments

A few days before Easter last week, I decided to try out a craft idea I saw on the internet recently. I could not get the Easter Egg Garland out of my head and since I had all the *ingredients* ready, I roped in the kids to give it a go.

I made the starch mixture about an hour before craft time, to allow it to cool down, and then proceeded to demonstrate to the kids. Just look at them having a blast.

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It turned out to be rather goo-ey and sticky, but I reassured them that it’s okay and they could wash their hands afterward. Ethan wanted to do everything himself, but Hannah asked for my help.

This is Ethan’s first attempt…a little bit loose on the winding, and he decided to redo the whole thing again later.

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…and the finished product, all being air-dried.

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The big one is the one I made.. LOL.

Unfortunately though, the 2 smaller ones’ balloons shrank before the threads could properly dry out, so we could not get a nice egg-like shape.

The next day, I removed the balloons from the structure and the kids were overjoyed with their creations.

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There was a problem with mine though; I found it very difficult to remove the balloon from inside. Perhaps there was too much glue stuck on it. 🙁

No Better Reason to Get a Car Wash

April 9, 2012 in Ethan, Funny Moments, Hannah | No comments

carwash Scrap Credits
Romantic Spring Part 1 Papers from Noshay Designs & Manue Design
Template 225 from Simply Yin
So Much Fun Wordart from Studio Bethany

Last weekend, Daddy was *in a way* forced to go to the automated car wash because his newly-washed car had been “decorated” with purplish splats from a tree whose shade the car was under. It was also the first time Hannah had been in an automated car wash. Ethan had been to one before, but it was a long time ago, and it was his first time together with his sister.

Naturally, the kids were fascinated. They squealed in delight as the “uncle” sprayed water on the car first and then they giggled happily as soap was then sprayed on the car and scrubbed all over. The look of anticipation and excitement as the car moved through the washer and gigantic bristles was simply priceless.

Both kids agreed that we should do this more often.

…which was exactly what I did just yesterday, this time with my car! 🙂

Day 4 Singapore Getaway: From Orchard to Sentosa

April 8, 2012 in Ethan, Hannah, Vacation | 2 comments

Alrighty then…I’m continuing the recap of our Singapore trip last December. Sorry, been a long while and it has been in the back burner. But I haven’t totally forgotten about it…

Anyways…

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On Day 4 of our trip, we were scheduled to travel from Traders Hotel near Orchard Rd to Sentosa Island. We managed to squeeze in a wee bit of time in the morning to have brunch at Food Opera at ION Orchard, which is a food court.

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Hannah’s favorite food while in Singapore: fish balls!!

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We took the hotel shuttle to Orchard Rd, but since the timing was not convenient for the “going back”, we decided to take a walk back to the hotel.

The stroll turned out to be a really really vigorous brisk walk all the way back, because we had to make it back by 1:00p.m. for checkout. Coupled with the fact that I virtually carried Hannah all the way back, you can imagine how tired my legs were at that point (all ready for a massage if I had the opportunity to).

In view of convenience, we decided to take a cab to Sentosa direct from the hotel, which turned out to be a really good idea, because we made it there in no time at all, and the cab fare was very reasonable too!

Because we were still a little early for checking in, we decided to leave our bags at the concierge till check-in time. Here are some pictures of the kids, while waiting for me as I was talking to the hotel reception folks.

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