|
|
All about Hannah
Take a look at these 2 pictures: one of Hannah, aged 3 (taken back in the year 2012) and the other of Emma, also aged 3 (taken just last week).
Both were dressed in the same dress. #hellohandmedowns
We have always thought and assumed Emma resembles Ethan more, but these pictures might just change our minds! What do you think?
My dearest Hannah turned 7 just yesterday, and just when I was looking at how much she had grown based on her little baby photos and toddler pictures I posted on Facebook not long ago.
We had a birthday celebration for her at home just last weekend. She initially wanted a Lego Friends themed party, but after looking at some other ideas on Pinterest, she decided on an Art themed party, which is so apt given that my little snowflake is such an artist in the making!
This was such a fun party to plan because everything was so colorful and bright! Pinterest definitely helped a lot 🙂
This is part of the loot I had to deal with when packing the kids’ party packs a few days before the party:
Of course, for an art party, I just HAD to make my ever-popular playdough (recipe here) and include that in the party pack:
Hannah chose the colors for the playdough. 🙂
Here are the kids excitedly waiting for the guests to arrive…
The food spread for tea-time snacks:
We had several party activities and games for the kids, of course. They were first invited to draw something on a welcome white board, after which Hannah chose her favorite two, who will become the team leaders for another game.
Can you guess which drawings Hannah picked?
We also had a cupcake decorating station where the kids could decorate their own cupcake and bring them home. Some (very hungry ones) were seen eating the cupcakes as they decorated them and some cupcakes didn’t even make it to the take-home container! LOL
The kids played the every-popular “Pass the Parcel”, but this time it was “Pass the Artist Teddy Bear”! Lots of laughs and lots of disallowed throwing ensued, but everyone had a good time.
We then played a game of Win, Lose or Draw with the kids split into two teams. What a riot! We had kids coming closer and closer to the board and so much shouting everywhere!
Then it was time to cut the cake. I made a New York Cheesecake (upon Hannah’s special request) and shaped it to look like an artist palette (recipe here). However, I piped on her name using royal icing in the morning and it melted! OMG!!! I had to quickly redo the icing, pipe it on and quickly gathered everyone together to sing the birthday song for Hannah to cut the cake, before the name melted away again!
Hmmmm…although…it could pass off as a deliberate attempt at making the words look “water-colory”-like, don’t you think? All along the theme of party 🙂
So glad that everyone had an awesome time at the party. Thank you so much to all who came and made the celebration such a meaningful one for my sweetheart Hannah. She definitely enjoyed herself tremendously!
It’s the Year of the Monkey – reason enough to monkey around? Well, definitely reason enough to eat loads of yummy yummy food (not just bananas) and have lots of great fun!
Traditional Reunion Dinner and 1st Day Chinese Lunar New Year in Ah Mah and Ah Kong’s house in Ipoh:
A simple dinner gathering back home in Penang:
Wishing everyone a happy, blessed and prosperous year ahead full of health and love in abundance!
This is how I like to hone the creativity in my kids. Not by telling them what to do and how to do it, but letting them explore and find out for themselves.
In art especially, it is important not to be TOLD what to do but to explore and more often than not, surprise yourself with your creations.
Here are Hannah and Ethan’s cartoon fight scenes! Can you tell which is whose? 🙂
They watched a simple tutorial on the telly and decided that they wanted to do it themselves, and there ya go… I absolutely love it.
This week, most kids start a new school year, and so did my kids. For Hannah, it was also a new school and a whole new experience.
We were initially going to homeschool Hannah but over the holidays, we decided that it would be in her best interest to let her start in a brick and mortar school first. My little snowflake thrives with friends around her and is very sociable. Her kindergarten teacher also commented that she looked rather sad when her kindergarten friends were discussing their impending school lives, so we figured she was ready for school. After all, we can homeschool anytime we want, but we can’t go to regular school that easily if we homeschool first. I guess it doesn’t hurt to try.
She attended an interview and an assessment test at her new school at the beginning of the holidays. She was assessed on I.Q., English and Bahasa Malaysia, and I am pleased that she did very well.
So over the holidays, I had been busy getting her school gear, wrapping school books, and oh yeah…ironing school uniforms.
And finally January 5th came!
Look at how happy she is! She looks forward to going to school every day, and I am so blessed that my kids don’t complain at all. No tears and all happiness… ♥♥♥
She’s definitely gotten a good headstart in school, and she eagerly gets ready every morning. I am not too bothered about good grades and all, but I believe that the experience she gains from being in a school environment (like a “little world”) is crucial in bringing out the best in her.
She is very happy thus far, and that in turn makes me happy too. Couldn’t ask for more…
Yesterday evening, while we were out on one of our Christmas shopping trips, I asked Hannah if she was all ready to get her ears pierced. She had been requesting to get her ears pierced for a couple of months now, but we just could not find the time yet.
I had never made it compulsory for her to pierce her ears. When she had asked me years before if all girls had to do it, I reassured her that it was entirely up to her. And I told her it didn’t matter if she did it now, or 10 years later or even not do it at all…
However, she recently told me she wanted to get her ears pierced and since we were at the mall where my friend told me she took her girls to get their ears pierced, we decided to go for it, since Hannah confidently said, “Of course I’m ready Mommy! Let’s go!”
Some ear-piercing stalls do the piercing for both ears together, but since the lady was solely manning her stall, she did it one ear at a time.
First Hannah was asked to choose a pair of stainless steel earrings to be worn after the piercing. She chose a pair of earrings with a green emerald-like stone.
Next, the lady piercer marked 2 dots on her ear lobes so that she will know where to place the piercing. I had to ask her to change the positioning a couple of times…until I was absolutely satisfied.
Before the actual piercing, some numbing spray was applied to the ear lobes, to lessen the pain. Then the ears were pierced.
After the first piercing, Hannah said, “It’s painful! Feels like she stapled my ear!!”
But she was ok to go through the second one and I told her it was just going to be a few seconds….
After the procedure, I asked her if she regretted doing it and she said no. 🙂
She’s very very happy and loves her earrings. In fact, she has been telling me that she would like to wear my other earrings and that we can share earrings too! Haha…
Hannah’s 4-year adventure from Playgroup, through Nursery, Kindergarten 1 and then Kindergarten 2, culminated in a simple yet meaningful graduation ceremony for all the K2 graduands, held in the school grounds on the Saturday after the last day of school.
My little girl had been looking forward to this day for a long time and she had also been eagerly practising one of their celebratory songs “Yesterday’s Dream”.
Dressed beautifully in a long, white gown, Hannah was, in my opinion, the perfect picture of poise and confidence, as she walked up to accept her graduation certificate.
The graduation ceremony marks the end of her preschool journey, with a promise of many exciting things up ahead.
So proud of you, my little snowflake! You’re destined for great things and I’m loving each moment and each day spent with you, watching you grow and bloom!
At the pinnacle of Hannah’s preschool journey, we have the school concert. Unlike any regular preschool concert, her school prides itself in producing spectacular performances which is one-of-a-kind, in a edu-theater style and is a whole play in itself. From the writing of the script, to choreography and to the beautiful costumes, I am always left in awe when I watch her preschool concerts.
This year was even more special than last year’s, because it was her final year in preschool, and Hannah had been eagerly waiting for the concert day.
Now, unlike the past years where the concert was produced in either tri-lingual or bi-lingual, this year the kids put up 2 separate stories which were loved by all: The Pied Piper of Hamelin (in Chinese) & Treasure Island (in English). I found the story line more enjoyable when the concert is done in a single language for separate stories, like this year.
From the beginning of the school year, Hannah had been eagerly awaiting the concert. From the inception of the play to the casting of the parts, to the selection of costumes, and rehearsing, she had been excitedly updating me in bits and pieces…so as not to reveal the entire story altogether.
For a bunch of 6-year-olds, performing this school play was no mean feat, given that there were many costume changes involved and everything had to be done in super-quick time.
Here are a few random shots from her concert performance. Hannah played several parts in the concert:
We have every reason possible to be beaming with pride for our little girl. She performed every single role with such passion and commitment, and she was full of confidence on stage. I could hardly believe she was just a wee little baby not too long ago.
She told me later that she enjoyed performing so much, she wished there would be another concert soon!
Well done, my little snowflake!
Note: We respect your privacy, so if you see a picture of your child in this post and would prefer for me to blot out his/her face, please email me at joyce.cheah (at) gmail.com and I will do the needful. Thank you.
Last Saturday, our initial plans of going swimming were dashed when the unhealthy haze still loomed in the air. So we made a spur of the moment decision and decided to see if we could get tickets to watch a movie instead!
Oh yes. It had been ages since we had watched a movie in the cinema, and it would be Emma’s very first time! After all, we would be going for Hannah’s school concert in a dark hall soon, so I decided to treat this movie outing as a trial run.
The only movie available and suitable was Inside Out. Ethan had already learnt that the movie was all about “voices and things in our head”.
Emma was all excited when we walked together to the cinema. Of course she had no inkling on what to expect.
This was taken right before the show started. Apologies for the grainy picture because lighting was bad and errrr….. it was almost time to put away our phones anyway…
We had the usual popcorn and water for snacks and Ethan offered to share his seat with Emma. The show was, on the whole, very entertaining and the cinema was nearly a full house.
Get this: Emma SAT THROUGH the entire movie without getting out from her seat! No crying, no whining and not even once asked for milk!
I am truly, simply amazed!!
After the show, we asked if she had enjoyed the movie and she gives us her usual, wide-eyed, knowing nod. She said, “I watched the BIG TV!”