Hair Braiding

 Evelyn's learnt how to braid hair. I had shown it to her a couple of times on the Candylocks' hair. And she finally managed to learn it. So here I am, the guinea pig for her braiding. 

Anna also had her hair braided (don't mind her creepy lips):

New Toy: Paper Box

 The box came with the 2 new shoes I had ordered for the both of you for school. Before it was thrown away, it kept the two of you entertained for 10 minutes.

Corny Joke Part 2

 You found some jokes in one of your My Little Pony books:

Knock knock:

E: Knock, knock..

M:Who's there?

E: Cow.

M: Cow, who? 

E: No, cow moo's

And proceeds to explain the joke:

E: Get it? Cow doesn't say hooo like an owl. It moo's

Numbers:

Q: Why was 6 afraid of 7?

A: Because 7, 8, 9

Looks at me and asks why (aiyo.. the one asking the joke doesn't get it)

M (Explains to her): Because 7 "ate" (sounds like 8) 9 (showing her a eating action with my hands)

Turns to Ah Kong to ask him the joke and explains to him in the exact way that I explained to her. 

Oh dear...

 .. no words needed!!

Game night..

 You were having fun playing with daddy Ludo on the iPad.

Blood Test

We went in to the hospital again last Tuesday as Mei-mei needed to get a blood test to determine if she still had Hepatitis B in her system. So daddy decided to go ahead and also have the allergy test, since they were going to draw blood from her. The lad was very quiet when we went and there were two gentleman working there.

They were very patient, trying to find a vein to draw blood from: first the left arm then the right. Then slowly tapping and tapping to get the vein to be more visible. And before he took the blood, he even gave you a spray, explaining that you would feel something cold. Like the two injections you had the week before, there was not a sound from you. Wow!

I received a call yesterday from Doctor Mary and this was the allergies which were determined:

Severe: Dog, dust / dust mites and grass

Mild: Peanut, chocolate, soy products and milk

We were not surprised with dog and dust but grass?? And then you seemed to have quite a reaction to peanut (well it has been a long time since you took any peanuts.. by mistake) and you eat chocolate often and drink milk daily. According to Doctor Mary the milk ones may just cause some tummy discomfort if you eat too much. Or maybe causes the flare in your eczema. Hhmmm... interesting...

Blogging

 Mei-mei seems to be interested in ensuring I have pictures to post on the blog. She took this picture of me "Working" and said that I have something to post on the blog now.

As for Ko-ko, I think he does read the blog once in a while. 

And of course daddy who reads all the time and will complain when I do not post anything on the blog. One thing for sure is that there is more post this year as we have been cooped up at home and I see all your silly antics while I'm working from home.

Reading Time?

 I asked you to spend some time during this summer break to read some books. Today, I had to ask you to come up to my room to read. 

You were reading the book and talking to me while I was working. Suddenly, I realised that you were very quite. And this is what I found... 

Extra Classes

Miss Kavetha, your Maths teacher conducted the first extra class for this summer break. You were initially not keen to join, but in the end had fun attending classes. 

As usual, you cannot sit still while attending the lessons:

Summer Break

Mei-mei made this for Ko-ko and he was supposed to only open it on 1st August. So today Ko-ko opened it. What does he say? "Our holiday started earlier than 1st August". Sheesh.. what a party pooper. She just wanted to send you a happy message about the school holiday. She was so disappointed when she told me Ko-ko's response. Sigh...

Doctor's Appointment

 Mei-mei had several (or should I say "many") inoculations overdue. We were supposed to go earlier but ended up keeping away from the hospital due to the Covid-19. 

I managed to get an appointment for the night clinic, which would be better as the hospital would be less crowded.

Doctor Mary wrote down a list of what you needed to get and tonight you got two "presents", one on each arm. Amazingly, you did not make a sound when she gave you the shots. Before that, you looked at me teary eyed and I was afraid that you might cry. But our brave little girl did not make a sound. Bravo!!

Virtual Awards Day

Awards Day was held virtually this year due to the Covid-19 situation. As with the usual practice, the secondary Awards Day was held in the morning through streaming on Microsoft Teams. It could be seen that a lot of work and effort was put in to make sure that it was an interesting session with minimal hiccups. Took some pictures as I watched the event on my computer.

In the evening, the Awards Day for Primary was held via YouTube. We had a doctor's appointment but we managed to watch it on YouTube before it was removed. To our surprise (and Evelyn's too..) she received a certificate of appreciation from being the VP of the Karate Club.

Ko-ko also helped me record the video compilation of the choir singing where Mei-mei was involved in the song and dance.

Her Own Handbag

I had bought this bag a while ago and had told you we'd draw on the plain side of the bag. Finally got around to printing the design she liked 2 weeks ago and while the plan was for Mei-mei to do it during summer break, she could not wait anymore. So she completed the bag earlier and very quickly too. 

Tracing the design from the paper to the bag

Showing off her handbag

Last week, I finally got to buying the pink marker which was needed for the little heart. When she saw the marker, she quickly opened the marker too close to the bag and accidentally drew a line. To salvage the mark, she added two more hearts at the side of the bag. Good idea!

Present for Teachers

You asked me to write in cursive for you to copy for the cards which you wanted to give your teachers. Yikes! My handwriting isn't the best. So we found some nice writing online and traced it from the screenshot on my phone.

This is the screenshot I took

You then shaded the back of the words so that you can trace the words on the card

This is the front of the card after you had traced multiple times 

Ta-da. Here is the card along with the necklace you had custom made for the teachers

You had designed 5 necklaces for the teachers, but I'd forgotten to take pictures of all the designs. Hope the teachers like them. 

Last Day of School

Today is the last day of school. One child went to school with just a recycle bag and some book, and another went with the school bag and an empty recycle bag as A LOT of the books were left in the desk at school.
Tomorrow is the Virtual Awards Ceremony, so no school for everyone. Summer break starts tomorrow onwards.
Now.. what do we do to keep them entertained, well fed and out of my hair?

Corny Joke Part 1

For English lessons, you have been learning about jokes. So on and off we will be treated to jokes:

Cheese:
Q: What do you call cheese that is not yours?
A: Nat-chyo cheese.

Hide-and-seek:
Q: Why can't the cheetah play hide-and-seek?
A: Because it is spotted.

Bedtime Routine

You both have your own tactics to delay going to sleep.
For Mei-mei, bedtime on a school night is at 9.30pm. Butyou will lie in bed and every few minutes you will have something to say or ask. You'd only finally go to sleep after MANY "Go to sleep!!!". When you finally fall asleep, it's like a switch. One minute, you are talking, the next you are sleeping.
For Ko-ko, it is suddenly bursting into exercises: pistol squats, or push up or showing off one of your exercise moves. Then you will need to add more water into your bottle, go to the toilet and then finally crawl into bed with MANY demands on how high the blanket needs to be placed.
Tonight will be the last night for you to go to sleep early before school. I will get MY HOLIDAY from the two of you and your nightly antics for a month. Maybe I should get daddy to help tuck you both in once in a while. 

All By My Lonesome Self

Today was a bit of a mad rush for me. I had to get breakfast at home ready for the two of you. And also prepare breakfast at school for the both of you and lunch for Mei-mei too. 

I did not have enough time to sit down with you all for breakfast. But that's ok. I had my breakfast with my Netflix *grin*.

After breakfast, it was time for everyone to shower and get ready. For once, Mei-mei was earlier. Managed to get pictures of her all ready for school.

With her heavy bag, lunch bag and water bottle 

Putting on her shoes

Came upstairs after breakfast to find this lonely empty table. Sigh... already miss you kids. From Evelyn the monkey to Evan the slug who comes in to sleep on my bed (on MY side of the bed for that!) 

Oh well, I wonder how I'd feel when you guys are on summer break (which is in 6 school days' time!)

Last Day of Online Classes

Today's lessons were Music followed by Science. While I was feeling sad that this would be the last day you'd be sitting next to me a few minutes later, you made me feel happy that you'd be going to school.
Why? Because halfway through lessons you decided to abandon your post. Yup... first you were rolling on the floor and next you had your feet up on the table.
Sigh.. so out came to "tin-nah" and whack. You had teary eyes for the next 10 minutes of the lesson before the "monkey" came back out!

Lunch: Butter Chicken and Flat Bread

As there was leftover chicken from the Chicken Parmigiana, I decided to cook Butter Chicken. after my marathon training session in the morning, I cooked the chicken. Mei-mei wanted to help so I waited for her to finish her online art lessons before we cooked/fried the flatbread.
I had mixed the 3 ingredients ready just on time for her to roll them out to be cooked on the pan.
Here is my assistant hard at work to prepare lunch:

Rolling out the dough 

Look at them odd shapes!! 

Frying on the pan 

Our lunch: Flatbread and Butter Chicken 

Enjoying lunch

Ice-cream Day

Had to entice you with ice-cream before you agreed to come out with Ah Ma and I to pick up the lunch boxes from aunty at McDonald's and then to pick Ko-ko up.
We went through the drive-through and let you place the order. You had finished up your sundae by the time we picked up Ko-ko. He didn't really want his, so after he had eaten some (read: all of the chocolate!!) we both finished up the remainder of his ice-cream.

School Food

You came back yesterday to say that the school food was not too bad. The only bad thing is that they served fried rice for breakfast (carbs! OMG) and noodles for lunch. Your friends who were catering before MCO also commented that the canteen food this time around seems to be better.
But.... you asked to have your steak wrap to be packed school today as the food did not seem to be enough for you.
I hope you enjoyed the wrap. It was full of the meat leftover from our Saturday BBQ. 

Back to School

Today is the first day back to school for Ko-ko after studying from home for more than 3 months. House feels a little more empty, a little more quiet. First daddy went back to work full time (since last week) and now Ko-ko then next week Mei-mei... and I will be all alone during lunch time.
Hhmm.. I wonder if this is what the "empty nest" feels like... 

Chicken Parmigiana

I was looking at the recipe on Pinterest for a while and coincidentally, Nat Kor-kor shared a recipe which she said was very nice. And since today was a day off, daddy became the chef *grin*. 

Breaded chicken all fried up

And this is our plated lunch: Chicken Parmigiana with Mashed Potatoes.. yummeh! 

Birthday Dinner and A Card (Finally)

Ko-ko finally found the time to make my card. And just before dinner, he came into the room panicked as he had misplaced the card *laugh*. But he finally found the card in his room and gave it to me. 

Tonight's menu was BBQ. We managed to find squid and so we bought steaks and salmon to top off the menu.

Look at them sizzlin' steaks! 

Ta-da.. our dinner spread 

And of course, my plated dinner 

And.. no dinner is complete without wine! 

Mei-mei recycled this VIP tag for me

Mummy's Birthday

It's my birthday today. Daddy took the day off just to spend time with me and also for us to go shopping for my dinner celebration this weekend. 

Ah Ma also bought some sliced cakes from Mon Delice.  

After dinner and desserts, Mei-mei announced that it was time for a family game of Jenge. So we all played one round. And my lucky, shaky hands ended the game!

 Today I also got handmade gifts from Mei-mei. She had been working on them in the green room for the past few days. I was forbidden to enter the room. She claimed to be working on her "home craft project". So cute.

My Lillies on a Lilly pad and also a heart shaped highlighter

On top of that, I also got a "surprise message" from Evelyn. This post it note was placed on my headboard. Problem was a spelling mistake, which she corrected:

Here is the corrected spelling:

As for Ko-ko.. he says he has to owe me a card and "hopefully" I will get it on Saturday and he will be busy with 3 quizzes on Friday. 

Daddy as usual sneakily had a card placed on my hairbrush and it was waiting for me when I woke up. I didn't notice it when I woke up. Instead, I only noticed it when Evelyn pointed it out to me. 

Lovely quiet day for my birthday. So lucky to be loved by you kids and daddy.

Ice-cream Day

We didn't have plans to go out today. But since it was such a hot day and we had vouchers for Haagen-Dazs we headed there for some ice-cream.

Here are the both of you waiting for our ice-cream:

And here is it:

Look at her dirty face:

A good and fun Sunday outing.

Saturday Dinner Out

While we originally planned on eating at the club, we changed plans and made reservations at the Wine Shop in Pulau Tikus. Ah Ma did not join us as she had her own plans and so we booked a table with no worry in case were given a table with bar stools. 

Dinner was amazing. It has been too long since we last went to this shop (even before MCO):

Our platter

And both kids really enjoying their food:

Writing Work by Evelyn

I had asked you to do some BM homework while waiting for lessons to begin. But you did not want to do it. So you found some printed work I had printed earlier during the MCO and asked to fill this up instead.
When your lessons started, I took a look at your answers.. really loved the answers you filled up for the last 3 sentences.