Art Homework

It's the last day for submitting your homework! Yikes and we're just finishing up the work.

Mixing the paints for the clay models

Putting on finishing touches to the boom box

This is your final artwork. The ballerina in her studio

Homemade Butter

I saw a simple way of making butter, and the advice was to use a small jar (to make it easier for little hands). So here you are shaking the living daylights our of the cream to make butter.

The next step after the cream has separated from the liquid was to "wash" the butter. But as I needed to wait for you to finish your waffle, the liquid seeped back into the butter. So.. we're left with what Ko-ko describes as stinky cheese butter....

Japanese Night

Daddy picked up some slices of beef when we went grocery shopping on Friday. So we had another night of different food for dinner.. Japanese night!

I cooked the dashi and then re-used the filtered ingredients to make sides. 

Fish n Chips Night

As it is MCO, we are cooking dinner even on Saturday nights. The menu for tonight has fish (grilled or fried in batter), potato (chips of mash), very large prawns, grilled french beans and garlic bread. On top of that we also made brownies for dessert.

Here are the tow of you helping out:

Having fun Beating the eggs

Taxing Measuring the ingredients

Daddy was in charge of the grilling of the fish and prawns. Early in the morning he found a shop selling salmon. He found the shop as Mei-mei kept insisting that she wanted to eat salmon, but we did not want to go to Mount Erskine market to buy it.

Skin looks dark?

Daddy adding his flame thrower to it!

Ko-ko was asked to make the garlic bread, but as he was busy playing on the PS4, Mei-mei took over the task. Good job!

Finally dinner is ready. Yummy...

We finished dinner with the brownies. 

Japanese Lunch

Today we have Zaru Soba (Cold Soba), but since my lunch customers (namely the both of you kiddos) were apprehensive of having cold noodles, I also quickly whipped up some hot soup. Luckily I already had the dashi kept in the fridge. So I only needed to add the sauces to the stock and heat the soup up. 

While I was boiling the noodles, daddy had finished his meeting, so he came down to fry up the frozen dumplings we have from a while back. The task was given to Ko-ko but he was el sluggo (it's school holidays) and was late to go down, so daddy took over the task. Or more aptly: daddy was tasked to take over.

It's a simple yet delicious meal to cook. Best of all, like today, the cold sauce can be made in advance. 

As for my 2 youngest customers, you tried the cold noodles and are willing to have just that next time. Makes cooking even easier.

Busy Chef

Our MCO dine in menu today is Spaghetti Carbonara.. or variations of it anyway...

Daddy had to cook 4 versions: 

1. No cheese, no egg: for Evelyn

2. No cheese: for Ah Kong

3. Beef bacon: for Kakak

4. The works (complete with heavenly smoked pork and parmesan cheese): for the rest of us!

Evelyn's sample sized plate

Our pasta

Daddy has been cooking this dish so often, like Ah Ma says, he can cook it with his eyes closed! It took him under an hour to cook all 4 versions.

Today we also had garlic bread which was made by Evelyn. Ko-ko was supposed to make it but she offered, so Kakak just watched her make it (in case she needed help) and it was perfecto!

2021 Hari Raya

This year like last year was a quiet one for Kakak. She used to go out with her friends for Hari Raya, but with the Covid cases spike and the MCO, she could only stay at home.

Of course, Mei-mei would make her something. This year she coloured a nice picture and personalised it with a message. 

We also had dinner from Ocean Green which is pork free. Kakak had hew own KFC, but she also joined in to try out the delicious satay.

Before dinner, the kiddies had to exercise abit to burn of excess energy:

Evelyn following Ko-ko's workout regime

Playing with her bubbles

It's a welcomed break for you kids as the mid-term break coincides with the Hari Raya holidays.

MCO 3.0

At the end of April, the school had a Covid case which resulting in the school closure for 2 days. Since one of the 2 days was a public holiday, the school decided to extend the closure, so you were attending online lessons on Wednesday and Friday. 

Before you all had a chance to return to school, the daily cases and school cases started to spike and the school decided to have lessons reverting to online sessions from Monday onwards until June. So the teachers had to return to school to clear and pack all your stuff and even prepare the materials needed for CCA on 1st May (Labour Day) and we all had to go in to pick up your things. Since it was early in the morning, we decided to enjoy brunch in one of the cafe's. That was the last time we dined out.

This week, on Monday MCO began for Penang. And last night the Prime Minister declared the whole country to be on MCO until 7th June.

Some of the malls were identified as hotspots and had to be closed for 3 days for deep cleansing. Luckily before all this happened, daddy and I had gone grocery shopping for essentials. 
Here we go again with round 3. Hope this goes well and the country cases will reduce.

Here is some of the food we had at the cafe:

Random Silliness

The things you would do... I'm glad that phones now have built in cameras which I can capture such funny moments:

Getting ready for bed

Wasting time before bedtime

Video

Today, we had to make 2 videos. Your homeroom teacher had left an "assignment" for pictures/video/message to be submitted for Teacher's Day. So today, you wrote this poem (very quickly) while I was in the shower. During the break in between lessons, we recorded the message:

Your BM teacher had also asked if you would like to record a message in BM. Of course, you are not one to say no. So we had a change of clothes and again headed to the garden to read the message the teacher had provided. 

I love it that you enjoy making such videos and participating in the school events.

You have also been selected for the school Showcase event, narrating the climax of the story. And you have also been casted as "Pocahontas" in the school's Circle of Life Production which is for the Awards Night. We're so proud of you.

CCA-Coin Box

A new ruling was for the CCA to be held remotely. So school ends early on Wednesday and Thursday for the both of you. Then CCA begins at 3.30 till 4.30pm on these days.

One of the task you were to make for CCA is a "coin box". So I found you this container which was used to pack CNY cookies and I had cut a hole for the coin for you in advance before heading out to run an errand. 

When I got back, you said that you would like to make a "doggy coin box". So I taught you how cut the "fur" and stick them on the body and you decorated the face and legs too. I had to help you cut the toilet roll for legs and stick them on. 

And this is your final result: 

Posing with your "doggy"

It has a red ribbon-leash

Demonstrating on how to put the coin in. You could not remove the coin after that (laugh) because the ears covered the lid and container)

Japanese Night

Tonight we finally had Japanese night. It was been a long time since we had sushi/sashimi as we wanted to avoid raw food. This morning, Ko-ko woke up early to go with Ah Ma to Fettes Park market to buy the salmon from the seller there.

In the afternoon, I tried for the first time to cook sushi rice. 

I also ordered some Kaarage from Hanabi which is located nearby in Udini Square. When I got back, Ah Kong nonchalantly informed me that daddy had cut himself while cutting the sushi. Gosh.. We got him all plastered up and Ah Ma had to take over with the cutting and deboning of the fish. While they were busy with that, Ah Kong and I headed out to E-Gate to buy plasters for daddy as it was quite a big gash on his finger. 

Finally dinner was ready. While daddy could not manage the sashimi, he still managed to cook the salmon.

Before dinner began, Mei-make made her own sushi roll:

Making her roll

Our dinner spread

Evelyn's roll. She managed to finish quite a lot of it!

Enjoying her food

Of course, our dinner was complete with this Sake which we had brought all the way back from Hokkaido so many years ago. 

Check Point is Over

To celebrate the last day of your Check Point exam, daddy and I planned to bring you out for a celebratory lunch. Daddy had gone into the office in the morning and could not make it back on time to pick you up from school. So Ah Kong and I picked you up before heading home. You had time to shower before daddy finally made it back home.

The initial plan was to go to Via Pre. But we could not get a parking spot and so when making one round in search for a parking lot, you spotted "Two Frenchies". So in the end we decided to try out the restaurant. 

The restaurant was quite crowded and we were seated upstairs. Luckily the food was served very quickly. We were all hungry by then as it was past 1pm. 

These were our mains, on top of our soup (which we were too hungry to remember having a picture of it taken):

Looks like we've found a new place to dine in future. 

First Day of CheckPoint

Today is the first day of your Year 9 Checkpoint exam. You had 2 English papers, and the essay format was not something you had learnt. I know you have tried your best. It should be fine.

Hope it goes well for the other 2 subjects. 

Door Signs

Whenever we buy some of those activity books, they would come with a cut out door sign. As it is made of paper it will either fly off whenever we close the door or tear within a few days. 

In the end, I requested Grampy to make one for you to decorate for your room. In the end, he made 3 of them: 1 out of metal, 1 out of wood and one out of plastic. All using recycled materials. I thought that it would be a good thing to keep you occupied.

The trip we finally made back to BM after CMCO, I'd forgotten to bring it back to home. The same happened the next trip we made back after MCO 2.0. Finally, Nanna remembered to put them into my bag and it was just in time for your Easter break!

And so you spent some time decorating them and putting wording (including hashtags!) on them. Now they are proudly displayed (you rotate them) on your door.. .even though you are not sleeping in your room yet!

This was the first pictures I had sent to Nanna and Grampy to show them what you had decorated, as I could not find the other 2. 

Last night, I asked you to send them pictures of the other 2 and you bombed their WhatApp with the pictures of the signs, including close up shots of your artwork *laugh*

It's a good way for you to express your creativity. Good job, little one.