Day1: Santa Rosa

The drive to Santa Rosa was another 2-3 hours as the 2 hour drive dragged longer than usual due to the slow crawl out of San Francisco. Of course, we had to drive past the Golden Gate bridge and we decided to take a quick stop. Mei-mei woke up as we stopped and so daddy and I took her down with the intention to snap some pictures. All I got was this, and we quickly ran back to the warmth of the car. It was certainly a cold and windy day:

When we reached the hotel, we just needed a quick check-in and we were set. We stayed on the 3rd floor of the Burgundy block.

After we'd taken some rest, and showered, we headed out to dinner. We's planned for a simply, soupy meal so Vietnamese beef noodles came to mind. We had no idea of where to go to, so relied on the GPS to bring us to a shop listed called "Simply Vietnam". Food was delicious and portions very big (we'd forgotten about the US portions - yet daddy managed to finish all his large noodle).

On the way back, we headed to a Safeway which was very close to our hotel. Here' we were so happy with the many choices of food, fruits and drinks. We bought a large box of strawberries (which cost us only USD5!!). Here are the two of you enjoying the strawberries in Ah Ma's room:

Then by 9.30 we were all sleepy and headed back to our room. By 10 p.m. we were all dead to the world, tired from the long long travel we had to get to the USA.

The Start of Our Holidays

Our holiday started early in the morning as we had a very early flight to catch to Hong Kong. Ko-ko easily woke up but it was not as easy to wake you up. In the end, everyone was ready and by 6.20 a.m.we were already in the Penang International Airport.

Check in was all done and we had a hot drink at the McDonald's before heading into the departure hall to await boarding for the flight to Hong Kong. All went well and you were surprisingly well behaved on the flight and had no problems with the pressure change at all.

In Hong Kong, we went over to the departure terminal and then headed to the food court to look for some lunch. After lunch, we had a little time to wander around the shops. Daddy and Ah Kong had planned to get some whiskey or wine for Uncle Sam, but unfortunately the found out that we could not bring even duty free items into the US. Too bad.

Soon it was time to board. Luckily, we had priority boarding as we were travelling with you (small children) and boarding sure was longer as they had to inspect our bags for any liquids over 100 ml.

Here you both are all happy and excited and looking forward to our holiday:

This was your lunch on the way to SFO:

However, as lunch was served, that was when Ko-ko spilled juice on his pants (due to turbulence) then he started to not feel well. Daddy had to bring him to the toilet multiple trips. In the end, Ah Ma gave him some diarrhea medicine and he managed to sleep. In fact, he slept through breakfast also, preferring to sleep instead of eat.

You on the other hand, slept quite well on the flight. The stewardess on this flight was very nice, giving you both kids pack, kids headphones and even helped to change Ko-ko's meals to adult meal (which somehow was not changed, despite the travel agent saying that they'd already submitted the request). She even gave me a child seat belt which could be attached to my seat belt. It was a blessing as I could carry you and let you cuddle with me in your sleep even during turbulence.

After you had your sleep, you kept busy watching the cartoons on the screen (without the headphones). Not much fuss from you, although you will be a bit grouchy just before falling asleep.

Still, I'd consider that a good start to our holiday.

Scaring Your Teacher

Told you that I needed to see your class teacher:
Mummy: Evan what days would you have Mr. Koh for the last lesson?
Evan: (Suspiciously) Why????
Mummy: None of your business
Evan: (Looking worried)
Mummy: I need to tell him about your missing school.
Evan: (Looking relieved now...)

That night:
Mummy: Evan, did you tell Mr. Koh that I wanted to see him?
Evan: Yes.
Mummy: Did he was you why I wanted to see him?
Evan: Yes.
Mummy: So what did you tell him?
Evan: I told him "我不知道" (I don't know) 

Hahaha... naughty boy. Leave your teacher wondering and worried about the reason I want to see him!!

Mummy Stepped...

Gosh you have an elephant memory. It happened at least over a month ago and yet 2 nights ago I heard you telling daddy (while you were doing a poo poo)
"Mummy STEP (with emphasis on this) on Mei-mei ngk ngk"

Arghhh... I wonder how long it will be before you will let me forget about this incident. 

Penang Hop On Hop Off Bus

As Monday was a replacement holiday for Wesak Day Ah Ma decided to take you for a ride on the Penang Hop-On-Hop-Off bus. You were supposed to leave the house to catch the first bus at 9 from Gurney Drive but seemed like the both of you couldn't wake up so you only left the house at 9.30. Unfortunately, you still missed the 10 am bus and caught the 10.30 bus instead.
You both opted for the city route as you thought the windy road of Batu Feringghi was not so interesting. It was around 2 hours of non-stop journey as you did not want to get off the bus.
Mei-mei did not get to go as she had a doctor's appointment. You certainly had fun as you both even stopped for pizza on the way home.

Mother's Day Flowers

On top of a yummy breakfast, I got this beautiful craft from you. It's the first Mother's Day gift from you as you just started school this year. 

 So lovely that the school makes an effort to give us small tokens from our children. 

Thank you for the lovely flowers. 

Mother's Day Breakfast

My Mother's Day this year began with the yummiest cheese omelette ever. Er... yes I had to help you prepare some parts of the omelette but you did try your best despite your fear of the flame from the stove.
And my breakfast even came complete with coffee:

Thank you, darling for this yummy breakfast.  

Audrey's Birthday

The interesting part of the party (other than the food..) was the egg hunt. Not just any egg. It was a Kinder Surprise egg hunt.
Then again the best part of the egg hunt for you was not the contents of the egg, but the yummy chocolate.  Can't you tell from the way you sat?

Ice-Cream Fun

After lunch at the family day we were also given ice-cream.  Both of you gad a great time. Even Mei-mei had a go at the ice-cream and almost finished the whole thing.

Family Day

It was Labour Day holiday and yet we had to wake up early... in fact earlier than a school day. This is because we had registered for the Family Suka Ria carnival which was being organised by Rajawali along with the church.
We left early for to find traffic was good and so reached the Westland  School rather early. At 8.30 we registered and soon got acquainted with the rest of our "Orange Team" members.
Daddy was somehow selected to be the team leader by the organisers. It was a fun day with all of us getting to gave a go atvthe games. Ko-ko got to play 3 of the games.
After the games we headed to the church cafeteria for a lunch of fried rice and ice-cream. Then it was prize giving and out team managed to come in third. Yay!!!
It was a nice day of meeting new people and spending time together.

All Tied Up

Took us a lot of convincing work before you let me tie up your hair.
You look so different with your hair all tied up. Too bad you only let them be tied up for a grand total of 3 minutes before pulling off the rubber bands. Daddy loves it when your hair is tied up.

Is This The End?

Have been slowly cutting down on your feeding sessions and the last week has been down to once a day, before you go to sleep.
Tonight you went to sleep without asking for a feed. Would this mean it's the end of our breastfeeding journey? *tears in my eyes*

Adventure Time

The last time we were at Adventure Zone, Mei-mei was too young. She only slept in the stroller while you had great fun on the slides.
This time you got to enjoy the slides as well as the  baby section, including the ball pit.
We had decided to surprise you and treat you to some fun since it's been a long time since we last visited. You sat quietly in the car, and get excited as we turned into Golden Sands Hotel and then you spotted the Adventure Zone sign. Tricked you by saying we didn't bring any socks nor long sleeved shirts. But when you discovered that I had indeed packed what you needed you were all smiles.

Daddy's Back fr Sing-Ka-Pour

Daddy came back last night and he gave me this:

Teary Evelyn

You started to cry again almost everyday when you went back to school after the school holidays. No matter what we did, we still could not leave you in school without you crying loudly.

Hopefully today will mark the beginning of good school days. You were a bit teary but at least you did not cry loudly when I passed you to Miss Beh. In fact, you waved happily to me as I headed out and you were both headed to the bathroom to wash hands and wee wee.

The Party and Cake

As we were busy playing, daddy was busy getting the grill ready for the barbeque:

That night was a feast!! We had pork ribs, chicken, salmon, prawns, corn, baked potato and salad. 

Barbeque ribs almost ready to be served

The beautiful salmon

After dinner was finished and packed, it was time for the cake. This year we went back to the same person who made Evelyn's last birthday cake. You told him that you wanted "Kick Buttowski" so he Googled and you both agreed on the image which he drew on your cake. Isn't is similar? He's a great baker and talented artist.

Of course, before we started to sing the songs, we had to have a round of photo session:

With your cousins

The moment the song was finished, Evelyn beat you to blowing out the candle!! So in the end we had to light the candle another time for you to blow it out.

Blowing out the candle

All smiles as everyone helped you cut the cake

And of course.. our family picture

Happy birthday our darling Evan.

Evan's 9th Birthday Party - Games

A bit more was put into planning this year's birthday party. We had a "water themed" party which promised to be a wet event! Beforehand we bought water guns for everyone and you allocated the guns to your cousins (and sister), labeling them in advance. We originally planned to have team games, but since Jayden decided to drop by on the last minute we just had games individually.

In the afternoon, while Mei-mei took her nap, we both sat outside to fill up  the water balloons. It was fun filling it with you and we even smashed a few balloons. Hey.. we needed to test them out to make sure that they are working, right? *grin*

While waiting for Abigail and Ian to reach, you played with Annabelle and Jayden. Finally they arrived and everyone changed into your swimsuits all ready to get drenched. Here are your guns all laid out, waiting for you kids to fill them up. We used Mei-mei's bathtub to be the refill station as that would make it possible for more than one person to fill up their gun and to have more time playing. 

Here are your guns all with name tags

Clockwise from top right: Water balloons floating in water so that they don't burst before play, the refill station and the target which you drew the night before

Kiddies posing for mummy before we started the games 

Here's Mei-mei in her swimming costume

And of course, the birthday boy all smiling and happy

We started off with the first game after filling up the guns. Not too powerful guns, so you guys had to stand nearer to the target to hit anything at all. After a while all the ink washed off and the paper crumbled into a heap of rubbish. Abigail was kind enough to help me remove it from the wall and throw away. 

After the shooting game, we stopped for a quick round of water gun fights. This was followed by a round of "Water balloon baseball" where one child throws the balloon to the other who hits at the balloon with the bat.

We finished with the water at nearly 7 and everyone went to have a quick shower. Next was a round with the pinata which took us so so long to make for this party:

Everyone had a go at it.. many times. We started off with 3 hits each child (blindfolded).. but it did not put a dent in the pinata. Next round was not blindfolded and 15 hits each. Nope.. only managed to get the blue paper off. After that was another 15 hits each. Nope.. nothing came off. Not one tear!

As it was getting late for dinner, we took it down, and put it on the floor where even daddy had a go at it. It broke! No.. not the pinata but the toy bat!! Hahaha.. in the end, I had to take a scissors and cut a hole in it and then you kids made a mad scramble to grab the sweets and small toys inside. 

Happy 9th Birthday, Evan

Happiness is what we feel when we see how grown up you have been. You've been a constant source of happiness with the love you've shown us all. And how my little baby is a handsome 9 year old. 

Happy Birthday to my little prince!!

With love,

Evelyn, Mummy and Daddy

Ko-ko Loves Evelyn

My Ko-ko loves me. He even helps me wear my clothes.

A Park Nearby

It's nice that we found a nice park nearby to our house. It's well maintained and there is even a jogging track which suits daddy where he can jog while you kids have fun on the swings and slides.

Lego Madness

Look who we met in Queensbay:

Princess and the Frog

You woke up yesterday and when I said "Good morning, princess". This is what you told me:

Evelyn: Mei-mei is princes. Ko-ko is prince.
Mummy: How about mummy?

Thinks for a while...
Evelyn: Ma ma
Mummy: How about daddy?
Evelyn : Frog

Haha... what a good way to start my day with a good laugh. Daddy almost chocked on his noodles when I told him what you caled him.

Our Little Picnic

You were playing with me outside when you asked to eat outside. So we decided to have an impromptu picnic breakfast.
The moment I told you we'll have a picnic you went into the study to dig for something.  Thinking that you just wanted to play while waiting for me, I went around getting ready. The moment I put down the mat ,I understood what you were searching for in the room: your toy picnic basket.

Went up to wake Ko-ko up to ask him to join us too. A simple picnic of bread, snacks and drinks but lots of fun nonetheless. 

Early Morning Photo Session

Daddy's Back

Sometimes I wish that my camera is always ready to capture those special moments. But sometimes I am glad that I managed to capture the moment with just my eyes and store them in my memories even if I cannot share them with other people.
Just like in Friday when daddy got back from his 2 week long travel. Mei-mei looked at him and paused for a moment in Kaffa as she was not expecting to see him (we wanted to surprise her) and then her squeal of delight when she realised that she was looking at her daddy before running to give him a big hug. And the happy smile on daddy's face when he saw her.
Later when we picked you up, I think you may have forgotten that daddy was due back or didn't expect to see him either. So when we approached Ah Kong's car waiting for us at the petrol station, I could tell that you were so happy to see daddy standing outside the car waiting to give you a big hug. And you ran to daddy to hug him.
No pictures but I have them captured in my memory. Good enough for me.

Party Pack from School

Came back to find you had brought back a very big party pack from school. Ah Ma had told you that you can only open it when mummy got back from work.  So the moment I got back and sat down, you showed me the pack and asked to open it.
It was a pretty pink Melody bag. And you started to empty your current Barney school bag and move them items to the new bag. When asked if you planned to bring the new bag to school, you said: Yes.