Melbourne Day3: Melbourne Zoo

Today was the day spent doing something for you kiddies (and us too.. we loved to visit the zoo when we lived in Australia). 

We took the train to the Melbourne Zoo, arriving around 11a.m. Here are the two of you posing. Took lots of pictures of the things we saw in the zoo:

Koalas

Giraffe

Lunch: Meatpie (first time) for Ko-ko

Mei-mei had the kids meal with sandwich, fruit and drink

Close up with the lemur

The tiger. Evelyn decided to roar at the lion!!

Looking at the meerkats

You both put your name to pledge not to blow balloons

Winding up the souvenir coin

With the scary looking crocodile

Mei-mei spotted the tiny frogs. We spent quite a lot of time trying to find all hidden frogs

Playground time

All KO-ed on the way back. Daddy said luckily someone gave him the seat. 

Melbourne Day2: Olinda

We all dressed warmer and packed into the car, heading for Olinda, Mount Dandenong. First stop was lunch at The Pig & Whistle Tavern,

This was Evan's lunch. 

Mei-mei had to pose for pictures with Uncle Ollie:

Mei'mei's lunch (such a large portion):

Could not resist not adding this pesto bread:

 Mummy's lunch:

 The lunch shared by the 3 ladies (Chim Poh, Nat & Ashley Kor-kor):

Hhmm.. I'm missing daddy's lunch (oops)

Got a little lost. But Uncle Ollie finally found the Alfred Nicholas Memorial Gardens. Such beautiful greenery and autumn leaves. It was a lovely walk although rather cold. Lucky the both of you were all dressed up warmly.

As usual, after a while Mei-mei requested to be carried. So lazy to walk. Happiest was that she had 2 choices: Uncle Ollie or daddy. 

Dinner that night was BBQ at Jack Chek-chek's where you had lots of fun playing with the boys. 

Day1: Melbourne Here We Come

It was a long and uneventful flight. Ko-ko sat with daddy while Mei-mei with me during the long haul to Melbourne. Ashley Kor-kor met us in KLIA. She made it just on time to catch the flight. There was a bad accident causing a massive traffic jam on her way to the airport. 

Upon clearing immigration at the airport and exiting, we met Ah Kong and Ah Ma's friends: Uncle Chee Meng, Uncle Peter and Aunty Fiona. 

Ashley Kor-kor waited at the airport for 6th Chim Poh and they were picked up by Uncle Ollie and Nat Kor-kor. We left in Uncle Chee Meng's car which was left with us for the rest of the trip to transport us around. 

We had a light breakfast at the Choo's house which was brought by the other Aunty Fiona (dim sum) then headed to Nat Kor-kor's place. We unloaded and headed to have lunch. As it was a car big enough to fit 8, we all hopped into the car and Uncle Ollie drove us to "The Public Brewery". 

They had a wonderful selection of beer which we were allowed to taste before deciding which one we would like to have. The food was also spectacular. We ordered sharing platters. 

We later went to Eastland Shopping Center to look for some presents for Eason as we were heading to Jack Chek-chek's house the next day for a BBQ and belated birthday celebration.

Tried on this dress just for fun.

We also bought some light groceries which was our dinner for the night. Hommus, guacamole (made by Kor-kor), Turkish bread, cheese and of course wine. 

Evelyn's Roadster Racer

Such a coincidence that we have a box which was used to deliver the party pack items for Ko-ko's birthday. So when you requested for a Roadster Racer, I turned to the ever useful Pinterest and found out how to make a car out of the carton box.
You requested for the car to be painted pink (no surprise there). We used up almost all of the pink paint Ko-ko had. Ko-ko also had some inputs such as the steering wheel, the spoiler and brake lights (still missing for now). The 3 of us had fun painting the car and decorating it too.
And of course within 10 minutes of playing it, the steering wheel has come off, the spoiler fell of and even the string came off. Hopefully the damage will be limited to these before I can hot glue them this weekend.

Easter Craft

Found a simple craft to do together. And you both put on your personalised rpuches and we ended up with angry rabbit, rabbit who fell into paintbox and radioactive rabbit...
We had such fun. And so hilarious to see your creativity at work.

Easter Weekend

Our Saturday began with a little shopping in the afternoon for dinnertime ingredients. And this was our Japanese themed dinner:

While our dinners digested, we put on the finishing touches on our rabbits. After that, it was time for the Easter egg hunt which you had both requested. We could not find much decent choices of easter egg in Cold Storage so we made do with the yummy strawberry chocolate Lindt we have in the fridge. 

Here'sthe two of you with your "baskets" all ready for the hunt :

And the both of you having one of the loot each:

Miss Vainpot

You have seen me looking at hairstyles on Pinterest. So when I asked you this morning how you wanted your hair tied, you told me "Let me pick from your phone". Phew lucky I searched "simple hairstyles for girls".  And this is what w3 ended up with:

Happy 11th Birthday, Evan

Happy birthday to our precious son. Today you turn 11 and we wish you all the best that life can give you. You have brought us a lot of happiness. Continue to shine and brighten up our lives.

With lots of love and kisses from Mei-mei, daddy and mummy.

Not Feeling Well

You vomited so many times on Friday. We had to try to get back from work quickly but it took us almost an hour to reach home i the Friday jam.
Got you all ready and headed to Adventist Hospital thinking there was night clinic. Too bad there wasn't any. So we headed to the Emergency Room.
We spent almost 2 hours to wait and see the doctor and to wait abit longer to see if you'd still vomit after taking the medicine. We finally got to leave at arpund 10p.m. making a stop to buy 100 plus drink for you.
You slept on the way home and continued sleeping until the next morning, only waking up several times for a drink of water.
Well to determine if you had recovered... just look at your happy grin when you realised that I wanted to take your picture on Saturday morning:

Shower Entertainment

Since our bathroom was leaking, we had to use your bathroom to shower over last weekend. One of the times I was showering, you decided to provide in-bathroom entertainment... by singing outside my bathroom door. After you were done, you even offered to provide encore:

Although, I would have been happier if you sang some other song than "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"!! And so many times too.. hahaha... 

Home Hairdresser

Got a shock on my life when I realised that your fringe was "missing". No amount of questions could make you admit to what had happened. You insisted that it looked normal. You must think that we're blind!!
So took a picture and put them side by side with a photo I took on Saturday to show you there certainly WAS a difference.
Finally you admitted to having cut your fringe. .. just for fun. Well my dear, you'll have to live with this haircut for the next 3 days until we bring you for a haircut during the weekend!

Sundae on a Saturday

Dessert after lunch... McDonald's sundae.

Evelyn's First Ballet Lesson

As you have been requesting to attend ballet lessons for so long, we finally decided to stop by the school recommended by my friend for a trial on our way back from dropping Ko-ko to school for Wushu. To our surprise, there was classes to be held in the next 1 hour. So we happily agreed to try and went home to pick up stockings for you. And here you are.. I got to snap a few pictures as they allowed me to enter the class as it was your trial class. 

Yup.. we signed up immediately after the trial classes. Wanted to buy the ballet shoes for you, but they did not have your size. So have to wait. 

Happy Birthday, Grampy

As it was a holiday, we headed back to celebrate Grampy's birthday on a weekday. Nanna had booked a table from a nearby restaurant. Here's some of the food we ordered. The fish was a "pak sou kong" which Grampy had caught:

Went back home to blow off the candle on the cake. We had bought an "Uncle Tetsu's Cheesecake" before heading over. Here you both are posing with Grampy and Nanna:

And of course, both of you not giving Grampy a chance to blow out HIS birthday candle. 

We had to light the candle again as you beat Mei-mei to blowing the candle the first time!!

Both of you trying to take picture with a terrified Chelsea

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GRAMPY. 

Beautiful Lights at Kek Lok Si Temple

We decided to go for a drive to have a look at the lights at Kek Lok Si Temple. This year the lights were put up for a shorter period. Ko-ko didn't want to go, preferring to stay at home in front of the tv. Could not even entice him with promises of supper from McDonald's.
Traffic headed to the temple was heavy but thankfully moving. There was a long queue going up so we just stopped at the road to have a look and take a quick photo.
You enjoyed them, but you were more keen to know when we'll be going to McDonald's as daddy had mentioned! Need to be careful of what we say around little ears!!

CNY Feast with the Phuah's

As usual, Ah Ma cooked up a storm. What a feast.. so many dishes:

You and your cousins are all old enough to sit by yourselves. Missing Audrey in this picture:

We also had a box of fireworks which was set off in the park across the road. Beautiful...