Weekend of Celebrations

Birthday celebrations over the long weekend began on Friday. School ended early, but you stayed back till 12.30. It was supposed to be a celebration but since it was not allowed, the cake and present were done during break time. 

With your "Poofie" (as named by Evelyn)

On Saturday, we had dinner in Via Pre as you had requested. The food as always, was amazing!

We then headed home to have cake. We had to rest a bit and let our food settle before having the cake, which was Mango Charlotte as you had requested and which co-incidentally was the same cake picked by your classmates too. 

On Sunday, we headed to BM to enjoy the 5kg fish which Grampy had caught. He cooked it in two styles and we also added some dishes from the nearby restaurant. Nanna also got you a nice cake to celebrate.

Wow! So many rounds. 

Happy 15th Birthday Evan

It's really so fast that our little guy is all grow up. 

From our little baby:

To a fine young man.

It was a weekend long celebration, with you having a small "party" in class complete with cake and a present and then we had dinner in Via Pre as requested followed by a cake at home and again in BM with homecooked dinner by Grampy and another round of cake. 

May you always be blessed with the best of all that life can offer. 

Happy 15th Birthday, Evan. 

With lots of love from us.

Hermion-eve?

 

You went to school today with your hair all twisted up and when it was undone after school, it was all curly/wavy. I said you looked like Hermione from Harry Potter. So you asked me to take a picture of you. You even took a wooden chopstick to be your wand. 

Sweetness Overload

Sometimes the both of you are so sweet. And this happened within half an hour of each other last night.

Sweet Evelyn:

Evelyn : Mummy, you should go to sleep earlier. You have to wake up early tomorrow morning.

(Daddy is snoring next to me!)

Mummy: OK, I will after I have said goodnight to Ko-ko

Sweet Evan:

I'm looking at the yearbook which he had just brought back. Then he asks me to flip to the primary section.

Evan: (Points out Stinky) She is so cute!

Sweet moments like this makes me a happy mummy.

...and yet, there are times when the both of you just drive me nuts.

Award Winner

We received notification quite a while back that you received an award for the Kangaroo Maths competition. 

Today, your certificate and medal finally arrived. You proudly told me that the school teacher even came to your class to take a photo of you.

Of course, mummy also had to take a picture of my baby with her certificate and medal. Great job, darling!

Happy Birthday, Ee-ee

Today we bought layer cakes. Both to bring back to BM and to eat at home. And the cake in BM was for Ee-ee's birthday since her birthday would be on Monday.

This is the first time we would be back to BM since MCO 2.0 was implemented. Tonight Nanna and Grampy cooked up a feast. After dinner, we rested and cleaned up before singing the birthday song.

Funnily, Grampy seemed to think it was a "belated" birthday celebration. He seems to have forgotten that we have already celebrated through WhatsApp video on his actual birthday. And he sang "Happy Birthday to Grampy" and also blew out the candle!!

It was a funny celebration. Ee-ee tried to light the candle again for Evelyn to blow out, but as usual Ko-ko beat her to it. 

Balloon Art

Saw on Facebook for an idea to make swimming costumes for Barbie dolls using balloon. I finally remembered to buy them when we went grocery shopping in Jaya Grocer.

Well, instead of making the clothes, the first thing you did was to blow a few of them up. Then you decided to use the marker pen and draw faces on the balloons:

She has very little hair!

For this purple guy, you drew the eyes unequally, so you decided to change one eye to an eye patch!

Ta-da.. here is Mr. Balloon Hook:

And Mrs. Balloon:

And a few days later, you finally got around to making the clothes for the dolls. We had to use the made to move Barbie so that it would be easier to put on the clothes. 

This is one of your creations:

I'll go look for the rest of them later so that we have some pictures of the designs. 

Two Rascals

Was looking at the photos in my phone and found these 2 nice pictures of the two of you:

 

More Jenga "Art"

You took out the Jenga again and built a "home" for your little toys. It was complete with a bed and table (with bench). 

Future Architect?

Today you asked if we could build one of Ko-ko's old toys. It had been sitting outside in the landing for a very long time. I had initially thought that we have lost the instructions. So you dug up an old Toys R Us booklet which had the same toy and thought of building based on the picture. 

As the parts were dusty and I started wiping them one by one, I found the instructions. So as I was wiping, you started to build according to the instructions. You did quite well. Just some parts needed my help to show you that the part has different ends and needs to be fixed to the correct "tower". Also needed to guide you to build from the same direction so that you do not get confused on where to place the parts.

And here is it! All built up and ready for play.

Seems like this old toy is still lots of fun. 

Sleeping Pictures

 Evelyn recently saw some of the pictures I took during our trip to Hokkaido; I think on this blog. She commented that I took many pictures of the 3 of you sleeping. She asked why there was none of me sleeping. Haha.. my little girl, how would I be able to take my picture when I'm sleeping? She gave me an answer: Pretend to sleep and take your picture!

Yesterday evening, while we were relaxing in the living room and waiting for Ko-ko to come down to have dinner I turned around and found the two of you doing this:

And of course, Evelyn exclaimed and complained that I took more sleeping pictures.. Hahaha...

Happy Chap Goh Meh

Today is Chap Goh Meh and the dinner menu is steamboat. Yummy. We planned to start dinner earlier, but as usual, it too a bit of time preparing the ingredients for dinner. So we finally started at close to 7pm. 

And Mei-mei of course wore something pretty and wanted her pictures taken. I also heard her telling Ah Kong to wear something brighter and he had to give in and change. Of course, she did not dare to work on Ko-ko (a.k.a. the Tiger). Look at how she poses (saying not all pictures needs to have her looking into the lense!):

Our dinner spread:

Chap Goh Meh is not just the last day of Chinese New Year. It is also the "Chinese Valentine's Day". And from Ah Tai's village in China is this dessert which we used to "collect" from Ipoh when we go back for the 9th CNY day prayers. Ashley Kor-kor and I learnt to make this a few years back and so this year, I made it on the eve and again for tonight, we have this for our dessert to celebrate Valentine's Day. 

Exam Week for Evan

As the MCO was extended, it could not be avoided for you to have your exams online. In your case, it was more stringent with many rules which seemed overboard. Exam papers cannot be downloaded nor printed. 

We had to go buy a mirror so that the invigilator can see your computer screen and a bit of your surrounding. You had to use a computer and not tablet. And many more rules... to which if you didn't abide would result in no marks given for that exam paper!

While the initial plan was so set up the mirror to your left and your laptop to the right, it would mean that you would be sitting at an angle to do the test. So in the end, you agreed to have another table set up behind you so that you don't need to sit at an odd angle for the full many hours. 

Well the exams are over, and let's just hope for the best. 

Playing with Jenga Blocks

Some days you just find some ways to entertain yourself. Tonight, you took out the Jenga blocks and designed these:

"Man" with sword

Creative photography of your stack of blocks

Another creative photography with the reflection of the chandelier on the floor

2021 CNY - Day 1 Lunch and Dinner

Today's lunch is also similar to what we'd have in Ipoh: Mee Suah soup complete with fried egg. But this time we had the fried tee kuih (which we'd usually have for breakfast).

For dinner, we decided to give the kitchen (and Ah Ma and Kakak) a break so we ordered food from Starview Restaurant. 

Our table all beautifully laid out

Our family picture at the dining table

And our course, our delicious spread which came complete with Yee Sang. Mei -mei also got to eat this year as we did not put the peanuts.

2021 CNY - Ang Pow Time

Managed to buy some cute Ang Pow this year. 

Ang Pow for Ah Ma from Daddy and I

Ang Pow for Ah Kong from Daddy and I

Evan getting his Ang Pow from Ah Kong

Ang Pow from Ah Ma comes with a hug

Mei-mei taking her Ang Pow from Ah Kong

Ang Pow + Hug

Evan collecting his ang pows from daddy and I:

Evelyn's turn:

Then there was also a surprise for us. We also get to collect ang pow from Evelyn. I later explained to her that she is too young and not yet working that she would need to give to us. But, it was a nice gesture. She hid in the toilet to pack and label our ang pows!

For Ah Kong and Ah Ma

For daddy and I

Not forgetting Ko-ko

It comes with a hug too

Our Ang Pow comes with a message too!