Archive for the Category »Fun Time «

Funarium, Again!

As promised, hubby brought the kids to Funarium after our lunch at Kopitiam. Our kids love Funarium, and it’s not hard to see why…


Not only little kids, big kids can have fun too. LOL!

 

I received some emails about the entrance fee of Funarium, so here it is:

 

According to Simon, the owner of Funarium, the two hours rule is only applicable when the playground is too crowded with kids. So far, we were allowed to have fun for as long as we pleased.

For those parents who have concern about H1N1 as all of us are aware of how badly it’s spreading here now, check out Funarium’s health and safety policy:

 

And I must say, the cleaners do a good job in wiping every corner of the playground. I saw some of them climbing up to the top tunnels to wipe the nets! And my kids cleaned their hands at the gel dispenser from time to time to keep their hands clean.

This time, hubby and I didn’t play much with our kids because…


They made some friends here! :)

 

Our active kids are quite good at making friends now as they can speak Thai and English, so it’s nice to see them getting socially active. Hubby and I just sat by the side, talking and mumbling why we didn’t bring along our Mp3 players and laptops as WiFi is available here!

I shall let the photos do all the talking ya?


The kids love the slide! (Daddy likes it too. LOL!)

 


Tarzan girl and Tarzan boy.

 


This time, my kids followed their friends for water play…

 


And sand play.

 

 


Water + Sand = Messy dress + More work for mommy… :P

 

Hubby said they should install an air blower or something for the kids to blow off the sand before coming into the indoor section again. I think I will pack a set of changing clothes next time as Isabelle was very very wet and sandy!


The kids took a break of having snacks together…

 


And another round of fries.

 

They really used up a lot of energy here! And we left Funarium with 2 super tired and extra grumpy kids. LOL! But anyway, it’s always nice to come to Funarium.


Thanks for bring us here again daddy! Happy Father’s Day, Daddy!

 

Next time, I hope that our kids will spend some time in the art and craft room.

So far, they haven’t been in there as they were too occupied with playing!

Isabelle’s First Field Trip

 Oops, I’m showing my double chin. :P

 

Our little girl is going for her first field trip today, and they will visit the dinosaur museum in the city. I tried to Google for the name of the place, but I can’t find it. I guess it’s written in their agenda, but hubby and I can’t read the name in Thai. :P

I thought we were late this morning, but her class had not queue up for the trip yet. So, I didn’t manage to snap a photo of her boarding on the school van.

Have to stand straight to look nicer in the pic. LOL!

 

She’s very excited about this, and I hope that she will have an enjoyable trip today. She’s a big fan of dinosaur too, just like Justin. Thus, I guess she will benefit a lot after a trip to the museum. I really like the way they learn, and there should be 3 field trips in a school year. The trips are organized based on their learning schemes. Of course, I fixed her a simple Hello Kitty bento, which is one of her favorite characters.

Justin will be going for his field trip on Friday, but he’s not going to the museum. He’s going to visit a famous temple. Mmm…I wonder why? :)

Mommy’s Class

I know myself very well that I can’t homeschool my kids seriously, but I will try my best to coach them on their work, except on Thai subject.

Every school night, the kids and I will spend some time on English, Maths, maze or coloring. I bought some workbooks from Malaysia last time, but it’s only now that both kids are showing interests in completing the books. I’m glad that Isabelle is interested in writing too, even if her attention span is rather short and she will run off to play after a few minutes. :P She prefers to color the worksheets, or circle the right answer, instead of writing the same letter repetitively. I guess it’s too boring for her.

Justin said that it’s “mommy’s class” at home, and I’m the teacher, while they are the students. LOL! Some times, Isabelle will be the teacher, when she’s playful and I will be the one “doing the work” or reading out load with her. I get a better idea on how she learns at school too, as she’s imitating her teachers. LOL!

As for Justin, I’m glad that he has a better concept on addition and phonics now. Their school syllabus is quite slow, as comparing to what they will learn back home. But if my kids enjoy learning more than their school work, I shall help them with it.

After doing their work for about 15 – 30 minutes, it’s play time with daddy, and that’s the reward for doing their work well. LOL! Now you know another reason why hubby lost a lot of weight even without Kettlebell since we moved here huh? He’s too busy playing with the kids!

To Golf Range with Daddy

Mommy is not the only one who likes to spend quality time with the kids, daddy likes to have some time with the kids too. Most of the time, he’s the one who brings the kids to the swimming pool, the field and also the driving range. I seldom join these activities in the evenings as I will be busy preparing dinner. But yesterday, I had some time to join the kids and hubby at the nearby golf range, and I could see how much my kids enjoy whacking the balls with daddy.


Daddy helped Justin with his glove.

 

We can’t find a glove for Isabelle yet, her hand is too small for the smallest size!


Papa said try to aim at 50m marker…So, let me address first…

 

With Sasha‘s help (thanks Sasha!), I managed to do my first animation with PS and here’s how Justin hit the golf ball.

justin's-swing-resized

 Justin hopes that he can join daddy at golf course one day, when he is older and ready for it.

 Pardon my poor quality animation ya? :P

hubby's-swing-resized

Hubby said this swing not nice woh…But I still wanna post. LOL!

 

Right now, Justin only has an iron, and he learns putting at home with hubby’s putting mat. As for Isabelle, she’s more like playing hockey, instead of swinging the iron. LOL!


As long as I can hit the ball, I’m good enough liao. LOL!

 

Justin’s iron is too heavy for her, and she’s not tall enough for the smallest kiddie golf set too.


Very heavy la…

 


Papa, you help me please.

 

All this time, I was pretty worried that my kids will be running around at driving range and they might endanger themselves when the place is packed with golfers swinging their golf clubs. But after yesterday, I have a clearer picture that they do know their boundaries, and they really like to learn the game. No wonder daddy likes to bring the kids to the driving range. :)

Making Friends

Hubby thought the kids will miss him badly, but he’s going to be very disappointed. LOL! They didn’t even look for hubby, not even once for the past few days. :P Poor hubby, his heart must be breaking reading this. LOL!

The main reason why the kids are doing so well, despite being spoiled by granny, is that they are having a lot of fun making friends in our neighborhood. This week, both of them went to our neighbor’s house to watch TV together, for the first time. They went to the neighbor’s house on their own, under my permission of course. But I told them not to do this often as it was a Thursday, and they should not have watched TV on school days. :P


Isabelle and her friend. She likes to hang out at her car porch and play masak-masak with her toy kitchen sinks, dolls and all her other toys.

 


Did I mention that her friend’s mother likes to give my gal Yakult and tidbits too?  Now you know why she likes to go to their house. LOL!

 

Since hubby is not around, I didn’t go to the office (my mom is alone at home mah…) and I bring the kids back home straight after school. By doing so, the kids can play in the evening with other children.

Anyway, I snapped some photos yesterday so that hubby can see how much fun they are having here…


Most of the evenings, our kids will play outside of the house, with their friends mostly. They are getting closer with our neighbor’s kids.

 


Cycling is a daily activity too.

 

Some times, I will bring the kids to the playground and the field, if they want to. There are more children playing there.


Running around on the grass…

 


Or should I say, rolling on the grass? LOL!

 


Playing at the playground

 

I told hubby that Justin got “bullied” by the older kids on the field yesterday. I don’t know why, but one of the older boys asked him to take off his sandals, and they ran off with his sandals and made him chased after them. I can see that Justin was quite annoyed but he didn’t give up in chasing the kids, who threw his sandals from one to another.


Poor Justin running after the older kids

 

I didn’t interfere though as I wanted to see how Justin handle this. To my surprise, he managed to get back his sandals, put them on, and walk away leaving the kids! I’m very proud of him, and I’m glad that he took this as a game. :) Thank god he didn’t start a fight. LOL!

But still, I’m counting down to the day when hubby to come back from Malaysia. I think the kids miss the indoor playgrounds, Funarium, and also the swimming pool. Only hubby is good at handling them for more active play. So, dear, fast fast book your flight ticket ya?

Category: Fun Time  9 Comments

Our Weekend

Summer holiday is almost over, and we decided to spend more time at home. My kids are still trying to max out their time watching DVD because they can only do so during the weekends since they have started their summer camp. Nonetheless, hubby and I wanted to limit their time on TV, so we “dragged” them out to the park on Saturday evening.


Daddy and mommy dragged us to the park, but we were happy to be here too.

 

Our kids like feeding the fishes in the lake, but funnily, there are not a lot of fishes anymore.


Why no fish wan?

 


The fish very ho mia, eat pandan bread. I said in my bento blog last week that I hardly see pandan bread anymore, and we managed to get a loaf just for fish feeding!

 


We changed from one feeding spot to another…

 


…but there is still no sign of fishes. Funny…

 

So we went cycling and trying out the exercise equipments at the park.


Balancing is one of our kids’ favorites.

 


And of coz, they love cycling!

 

Some of our friends and relatives have been asking why hubby lost so much weight…See the pic? He’s running with the kids while the wife just stood far far with the camera. Now you know why he lost weight since we moved here huh? Our active kids have been keeping daddy busy as their playmate.

We didn’t do anything special on Mother’s Day except bringing the kids to an indoor playground. So, did I get anything yesterday? Of coz not!!! But I went shopping while hubby watched the kids. And I managed to sleep until 10am yesterday. That’s a great present for a mommy who only gets less than 6 hours sleep on normal days. :)

A Visit to Angel Tomorrow

The store owner of Angel Tomorrow, Sangwan, emailed me days ago, asking me if I’m interested to check out her used book store. I love buying books for my kids, and upon knowing that she has a lot of used books from US, I wanted to bring my kids there for a look. It’s not easy to locate her new store, but if you are interested to find out about the map and location, please check out her website.

She has recently moved her store here from a shopping complex, so it’s not fully furnished yet. But nonetheless, it didn’t stop our kids from checking out the books.


Justin and Isabelle helped themselves with the books as soon as we got here. Of course, they can only look at the pictures as both of them can’t read by themselves yet.

 

I found that most of the books are still in good condition. It’s not easy to get English books here, except from Asia Books or Kinokuniya, as far as I know. But if the used books are still in good condition, I won’t mind buying some for my kids. Did I mention that the books are selling at reasonably cheaper price too?


The children books section.

 


There are books for adults too.

 


As we were browsing through the books, the store owner was busy unpacking the pallets!

 

There are still a lot of books in boxes, but Justin couldn’t wait to dig them out. :P

 

I bought a cook book by Jamie Oliver, and hubby got a book about business management. Mmm…another cooking book for me, and if I can cook as well as Jamie, I should check out Lipofuze reviews as I would be over weight soon. LOL!

My kids chose most of their books by themselves, but I got them 2 books from Dr. Suess too.

 

I don’t know why they just don’t like Dr. Suess, maybe the illustrations are not attractive to them. I shall keep the books away until they are ready.

Needless to say, both our kids love this book store a lot.


I love to see my kids spending time on books…even if they can’t read yet.

 

So, here are some of the books we got…


The used books we bought are all in good condition.

 

I’m so happy that Sangwan gave me a GREAT DISCOUNT on the books, and we saved so much on the purchase!

So, if you are interested to get used books imported from US, please check out Angel Tomorrow.

Funarium: The Biggest Indoor Playground in Bangkok

Hubby and I bring our kids to playground regularly, and most of the time, we will let them spend some time at those indoor playgrounds at shopping malls. It’s the best way for mommy to go shopping in peace, while daddy taking his breathe from taking care of our two active kids. LOL!

I was really surprised to received at email from Simon, whom I assumed is the owner of Funarium, telling me that the biggest indoor play facility has opened in Bangkok. I came across Funarium when I was in Sukhumvit some time ago, but it was still under construction. If it’s not because of this email, I might not even know that it’s launched. So, thanks Simon.

We brought the kids there last Saturday afternoon, and both of them were thrilled as soon as we reached Funarium.

 

Both kids and adults have to pay a certain amount of admission fee, but actually, there is a time limit for playing in the facility. Nonetheless, everyone was allowed to spend as much time as you’re pleased since Funarium has just launched for a week. I’m not sure when will this “promotion” end, so you better get more information by giving them a call.


The play facility of Funarium.

 


This is where we spent the whole Saturday afternoon…

 

You need to put on socks to enter the play area, so bring your own socks or buy at the counter. I would suggest anti-slip socks as the adult socks I bought don’t have anti-slip at the bottom and it’s quite slippery walking in them. Make sure that you bring only anti-slip socks for your children if they are here at Funarium. The children socks sold here are anti-slip, so my kids could run and play around freely.

Hubby and I like to  accompany our kids to play, and I like snapping photos of them, so we followed our kids closely. But if you are really busy to be here with your kids, you need to have at least an adult to accompany your child who’s under 5 years old as the play facility shown above is designed for kids from 5 – 13 years old. I saw a few children accompanied by their maids only, so I guess if you maid can do a good job, it should be fine.

But there is a playground for babies and toddlers too…



Play area for babies and toddlers.

 

While hubby played with the kids, I spent some time checking out the 1st floor of the facility.


The 1st floor has some rooms for party, parents, and art & crafts.

 


The parents room.

 


One of the 4 party rooms.

 

Besides playing indoor, there is a sand and water play area outside too.


The sandpit

 

There is a connecting door to get to this side, but I would hope that this door is locked and can only be opened by parents or the helpers here. I actually saw a kid running to the door and try to go out by himself. Thank god his brother was quick to stop him as it was raining heavily later that afternoon. :P

Our kids didn’t play outside at all as they were pretty occupied with…


The slides!

 


I think Isabelle played with this slide close to 20 times at a go! She just kept running up the “steps” and down with the slide. LOL!

 


This slide is kind of fast, and it took Justin awhile to have the confidence to play by himself. Hubby was with him initially.

 


My kids love the trampoline.

 


Justin loves swinging back and for like Tarzan. LOL!

 


The ball area is fun for them too.

 


The kids like to put the balls into the vacuum pipes, and…

 


watch the balls all falling down when “chute” is full.

 


The kids love riding on the bikes too.

 

Not to mention, hubby and I had quite a “great workout” climbing up and down playing with the kids.


I think I almost wanna pengsan walking up and down and…

 

 
crawling in the tunnels with Justin. LOL! He really has great stamina.

 


Luckily hubby is fitter than me and he always enjoys playing with the kids so that I can take a break and snap more photos!

 

Actually, we had a small break after playing for awhile.


Don’t disturb me, let me finish my ice-cream fast fast then I will go play again!

 


Just one question, why are most of the popcorns salted here in Bangkok? It’s so hard to find caramel popcorns!

 

I think we spent close to 4 hours here. In fact, we even had our dinner before leaving Funarium.


Justin said no one TOUCHED his sandwiches and chips.

 

After hours of playing, both kids had such a good appetite!


Let’s makan first…

 

The main reason why we decided to have dinner here is, the kids would surely knock out in the car on the way home, and I was right about it! LOL!

If you are interested to know about the location of Funarium, just check out the link. Your kids can also join as members to enjoy the facility, but I won’t do so for my kids. We are not staying in Sukhumvit area, so I don’t think we will come here often. But we will surely bring the kids to Funarium again since they love the place so much.

Just in case you are wondering, no, this post is not a paid review. LOL!

Wordless Wednesday: Start Holiday Art Class Loh…

 

Category: Fun Time  2 Comments

Kneading Bread At Home

For those who know about my incision, I’m doing fine. It’s harmless tissue so don’t worry about me ya? :) I had a lot of rest yesterday, and I’m feeling better now. My insurance doesn’t cover the medical expenses, so hubby had a hole in his pocket already. LOL! I guess I better go through some free insurance quotes ASAP…

But this afternoon, I had a good time learning how to knead bread from my mom, and my kids joined in the fun too. I will let the photos do all the talking…


Justin’s making a turtle.

 


Isabelle helped to stuff in the shredded pork, and curi makan!

 


The buns “expanded” after “sunbathing”…

 

Justin did a dragon and a turtle, while Isabelle did a bee and something with 2 eyes. The eyes were black beans, but too bad, they were hard after baking, so we just removed them. Next time, we might just use a food marker to add in the details. I did a koala bear, a pig and a teddy bear.


My kids spread some egg yolk before putting the buns in the oven.

 


This little girl just can’t wait to eat her buns. LOL!

 


I packed the buns in their bentos, and both of them were eager to try them out after their nap.

 

Too bad the buns were kind of hard, and they don’t like the skin. So, we still need to work on this, but we had lots of fun this afternoon.