I didn’t celebrate Mother’s Day, and hubby pretended like it’s just another normal day. He said the kids should be getting me a present, but not him. That’s what he has always told me. So, we spent the whole day under the sun as the men wanted to go for water skiing.

I didn’t try it out as SIL said it’s not easy. She took a long time to learn the sports too, so I better forget it. Thank god I didn’t try as I saw hubby trying and trying but only managed to go for a few meters and swim back again for another trial. It’s really not easy.

Hubby trying…

And swam back LOL

But BIL is really good at it. He did a few tricks and even some angmohs said that he’s cool.

BIL on a flip

There are a lot of expatriates here who are good at water skiing and some are only as young as 9 years old but so much better than the adults. Hubby said he want the kids to try, OMG, my kids have so many things to try here, when they are old enough. It’s really sunny, and I got darker and darker. But the good thing is, there are a lot of handsome angmohs here. LOL! SIL and I spent the afternoon chit-chatting who’s good looking and muscular. LOL! There are a few lady skiers too, and they are superb!

But I really have to praise my little niece. She’s totally flexible. There isn’t a day that she stays at home during my 2 weeks stay. She follows her mother everywhere and she’s a great baby. With active and busy parents like this, she has to be more flexible huh?

BTW, we are going back tomorrow evening, but this time, we don’t need any Delsey luggage like before. It’s going to be all light weight for tomorrow’s flight. So, Justin and Isabelle, mommy see you tomorrow!

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Hubby and I have been rather busy lately, but we didn’t forget about Isabelle’s 2nd birthday. We had numerous discussions about whether to hold a birthday party for her or just celebrate among close family members. We just can’t think of where to hold her birthday. She had her full moon and 1st birthday parties at McDonald’s and even if we know that the kids will love to have a party there, but hubby was not keen about the venue. Besides that, both of us are rather exhausted with packing our personal stuffs and hubby’s stocks at his office, we are out of energy to entertain the guests now too tired to hold a party now.

Thus, we decided to have a simple dinner with family members last night at Kizuna Japanese Restaurant since we went there a few times and we like the food. Hubby booked a room days ago and we ordered a cake for Isabelle too. Talking about the cake, it didn’t come easy either. Firstly, I wanted to book a 3D Barbie Doll cake from The Left Shore, but it’s closed for a week. Then, the cake maker next door is too busy to bake a cake for us. We didn’t have many choices left so we settled with Gold Vision cake house, and they used a cheapo China doll instead of the real Martel Barbie! Ok, it’s just a doll, why make a big fuss about it? Besides, both hubby and I boh lak liao.

The Doll Cake for Isabelle

Anyway, the dinner was great and all the kids had fun with their favorite sushi and unagi. They even “put on a show” about Goldilocks and The Three Bear and Little Red Riding Hood. Hubby’s been practicing with them for weeks for the performance, but of course, with little Isabelle being one of the characters, you can’t hope much from their plays. LOL!

Thank god we had a room for ourselves for more privacy. If we didn’t have the room, the kids definitely couldn’t put up teh shows with all the indoor and outdoor furniture as well as diners around. Besides that, the kids were too noisy, I think they would be disturbing the diners too.

I like my cake.

Justin, Isabelle, Xin Yi and Li Wei

Oh ya, we bought a mini laptop for Isabelle as her present. She’s been fighting with Justin for his toy laptop, so it’s the best gift for her now. Anyway, we are trying our best not to buy too many toys until we settle down in Bangkok. No point moving so many things over!

Besides that, I knitted her a dress. Too bad it’s too big for her, so I’m sending it over to the shop to get it fixed. However, Justin got his orange knit tee with a horse. He has been bugging me to knit one but I only managed to knit the back and the sleeves. I asked the shop to knit the front part because I don’t have time for intrasia and knitting at full speed. Besides that, it looks nicer knitted by professional knitters. LOL!

A knit dress for Isabelle

Koh koh has a new knit tee with a horse leh!

On top of that, Isabelle has the doll as one of her presents too. We took out the doll from the cake and the waitress helped us to wash it. She even wrapped the doll with a tissue paper since it’s naked. LOL! How considerate huh?

My new doll

I put on the clothes for the doll after we got to the car. The cake shop gave us the clothes, and it looks better now.

My doll wears boots woh, I want boots too mommy…

In short, it’s still a bit early for her 2nd birthday, but mommy still want to wish you a happy birthday, my girl.

Filed under : Isabelle, Special Day, Family Moments

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Bai Ti Gong was not the only thing we had on Valentine’s Day. Justin’s school had some lion dance performance and all parents were invited for the event.

The lion dance by some high school students.

Isabelle was very excited to see the lion dance.

I didn’t know that Justin was performing for the kiddie lion dance team until we saw his teacher in the morning. No wonder he kept telling me about playing with the lion dance head, and even asked my dad to get him one. He plays with his lion a lot at home, so maybe he was practicing by himself.

Justin with his small lion dance head.

So, how’s his performance? Honestly, I was pretty surprised with his willingness to perform. LOL! You can see that he’s moving slowly, kicking his legs, then lifted up the head to see where he’s going whereas the rest of the kids already reached their destination.

*I’m having problem with YouTube!!! :P*

No matter what, we are proud of him.

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This is how I spent Valentine’s. Not romantic at all huh?

We went to hubby’s friend’s place. He had an open house every year on the night of praying for The Jade Emperor. My kids haven’t been to bai ti gong before, and they were rather surprised to see the roast pigs and food on the table, as well as the big joss sticks. Actually, what do you call these in English?

Justin named them dragon sticks woh…

The offering food on beer pong table

2 roast pigs! Drooling or not?

Actually, there weren’t a lot of kids there, and they were playing mostly among themselves. Nonetheless, they had a good time enjoying the food and gathered lots of angpao.

Yummy…

Daddy lectured Justin not to run around

We went back after 11.30pm. Hubby dropped us first before returning there again to catch up with his friends. There you go, my unromantic Valentine’s celebration. LOL! It’s more like a bai ti gong night to me.

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Some of you might have plans tonight, so I hope that you will be enjoying your Valentine’s Day with you love one. We will be visiting someone tonight, so there’s nothing romantic about it. Anyway, like years before, I got my bouquet of flowers from hubby. But I did grumble a bit last night. LOL! Sien mah, no surprises.

Anyway, Happy Valentine’s Day. And to my hubby, thanks for the flowers.

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Second Day for Chinese New Year (Chor 2)

We thought that the traffic was bad on the highway but we were wrong. It’s a smooth drive and I even got some nice shots of Isabelle in the car. We reached Penang rather early but since we skipped breakfast to drive back earlier, we were very hungry when we reached home! Luckily, my mom had prepared the steamboat so we just hantam the food first.

My brother arrived a few hours later, and my kids had fun playing with baby Elizabeth. You can see that Justin and Isabelle treats her like a doll. LOL! They love babies, so they have always enjoy playing with Elizabeth.

Kiss kiss…

After that, we went to my grandparents’ place in Kedah. I took some nice shots of the kids again…

I’m cute leh?

The leng chai koh koh…

The pretty baby Lizzy

More sequential shots of the girls…

The leng lui gang

My grandma doesn’t have toys at home, so my kids kept themselves busy with food and catching ants. Oh well, they are very kampung, so they can easily find some activities to keep them occupied.

Ants everywhere…

We went back to Penang at about 8.30pm, if I’m not mistaken. Hubby wanted to catch a movie, so we left early. Actually, my kids were really tired as they skipped their afternoon nap. They fell asleep in the car and didn’t get up despite of the noisy home improvements next door. Ya, don’t know why the Nepalese had to nail the walls late at night! But as long as my kids were not disturb, we didn’t complain about them.

So, hubby and I went pat toh watching Kung Fu Dunk. Frankly, it’s a lousy movie. :p

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The First Day (Chor 1)

We woke up early that morning, but because of the alarm clock but Xin Yi and Li Wei kept knocking at our door asking for angpao. Of course, I only let them come in once I got the kids changed in their new clothes and all of us were ready for “pai nian”. Actually, we had a hard time getting Justin to dress in his new clothes as he only wanted to wear the purple knit tee I made for him. My kids are my real supporters to my knit wears, you know? We gave up initially, but when Xin Yi came in, she persuaded Justin and he agreed to change into his new clothes!!! Finally!

Gong Xi Fa Cai and angpao na lai (give angpao la, we have bags for them)

It was a busy morning for us as there were guests coming in and you know la, it’s all about entertaining and talking and eating peanuts and junks. The kids enjoyed themselves with TV and then messing up my room playing with their toys.

In the evening, we went to a relation’s place for vegetarian dinner. It’s a custom in hubby’s family to have vegetarian dinner on the first day, but my kids didn’t like it. Besides that, Justin vomited again that evening, and we didn’t force him to eat. All the children enjoyed watching cartoons while the adults gambled la.

Very hard to take a photo of all the kids!

We didn’t stay there until late at night as we used to be. It’s best to go home early with my sleepy kids as we needed to drive back to Penang the next day. I still had some packing to do and most importantly, I got to bring along those mandarin oranges, pamelos, cookies, niam kao, my laptop and HDMI cables, cameras, clothes and etc! There were so much to pack once I put the kids to sleep. Gee…

As usual, I felt more tired during Chinese New Year…

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Firstly, I hope that everyone is still around to read this post!!! I’m wishing all of you a happy new year and gong xi gong xi fatt ta cai. Let’s hope that everyone will be doing great this year and you will have all your wishes come true.

We are almost ready for Chinese New Year and the kids are helping out with the last minute decoration.

Jie jie did the lanterns from red packets… and…

we helped her to hang them out…

BTW, Justin is feeling much better now and I brought him to the doctor after he vomited again in the morning. Hopefully, he will recover from the food poisoning in no time.

Taken at the clinic yesterday…Still have energy for horse rocking

In short, gong xi fa cai and have a prosperous year everyone!

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We didn’t do anything fancy on hubby’s birthday. Right after the kids’ music class, we went out for dinner to celebrate hubby’s birthday. We wanted to go to Paprika at first, but little that we knew, it closed down already!!! What a pity, it’s such a nice place for good food. Thus, we headed to Citrus instead.

Our kiddie spaghetti is so nice…

After that, we went grocery shopping at Tesco. I bought some nice red packets there, and it’s about time to exchange the notes for angpao already. Chinese New Year is only 2 weeks away huh? We got the kids another playhouse, and they love it.

New playhouse again!

After shopping, my kids went for kiddie rides, as usual. Justin is very interested in anything to do with horses, so it’s not surprising that he chose to ride on a horse. On the other hand, Isabelle chose the elephant. My maid was coming with us, so she helped us to watch out the kids while hubby and I had a double chocolate cheese cake at the nearby cafe.

It’s a horse!

I got the elephant.

A nice piece of cheese cake

I joked with hubby maybe I should sing happy birthday song to him before we took a bite, and thank god he said it’s not necessary. I was just joking. I dared not sing by myself in public, it’s too silly! LOL! Anyway, happy birthday dear.

Filed under : Special Day, Family Moments

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It’s hubby’s birthday today, and I remember!!!! I gave him my wishes after 12am last night because I am quite forgetful so it’s best to wish him as early as possible before I forget about it the whole day. LOL!

He didn’t want anything but a dinner as a family, so I didn’t get him anything. Frankly, it’s unromantic, but what to do? That’s what he wants.

We haven’t decided on where to eat tonight. Mmm…where should we go?

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