La la la-la la la, Sing a happy song

Why don't you sing along?

I believe most people are in holiday mood, and this happy mood will last till CNY is over. I let myself indulged in food and some retail therapy for the last 2 days in 2011. After having lunch with peers for the past 2 days, as I mentioned here, I had lunch with my loved ones yesterday. MIL wanted to do some spring cleaning, she wasn't able to cook lunch for my princesses, my husband decided to take me from the office and go for lunch together.

Picture was taken on Wednesday, 29 Dec 2011, at Flemington Hotel, Chinese restaurant.

The set lunch of 4 persons, consisted of seaweed soup, sweet sour fish, Thai style chicken, and stir-fried Romaine lettuce.

 The total bill of 3 dishes and 1 soup is RM50.10.

Today in my last working day in 2011, I managed to do some retail therapy at my lunch time. I bought a few CNY cloths for my two princesses.

Whether you are ready, 2012 is here in less than 48 hours. I am sure everyone has its ups and downs of life in 2011. Year’s end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us. Keep the smile, leave the tears. Think of Joy and forget your fears.
Here I am wishing you a very happy new year.

Food to get you in the mood

Other than retail therapy, having good food with great company will get women in the mood of excitement too. Muahahahah!

When all of us were back to work after the long Christmas replacement break, we called the mum-to-be Hayley, and our ex-trainee, Li Ying to join us for the post Christmas celebration lunch.

Picture was taken on Tuesday noon at Flemington Hotel, Rain Tree restaurant. It was also a welcome back lunch for Angeline, who just got back from her 2 months maternity leave. Wakakakaka!

We had RM12 nett set lunch. This was the menu of the day.

After having post Christmas celebration lunch, we were still in the mood of eating like a pregnant women. So, we decided to have the pre 2012 New Year celebration lunch.

 Picture was taken on Wednesday noon at SSL Traders Hotel .

We had RM18nett buffet lunch. These were the food that I ate.

I certainly don't want to let this excitement stop. We still have Thursday and Friday, before we break again for 2012 New Year count down.

When Eugene talked about his missed goals in 2011, I left him a comment about my new year resolution. Here I repeat what I said there, "My 2011 New Year Resolution is to sleep early. The more I wanted to sleep early, the more I gave additional stress to myself, and I missed it. So, my 2012 New Year Resolution is to have no stress. I guess 'to have no stress' is even harder to achieve than 'to sleep early'. " Don't you think so?

How we spent our Christmas

Since we are not Christians, our Christmas holiday was a normal weekend.
My sister family was here on Christmas eve. We went for dinner together. On Christmas day, we went to the newly opened drive-thru MacDonald.

This is the second McDonald in town. My two princesses brought books along wherever they went.

April and May love fried chicken, pizza and nuggets. They don't really like burger.

Surprisingly, they both finished the whole Mac Chicken that day.

May be, they have grown up and started to accept more variety of food.

Back at home,  they both gave me a lovely present, which I have recorded in these two videos.

Pyslla Beads

Seldom there is any toy which can keep my 7 years old busy for many hours, ever since she has outgrown most of the toys like Barbie, Lego, Puzzles,Play Dough and stuffed  toys at home. However, Play is still important for the development of children.  During my previous trip to KL in November, I managed to buy Pyslla Beads and its boards from IKEA. When I bought, I was still wondering whether they would like it.

During this school holiday, apart from watching TV, computer games, practising piano, doing exercises in workbooks and reading, she spent most of her free time working on pyslla beads.

So far, she has managed to do Red Angry Bird, Yellow Angry Bird, Hello Kitty, Bear, Minnie Mouse, and Smurfs.

April is getting good in doing pyslla beads. May has also picked up the skill from her big sister.

I have a pair of clumsy hands with 10 big fingers. I can't able to do this job well. So, I only help them to iron when they have done.

I have made use some of their pyslla bead work as a cup coaster in my office. I have also transformed some into key chains. April wants to give away some of the key chains to her classmates when the school reopens in another 2 weeks time.

Happy Winter Solstice Festival 2011

Today is Winter Solstice (Dong Zi). My girls helped my MIL to make the glutinous rice balls (Tang Yuan) last night.

I was called home to have lunch after my PIL prayed to the ancestor.

These were all the home cooked dishes that my MIL cooked. She brought the food to my house for us as  lunch.

Right after lunch, I quickly got myself a bowl of glutinous rice balls. Can you count how many rice ball that I took? Never mind, I tell you, I have to take 40 balls this year, according to my Chinese Lunar Calendar age.

1 year older is 1 year wiser, so how many have you taken today? Don't cheat me!

Genting 2011 - a short getaway

Since we have kids 7 years ago, Genting has become our favourite spot of a short getaway.  This could be the 5th or the 6th times my 7 years old there, and the 3rd or 4th times my 5 years old there.

 They never seem to get bored with the rides.

My husband and I were just sitting at the bench, watching them queuing for one and another one of joy rides.

 Frankly, I didn't enjoy going to Genting, let me tell you why at the end of the post.

Anyway, the Rainforest splash pool park is a place worth going.

 The Theme Park has extended the operation hours to 10pm during school holiday.

April and May got to meet Genting Theme Park Mascots, Tabby the Tiger and his lovely friends at the Night Park.

Allie the Elephant. 

Joe the Orang Utan.

Brass band performance at the night parade. The band played several Christmas songs then. 

April was asked to go up to the stage at the Magic Clown Stage Show. She got to play some tricks with the clown before getting a free balloon from him.

Overall, it was a fun trip for my girls. However, my husband and I decide not to visit Genting until another 5 years. We have started to get bored of Genting.

1. April has achieved a certain height that she can't take certain rides with her baby sister. On the other hand, lil May too can't take certain rides that her big sister can.

2. There is not much improvement in the Theme Park from the past few visits that I had.

3. Those shopping outlets and restaurants in the First World Plaza are way too out if compare to the KL and Penang shopping mall. Sad to say that, I am a shopaholic, not getting enough thrill there.

Nevertheless, there are still many attractive events specially created for the kid in this school break.

I'm so lucky to have a friend like you

On certain evenings, I could hear a text message arriving in my cellphone.

This type of message surely warmed my heart.

Cheese baked pasta with assorted mushroom

Another message.

Mixed veggies porridge.

The porridge is so healthy, zero salt, zero oil and low fat. I took it with a cup of green tea.I love this set of breakfast to bits.

That morning, when I received a text message "I have sandwiches for you as breakfast.".

When you wasn't in the office, I felt so lonely.

Now, please accept this gift as a small token of appreciation for being my friend. I look forward to enjoying our friendship for many more of your birthdays.

Angry fashion

When all the kids were into Angry Birds (AB) games. my girls only heard of it but didn't get to play at all. I only exposed the AB online games to them during this long holiday. They don't really get hooked on the games. They found it too tough especially at level over 20.

Nevertheless, they too developed fever to AB stuff like AB pencil case, AB eraser, AB key chain and etc.

I got them the AB fashion.

April happily posed in her new AB pink Polo T and AB denim pants. The pants came with AB belt too.

 The back design of her Angry fashion. The whole suit costs me RM65.

Lil May too posed in her AB red Polo T shirt, but I couldn't get the pants of her size. I got her a denim skirt with belt.

This outfit of Lil May cost me RM 40.

By the way, there is Angry Birds wording inside the collar of their shirts. I asked Lil May to lift her collar up, and tell her that she would  look  very "yeng" (smart).

May said, "You want me to look like the evil step mom of Snow White? No way."

I googled the Evil Queen picture this morning, apparently May is right. Lifting the collar up is the fashion of Angry Evil Queen. Wakakakaka!

First time camwhoring

Last Saturday, at my FIL's birthday celebration, my two princesses had the chance to meet up with their cousins. All cousins are elder than my girls. While waiting for the dish to be served, the adults were chit-chatting, and the youngsters were camwhoring.

Kids learn fast. April started to camwhore on her own after that.

These are her first batch of camwhoring pictures.

Kids grow fast. She has now learned to camwhore.

Should I happy or should I start to worry? Should I educate her about the hidden danger of self taken picture via cellphone?

Take many pictures with parents

Last Saturday, we celebrated my FIL's 70 years old birthday. We invited few family friends and close relatives for a humble dinner in a restaurant.

My two princesses dressed up in their concert costumes.

They knew so well that this was a big day of Grandpa, they were trying the best to get their Grandpa's attention.

FIL didn't fancy creamy and lots of icing cake. He prefers something plain and simple like this pandan layer cake as his birthday cake.

My PIL are always labeled as a loving old couple. When you see my FIL, you will definitely see my MIL. I never heard them quarelling so far. They really make many old couples envy with their togetherness, I reckon.

p/s: In order to show your love to the parents. there are many ways. Here, I would like to share a few.

1. Bring them out for dinner, movie or shopping.

2. Take them together in your trip or vacation.

3. Talk to them and listen to them.

4. Remember their birthdays.

5. Take many pictures of them.

Holiday at Sunway Lagoon 2011

This was the second time we went to Sunway Lagoon. I have just checked my blog achieve . The first time we spent our holiday there was in November 2009. Ever since the first trip there, the girls kept telling us that their most favourite place in Malaysia has changed from Genting to Sunway Lagoon.

After about 4 hours drive, we arrived at the hotel car park. In fact, we didn't need to move the car after that, as we could linger in this area for the entire trip. Mind you, my husband dislikes driving in KL.

We stayed in Pyramid Tower Hotel, the same hotel as our previous trip. This time, we took the family package which included the entrance ticket to the theme park for 2 adults and 2 kids. We choose this hotel because it is integrated with the mega shopping mall, Sunway Pyramid , which I could find almost all the outlets that I like.

The first thing that the girls were checking on from the window, Sunway Lagoon Theme Park. They looked at the theme park and talked to each other on how fun it was going to be in there. They could  watch and discuss about it day and night.

We managed to snap pictures at the Christmas decor at Sunway Pyramid.

I personally feel that the Sunway street light decor is more fascinated than the indoor one. The indoor Christmas decor is rather packed due to the space constraint.

My two little princesses surprised me with their boldness in taking all the rides and slides.

You can tell from the pictures that they enjoyed the water splashing and pouring so much.



We were there from 10am to 4pm, and I need to drag them to bath and change. They have started to ask me when is the next trip,  the moment we left the park.