At the restaurant

June has been a rather busy month for us.  There was the visit to the petting zoo, birthdays for 2 kids and 2 adults. The kids' birthdays were at the respective homes, no issue.  But the birthdays for adults involved multi-course meals at restaurants. With long-ish wait times.

I used to get annoyed by kids running around in restaurants, chasing each other and screaming away. Thought that won't be happening with MY kids coz I'd train them to BEHAVE. And now?

After 15mins or so.... *wriggle wriggle*

Off to the fish tanks!

That was at a restaurant with fish tanks. It was back and forth, back and forth, table to fish tank, fish tank to table. Luckily my maid could accompany them. (Though I got worried when I didn't see the kids for a while!)

At the next dinner with a private room and no fish tanks, JE and SE ended up going round and round the table. Again and again. Even my maid sat down after a while.

Fix my shoes first

Pose for photo before running round the table again

I guess it's just not possible to expect kids to sit still at a meal that takes hours to finish! If other people get annoyed... *no eye see*. What to do? Hehe.

Still all play

JE isn't attending anything formal - no school, no ballet, no music, no Kumon etc. Partly because of that, I'm thinking that she's still young and can pick up reading/writing/rithmetic later. And of course it's easier for everyone. She doesn't have to wake up early nor do homework. We can go to the mall or meals with friends at any time.  But I'm starting to realise that many others her age are going for classes of some sort already. I recently bought a toy to teach maths addition. The seller said she'd used it for her son but he could do sums in his head now. When I asked, she said her son would be turning 4yo soon.  Errr JE is already 4yo...

I guess she would be able to learn eventually. Still, maybe I should check out ballet classes or something! She's happily doing her thing at the moment.

Show you this cute rabbit

And show you my tongue

Got maid

Yay I have a maid again!  She arrived unexpectedly early and I was only without one for 5 weeks.  Algen has been good so far - very hardworking, good with the kids, eager to learn.  She told me she's worried that I'd send her home as she really wants to work.  Now that's an attitude I could get used to!  My previous few maids - Annie, (Reyme doesn't count) and Ilyn - were people who knew they could easily get other jobs. And deigned to stay a while just because we were nice to them.

But SE has been VERY trying since Gen came. It's as if she knows she has a maid at her beck and call now and she WILL scream for attention as she wishes!  She screams every single time she doesn't get her way too, sigh.  Oh well, overall things are looking good.

Put flowers in my hair, kakak

Flowers for me too!

Hope this one will be a keeper. :)

Cheeky

The little one talks now.

Ah Mah: What is your name?
SE: Erin! (her cousin's name)

Me: Are you a good girl or a naughty girl?
SE: AHGUBOI! (I good boy)

Me: Choose a story to read ok?
SE:  *Turning over and saying at every single page* I no like that, I no like that, I no like that....

Aihhs... don't know whether I want to smack or hug her!

Me? I good girl

Farm in the city

This petting zoo has been on my to-do list a while. Then S-26 (the girls' milk) club organised a trip with good rates. Yess! First up, was convinced I'd gotten the wrong address... No signboard at all. One housing area after another. Then a new commercial area. But right behind that, there it was!

Greetings from the petting zoo!

We fed various creatures. Animal food was all provided. Could have done without the numerous photographers offering to take family photos every few minutes but guess that's somebody's bread and butter. 

Come deer, come take this tasty stalk of veg

You must all be hungry, fishies!

Eat your veg, that's a good rabbit

This goat likes veg too

Did longkang fishing...

All set for some fishing!

Leave it to the pro to really catch fish though! Hubby caught 4 through his scientific method of using two nets. Me, I caught one by randomly swishing my net around. Any fish caught had to be returned to the water. (Rats, was thinking of increasing the population in my aquarium!)

This requires planning, patience, strategy...

Got close and personal with denizens of the zoo. I was surprised that JE was happily handling the animals as she can be quite a scaredy-cat. SE on the other hand was a bit scared.

JE: This is one big turtle

SE: Ih NOT ter-teh, ih TER-TIH

(Bossy boots: It's not Tur-tle. It's TOR-TOISE)

Chick in the hand and chick on the head is better than 2 in the bush

Oooohhhh!

Want see the mini ponies! Waaaaa

The zoo isn't very big and the admission charges aren't low. Food options are so-so. But it's lots of fun as you get close to a lot of the animals. Overall, definitely a great place to bring the kids for half a day or so.

Melaka Family trip

Back from 3D2N in Melaka. An overdue family trip after the last one to Ipoh 2.5 years ago!  Melaka is one place I've been wanting to go for years, but my brother kept saying wait for his apartment in Bayou Lagoon to be ready. Well it finally was. :)

Everyone in the family... some happy some not so

First up we went to the Portugese settlement. This was nice, sea breezes and seafood. Not crowded since we were there early.

Me and my Papa

Next morning, Jonker street. The plan was the famous chicken rice ball for lunch.  But the queue for the few tables in the shop was long and hardly moving. Gave up and went to a nearby empty shop. Food was overall decent (it probably helped that I had low expectations, heh).

Me and Mummy and this chicken

Had fun exploring the various shops in Jonker street - souvenirs, snacks, cendol, biscuits, gula melaka etc etc. Wanted to go for famous cendol.... saw queue and selected an empty shop nearby instead. Cendol was still good. :) The sun was scorching hot though. Went back to rest and headed to the water park in the evening.

Can't wait to go play!

Various members of the family

The waterpark is more for older kids. With 4yo JE and 2yo SE, we just walked around and got wet. Dinner was planned to be at Umbai. But plan was scratched since it was rather late and we decided the food at Umbai wouldn't be suitable for the kids anyway. Turned into a nearby Malay food place with lots of people. Gahh bad move. The place was stuffy and hot, food was pricey and NOT good, e.g. the fried prawns/squid were mostly flour.

Waiting to EAT!

The next day, planned to lunch at the famous nonya food shop Nancy's. But we gave up at the queue and just went to the empty shop next door. This is like the theme of our holiday! What to do when there are 7 kids aged 1,2,3,4,4,6,8?  On the plus side, we had the place to ourselves - could take our time to order and then eat in peace.  After lunch it was a little bit more shopping and then back to KL.

Me and an ox

Me and a dragon

It was good spending that much time together. The kids definitely enjoyed themselves. Must arrange another trip one soon!

Which one?

Made some cookies recently with cartoon cutters that had been lying unused for the longest time.  

Which one shall I choose?

Oooh I just don't know

Actually these pictures are mainly for show.  JE took her first 5 cookies - bunny, Hello kitty, Tigger, Doraemon, Mickey mouse. Then she took the round ball that was rolled from the last bit of dough.  SE took... bunny, bunny, bunny, bunny, bunny, bunny.  Hehehe.  Luckily there were more bunnies than anything else! The cutter was slim and could fit where others couldn't on the rolled-out dough.

I was delighted at the reception of these cookies. The girls had about 10 each the first day.  Erm the second day it was down to 2-3 each. After that I had to finish up half-cookies after SE kept eating half and toying with the other half. Oh well. Still, a success story! SE eventually took non-bunny cookies too. :)

O-chay, take cat chookie. Then Michee Mao

Poser #2

I'm still thrilled that JE isn't running away whenever the camera comes out.  Am really appreciating this after enduring the cold shoulder for so long!

Smile for camera

Me and my piggy bun

The little one seems to be following in the big sister's footsteps as well.

Smile for camera

That might appear more of a grimace than a smile... but at least she's trying! Yayy!