SE's reading

She reads better than when we started.  I stopped on Bahasa already since it is such an alien language to her. But she still isn't good at English. And this happens

I don't know that word, Mummy!

Why do I have to learn so HARD words?!

Let me chant to myself.... One day she will get it... one day she will be able to read by herself... One day...  * deep breath.

Drawing/writing while waiting

We normally bring writing utensils around.  They are useful to distract the kids when we have waiting time.  While waiting for lunch to arrive, SE drew things including this cute creature:

Maybe it's a dinosaur

JE decided to make a list...

"What I want for my birthday 2019"

Hahaha... her birthday is still far away!  Both have been planning for some time - where to go, what to eat, what presents they want.

Gymrama girls

When the girls all go for gymrama...

Walk walk walk

What are you looking at?

These photos are actually the 'bridge walk' where they have to 'walk' backwards in that position.  SE can't move yet but I'm sure she will make it soon.

Haha... actually none of them enjoy the class.  I periodically get requests to stop gymrama classes.  SE says it's so hard.  JE says she can't breathe and her body aches the next day

But I see they can do things now that they couldn't do before. SE can skip rope now, bounce a ball, throw it up and catch it, do the bridge.  She is so proud when she demonstrates to me what she can do.  JE, being older, managed to do most things fine upfront, and she definitely improved over time.    Some nights both girls will stage some coordinated back roll and front roll shows before they sleep.

My plan? Continue with gymrama classes!

SE's second concert

How time flies.  This is SE's last year in kindy and thus the final concert.  Unlike last time, hubby was around (well if our maid hadn't been gone and he was under strict instructions not to go off by himself, he might have been away again haha!).  SE had a nice costume again:

Pose1!

Pose2!

Pose3!

Take picture with Jojo

Oh but I was disappointed with the concert.  Her single dance was mostly in dim lighting and the girls spent lots of time on the floor.  Why oh why couldn't they have arranged for the girls to take turns being in the limelight?  All I want is ONE decent photo of my girl.  :(

SE is on the floor at the back. 

Only ONE girl got to be in the middle (parents gave generous donation to the school or what??)

What to do... the dance was over in minutes.  As before, it wasn't proper dancing when there are 24 students on stage together - mostly moving around in coordination.  Skip to the AFTER photos.

Smile! 

(I should have worn purple)

Port Dickson - Part 1 or 3

I had the idea of spending a night in Port Dickson since that's on the way back home from Melaka. We tried out D'Wharf hotel - for a change since our maid wasn't around and we didn't need to have a separate room for her.  I thought there would only be one big bed.  But was pleasantly surprised to find one bed in the 'living room', and another in the normal bedroom.  Perfect for the 4 of us.

The usual dining/living room areas was converted like this... sofa, coffee table, TV, partition, bed and then the window facing out. 

We will snack, watch TV then hop into bed for a rest

First up was the swimming pools (there were 3 pools).  I didn't want to go in after having gone into the water park back in Melaka that same morning.

Ahh. Relaxing

The good thing about a hotel arrangement was the included breakfast.  There was plenty of variety so we enjoyed it.

Eat eat eat

Surprisingly, the kids didn't want to go to the pool again.  Guess they were spoilt after the nice water park in Melaka.  Like SE said, there's nothing in the pool.  Haha.  They preferred to do this:

Lalalala la poke poke poke

Luckily I only booked one night at this hotel!  I had mistakenly thought it had beach access. 

So we swung by our usual PD place at Glory beach.  Haha... the kids love this rundown place for the animals, swimming pool and the little beach.  Had to drag them away after some time messing about with the sand.

Sand! Yeah!

Our last "holiday" destination, the king bun shop.  Drove past and couldn't help noticing the huge buns.

We are going to eat one giant bun!

The same problem... how as SE going to eat spicy food?  Somehow managed it after I scraping off the sauce for her, and she liked the bun.  And drank lots of water (again).

Verdict: We like!

I found it so-so only. Had better bun before and the curry was salty and not fragrant.  We took the leftovers home and the taste improved slightly the next day.  Still not something I'd purposely go for, but it was okay for its price of RM34.

All right... end of holiday.  And I had to face the tasks of cooking, cleaning, laundry etc for the next two weeks.

Melaka trip 2018 - Part 2

The highlight of the trip to the kids was... The Shore Oceanarium.  We went slowly through as advised by online reviews.  Inside were touch-pools, answer stamps/chops to a questionnaire given at the entrance, a 3D show, various interactive exhibits.  Overall, yes, pretty fun!  Not cheap at RM35 for adults, RM25 for kids.  Good thing JE got vouchers for free kids entrance at school.

SE was hesitant at first at the touch-pools.  Eventually she kept returning to them.  But only played with the sole PINK starfish.  The others were shades of grey, brown or yellow.

This is my favourite starfish coz it's PINK

Give me a kiss, fish!

I discovered a mermaid!

Which one should I catch for dinner?

Getting yucky with an iguana...

Do you think we can eat this?

People can buy fish food for RM10 and feed the fish here

Food was generally good this trip - we had nonya laksa, cendol, pork satay.  And something I'd been wanting to try for a long time... satay celup!  I was quite excited about this.

We can take any stick of food!

Only problem was SE, who cannot take spicy food. The waiter said he could provide a bowl of hot water for her to wash away the sauce. Even then, she had her tongue out in no time and finished her whole bottle of water.  Also MY bottle of water.

Celup celup in the satay sauce

JE: Celup celup...

SE:  Drink drink drink

I'd thought the sauce would pack more punch. It was basically a less-tasty version of satay sauce and there weren't other sauces to dip the food into unlike KL-style "lok-lok". Still, this was an enjoyable experience, even for SE.

Melaka trip 2018 - Part 1

As JE kept reminding, this was our FIRST trip this year.  The first 2018 school holiday, hubby went off somewhere with his friends.  Ditto for the second school holiday plus SE's school was closed a couple of weeks for chicken-pox and there were replacement classes during the holiday.  Poor kiddos only got to go somewhere this third holiday (warned hubby earlier that our maid was not going to be around, don't go off holiday by yourself!).  To be fair to him, hubby's trips were sponsored by the company he was attached to.  The recent one was 2 weeks in the Balkans and I'd agreed it'd be a waste to skip that.

First we took kakak to the airport.  The kids enjoyed that and SE wanted to help with her luggage too - all 25kgs of it!  Pried her hands off and next she wanted to help with the passport/documents.  Gahh... kids.

Then, we were off to Melaka!  First stop was Baba Charlie for kuih.  The small space there is full of people who came for this exact purpose since there isn't anywhere to sit nor any view to admire.  Expensive overall and probably over-rated, but I liked the onde-onde and curry-puffs.

Busy-busy aunties are behind me

Then we checked into our room.  Took the chance to get a family room since we didn't need a separate room for kakak this time.

Our holiday home sweet home!

This place, The Shore Residences has a great kiddy water park.  Even I liked this place... and was a bit scared going down the slides haha.

Come and play!

Ready set go!

Like our mushroom shower?

Last one up is a tortoise!

And the winner is... Jo Ern!

Let's go through the Arch of Water!

The other side of this water park was nice too, with lie-down jacuzzis.  I must find more such accommodation with great facilities!

We went to Jonker street, it was hot.  The kids were melting in the heat but perked up when they had their first slushies. 

We LOVE slushies!

To be continued....