Balloon Rocket

Every now and then, Elizabeth receives party pack from classmates who celebrated their birthday in kindy. She received balloons in the party pack, unblown ones. I was thinking of something to do with it instead of just blowing it up and let the kids play with it. So I looked up the Internet to find any simple and easy science project involving a balloon. I found this Balloon Rocket and it's pretty simple project you can do with your kids too since it's the school holiday now. Although I did my project way before the school holidays. :D

You will need a balloon, a long piece of string (use a thicker string like mine or kite string will do), a plastic straw and tape.

What you need to do:
1. The instructions says to tie one end of the string to a chair or door knob. But since it's suppose to be a rocket, I feel that it should soar higher than a chair or door knob. So I asked my hubby to hold the other end of the string and lift his hand high up.

2. I will be holding the other end of the string so put this end through the straw.

3. Pull the string tight and tie it to another support in the room but for me I just hold it low.

4. Blow up the balloon but don't tie it instead you pinch the end of the balloon and tape the body of the balloon to the straw.

5. You're ready for the launch so let go the balloon and watch it fly like a rocket!

My children were excited and happy. And you can expect questions to be flowing from their mouth from this little project. So I had to explain that as the air rushes out of the balloon, the balloon moves forward and this motion is called thrust. It's a bit like a rocket where the burning rocket fuel blasts down from the engines and makes the rocket goes up. Happy trying. :)

School's Out!

We are into the second week of school holidays already. Normally school holidays would mean that my mother, sister and her brood would be up to KL to spend a few days with us. They came up at the beginning of the school holidays and went home already. They literally came as soon as school was out because they were up by Friday itself! LOL.

While my nephews and my daughter were waiting for their school bells to ring, I was playing the role of a SAHM (like real!) and Joseph got the privilege to do this...

He enjoyed it hysterically and got to paint in peace without squabbling with his sister.

Joseph's masterpiece.

One of the agenda during their trip was to bring them to Menara KL or KL Tower since my mother haven't been there before. Our ticket package was inclusive of the Observation Deck and the Animal Zone. Joseph entered for free and they have senior citizen privileges too. We went up to the Observation Deck first and made a few circles to observe KL city. Your are given a Walkman kind of thing together with earphones upon request if you want a guided tour around the observation deck. But it didn't come in handy and we returned it. Some were either faulty or too soft. I think it is more useful for foreign tourist and not local tourist like us.

Observation deck of KL Tower

One of the many views you can get from KL Tower

And of course the famous Petronas Twin Towers.

The viewer to see the view at a much larger point of view.

My nephews with their Angry Birds t-shirt. *roll my eyes* My beloved mum and me.

Some of the animals in the Animal Zone.

Most unique animal there was this two-headed tortoise. It was quite tiny actually. About the size of my palm.

That pic of my nephew Brandon with parrots actually costed us RM5 to take with our own camera. Everything requires money these days. We went to the Nature Park after that.

It is quite an awesome sight on top of the Observation Deck but I think once is enough just to have that experience. The visit to the Animal Zone was ok but don't expect it to be as big as a zoo. My mum freaked out as soon as she entered because one of the first few animals at the front were the pythons. So she didn't want to enter further thinking that it was all reptiles inside. We had to make our visit short and sweet. We went to the Nature Park after which was free. We came to this park before and I've blogged about it here.

The other place we went was Mid Valley Megamall where we managed to catch the Mickey Mouse Through The yEars creative tributes showcasing Mickey Mouse figurines imaginatively painted on by local artists and some of the participating outlets from Mid Valley Megamall.

This one is so adorable because it's like a miniature of F.O.S. outlet with decorated Mickey figurines.

One of the many large Mickey figurines.

As you can see I'm attracted to the Mickeys with bling blings!

 It was interesting to see how creative people can be with a Mickey figurine. The children enjoyed browsing through the exhibition. You can still catch it though. It seems it will be on till September.

Mother's Day Card

In case, the card would go missing one day although I will definitely keep it, I decided to record it down into my blog. This year like other years since she went to kindy, my daughter came back with a Mother's Day card she did in school. She showed it to me proudly and wished me.

The front. It's so cute the way she writes her Chinese characters. Haha.

The back. I find it cute and funny with that question there , "Good for you Mummumy(wrong spelling haha)?" From is foam. hehe.

Thank you for your effort, dear Elizabeth. I appreciate the card very much. Mummy loves you very much! I can feel the love..hehe.

On to another story, my two kiddos are like any other siblings. They have their good times and bad times. They can be loving to each other during good times and behave like enemies during bad times. LOL. But there were a few occasions where it shows how much they love each other.

1. When I found out that Joseph did something naughty, his sister would defend him by giving me excuses or reasons on why Joseph did it. She made it sound like he wasn't in the wrong!

2. She gives in to him more than her brother gives in to her.

3. There was once the two squabbled and that left Elizabeth in tears. She ran away crying but Joseph ran after her and quickly apologised, "Sorry Jie Jie. Sorry Jie Jie".

4. Another incident happened when Joseph wanted to paste some stickers from his Thomas and friends sticker activity book. Elizabeth wanted to join in but he shooed her away. So she ran away in tears again. But again he ran after her and said to her, "Come Jie Jie, stick together".

I admit the squabbling I don't like but it's when they make up, it's so sweet to witness it. I'm sure you guys agree with me right?

School holidays are coming. Enjoy your holidays with your kiddos. :)

Joseph's first time attending his sister's Sports Day.

Bukit Nanas Forest Reserve

Has anyone heard of Bukit Nanas Forest Reserve? I never knew a forest reserve existed right in the heart of KL city. I discovered it when I googled for a list of forest reserve in Malaysia. It is just beside KL Tower or Menara KL and I thought why not try to hike there especially since it looks quite easy for beginners and people with a preschooler and toddler like me. This is the our second hike. The first hike was at Gasing Hill Forest Reserve.

There are a few entrances to this forest. Since it was our first time, we entered through the entrance very close to KL Tower's entrance. The only bummer there is the parking fee which was quite pricey. But fret not for we found another entrance right opposite the Bukit Nanas Convent School which is not in the grounds of KL Tower. That way we can avoid the parking fee and enter the forest through that particular entrance.

The map of this forest reserve.

On the left is the entrance to the forest reserve nearest to KL Tower. This should be the main entrance. This entrance leads to a suspension bridge. (pic on the right)

The children enjoyed the suspension bridge.

Coming down from the suspension bridge, you will see this gazebo. It's a site for camping. You can see many tents in the background.

Tracks are easier with planks attached to make stairs probably to avoid erosion.

Clockwise from top left: Bukit Nanas Convent School opposite one of the entrance, haven't seen those kind of mushroom / fungus for a while, tall bamboos at the bamboo walk.

Joseph crossing a bridge. The children like to cross bridges.

A school doing their camping there. One of the activity provided at KL Tower is the pony ride. We didn't ride on the pony though.

The pony's stable. The pony cart ride will be free of charge if you purchase the ticket up to KL Tower. Our tummies were rumbling already so I just took some pictures and left.

Overall, it was quite a pleasant hike and it won't take so much of your time because it is not a large forest. It is suitable for young children and beginners. If you have spare time and interest, you can also go up KL Tower and enjoy their other array of activities but that you would have to purchase the ticket. The forest reserve is FOC. This time we were more prepared with water and snacks. The hiking trails were not muddy. So no drama throughout the hike. :) We will definitely hike some more!



Happy Mother's Day

"Happy Mother's Day!" Elizabeth exclaimed animatedly while handing me a gift she did for Art in kindy when I picked her up from the babysitter. She gave me the gift last week. So I said, "Thank you dear but Mother's Day is next Sunday but it's ok." She told me how she did the paper cup as the pot and I just listened and stroke her hair. Even though the kindy came up with this idea to appreciate mums, I'm still thankful and touched with my daughter's action. I can feel the love.

Although Joseph has not been told about Mother's Day, his good night kisses everyday and sweet good byes everyday when I go off to work is enough to make my heart contented and know that he loves me. Hearing "good bye, mummy! (flying kiss)" always makes my journey to work filled with happiness despite the traffic jams.

When your child makes you happy, you want to make them happier. So go on and make your child happy. Sing and dance with them like I did last night. We sang and dance. We also played "London Bridge Is Falling Down". We were so exhausted after that but happy. Now, I'm excited to celebrate Mother's Day this weekend with my own mother and make her happy.

I'd like to wish all mothers reading this in advanced (because I don't blog on weekends) a Happy Mother's Day and hope you had a fulfilling one!

I placed the gift beside our family picture. Elizabeth was 2 years and 8 months and Joseph was 1 month old then.

You're My Popsicle

Every time I hear the word popsicle it reminds me of a song from the very first NKOTB album. Yes, I was an avid fan before and I have their first album too! Hehe. I like eating popsicles myself too so when I saw a post on how to do a yogurt popsicle by Barbara of Little Chumsy's Blog, I can't resist trying them. So I really went to Daiso (semangat man!) and bought the popsicle mould. After I bought all the necessary items, we did it one Friday night so that we can consume it on Saturday!

I did strawberry yogurt popsicles so I got some strawberries, strawberry yogurt, honey and full cream milk.

Elizabeth wants to help out, so I got her to put the frozen strawberries and strawberry yogurt into the blender.

Joseph wants to help too! After putting all the yogurt into the blender, blend it and it becomes like a smoothie.

You can add in a few tea spoons of honey for added sweetness. You can also add full cream milk to make it creamier. Blend it a little to even out the mixture with the added ingredients.

Then I poured them into the Daiso popsicle mould, cover the mould and put it in the freezer.

Happy kids = priceless! Be warned though that it will get messy when kids eat popsicles. Hehe.

After that success, I tried Ribena popsicles too. Just as good. Great for those hot, sunny days. :)

Meme : Most Frequently Heard Compliment

Thank you to mNhL of An On-line Diary to Share for the Happy Blogger Award to me. For this also we are to do a meme on the most frequently heard compliment.

Well, I guess it is "You don't look like you're married with kids!"

I don't know whether the compliments were just trying to be nice or the truth but of course I hope it was the latter. Actually I'm not back to my pre-pregnancy weight, I was stick thin before but thank God I managed to make people think I was not a pregnant slob before. LOL. If it's about the look, then I strongly feel that the wonders of makeup have managed to save me. ;) Nevertheless, I'm very thankful for the compliments and it definitely always made my day.

So there you have it. Please feel free to do it even though I'm not tagging anyone. :)