Eep, I'm A Year Older

Yesterday was my birthday and although we always convince ourselves that age is just a number, we all wish that we could be 16 all over again right? Never mind, age gracefully as they say. ;)

We did the usual like singing the birthday song, cutting the birthday cake and dinner celebration. It's like any other usual day, I still went to work, my kids still drive me up the wall sometimes although they did some sweet things for me too and hubby helped with more chores. :) I don't intend to post any birthday celebration pictures because they didn't turn out quite nice. But instead here is a birthday note from my sweet daughter and a funny video of Joseph.

The front of the birthday note.

If you have trouble understanding her note because of the spelling and grammar mistakes, let me decipher it for you. "One little mother, the one I know. She loves me and cares me 1 million. I like to the same 1 million. From daughter."

This is the funny video of Joseph acting like a zombie or monster. I don't know where he got the idea from. Maybe the music from the book sounded quite dramatic. LOL. So tell me whether he is acting like a zombie or monster or ???

Happy Birthday Elizabeth!

Elizabeth is 6 years old today! I went to her kindy this morning to celebrate her birthday with her classmates. Remember last year's celebration where I got her two princess cakes that turned out to be so hilarious? Well, this year I got her ice-cream cakes I got it from Living Social. It was a good deal but turns out that 1kg is probably not enough for a class of 21 children. LOL. You know how children will react when they hear the words "ice-cream"!

This year, I haven't got much time to handmade the goody bag. I only managed to do it for her 4 years old birthday celebration. So again this year, the goody bag was store bought and Elizabeth specifically told me that she wants princess goody bags. The contents this year had an additional something special. I did chocolate truffles for the first time. Taste turns out ok but the look is something I think I need to work on. Anyway, I hope the kids will like it.

Here's what you need for the chocolate truffles:
250g chocolate chips (I used a packet of VanHouten chocolate chips)
6 tbsp whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
30g butter
Cocoa powder
Sprinkles

1. Pour the chocolate chips into a bowl. Add the whipping cream, vanilla and butter. Put the bowl over a pan of simmering water to melt the chocolate. Don't forget to stir. It will look like this.

2. Then let the chocolate mixture cool. After that, put it in the freezer. Stir every 5 minutes until the mixture is thick.

3. For each truffle, roll a teaspoon of the mixture into a ball in your hands. You have to be quick as it melts easily. A trick I discovered is to wipe your hands off the excess mixture sticking on your hands every time after you make it into a ball. Then it will be easier to make the next ball.

4. Then roll it in cocoa powder or sprinkles.

You can lay the truffles on baking parchment and store in the fridge for up to a week.

Cute plastic bags from Daiso to put the chocolate truffles.

This year's goody bag.

A class picture with Teacher Susan before singing the birthday song.

Do I look like a teacher? Haha.

Blowing the candles!

Don't you think that my girl looked extra happy today? But of course, it's her birthday!

Elizabeth with her classmates.

Elizabeth and her 'boyfriend' Aiman. Why does Aiman always look tired huh? Must tell her to change bf already. Muahaha.

In the end, it's all about our child's happiness right? The twinkle in her eye and her face lights up when I arrived today. It made me feel happy that I've done my part as a mother. In a blink of an eye, she's 6 years old today. I still can't believe that she's entering another important phase in her life next year..starting primary school! Just thinking about it makes me anxious.

At night after work, we'll usually have our tradition of singing the birthday song and cutting the cake. The birthday girl was very excited and happy. It should be a good day for her and hopefully many many more happy returns of the day for her!

While waiting for me to bring out the birthday cake, this is what they did!

That 'Alex' is a birthday present from Papa all the way from Universal Studios Singapore!

Like always, there must be a family photo.

Eating their piece of cake and enjoying it too!

Happy Birthday lil' dahling! You're a gem and mummy will try to be there for you in every step of your way ok? Love you, love you, love you!

Mother Dearest

Today is my beloved mother's birthday and too bad I can't be back to celebrate it with her because my hubby couldn't take leave. But I knew much earlier so I already celebrated with her in advanced.

Two weeks back, we went for lunch after church and took her to a restaurant called Good New World in Malacca. It was quite a satisfying lunch although mum said, "aiyo so expensive". But birthday is but once a year right? Anyway, mum was quite pleased.

Elizabeth, Mum and my nephew Benjamin.

Then I wanted a pic with Mummy. Joseph and my another nephew Brandon is in the pic this time too.

Abalone dish. Ordered specially for my Mum but alas she said she couldn't eat much because her teeth are not strong enough to chew.

Xiao Bai Cai. We must have greens because I have a little vegetarian(Joseph).

We can't go wrong with any sweet and sour dish because that is what my nephews love! So sweet and sour pork it is.

Sek Pan fish. It has already been attacked then only I remembered to take a pic. LOL. Four dishes for my family of small eaters excluding hubby and me. Hehe.

After the meal, hubby took a ride around. Something caught our eye and we ended up at The Eye On Malaysia area. We saw people playing kites. Some were really huge. It was a windy day alright but some of the huge kites still has difficulty going up into the sky. We found out that there was some kind of water fest going on by Tourism Malaysia. We also saw a lot of Perodua Alza lining up. Apparently, there was some sort of competition going on. It looked like a competition for modified cars.

We never knew that this existed! Apparently there were some sailing and dragon boat competition that took place here.

I really like sailboats and wonder how is it like to be on one.

Couldn't get a good angle shot but that long kite is actually a giant squid.

The 'kite flyers' are trying very hard to make the kites go up. Quite unique kites which I haven't seen before. Looks like a ring with thorns, a cat and a parachute-like kite.

This was the winner of the modified cars competition. From what I observe, he won because of his effort. It's the most decorated car there.

The interior on the driver's side. So fast and furious right? So much details and there's even decorated lights inside.

At the front passenger's side. Check out the tray for putting wine glasses. But I wouldn't want to decorate my car like that. Just not my style.

Back passengers can watch different movies with their own individual screen and can even play chess. Haha.

Check it out man. While you open your car boot and admire the speakers you can chill by taking a sip of wine.

All the Perodua Alza cars lined up. Some of the cars just modified their engines, added large speakers but not decorated extensively like the winner.

Ok this post was actually dedicated for my Mum. She has been strong and trying very hard to move on. Although I know you break down from time to time, I will always be there for you. Wishing you a beautiful lifetime ahead. And wishing that I can get to celebrate many many more birthdays with you. Happy Birthday Mummy. Love always. XOXO.

Another Year Older!

When I was a child, I used to be very excited and happy to celebrate my birthday. The cake, the presents all seem very appealing to me. I just celebrated my birthday not too long ago. Although I'm still excited and happy to celebrate my birthday, it is the aftermath when reality sets in that I realised I'm another year older. Aiyoh..getting older! But nevermind, I tell myself that we have to embrace our age with open arms and age gracefully..:)

I received two handmade cards on my birthday. One was from Elizabeth and the other one from my nephew, Brandon (with some help from Joseph) :P Handmade cards are always so precious right? Takes me back to my old memories of me making cards for my mum or dad for their birthdays. My sister and me always competing with each other to make the nicest card. I will keep the cards just like how my parents kept them. It will be touching for them just like how I was touched to know my parents kept them over the years.

This is the front of the card from Elizabeth. It was raining when she drew the card I guess. I asked why am I not on the card and she said because I'm looking at the card. LOL. The three figures depicts her father, brother and she herself.

This is the back of the card from Elizabeth.

She wrote this in the card.

This is my nephew, Brandon's card to me.

Brandon is my 14 year old nephew. He said Joseph also helped in making this card by pasting some of those hearts and scribbling on it. LOL.

This is what Brandon wrote in the card and since Joseph helped to scribble the card again, he wrote Joseph's name down on the card too. LOL.

This is the strawberry monster (Joseph!) who ate every strawberry on my birthday cake!

Happy Winter Solstice

Today, the Chinese celebrate Winter Solstice or Dong Zhi in mandarin. It is also my nephew Benjamin's birthday today whose birthday falls on this chinese festival every year. Winter Solstice is the day where families get together and celebrate a good meal while not forgetting to have Tang Yuan. Tang Yuan is made of glutinous rice flour balls which symbolise reunion, serve together with sweet soup.

Like most years since I got married, we always go back to my hubby's hometown in Seremban to celebrate by just having a good meal and Tang Yuan. This year since it falls on a weekday, so we already celebrated it earlier last Saturday. My mother in-law cooked up a storm and I think we had about 8 dishes of food that day! Sorry no picture because as usual I didn't want them to think I'm a freak. LOL. So after that scrumptious dinner, Elizabeth kept pestering us to do something. And what is that mysterious thing you might ask. The story goes like this. That Saturday morning, my hubby saw a stall selling sky lanterns at the market and he bought it. I thought sky lanterns were usually released on Chap Goh Mei which falls on the 15th day of the chinese lunar year. But hubby thought it would be nice to release it on Winter Solstice just for the fun of it. It would be fun for the children too. Which is why Elizabeth kept pestering us to start releasing the lantern right after dinner because she was excited. So this year the celebration had something out of the ordinary for us with the sky lanterns or some call them wish lanterns. 

Hubby bought 3 lanterns but we only released 2 on that day. Each lantern had a special wish printed on it. It was a fun experience for the children. They were so excited to see it go up into the sky. Joseph was having fun running under the lantern while we light up the fire and waited for the lantern to swell. He made my heart jumped out of my chest many times because I was so worried his hair will catch fire! *shakes my head*

As mentioned earlier, Winter Solstice day is also my nephew Benjamin's birthday. As I'm typing here, my mum, sister and nephews are on their way up to KL. So tonight, we will be celebrating Benjamin's birthday. Happy Birthday Benjamin! You're a big boy already and here's wishing you a good life ahead and be a good boy ok? Happy Winter Solstice or Dong Zhi Jie Kuai Le!

My Christmas holidays begins tomorrow, so I won't be posting till my holidays are over. Hence, wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year filled with peace, joy and good tidings!

*Picture courtesy of knowingfood.com*
I didn't take a picture of my mother in-law's tang yuan so here's a picture closest to how hers looked like.

My hubby attaching the candle on the wire. 

The sky lantern is lighted up!

My excited children and my sister in-law waiting for the lantern to heat up.

The wish on the lantern is "Xin Xiang Shi Cheng" right? Hey! My chinese still can pakai lah. Not bad, not bad. But erm..what is the meaning ah?

A pic without cropping just to show how high the sky lantern was and how it looked from where I stand. Up, up and away! Bye bye sky lantern!

Long Awaited Birthday Present

During our recent trip back to Malacca, we finally made time to stop by a bicycle shop. We have been procrastinating or couldn't find the time to pay a visit to a bicycle shop. Why do we need to go to a bicycle shop? It's because of a promise. A promise to a little girl, that we would get her a bicycle as her birthday present. She's already grown out of her tricycle phase and we think it's time for her to own a bicycle. But terrible parents we are and after a month after her birthday, we finally got her her long awaited birthday present.

She being a sweet and patient girl always relent when we coined up excuses or reasons to put off the plan to go to a bicycle shop. And when we finally got it, she wanted to ride it out in the open straight away but we told her not until we bring it back to KL. Then she had to wait until the following weekend when we can finally bring her to the park. Finally, she got to ride on it out in the open. Haha. And so marks another milestone, my daughter's first time riding a bicycle.

Elizabeth finally got her ride on her new bike! See, we haven't even take out the plastic bubble wrap on the bicycle.

Sister cycles while brother happily stroll along. I got a feeling he knew he's still too small for the bike and it's not his turn yet. 

You lead, I follow. Sister became a little lazy after peddling for a while and expected to be pushed. *slaps forehead*

Have a great weekend everyone!

A Year Older

About two weeks ago, I celebrated my birthday. Yes, I'm a year older and wiser supposedly. Celebrating birthdays are a fun thing but to be reminded that I'm getting older, well, that's not a fun thing. Haha. But we have to accept the fact and try to embrace the term, "aging gracefully".

I went to work on my birthday simply because I had an event coming up and was busy preparing for that event. Sigh. Otherwise, I would've taken off on that day and just have some me-time, go for a manicure and pedicure session? It's been so long since I last had one you know?



So after work, my hubby took us all out for my birthday dinner. We had..

..this (the children's foot long sausage)

..this ( my lamb chop)

 

..and this (my husband's chicken chop)

The food was very normal. But the children seem to be ok with their food. Maybe because I seldom allow them to eat sausages.

I didn't get a good shot of my husband's chicken chop because as you can see in this photo, he is already gobbling his food hungrily. Not even bothered to look at the camera except for Joseph..:D

Elizabeth with the birthday girl..opps lady..;)

Hubby and Elizabeth singing the birthday song to me. Notice the candles? I'm 20 every year!

Not my best shot here ok? But just wanted you guys to look at Elizabeth covering Joseph's mouth. LOL. Don't allow Joseph to blow the candles? Hmmm..budak ni.

Yep, birthdays are always celebrated at this very same dining table. So you might be wondering why is it all my birthday celebration pictures look the same. :D

I wonder who's birthday is it?

Look at how he's eating.

You know, never bother buying cheese cake because the children didn't really like it. I guess they still don't know how to appreciate it. For them chocolate cake is the best cake in the world. LOL. So do you all want to know what I got for my birthday? ......Secret! Shy lar want to reveal. 

As I'm writing this post, my babysitter called to inform me that she suspects that Joseph is down with chicken pox. Oh dear. I'm just puzzled because I don't know from whom he caught it from. I've got to go home already. Adios.