Her 1st Time Attending Birthday Party

Jasmine was invited to her friend’s birthday party during the last school holidays. Didn’t want to be left behind, Sharlene went along with her piao cheh too. It was her 1st time going for kids' party without me. So Jasmine was given a task to ‘take care’ of her little cousin on that day :)

Sharlene wants to be included in just about anything her piao cheh does. No wonder her piao cheh says she’s very ‘mah fan’ sometimes...haha. Most of the time she even wants to follow her to tuition and ballet classes. [Oh my darling girl, at the moment you are just too young to go for tuition.] While tuition is not necessary for her now, I thought of enrolling her for ballet but not sure if she’s really interested to learn or she just want to go because of her piao cheh. Anyway, the other day I went up to the centre to find out about the class. Unfortunately, the time isn’t suitable for me as I'm unable to rush home and fetch her there by 6.45pm every Tuesday and the centre does not have weekend classes for her age group. Haih...will have to put this on hold for the moment.

Ok, back to the topic on birthday party. I will just leave you with some pix of the 2 gals taken on that day.

At the car porch with their respective presents for the birthday girl.


Getting into the car. She wants to be the first to get in. Yah...she always fight to be the FIRST *rolled eyes* but she won’t get her way all the time.


Walking eagerly into the birthday girl’s house.

Fun With Jenga Block Game

My brother got us a box of JENGA, a wooden block game. This game is really simple to learn and fun to play with. Even Sharlene enjoyed it tremendously! She is able to remove blocks from a tower and put them on top effortlessly. It’s pretty easy to play but the game gets tougher and more exciting when the tower goes higher.


Our first Jenga game was at my mum’s house. It was nerve-racking and we almost tear the house down with our laughter and screams :D

Sharlene's turn. Being a first timer, she’s taking out the block carefully...


...and placing it on top of the tower.


Not sure of what she’s doing here when it's my turn to stack the block. I guess she’s attempting to shield the tower from falling...haha.


Naughty girl in action :D She’s definitely giving her Ah Yee a tough time.


Looking out for a block to pull. Check out her 'style'...

We truly enjoy this game! Thanks again bro for this wonderful gift!

Clowning Around

She’s at her playful self again – meddling and decorating herself with her piao cheh’s hair accessories, belts, etc.

I wonder what are the next things she’ll mess about with??

Our Father's Day

Yesterday morning, Sharlene wished daddy Happy Father’s Day and handed to him a card which both of us did for him on Saturday evening. Instead of buying a cake, I just baked a batch of chocolate marble cupcakes for that occasion. Shall post pix of the card and cupcakes another time.

We made a trip to our paed office yesterday morning. My 8-year old niece has been complaining of soreness in one of her breasts. Upon checking, my sil discovered a lump in her nipple area. When the paed examined her yesterday, she said it’s only a ‘breast bud’, usually occurring at the beginning of puberty in girls and it’s perfectly normal. Since Sharlene was there too, she’d her Hepatitis A jab. The jab was administered by the paed in a second… and she didn’t even know what’s happening…haha. Another dose will be in 6 months’ time.

I’d earlier on promised Sharlene that I will bring her to McDonald’s. Her special treat from me for being good…hehe. So after the paed visit, we brought along the 2 fathers (hubby and brother-in-law) to McD for lunch :D We spent almost 2 hours there and both Sharlene and her piao cheh had an enjoyable time playing at the play land. Yesterday was the first time Sharlene had a fillet-o-fish burger and she finished the whole burger by herself. Normally she only fancies french fries and sundaes.

For dinner, we had fast food again. My sil ordered KFC! I’m feeling really guilty after consuming all these high in calories food. But I tell you, the kids enjoyed them tremendously. There shall be no fast food for the next few months, I hope!

Our Trip To JB

We started our journey on a Saturday morning. Had planned to leave home earlier to avoid being caught in a traffic jam during school holidays...but it didn't materialize as our 'driver' woke up late. After breakfast and transporting our stuff into the car, we only left home around 9.30am. As expected, we were caught in a crawl midway but after that it was a breeze and we reached JB in time to join my parents for lunch.

So, what was my gal up to in the car for so many hours? Since it was early in the morning and she’s so alert, we started off with simple reading. It’s one of those short interesting stories that she likes. Finished reading to her the whole series of 6 books in a short time. Then her mind began to wander to something else...FOOD!! We always get ready snacks for her to munch in the car. Ok, let me recall what she ate on that day. Hmm... 2 slices of peanut butter sandwich, some crackers and boiled chickpeas.

After satisfying her desire for food, I was hoping and hoping she will close her eyes and sleeps for a while, at least, .....but this girl, she just didn’t want to! Hence, I didn’t get to rest my eyes too. Throughout our journey, she entertained herself and us by talking non-stop and singing her favourite tunes. That certainly kept our 'driver' alert :D We enjoyed every moments of her cute antics and our little conversations. Soon she got restless in the car and kept asking me 'Are we reaching popo’s house yet?' 'Why take so long?, 'Daddy, why you drive so slow, ah?' and so on...


I’d wanted to snap a photo of her but she purposely flashed out her rabbit when I clicked on the camera. She announced in the car that her rabbit is now called Floss. Previously she just called it rabbit. (Floss is the name of a rabbit in one of the books that I read to her titled The Missing Rabbit).

Sharlene took this pic of chickpeas. I was kind of surprise as that was the first time she took pix of food. Guess she saw me doing it sometimes :P

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The next morning, my dad brought us out for breakfast at Restaurant Ah Koong at Taman Sentosa. Here’s my bowl of delicious fish-ball noodles. Yums!


She enjoyed her noodles as much as we do...

More pix of Sharlene having fun here.......

Back home, colouring again...


Fooling around with Ah Yee. We were at a lighting shop to view some lights with my mum.


My bro was having fun with her and she's trying to bite his hand instead. Ouch!


Extremely hyper on that night…


Ooooo….I so love my chupa chups lolly.


Inside Toy r Us @ Jusco Tebrau City - Hey mummy, do I look like a superstar?


Enjoying durians which I’d bought from Jusco supermarket.

We're Back In KL

Thank you for visiting me while I was away. We got home on Tuesday evening after spending 4 days at my hometown. Even though it was only a short trip, we nevertheless had a good time there. I intend to blog about our days in JB BUT, but...I have been busy ever since I came back and besides working in the office, I hardly have the time now to sit in front of the computer.

We are without a maid now. Sigh!! A couple of days before we left for JB, she has gone back to Indonesia after working for us for 2 years. Due to this, there have been some changes in my routine. Everyday there are quite a bit of housework to do but I would say it’s still manageable. Of course, the weekends will not be as relax and carefree as before.

So most likely from now onwards, I will update my blog at a snail's pace. But whenever I can I will visit your blogs, ok. :)

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Looking Forward To The Weekend

On this coming Saturday we will be traveling to JB. Yippee! 2 more days to go. Our last trip there was during the CNY. This time around, my brother who’s residing and working in Australia will be back together with his girlfriend on the same day as us before they travel to Sabah next week. Their main intention of going there is to climb Mount Kinabalu, the highest peak in South East Asia. Hmmm...I don’t think I would be able to climb that mountain, too scary to even think about it!

So this coming weekend JB house will be a lot merrier than usual. As always, I love the special feeling of going back to my hometown and spending time with my loved ones there is wonderful :) I feel that time goes by very quickly when we are there and before I realize it we have to come back to KL again. Sometimes I wish I could be there longer...

Poor hubby, he has been working extremely hard for the past few days. Coming back home only after we have Zzzzzzzz. Despite his busy workload, he still wants to go back with us this weekend. That’s why before he goes on leave next week, he has to ensure his office work is done up to the maximum. Sigh! Both Sharlene and I have barely seen him for days. Hope we can spend some “catch up” time with each other during our stay in JB... that’s also one of the reasons why I’m so looking forward to the weekend :D

Coconut Candy

Coconut candy is popular in Malaysia and now it is found only in home during festive occasions. I can hardly ever see it these days except for several restaurants that sell Indian sweets.

I'd made this delicious candy a few times based on a recipe from Her World Cookbook – Potpourri of Malaysian Flavours. The last time I did was 2 months ago for sale at a food carnival. The ingredients required are really simple but one downside of making coconut candy is the tedious and non-stop stirring of the mixture. No joke...you really have to stand in front of the stove, and stir and stir...until the candy is ready to be transferred to a tray.

If anyone of you hasn’t had this candy for a long time and wishes to try making it yourself at home, here's the recipe that’s worth trying...

Ingredients
3 cups finely grated coconut
3 cups sugar (I only used 2 cups)
3/4 cup evaporated milk
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp butter
Few drops red colouring
Few drops vanilla essence

Method
1. In a wide saucepan put the grated coconut, sugar, milk and salt. Mix well with a wooden spoon.

2. Place pan on low heat and allow to cook without stirring. When the sugar has dissolved, add the butter, red colouring and vanilla essence. Stir gently, occasionally.

3. When the mixture thickens, increase heat a little and stir continuously to prevent burning. When the mixture forms a mass and the candy begins to crystalise on the sides of the pan, take the pan off the heat.

4. Transfer the candy into a greased plate/tray. Press the candy down gently and when it cools slightly, cut into diamond or any other shape, but do not separate until the candy has hardened properly.

Tips: I read it somewhere that the coconut you choose is important. Use old coconuts rather than young ones, as the taste is better. To test if the candy is ready, put about half a teaspoon of candy into a glass of water. If it remains firm and doesn’t break, then the candy is done.


Coconut candy was for sale for 3 tokens each packet along with other foods during the food carnival.