Yiu Yiu’s 8th birthday celebrations

My first born turned eight on Nov 1.  We celebrated her birthday with family members and the babysitter’s family, as usual, accompanied by her favourite durian mousse cake.

Birthday girl

Our sinful spread of mostly meat and pasta

Eyeing her birthday cake.  We actually forgot to bring our own candles (which didn't come with the cake) so had to borrow from the restaurant :-)

With their babysitter - she probably spent more time watching them grow than I did :-(

One for the family

 

A couple of weeks before her birthday, she asked if we could have a small party at home so that she could invite some friends over and I resolutely said no…no way was I gonna kill myself planning for the party amidst a very busy period at work, as well as planning and working out the final logistics for our 2-weeks holiday in Australia.  She didn’t give up, and kept asking – along the way, her papa said “Do la, a simple one, since they may not be in the same class next year.  Just buy KFC and pizza.”  I finally relented, but I can’t bring myself to just settle for KFC and pizza.

I know I won’t be able to prepare a decent variety of food on my own so I started sourcing for a caterer who would take my small order (most caterers have a minimum order of 50 pax) of simple party food like spaghetti, sandwiches, yam cake and boxing chicken, while I added on some nuggets, sausage puff and fruits.

 

 

I also managed to get some party decorations, and put together enough cutesy stuff for party packs (since it was an all-girls party).  Next was to think about how to occupy the girls’ time at the party so I bought some felt craft materials, and hired a balloonist recommended by a friend after seeing my SOS message on FB J  And ordered some cupcakes as well.  All done in a few stressful days.

 

 

 

The birthday girl, meanwhile, had been gathering the phone numbers of the parents of several classmates from school and daycare whom she wanted to invite so I simply texted them the invitation.

And the party took place two on Sunday, two days after her actual birthday.

Girls busying themselves with the stitching up the felt pencil holder 

Balloons time

The balloonist facilitated some party games too

Singing birthday song

Yan Yan mutilating the fondant Hello Kitty

Birthday presents - mainly cutesy notebooks with lock, and storybooks 

Yiu Yiu's first gymrama grading cum competition

Wow! In the blink of an eye, this blog has been silent for three whole months!

(Dusting cobwebs off...)  Ok now, have many posts coming up...just hoping I have more time to edit all the photos to go with the posts.  Lets start with a simple one.

Yiu Yiu had her first rhythmic gymnastics grading examination cum competition yesterday.  She took part in only two out of three routines (free hand and ball) for her grade, Little Gymnast.  She almost didn't make it for the grading as she missed several classes in October as her daycare organized revision classes to prepare them for the year-end examination, which clashed with the timing of her rhythmic gymnastics classes.  After that, we were away for two weeks in Australia and she only attended three classes prior to the grading.  As such, she didn't have time to learn the last apparatus, the rope, and there are lots of room for improvement in terms of her techniques.  In any case, I'm pleased that she still gave it her best, and I am sure it was a good experience for her.

Practicing before her turn for the grading 

Here's the videos...you'll see that her timing was not aligned with the music, and she ended her routine before the music ended.

 

She didn't win any medals, which were awarded to the top five gymnasts for each routine, and overall score.  We still don't yet know if she passed her two routines - will have to wait for the organizer to tabulate the judges' score.

A shot with her coach and training partners 

Waiting for the results announcement

Mid-year holiday in Penang – Part 2

After a leisurely late breakfast, we hit the beach, and both girls were happily playing and chasing bubbles.  Yiu Yiu asked for a horse ride and we obliged, but the little one was too afraid to ride along.  We spent a bit more time on the beach before the girls went back to the water play area.

We then checked out and went on a mission to hunt down the rest of Zacharevic’s street art.  Since it was getting late, and we didn’t want to waste time looking for them, we did the touristy thing and hired two trishaws to take us around J  There were quite a number of new paintings around, not sure if the new ones were painted by Zacharevic too.  There were lots and lots of welded iron wall caricatures all over town as well.

Stumbled upon this quaint vintage toys museum 

Doing the touristy thing 

Boy on a chair 

 

Old motorcycle 

Kids on bicycle 

Dying art 

Boy pulling dinosaur - unfortunately the dinosaur is hardly visible now 

Cat waiting to pounce on rat 

Grandmother with Superman grandson 

Basketball game 

Kids on swings 

Kungfu girl 

Trishaw man 

We left Penang about 5pm.  We had initially wanted to let the girls experience taking the Penang ferry but it was raining the day we reached Penang so we thought we’d do it on the way back.  Unfortunately, both konked out as soon as we got into the car so there goes the ferry plan, again.  We stopped by for dinner at Gee Seng Seafood Restaurant @ Bukit Tambun before heading home.

Restaurant by the river 

Girls KO'ed

Mid-year holiday in Penang – Part 1

This is an extremely belated post on our trip to Penang during the June school holidays.  We booked the Bayview Beach Resort in Feringghi and after a painful check-in (lots of guests and inefficient front desk staff), we were pleasantly surprised to see a new water play area from our room.  Though it was drizzling slightly, the girls couldn’t wait to get down to the water play area.

We spent the whole time at the pool, before going out in search of dinner.  I had the Star Street Food Guide, albeit an outdated one (published in 2007) with me and thought we would try out places where we have not been during our last trip in 2009.  Since it was already quite late by the time we left hotel, and the long journey to town, we settled for the Pulau Tikus Market Hawker Street since it was nearest.  There wasn’t much selection, so we just settled for some char kuay teow and duck kuay teow th’ng.  Not quite satisfied with our meal, we tapau the famous Ah Soon rojak from Gurney Drive on the way back.

After breakfast the next day, we headed to the Penang Hill funicular railway station but it was totally crowded and the queue for the railway stretched so long so we abandoned the idea and headed to the Kek Lok Si temple instead.

View of Penang from the highest point of Kek Lok Si temple 

We had a late lunch at Restotan Kek Seng but the famous mee jawa stall has since stopped operating so we settled for the duck kuay teow th’ng, asam laksa and lohbak.  We headed to the Chew Jetty after that to catch a glimpse of one of Ernest Zacharevic’s street arts but disappointingly, it has faded almost completely. 

 The faded painting of two children on a sampan

Fish traps (bubu) hanging from one of the houses 

Girls enjoying their traditional lychee 'aiskrim batang' 

On the way back to the hotel, we made a pit stop for Penang Road cendol at Lebuh Keng Kwee.  While at it, we also had the asam laksa at the adjoining coffee shop.

The queue at the famous cendol stall 

Due to the late lunch and early evening snack, we skipped dinner and had supper instead, at a food court near the hotel.  Yet another missed opportunity to sample Penang’s best.

Sunset from our room