10 years old.

Ahh.. it's that time of the year again..

Do you want to be reminded how my first labor went? *yawn*

If you do, go here and read *bigger yawn*

If you don't, and you can't give the right answer for the "test" later, then.. then.. then...

nothing will happen anyway..

It's his 10th birthday this year. A decade had gone by. The first 10-years. Yan-sang-yau-gei-dor-sap-nin?! Must toong-toong-fai-fai celebrate, yes or not?

NOT!

I lazy, don't want to hold big party. This time of the year, I offered him a better package deal, though he seemed to be all geared up for a big birthday bash like his brother did, especially after seeing all the birthday pressies his didi had.

I had a heart-to-heart talk with him, I said that he had his big celebrations earlier, while his didi didn't have any since his were always around CNY window, and celebrated in Ipoh with some boring relatives. (No, I didn't say that, the last part, that is)

I suggested to him, why not he ask a few of his top few good friends to have a blast in MegaKidz for a few hours or so, entrance fees all on me? His eyes twinkled and his face lit up. My plan worked.

As such, he was told to summon a few friends up and to give me the answer by Thurs the latest. Sat was the big day to pull this plan through. By that time, he still hadn't yet given me a concrete answer but only said his top 2 best friends couldn't make it. So, what to do? A mom's got to do what she had to do, though I had hoped he settled this simple task by himself.

Told him to ask another 4 friends for their mom's contact number and let me sms them. I said, it's now or never, if he had not be able to do that, then sorry, his 10th birthday would just be another day.

On Friday, he excitedly came home and passed me the list of numbers and I did exactly what I promised. I guess his heart was hoping very hard, keeping his fingers all crossed, and obviously very happy when the replies came back on the affirmative. I even offered one of them to pick her up from her home since her parents were all tied up for the afternoon.

There were 2 boys and 2 girls he had invited personally. He told me only one of the girl is his good friend, and the other is not. I asked him why he didn't invite others then. He said never mind la, both of them are good friends. Really, I was quite impressed when I heard that. Seldom see the soft part in him, and I think he's pretty considerate and kind in that one little tiny department of him.

They were all excited for that day, and we had brought along a little teeny weeny cake (papa's fault that it's so small!), a very huge contrast to the parties that were held the same time at the same area. But the kids still had a lot of fun and I had the chance to hold a small talk with 2 mothers of my son's friends while they played. Easy, no stress, no worries.

I am happy with this simple celebration. And it's the beginning of like-wise celebrations to come. To let them really enjoy themselves with their own friends, and to get to know their friends too.

But the coming actual birthday, I would still have a cake for him, just us. As always.

Again!

Know what? Our home has become a yank-tooth-centre now.

Meimei is the 2nd client today, her first time experience, after witnessing how fun it was the last time for her brave 2nd bro.


I can see how well we are in the job now too, my hands are not shaking when tying the knot on the shaky tooth and papa just yank out like so nonchalantly. When meimei went to him, he said "yes? want me to pull the thread, huh? okeh.."



But we still need more practise, as it was before, the tooth only came out after the 2nd tie-and-pull. Who wants to have tooth removed, please make appointment now...

No more games for the boys.

The roads must be jam packed this morning, with the start of the new school term. I, once again, hogged the road at 7 am, like all the other parents do, guai-guai joined the queue to the school, sending the boys off. I was so afraid the alarm wouldn't ring that I automatically woke up 10 mins before it was set to ring. Which was rather amazing, since I slept late the night before, and every mornings for the past 1.5 weeks, I had been waking up at 8+, sometimes 9+, lazing around in bed till 10+. That's the beauty of school holidays, I feel so much more rejuvenated.

The boys didn't make much fuss, korkor said something about fearful of a new class teacher (whom he hasn't met yet!) he and his classmates will be getting today. I think I'm bringing up a sissy here, scared of such trivial things geh? Ish!

They say in unison that they are already missing the holidays. Poor chaps. Are the holidays really that fun? All the time at home only wor? Although, they really had a blast this time playing computer games, Wii games, Ipod/Iphone Angry Birds..for almost the whole freaking day everyday!

Initially, I wanted them to read more books, do some "exercises", not physical ones, but school related ones, but after the first dew days on their holiday homework, they wouldn't want to do anything else related to school anymore! Well, I'm at some fault too, being lazy and ..... lazy.... and .... still lazy (duh! I couldn't think of other reasons)...I just let them do what they want to do!

They are happy! But I am drown with guilt! However, I consoled myself that at the very least, they had a good school holidays at home, and it wouldn't really hurt that much to scrap all memories of schoolwork for the time being. I mean, will they get any less successful when they grow up just because they spent a non-productive week of playing games only? Will they become office boys instead of doctors just because this mom of theirs is not bothered?! *trembling and biting nails*

Well, ok, so this term, I would be more hardworking than ever for them! (listen first!).

I just hope the class teachers warm them up a bit first before drilling them on "listen-write", spelling, ejaan, and oh dear! the second LINUS test that didi MUST pass this time... really freaky, I wonder if he even remembers 50% of those Malay words he learnt before.

Suatu hari yang meriah di Bird Park, KL

Our first visit to Bird Park was in 2008. Sometimes, it feels nice to be able to retrieve the journal-ed event and revisit our feelings at that time. And yet even amazing is to compare the children's faces before and now. What a big change! And we won't notice it as we live day by day. Yet even surprising was that I had quite a number of commentors at that time! What happened *gasp*? Why they ditched me? *gasp*

Anyway, this time, being our (meimei and I) third time to the park, it needs no more intro anymore. I took the kids, sempena cuti sekolah yang ke-2 tahun 2010, after some pestering from goolypop who was obviously scared of being attack by those mighty birds and dinosaurs. The kids had a great time chasing each other in the park, so, pictures ensued, with captions not necessary meant to be "real". Add on funny captions too, if you have, but peeps, no offensive words ah..

A birthday to the 40s

Early in the morning on the next day we got home from our trip, I was still blurry and lazy to do anything. Then while making breakfast, didi wanted to know what date it was for something he was doing (forgot what it was) and I told him to check the calendar himself, for my mind was really blank!

Then he ran back and asked me if it was the 9th. And it hit me! Not immediate, but maybe a few nano seconds later. It was my hub's birthday and I forgot about it totally! Even the night before when we were watching a movie way past 12. Jeez... what a wife I am!

So I quickly grabbed my phone and sms-ed him. Also asked if he wanted to eat out or in that night. No replies from him. Guess he was too busy after being away for 2 days from the office.

As lunch approached, I hadn't yet thought about what to cook, being lazy still, so I called him and asked if he liked us to join him for lunch. He said ok. I wanted to see his new workplace too for they have just shifted to another place.

So the whole office didn't know it was his birthday, it seemed, and 2 of them joined us for lunch, treat on him. Went to Papah Rich and stuffed ourselves full.

Came back home and started work on the big pile of laundry and cleaning up the house. It took all my effort.. puff! puff!

When he came home from work, we had dinner and went out to get a cake. He said "no heart" from me! I defended saying I wanted to, but it was raining! Fortunately, he's not very sentimental in stuffs like these.

So that was our little family celebration for his first turning 40s birthday. I should have recorded how we sang the bday song. All 4 of us were singing together but all different versions one. It sounded so messy but fun! He rolled his eyes too wondering what kind of song that was!

His mommy, as almost every year, wanted to be part of his birthday celebrations and came over to KL over the weekend for that. For her, it wasn't his birthday until the "eat dumpling" festival day, as she only refers to the chinese calendar.

It was a big feast for us, 6 adults and 3 kids for an 8 course meal for 10. The highlight was the abalones.

Yumz!

Cupcakes with pink, yellow and blue sai on top for him. Else he would be jeles why I went all the way out making these sai-looking cupcakes for another friend while he has nothing from me. I am getting in love playing with these icing, but need a lot of practise, certainly. Or I should just make a brownish colored icing to make it looked more like sai! Yes, that would be yummy!

Rest of Bukit Gambang.

Pix below shows the pool we took a dip in, from the previous post. That's the view from our hotel apartment.

Didi was rather disappointed when he woke up the next day and saw the same view, after all the promises of an exciting and fun water theme park for months. I suppose he thinks the pool will magically change after a night's sleep?? Well, that's certainly not what I was feeding his mind, I wonder where he got that imagination from. Too many of "Biggest magic secrets revealed" over AXN.


After a breakfast of instant noodles with fishballs and fishcakes, we got ready to charge the theme park. All ready now for the main attraction of our whole 3 hours journey.

The view we saw from the entrance. Looked pretty attractive to me, with all the vibrant colors and water splashing everywhere.

Zooming in on...

More up close now. The kids enjoyed the climbs and slides, while we heart the giant "water-bomb" from the shark's mouth up above. Well, nothing specifically different from Sunway Lagoon theme park actually, but it seemed more like a vacation to us and the kids with the hotel stay and long car ride.

Our belongings, our camp.

Lunch of wafer and hotdogs. These are sooooo delicious. Hearsay the nasi lemak is good too, just don't try the chicken rice.

And that was all the pictures I have taken for the water theme park. That's because I chucked the camera into my bag and went to enjoy myself with the kids liao. There are more to the park than just the above, like the mega slides, the beach with occasional big waves and the glacier river with waves. As I've said, it's nothing much extra from the Sunway Lagoon, but it was equally fun.

We were blessed with a very very nice weather for the whole day, and that made spending the time from 10am up till 5pm more bearable and leisurable. The kids just can't stop going over and over again on those rides and surfs. As for us, we got tired of it after a round or two. Hub was crying like a baby that his head was turning after 2-3 rounds.

And meimei, she's just a daredevil! Jumped excitedly when she saw those mega rides and trying to stand up real tall to pass the "You need to be this tall to ride" tests. She loves the family ride especially, and after 2 go(s), she joined the rest of the kids for that over and over again. What a value for money for their entrance tickets!

The tired faces say it all...

Children taking a rest while watching the screen up above, waiting for our drivers to arrive.

We went back to the same place for dinner, after checking out the other outlet for food and it was full house. Well, no complaints since the food was good.

My auntie with my cousin sis and her son, who joined us from Kuantan for the night and the time at the water theme park, left with my mom before dinner.

As for CK, they packed up after dinner, getting ready to depart early the next morning to Redang. How envious!

The next day, it was all sunyi-senyap like that, after the 2 days of noise the children were making. It was a lazy morning, with toasted sandwiches and milk for breakfast. Then we walked over to the Adventure Park across the road again to let the kids sharpen their balancing skills again.

There was a snake show inside the jungle farm, but seeing the fees for that, skipped!

The plank which moves. It takes a lot of balancing power to be able to walk over to the other end. Goolypop, I think you better not try this.

Without any pressure from anyone else, we can take our own sweet time to walk across. Especially meimei who dared not try it out the first time round.

She wanted to try this out too! Very brave of her indeed! But as she was shaking like a jelly after a few steps, I had to lend her a helping hand and helped her across. Didn't get to take her pics.

After her turn, she told me to try (maybe she thinks I can't do that!). And she offered to hold the camera and take my picture instead. How nice of her!

This reminds of of Ip Man 2.
Like, we are not supposed to walk on those things, really.

Meimei wants to try out everything!

On all fours!

Then I showed her the proper way to walk across...
with hands on the hips liddat.. laan yauying...

Didi whispering to his sister on his "plan" to go from one side to the other side, not wanting to let me know how.

And they put the plan into action.

Papa lend a helping hand after several failed attempts to carry the plank.

The accomplice walking over to join him now.

Uh oh... going to fall down any moment now.. help!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK, made it. Now put the plank over the other side now.

Check out meimei's left hand! Easy access for her.

These are priceless! Teamwork at play. The grins on their faces.

OK, walk over to the other end and that's it.

Little tarzan learning to swing.

Back to the starting point..

Meimei moving to join the waiting guys..

And finally a group picture, without the mom!

It was said that the top part of that tree is already dead. And the "globe" looks so interesting.

Back to the hotel room.

Feeding the fishes before packing up to head home.

We had wanton mee with suikao for lunch at one of those shops in Gambang town and departed home at around 2+. Reached home about 5, all worn out and lazy to do anything else, for the rest of the day and the day after. Life's back to the norm, enjoying the rest of the school holidays at home now.