Kid's Prayer Song

This is one of Joseph's favourite songs.

Simply titled "Kid's Prayer", it's a very meaningful song. Joseph can sing the entire song by heart (while Nana can't remember the words).

And this is his other favourite song - High Speed Song.

Be blessed!

Devotion for Kids - grounding them in the Word of God.

There are only 2 things that are of eternal value.

1. The Word of God

2. Our souls.

I strongly believe that we should train up a child in the way he should go, so that when he is old he will not turn from it.

Joseph can already pray on his own, lead us in worship and tell us most of the Bible stories. I thought it would be good to start him on a more systematic and consistent daily quiet time.

So after much searching in a few Christian bookshops, I found this to be the most suitable one.

Not too deep, nor too simple - it has very practical topics, starting with "Who created God?" and other topics like "What is a conscience?" , "When we're bad, can we still pray?" , "Will God give children toys if they ask him for them?", and plenty more.

The topics look interesting to me as well. I hope this starts Joseph on a life-long love journey with the Word of God.

How cute gets cuter

My princess is growing taller and cuter everyday. This dress that I got tailor-made for her just 6 months ago is already at least 2 inches shorter than when I first got it. I think the dress will have to move to YongPeng in a few months time.
She looks and talks and sings like a 3-year-old.

And I'm so glad that she's quite vain. I cherish the minutes when she will sit still to let me tie her hair. This is the neatest style so far.

Just 2 days ago, she was rummaging thru the diaper bag and dug out a lipstick and she told me, "Mummy, can you please put for me". So I did and minutes later, she said, "I'm so pretty!"


Pretty as she is, she's really quite samseng. I think she's trying to do some ballet here...

I can't get her dancing on video yet but it's quite an entertaining sight.

I just love catching her in my arms and giving her a tight squeeze because she's so bak bak and extremely huggable. One night as I was doing that, I told her, "you're my little piggy" and she replied, "Mummy, you are big pig!"

Silly Songs with Joseph

Chubbier reads to Chubby

Joseph has his unique way of always saying things to make me laugh.

And when I told him that he could be a clown because he's so funny, he said, "Hey....why you ask me to be a clown? I already plan to be a teacher!"

He's practising to teach by reading to his sister, even when she's on the potty.

He can read most simple words but when it comes to the more difficult ones he tries to guess based on the sounds of the first letter.

And when he can't figure out the words at all, he just makes up his own story by looking at the pictures.

I think he'll make a great teacher!

Star HairStyle

I gave Joe and his dad a haircut this morning. And I made a mistake!!! Thinking that I had the no.1 clip on the clipper, I shaved his side and then screamed because there was no clip there! So anyway, I shaved the other side to even it out. Joe was really cool about it! And I gave both of them a star-shaped hair tattoo!
I hope Joe's teachers and Daalin's students (and boss!) don't faint tomorrow!

J&j at the National Children Workers/Leaders & Parenting Conference

My mum and I both attended this fantastic conference jointly organised by DUMC and SIBKL. So Joe and Joy had no choice but to tag along. In my opinion, it was a most blessed choice.

The conference lasted from Wednesday night until Saturday afternoon, ending with a wonderful Rock 'n Roll Easter Party (with a 60's theme). Because we stayed on for celebration yesterday, the kids were in church from 8.30am till 7.30pm!

With my bags of stuff (milk, change of clothes, cereal, lunch, toys, books etc...) I didn't bring my camera. But Mei Ling very kindly took some photos for us at the party. And the pro always takes better photos. Joy wore her polka-dot Gymboree dress that YeeYee bought.
Joseph wore a hand-me-down Gap stripped shirt with suspenders and bow tie that are at least 7 years old (Joshua wore this as page boy at our wedding) and his favourite jeans from Target Australia. It's his favourite because there are no buttons or zip. (Very difficult to find this kind of pants!)

And Daalin who was part of the worship team on stage had red hair! I think they both look so cute together!

Family Holiday at Pulai Springs Resort

Since 2004, the Tan clan has gone on family holidays almost annually. We went back to Pulai Springs Resort again for a 4D3N stay in a 4-bedroom apartment. It's located right between YongPeng and Singapore and that makes it very strategic for us. The other factor is that we don't want individual hotel rooms and there are not many 4-bedroom holiday homes around.

Pulai Springs has got pretty good facilities. But their service or rather, the lack of it leaves much to be desired. Their staff walk around with grumpy faces that make me feel like I'm imposing on them.

Our journey from KL was rather pleasant. We left home at about 9am and stopped at Yong Peng for lunch.

Upon arrival at Pulai Springs at 3pm, the apartment was not ready and so they parked all 15 of us inside a studio apartment.

My kids had their milk break while the bigger kids had an iPhone party.

They're all very tech-savvy or iPhone-addicted, depending how you want to look at it.

Ah Kong tried to nap while the kids all jumped on the only bed. Of course Ah Kong didn't mind at all that he probably couldn't sleep a wink.

After we finally got into our room at past 5pm (that's more than 2 hours of waiting!!!), the boys went swimming while I took Joy for a walk. I was too lazy to get into the pool.

The boys had a real blast with all the gear that Tua Um bought.

Joy checked out the Koi fish (there's a lot more than in the photo)...

...and also the peacock.

I also took her to check out the TeeTee Club which was really very pathetic. It's got potential but almost zero-maintenance.

At night we had dinner at the Qing Palace Chinese Restaurant. The service here was probably the best in the entire resort.

The boys were famished and quickly gobbled down the food as soon as it landed on the tables.

Even Mabel fed herself rice while Joy had baby cereal.

Daalin a.k.a. DBKL got to work and cleaned all the plates....

Then we took a slow walk back to the room (you've got to cross a road to a different building to get to the restaurant)...

...to see the Manager to complain about the very late check-in. I asked him for some compensation. He wanted to let us have a late check-out but I didn't want that. We wanted extra breakfast vouchers for the kids and all he gave us was 5 pieces. So it was only for 1 day that we could all go down for breakfast.

On the other 2 mornings, some of us skipped breakfast at the Cinta Terrace because it's just not worth it to pay RM32++ per adult or RM16++ per kid for that kind of breakfast.

In the apartment, the boys kept occupied playing Wii.

I also had a go playing Wii boxing and bowling. Despite my lousy scores, I'm still nursing aching arms and a aching left butt. Not very good at bowling though since Brandon (age 6) can beat me at it.

The next morning, we went to Jusco Taman Universiti which is a 5-minute drive away. Ah Kong went to Starbucks for free wifi (it's RM20 for 2 hours at the hotel) while the kids played at the indoor playground.

In the evening, the boys went swimming again.

And this time I took Joy for a dip. She clung on really tight to me most of the time.

That night (Sunday), we ate dinner in the apartment. Ah Mah was well-prepared. We had a induction hot plate which enabled cooking.

Check out the spread.... beef rendang, steamed kampung chicken, devil chicken and etc.

The kids were watching The Magic School Bus while Ah Mah did the cooking.

And after eating, they jumped around on the bed while I watched Transformers on Singapore TV.

Chubby and Chubbier

The kids enjoyed the holiday the most. And the adults enjoyed watching the kids enjoy. My kids in particular enjoyed warm bubble baths.

On Monday, we went to Jusco again for dinner. This time we had Sushi King.

Joseph was fascinated with the conveyor belt. After dinner, they played around some more while Ah Kong had his internet fix.

Back in the apartment, it was more Wii. Joseph could bowl several strikes!

Overall it was a good holiday. The hotel service was crap. On Monday, HouseKeeping only came at past 3pm after numerous calls and disrupted Daalin's nap. They ran out of towels. Breakfast was chaotic. They clearly couldn't cope with the school holiday crowd and had insufficient seating.

We'll have to look for some other place for our next holiday.

4-bedroom apartment at Pulai Springs : RM755

Dinner at Sushi King : RM232

Time with family : priceless!