Father's Day & Fabulous June Parties

Father's Day this year was a very super busy day for us. We were in fact busy all weekend.

The children sang in the children's choir to appreciate fathers, on both Saturday and Sunday.

We found some superheros in church but not as super as Papa!

Because of the busy weekend, we had dinner one week earlier with my parents, at one of our favourite pasta places - Vary Pasta. This was followed by tong sui in SS2. Tan Father's Day celebration will be belated, with a combined birthday celebration for Ah Kong.

On Father's Day evening, we attended a Happily Ever After birthday party.

Very elaborate, pretty pink princessey party with lots of details.

This morning, we attended another party - a superhero one for Timothy's 7th Birthday.

Just like the princess party, the dessert table was by The Cherry on The Cake.

Timothy has a super mummy who made personalized capes for all the kids besides packing very wonderful party packs.

Held at Camp5, the kids had a very good workout rock climbing.

This is Joy's first try at rock climbing and she made it almost to the top.

There'll be 2 more parties next month....kids these days are a busy lot!

Pants + Skirts = ???

I have several pairs of very nice and comfy Gymboree leggings which Joy outgrew sometime back. These were hand-me-downs from their 2nd cousin in USA.

While the pants are still in good condition (and oh-so-comfy because they are well washed and worn), the elastic has worn out and they are a real pain to unpick. On the other hand, I had a few hand-me-down short skirts which I find too unpractical for wearing with just panties underneath. So I combined the pants and skirts.

Simply snipped off the old pants elastic and sewed it to the skirts. Now Isabel can wear pants that have cute skirts attached to them!

Salmon & Pumpkin dinner

This is my usual dinner - a mountain of vege, some protein, minimal or no carbs. This is not a weight-loss strategy. It's a constipation remedy.

Daaling and the children love salmon which is usually supplied by AhKongAhMah. When I do buy it, I get it from Jaya Grocer where it's fresher than Giant/Jusco/Tesco. I buy the belly/bone parts which are only RM30 /kg instead of the boneless parts which are RM80/kg!! 

I've come to love cooking salmon and pumpkin together. After I pan fry the salmon, I use the residual oil to fry some dried prawns and then throw in the pumpkin and simmer till it softens. 

Joseph doesn't like pumpkin so I debone the cooked salmon and put it into pasta for him. He prefers cucumber for his vege. 

Joseph's salmon pasta (with white cream sauce)

I've learned that you shouldn't force kids to eat stuff they don't like. Always give them a choice. Instead of saying, "Eat your veggies because I say so!!!", I ask, "Would you like pumpkin or cucumber?"

can't wait to dig in

Daaling on the other hand doesn't fancy too much sauce. So it's just a drizzle of olive oil over the pasta for him plus the other stuff.

Daaling's dinner

The girls on the other hand are still on oats porridge. So when I cut up the pumpkin, I have to put aside a small portion which I steam with some potato then blend with some salmon and add to oats. Joy will eat salmon topped on her porridge.

See how many 'variety' I have to prepare for just one meal.

Joy's first kindy assessment

Tomorrow is Joy's first parent-teacher day and I won't be there. So I had a chat with her class teacher today.

Teacher Mary had only lots of good things to say about Joy...

1. She expressed surprise that Joy can read and asked if I teach her at home. Of course I didn't.

2. Joy is very mature and helps her friends who are not as fast as her. As such, teacher made her the class monitor.

3. Teacher asked if I did revision with Joy because only she and another girl got it all correct for their assessment. I had to admit that I did not and in fact did not know they had the assessment until it was over!

I take no credit for her model student behavior and I have to say that no.2 in school is so different from no.1 going to school.

No.1 can sit at the same table with another kid for a whole year and not know his name.

No.2 knows the names of all her classmates. Not only that, she knows there are 17 kids in her class, and she recognizes their parents and vehicles. She also knows the names of teachers who don't teach her and even the helper/cleaner aunty.

 

No.1 hates homework. Until now I have to nag him daily to check his homework and pack his bag. No.2 will do homework on her own initiative and pack her own bag. She even does no.1's homework when it involves coloring.

 

I must however commend no.1's managerial skills. He works smart. Like when homework calls for him to colour sections of a shape to show a given fraction, he will mark the portions and then get no.2 to do the coloring because coloring is too boring and a waste of time.

 

With no.1 and no.2 so different I wonder what no.3 and no.4 will be like.

 

From birth, they wear the same clothes, suck the same breast, sleep in the same cot, drink the same milk. We rock them the same way, sing the same songs, say the same prayer, teach the same stuff.

 

Yet they are so different. Thank God they are. Makes parenting so much more fun!

 

I realize that there's only so much we as parents can do. How they turn out is quite beyond our control. Which is why it is so important to build a strong spiritual foundation during their formative years. For this reason we choose children's church over a myriad of other possible activities on Saturdays. Skills like playing a musical instrument, ballet, art, etc can be learnt any time, even at 40. But once these formative years are lost, they are lost forever.

Joy recently went on stage for the first time with the worship team

We hope and pray that with the right foundation, they will grow to love the Lord all the days of their lives