Happy New Year 2010 and Happy Birthday KongKong - Hutong Lot10 and Chili's

We greeted the new year in church last night. The evening started with DUMC's 30th Anniversary Celebration Dinner at 7pm. It was a mammoth dinner with about 3000 diners. This was followed by Watchnight Service from 9pm till midnight.

The Celebration was a testimony of God's faithfulness. Our hearts well up in thankfulness and gratitude when we look back and see how a church of 22 persons has grown to 3600 in just 30 years.

Both kids fell asleep in church. This morning, they woke up at past 9am. We got them ready and then headed to Lot 10 to the famous new non-halal food court - Hutong. Getting there at about 11am, the place was already fairly crowded. Some stalls had longer queues than others. Thanks to the vouchers courtesy of YTL, we spent about RM20 besides paying RM7 for parking (per entry rate on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays). So exorbitant! I know there are cheaper parking rates nearby but with my grandmother's limited mobility and 2 small children, it's more convenient to park inside Lot 10 itself.

I think the food is way over-rated. If not for the vouchers, you wouldn't find me here. The fried oysters were pretty good though. Big and juicy. RM9.90 a plate (before 5% govt tax).

Joseph supporting Ah Chor while she walked slowly

We came home for the kids (and mama) to nap while Nana went to the gym and Daaling went for a swim. When they got up, we got ready to go out again. This time to Midvalley Megamall for dinner at Chili's.

Joseph wanted hotdog and Joy-Anne wanted pizza. Neither ate much of their own food.

They both walloped my smoothie instead.

Ah Ku had tequila-lime fish steak...

Nana had fish and chips but replaced the chips with mashed potatoes.

Mama had grilled salmon. It was good.

Kim Kim had the Quesadilla Explosion...

and Daalin had grilled chicken with portobello mushroom...

I ordered a second smoothie and the kids enjoyed it so much.

Joy had so much fun and was so excited running around that she didn't want to eat at all. When I caught her, she screamed for Nana...

We got a complimentary brownie for the birthday boy. Wish the guys at Chili's could have done the Beetle's When I'm 64...

They ate the brownie like hungry lions ravaging one tiny rabbit...

The total bill came to RM250.10. Since we had RM250 of vouchers, we paid a mere 10sen!

After dinner, we came home. Ah Ku's car arrived first and when I got home, I found Joe very happy on Ah Ku's bike!

I was quite surprised because prior to this, he was too afraid to ride it and would only sit on it with the engine off. Today however, while Ah Ku was giving the engine a warm-up, Joe said, "Ah Ku, how about we take the bike for a spin?". So Ah Ku obliged him and they went for quite a few spins.

Then we came up and cut KongKong's real birthday cake.

This is Kong Kong's birthday cake. French Vanila Millie Crepe from HumbleBeginnings. I only managed to be amongst the second five callers so it was 75% off, at RM15.

I 'wrote' all the words on top myself with chocolate sauce in a plastic bag used as a piping bag. Not too bad huh for a first timer.

I quite like the cake. It's something different. At RM62 for 0.9kg, it is a little pricey. But cheap cakes don't taste good. And good cakes don't come cheap.

But I say that if you're gonna consume the calories, it better be good!

Happy New Year 2010 everyone!

In 2 more days...

...KongKong will be singing this!

my dancing queen

Joy-Anne likes to dance .....

And she can break-dance too .....

Christmas Day 2009

It's been a very family Christmas this year. We went to DUMC for the 8.30am celebration on 25th morning. It was quite difficult to get everybody out the door by 7.30am but we managed.

Jaclyn Victor made a special appearance, upon special request by Pr Daniel. After church, we came home and Nana wanted to take some photos with the kids while I cooked (!!!)

Yes, I cooked. It was just pasta.

We were planning to let the kids sleep in the car while we travelled to Seremban after lunch. But my princess dozed off at lunch...

So we put her on the bed and she slept for the next 3 hours. We didn't go to Seremban till evening.

In Seremban, we went out to Parkson after dinner. Ah Kong had Joe choose a toy for his Christmas present and much to my surprise and Ah Kong's delight, he chose a toy golf set!
He had Ah Kong give him a golf lesson at home. The boys also imagined they were playing hockey!

They found the floor too smooth and Ah Kong told Joe he would teach him how to play on the grass the next morning.

After his golf lesson, Joe went out to a neighbour's house to feed a dog. I'm not quite sure why he found it so interesting but he did.

In the evening on Saturday, the boys went swimming. At night, we had a family dinner at home. Ah Mah cooked up a storm which looked much like a Chinese New Year feast. I forgot to take photos though.

Everybody went home today. It was certainly good to get together. We're quite looking forward to the next one at CNY and then to our family holiday in March.

The next few days will be quite busy too. It's gonna be a wonderful end to a wonderful year.

Joy-Anne sings...

I haven't had time to go through the photos taken on Christmas Day so here's something to keep Yee Yee entertained in the mean time...

Christmas Eve Dinner

We spent Christmas Eve at home. Stress-free, jam-free and economical! Dinner was Dominos Pizza, Jusco roast chicken, coleslaw (homemade) and mashed potatoes (homemade).
This was the 2nd round - dessert. Cream puffs, fruit cake, cheese cake, coconut chocolates (from Melbourne), ice-cream, grape juice and Sheridans.

Joe wanted to pop the cork of the sparkling grape juice bottle. But I think it was a little gas-deficient so the final pop was kinda anti-climax.


Yee Yee called half way thru to get hear a bit of our Christmas cheer...

Then we started to open the presents.

A group photo before we started...

Joseph was quite happy. He could identify all those that belonged to him.

My dad tried out a new way of 'hanging' Ah Chor's new toy - a portable dvd player.

And this new decoration that now adorns my wall is from Nana.

Lovely, isn't it?

Blessed Christmas to everyone!

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2010!

May the love of Christ fill your hearts,

His joy fill your homes,

and his peace fill your minds...

at Christmas and all through the year ahead!

playing together

I love seeing my two children play together when they are both in a good mood. Joseph can be such a good brother at times.

Fun at the Pyramid

We made a trip to Sunway Pyramid last night, with the main purpose of treating the kids to a ferris wheel ride.

Met up with the singapore clan for dinner first, and then we found out that the ferris wheel is not yet functioning. So the men and boys made their way to the adjacent area where we found this bumper car thingy. Joe was only too excited to have a go.
Of course it was so much more fun to have Joshua, Daniel and Sean there to bump into each other.

They had 2 rounds of fun.

I think the boys quite enjoyed themselves too. RM5 per ride.

Joe said it was cool. He was not at all afraid.

Joy-Anne didn't ask to ride the bumper cars. Thank God. After a while, she warmed up to Tua Um and let Tua Um carry her.

After Pyramid, we went to Ah Ku's new house at about 10pm. Yeah I know it was late. But the kids both napped for more than 3 hours in the afternoon so I figured they should be ok.

Ah Ku has a nice new big tv in a newly-repainted and renovated house.

This is the computer and probably storage room. It's still messy with boxes here and there.

Joe checked out the new washing machine. He can't do this with our top-loading one at home.

The kids were quite comfortable there and didn't want to go home.

When I told Joy we were going to Ah Ku's house, she said, "See my kim kim".

Ah Ku's and Kim Kim's brand new bed.

Joe had lots of fun running around and mopping Ah Ku's floor with his socks.

I forgot to take pictures of the very nice ceiling. Now Ah Ku's house looks nicer than ours.

me and my hair

I had been itching (again!) about whether or not to cut my hair, or let it grow out and perhaps get a perm.

Finally, I decided that I like my naturally-very-healthy (according to the previous hair stylist) hair that I'm blessed with, and all I need is a good cut.

I tried out Chezz Technique (Jalan Gasing) back in July, out of sheer convenience. Popped over during my lunch break for a cut. A senior stylist, Katherine Loo cut a bob for me - shorter at the back, longer in the front. But I only really liked it in September when it grew slightly longer.

Then at the end of October, I found this new salon near my home which had a promo-RM20-cut and I gave it a try. Bad mistake.

The so-called-senior stylist was not as good as Katherine and it looked all wrong.

Now 2 months later, it's grown out again and I decided to pay Katherine a visit again. I asked her to cut it not-so-short this time so that I could still clip it at the back when I'm working.

One hour and RM62 later, I'm absolutely loving the results.

The cleaner in my clinic asked if I had my hair straightened. The answer is "NO!"

So I'm finally convinced - you get what you pay for. No more inexperienced stylist for me. Plus I really liked the massage that came with the hair wash.

Look Who's Talking Like a Grown-up

I rolled over onto Joy-Anne's babycot last night, stared into her pretty eyes and said, "Can mama sleep here?"

She said, "No. You go to your bed!"

Stunned, I said, "Say that again?"

Joy-Anne : You go to your bed!

Now where did she learn to talk like that? She's not yet 2 years old!

1Utama on a public holiday.

We went to 1 Utama last night with the intention of catching a glimpse of Dora and Kai Lan at the Nickelodeon roadshow. It was all quite disappointing because Dora only appeared at 1pm and Kai lan at 3pm so this was all we saw...

So we went to look for dinner. I thought we would go back to Zuup. But it no longer exists. Chap lap already!

Barney car next to Zuup has also been changed

Daalin thought of going to Chili's. But the wait was too long. So we walked over to the old wing for Joe's regular yummy porridge at I Love Yoo!

After dinner, popped over to Waffle World for desserts.

The blueberry waffle was quite nice although the strawberry one was more crispy. Joy-Anne fed herself ice-cream with a butter knife.

We walked around the crowded place a while before making our way home.

We passed by a Ogawa display and this is the Booby Monster at work.... (Yee Yee, this picture is for your laughing pleasure.)

Note to self : avoid malls on a public holiday. Only go on 1 Jan to Chili's and make sure we get there before 6.30pm to get a table.