Lanterns at Lee Jetty

Little Helene loves lanterns - she knows them as "mei mei" (pretty) and if anyone says "mei mei" she will immediately looks up with her hand reached out, as if to touch the lantern. So since she loves them so much, one evening we visited Lee Jetty, which is one of the clan jetties at Weld Quay. It is known to be very pretty with many lanterns lighted up at night. Seems like Heidi was the happiest one though haha - my little poser.

Helene as usual was trying to reach up to touch the lanterns.

Some views of the jetty taken with our not-so-good camera phones.

CNY 2015

There is no doubt that kids are the happiest during Chinese New Year with the ang pows, food, fireworks, playtime with cousins and friends etc. This was Helene's first CNY and she learnt how to gesture "gong xi gong xi" just in time for it too! :)

The kids were already in a CNY mood a week before and insisted on wearing their cheongsams out just to have froyo!

The day before CNY, we made a last minute trip to Queensbay to pick up some stuff, and the girls were posing next to the CNY decorations at the mall.

On the first day of CNY, we went over to my parents' place for breakfast and we took a nice family shot with all of us.

Us and the girls. Heidi is wearing another cheongsam which my mother bought for her from China.

Helene and I in my floral top from Zalora which I paid only RM9.00 for because I had a voucher :)

On the 2nd day, it was more visiting and eating and the kids got to play fireworks at night. Even Helene liked them too! Surprisingly she was not scared by the loud firecrackers which were going off everywhere and didn't even turn a hair.

This was on the 4th day where we took my parents to Budan's Brew Coffeebar for breakfast. Another Zalora top which I didn't have to pay anything for this time (I keep getting vouchers!) :) This is how I save on my CNY shopping haha.

At night, we had choo char dinner with Hubby and his family. Lots of food again and Helene enjoyed it too! She prefers to eat our adult food nowadays compared to her porridge and oats. So when we eat out, I usually give her rice with a lot of soup to soften it and maybe some carrot or tofu if there is any. She has 4 teeth coming out on top in addition to her 2 bottom teeth so she can chomp away without much trouble.

CNY 5th day - we attended Hubby's office "start work" day. My girls and I at my parents' place before leaving.

I asked Hubby's partner to take a nice family shot of the 5 of us. She took a few, and this was my favourite one.

In the evening, we had buffet dinner at Cititel Hotel to celebrate Hubby's twin nephews' birthday. Lots of selfies!

Back to reality today cos work has officially started. Wishing everyone a very "xiyangyang" Year of the Goat!

My 34th

I celebrated by 34th birthday one week ago, yes I'm that old! Sometimes it's hard to believe that I'm almost halfway to three score and ten but it's a fact haha.

I had a few birthday celebrations this year, the first being with my colleagues. They celebrated with me the week before as I usually make it a point to take leave on my birthday :) We had a Japanese lunch, and when we got back to the office, they surprised me with a lovely cake.

Then on the weekend before my birthday, my parents took us to one of my favourite restaurants, Mario's at Batu Ferringhi, and I had my favourite lobster thermidor.

Lemon cheesecake for my birthday cake. I don't usually like cheesecake but this was quite lemony and delicious.

On my actual birthday itself, Hubby took me for breakfast brunch at this little cafe called Gusto at Hillside, Tanjung Bungah. 

And in the evening, we had a fancy dinner with our friends at Macalister Mansion.

And and just to "tumpang" this post, we usually don't celebrate Valentine's Day since we got married - Hubby says that we now celebrate our wedding anniversary instead of Valentine's Day lol. But anyway, on Feb 13 when Hannah got home from school, she was very secretive and didn't let anyone open her homework pouch as she said she had a "surprise" for us. The next morning, the first she did when she got up was to open her pouch and take out this lovely card which she made in school for us.

It's now stuck on our fridge together with her other "masterpieces" :)

Thank you all my dear family and friends for the lovely week!

Just a random post

I realise that I am way behind on blogging. So many things happening but I have yet to sort out the photos from my phone, camera etc etc.

So since I haven't updated my blog for a while, here are some random pictures of the girls and what they have been up to.

Helene is now 9 1/2 months. I thought of weaning her after coming back from my Australia trip as I thought she would be so used to the bottle that she wouldn't remember how to breastfeed. But that was not the case, and she's more sticky to me now than before! Sigh..so the pumping continues. But on the other hand, I think I would miss the bond with my little koala bear if she weaned too soon. So maybe we'll continue until she is one year old.

She loves food and will make noises and movements with her mouth when she sees anyone eating something. So far besides her own food, she has tried little morsels of our "adult food" despite having only 2 litte bottom teeth (still!). I have never seen a baby who likes food this much lol. She's not too fond of her car seat but can still be coaxed into flashing that award-winning smile for the camera :)

Even when she's asleep, her cheeks are so pinchable. But my motto is "Let sleeping babies lie"! Haha :)

We normally take her out on weekends together with her jie-jies and no prizes for guessing who is the "big boss" :p

Hannah is now in her 3rd year of kindergarten. It seems like just yesterday that we took her for her first day of kindy and now, next year she will be in primary one. But whether she is 3, 4, 5 and now almost 6, some things remain her favourite. Like this:

Heidi is almost 3 years old and it also seems like just yesterday that she was born that early Easter morning 3 years ago. We used to be quite worried that she was a slow talker, unlike Hannah, but now she chatters non stop, and sometimes even with an accent! Must be the result of too many American cartoons haha.

My parents are back and they are the designated evening babysitters since they live in the same apartment building. Gives us some time to have a nice bath, relax and watch some TV.

Nanna's girls:

They are really growing up fast!