May 29, 2015

Impromptu birthday party at KFC

A few days before her birthday, we had asked Hannah where she wanted to go for her birthday dinner and she chose KFC! So we decided to go to the KFC at Greenlane. Since it was a weekday and exam week, we just told our family and friends that we would be going there for dinner and whoever was free could come and join us.

We were given the entire room reserved for birthday parties even though we didn't have any prior booking since there wasn't any birthday that night. The night before, I helped Hannah to bake some cupcakes which she decorated with Daddy's help.


Birthday girl with her cupcakes. This was the same dress she wore for her 5th birthday last year. She has lost a little bit of weight so the dress could still fit! :)


Heidi followed my MIL to the party so she was not in this family picture.


Hannah with my parents.


They had this cute cardboard cut-out which we could use to take funny photos. The kids and even the adults had some fun with it haha.



We didn't expect that a lot of people could make it, but most of them came, even her cousins and aunt all the way from the mainland.


And here we have a family picture with all 5 of us.



And the rest:


Both sides grandaparents:


The kids had fun at the playground:

  
Even little Helene!


Hannah had a fun 6th birthday. Thank you to all our family, friends and colleagues for her presents - all her favourite toys!


May 26, 2015

Hannah is 6!

Our first princess is 6 today! It seems like just yesterday this tall girl was just a tiny baby in our arms.

We had a small celebration for her last Friday at school and here was her "Shopkins" cake, by special request :)


We also prepared party packs for her friends, and in addition each of them got a bubble stick which my parents brought all the way from Australia. It really is very cheap over there.


Here are the girls playing with their bubble sticks, and Helene was so fascinated, trying to catch the bubbles!

Since her "in-thing" now is Shopkins, we indulged her and she got what she wanted for her birthday present. She couldn't wait to open her present (we got it wrapped) this morning before going to school.


My parents also got her a set from Australia, so now she has a shelf dedicated to her Shopkins, waiting to grow her collection!


Happy birthday our precious princess! May God bless your richly and may you be a good example to your two little sisters. Have a very special day today! Lots of love from Daddy, Mummy, Heidi and Helene.


May 14, 2015

Mother's Day 2015

We had a simple Mother's Day this year, celebrating with just ourselves and my sisters-in-law. My mother-in-law was busy during the weekend attending a relative's wedding, so she couldn't join us this year.

I saw this text in the morning sent by Hubby - such a nice way to start off the day *feeling loved* :) Cos I always complain to him that I am fat haha :)



Hubby took us for a nice lunch at Rakuzen - no pictures of any food because I was more interested in eating than taking pictures haha. But here's one of my small baby and big "baby". I think this is a lovely picture of the both of them.


Then back at my sister-in-law's place, we had dessert. Hubby specially ordered 2 of these cakes, one for me and one for my mum (more about that later).

3 mummies and a cake :)



We then had an early dinner at Pizza Hut (for which we got a free stuffed crust pizza because my sister-in-law complained that the pizza was cold), and thereafter ice-cream at Baskin Robbins! Of course, the kids loved it :)



Back at home, we had another cake with my mum. Helene and Heidi were cranky, so it was just me and Hannah and my dad while hubby took the other 2 back to our own house.



Here's a closer look at the cake. It may not look very pretty, but it's absolutely delicious. It's known as a mille crepe cake, because it's made up of layers of crepe with fresh cream between the layers. We had a French Vanilla and a Peach Passion mille crepe cake - the Peach Passion also had peach slices between the layers. We ordered the cakes from Humble Beginnings at their Gurney Plaza outlet. It's not cheap, but worth every cent.


So that concluded my simple Mother's Day this year. Here are the little gifts I got and also a handmade card which Hannah made in school.


Happy Mother's Day to all my super-mummy friends, my own mummy and my mummy relatives. We should remember that every day should be Mother's Day!

May 5, 2015

ZICOlaw Network Bali Retreat 2015

So my firm had announced this trip as early as January this year. At that time it still seemed like such a long way to go, but then now the trip has come and gone. Not to sound cliche, but time really flies. This was my second time in Bali, as I had previously come here with hubby and a group of friends back in 2011.

We travelled on the morning of 30 April, taking a flight from Penang to KL at 5.50 am and thereafter the connecting flight to Denpasar at 8.50 am. So not surprisingly, most of us were up by 3.30 am to make it to the airport one hour before departure. We reached Denpasar by noon, and the shuttle buses took us to the hotel.

The multi-coloured luggage bags made for a good photo opportunity - what I like to call "Instagram worthy photos" :)


On arrival, we had a group check-in since there were so many of us, and I had the yummiest welcome drink ever. I was told it was mango tea.


The firm put us up at Sofitel which was located at Nusa Dua. We were told that it was a 5 star luxury hotel, and we were not disappointed. The hotel grounds were really amazing - more opportunities for Instagram worthy photos!



The rooms were really nice too, and they provided Lanvin toiletries! I had a nice bubble bath on the day I arrived, something which I hardly get to do at home haha.



The Senior Associates had discussion/training sessions on the first day and half of the second day, so after the sessions were over, we headed to the beach for some R&R.



Once the rest of the Associates arrived on the second day, we decided to have a late lunch. We were recommended to go to this place called Dirty Duck. It originated in Ubud, but there was a branch nearby in Nusa Dua so we headed there. No regrets, as the food was really good. We were in a party of 13 people, so we ordered quite a lot of food, but managed to finish everything!


That night, we had dinner at Jimbaran - grilled seafood by the beach. We were in smaller party this time, but the food was equally as good.


The next day, we had our network photo session, so we were given special t-shirts and white sunnies to wear. Besides the official photos, of course there were all the selfies and unofficial photos!



These were most of the lawyers from our Penang office (missing a few).


The firm had organised a half day tour to Tanah Lot in the afternoon, but I did not join the tour since I had been there before, You can read about it here. So I just rested in the hotel and did some souvenir shopping at a nearby shopping centre. 

In the evening, it was time for the Absolutely White Beach Party at Nikki Beach! The dress code was (yes, you guessed it), Absolutely White, so we were all dressed in our white dresses, white pants, white tops etc. 




It was a fun evening, with performances by various offices and the Jakarta office won first prize which was USD1,000!

After Nikki Beach, we headed for Hard Rock Hotel in downtown Kuta. Kuta did look a lot different from when I was there last.


The next morning, after breakfast, we went for more souvenir shopping as some of my colleagues did not manage to do any shopping the day before. We checked out first so that we could have more time outside since our shuttle bus to the airport was only due to arrive at 1.30 pm. Even the reception area was super nice with these swing chairs for us to sit and wait.


After shopping, it was back to the hotel to catch the shuttle bus for our 4 pm flight, but not before one more look at the magnificent view from the lobby area. Phone cameras honestly don't do justice to the actual scenery.


Goodbye and thank you Bali for a wonderful 4 days. It was great making new friends, meeting up with old ones, and for all the fun and laughter. We work hard and we play hard too!


After 4 days and 3 nights away from home, it was good to be back with my family and especially these 3 little ones! Hubby did a great job in looking after our princesses and the house didn't look too shabby either haha. It's nice to have a break once in a while, but nothing beats coming home :)



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