O Christmas Tree

I've seen some pretty nice Christmas trees this year in the local malls and other places.

So just to share, this is one I saw at Sime Darby Convention Centre in KL when I was there for training a couple of weeks ago.

And this is the one inside Gurney Paragon Mall. If you look closely, there are little SpongeBobs hanging on it.

In my opinion, this tree is one of the nicest in Penang, at 1st Avenue Mall. It's really tall too.

Since it's pretty big, you can actually go inside the tree and there are chairs to sit down. Inside the tree there are also fairy lights hanging from the top.

Another 6 days to Christmas!

Spongebob @ Gurney Paragon Mall

Gurney Paragon Mall's theme for Christmas this year is SpongeBob SquarePants and like many other kids, my elder two are big fans (Heidi probably influenced by Hannah!). When we told them about the big SpongeBob inflatable playground at Gurney Paragon Mall and the meet and greet sessions with SpongeBob and Patrick, they couldn't wait to go.

So we went there for the meet and greet session, and got in line to queue up for a picture with SpongeBob and Patrick. Heidi has this thing against people in costumes (she's even terrified of Santas in suits) so I asked her several times if she really wanted to take a picture and she insisted that she did. But when it got to our turn, she suddenly panicked and wanted out, but it was too late, so she clung so tightly to my neck I thought I would sprain it lol.

Here's our picture with SpongeBob and Patrick with a very panicky little girl.

While waiting in line, the girls took a picture with the inflatable playground at the back, We did not go in as we had to spend RM200 in a single receipt at the mall to get two tickets, or otherwise pay RM50 to buy a mini figurine which would entitle us to get one ticket.

After we took our picture however, a nice lady handed us two tickets which she didn't want anymore, so the girls excitedly thought they could go in to play. But when we wanted to go in, the crew told us that since they are under 7 years old, an adult needed to accompany them, and even the adult needed a ticket! I wasn't prepared to pay RM50 for a ticket, so they could only go and watch a half hour movie at the mini theatre which didn't need any adult to accompany. I just waited for them outside.

These were the tickets:

The girls were a bit disappointed that they couldn't go and play inside the playground, but as the saying goes, good things come to those who wait! :) A few days later, Hubby needed to buy something for his cousin from Samsung which cost RM299. So we decided to get it from the Samsung store at Gurney Paragon, which would entitle us to get two tickets. So in total we had 4 tickets. When we told the girls we now had enough tickets to go in to the playground, they were super excited and they enjoyed themselves thoroughly.

The SpongeBob inflatable playground and mini theatre will be at Gurney Paragon Mall until 4 January 2015, so if your kids are big SpongeBob fans, it's worth checking out :)

Half a year old

Helene is approaching her half year birthday on Thursday. She has started solids (porridge) and is still on breastmilk. So it looks like I have achieved my goal of breastfeeding her until 6 months old (yay me!)

We took her to Gurney Paragon with my parents the other day and I got this lovely picture of her with my dad. We don't normally develop photos since they are all in our smartphones, but this one is definitely frame-worthy.

I only realised later that they were wearing almost matching outfits - red t-shirt and blue jeans. I got her shirt from Baby Zara (RM19.90) and the pants from H&M (RM10.00 down from RM29.90). Cute outfits for bargain prices always make me happy :)

She is also now very alert of her surroundings and has developed stranger anxiety towards people and places. Interestingly enough, however, she doesn't have anxiety when we are out jalan-jalan or at shopping malls!

Nevertheless, she is still as smiley as ever and she was even smiling away at the little stuffed animals hanging from her bouncer.

I was on leave last Friday so we took the two younger ones to McDonald's for breakfast after sending Hannah to kindy. McD's has got to be the second happiest place on earth (after Disneyland!). The happy faces say it all :)

Heidi's 2nd birthday

This is quite a belated post, as Heidi turned 2 in early April. Better late than never! :) This year, we just had a small celebration with immediate family at Itallianies, Gurney Paragon. We prebooked the place and food, and the restaurant was nice enough to decorate the place with balloons, and also give us a free flow of ice lemon tea.

We took lots of photos, as expected, so I will just let the photos do the talking.

Of course the highlight of the evening was her birthday cake which was specially ordered for her from Jenni Cake House, complete with her favourite character Olaf from the Disney movie Frozen. We didn't expect the cake to turn out as nice as it did, so we were pleasantly surprised.

In keeping with the "frozen" theme, Hannah got her little sister a present...

It was a stuffed snowman! Heidi loved it :)

On her real birthday, which was a weekday, we had a simple dinner at TGIF, with some little cupcakes which she chose herself from one of the kiosks at the basement level of Gurney Paragon. It was just us and both sets of grandparents.

Heidi loves the water features at Gurney Paragon, which is why we kept going back there for her birthday!

Heidi with Nanna and Gong Gong:

Kiss from Ah Mah:

Her favourite show of the evening; look at her excitedly clapping her hands! :)

A few days earlier, my mum and dad also got her a special gift (Hannah got a similar one too for her birthday) - it was a Samsung kids tab.

Happy birthday our sweet Heidi! Lots of love from Daddy, Mummy, Hannah and now Helene too!

Sisters

Now that Heidi is almost two, she and Hannah are very close as they can play together and communicate with each other. Heidi loves to imitate her Jie Jie, so she will copy everything Hannah says and does.

The other day, we went out for dinner with friends at Gurney Paragon, and Hannah wanted to wear her necklace with a heart pendant. Seeing Hannah wearing a necklace, Heidi also wanted to wear one, so Hannah lent her one as well.

We had dinner at Rakuzen, and we were early, so here are the kids posing for pictures before the rest arrived.

Hannah also seems to think her sister is some sort of a real live doll. One of their favourite games is where Hannah sticks clothes pegs all over her sister's (and her own!) hair. This is the result:

So yesterday, besides putting the pegs on Heidi's hair, she also decided that it would be a good idea to peg her sister's skin! Of course Heidi wailed the place down and she now has a bruised shoulder as a result. We didn't scold Hannah however, as she was quite remorseful for having injured her little sister. She immediately showed me Heidi's bruise when I got home from work yesterday. We just explained to her that she must not do it again as it is very painful and she seemed to understand.

But she definitely sayang her little sister. Heidi's birthday is approaching so Hannah wanted to get her a gift. Heidi's favourite character at the moment is Olaf from the Disney movie "Frozen" but unfortunately we don't have the merchandise available at the moment. So we got her the next best thing, a stuffed snowman. It's all wrapped up now, but Hannah took a picture to show her Daddy what she bought for Heidi.

Our two little princesses..we hope that their loving sisterly bond will last even though they are all grown up :)

My Birthday Day 1 Part 2

After lunch, we took a walk around Gurney Plaza and Gurney Paragon and Hubby suggested to go there for dinner. The initial plan was to meet up with some of our friends, but Hubby told me in the morning that some of them could not make it, so they would treat me another day.

So in the evening, we picked up Hannah from mother-in-law's place and we went to Gurney Paragon to have Itallianies for dinner. Gurney Paragon is quite nicely done up and Hannah was very happy to see the water features and little fountains.



She wore the dress that "Uncle Tee-Ven" bought for her again and since there was a huge space for her to run around, she danced here and there and twirled her skirt like a flamenco dancer :)



When we got to the entrance of Itallianies, we saw quite a long line waiting outside and I thought that we may not be able to have dinner there after all. To my surprise, Hubby walked straight it and I saw our friends already there, seated by the window. It was a lovely surprise and they told me that they were using the menus to hide their faces so that I didn't see them :)

The girls and guys:



We ordered quite a lot of food, and in big portions too! The pizza was enormous - 16 inch (which is about the size of some car tyres :p) and the stuffed mushrooms were delicious. I especially liked the Sicilian chicken salad because it was a twist of the usual Caesar's salad with grapes and mango cubes tossed in. Kids eat for free at Itallianie's (just like at Chilli's or TGIF), but when Hannah saw her kid's meal, she asked "What is this? I want the normal one!" "Normal" to her means regular french fries and not grilled potato wedges like they serve at Itallanies. Nevertheless, she enjoyed her fried fish and finished almost all of it.



Since it was my birthday, we also had a complimentary cake (or rather bread pudding). It was also very good.



We also got one of the waiters to take a nice picture of all of us.



Gurney Paragon at night is really nice too, as they have the dancing fountain with lights. Hannah was super excited to see it.



Hannah was running around, trying to touch the water without getting herself wet, but she stopped long enough to take a photo with Szu Fu and Hooi Lee.



We left around 11 pm that night and Hannah slept in the car on the way home. Preparing our tummies for the next day!