Viv's Diary

Cook Out Pig Out

2010-11-22T14:40:00.008+08:00

It has been a tradition for the 4 teachers mummy to meet up during holidays & that's the 1st thing we did once holidays start!!

Since its a cooking session for the kids, I was tasked to head it & assigned whoever to buy whatever!! how nice!! I was deciding how to decorate the children's' chef hat & the idea of their name & nice pictures of them would be nice!! So here it is... mummies wearing our child's hat & striking a pose.Here are the 4 kids.... Waiting for instructions & the signal to START!!
Dish # 1 - Fruit Jelly
Joyce bought all the fruits & the kids wasted no time to cut and fill up the jelly mould with fresh fruits... but felt so bad that there were not enough jelly liquid to fill up for all of them...
They were such good kids, no one really fuss or mind that they have less or little jelly...
Dish # 2 - Pizza
Angie bought most of the pizza ingredients & each were given a base & ingredients to cut & put whatever they like on the base.
Ezra was very creative & made a happy face pizza....

Dish # 3 - Banana Cupcake
The kids worked together & helped each other add ingredients and prepare the mix for the banana cupcake. They worked really well together.After that they started filling the cups with the batter, this took quite a bit of skills and time but they did such a beautiful job!!

The best part of this dish was decorating the cupcakes with icing & glitters!! They had a blast.
Oh while the kids were doing their dishes, they were like celebrities cos all the parents were busy snapping pictures of them!! 4 kids 4 cameras & 1 videocam!
The kids enjoying the fruit of their labour.

Besides the above dishes, we also had salad (thanks wolfie), mushroom soup & baked chicken thighs!! YUMMY to the max!!
We also celebrated Wolfie birthday.... Blessed belated birthday my friend.
It was a night packed with actions & activities!!

Ezra shares

2010-10-16T07:28:00.001+08:00

Yesterday the sch had a visit to a leather upholstery factory. As a parting gift, each child was given a genuine leather tissue pouch. Ezra n a few of his friends were in my car on our journey back. One of them claimed that he don't have the pouch cos he dropped it along the way. Ezra, without prompting said "it's ok ..... You can have one. Here take it."

When I heard that my heart melts... I am so proud n pleased with him. Well done my son.

A teacher asked Ezra what happen to his pouch n on learning that, she gave him hers. Ezra was very happy to have another pouch back. I took that opportunity to teach him when we bless someone, very often we will be blessed in return as well.

三叔 came by church n he too asked ezra what happen to his pouch n why did he gave his away. Ezra said "cos my mummy car seat has a lot of leather already I don't need more!" the pure heart of young ones...

Sudden outburst n lesson learnt

2010-10-07T22:31:00.001+08:00

After my shower, I went into Ezra's room to check on him. To my horror, he was laying face up on the bed n hanging his head down. I could see his whole face had turned red! Quickly I helped him up n told him in a very stern n straight face what he did was very dangerous. All the blood will travel to his head causing great pressure n if pressure gets too great it may burst n cause hemorrhage n one may die! Maybe due to my stern look, he burst out crying and hugging me sobbing n saying" mummy I don't want to die, don't want to go to the hospital bcos i will miss you."

He hugged me so tight n I can feel his fear. Guess I must have been to harsh on my tone m warning!

When I put him to bed this evening, his prayers was "dear God, pls help me not to do what I did just now so that I will not die."

Guess he really learnt his lesson n think before he does dangerous stunts!

Children's Day Fancy Dressed Party

2010-10-03T16:10:00.004+08:00

Our school was having a theme party to celebrate children's day... Its Fancy Dressed Party.... I was deciding to dress Ezra up as cowboy (but need to get boots, hat etc) or pirate (but need to get hat, torn pants etc) or simply let him wear his pass me down sipderman suit? I was shopping in Spotlight & was inspired to dress Ezra up as a magician!! I got him his top hat and a magic wane and also some trick cards from Daiso..... Ezra was very excited and was practicing the trick card all evening!!

The day finally came... Ezra got up without much fuss and got dressed in super-speed!! He looks pretty cool & handsome!! hahaha...

The party was a crazy one... many of the children came dressed in different costumes!! All the efforts put in by parents... thank you...

The kids also had a wild time dressing up their teachers... who were very sporting and had a fashion parade down the runway!!

Holiday Happenings #1

2010-09-05T16:16:00.005+08:00

Jac has been working very hard for many weekends and I was very glad that he does not have to go back this weekend... we decided to make a trip to the beach, ECP for cycling!!

Our 1st stop at ECP was MacDonald!! Ezra and daddy were happily munching on their favourite breakfast!Funny face Ezra!

Ezra has outgrown his current bike and we thought we might as well just rent one for him. Each of us chose our bikes and we are all ready to go go go!!!

A check with Jac, I realized the rental was for 1+1 hour!! Can Ezra last so long?

We ride on and only stopped occasionally for drinking water & water play!!

We encouraged Ezra with the final destination at Bedok Jetty where we can see many people fishing. Everytime Ezra complaint abt being tired, we will encouraged him with the jetty point and view and he will pressed on!! Father & son even had a race at some point to see who is faster!!

Finally we reached the jetty!! Ezra was very excited to see uncles fishing... we even saw a catch!! That was a bonus for us.Our ride back was more challenging as Ezra was more tired and I was complaining abt bum pain!! It was funny when Ezra finally spotted a bike shop & shouted "YES" but I told him this is not the shop, you could literally see his disappointed 任命 look!! But we encouraged each other & YES we made it back to the shop exactly after 2 hours!! I cant believe that we cycled for 2 hours. Well done son...

After our ride, we headed to Ikea for Ezra's favourite meatball... he finished 6 meatballs, 1 bun with loads of butter, some mushroom soup & 1 chicken drumlet. He must be very hungry and used much of his energy!!

It was a very happy and enjoyable day spent with my 2 darlings... love you both so much....

Teacher's Day Gift

2010-08-31T17:34:00.006+08:00

I was trying to decide what to get for Ezra's teachers & we decided to make cup cakes!! At that point of time, I only know how to bake banana muffin and thought it will be boring for the teachers. So we went to the library and borrowed some books on cupcakes. I tried some of the recipes and decided on orange peel, peanut butter, apple cinnamon and banana walnut cupcakes!!

Next was shopping for the containers to hold the cupcakes... I found this nice plain box which Ezra get to write a short message for the teachers. On another side, he draw some pictures. I wrote a short message for the teachers and the last side is the teacher's name. It was quite a lot of boxes for Ezra to write, a total of 10 boxes!! But he did well. He was very sweet trying to decide what to draw for his teacher. For example, for Aunty Lai Kuan's box, he flipped through the drawing book, saw a puffer fish & wanted to draw that cos she caught a puffer fish one time on a holiday!! We baked and baked and baked!! 1st round and 2nd round on Monday. Ezra helped with the flour and adding some of the basic ingredients but this round, I did not allow him to put the mix into the cups....fearing that he will mess it up. Anyway, after all the cupcakes were baked, I had to make the buttercream and cheese cream to decorate the cupcakes. See our final results!! Very pretty and colourful!! Very happy with the result... the cupcake also very yummy!! Each box has 6 cupcakes it fits beautifully into the box. Thank teachers for influencing the impacting Godly values and love to Ezra....

Ezra's 1st dental visit

2010-08-24T17:10:00.001+08:00

I was due to make my crown after the root canel n I thot it's abt time for ezra to visit the dentist. We have been prep talking him. So the appointment is made. I will do my crown which takes abt an hour n he will wait for me, seeing me on the chair. I planned to let him play on my iPhone. But when we got there, Dr Lim turned on the tv n he sat there watching cartoons quietly.

After I am done, it's his appt. Chris attended to him. Again they distracted him with Cars the movie.

They were very patient explaining to him abt the chair the tap the brush the tools etc!

Slowly Chris got him to open his mouth n got it checked.

He has 1 tiny decay between his 2 front teeth, one tiny decay on his upper n lower back teeth. Chris advised that nothing be done but better brushing n close monitoring. After the check, he did a good cleaning up for Ezra!

Throughout the check, ezra co-operated very well, opening his mouth etc. I was pleasantly surprised n very pleased with him. Well done my son!

Chris wanted to see him again in 3 mths. After getting his special spring toothbrush, Ezra happily walked out of the clinic! I asked if he will come back again for uncle chris to check.... His reply was "ya sure I like it!"

The Apprentice

2010-08-22T19:49:00.006+08:00

I was just reading a post by Angie abt her little apprentice for bento making!! I decided to borrow that same title for this post... ok Angie?

Ezra was Jac little apprentice!! I was busy cooking tonight dinner in the kitchen and was asking Jac to take pictures. He took out his BIG camera & got Ezra to hold the sheet to reflect the lights!! I can hear Jac telling him "Ezra, hold it higher, yes yes come nearer!"
These are the pictures of the burger Jac took with Ezra's help!!
This is my dinner - beef burger without the bread! Just as yummy!!

Ezra did such a good job and very soon he was promoted to be the photographer with daddy holding the sheet.
This is the picture of the burger Ezra took!! Not bad... gives a different perspective of the burger!

Yes these burgers were our dinner for the evening!! YUMMY!!

I made our own beef patty - minced beef with chopped onions, button mushroom, salt, pepper and dash of basil.

In our burger, I added egg, butterhead, cheese, sliced cucumber and tomato. I made 6 burgers - Jac, Ezra, my dad, my mum, Siya & even one for Josephine!! But I run out of burger buns & poor Jose had to settle for just white sandwich bread.
Hahaha, amazing this post alone has pictures taken by 4 different persons!! Below are from me!!

Sorry son, you have to eat your veg... like it or not!!
Our burger meal is complete with chilled diet coke!! Oh this picture was taken by Siya...thanks

A Perfect Day @ ECP

2010-08-22T19:25:00.006+08:00

Ezra has always enjoyed playing with sand but with the terribly hot weather & Jac busy schedule, we have not been to the beach for the longest time.

We made our way down to ECP for sand play and Joanne's family decided to join us as well!!

The kids hit the sand once we found a nice cool spot to put our things. They wasted no time & started building their castle..... both the daddies rolled up their pants and sweat it out with them!
God as so so good, He sent the sun behind the clouds and the kids were actually in the shade as well!!

While the kids were out at the beach, Jo and me were sitting back in the shade and chit chatting & caught this awesome sight by our awesome Creator!!
Jac building a church on the beach!
After a while, the daddies started venturing into the waters! They were trying to catch some fish & they did!! Jac was saying he very "Biblical" cos he built a church & was a fisherman!!
Ezra never really like to get near the waters but today he tried to walk a little in the waters with some motivation... catch the fish. Well done my son!!
Another family picture to remember this day!!

Puff Pastry Chicken Pie

2010-08-21T14:48:00.003+08:00

Josephine left some puff pastry in my freezer for the longest time & many times I almost wanted to throw them away....

Finally I decided to make chicken pie with it. Instead of the big pie size, I decided mini size is better. I cut & lined the puff pastry into my muffin tray.

I never like frozen mixed veg so I decided to peel the corn kernel, chopped the carrot and french bean. Bring them to a quick boil & drained. Next to boil is the potatoes and diced them after cooked. Diced skinless chicken thigh, marinate with soy sauce, pepper and seasame oil. Chopped big onion. Fry the big onion, chicken meat until brown, add the diced potatoes and mixed veg and mix well. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Scoop the mix into each shell. I realised that I dont have enough pastry to close up the pie so again had to improvise.... cut strips & decorate it on the top!! Brush a little egg & bake in at 180 degree for 20 mins!!

While the pies are baking, Ezra asked to eat the remaining corn. I simply added some butter to the corn & he LOVES it!!

Here's my tray of chicken pies

Ezra took this pic for me!!

He wanted to pose with the pies cos they were so pretty!!

Crispy pastry & moist filling... Super Yummy!!

Bento # 8 & Bento # 9 & Durian Swiss Roll

2010-08-20T20:23:00.003+08:00

Jac's dinner for last evening was brown rice with hairy veg. I used 2 prawns to decorate it a little. I also tried cooking this 1st time dish chicken a la king which asked for cream of mushroom but since I dont have that in my cupboard, I substituted it with milk and a slice of cheese. I stir fry some chopped garlic, added in the carrot and sliced button mushroom. Add in the chicken breast meat and a dash of basil and salt. According to Jac, it was very yummy!!

Tonight dinner is rather unhealthy!! Spicy stir fried noodles, fried chicken wing, prawn with jap mayo and china cabbage with 黑木耳.
I was in a baking mood and since I still have durian puree in the fridge I decided to make yet another batch of puffs and even durian swiss roll!! Very happy with the result... taste is great but somehow the colour does not stand out cos too close in colours!! I brought most of my baking to school for my teachers and church staff!!

Bento # 7

2010-08-16T18:23:00.008+08:00

I was still thinking if I want to prepare bento on sun evening for Jac but guess I still did!

Today dinner bento was brown rice with beef rendang and 小白菜. Beef rendang was easy but takes a lot time to simmer until the beef is tender. I marinated the beef cubes with some salt and pepper. Cut lime leaves, lemon grass, big onions and tomatoes, stir fry and add the beef cubes. Fry the cubes until brown, add the Brahim's beef rendang mix and simmer the beef until tender.
My lunch was the same 小白菜 with tomato based sauce sotong. I fry big onion, garlic and a little ginger slice with chopped tomatoes, added the sotong & voila a new dish!!

Ezra saw me preparing all the bentos and uploading the pictures and he was very excited and happy. He asked me "Mummy, do you think you can make the same for me someday?" It was at that moment that I felt really bad, feeling somewhat that I have neglected him in my food preparation! I woke up extremely early last Friday and prepared a nice cute shaped bread to surprise him! I was changing and Aunty showed him the bento. He was very excited and ran into my bedroom saying he was very hungry and wanted to eat his breakfast NOW!! I stopped him, saying he can have it in the car ride instead as we were running short of time! Once in the car, he immediately asked for his bread and in the short ride from my place to church (abt 5-10 mins) he finished all his bread!!
I am having some strange orientation of the pic!! it shld be in landscape but don't know why turned out like that!!

Yet Another Party...

2010-08-15T21:50:00.006+08:00

Yes we hosted yet another party with friends on Sat, 14 Aug. It was a big rush cos Jess is going back to Shanghai & her only time for another short meet up as the same Sat in the morning!!

This party at my place came about cos Angie and Meng Yew, since their return from London have not been to our place. Having done so many parties, I was running out of ideas what to cook so Lai Kuan requested for the famous bean curd bailey as dessert. Angie requested for pork porridge cos she still remembered this dish which I cooked for her when she was rather ill with dengue some years back.

Menu for this party...
1. Popiah - so I can eat
2. Pork porridge
3. Shrimp wanton - although this dish was served many times, it was all time favourite
4. Baked chicken wings
5. Bean curd bailey
6. Durian puff & puree
When Fiona first tasted the durian puree, she was so overwhelmed, kept saying its so so GOOD! Florence says as good as Merchant Court!! wow look at their expressions!!
Since there were no new dishes, everything was done & ready pretty early & while we were waiting for our friends to arrive, Ezra went for a ride on the skate scooter along the corridor.After a few rounds of skating, he got bored and decided to try some stunts falling over his skates!!
Angie was so sweet, she came and brought with her some flowers for me!! Pretty
Everyone was making themselves comfortable, chatting and eating.

I was very glad that Mary & Christie were able to join us, they are back from Shanghai for summer holidays. Brian, Lai Kuan,Christie & Mary

Our special friends, Angie & Meng Yew

Fiona, Dan and Anneka

Joanne & Nadine

The 2 Chuang boys - Keena & Reena

Pastor Richard & Josephine

Kayun, Meng Yew & Jac - I was glad that Jac can make it back in time for the party

Florence, Angie

Our little one - Zoe pretending to be sleeping!!

Me & Hui Qi who kind of gate crushed!! she found out for this gathering thru FB & got herself invited!! hahaha but we are more than happy to have her ard!!

Bento # 6

2010-08-13T18:43:00.009+08:00

Jac enjoyed yesterday's mee goreng bento but true enough it was too much for him!! Being the nice him, he did not want to waste my efforts and kwai kwai finished all!

So today, I made a conscious effort not to pack too big a portion for him... i tried!!

Today bento is brown rice, stir fried 苦瓜 and stewed chicken thigh with sea cucumber and mushroom! I marinated the chicken thigh with oyster sauce, pepper and seasame oil. Put a little oil and fry the chinese spices, ginger and garlic, add the mushroom and chicken, simmer for 1/2 hour, add sea cucumber and simmer for another 1/2 hour. Volia... another delicious dinner for my darling!!

My lunch was a simple stir fried 苦瓜 with sliced beef... also very yummy but not very filling cos I was hungry by abt 4pm!!

Bento # 5

2010-08-12T20:07:00.003+08:00

I am very excited about today's bento.

I brought home some uncooked yellow noodles from school and decided to cook mee goreng for Jac's bento. I remembered Jac telling me that the spicy noodles were tasty but a bit dry. So I added more water to make it more moist but hopefully not too soggy when he eats. Stir fry the sliced big onions, egg, shredded carrot, cai xin, add the yellow noodles, tomato ketchup and chili sauce and mix well. I spicy up the dish with his name using the mini alphabet cutters from Angie, turned out pretty right?

Besides mee goreng, I also cooked sliced beef with seasame seed and big onion. Vegetable was cauliflower and broccoli with flat beans.

I must admit, today's portion maybe too huge but since all cooked liao don't waste it!! Sorry darling, tomorrow will be a more manageable portion!!

My lunch was chicken nugget with the same veg. I chopped the chicken breast, water chestnut, a little of big onion and parsley. Marinate them with a little salt and black pepper. Shape it and pan fry it with little oil! Yummy!!

Bento #4

2010-08-10T19:44:00.005+08:00

Today is a school holiday & I got up to prepare fresh (no overnight) dinner for Jac.

Today menu is spicy fried noodles with prawn, egg omelet, minced meat patty and green spinach. I soaked the Koka noodles in cold water until soften. Add some sliced big onion and chili flakes to the noodles and fry until cooked. The minced meat were marinated with chopped water chestnut, chopped carrot, parsley, salt and pepper than shaped and pan fried with the prawn. I bought some interesting food picks and make a flower with the prawn!!
I arranged the food into the new microwavable lunch boxes and fork and spoon (all newly purchased!) so that it makes it easy for Jac to heat up in the office.
Today bento comes neatly packed into a black carrier (again newly purchased!) with a nectarine! And its all ready to be brought to office!!
After sending Jac off to the door, I cut up some fruits as breakfast & Ezra joined me!!
My dinner is black pepper beef steak with cabbage and black fungus!! Yummy!!

A Long Weekend of Gatherings.....

2010-08-10T18:12:00.009+08:00

Gathering #1 @ 7 Aug - 9.30am

The reading class that I am helping out had a special movie treat on Sat & I made popcorn and baked mini muffins for the children. 1 whole big tray of freshly popped popcorn and almost 80 mini muffins were snapped by in record time!!

Gathering #2 @ 8 Aug - 12.30pm

Its baby Zoe 1st birthday party @ Kayun & Flo new place on Sunday afternoon, right aft church service. Their place is very cosy with many fine details by the very talented Flo. I was amazed at how efficient they were to unpack and got the place ready for parties in less a week's time!!

All the pic were taken by Lundy, our friendly professional photographer!! Nice & beautiful family!!And equally beautiful guests!! I was playing knock head with Zoe and she was so thrilled!!

Ezra taking a sip of my coke zero!!

Gathering #3 @ 8 Aug - 6.30pm

After Zoe's party, I went home with 3 kids; Ezra, Nana and Nadya. I was all alone cos Jac was in office and Siya had her day off but God is so so good.... All the 3 kids took their afternoon nap (including Nana) and while they were sleeping, I had just the right length of time to cook the 3 eggs spinach and broccoli with mushroom. Since Nan's family have not been to Ron place, our fortnightly meet-up was at Ron's place instead!! Each family brought a dish or two and we had a BIG spread!! We had the veg, fried mee, baked chicken wings, satay & otah, fried potato balls, and mee siam
The kids having some bubble fun...

We also celebrated Keith's birthday.... yes he is a National Day baby!!

Gathering #4 @ 9 Aug - 5.00pm

With these mummies, each having our own specialty, we decided that we will have monthly enrichment class for our 4 kids. We had Chinese lesson in July and now Aug we are having English lesson by yours truly. I went through some of Ezra's books and chose the book "Pip's Garden" about an ordinary boy who planted simple seeds but out grew extraordinary plants!! I hope it was an interesting story for the children.
Instead of word recognition, I decided to focus my activity on thinking, having the kids match the name of the plant to the strange pictures of the plant and tell me why the match. As a closure, I got the children to make their own little garden with simple red and green bean growing.
Dinner was a simply yet delicious and yummy steamboat. After feeding the children, we were all able to sit down and enjoy our dinner while the children played on their own! We were pleasantly surprised they had no trouble without our supervision!! Well done children!! More sit down meals please!!

After dinner, the daddies were watching the NDP parade in the living room and we mummies chatted in Ezra's room and totally missed the pledge at 2010hours!! But dessert time cant be missed!! Angie brought super chewy jap jellies... some in national colours even!! Wolfie brought fruits and Joyce had some delicious mini desserts (oops dont know the name) which we each brought home instead. I made some durian puffs which were snapped up in double quick time!!
It's was a very enjoyable evening with dear friends!!

Gathering #5 @ 10 Aug - 11.00am

Since today is a school holiday, another 4 of my friends had a play date for our kids at Jessy place. The kids had so much fun jumping, climbing and even rolling on each other!!
Lunch was ordered in pizza and KFC. While we were waiting for Jessy to feed the little girl, we tried to get the kids to take some pictures for us... it was DIFFICULT with some many of them running around and trying to squeeze into the picture!!

After lunch, the kids went down to the playground and continued to expend their endless energy while we mummies caught up on lives!! Our friendship has gone a long way from our uni time.... from single ladies to married woman and now beautiful mummies!!
For the records, Iris has 4 kids, Alice and Jess 2 kids and me just 1. It was like a childcare when our families meet up but it was such a joy to see the kids play together, the older ones looking after the younger ones!!

Bento #3

2010-08-06T20:03:00.003+08:00

I think you really need to be creative when doing this!! I am still at this stage where its more of putting food together in a nice manner rather than creating a picture.

Tonight's dinner is left over x2 chicken rice, pork chops, garlic prawn with jap mayo and stir fried veg. I simply pan fry the butterfly prawn and drizzle a little mayo over it. The pork chops are marinated with oyster sauce, pepper and some oil, coated with crushed Meji crackers and flour and deep fried (oops no healthy)
As I am writing this, i hope Jac is taking time off to eat his dinner!!

Bento #2

2010-08-05T20:52:00.000+08:00

Jac has been working late these days n we realized that having dinner at 9.45pm is not the best idea. So I decided to start making bento for his dinner so he can take a break n eat in office. His 1st bento was prepared in the morning but it was too rushed for me. Now I will cook dinner the night before instead.

This is his second bento...

Japanese fried rice with cherry tomatoes. Steam tofu with chopped water chestnut m carrot, stir fried veg with chicken meat.

I am finding the boxes a little small n I really need to pack everything very tight! Guess it's time to do some shopping! Yippe!

老爷生日 Party

2010-08-02T18:41:00.008+08:00

Last Saturday was my father in law's birthday. Instead of cooking at home, we decided to dine out instead! Dinner was arranged at Fook Wah near Link Hotel at Seng Poh Road. We actually thought of Canto Kitchen at Chinatown but with more google, we realised the famous Chef Chen left that kitchen and is now at Fook Wah.

While waiting for the dishes to arrive... its photo time!!

The really Chuang family

Yeye, Nai Nai and the grandchildren

Almost whole family photo except for Michelle who is out-stationed.

Anyway dinner is a at least 10 course meal... we had glutinous rice crab, fried eggplant with pork floss, wasabi prawn, steam fish, portugese pork chop, stewed duck with pear, hotpot pork ribs, crispy chicken, fried longevity noodles, veg!

When the food arrived, it was wiped out almost immediately!! Guess everyone is hungry and the dishes were quite tasty. I personally find the dishes more unique, but the usual fare you find in most chinese rest. I broke all rules of my dieting, mixed proteins and some oh so delicious carbo!!

While we were eating, Nai nai found a chicken feet and gave it to Ezra. She mentioned that he was very good at eating chicken feet!! True enough, he started chewing the feet and spitting out all the tiny bones.... mummy also eats & loves chicken feet!!
Nai nai asked how come no flowers for yeye & so yeye gets a big fat crab claw shelled nicely by nai nai!!
While yeye gets the flash, Ezra gets the shell!! He is just contented playing with it!
Last but not least, the birthday cake!! Look how happy yeye was when little 肥bi sang her heart out & kissed him so hard on the cheeks!!
A family photo to remember this occasion!

What a morning

2010-07-29T10:22:00.001+08:00

When I finally opened my eyes this morning it's already 9.15am! Yes it has been a long long time since I slept till so late, never even on days off or holidays! Thank you God for the rest!

The other beautiful thing is to wake up with Ezra next to me! This boy coughed very badly n kept us awake most night but poor jac can't take off. I managed to get an appt with dr Tan at 11am so we are getting ready for that!

Dinner

2010-07-28T18:44:00.000+08:00

I cooked minced chicken wanton soup for dinner. Added veg n mushroom to my soup...

A Very Enjoyable Day

2010-07-27T20:35:00.010+08:00

I promised Ezra that I will be back early today and do something special with him. I got home about 3.20pm, rested a little and Ezra woke up abt 4pm. I asked if he like to go to the library or bake muffin.... Guess what was his instant, no need to think respond! "I want to bake muffin!" and dash straight into the kitchen.

I made some butter cream, a cocoa and lemon favour. The cocoa turned out yummy but the lemon one is a little to sour!

It has been a while since I baked with Ezra... however this round I realised that I was able to involve him more besides just decorating the muffin after its cooked. He helped to sieve the flour, fetched the egg and even helped to crack an egg. He was very careful with the assigned task!!

He also helped to scoop the dough into the big muffin cups and I was surprised he managed to even do so for the mini ones!! Good motor control!
He was just monkeying ard with the oven mittens while waiting impatiently for the muffins to cook.
After the muffin cooled off, Ezra added some finishing touch to the muffin with the colourful sugar! See how serious he was to his task!

He wasted no time to demolish 2 mini and 1 big muffin at 1 setting!!
So Super Yummy!Since we baked quite a bit of muffin, Ezra will be bringing some to share with his friends and teachers in school tomorrow!

After the muffin baking, Aunty and I were busy in the kitchen preparing our dinner. In our busyness, we totally forgot abt Ezra. After sometime, I sensed something is not too right as he was way too quiet! True enough, we found him messing up his room with body powder and he was having a wild time playing! When I questioned him, his reply was "Mum, I am just having fun pretending that I am ice skating! See mum, its so slippery rite!" I don't know whether to be angry with him or laugh at him! I thought it was a very creative idea but anyway he was given orders to clean up the mess.... see he was still having FUN cleaning up!!
After dinner, Ezra sneaked into the kitchen and stole another muffin!! He came out dancing and saying "The muffins are so yummy, they are making me dance!"
Tonight's dinner was steamed promfret and stir fried asparagus with fresh abalone mushroom... I started using lots of black pepper and chili flakes for my dishes and that certainly added much favour to the dishes!! Yummy!!

KaYi Farewell Dinner

2010-07-22T15:37:00.009+08:00

A dear long time friend of ours, Kayi, who used to attend youth activities with us will be going to Canada to work in August and we are having a simple farewell dinner for him.

It was supposed to be a much bigger group but some of us cant make it due to work or study stress!! Anyway, it was a close cosy get together.
Kayi has requested for chinese food & the dishes for the night was....

1. KaiLan with fried silver fish

2. 北京鸭- simply bought a whole duck & de-skinned

3. Sotong Salad - see pic above

4. Duck Noodles
1st time cooking this dish, trying to repeat the usual left over duck meat noodles we eat at restaurants.. very happy with the result

5. Wanton - Ezra helped me wrap some of these!!

6. Roast Pork Belly - missed it!!

7. Mango Pamelo Dessert - which did not turn out very well so no pic

I thought I cooked a lot this evening but was surprised that everything was finished!! I prepared chicken patti for myself but I cant resist the temptation and had 2 wanton & 2 spoonful of the noodles.... let's hope the damage is not too great...

After dinner, we hang around and chit chat and view some of Kayi's brother wedding photos and time passed by so and before long it was abt 10.45pm and everyone had to leave cos of work the next day.
Farewell my friend and may God enlarge your tent and bless your time and work in Canada

Week 2

2010-07-19T22:45:00.001+08:00

I am starting on week 2. Not sure if I can still blog daily cos I may be repeating my meals Liao...

This morning I had a rude shock when Ezra cried so loud! I dashed out of the toilet n realised that he closed the door n had his tiny fingers caught! Poor boy it must have been so painful for him cos he seldom cry so badly! We apply ice and massage his fingers and of cos prayed over it with him. Thank God Ezra was fine aft a while.

I prepared tuna spread the night before for breakfast and intending to eat it with lettuce and cucumber.

But I was so busy this morning in school and decide to skip that so I can still have my lunch at 12.30pm.

Lunch was stir fry greens with mushroom n curry chicken.

I was craving for my beef again so dinner was beef steak n cauliflower.

While ezra had ikea meatball n sauce!

Jac has been very busy at work. These days it's always just me and ezra for dinner and after that we will pick jac up abt 9pm. I thank God for the ride back where we can catch up with happenings.

A shocking thing happened in jack office recently. A close working partner passed away in her sleep! She was still in office the day before although she was not feeling very well. Such is life and how fragile it is. Life can be 'terminated' in such short notice n we really ought to love those around us, make peace with those that angered us. I am so thankful that I have found God and I know my future and hope lies in Him!

Phil's Get Togther

2010-07-17T20:53:00.009+08:00

Yes many of us are so looking forward to this date... not because its my birthday but cos we will be having Phil Edwards in our mist! He is our mentor and long time friend who went back to the States and is now back for a couple of days!

Today's theme for our party is Dim Sum Party!!

I prepared the following dishes...

Red bean paste with banana
I boiled the red bean, meshed it and added a bit of sugar and wrap it with the sliced banana with frozen spring roll skin. YUMMY!!

You tiao fritters with fish paste, sotong paste and minced pork.Mini spring roll... oops no pic

Carrot Cake
I made these on Friday evening so that it can be cooled, cut and pan fried.Chicken Porridge

Soon kueh

Josephine brought this fermented beans pork ribs... some says its TK!!
Linda made 3 cold veg dishes which brought a good balance to the meaty dishes.
How can a dim sum party be without baos and siew mai. Joanne bought these from our favourite shop and its so yummy... especially the siew mai.... so solid!!
Since it's chinese theme, I thot the oolong jelly with kiwi and wolfberries which I learnt at Kiwi Concoction will make a very nice dessert... everyone says its very unique, never tired anything like this before!!
Look at our spread!! Oh there is my mini spring roll.
Everyone is waiting and finally after Jac gave thanks.... ATTACK!!
This is Phil and Mike, our special guests.
Much fellowship and chatting goes around our house.Even the children had FUN!!Jac with Phil... Jac always tells me that Phil is someone whom he respects and learn a lot and he is like a mentor to him. Thank you Phil.

Ezra enjoying a game of SNAP with uncle Brian who did slow motion so Ezra can be fasted than him!! Thanks for building his confidence!!

A pot of Tian Guan Yin chinese tea to wash down all the food consumed.... BURP!!

I am 3? Today!!

2010-07-17T18:52:00.011+08:00

Yes I turned 3.... today!!

I started the day when one of my teachers sms me wishing me happy birthday and many sms after wishing me. I got out of bed and was stuck in the kitchen since. We are hosting a brunch for a very dear mentor Phil Edwards and some very close and old friends!!
I was busy in the kitchen when everyone insisted that there was someone at the door and it was locked and need me to open the door! I was a bit pissed with Jac thinking why cant he open the door. Sorry darling....Anyway, Jose walked into the flat with this beautifully homemade carrot cake!! Thank you Josephine!! too bad I cant eat the cake.

Julie came and brought me my second bouquet of flowers, my favourite sunflowers... aren't they just so cheerful!
Lai Kuan gave me a boogie present!! A BIG box of Meiji crackers...the only carbos allowed on my diet and a very encouraging card!!
So old liao still have gifts from my dear friends
Phil also brought along some gifts all the way from California... guess who is this phantom??
I was so so EXCITED when I saw this!! Sugarfree gums, the only candy allowed which I can never lay hands on in Singapore and Phil brought it for us!! Everyone was very kind and allowed me to have 4 boxes!! God is so good... granting me small desires of my heart, even without me asking Thank you Lord!
I dont have my handy camera with me and had to take some with my phone. Some of these pic here are taken by Lundy and now I am waiting for more pic on the food and people from Pastor Richard!!

Day 6 meals

2010-07-16T19:56:00.001+08:00

I was on training today n I cant prepare my lunch so I thot I will find some fish soup stall. I also brought along an apple and my crackers for snacks! Lunch time came and it was raining so heavily and it was difficult to get out so my snacks became my lunch! Today I had my first cup of coffee black....no sugar no milk....super bitter!

I was quite hungry come dinner and decide its going to be a GOOD meal! Dinner was a plate of salad top with beef tenderloin! I slightly marinated the bee with salt n black pepper and pan fry it brown! Voilà..... A delicious dinner... The beef was very tender and sweet... The juice flowed onto the salad and makes it much favor!

A sweet surprise

2010-07-16T15:51:00.001+08:00

I was out running an errand yesterday and my staff called me saying that a parent had a surprise for me! It turned out that they got me a vase of lovely tulips! It was such a sweet gesture! They remembered that I shared the same birthday as their son and just wanted to show their appreciation! Thank you Mr and Mrs Yung for your thoughtfulness and kindness!

Day 5

2010-07-15T19:31:00.002+08:00

I am into day 5 already!! Although we were told not to weigh ourselves until a month later but who can wait rite!! I weigh myself & I have already started losing weight!! Could it be really true or was it just water I am losing?? We are supposed to be losing inches off on a weekly basis but how come I don't feel loose in my clothes!!

Regardless, with the scales dipping, it gives me the motivation to carry and press on!! Viv... you can make it!!

A big test is coming up this week end cos we are hosting a dim sum party for a friend from the States, Phil Edwards!! We are so looking forward to meeting and catching up with him. He was a very close friend and mentor to both Jac and me during his time here in Singapore with Maggie. We still remember and embraced many of the life lessons he shared with us.

Anyway, I am cooking a few dishes and am trying out a new dish. Red bean and banana wrap!! I ate this at Angie's place last week and kind of enjoyed that. I dont quite like red bean paste from shops so decided to cooked the beans myself!! The paste turned out looking very good and i added some sugar and had to asked my helper to taste!! Since I had some spring roll skin in the fridge, I decided to try making some today as a trial.

I sliced the banana and simply place the red bean and banana on a small spring roll sheet and wrap it and fry it in oil!! Again my helper had to taste it and she gave it a thumbs up!! So so simple to make!! Sorry dont have pic cos my camera is not with me... but will take it on sat... look out for it!!

Day 4 meals

2010-07-14T23:21:00.002+08:00

Breakfast was egg again....

For lunch, I did a cabbage wrap! Marinated the chicken breast with salt, pepper n Rosemary. Trim off the stem from the Chinese cabbage and cut into 2 lengthwise. Cut spring onions into 2 and soak it in hot water together with the cabbage leaves. This is to soften the leaves for rolling.

Wrap the chicken n a slice of button mushroom and roll it up. Using a spring onion, tie a knot to secure. I arrange the cabbage stems as the bed and the rolls on it and steam for 7 mins! Not too bad also!

CG has dinner at my place as usual n I cook claypot chicken rice, tofu n a new dish of spinach with salted and century egg. According to them everything was nice! I am so pleased that I was not tempted and just finish my bowl of fish soup!

Day 3 meals

2010-07-13T20:37:00.001+08:00

Although egg is allowed daily but I just can't seem to cross mental block of eating it daily! Anyway I decided to try something with tofu instead! Cubes tofu, a wedge of chopped tomato, chopped onion n beans with a pinch of salt n black pepper!

I scooped this into the lettuce n eat it... Not too bad... Another breakfast idea!

Lunch was a stir fry fresh swiss brown mushroom with garlic n chicken breast. I marinated the chicken with basil n a little of coke zero! Result = a yummy dish! Again to meet my veg quote I use lettuce as shell for the chicken.

Dinner is a simple steam fish with salt, ginger n a wedge of tomato. I also stir fry veg n mushroom.

Today meals are all quite filling compared to yesterday! I did not even finished up all the crackers quota BUT I need more fruits!

I was just telling jac this morning that my meals were not too bad not really like on diet... Am I doing something wrong!! In the evening I got an email from Cohen n realized that French beans are not allowed n some of the fruits I ate were also not allowed! Oops...

Day 2 meals

2010-07-12T20:16:00.002+08:00

I woke up early at 6am to prepare my breakfast and lunch to bring to school.

Breakfast was egg omelette with onion n fresh button mushroom served with lettuce.

Lunch was sliced fish soup with veg. I separate the fish n veg from the soup and I just need to microwave it hot.

Since I am home to cook dinner, it will be a more elaborate affair. I enjoyed the chicken very much last evening so I thot I might as well try it with prawn. I shelled the prawn and make a slit on it's back making it open like butterfly. Instead of using basil, I used parsley n salt to marinate the prawn. Coat it with crushed crumbs of meji crackers and pan fried it in non stick pan. There were some crumbs left over and I just added that into the pan n fry it dry. It tasted just like cereal prawn! Dinner was a big bowl of salad n 9 prawns! Yummy

Day 1 dinner

2010-07-11T19:36:00.003+08:00

Tonight's dinner is butterhead salad with orange juice dressing.

And chicken breast meat seasoned with salt n basil. This is coated with cracker crumbs n pan fried until crispy. Yummy!

In case some of you may be interested to try....

Cut 100gm chicken breast into pcs not too thick if not it will take a longer time to cook n meat may turn hard

Season with a bit of salt n basil herb

Crush 3-4 Meiji crackers into fine crumbs

Coat the chicken with the crumbs

Heat up non stick pan with a little olive oil n pan fry the chicken pcs

A new diet

2010-07-11T14:57:00.000+08:00

Yes I have been getting so fat n with age catching up I really felt that I need to do seriously do something abt it before its too late! I can't imagine not being there for Jac or watch Ezra grow up.

I have tried several diet program in the past works for a while n I gave up. Exercise but results very slow! My sister mentioned abt a neighbor who went on this Dr Cohen rapid weight loss diet n aft 2 years, he is still as slim! I made some calls went for the presentation n parted with the money! My very significant contribution to the GSS!

Cut the story short, I went for the blood test, took the results n just got my hands on my personal diet plans ie what catg of food and amt I shld be eating each day. Took some time to plan out my menu and did some shopping to get the correct stuff.

With this program means i shld try to cook my own food as much n choose wisely if i need to dine out.

finally I start on my new diet today! I made egg omelette n wrap it with butterhead... Not bad n quite filling.

Came back from church n while i was preparing my fish soup lunch, I felt very hungry n took 4 pcs of Meiji crackers! Lunch was also very yummy, I added a dish of curry powder n for a different taste n it turned out good! It was not very filling but hopefully things will get better when my stomach size gets smaller!

I shld be cooking western grill for dinner!

It was interesting that I chose today to officially start this new chapter in my life cos today sermon was abt divine healing. Healing has already been done with Jesus on the cross and we need to declare and claim it! Dean Samuel shares that we can claim a new organ in our body if we dare to believe! So today I claimed for a new slimmer and healthy body in the name of Jesus... Amen!

I was still very uncertain if this will work but aft the sermon I totally know that I will be different physically in a few months time! Amen! Do check out n drop me encouragement note ok!

Feels so good to have Ezra back!!

2010-07-08T16:18:00.004+08:00

YES HE IS BACK!! We were at the airport to pick him up and waited and waited for them to appear.... Nadya even held a sign for him!!
Finally they appeared and Ezra was very happy to see us! He was waving and kept doing the thumbs up gesture to us.... seems like reassuring us he is ok!!
He almost ran out of the doors and straight into our arms... I would hardly hold back my tears!!
Nana and Nadya were very kind and draw some pictures for him, they exchanged hugs and gifts and it was so heart warming.
For official records ... we talked to Ezra over the phone every other days and most conversations were short with him telling us he had lots of FUN and that he was happy and excited. Except on Friday evening when he was talking to Jac and he started sobbing!! My in laws have to assure us that he was ok except that he was tired cos he missed his nap. My heart broke & I kind of cried myself to bed that evening too....

After the trip, Ezra seems to have grown so much, he seems taller (but slimmer) and he looks every bit of a BIG boy!!

Couple time

2010-07-04T20:03:00.001+08:00

Finally our son will be back in about 19 hours. While we do miss him greatly, we were also very thankful for the opportunity to have our couple time.

This afternoon we spent a bit of time exploring Fort Canning and Oxley road. After which we decided to head to The Rice Table at orchard for dinner. However, as we did not made any reservation before hand we arrived at a fully booked restaurant.

Disappointed, Viv and I wander around abit while deciding for an alternative. We finally settled for an extravagance dinner at Carousel.

I'm on life - 4 July 2010

2010-07-04T14:17:00.001+08:00

If you happen to flip the papers of the Straits Times Life session today you may have spotted me n Ezra! Yes we were on papers!

This all happened late last week when I received a call from the ST journalist asking to do a feature on me and my passion for cooking. I needed to share a recipe of a dish that I always bring for parties! She actually got my contacts from a dear friend, Angie... Thanks friend!

They were supposed to do the interview on wed but I changed it to Monday cos I wanted Ezra to be around n was glad that he was allowed in the picture as well! On Monday, I rushed back from work, went to the supermarket to picked up all the needed ingredients and dashed home to cook this dessert!

All done, showered n all ready for the interview. They came n asked lots of random questions n was told that it will be put together into a story! The interview was very casual and a sharing of my life and passion for cooking.

The article m picture turned out nice and I hope readers will find it interesting and try out the recipe!

Now cant wait to show this to Ezra when he comes back tml.

Good Bye Ezra

2010-06-30T10:29:00.005+08:00

This post was supposed to be up 2 days ago but I was not feeling well and was on MC for 2 days!! Finally was awake enough to blog abt this.

Ezra left for Hong Kong together with his Yeye, Nai nai and Nadine jie jie. They left on Monday 28 June 2010 and will be away for 7 days, returning only on 5 July 2010.
Ezra was very excited and was so so looking forward to this trip. We have been prep talking him... must listen to yeye nainai, must keep close to them, must greet relatives etc!

While we were waiting for daddy to come home before heading to the airport, aunty Jose dropped by with a little but meaningful survival kit for the 2 children. In this kit, there are 7 food items, one to be taken each day so by the time the bag is empty, they will be home!!
I also wrote a short letter to Ezra and packed a family photo so he can 'see' us in case he miss us on the trip *crossing my fingers*
When we got to the airport, Ezra was so excited and jumpy that we almost needed to get a rope to pin him down!!

Here's Nimrod giving them last instructions, telling them to look out for each other etc...Here is our hugs hugs n kiss kiss before they walk through the gates!
Look how happy and excited the kids were!!
Enjoy the trip my son and daddy and mummy will be missing, thinking and praying for you everyday.

"Dear God, we ask of you to prepare the way for Ezra as they arrive in Hong Kong. May you send your angels to watch over their minute on the trip. Grant them good health and protection. Allow them to enjoy each other company and the nature you have created for them. In Jesus name Amen!"

Ezra

2010-06-26T22:56:00.001+08:00

It has been awhile since I wrote abt Ezra's progress. Our son is already four and he is every bit a boy. He is very good at remembering places. This morning we drove by orchard central and he pointed out to us that's the place he has his kiwi lesson! He would always ask me if I am driving the correct direction or am I lost if it's an unfamiliar road or place.

It never fails to melt my heart when I walk thru the doors and he runs to hug me saying "mummy you are home I miss you!" When I give a shout or scream in pain he never fails to ask "mummy are you ok?" I was out with some friends for dinner last evening and when I got home, I tried to put him to bed. While we were laying down, he asked "so mummy how was your dinner?" My gosh he is only 4 n asking such as a matter question! So cute!

He is an expert at reasoning and would give you an answer that is difficult to fault him! There was a time where he refused to stayover at my in laws place and when we asked him why, his answers were "cos I love you and will miss you so much!" another answer was "it was very uncomfortable sleeping on the floor in nai nai house, I like my cosy bed!" There was a period where he was constantly scolded by us and Jac once told him that we were very disappointed in him and we were not proud of his misbehavior. These days he is much better and he just asked Jac "daddy, I have been quite a good boy and are you proud of me!" yes son we are proud of you and love you whatever.

Ezra is also showing his child like faith in God. He knows that when he needs help, he can pray to God. In Phuket, after a dangerously sea ride and when he landed safely on shore he told his yiyi "we better pray to God to protect us!" Again, last evening during our chat, Ezra asked to pray to God n his prayers goes something like this "dear God, pls take away daddy fever so he can be well. Also the tooth decay in mummy n also my cough in Jesus name we pray amen!" It's our prayers that Ezra will walk n live in God's ways.

Ezra enjoys playing with his cousins especially the chuang girls. This holiday, they just had too much fun having sleep over parties like tonight!

Son, daddy and mummy thank God for you and thank you for bringing so much joy into our lives. We are going to miss you so much next week when you go for holidays with yeye and nai nai but we will be praying for you everyday. We love you darling.

Hun Family Phuket Holiday

2010-06-21T13:14:00.010+08:00

This started off as a simple small group holiday for Joanne and our family. When Lydia got to hear of this, she also wanted to come on flight. Another surprise was mum agreeing to join us as well. When we casually mentioned this trip to Nancy (all the way from Shanghai) she also want to join this trip!! So our family of 25 persons got all excited and off we went to Phuket Thailand! We are only short of a flag to gather the group!!
Day 1 - 16 Jun 2010

Our flight was very early at 8.20am on Wed 16 June 2010. But all the kids were so excited and they had no trouble getting up at all but gathering this troop is no joking matter!! Just look at all our faces on board the flight!!
As we arrived at our hotel, Marriott Mai Khao Beach, we are welcomed with garlands, very nice gesture. We hang around the hotel lobby while waiting for our rooms to be ready.
After checking into our rooms, we headed out to a recommended local Thai restaurant, Kin Dee which is built on silts. This rest is owned by 2 sisters and the food is good but it took a while for the dishes to be brought to our table. We easily spent 2-3 hrs at lunch.
After lunch we headed to a local mart to buy all the snacks and breakfast for the next few days. We also stopped by a road stall to stock up on our supply of fruits. NICE!
Next the kids plunged into the swimming pool and had a splashing good time.
It has been a long day and we decided to dine at the restaurant for Iltalian buffet. We were too busy eating which explains the no pictures!! Hahaha but Ezra had his 1st sip of white wine... Now that explains why he was totally knocked out that evening!
Day 2 - 17 Jun 2010

We booked a day trip out to the sea with Phuket Sail Club. We were picked up from our hotel to the jetty and we board the boat and off to our sea adventure. The sea was a little choppy as this is the monsoon season. We set sail to Koh Phanak to explore caves and limestone formations. We were served fruits, some local sweet dessert in banana leaves and the most popular fried chicken wings!
Along the way, we saw beautiful mountains and cliffs. The kids got a little bored until they spotted some giant jelly fish, there were so so many of them!!
Finally we got to the caves!! We were transferred to canoes, each canoe takes about 2-3 of us including the paddlers. The sea was very choppy and the ride was really rough and scary for us especially the younger children. As we rolled into the caves, some portion was really low and we had to lay down to avoid getting our heads bumped. The caves were very dark and the waves were splashing all over. It was quite dangerous and Ron's canoe even capsized with Rene and Healin thrown into the waters.
While most of us went canoeing, dad, mum, Linda, Nan, Nana, Nadine and Ricole were transferred to a dingy and brought to a small shore. It was a horrifying experience cos the waves were very strong and the dingy rocking terribly. At one point, dad almost slipped off his seat and the dingy almost capsized. We were at a distance from the dingy and having to witness this scene was a nightmare for me. I could only pray to God and asking Him for grace, mercy and protection. God was good and we were all safe. After this, we all agreed that such adventures are better kept to teens and adults... not young children and elders.
We sailed to another spot where the sea was much calmer and there the kids had a chance to canoe on their own and even plunged into the waters. We had a simply but yummy Thai lunch on board the boat.
Our final stop is the bat cave which is pitched dark and really smelly. We saw hundreds of bat hanging in the caves!

Day 3 - 18 Jun 2010

More time spent in the hotel room and swimming pool. In the evening, we made our way to another local Thai rest at Sarasin Beach. While the ladies were ordering the food, the kids had a wild time trying to catch crabs on the beach. It was a very quiet beach but with our arrival, thousands of foot prints were left on the beach.
The thai food was so super delicious... tom yum soup, different kind of salads, squid, prawn, morning glory, pork ribs, curry, and a special mention of the curry flower crab which was out of the world... so super fresh and yummy!
After dinner, we gathered and played Taboo. Some classic exchanges were....
Amelia - "you know you know you know" whenever she gives clues.
Aaron - "a name of mattress n pillow" when the word was dollop.
Viv - "not dolphins but .... and only the guys have it" = sperm whale

Nancy cut a plate of super sour pineapples and it was used to forfeit whoever can't get more than 3 guesses!! Poor Andre, he had the most and had to even downed it with beer!! We had so much laughter and FUN!!

Day 4 - 19 Jun 2010

Today, we travelled from Mai Khao to Patong and checked into 2 super small but clean rooms. Most day was spent shopping, eating and doing different massages. NICE & relaxing. At 7pm, off to the airport we go and home sweet home

Family Picture Time

Less milk less weight

2010-05-18T16:56:00.001+08:00

Ezra stopped drinking from his milk bottle when he turned 4 years old. Before that, he was constantly asking for milk, he can be drinking 3-4 bottles of 7 oz milk a day. But since than, he stopped asking for his morning milk, now he only drinks once a day before his sleep. He was weighing a hefty 18.5kg but now his weight has gone down to 17.5kg! Wow less milk makes a lot of difference!

Kiwi Concoction @ AFC

2010-05-14T19:05:00.000+08:00

The event begins promptly at 11am on Sat at orchard central. Mommies and child gathered, a few daddies also join in.

Mr Daniel giving a intro on kiwi. It sure is interesting and educating session.

Ezra giving the answer to Dr Leslie on the origin of Kiwi. The answer is China in case you don't know.

Angie busy with taking pictures and taking care of Jamie. And Jamie getting a bit bored with the talk and demo, looking eagerly to the hands on part.

And here are pictures of Ezra and Viv enjoying the hands on session.

A wonderful Saturday with friends and family.

小黑

Ezra's reading chair

2010-04-14T17:13:00.000+08:00

Yeah finally Ezra football reading chair is here! I ordered it online n cost much lower n includes delivery! Nice... When we open up the box, Ezra's first reaction was "wow is this for me?"

He wasted no time and took out his books and started reading in his chair! I am praying that he will be very comfortable and motivated to keep reading in his special chair.... Oh it even came with a siwvel and stool to rest his legs!!!

The family of .......

2010-04-11T20:39:00.001+08:00

We were in the car n prep talking to Ezra abt him having to tell us early when he needs to pee cos soemtimes we can find a toilet in time. In such cases, we had to resort to having him pee at the grass we are working on correcting that!!!! So I called Ezra the shee shee boy! Immediately he pointed to jac n calls him 'poo poo boy! I asked him why n his reply was "becos papa always poo poo so long!" Jac asked him how abt mummy! He pondered for a second n says 'mummy is the 放屁 girl!' I asked why? His reply was "becos mummy alway放屁 n forget to say excuse me!" we were dumbfounded n had a good laugh all the rest of the car ride!!!! So now we know what we were in the eyes of our son

Blessed Birthday My Darling Ezra

2010-04-04T22:07:00.001+08:00

Darling Ezra, today is your 4th birthday n mummy has lots of things that i want to share with you. I still remember the period where mummy was expecting you and having you grow in my body was such an awesome feeling. I still remember the days where you had to accompany for my evening classes. Despite all the tireness, mummy continued to glow. I still remembered the scare you gave us at 35 weeks and how God promised that everything is going to be ok n how daddy carried you in his arms straight after surgery!

It has been such an amAzing journey of discovery with you especially during this last year. Son you have grown so much this year. Mummy enjoyed watching you try new things, playing with your toys n music. Mummy watched you interact with your friends and cousins and constantly inviting them to your home and play, I think you will be a great host in future

Son, mummy like your cheekyness n love it when I come home after a tired day n how you would run to the door with a big smile saying "mummy, you are home! I missed you!" Son did you know that that takes away ally weariness

Mummy is always so happy to cook for you cos you like to help out in the kitchen n always encourage me with such positive comments like well done n good job!

Son do you know that dad n mum constantly thank God for your willingness to listen n not throwing a tantrum when you don't want your ways. There are many times when I were very plaesed and proud of you. Like this morning where you bravely threw away your milk bottle cos that was a promised you made to us! I know how unwilling and relentant you were but you still do it

Son, Mummy wants to say sorry for the times where I lost my cool at you or was unreasonable with my demands and expectations. I promise that will be lesser.

Son daddy n mummy loved you to the bits and it's our prayer that you will grow to be a man after God's heart and serve Him with all your heart! Blessed birthay my son n may you be happy always Love you so much n always Mummy

Oh no

2010-04-01T06:56:00.001+08:00

We have been kept very busy changing bed sheets cos Ezra has been wetting his bed the last few nights! What's wrong with him? Is he falling sick soon? Is he drinking too much water b4 bed?

Yummy dinner

2010-03-31T20:28:00.001+08:00

It has been a long time since we had roast chicken.... Ezra was very excited to see his favourite chicken tigh, garlic bread n salad.... We had our red wine (it's a pity that i have no white wine) while Ezra had his ribena

Toasting to a better future

Ezra had 3 slices of garlic bread n he was happily sharing it with daddy

A contented meal n excellent family time... Thank you jesus

上海！Here we come!

2010-03-12T23:28:00.000+08:00

Finally we are now just about to start our holiday! This will be Ezra's first trip to Shanghai. Wonder will he get to see the snow? Well actually it will be my first time too if it snows.

Ezra waiting in front of the boarding lounge.

On the plane.

Finally! We've reach Shanghai.

The first day weather is quite cold actually. 8 to 12 degrees.

Swimming Lesson # 2

2010-03-11T19:44:00.004+08:00

Ezra went for his 2nd swimming lesson on Tuesday. Abel's kicking board was a little too soft for him so we decided to get him his very own!! It was interesting how he try to play with the board and try different ways of using it!! He was trying to get onto the board and test if it can still float.
He also realised that it seems difficult to get the board off the waters and it made a pretty loud noise when he tried to tear it away!! He was just having some fun with the board at the side of the pool.Today Uncle Albert wanted him to lay on his back, see the sky and do leg kicking up down up down!! Ezra was a little afraid and cried for a while when he was turned around!! On the 2nd trip, he still shows some fear but his legs automatically started kicking and he kept his legs pretty straight!! Well done baby!!

When Uncle Albert wants to dip into the water with him, he immediately retreated and said "No don't want!!" Albert was very kind and did not forced him which I was glad. On our ride home, I explained to him that in swimming he definitely needs to get wet and had to dip his head in water. He will only need to put head in for a while!! Let's see if he can do dips next lesson.

I prepared some hot Milo in a flask and got Ezra to drink once he gets out of the water so he can keep his body warm!! He enjoyed his Milo and even offered Uncle Albert some!!

That evening, Jac was saying that Ezra told him that his legs are painful and tired! hahaha

Again well done son & we are so proud of you and clap clap clap for all your efforts in swimming!!

Counting Down to our trip to Shanghai

2010-03-11T18:42:00.000+08:00

YES YES one more day to our departure to Shanghai!! This trip will be just our family and we are visiting and staying with my sis.. We will be doing a short trip to Hangzhou... but the rest of the trip will be in Shanghai...

We are looking forward to TONS of shopping...

My sister has been updating us on the weather here and we are praying for good dry weather so we can move abt more!!

Wait for our update!!

Blessed Birthday Mother!

2010-03-05T15:17:00.004+08:00

It was my mother in law birthday and we had dinner at the authentic jap buffet rest Kuishinn Bo at Great World City...

We surprised MIL with flowers and my father in law surprised her with a peck on the cheeks!!
Since its buffet we decided its just going to be an adults affair!!
The spread was not too bad with different stations.... there's grilled cheese lobster, snow crab, sashimi, handroll, tempura, cooked food, hot pot, grilled food and desserts and drinks!!

The quality of food is good but not WOW!! It was ladies nite where ladies get some discount if they finished the buffet within 2 hours!! We all had our discount!!

It was a good night of chatting and feasting!! Blessed Birthday Mother!! May God grant the desires of your heart!! Keep smiling keep chatting and be forever young mother!!

1st Swimming Lesson

2010-03-03T15:32:00.003+08:00

Jac blogged abt Ezra being more confident in the waters and nowadays when we asked if he wants to go for swimming lessons, he would readily says "YES, I am ready" With that I called Uncle Albert who is the swim coach for many of my sis kids and we decided to let Ezra try out his class on Tuesday.

I was prep talking to Ezra about what to expect (although i don't really know much) and how to respond when water gets into his eyes, ears, face etc. We arrived at the pool about 5.10pm thinking that he can dip dip in the pool and get use to it. But Ezra refused the adult pool and only wanted to stay in the waddling pool.

At 5.25, Albert came, introduced him to Ezra and class started at 5.30pm. Ezra listen and obediently sat at the pool's edge took instructions from Albert. 3 very important moves, "Bend, open, close" Ezra had to do.

After a while, its time to hit the waters!! Ezra cling on to Albert as he showed him how to move in the waters
After that, Ezra went on to using the kicking board and swam across pool!! The highlight came when Ezra had to dip head into the waters! Uncle Albert held on to him and dipped head in together!! Ezra did very well, did not cry but immediately took off his goggles and wiped off the water on his face!! Ezra had 2 dips and when Albert asked him to dip the 3rd time, he said "No, I don't want!!" Well it was a very good start to swimming and I am not expecting to be a swimmer but for him to enjoy and pick up an interest and life skill!! My boy, mummy and daddy are so proud of you!

Tiny step for us, a giant leap for Ezra

2010-02-24T08:37:00.001+08:00

Well it have been a up hill task for us to get Ezra to be comfortable in the water. But all thanks to God, he seems more at ease in the pool now. Even getting used to wearing his goggle. Here are some photo of him enjoying the pool time over the weekend at his Yee yee's place.

Well he is still a long way behind Rain & Jamie meimei in terms of swimming. But from always clinging on to daddy/mummy whenever he is in the pool to now roaming around freely and jumping up & down splahing all around, I still just want to say "Well done, son!"

See how I use chopsticks

2010-02-03T19:13:00.001+08:00

I am very pleased when Ezra started using the chopsticks and was handling it very well and picking food with it. Noodles, chicken pcs, fish and veg. We were having a simply meal of crayfish n noodles and I simply can't help but pick

up the phone and snap a picture of him using his chopsticks. He mgt to finsih the bowl of noodles on his own with just the spoon and chopsticks. Well done son

Ezra's dictionary

2010-01-31T07:42:00.001+08:00

We are now working or encouraging Ezra to read or recognize and sound simple words. Not with a lot of success but he is slowly picking up. We were in the car and he started sounding words. Than he started talking abt new buildings along the road. "mummy the building is builded right?" I replied " son there is no such word as builded we use built ending with the t sound" Ezra "ya it's builded" Jac replied " no it's built when the buildings are completed and finished we said built, pass tense." after much such exchange, Ezra" yes have builded it's a new word." period ..,,,,.....

Thank you darling

2010-01-29T17:08:00.002+08:00

I got my valentin's gift early jac was so sweet to get me a iPhone. Maybe it's cos I have been playing on his iPhone and now he can't take it Liao. But wahtever the reason I am sure glad to own one he mgt to download some applications for me and I have having fun playing on it. I shld spend more time checking out all the useful stuff on it

- Posted by Viv

Ezra 'regular' visit to Dr Tan

2010-01-28T10:36:00.002+08:00

Once again it seems Ezra caught to cough virus again and have to make a trip to Dr Tan's clinic. well at least one thing in particular that Ezra especially love is the kiddy ride in addition to his preference to Dr Tan. Mummy had casually ask which doctor he prefers, Dr Tan (his pediatrician) or Dr Goh (my company panel clinic)? of which he claim he likes Dr Tan more. His reason, Dr Tan's medication taste better! *faints*

This is a picture of him on the new ride just outside of the clinic.

Back to School SOOOOOON

2009-12-28T19:13:00.002+08:00

Its just 1 more week before school starts all over again... I am having that mixed feeling, excited yet fearful that there are still so much things to be done!!

Went back to school today & all my staff are also back to set up the classroom, wash the toys & everything... We need to get our engine started!!

Hun Family Christmas Dinner

2009-12-26T08:46:00.007+08:00

My family had our Christmas Dinner on the eve @ my place.

That evening being a special evening, I went & bought flowers to do up my place a little and they were so pretty & colourful!! We had a big Christmas tree with so so so many gifts under the tree. I also set up a mini Nativity scene to remind us the reason for the season is really about the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was and still is the greatest gift to me and my family.
We were up & abt busy preparing. I really need to blog abt the trip I made to QB food at Chin Bee. I was there fairly early like 9.30am.. boy the place was CROWDED. There were lots of Japanese, Americans & even Singaporeans.... everyone (including me) was pushing their basket carts loaded with sausages, chilled beef, cheese, frozen fruits, lamb chops. I ordered 23 ribeye beef steaks!! At checkout... my purchase was a grand total of $495!!

We had a western menu....
1. Walnut shallot bread with olive oil, pepper salt & vinger
2. Cold cut ham with cheese dip
3. Spicy squid salad
4. Smoked duck salad
5. Honey Mustard salad
6. Assorted beans with corn dip
7. Rosemary Roast Chicken
8. Beef steak
9. Lamb chop
10. Shepard's pie
11. Grilled sausages
12. Fruit salad
13. Red, white, fruit wines

Here a pic to showcase our FEAST Besides the food, the kids & even the man had a fun time playing WII. The kids were really mild but gosh when it was the man's turn.... they went all out!! Standing up, swinging that arm etc.... It was funny to watch them play....
The sisters as usual were enjoying each other's company, chit chatting and catching up on each other lives!!
Blessed Christmas everyone and May His grace and love abounds in us. Have a wonderful 2010...

Lazy Way of Posting

2009-12-25T10:41:00.010+08:00

Haha Angie mentioned that I have been getting lazy with my posts & its always those "Happenings in the week!!" style... so i am keeping it this way for a while...

Ringbearer Experience
I mgt to dig out yet another set of suit for Ezra & it fits him to the T... so here's a peek at how he looks on James & Connie's Wedding. He was a little taken aback when he saw the crowd & so not too smiley... but he did a wonderful job of stepping forward when Pastor Richard called for the rings & the crowd laughed when they saw a little handsome boy walking out!! After his 'job' we gave him his loli as a reward (more to shut him out though the ceremony) Ezra with Nadya, his little bride Our family pic

A Visit to STPI Our friend Debbie had a art exhibition & we visited the gallery to give her some support. We were very blessed when Eitaro gave us a tour ard the STPI and show us where they worked and the history of printing & paper making.. interesting

Christmas Baking

One thing that took up a lot of time this holiday was baking. I tried bread for breakfast, gingerbread man for the little ones, Brandy fruit cake for friends, cookies for church and even a logcake!! Fruitcake Cookies Logcake (my 1st attempt) Gingerbread Man (2nd attempt) Bread

Ezra the Ring Bearer

2009-12-03T14:30:00.004+08:00

We were very excited cos Ezra was asked to be the ring bearer for James & Connie church wedding on 12 Dec. I dug through all the bags of clothes passed down by Andre & Neville.. true enough I found some suits that we can use. I have not decided which to use.... They had the wedding rehearsal last evening & here are some sneak previews.... Here's the other suit I am considering....

Stylo Ezra on Berry kor kor's bike!!

Gingerbread Man

2009-12-01T17:22:00.003+08:00

I was toying with the idea of baking gingerbread man for friends as Christmas gifts. So I better do some trial now. Got a recipe from a church friend... its really not so difficult to do but the rolling out & cutting the shape & transferring it to the baking tray takes some skills.

After baking, it must be cooled before I decorate the man with icing. It requires a little creativity.

Violia... My nicer ones.

The rest of the batch

The children pestered for some and they got their wish granted!!

Day 5 - KK

2009-11-29T17:19:00.001+08:00

Day 5 - We travelled for 2.5hrs to about 1500m above sealevel to Mount Kinabalu. Our lodging was @ Strawberry Garden Hotel (aka. SGH - no kidding ok!) It was a very basic hotel but condition ok. On the way up, we manage to get some really nice durians (since we did not manage to get any in the city) at really good price. In the city, we were quoted abt $35RM/kg of durian where as up in the mount it was just $4RM/kg of durian! The colour of the durains here were generally more while & pale but it sure taste nice and yummy (and cold too!).

After we checked in and settled our things in SGH, we than proceed downhill to Poring where there a Hot Spring. It was fun as the children got to walk over hanging bridge across a stream. While waiting for the guide to help fill the hot spring pool, we went for the canopy walk. From the gate to the canopy was about 200m up. we were panting when we finally reach the start of the canopy. The children have a swell time 'swinging' and walking cross the bridges. It was a real experience where you walk across the trees on 'swinging' ropes! Another 1st time experince for the children & even some of us. After that, it was another 200m back down to the hot spring pools and a good workout. And what a relaxing time we had soaking in the pools! Well, at least some of us does. Well, we also managed to catch a view of the famous Rafflesia, world largest flower. It takes each abt 18 months to bloom and it bloomed for abt 7 days.

On our way back to the hotel, the clouds parted and we managed to catch a nice view of the peak basking in the golden setting sun! How beautiful the view was! No words or even my picture here can provide a close enough description of that majestic view we saw! God's beautiful creation!!

On our way back, we stopped by the road side veg and fruit stalls to buy some veg to stir fry for dinner to go with our maggie mee!! The vegetables were so fresh crisp and sweet!! YUMMY!! The night was COLD & in the morning it was a beautiful sight of the mountains that greeted us.

Well, so that's about it for our trip. Maybe, as Nana and her mommy make a promised to each other...In ten years time, we shall return to climb up the peak! Well, we shall see. =)

Day 4 - KK

2009-11-29T16:35:00.001+08:00

Once again, we were blessed with good weather on Day 4. So its off to Gaya Sunday Market. There we saw the 'red' durian and the mummies got some bargains as well. It was an eye opening for the children as they got to see some live kitties, puppies, bunnies, turkeys, little chicks, and ducklings. They also got a treat of the cotton candy while waiting at the fountain till it got dropped on the floor (look at Nadya's sad face in the middle top pic). *awah...*

After the Sunday market, our 'tour guide' brought us up to 'signal point' which have a nice overview of the city. Then we went to Tanjong Aru beach where we had our lunch. It was a very hot day, so we ordered large drinks. When the drinks arrived , the large was really LARGE!! We had so much that even Nimrod (sam shok) also cannot tahan from the over dosage!

Evening time, we got Hainanese Chicken rice! The chicken was of cos gotten the day before at the market. It was yummy!

After dinner, we had a surprise birthday party for Nana who was turning 7 in 2 days!

Nana was so pleasantly surprised! This was her happy family photo, of cos Ezra decided to be the mischievous phantom.

Day 3 - KK

2009-11-28T22:21:00.001+08:00

The 3rd day was also blessed with good weather. We were within walking distance to their local market and decided to take a walk and visit the market. Within a few mins from our condo is the waterfront walk. There we took some photos. Look at the cool grandpa and grandma (top right pic)!! Ezra took the opportunity to climb up his 'Sam Sok' (3rd Uncle) for a ride (top left pic).

Viv and mum went crazy seeing the cheap cheap dried food stuff like sea cucumber, fish maw, dried shrimps, dried cuttlefish, dried salted fish (by the whole) amnd many others!! They brought quite a few things. Aft that they went on to the wet mkt, brought more staff and decided to buy some food to cook diner instead. The chickens sold there were HUGE!! the size of a small turkey!!

While the mummies are taking their own sweet time 'touring' the local market, the daddies (well, actually it was me taking the excuse of looking after the children to prevent them from disturbing the mummies) took a break in the starbuck joint. Even the children enjoy the air-con and the frap!

In the afternoon, we cooked the seldom seen whole corn which the mummies bought so excitedly for snacks! The children enjoyed it even though these corns are a bit more starchy than what we are used to.

Dinner was at a local seafood 'resturant' (more like a coffeeshop type) which we travelled for around 30mins looking for it. But thankfully, the food was Goooood! Look at the satisfied facial expression and you can almost taste it yourself, right? =)

Day 2 - KK (2 of 2)

2009-11-28T22:01:00.001+08:00

The children, except Nadya, enjoyed the boat ride. We joked that the boat ride was the only thing when Nadya can be silent!! It was a 1st experience on high speen boat for the children!! We all had a great time at both islands. The weather was great through the day till we stepped back onto the city, it started to rain a little.

As usual, Ezra enjoyed the sand alot and only managed to get dipped into the sea after much assurance from Daddy that he will be held tightly. Of cos, he got freaked out! after seeing the 'big' fishes swimming around him. There were so so so many fish, huge schools of them swimming freely and feeding off the bread from our hands!! It was an awesome experience.

The young adults (*ahem ahem* yours truely included) went for para-sailing. And enjoyed it throughly! Only disappointment is that the guide didn't allow me to go up together with my wife cos he feel my weight is abit beyond the limit. *sob sob*

(Para-sailing picture to be uploaded later)

Day 2 - KK (1 of 2)

2009-11-28T20:27:00.004+08:00

We had a beautiful morning for day 2. So we decided to have a quick breakfast and head to the jetty and go island hopping.

And this is the view we have from our condo unit.

After breakfast, we met a nice freelance 'taxi-driver' (private car) who offer to take us to the ferry (which was about 10mins ride) for $15RM. And at the jetty, he introduced us to a boatman who was willing to offer us a whole boat for the day @ just $200RM.

The plan was to visit two island (Sapi and Manukan) and let the children enjoy some Sun, Sand, and Sea.

Day 1 - Kota Kinabalu

2009-11-28T19:29:00.002+08:00

A picture of the junior & Senior Chuangs @ Changi Airport before the trip began. This is after all a first Big Family Trip consisting of 3 families.

After 2 hours of flying we have finally arrived at Kota Kinabalu (KK) Intl. Airport. We were still deciding how to proceed to our lodging place.

Finally, Viv managed to contact our lodging manager, Scott, to arrange transport for us. So we have to wait about 20 mins for the pickup. The total cost was about $70RM, which I felt was reasonable given there were 10 of us plus our luggages.

The children finally got bored of waiting and decided to have some wild time entertaining themselves.

Overall, day 1 went smoothly. The weather was good (a little of rain) when we arrived in KK. The journey from Airport to our lodging place (Marina court) was only about 15mins. We unloaded our stuff and went to the nearby shopping mall and had our 1st KK meal, Nasi Ayam. The mummies went and did some supermarket shopping while the daddies brought the children back to shower and rest. It only started to rain in the evening. By then, we had already settled comfortably in our condotel.

Daddy

2009-11-15T16:18:00.004+08:00

It has been ages since i blog cos I was so swamp with work and when i get back home, I simply have no enegry to blog (excuses excuses) Anyway, I thought I better start my engine again.

Jac was away for army reservist for 3 whole weeks but he did come home every 2 days. This time round, Ezra would asked for his daddy... he would be worried that daddy has no toilet in the army camp!! He was also seeking more attention from me & demanding that I sit with him to watch his TV shows. When daddy comes home, he would be filled with joy and very happy to see and would run to hug Jac. Sometimes when he woke up from his nap and realised that daddy was gone, he would cry & cry!!
Immediately after Jac's reservist, he had to go for a short mission trip to our church adopted people's group. He was away since Thursday and would be returning this evening!! yeah yeah

I took some time off in the morning on Thursday and we sent daddy off at the airport. Ezra was somewhat sad and at the same time very excited to see the airplanes.We cant wait for papa to be back.... and its time to set up our Christmas tree!!

It has been ages....

2009-11-02T20:43:00.005+08:00

It has been ages since we had a match of badminton.... But a few of us decide that it should somewhat start... Jose mgt to booked a badminton court in Potong Pasir CC and we digged out our old rusty rackets for the BIG game!!

It was a good start & exercise...

Ezra had his fair share of game as well with Pastor Richard & Nana jie jie...
After the game, we walked to Machperson for the famous porridge and wu xiang!! Oh man... whatever we burnt at the game is put back on & more!! But it was a very good time of fellowship as well.

Apple Crumble

2009-11-02T20:19:00.005+08:00

Jac is in the camp for his last round of reservist... I was feeling a little bored and decided to do some baking. Checking my fridge, I realised that I have some very ripe apples in the fridge... what better but to bake apple crumble!! I surfed my favourite cooking website, allrecipes.com and decided on Best Apple Crumble!!

The recipe is really very simple but since it was my 1st ever apple pie/ cumble... I was not very confident. I had to sliced and cook the cut apples and drained it. Next I prepare the crust and last is the top crumble.

The result....

The whole pie

A slice of it

A close up of the slice... crust, apple filling and top crumble
Ezra enjoying his home-made apple crumble

Sneak Preview

2009-11-02T18:54:00.004+08:00

Ezra is performing in his 1st ever concert!! He had his full dressed rehearsal last Friday & this is how he looks like!! I was so busy that day & only mgt to get these not so nice pic!! It was strange how children cant close their mouth once they had lipstick on!! hahaha Can you see his tummy sticking out!! oh goodness!! just like the daddy & mummy!!

He had also just gotten his classphoto... not too bad also!!

Our Long Weekend

2009-10-20T09:23:00.010+08:00

It has been a FULL of activities & gatherings weekend for us.

First, we had a all night prayer meeting in church, I was helping with the children and Ezra was there from 7pm - 11pm!! Lai Kuan challenged the children that they too can rise up to pray. After the all spiritual feeding, I took over by feeding them with snacks!! hahaha... we baked cornflakes cookies with the children!! The kids were all so excited and for many of them, it was their 1st experience with baking!! The results, of cos it was the most yummy cookies they tasted cos it was done by them!! We should do this more often with them. Ezra stayed up until almost 12am with us!! Well done son.

Sat morning, we organised an early picnic at Botanic Gardens with some families and of cos for Anthony who was here for the weekend for some very exciting personal matters. We had fried noodles, baked chicken wings, American carrot cake, yummy buns, coffee, tea & milo! Its was so nice to just sit around and sip on coffee in quiet and beautiful nature.

Drumsroll for all the wonderful friends & families.... oh b4 I forgot.. all these pics were taken by yours truly!!

Ka Yun, Florence and Baby Zoe who is only 2+ months old. Flo was a little shy to take a nursing pic but with some encouragement, she nodded her head.... I tot the pic turns out NICE...

Brian & Lai Kuan with their instant baby!! We are praying that God will bless them with one of their own soon...
Dan, Fiona, Janek & Anneka. Anneke was so sweet and demure while Janek was a little camera shy...
Joanne, Natanya, Nadine & Nadya. Nimrod was not able to join us cos he had some shofarok but definately his lost. To be honest, some of the pic here were taken by the professional.... can see some difference rite.. I need to polish my skills more!!

Anthony, Anthony, Anthony of the tree... shake down the boomerang. Thanks to Brian who throws the boomerang high up the tree at his 1st throw!! Anthony wasted no time and climbed up the tree and tried all his might to shake down it down but it was just nicely hanging on the branches!!
I was so busy taking pictures for others & totally missed out taking our own family!! But it was good that I took some pic of Ezra. He found this branch & shouting "hoho monster tree!!"

The children had lots of fun... they did different things...

Bubbles

Bark and leaves rubbing

Even cricket taught by Dan & Fiona...
As the weather gets hotter, we packed our bags & went to MOF for some cold desserts & some of the men had their set meals...

Here is what Jac has... Yummy!!

On Sunday, after church, Jac, Lai Kuan, Hui Qi and Anthony caught a movie "The heart locker" at Marine Sqr while I stayed home with Ezra so he can nap. After that, we brought Anthony to Marina Barrage & it was CROWDED!! I cant believe how many kites were there & wondered how anyone mgt to fly the kites up... would not their lines crossed! We stayed there for a while & headed to Joanne & Nimrod's place for Sushi Party!!
Since Monday is a school holiday, I invited my team of teachers and staff to my place for popiah party, I was so busy preparing popiah, nonya chicken & fried wanton. It was very fun to see different sizes and shapes of popiah!

Ezra as usual had lots of fun the Thaddeus running up & down the house & had even more fun with the Nef guns.

Mdm Tan, Sharon with Kayla (Rebecca's girl) and Mdm Tang

Jenna, Mary & Helen

Kayla with mummy Rebecca & Stacey

Pretty Kayla.. see how big her eyes are!!Of cos we had a very shy Daniel (Rebecca's hubby) who refused to be caught in pic & Jenna hubby who came a little late. We missed Gabriel, Vivien & Liu who cant join us.

In the evening, my in laws and an aunt, Dany's 2 boys & Nimrod family came for dinner and finished all the popiah and all the food prepared.

A very happening weekend rite?

Mid Autumn Gathering.....sss

2009-10-04T21:05:00.006+08:00

This year mid autumn has been a very eventful one for us....

It started with a few of us sisters gathering at my place to bake our very own mooncake last Sat. We had the traditional baked ones and mini snowskin.... yummy!!Last Sunday, we had a great gathering at Angie's place. The amount of food we had was to the MAX!! Dim Sum, yam cake, pamelo salad, chinese tea, mooncakes, chocolate banana cake (just for Diana), longan jelly... we were so FULL.... Here's all the mummies... & daddies trying to do YMCA!! i wonder why??? The children had so much FUN carrying and making their rounds ard the swimming pool with their lanterns!! Some of them had their 1st try at sprinkles!! Yesterday, Hun family gathered at Linda's place for a get together & the food theme was "traditional Chinese" We had Hainanese chicken rice & rice ball (cooked by me), Shanghainese sliced fish, cai xin with mushroom & even SUCKLING PIG which Lydia ordered just for this occasion & Nimrod had to roll up his sleeve to chop up the pig!! WOW.... See how the kids are enjoying this very traditional way of eating the chicken rice ball....After dinner, the kids again made their rounds with lanterns and sprinkles. It was nice cool night spent with my family.

Today, Chuang family came to our place for dinner... enough of chinese food... tonight with Western theme... garlic bread, beef stew, baked chicken chicken wings & salad. It was another evening of great time with family... Mid Autumn is certainly a time to be spent with friends and family.... Thank you for such a memorable week & God bless...

Batik Painting

2009-09-14T22:27:00.004+08:00

Mummy helping with the initial stage, waxing the outline.

Ezra painting...

Finally! Master piece completed.

Ezra posing with his Nadine jiejie, the two are the earliest to complete their painting.

Change to Childcare??

2009-09-10T22:01:00.003+08:00

As I write this post, it was with much easy & comfort cos it just home alone with Jac & me. Ezra & helper are spending the night at my in laws place. This has somewhat became a ritual for Ezra during the sch break.

This has been a very busy school break for me. I have been back to office for 2 days & will be going in again tml. After our Family day on Tuesday, the 2 big boys and Nadine had a sleep over at our place on Wednesday evening... I was busy cooking & feeding them. Today, 2 families from church Fiona & Huey Hong came over for lunch and a playdate for the children. I had 8 kids in the house but they did well, playing with each other & stuff. It was so funny when my neighbour actually stopped Fiona at the corridor & asked if our place changed into a childcare!! It sure feels like during the holidays!!

Family Day Out

2009-09-09T18:02:00.009+08:00

Jac was able to take off from work yesterday & we planned a whole day out with Ezra.

1st stop was Science Centre. We read from Angie & Joyce blog of how much fun the children had and we tot why not!! BIG mistake!! We paid $32 for 3 of us.. walk ard the exhibit a little & why we tried to explain things to Ezra, he wld press the button & run off to press the next button!! After a while, we kind of gave up!! We actually planned to stay there until 2pm but by 11.30am we were done!! I suppose Science is not for both of us & even for Ezra!! Next time must tag along with Science people like Clement when we visit Science Centre again.

We went for our 1st Omnimax movie, Bears... The show was ok but Ezra was complaining of hunger all the time cos someone brought in popcorn!!

After the show, we drove all the way to Ikea at Tampines for our special day out lunch while Ezra snoozed in the car! Ezra was really hungry & popped into 7 meat balls + mashed potato & 1 winglet!! Once he has his energy replenished, he was up to some mischief again!! He looked at us & said "See mum, i can move my eyes!" It was so FUNNY...

He remembered eating ice-cream & plead with us for yet another cone of ice-cream!!

Jac brought a sandtoy set "beach work" & he was very eager to show off to Ezra what it can do... so off to Changi beach we went! It was perfect weather for beach, a bit cloudy with lots of wind!! Father & son wasted no time & set out their tools & started building castle.After many 'hours' of hard work... Jacky & Ezra are proud to present their castle!! Oh I almost forgot... Jac was commenting "Let papa add some ???? to the castle..." Can you guess what it was? Let me give you some options....

1) The 12 apostles
2) Christmas Trees
3) SHIT!!

Changi beach was really quite a nice beach to chill out... every so often, Ezra would shout "Look mum, see the plane... wow so big!!" Once in a while, we get to see big container carrier sailing across the sea.
I think Ezra had more FUN knocking out his castle than building it.After our beach outing... its time to hit the movie!! We drove to Marine Square (again Ezra had his power nap) & caught the G Force. This time, Ezra had his wish of pop corn!! The show was ok & glad that Ezra enjoyed it.

By the time we finished the movie, it was 8.30pm & time to head home.... All of us were tired but it was a day well spent with our most loved.

Thank you my 2 darlings.

1st Holiday Gathering

2009-09-07T21:05:00.005+08:00

Our group were supposed to meet up at the Botanic Garden for the children to play but the weather was a little wet & everyone came to our place instead!! I rushed to Seng Shiong to pick up some stuff for the gathering.

After a quick round of preparation, we are ready for our guest.... The Ng family arrived first... Jaimie wasted no time & dashed into Ezra room where they played with the toys.

Next came the Chiah family arrived next and Cherryln joined in the party pretty quickly as well.

Wolfie & Rain came a bit later but Rain was kind of throwing a tantrum but she also joined in the fun after some time.

We had a FEAST!! We had udon, fried bee hoon, kong bak pao, taiwan sausage, chicken sausage, fishball, ham & cheese bread & bean curd dessert. Everything was so YUMMY...
The children had so much fun together, they were playing with each other, laughing at each other and with each other... It was such a joy to see them play together.We also had fun playing taboo... man wear BRIEF... not sure if its the bird or sound "COCKADOODOO", etc...

What a way to start the holiday!! Thank you friends....

Ezra's 1st Plant

2009-09-01T18:38:00.004+08:00

I remembered reading abt Jaimie having her 1st plant.... Ezra also brought home some wheat grass plant from school as they are learning about plant and flowers. The children put seeds of wheat grass onto a kitchen towel and placed it on a form plate.

It was very interesting to see how excited he was about his plant, how he would carefully water the plant and how fast the wheat grass grows in just a week!!

The grass will be ready for harvest and we can just trim off near the roots and they should grow again. I am not sure if Ezra would dare to drink the wheat grass....

Different angles of the plant!!

New Dishes!!

2009-08-31T18:42:00.003+08:00

I was cooking a lot recently and had to try new recipes cos I am running out of dishes to cook!! I had always like soon kueh and found a recipe that promised crystal clear skin... The filling is easy to cook but its the skin that requires more skill. I really liked the texture and feel of the dough and kept knitted it. After wrapping the kueh, its off to the streamer. Looks really good but the skin is a bit hard..... A check with an expert confirms that over knit & steam will cause it to be hard. I am going to try this again tml!!

We were a bit sicked with chinese dishes and decided to go Western one evening. Josephine taught me to do a veg 'bath' with all the hard veg and some black pepper to be put under the rosemary chicken tighs. It was so pretty with all the colourful veg and chicken!! The veg turned out just perfect and so tasty with the juices from the chicken!! YUMMY!!

Teacher's Day Gift

2009-08-31T18:18:00.003+08:00

I almost forgot that Ezra needed to prepare gifts for his teachers!! On Friday we went to got all the needed ingredients & on Sunday we were all ready for the BIG BAKE!! This recipe is oatmeal chocolate chips cookies. I prepared the mix and Ezra helped to decorate the cookies with colourful mini flowers. He is quite good with it!! See focused he was!! The results....pretty & yummy!!

Happenings in the Week(s)

2009-08-26T08:59:00.009+08:00

I have been getting very lazy with blogging and thought better get my engine started again!! It has been very busy weeks for us cos our church started running Alpha in Aug and we had a pretty good turnout of 80-100 people!! I was tasked to co-ordinate food and much of my Saturdays were spent busy cooking!!

Our senior pastor and wife came back to Singapore earlier than expected and we offered them our mini guest room. They have been with us for almost a month & they have became Ezra best friends!! Ezra would sneaked into their room whenever there is an opportunity!! Pastor would spent time in the evening telling him Bible stories!! Every so often, Ezra would take out his toys & pester Pastor to pay with him!! See them in action....It has been a while since I discovered that Ezra had been watching too much TV. Now I make it a point to engage him in different activities in the evening. We were doing this tiles toys where he had to match the shape and colour of the tiles. Not a very easy task but wow it takes quite a bit of time & certainly train our patience!!One of Ezra's latest hobby is photo taking just like his daddy! He took these pictures of our friends during cell group time!! not bad rite!! actually there are more 'not so nice' shots but my friends will kill me if I put them up here!! hahahaEzra's fruit of the moment is now APPLE... He loves apple & would always demand for apples for his afternoon snack and after dinner. One evening, he requested for apple but we were busy with things & kind of ignore him. When we came out to the living room, there he was munching on his apple!! He is such a big boy biting into his apple!! I was shocked!!I was busy baking a butter cake one evening & Ezra decided to stick around in the kitchen as well. He saw aunty picking the kang kong veg for dinner and he decided to help!!

Aug 9, NDP Gathering

2009-08-16T16:38:00.003+08:00

Thanks to Joyce and Chai San who invited us to their house on NDP 09, we had a great time that evening.

Due to Viv busy preparing her curry chicken, we needed some 'speical' help in getting to their place on that evening. However, the help only lasted for a small section along CTE. hehe. Well, it was good while it lasted. :p

The food was good, and we wasted no time in filling our stomach before the NDP started. Of cos the children also had their fun with Cherlyn's toys and also some art & craft time by our dear art teacher, Joyce.

We watched the flag fly pass before from Joyce's kitchen before it appear on TV. The daddies pledged their loyalties to the country (aka, the pose a bit wrong) while the mummies too show their love of the country by standing during the national anthem.

We had so much fun in celebrating the NDP that we had two cakes! The children of cos had their fun blowing the candles out.

Ezra also had much fun on top of all these activities, here are some of his snapshots.

A Week Past Post!!

2009-08-11T20:04:00.002+08:00

Haha better late than never!! Jac was very excited abt this coming GI Joe movie & he somehow mgt to buy tickets for a Super Preview of GI Joe GV Grand in Great World. It's a 9.15pm show on a Tuesday night!! I was a bit worried that I may dozed off during the show!!

But not wanting to disappoint him, of cos I agreed!! We went for a simple dinner at Go Thai just outside the cinema. After dinner, we picked up our 'goody' bag which has a bottle of glass coke, a regular coke & a bear. Goody!! we can use that to be the surprise I promised Ezra cos he wanted to tag along. The guards were very strict, no recording device & even handphones were allowed, they have to surrendered!!Well the show is quite good, with enough punch & techno... so glad I did not fell asleep!! hahaha

Things Ezra has been doing

2009-08-04T15:41:00.005+08:00

Besides driving us up the wall of late, Ezra had been keeping himself busy!!

Art Time

I had some time with Ezra this week & being so inspired by the art pcs done by RR so I got out all the paint & paper for Ezra to paint. We had a new set of paint brushes with different size tips so its very good with the different objects he is painting.It looks kind of blur but after the black outline.... wow it made a whole lot of difference!!

Homework Time

Ezra's nai nai bought him a Maths book and he would want to do it. He would always say "Mum, I want to do my homework!!" He was able to do most of the sheets after we read the instructions to him. I would grade and write words at the end of each page & he got excited and goes "Yes!!" Since he is now 'hot' on homework, I dug out some penmanship books for him to practise!! We are praying that he would continue to love & be excited abt homework!!

Green House Ritz Carlton

2009-08-04T14:50:00.005+08:00

Our extended family had a very good dinner at Ritz Carlton Green House on Sunday, courtesy of Kwai our dear brother in law... Kwai & Nan's family came from Shanghai as the kids are having summer break in school. They have kindly arranged a dinner at Ritz. I was a little disappointed when there were no lobster on the menu. But thank God for the oyster and sashimi.. they were so good!!

Well I did not take too much pictures except for the starters & dessert cos we were all too busy eating and going for rounds food!!
After all our food, its time for pictures!! Here is our final family picture to remember this very filling dinner.

Kueh Sarlet

2009-07-19T21:55:00.005+08:00

I tried to make kaya spread last week but it was quite a flop!! It was so green that no one dares to eat it!! It had too strong of a coconut taste but I did not want to throw it away.

As the kaya reminds me of the nonya kueh with kaya & glutinous rice, I googled and found a simple recipe to try.

The rice was really quite easy to make but I needed much more kaya!! See the thin layer of kaya!!The taste was quite yummy & the colour very pretty was well... definitely will try again!!

Perfect Weather for Picnic

2009-07-19T21:25:00.004+08:00

A dear old friend was very kind to still want to celebrate my birthday & I chose to do a picnic at Botanic Garden. The sky was a little dark in the afternoon & together with Ezra, we prayed for a good weather & God was so so good... He gave us the perfect weather... cloudy with breeze... so perfect for picnic!!We had a simple spread of bee hoon, chicken nuggets, sotong ball, eggs, veg sticks, corn & drinks.After our yummy food, the kids had a good time playing games, balls & even had a hand in throwing the boomerang!! Sean threw & it hit a teens head right on his head!! oops... Thank God he was ok.It wasn't before too long that the night starts to fall & we quickly tried to light the candles but the wind was so strong it was difficult yet comical to see how all the adults & children tried to block the wind. Before we can finished singing the birthday song, the candles were blown out!!

Its was a very enjoyable evening out with good friends... Thank you Iris!!

A Special Day for a Special Someone

2009-07-18T14:04:00.005+08:00

17th July is a very special day for someone special to me, so I did a plan for this special person. It was suppose to be a day out with activities like tour around boat quay in the junk boat, up on the Singapore Flyer and ending with a sumptuous buffet dinner at Ritz Carlton.

However, instead of activities, she requested for a day of relaxing. So with some last minute booking we finally manage to get a spa session.

We both took half day, so Viv went home to pick Ezra before coming to pick me up at office. We went to Marina Sq Swensen for lunch and Viv got her birthday special from Swensen. After that, we walk around a bit before sending Ezra home.

Alone by ourselves, we make our way to Afone at South Bridge road for our spa session.

Ezra's Day Out!!

2009-07-13T15:36:00.003+08:00

As I writes this post, Ezra is out for a movie with his Uncle Brian & Aunty Lai Kuan!! They were very kind to bring him out to catch Ice Age 3. They took the MRT to PS for the 3.45pm show.

When we confirmed this outing, Ezra was very excited!! I had to go thru with him the 'drill' of what to do, what to eat, what he cant eat! hahaha

He finished his lunch real quickly, took his nap at 12.45pm & got up at 2.55pm!! He called me when he woke up, asking to speak with Uncle Brian. When we got home, he was all dressed and ready to go!!
Son, enjoy your time & thank you Uncle Brian & Aunty Lai Kuan....

A special Saturday

2009-07-05T15:51:00.006+08:00

We had a lazy sat morning & walked to a nearby coffeeshop for breakfast while Ezra cycled. Jac needed to buy some casual shoes so we went to Pedro at Anchor Point. Since, its Anchor Point is so near my in laws place, we asked them out for late lunch at Xin Wang Cafe. Jac mgt to get 2 pairs of shoes!! Nice?After that my in laws wanted to go Taka to do more shopping. We went along as well.. We got Ezra a Hotwheel track since he has lots of hand me down hotwheel cars. Jac being a big boy, he wanted toys as well. He chose some kind of gun which cost almost $80 but I was not too happy abt it!! In the end, he 'downgraded' and got 2 mini guns so he can play with his son!! They wasted no time to try their hands at it once we got home!! My mum was supposed to over to my place for dinner & we invited our in laws as well... In double quick time, we mgt to whipped out this spread!! It was a very special meal to have both our parents to dine together.

Ezra & his Keith Kor Kor

2009-07-04T12:49:00.002+08:00

Keith came & stayed with us for a couple of days & Ezra 'stick' to him like glue!! From the moment he wakes up, he will go over to Keith's room, peek under the door to see if he is awake & do that until Keith steps out of the room!! Once his door is opened, Ezra will waste no time & hang ard in his room. Ezra would go "Keith kor kor, keith kor kor, KEITH KOR KOR!!" When Keith goes out, Ezra will ask him "Keith kor kor when are you going?" Ezra would run to the door & check when he hears any noise from the corridor!! He wouls return disappointed "Mum, its not Keith kor kor!!" Once Keith comes back, he is stalked by Ezra!! It was so funny to see how he interact with Keith.

Ezra & his Keith kor kor watching a movie on his laptop.

LEGO

2009-07-03T09:05:00.005+08:00

If you asked Ezra to pick up his favourite toy now, it would have to the LEGO!! When we moved to Potong Pasir, Jac refused to give up his old & assorted box of all kinds of lego pieces & brought it along with us. This treasure box has became a new past time for father & son. Jac will fix his toys, Ezra will join him. They would spent hours on this. See how careful Ezra was while fixing the lego!!!

Ezra surprised us with this creation!! Jac only gave some verbal instructions (cos he is busy fixing his own) Ezra fix it by himself. Not bad! He would fly & play with it, making all kind of funny engine sound as he moves the 'rocket'.

What a Day!!

2009-06-30T17:45:00.004+08:00

Jac took a day off on the last week of school holidays & we brought Ezra out for some family time. We had a hearty breakfast of hotdog bun at home. After that we headed to the beach. Ezra wanted to play with sand so East Coast Park we went. Father & son had abt 1.5 hrs of bonding time building sand castle while I sit under the coconut tree reading my novel... that is life!! When it got too hot, we headed to Ikea at Tampines for lunch, again this is something suggested by Ezra!! He simply loves the meat balls. He had a total of 6 meat ball, 1 chicken drumlet!! I like the laska there. After our walk in Ikea, Ezra saw someone eating ice cream & he asked if he could have some. Look how much fun & enjoyment he gets from a simple cone of ice-cream!! We went to Giant for some supermarketing. We asked Ezra what would he like to do next & he said "I want to sit Singapore Flyer!" So off to Flyer we went, Ezra had a quick nap in the car ride there. Calculating the cost, we decide to get the Family card for 1 yr of unlimited rides. Ezra was really excited when we got nearer to the cabin. We were the only family in the cabin & it was so COOL. We played "I spy" with him, pointing out to him the different landmark and buildings. It was really a good ride. Jac wanted to have another ride in the night so we hang ard there til night fall. We walked all the way to the Merlion, told some pictures and really felt like tourists!!We were all so tired after such a long day but it was so much FUN & what a day it was!!