Christmas Tree

We decided to set up a Christmas tree this year. It was our very first Christmas tree - in fact, it was the first Christmas tree for everyone in our family.

By the way, Evan is holding a gingerbread man from Coffee Bean. It's his favourite snack during this time of the year.

Since he's into gingerbread men, I've decided to decorate the tree with what else but gingerbread men! I made the gingerbread men myself with cardboard & self-adhesive rhinestones. Not too difficult but a little time-consuming. Made a total of 8 men. Bought 6 rolls of ribbons from Metrojaya and Parkson. Wanted to 'copy' Metrojaya's style of decorating their trees with yards and yards and layers or layers of ribbons. Speaking of Metrojaya, we bought the tree from there (the last one!) for RM55.90. It's the smallest one standing at 4 feet tall.

We also bought a dozen candy canes from Cold Storage Gardens. Evan insists that we must place a star on the Christmas tree so I bought a gold star topper from Cold Storage too.

Will take a nice shot once there are presents filled up at the bottom of the tree. So far, there are 3 gifts there and they are all for Evan!

A moment of fame

About a week ago, I received an email from a reporter/writer for Kosmo! newspaper. She wanted to interview me for her weekly blogger column. I was kinda excited cos.... never been interviewed for newspaper before (although I've appeared in the press before a couple of times but those were not interviews)

So on Thursday morning, Larry brought Marissa out for Gymboree & Evan went to school.  The photographer arrived promptly at 10:30am while the writer came 20 minutes later cos she was actually waiting for the photographer downstairs!

Anyway, they proceeded with taking the photos of me and the books...... plus me and the laptop.

Then the photographer left and the interview proper started.

Everything ended within half hour.

The article was published today 25th November 2009..... and yikes! a big photo of my messy condo unit in the background! They could have cropped it a bit la..... Then........ they got my name wrong..... (this happens frequently so I don't mind it at all :P).

OK, read all about it here.

Sponsorship drive

Anyone interested to sponsor or loan children's outfits for Hospital Ampang Family Day Kids Fashion Show?  For more info.....click here

Parents-Teacher Day

We were the first to see Evan's class teacher today for the PTA. We talked about Evan's progress in school for the 2nd semester. Happy to note that Evan has improved in his art & craft and takes a very keen interest in it. Teacher Esther says Evan is always very focused and can follow all instructions during art & craft. OK - that's good news but Evan can be 'busy' day-dreaming' too when other lessons are going on. He also tends to be focused and pays more attention to lessons when he's isolated from other kids who tend to disturb him & in the end, they all will be playing with each other! Hopefully he will be in a class with quieter boys & girls next year and hopefully he'll be 'influenced' by their behaviour!

As for his exam results - a few mistakes here and there for Chinese (84 marks) & careless mistake for Math (96 marks). English was 88 marks. According to Teacher Esther his blends need brushing up as he's not so good with it. If you ask me - I am confused as well - I leave the teaching of blends to Larry (I am in charge of Chinese, you see.....). So it's extra Chinese 'lessons' during the school holidays. We will most probably be enrolling Evan in the After School Program next year. According to Teacher Esther, the program runs from March to November and the cost is approx RM400 monthly. 

Partee Time!

It's Evan's last day of school at TJC for 2009 and it's PARTY time again! The theme for the party is GARDEN. So I figured out that Evan can be a garden himself!Ahem... something different from the usual fruits, vegetables & insects costumes. It will be 'costume' from scratch.....

He's got green grass on top of his head..... vines covering his body..... tatoos of insects on his arms.......

Ants crawling up his face......

A handful of flowers & dragonfly too.....

Woke up extra early today to prepare Evan. I used hairgel to spike his hair & set it with a hairdryer (with some help from Larry). Then I sprayed the neon green hairspray all over. I used the washable tatoo gel pens to decorate his arms with insects & bugs. The ants were drawn with a marker pen.

I had actually made some leaves with green paper & wires but I had some difficulty with getting them together to form a U shape or even some sort of shape. Then, one day while shopping, I stumbled upon a florist and enquired within for artificial leaves. They only had one type so I purchased a bunch of them twisted them into a U-shape. Then added a few flowers here & there & a dragonfly. Secured the vine over Evan's neck and tucked it under his hoodie with safety pins & tied both ends of the vine with ribbon which went into the kangaroo pockets in front.

Oh and by the way the bright hoodie tee is from Gymboree. Evan wore a pair of dark brown tights from his Peter Pan costume and his pair of Scooby Doo dog sandals. I also tied 2 daisy flowers on his wrists and attached a butterfly to his hair.  It's kinda glittery and feminine so I sort off hid it behind. He brought a bouquet of Batik flowers to school as a gift for his class teacher (he had given her quite some headache over the course of the school year.....)

Evan & Joseph at the carpark before leaving for school

Evan & Joseph in TJC (This photo and the one below : courtesy of Joseph's Mommy)

The kids had a blast in school. Some kids were dressed up but some just came in T-shirts/normal wear. Evan told me he had fun with his friends.

Little Update

Just a little update on this little girl.... Marissa will be 17months old next week. She's getting more and more talkative now - can pair a few words together to request for things that she wants.

eg "dirty! wipe!" if porridge spills on the floor or her bib

She's also more and more independent - prefers to feed herself/dress herself....but of course.... she still needs help. She will duly inform me whenever she does her poo-poo in her  disposable diaper and demands to be changed into a fresh one (I've been rather lazy with the cloth diapers.....cos gotta rinse/wash/launder/dry/fold/store and extra extra work if she does big business in it).

She's grown taller although still petite to me - can still fit into Gymboree 9-12months clothing. 12-18mos clothing fits her just nice. She likes to sing/dance/clap/do action songs. She's now into reading her brother's picture books and playing with her brother's toys (basically it's Thomas train/Bob builder/Robots). She also loves to play pretend with Evan. They team up as chef & waitress in a restaurant and Hubby & I get to be the customers.

Me in my carseat - only for one-way.... the return journey? I need to drink nen-nen so get to be carried by mommy

One of her favourite activities is go 'walk-walk'. She likes stickers, scribbing with magic pens (on paper!) and climbing up & down the furniture. She also loves flipping through the photo albums..... which are fast becoming like 'kiam chai'..... which reminds me that I am planning to submit a photobook in by 16th November..... 40% discount promotion......... hope to get it done soon or else..... just skip it and wait for next promo....

Halloween Weekend

We attended Gymboree's Halloween Party cum Gymbo's birthday at Tropicana Mall on 31st Oct. Marissa was considered too young for the party but we brought her along as well. Both of them wore their Gymboree skeleton pajamas. About 10 kids & their parents were present.

The party started at 5:30pm and the format was more or less like a typical Gymboree Play Class. Even Marissa who was standing at the sidelines wanted to participate in the fun.

First up the kids had a craft session whereby they made Trick or Treat Bags. Everyone was seated on the parachute. After that, the kids went around climbing and jumping and searching for pumpkins. They had singing and dancing and bubble fun as well. There was also a special appearance by Gymbo the Clown. One of the girls was scared stiff of Gymbo......

As for Evan, he was scared of the gorilla! The Gymboree instructors were dressed up in costumes as well eg bat, cat & um...gorilla. They did a special dance performance to Michael Jackson's Thriller. Evan stood at a distance to watch.... with his friend whom he referred to as "Jester" - see pic below.

 

There was a pirate captain, vampire, wizard, transformer robot and a handful of fairies. Evan went up to one of the fairies and said "Hello princess - I Love You!"

 

After all the fun activities we adjourned to one of the rooms for makan. All the kids had McDonald's Happy Meal. Some mommies prepared finger food. They had nice Gymbo napkins & party plates. Evan nibbled a bit of fried chicken & nuggets. He drank orange juice and had some jelly. Everyone went home with a Gymbo helium balloon.

 

We went to Toy R Us for awhile as it was strategically located just 2 doors away from Gymboree. After that, we hopped over to Santini for dinner. We were already half-full so we just ordered a caesar salad and a smoothie. The kids were eligible for free kids meals as they were in Halloween costumes. Marissa enjoyed her wild mushroom soup entree and kept asking for "more! more!". Evan ate some of his spaghetti alfredo but just the pasta only but not the sausage. Marissa refused to eat her grilled fish. For dessert, they had vanilla gelato. All the waiters were dressed in scary costumes. The restaurant was also decorated with spooky stuff. At the end of dinner, Evan took a photo with our waiter.

 

Took a pic of Marissa at home.....

On 1st Nov, we went out for dinner again at Fish & co. 1 Utama.  No free kids meal this time though

1 Utama had some Halloween promotion and there were booths put up. So now all the fun is over and it's time for kindergarten exams.....