Birthday Party At Kidzania

Cass attended her classmate, Kate's 9th birthday party at Kidzania on Sunday. It was Cass' first time in Kidzania. Alycia and Drama Queen had the exclusive privilege to visit Kidzania two years ago as their primary school organized an outing at Kidzania for prefects and librarians, of which Alycia was a school prefect then and Drama Queen was and still is a librarian. Why I say privilege is that the entrance fee for kids aged 4-17 is a whopping RM85 and RM41 for adults and their school had given them this wonderful treat. That would cost a frigging RM337 on tickets alone just for the 3 girls, hubs and me! Kidzania is truly every kid's fantasy.

The 15 kids invited to the party:




The birthday girl was treated like a princess by Kidzania - with a tiara, a sash and a ride on a car parading the streets of Kidzania with big fanfare, complete with songs sang by Kidzania staff, clanging of cymbals, drums and her friends cheering her on with pom poms. Such a grandeur for the little girl!  The birthday girl could choose a friend to sit with her on the parade car and she chose Cass!  Cass was totally overwhelmed and in disbelief that she was chosen.  She told me that she felt really awkward, like a fish out of water, hehe!  It was only in recent months that Cass and Kate became very good friends, through Enid Blyton as both the girls are huge fans of Enid Blyton books. There was even an Enid Blyton book and a stationery set in the party pack given to her friends who attended the party.







After some games was the cake-cutting session, followed by lunch.



After lunch was the most awaited moment - role play time at Kidzania City!

But first, the kids had to apply for a credit card and withdraw some cash from the 'bank'...




First stop was at Kurlz beauty salon, where the girls were dolled up but the girls didn't like the way they looked after their faces were made up. They wiped off the make-up with wet wipes 😁




Their favorite place was the secret agent training center, where they were trained to be secret agents!  Sorry no picture to show as parents are not allowed inside the training center.

The girls as scientists at the health institute...



The girls also 'worked' at Vitagen, as cashier at a supermarket, as nurse, doctor, etc in order to 'earn money' to pay for their games, 'car insurance', 'driving licence' and to purchase stuff.

The last stop was at a jewellery boutique where Cass made her own beads bracelet.




There were many 'jobs' that the girls didn't have the time to try out. Hopefully Cass gets another opportunity to visit Kidzania again soon so that she could finish off all her 'cash' before she outgrows her interest in Kidzania.

Today is one of Cass' happiest days and is certainly worthy of being a 'Today in history' for her 💗

School Holidays Activities

Apart from the mega holiday Lego Project that my 3 girls are currently working on, they also found a new game to play together - Heads Up!

Alycia who had watched her all-time favorite talk show host Ellen DeGeneres playing Heads Up during one of Ellen's talk shows downloaded the app onto her iPod Touch.

Today is the third day the girls are into Heads Up and they are having so much fun at it!   I join them too when I have the time.  Today their grand aunt played with them and got hooked too!




What's Heads Up?
Ellen DeGeneres has released an iPhone version of a game she likes to play on her show called Heads Up. It's simply a word guessing game where your friends try to get you to say the word on the screen by giving you hints. Only with Heads Up, you hold the phone above your head and it records video of your friend giving hints. You have sixty seconds to guess as many words as you can. Since you'll be holding your iPhone above your head and you're not allowed to look at the screen, Heads Up includes some great controls for new cards: tilt your iPhone face down when you get a word correct and tilt it up to pass. At the end of the 60 seconds, Heads Up will show you a list of the words you got correct and passed.

Heads Up includes 18 themed decks ranging from celebrities, movies, animals, accents, characters, and more.









And from this game, I realized that I am so so outdated!  My girls are so advanced and knowledgeable. They are so well versed with the names of celebrities, movies and characters and I actually had a hard time keeping up with them in this game.  I am officially an aunty facing mid-life crisis. Suddenly I feel like my mum, ha ha ha!

My 2 Brats

Many strangers who see Alycia and Sherilyn for the first time always commend how well-behaved, demure and ladylike they are. Oh pul-leeeasse.... I always tell them wait till you see them when they are at home. From demure, angelic cute little things, they immediately transform into brats and monsters the moment they step foot into the house and can effortlessly turn the house upside down within minutes.

Talking about disciplining my gals, they tend to turn deaf temporarily when mummy speaks in a nice, motherly, cultured tone. It's only when I transform into a monster mummy that my gals do finally hear me. So can you imagine what my neighbours think of me, the petite charming lady from that house with 2 sweet little gals? You know, that house where you hear yellings, threats and bribes the whole day long?

How do you control 2 brats who are ever active, rumbustious, destructive, rebellious, temperamental, wilful and samseng (tom-boyish)?

This was what happened a few days ago when I was busy writing a paid post and had neglected my 2 brats for an hour or so.


This 'train' is actually the case of a 3-tier toyogo drawer set, pushed down.


Alycia the ring-leader got stuck in the case and cried out for help but evil mummy said "serves you right" ... and then pulled her out and gave her a good lecture.

Bubbles On The Toilet Seat

My gals love to blow bubbles and their ever pampering daddy and ku ku (sil #4) always buy them bubbles to blow. When these bubbles run out, the gals will plead for their kakak to blow them bubbles using bath shampoo during bathtime.
Alycia has even discovered by chance her skill of making a huge bubble out of bath shampoo on the rim of the toilet seat. All she has to do is to sit on the toilet seat after I've smothered her body with bath shampoo and then move her bum forward and backward the toilet seat and voila... a huge bubble covers the entire toilet seat and both the gals find it so amusing.

New toy

This is the new toy that DH secretly bought his 2 angels from Mid Valley Megamall yesterday... a school bus tent. Well, I shall see how long this new toy can sustain the gals' interest before being chucked into the storeroom if it is lucky enough to remain intact or being ripped apart into pieces.


Hello mummy... I love this yellow school bus.... "the wheels on the bus goes round and round, round and round, round and round..."




Taking turns to play bus driver and school children. This bus even comes with an inflatable steering wheel that's attachable to the tent.
The driver on the bus goes honk honk honk, all through the hall.

A Fun Day at Mid Valley Megamall

Today, DH took a day off from work to bring the gals to Mid Valley Megamall as he wanted to bring them for a ride on Thomas Tank & Friends, which made its debut appearance in Malaysia. We had thought the rides were free as advertised in the papers, but I think DH missed the small * sign which says 'conditions apply'... hiyah.... rides are free only with minimum purchase of RM80 on Thomas & Friends merchandise.




The best shot I managed to snap of Thomas Tank before being told to back off for the reporters and the Sunbeam pre-schoolers.


Thomas & Friends merchandise on display.


Now I really like this Thomas & Friends bed.



The crowd was crazy and there were reporters everywhere. A group of Sunbeam pre-schoolers were the very first few lucky guests to have their rides on Thomas Tank and they were teated like VIPs as the reporters were busy snapping their pix away. I was even told to give way when I tried to snap pix of my 2 gals, wtf.

Anyway, the Thomas & Friends train was not as impressive as I'd expected, as can be seen from the pix. Similar and longer rides can be taken at 1 Utama Shopping Centre and they only cost RM3 per ride. I would say Metro Jaya has succeeded in its marketing strategy to draw a huge crowd, mostly doting parents and grandparents as well as Thomas & Friends fans who are willing to part with RM80 or more to buy Thomas & Friends merchandise, then spend half an hour queuing up to pay for the merchandise and then waste another half an hour queuing up for the train ride that only lasted less than 5 minutes. The toys were not even cheap and I saw people grabbing them as though they were on cheap sale without batting an eyelid and hurriedly ran to the cashier to pay in order to get tickets for the train rides. DH was almost one of the 'vicims', if not for my wise and quick intervention.... ahem.

After joining in the craze with Thomas & Friends fans, we all went to have dim sum at Spring Valley Chinese Restaurant. After that, we got Alycia a pair of Disney's Winnie The Pooh shoes as her old shoes were wearing out and her feet are outgrowing them, and btw her shoes cost way more than mine.

While I went for my monthly retail theraphy, DH brought the gals to the indoor theme park at Jaya Jusco before we headed to Little Penang Cafe to satisfy sil #2's craving for local delights before she flies back to HK next week. After satisfying sil #2's crave, DH brought wife boss to Papa Beard to get her 5 deliciously sinful cream puffs.

Whilst I was away on my retail spree, DH quietly bought the gals yet another toy. DH sure knows when to buy... when wife boss is not around to stop him from pampering his 2 angels :roll eyes: Shall take pix of the new toy and post them in my blog soon.




More fun with daddy at the indoor theme park at Jaya Jusco whilst mummy goes for her monthly retail theraphy.


Batteries conked out after 5 hours of continuous fun, eating and shopping.
Look at Alycia's cranky face... well settling down the gals back home is yet another story/battle.

Toys Again!

I am sure those who bought the Star newspapers today got an insert of a huge, attractive and colourful flyer from Toys R Us. Whenever Alycia and Sherilyn see these flyers, they will go oooohh & aaahhh and the 2 of them will spend a good half an hour studying each and every toy advertised in the flyer, discussing amongst themselves what to ask daddy to buy. Now, that's another free and good breather opportunity for me.


Let's ask daddy tonight to buy us this, this and this toys, k.



Good taste you two have darlings.... that rabbit slide set costs RM449.95 Alycia girl.... and Sherilyn sweetie that playhouse cost RM1,299 wei... u think your daddy is a millionaire?



Sisters play turn ugly... Alycia snatched the flyer away from Sherilyn. Now, that's a very good excuse for mummy not to buy anyone any toys.

We Love Sundays

We spent our Sunday lepaking at PJ Hilton again yesterday. In case some of you are wondering why my DH always brings us to hotels for buffet meals, well that's because he has already pre-paid for them. He has paid RM400+ on membership fee (for each hotel) at the Hilton Hotel, Shangri-La Hotel and Sheraton group of hotels. That's more than RM1,200+ for a 1-year subscription to 3 groups of hotels. So when the two of us dine at these hotels, we get 50% off the total bill. If there are more than 2 diners, we enjoy a 30% discount on the total bill (F&B only). On top of that, for each hotel, we are entitled to 2 nights free hotel stay. Last year, we stayed at the Hilton Sentral Hotel together with my parents and my brothers/SIL where we celebrated my mum's 60th birthday there. Later, we stayed at the Westin Hotel (member of the Hilton Group) during X'mas. This year, we have yet to utilize the free hotel stays. Gotta start planning now for a short holiday. I love!

These pix were taken yesterday at PJ Hilton.


The gals enjoying their meals. Sherilyn just wouldn't let go of her heart-shape violet color helium-filled balloon.




The gals having fun at the play area.

Balloon craze

Both Alycia and Sherilyn are crazy over balloons. On most Sundays, DH would bring us to a hotel for lunch and what excites the gals most is not food but the balloons from the clown.


Alycia inflating a balloon with a hand-pump.


Artist at work... Sherilyn's drawing of some square balloons.


Mummy.... I drew one, two, three, four, five, six.... seven balloons on my Doodle.

Make Good Use Of Thy Time

I always wished there were more than 24 hours to a day so that I can do more for my gals, more for myself & DH and lastly get more SLEEP. I hate to see precious time being wasted, I don't like me or my gals sitting around not doing anything purposeful. This perhaps, may be contributed by the fact that I once worked at 3 large organizations where time was of the essence and I was constantly put in a pressure-cooker, always rushing to meet deadlines for my bosses and always had to do multiple tasks at any one time. I rarely had the luxury to go out for long lunches with my colleagues and most of the time, I had my lunches behind my PC, one hand typing / checking e-mails and one hand biting a quick and easy-to-eat lunch.

I like to read to my gals when they are having their meals, drinking their milk or sitting on their potty doing their little poopy business. This is what I normally do with my gals to maximise our time :



Flashing cards on shapes to Alycia & Sherilyn before their afternoon nap.






Sherilyn fixing an educational board puzzle whilst doing her little poopy biz on her potty, with Alycia lending a helping hand.



Call me a kiasu, crazy mummy!

Exercise

I used to bring Alycia and Sherilyn to the playground to jog and play everyday so that they can get their daily doses of free Vitamin D from the sun, sweat it out to remove toxins from their little body and to breathe in fresh air to their lungs and brains. A good physical program is in fact the foundation to a good mental and physical health of a child. Of late, I've neglected my gals quite a bit :guilty:, also the weather is crazy... mornings will be scorching hot and evenings will be wet. The weather this morning was lovely... it was a tad cloudy and windy, just my perfect kind of weather for an outdoor activitiy and I jumped at the opportunity to bring the gals out to let out their long-stored overcharged energy. Boy, they went crazy at the playground like a just released puppy that has been caged for a long time.



Alycia grinning away on the swing.


Sweet taste of freedom alas... mummy!


Like primates climbing up and down.

Bedtime Ritual

Alycia and Sherilyn reading on my bed. Note : Sherilyn busy counting away with her fingers.



Sherilyn reading her favourite book.



Alycia learning to read from her Leap Frog.


On most nights before bed, I will either read to Alycia and Sherilyn or sometimes the gals prefer to 'read' on their own and Alycia will tell me to go to my room to do my own things and not to kacau them. You see, so young and they already want their own space and want me to get lost :shake head:

The gals can sometimes 'read' independently an entire book, especially if it's their favourite books. I think it's more of them memorizing the pages. Anyway, I am glad that my gals have acquired the love for books and hope that this will be their lifelong love as there is no better and cheaper way to broaden one's horizons than to keep reading, always.

Using TV As Babysitter

Do you use the TV to babysit your kids? I do and I limit my gals' TV viewing time to between 1 - 2 hours a day. I only allow them to watch educational programs on TV or educational VCDs whenever I need to get some work done or take my baths. I've had my fair share of heart attacks when I let my maid babysit my kids when I had my bath. During these incidences, my 2 samseng gals got themselves hurt. My maid is the type who does not have foresight and just cannot predict if accidents can happen to toddlers. So, I prefer to let the TV babysit my gals. My 2 gals will behave so well, sitting quietly or dancing and singing whilst watching their favourite VCDs.




Each night when I need to have my shower, I will lock Sherilyn the samseng up in her cot and I will tell Alycia to jaga her sister. I will then leave the bathroom door ajar whilst I have my quick scrub, peeping into the room to check on them every now and then. My gals also learnt to sing most of their nursery rhymes thru these VCDs. So, using TV as babysitter ain't that bad an idea after all, as long as there's a limitation to using it, right?