Next Malaysian Idol Competitor?

Sherilyn took part in a talent time competition at her pre-school last Saturday. The talent time competition was held after the pre-school's sports day event. Everyone in the family went to the pre-school to watch her participate and to give her moral support - hubs, Alycia, Baby, kakak and even my brother and sil from Singapore.

Sherilyn in action belting out "I Went To School One Morning", complete with actions.

Though the judge (from another school) did not select her as the top 3 winners in the 6-year old category, she was however chosen by her principal and teachers to represent the pre-school in an inter-school talent time competition, to be held on 13 June, judging on her good vocal chord, clarity of her words when she sang and confidence. However, this fella is refusing to take part in the inter-school competition, reason being her other 2 classmates also refused to partake, sigh! However, after some coaxing, she is now relenting and is slowly agreeing to partake. Well, we shall see her mood and what the school principal says next week. IF she emerges the top 3 winner in this competition, she will partake in an international talent time competition to be held at Genting Highlands! Well, who knows my princess wannabe will be a future Malaysian Idol competitor!

Philadelphia cheese on toast

My mil has left behind quite a bit of baking stuff unused when she left for Hong Kong recently. She still has a block of cheddar cheese (which I am using it to make pancakes for the girls), a packet of Philadelphia cheese, a big packet of walnuts and other cake / bread / cookie making ingredients which I don't know what to do with. Since cheeses have short expiration dates, I used the Philadelphia cheese as bread spread on my slice of toasted sprouted wheat bread for breakfast! And it tastes very much like cheese cake with a bready base! Not bad at all and I am eating this almost everyday to finish off the packet of cheese which is expiring soon.

My slice of toasted sprouted wheat bread with Philadelphia cream cheese and a drizzle of Maple syrup from Canada. Tastes like cream cheese cake with caramel, yums!

Guess What Fruit This Is

Can you make a wild guess? The surface is smooth and it's blackish and greenish and my dad bought it from a wet market in Ipoh....

??
??
??
??
??
??
??
??
??
??
??
??
??
??
??
??
??
??
??
??
??
??
??

It's a locally grown avocado...

The differences between a locally grown and an imported avocado apart from the price (local ones are cheaper) are that the locally grown avocado flesh is very smooth and not so thick and creamy. Some of the avocados are as big as a small-sized Australian mango. And the locally grown avocados turn brown and bad very fast -- leave them in room temperature, the flesh will turn brown very quickly. Put them in the fridge, the flesh will be hard and not edible. So my verdict is - next time we'll stick to imported ones, though they cost more.

Our Labour Day

On week days, we could hardly go anywhere as Alycia and Sherilyn have Mandarin enrichment classes, ballet class twice a week and other activities filled almost everyday. Sunday is church going day. The only time we can go to the shopping mall is on public holidays. So we spent almost the entire day on Labour Day at Mid Valley Megamall / Gardens to grab whatever I had to get that were accumulated over the months. We left the house at 9:30am and only left the mall at 4:30pm!

The girls at the newly refurbished loo at the ground floor of Mid Valley Megamall. The changing room cum loo for parents/babies is really huge. It can fit in the 4 of us comfortably plus my helper.

First we had breakfast at McDonalds. After shopping, we had lunch at Tony Roma's and then we shopped again! Noticed the shopping cart overflowing with our loot behind the table? Hehee...

Scrumptious grub...

Delectable ribs and steak...

With over 6 hours of walking round the mall, most of the calories gained from these sinful morsels were neatly burnt off ^J^

Ais Teler, Indonesian Ais Kacang

Hubs' chef tried out a new dessert the other day. This Ais Teler is akin to our Malaysian Ais Kacang but there are no peanuts. Instead, there are lots of avocado, lots of evaporated milk, strips of fresh coconut flesh, strips of fresh jackfruit (nangka), shaved ice, some rose syrup, some chewy white stuff that looks like jelly beans (watchame call it??) among others ingredients. I must say that this is very very good! iLike it!

If you are looking for a caterer for a function, do check out Catermate Sdn Bhd. You can call Alan at 019 266 4297. Try it out for your next function !

Glorious Ipoh Food

My parents were in KL last week and today they left for Ipoh. We all look forward to their coming for various reasons - the good old Ipoh food that we so crave, my dad's cooking (my dad would cook us lunch and dinner almost everyday!), they would entertain the girls and my mum would help me with QA check of my stock. She even helps me perform tailoring jobs for slight defects in some of the clothes.

Our dining table filled with food to the edge, with all our favorite food : famous Ipoh salt-baked chicken, fish balls, egg tarts, Nyonya kuih, famous Ipoh chicken hor fun, yam cake, radish cake, tong sui, Teochew dumplings, yong tau foo....

and this time, I had a special request - Ipoh JJ Swissroll, cempedak flavor, YUMS!!

Check out the generous filling of cempedak paste! Drooling leh??

Fits of rage

Baby can be very aggressive at times. One time, in her fits of rage, she flung the toilet roll onto the floor and screamed...

and when I tried to snap a picture of her, she ran for her dear life.... and then buried her face onto the dining table chair.

But when she's good, she can be really angelic and her smile can melt even the coldest of hearts.

Our Easter Sunday

The girls had a fun-filled Easter Sunday in Sunday School today.

Kids seated and waiting for the kids hymns singing session...

Arts and Crafts session. Sherilyn and Baby's group had to draw an empty tomb, which showed that Jesus had resurrected and left the tomb on Easter day....

Next to Sherilyn is Ashley, who is also Sherilyn's classmate in pre-school.

The kids swarmed round the table and all eyes and hands were targeting the 2 awesome cakes...

And of course there are food, lots of snacks,junk food and goodie bags with Easter eggs too, which the kids all loved.

Nap Skipper

Baby does not take her afternoon nap on most days lately. She will spend most of her time fixing jig saw puzzles or on the laptop learning her ABCs, playing games and watching cartoons and songs. She can spend the entire afternoon doing these 2 activities and she's only just turned 3! Oh yea, her computer skill is getting better and better with each day and I cannot believe how adept a just turned 3YO is with her nimble fingers and her speed of learning. It's true that the experts say that a child learns very well from newborn - 6YO, after which the window of opportunity will slow down.

By 9pm, her batteries will run flat and many times while spoon-feeding her milk, she will struggle to keep her eyes opened. The second I leave her to get something, she will doze off and all hell will break loose if I try to jolt her up to finish her milk or brush her teeth.

Boobies Addict

Baby is weaned off my boobs about half a year ago but she still needs the boobies to help her fall asleep in the afternoon on some days. Here's the little boobies addict getting her fix to lull her to sleep!

Restoran Lap Meng Kuan @ Taman Desa KL

Restoran Lap Meng Kuan @ Taman Desa KL is one of our favorite Chinese restaurants now. The food and seafood are fresh and tasty, restaurant is clean and cozy and price pretty affordable.

Yesterday we threw my youngest brother a surprise birthday dinner celebration at this restaurant. My hubs had earlier bought a RM400+ wild river Patin fish and we brought half the fish to the restaurant to get it tastefully steamed.

Here are the dishes that we ordered.

Deep fried nam yue chicken and stir fried minced pork and dried shrimps with cabbage...

Steamed pork with watercress and fish paste, a dish that is very suitable for kids...

Koong poh deep fried pork with cashew nuts...

This is one of the signature tofu dishes of this restaurant - braised tofu on a huge bed of steamed pumpkin. Love the soft steamed pumpkin - sweet and creamy!

The highlight of our dinner - a prized wild river Patin fish which cost a bomb. Recently some food connoisseurs went to a 'tai chow' restaurant in a small town here and ordered some 'kampung' dishes, including Patin fish. The bill chalked up to a whopping RM13,000!! Now I know why Patin fish is terribly costly. This morsel is almost second to none in the fish family. There is not a hint of fishy odour in every part of the fish and the flesh is really sweet and smooth. We dug on the entire fish tail (which weighed close to 2kg) and licked every part of the bone clean!

The girls, their mummy and Roy kau foo the birthday boy...

with our favorite green tea-red bean cake from our favorite bakery, RT Pastry House.

Bubble Blower... With Toothpaste!

Here's my avid bubble blower and she's really good in it. She can create bubbles from toothpaste in her mouth. She can even create a huge bubble using both her arms and armpit, with the bubble forming between her arms and upper part of her body. She does this everyday, twice a day during bath time.

Say I'm clever, see, see, see mummy!!

Never Meant To Be Together

Many years ago, my friend broke off with her boyfriend of 7 years when her then boyfriend did not listen to her advice to resign from his offshore oil rig engineering job. My friend was worried that the man that she loved would be involved in an Offshore Accident, leaving her widowed. They were engaged and almost married and because of one disagreement, the marriage never materialized. Now, both my friend and the man who worked at the offshore oil rig are happily married respectively.

Internet-Enabled TV

I think it would be just awesome to be able to surf the internet on a TV that is internet-enabled. Imagine logging on to my Facebook page that is almost 4 times bigger than what I normally see on my desktop PC screen and laptop. My girls will be delighted to be able to read from the internet on a huge TV screen. I will be able to save up enough money to buy a HDTV that is internet-enabled with indoor hdtv antennas in another 6 months if my business continues to be good. Does anyone have a TV that is internet-enabled to comment on?

The Durian Season

As I am typing this post, there is a bowl of durians on my table top and I am spooning up the durians to eat while typing. I am having durians for my breakfast again and I can never get bored of them! After all, the durian season comes only a few times in a year and I better devour all the durians I can while they are still in season. During the durian season, I have to work out 5-10 minutes longer in the gym everyday to burn off the extra calories that I pile up from my durian binging. I am all for exercise to stay slim and don’t need fat burners like adapexin-p.

Jig Saw Puzzle Aficionado

My little cili padi is one very determined girl. When she sets her mind on something, she will complete it, no matter what it takes, even if it means forgoing her favorite things. She can even skip going out to complete her jig saw puzzle piece, skip her dinner and even going to bed, cracking her head to finish the last piece of the puzzle up to 11ish pm!

Good job baby girl. Mummy's very convinced you will be one very determined, disciplined and hopefully successful girl in future.

Solving a 100+ piece puzzle meant for 4yo and above. Here's she's skipping her lunch to finish off the last few pieces of the huge Fun Fare pic puzzle.

With help from her jie jie, she managed to complete the puzzle at last!

Darn Those Mozzies!

AAARRRRGGGGHHH SHARKS.... mosquitoes!! That's what Alycia will say whenever she sees mosquitoes flying in the house. And here's why we hate those buzzing pests...

Huge mozzie bite marks on Baby's hands, legs, nose, face and forehead.

Sherilyn's face was badly attacked by those vicious mozzies. Both her upper and lower eyelids were attacked and her eyes are now swollen. She now looks like an abused child with a swollen face... picture isn't taken as she had refused for her pic to be snapped by the blogger paparazzi haaha!

My girls have sensitive skin and once they get bitten by the mozzies, the bite marks will 'expand' and swell up. With intense scratching, the skin will break and scars will form.

Jig Saw Puzzle Aficiniado

My baby girl is a jig saw puzzle buff. Of my 3 girls, she has the most patience and the longest attention span, when it comes to fixing puzzles. She can spend over 2hours fixing jig saw puzzles continuously and even refusing to go out, eat her meals or go to bed! That's how much she loves puzzles and it goes to show that she's one very determined girl... to solve a problem, just like mummy hehe!

My multi-tasker... just like mummy who is always doing something when she eats... so that precious time is put to good use.

Kids Sleep The Darndest Ways

Do you have a child who can sleep just about anywhere and at anytime? I have 3 and the champion is rascal #2. She can even fall sleep while eating and drinking and it happens all the time!

All hell will break loose if I jolt her up from her sleep to get her to brush her teeth and shower... and I hate doing this. Well, that's part and parcel of motherhood. Whether you like it or not, you have to do it. Just pull the bull by the horns!

Durians Galore

The durian season is here again, which means it's also the season that I have to work out extra hard everyday to melt away the calories that I had packed after all the feasting on durians. Yup, I have been having durians for breakfast for the past 1 week. Not a single person in our household dislikes durians. We can eat nothing but durians for lunch or dinner! One of the best places to get durians is at SS2 in PJ. You can even get them online from www.DurianSS2.com, where you can email the owner for orders and enquiries! Talk about the IT age. Even durian sellers are moving from selling by the roadside to selling them online... albeit the fact that they still sell their durians by the roadside.

Our premium Musang King... if you are living abroad and have no access to the king of fruits, sorry ah if I made you drool...

Monkey see monkey do. This little monkey saw mummy eating durians for breakfast and she too wanted to have durians for breakfast!