Lost World of Tambun #3

Jerilyn and Jesslyn came back with leaflets one day, promoting Lost World of Tambun. It was very tempting - Buy 1 Adult, Free 1 Kid. As a result, we visited the place for the third time just before the holidays started. We paid approximately RM120 for 2 adult prices. The normal price for kid is RM50, which means that we saved RM100. 😼

There were some changes since the last time we went in, which was around 2 years ago such as the enclosed area for giraffes and zebras, the porcupine walk, the twister with hot springs and a row of shops depicting the old Ipoh. 

Other than the physical changes, the games that JJ play have changed too. Although they still love the kid's water park and never seem to get enough of it, the girls have ventured into other more adventurous water games such as the Cliff Racer as shown in the video below. I seriously did not expect them to try this slide. I was thinking why not wait til they are a little bit older. However, Jerilyn was already all jumpy the moment she saw other people on it. She insisted to give it a go. What choice do I have? I reminded her several times to hold on tight to the tube in anticipation of her flying out of it. Jesslyn, on the other hand was sceptical. She finally rode on it after trying another milder slide called The Twister. 

Other than that, the 'new' rides we tried  were Lupe's Adventure and the Giddy Galleon. The Giddy Galleon was giddy enough and the roller coaster ride at the Lupe's was scary enough for me to grip Jerilyn's arm as hard as I could. After the ride, both claimed that the ride wasn't scary. I wasn't scared because of the ride itself but because I was afraid that a screw or two might be loose and we would either collapse into a pile or go flying in the air.

During the whole time, I only got wet up to my knees. Did I tell you that I am not a water enthusiast? [I suddenly feel that I am writing like Geronimo]. Anyway, the reason my legs were wet was because I soaked them in the hot pool. Otherwise, I was more of a watcher than a player.

On the whole, it was an enjoyable experience for the girls and that's all that matters.

Planning a Birthday Party

Have wanted to throw a birthday party for Jerilyn and/or Jesslyn as these two have always loved parties and gatherings. When there is a party, they are sure to go. Jerilyn has invited her friends over to play several times but so far, there is no actual parties.

This year, I am ready to hold a party for them. I am pretty excited as this is the first time I plan a party. Although I am all for it, I can't help feeling a little bit worried about how I am going to keep the children occupied for a few hours so they won't feel bored or turn my house into a mess. I want the kids to have a great time at my party. I want them to have positive comments about my party. I want them to go home with a smile. I want them to go home and tell their parents about the fun they have at my party. And to do so, I have to plan.

I have a list of topics in my party planner. They are Guest list, Invitation card, Loot bag, Games, Food and Prizes.

At first, I had no idea what to put in my loot bag. I didn't want to be stingy; neither do I want to be over generous til I am being labelled Kiasu mother. Finally, my loot bag looks like this. Most of the items were from Kaison. This bag cost approximately RM5.00. Somehow, I worry that the kids aren't impressed with the gifts. Do you think they will be happy? Happy or not, I will get some prizes to winners of games to add into their loot bag.

Turning to games, thanks to the power of the Internet, I have found some great ideas for games. I have to ensure that the chosen games are fun enough for the kids yet not messy, easy to prepare, easy to control and do not involve balloons. Here is the possible list:

• Pin the donkey's tail
• Pass the bag
• Duck Duck Goose
• Suck the marshmallows /M&Ms

Next item on the list is Food. The last time Jerilyn went to a birthday party, she was served burger and that alone was enough to make her full. Therefore, I make it a point not to provide heavy food. Below are some of the items I have in mind:

• nuggets
• tarts
• personal pizza (small portion)
• sushi
• varieties of candy (I love colours)
• pudding
• birthday cake

The last item on the list is Prizes. Will just get some small items for the kids like stickers, chocolates, toys etc... 

I have another 4 days to plan before the actual day. 'Til then, Sayonara.  

'Family' Photo during CNY 2016

Here is one of the few occasions where we get together and snap some family photos. 

The Left Behinds

As age catches up, our brains become less efficient thus, more forgetful. My case is worsened with high dosage of caffeine (talking about blaming :p ). FYI, I take between 2 and 3 cups daily so, it's understandable why I blame my carelessness on caffeine. :p

There are uncountable incidents when I forget one thing or another. However, there is one which I will never forget. Every time when I fetch the girls from school, I would be the one who put their heavy bags in the boot while they get into the bag in school. As the bags were trolley bags, they usually dragged the bags themselves. I just had to carry them up and chucked them in the boot.

One fine day, as usual, we walked to our car and I signalled the girls to get in while I walked round the car and got into the driver's seat. We went home, had our lunch and got ready for shower when I remembered that their bags were still in the car. I went out only to find that there was one bag in the car. Jesslyn's bag wasn't there. I hurriedly interrogated Jesslyn. She told me that she dragged the bag to the car and left it on the road. She claimed that I should put it into the boot. Ops!!! My fault?!

Wasting no time, I sped off to school on my own to get the bag. Two things were running in my mind.
1. I prayed that the bag was still  in one piece on the road, waiting for me to collect.
2. I prayed that there was no one around to see me picking up a school bag from the road. How embarassing!

I was there... there was no bag. Oh No! I parked my car. My guess was someone had picked the bag and placed it at the Lost & Found corner. I went to that corner but No. The bag was not there either. I was unsure if I should go to the staff room to enquire as I only wearing shorts and slippers. I couldn't be going home to change. Well, I won't take such troubles. So, I made up my mind. I ran up. The vice principal was there entertaining a parent. She looked at me, not looking very pleased. I ignored her and headed to the staffroom. I asked the first teacher I saw. She wasn't very helpful and gave me directions in Mandarin, which I tried hard to comprehend. Anyway, I walked to another office but no one was there so I had to go back to the staff room. This time, I was lucky. I spotted Jesslyn's English teacher, my saviour!

She helped me to look for the bag. We went back to the car park, the security's house, the main hall and finally back to the staff room. It had never occurred to us that the person who found the bag would put the bag at the desk of Jesslyn's class teacher. I was so relieved. I thanked her numerous times before I left. Phew! 

Stone Painting

Are you surprised to read the title? What? Stone painting? Jo-ann and the kids did stone painting? Well, if you aren't, I was. I mean... you don't often hear me talking about doing handicraft, cooking, baking and that sort, do you?

Here I am, wanting to share with you two of our proud creations. The first was painted by Jerilyn while the second was by Jesslyn.

I must thank my colleague for introducing this wonderful and fun activity to my kids. I am not very artistic so it would never occur to me to do stone painting. My colleague had not only taught me what to use but also provided the stones. She taught me to use poster colours and varnish for best results. 

Well, that's the the positive side of it. Unfortunately, something disastrous happened. The stones were flown away while I was driving my car out! I left these stones on my car for drying after applying some varnish. I had particularly reminded myself to collect them before I drove out. As you could have guessed, the more you tried to remember, the more you will forget and forgot I did. 

We went back the same route in search of these stones. We spotted only 1 but it was ruined. I gave up repainting it cuz this wasn't the first disaster. Before this, the stones were ruined too cuz I had forgotten to collect them during a rainstorm. Another time was because one of us accidentally smeared the paint and as a result, the stone was ruined. 

The dull looking birdy stone is not lying on the coffee table waiting for us to revive its beauty. 

I felt embarrassed and fortunate at the same time when the flying away happened. Embarrassed because it happened when I was on my way to school when many cars were following behind me. Imagine how silly we (my car & I) looked with 2 coloured stones wobbling at the top of my car. On the other hand, I was fortunate none of the stones smashed any windscreen or caused a dent on another car. I would have to pay a high price of being known as The Dangerous Mother. I hope those who saw the stones flying would forget me and my car. 

* Talking about The Dangerous Mother or The ... Mother reminds me of many other silly incidents which I will update in the next blog. 

Sudoku

This is another topic that I thought I should note down. I have first exposed the girls to Sudoku when they were between 6 and 7 years old. They had played a few really easy ones (4x4) when younger. Those 4x4 came with pictures or alphabets. After that, I didn't really introduce them to Sudoku til the age stated above.

So, here is a picture of Jesslyn putting on her thinking cap solving a 9x9 puzzle. Just like my blogging, they either do a sudoku marathon (which is euqals to 3 puzzles at most) or they don't touch a puzzle for months in between.

I took this picture not because she was doing Sudoku. It was because of her serious look that caught my attention. It touches me every time I see her serious at work. So, you can imagine how often is that! 

Blog Marathon

I don't have any particular topic in mind. All of a sudden, I just feel that I need to keep this blog active and hopefully I can 'backdate' some of my updates. My blogs seem seasonal ie. going MIA for months followed by blogging marathon.

Hmm...I don't know where to start. Therefore, I thought that My Dropbox may be able to help me. I found some memorable photos of the girls at an indoor playground, which I wish to share here.

This playgym is located at the mall very near my house. My initial plan was to have lunch with my dad but we ended up here as well after having our meal at Secret Recipe. My dad sat outside the gym, reading the newspapers while waiting for us. The entrance fee was RM10/kid for unlimited play time. As we were not prepared, we were urged to buy socks from them as the rule states that One must play with socks on. It cost around RM5 each pair.

So, we went in after doing all the necessary. FYI, it was the first time I allowed the girls to play in an indoor playground for hygiene purposes. I doubt that management would do a thorough job in maintaining the cleanliness of these sort of playgrounds. Anyway, since the girls had been begging for quite a number of times, I gave in this time.

The first game they played was the huge tyre below. They were laughing their heads off the moment they rolled around. I felt that the RM10 was worth it already. Next they climbed on the huge slide. Actually, at first, Jesslyn was reluctant to climb on the slide. Jerilyn played by herself. After some coaxing and with Jerilyn's guidance, Jesslyn took the big step to climb those steps. Once she came down, there was no stopping her. Both of them went for many rounds. Oh, you might have observed that the girls were not appropriately dressed for this activity.

The activity on the left looked easy but was actually the toughest challenge for (surprisingly) Jerilyn. I have a video of it. Wait til I upload it. It was one of her funniest actions or inaction.

Badminton game @ JB

Visited maternal aunts in December 2015. As their house has a huge compound, the girls took the opportunity to bring the badminton set for a game or two there. This is the first time I record their badminton game with Daddy. Here they are:

Alamak! Youtube should have a software which detects the right way up and convert the video automatically.

Playing the Ukulele

I bought the girls a ukulele as a Christmas present in 2012. The girls loved it but couldn't play a song as none of us know how. Subsequently, I wanted to enrol them with music centres but it never materialised until recently.

Since December 2012, they have learnt how to play a song (Happy Birthday), which I learnt from youtube. Imagine my excitement when the school offers ukulele lessons. I have been waiting for this to happen. Yoohoo... You see, schools aren't what they used to be where students only go there to study and maybe join some co-curricular activities.

Nowadays, businesses are brought to schools for the convenience of the busy parents. You can attend dancing classes, taekwando, badminton, arts, Chinese writing, Olympiad Maths to name a few. This year, there is ukulele too. Without doubt, I enrolled Jesslyn. Jerilyn, on the other hand, has badminton lessons on the same day. It's like killing two birds with one stone. I don't have to go to school at different times to pick them up and Jesslyn can learn to be independent by having a hobby which truly belongs to her. All this while, she follows her sister in her pursuits. This time, she will be the teacher, teaching Jerilyn how to play the ukulele.

That day, she played a song and even sang to it. I have recorded a video, waiting to be uploaded in the youtube before transferring to here. I was pleasantly surprised that she could do all that after just attended two lessons. If it was Jerilyn, I wouldn't be half as surprised as I was with Jesslyn. :p

Take a look.

Ops... I just realise that the recording isn't a full song. :-(

2 weeks without dearest Daddy

When I got to know that hubby was going on a 2 week business trip, I was pretty excited. Firstly, it's Los Angeles we are talking about here. Secondly, hmm......... I can't think of the second reason. Hehe....

So, all preparations were made including visas, interview at the embassy and researching. Nope, he did not do any researches on LA. He had no time to waste on it.  Therefore, I did some researching. There wasn't much that I could do cuz he wasn't alone in this trip. His decisions were group decisions.

As the days drew nearer, the girls and I were quite apprehensive. There were quite a number of things that I was worried about.
1. His safety
2. I have to chauffeur the girls to school every morning at 7am. What a drag.
3. CNY is close and I have to do some shopping myself. Boring.
4. Kids' homework. Who are we to ask when they need help?
5. Our safety
Well, I can list down a lot of reasons but we can't run away from reality. He had home for LA on 22 January 2016 morning. We miss him a lot.

It is now 31 January 2016, So, what is it like to stay home without Daddy? To be frank, it isn't as bad as I thought. As it is semester break, I practically spend a lot of time at home, which means that I do a lot of spring cleaning to occupy my time. You see,  I have to make sure that the house is in spick and span condition for CNY. What have I done to welcome the lunar new year? First, I sent my car for its 70k service and got a new set of clutch. Now, it speeds like a cheetah. I waxed it too. Secondly, the air-conditioner in the living room is repaired. We can all have a comfortable cooling CNY this year. Phew! The malfunctioned light in the guest room was repaired as well. Thirdly, the piano has been tuned by a pro. I had had a few so called pro tuned my piano but I am most satisfied with this man.

I do a lot of shopping with the girls and my dad too. A new shopping mall has just been set up near to our home - very convenient for shopping and 'makan'. Additionally, I have also spent a lot of time surfing the Internet to find the right stuff the buy in USA. The right bag, The right souvenirs from Universal Studios and Disneyland outlets. The right watch. My husband isn't much of a shopper so I have to tell him what is expected of him or he may come back with half the bag empty. Anyway, so far, he hasn't disappointed me. His extra bag is full and complains about opening some boxes to give space for the merchandises.

He will be back in 3 days' time. Can't wait to welcome him as well as our presents. 

Distractions

Kids nowadays are so easily distracted. That's commonly heard and we parents are scratching our heads over what can we do to stop it or at least minimise distractions. Even though Jerilyn and Jesslyn do not come in contact with the distractors (tablets, tv, food etc...), their minds are not centred to their work. They would stare into the air and God knows what goes on in their heads. 

I am not so worried about Jerilyn. She picks up very quickly and whatever learnt stays in her head. On the other hand, Jesslyn has a memory like a sieve (she must have gotten that gene from me). She forgets what she reads or listens the very next minute. I find that she reads for the sake of reading. She doesn't understand the content. It upsets me cuz a lot of time is wasted repeating the content and making her understand AND REMEMBER them!!!

I don't need them to work day in and day out but it is essential that they remember what they learnt. Once you understand, you don't need to relearn. Jerilyn has that 'gift' but Jesslyn.... 

Speed is also another problem. Jerilyn may have a good memory and her ability to grasp concepts is commendable. However, she can be quite slow with work. As the title suggests, she is easily distracted by her surroundings. I have to nag and nag for them to complete their school work on time. That may take the whole time after school, working til 9-10pm at night. Is there a way to make them work faster? 

What's New

One more day before January comes to an end. It's still counted as new right whatever that is new in 2016.

1. Academic
Well, firstly, Jerilyn  has moved on to Standard 3 while Jesslyn is in Standard 2. As streaming starts at Year 3, Jerilyn has gotten a new group of friends while separated from some close ones. She is happy with this new group as there are less discipline problems being in the top class (top 2 classes as the students are divided by even and odd number in the overall ranking from 1-76). On the whole, she did well, 23 our of 210 students. There are around 40 students in her class. How does the teacher manage the class? Beats me. She is blessed with a not very fierce class teacher too as compared to the other class.

As for Jesslyn, there is no change in terms of teachers and classmates. So, nothing is new. Oh! the venue has changed though. She now has to climb up 1 level to her class. Mind you, the bag is could topple her backwards if not careful. she is only 21kg and her bag is easily 7-8kg. Jerilyn has to climb up 2 levels. To lighten their burden, they have to carry 2 bags. I also see some with 3 bags!!! My, my, my...

2. Interests
a) Music
    Jerilyn sat Grade 1 piano exam last year with distinctions in both Practical and Theory. She requested to skip Grade 2. I don't see the point in stressing her up (and also myself) by taking up every examinations, therefore, I allow her to skip Grade 2. However, the  teacher is preparing her for Grade 3 next year. Hmm... talking about not stressing her?

Jesslyn is learning Grade 1 piano. I find that her teacher is more random than Jerilyn's. Jerilyn's teacher knows what she is doing and more focus. On the other hand, Jesslyn's is giving her materials from all over the place. This means that from easy pieces to difficult pieces. Jesslyn has 4-5 books of different levels!!! I sometimes wish to change the teacher but I don't want to be caught in awkward situations when I see her teacher at the centre. Sigh! Let's give her a chance.

In the meantime, she is also taking ukulele lessons in school. I am quite impressed as she can play a song while singing just after 2 lessons from the instructor. Even more so as there are 10 students in her class.

b) Sports
     Jerilyn plays badminton in school and when we are free, we take her to the club for a swim. She can swim very well. I said very well as I use her friends (boys) as benchmark. She had competed with some of her boy-friends and none could win her. In fact, the boys played cheat. They climbed up from the pool and ran to the end before jumping back into the pool again. Jerilyn is sporty enough not to mind it.Other than that, she seems to be interested in many other sports like taekwando (which I forbid) and basketball (she can dribble for a long time).

Jesslyn, being a princess in the house, is not much of a sportswoman. She plays badminton but not good at it. She can't swim without the float. The sport she likes most is cycling, which we seldom do. It's not that we cycle along with her.  We walk while she cycles.

c) Ballet
    Both learn ballet but for different reasons. Jesslyn is to build her confidence and character (if relevant). Jerilyn is to control her tom-boyishness. Therefore, Jesslyn goes for exams while Jerilyn doesn't. Jesslyn will be sitting for Grade 1 this year.

That's all that is new. 

Year End Performances

Recently, the girls performed at Kinta City for two different occasions. Jesslyn performed for Halloween while Jerilyn played for Christmas.This is their first public performance.

In the first video, Jesslyn played a simple tune from 'Cat at Night'. Although it was a simple tune, I was worried that she might forget some notes or miss a note or two. You see, she skipped a line while reciting a rhyme for a competition in school. Since then, I am always worried that she would forget something in any performances. Fortunately, she managed to pull it through. Phew!

The second video shows Jerilyn on an electone, playing 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town'. She had stage fright prior to the performance. She complained about how high the stage was. Hehe.... However, once she was up there, she made us proud. She was one of the few who played on the electone. She loves playing on the electone which has more variety in tone and definitely sounds more 'cool' than the traditional piano. No, she is not taking lessons on electone or keyboard but the teacher thinks that it will be more fun for her to try out electone once in a while. The teacher praised Jerilyn for being able to adapt and exchange between the piano and an electone. Apparently, some students cannot coordinate and follow the beats of the electone.