Spot The Hidden Objects

Grandma TJ wanted to spend a lazy Sunday lunch with our family because when Grandpa goes away, we're her constant dining out companions.  We didn't turn it down because it was a good way to let the kids bond more with their grandparents.  Our choice of lunch was dim sum but we arrived too late so we didn't get to enjoy the sumptuous array of buffet.  It was okay because none of us were that hungry.  When the time came for the bill, we found out that the family on the next table had already settled it.  It was a very nice gesture because I didn't know them at all as they were really the grandparent's friends.

After lunch, we did a spot of shopping at the Mall and our first stop was the toy section.  I was actually on the hunt for water balloons but ended up looking at something else.  Grandma being grandma, she wanted to spoil the kids and bought them a great play thing.  The kids loved it so much that I had a tough time getting them out of it and into bed.  Even the ill Ernie is not letting his temperature bring him down.

Now spot two of these things that don't belong there...

The Last of The Birthday Parties

Even though Grandpa TJ and Auntie M weren't present, we decided to go ahead and have Ernie's birthday celebrations yesterday.  We had it out on the patio and as always, Grandma's organisation was spotless and the end presentation was a beautiful setting fit for kids and adults alike.  

We chose to have a BBQ night but with mom involved, there was sayur pucuk ubi and beras kabun served.  I only cooked my usual spaghetti bolognaise and even then, I made such a big fuss doing it.  So I took the easy way out and decided to buy most of the pies and cakes and it still didn't break my wallet.  Ah to have many choices in life is great...  Being the antithesis of a planner, I didn't cook enough spaghetti noodles and unsurprisingly, that was the first one to run out!  Yes, I really need my Paris to help me out in times like these... 

We had the sand pit and the kiddies bouncer out for the little ones and I'm happy to say that both play things were fully utilised by the young AND the old!  Our engineer cousin even had a hand in building a sand castle in the sand pit which was inadvertently knocked over by overzealous little kiddies.  

Then the cake or should I say, cakes, arrived and that's where I lost track of how many times we sang happy birthday and blew out the candles.  When the guests left, we let Ernie open some of his pressies and Curly of course, "helped out".  When I say that, she was the one tearing away at the wrappers leaving Ernie to watch in amazement.

The little ones ran around all night covered in sweat, sand and cake.  Unfortunately, little Ernie has not been feeling very well this past week and last night, his temperature chose the moment to show up so he was a little grumpy most of the time.  He did brighten up when the birthday song was sang over and over again.  All in all I think everyone had a good time, most especially the kiddies...

Longing

I was going through my collection of pictures and found this one to use as my screensaver.  As soon as it was displayed, I felt a pang of longing.  Longing to go back to my former home we fondly named Chancy Tavern.  

This picture was taken on the last night we went to CT to clear out the rest of the house.  I remember feeling sad that I wouldn't live there anymore and now I feel very much wanting to go back to that house.  We lived there for four and a half years and in each day of those years hold so much fond memories.  From the wild (for Geneva) parties we had there to the day we brought our two bundles of joy to live with us and to be honest, Curly and Ernie were the reason why we love CT to this very day...

Baby Steps To Heaven

Curly and Ernie have been ardent followers of Grandma TJ praying of late and these days, Curly thinks she is an expert in prayers that she is now showing us how she does it.  Granted the steps are a little topsy turvy but it is heart warming to see your little girl telling her Grandma to shush when she's praying.  Haha!

Another Cake

It wasn't enough that we had a cake for little Ernie at lunch yesterday so we had another candle blowing ceremony after dinner.  Well, I like to spoil my kids you know...  Anyway, Curly as usual has to be the centre of attention and needless to say when we refused to let her blow the candle on her brother's cake, she was miffed.  She only stopped wailing when we conceded defeat and let her join in the glory.  Bless his heart, Ernie was oblivious to the whole drama scene and he happily let his sister take over the reigns.  Poor thing...  

Anyway, it must be all the heavy partying which we did yesterday because today Ernie has come down with a temperature.  I better let him rest for the finale party this weekend as there will be plenty of running around and consumption of sweet treats involved...

Deux

My son Ernie celebrates his second birthday today!  And yes they are now on a sugar high due to cakes, cakes and more cakes.  Since it's his day to party, I will let them consume even more cake and then tomorrow night, we will go for another night time dip to burn it off.  That's ok isn't it?  Hehe!  The big party will be this weekend so more pictures of food to come.  Paris, are you enticed enough to come back for your holidays now?...

Playdate

The kids on a playdate with Zara Tan

Mrs. Pau

Our cousin Pau is now officially someones wife...

Testing Out The Songkok

Grandma TJ was doing a spot of spring cleaning this morning.  When I came back home for lunch, she had finished half of it.  How does she do it?!  Anyway, she came by several toddler songkoks and one of them sort of fits Ernie.  It didn't stay long on his head as Curly had to be involved in the kodak moment we had...

Back To Life

After several years of lying idle in the garage covered by cobwebs, not surprisingly the engine choked up and died.  Papa decided to intervene and took it for repairs and after a week in the workshop, the Virago has finally been brought back to life.

Now it's a matter of Papa learning how to ride the mean machine.  Let's hope it doesn't topple on top of him.  So much for confidence.  Haha!...

Need A Home

The rest of our things finally arrived yesterday afternoon.  Right now I'm regretting buying all the things I bought before we left Geneva because we currently do not own a home!  Ok, I do have a house I could move into but it would take so much time and money which I don't have right now, nor would I have within this year!  Yes, I am literally tearing my hair out.  Or rather, I'm banishing all visions of a few hundred unopened boxes sitting in the garage lest I stress myself out.  I just can't bring myself to think about where to store everything.  The hero of the day goes to Grandma TJ though.  She's probably the happiest person in this house as she gets to do what she loves most which is solving a massive puzzle of which nook and cranny to store all the boxes in.  

Our family car also arrived with the rest of the boxes but unfortunately, that came in a bad shape.  Somehow the packers in Geneva stacked everything in the container too tight and the back end of the car suffered a minor dent.  I didn't think it was so minor as it seems that we have to replace the whole broken back fender.  Thank god the damage was just cosmetic and surprisingly the car didn't suffer any scratches.  We'll worry about the car when we solve the problem of where to store the boxes.  

Grandpa TJ has thankfully been away since all the boxes arrived.  However he'll be back in the next few days and I hope he doesn't hyperventilate when he sees his home invaded by unsightly stacks of brown cartons.  I hope he learns to live with mess.  Haha!  Ok, maybe that won't be funny when he gets back...

On the plus side, when all the boxes were unloaded, I managed to teach Curly how to ride her bike finally.  After a few turns around the house, I let the kids loose around the home.  Of course they loved the freedom of running around freely and here's the pictures to prove it...

The Pious One

I always thought that living back with my parents would create havoc with my minimal parenting skills and yes there are moments when the grannies spoil Curly and Ernie to bits.  The chocolate on their faces after they leave the grannies' room is always a tell tale sign...  Grandad's always guilty of this crime.

Grandma however deserves the girl scout of the month award.  She keeps them away from the easily available junk food almost all the time and nowadays, she has learnt to say no to buying girlie designed umbrellas for Curly.  

The fact that both Curly and Ernie have not been able to get a place in school yet, I feel that they are not learning anything educational and each day I grimace at the thought.  However, kudos to grandma who has instilled the love of religious activities which admittedly both Papa and I extremely lack.  Thanks to the constant exposure to prayer times, my little ones are now learning to pray.  Perhaps it's also the costume that Curly finds so alluring...

Powdering Pau

Another one of our younger cousin is one step closer to being a full missus.  Though weddings are occasions I dread going but this one was a joy to be at only because this side of the family are a bunch of good people to be with.

We dragged the kids along and exposed them to the culture they have never seen.  Perhaps they are too young to understand all the ceremony but I made sure Curly had a go at the "berbedak" and of course she was our little star of the night...

Check out my FB for the rest of the pictures.

Dramatic Sunset

I recently went back to Geneva for a work trip and I had a pleasant time despite the chill.  Some parts of Switzerland were still covered in snow for goodness sake! I got to meet with some close friends and strangely enough, I had a little bit of a culture shock when I dined out with Paris.  T'was quite amusing because at that moment in time, I had only just left Geneva for about a month.

Though it was like coming back home, after a day of being away from the kids, I realised Geneva was only really great when my whole family were together.  I felt homesick for the little ones and I couldn't wait to get back.  Now I'm thinking I will only go back to Geneva for holidays and especially in the summer months.

There's one thing that Geneva lacks though and it's called dramatic sunsets in your back garden...

Smiling Kids

It's been a while since I saw the kids play together and today, I had the priviledge to witness it.  It was so adorable when they switched on the massage chair and was laughing out loud for a very long time.  It was almost too cute to see Curly hug Ernie for more than 5 minutes and he actually stayed still for the entire time...