Exam and Halloween Bentos

I'm so GLAD Girlet's exams are finally over. Cos we've not only struggled with Mandarin, there was Malay Language to contend with too. Sigh!

Bento #138 was a quick and simple Good Luck in Exams bento. Just peanut butter, and chocolate sandwich with cheese accents, ham flower and papaya flowers. I forgot about the brocolli that was left in the steamer, otherwise it should go in the empty spot beside the ham. Yup! I was that stressed. Have I mentioned how GLAD I am that the exam's over.
Bento # 139 & #140

I'd admit to being a procrastinator ...... waiting for the very last day to make a Halloween bento. For Girlet, there was a chicken rice (with chicken stuffed in) coffin, with bones on top (from the Scooby Doo pasta), poison beans (edamame), sausage fingers (copied off Kel here) with bloody nails (chinese sausage stuck on with ketchup), quail egg eyeballs (raisin pupils and foodmarkers) and a blood-filled mouth with fangs (the blood being red dragonfruit, and the fangs was a gummy candy).
Boylet's bento had a blood-filled tombstone (strawberry jam sandwich), a sausage finger, an eyeball (made a hole in the egg to stuff the raisin in), Frankenstein (pandan eggsheet, seaweed & cheese eyes), decaying flesh with bone (leftover sausages and pasta) and Jack O'Lantern carrot (using the facial expression multi cutter). The finger at the bottom left was a gummy candy.

Lastly, a pic of Girlet in her witch costume.

Girlet's Concert # 2 - Ballet

Finally posting about Girlet's ballet concert after more than 1 month posting about her tap-dancing concert. (Both on the same day, one afternoon, another evening). My bad - a combination of procrastination, exams, and addiction to virtual farming (Farmtown on Facebook). Having achieved the highest level and getting my virtual mansion *gloating face*, and last day exams today, I'm back. For a short while anyway before the maid goes home to Indonesia for puasa and hari raya.

Rehearsal for "The Swan". Girlet leaping into air.
Putting on makeup. Thanks to Aunt Anna for the sparkly silver dust for the eyes.
Backstage before the performance. Looking nervous and very serious.

The dance itself here:

Girlet's Concert # 1 - Tap Dance

Girlet had her Dancing School concert on June 27. It was held at MATIC on Jalan Ampang, right in the city. There were two concerts that day. Unfortunately, she was involved in both, which means we were at the concert hall for 6 hours. D'hubby left after the first concert to send a bored and restless Boylet home. Last year d'hubby didn't attend her concert, saying Ballet isn't his scene. Of course I gave him a hard time after, which was why he obediently came back for the second concert this year. He didn't regret it as the show was really good, with modern dance, jazz, hip hop and tap, on top of the usual ballet. There were many numbers performed by the older girls and they did fabulously.

Here's Girlet tap dancing to "A - You're Adorable". She's the one with the letter 'T' on her shirt. Looks like cheerleader, huh? She was hesistant in the beginning, but caught on fast. I'm glad I gave in to her request to pick up tap dancing. She's really pleased with her achievement and that made all the shuttling around for practices and rehearsals worth it. Yippee! Concert done, now can relax a bit.


Will post her doing Ballet in the next post after I sort out the photos.

Backdated post - Girlet's Birthday Party

Girlet's birthday was on the eve of CNY. Since most people including us were out of town, we postponed the celebration for two weeks. It was held at Jungle Gym in Bangsar Shopping Complex at Girlet's request, due to the rollerblading rink there, Girlet's latest hobby. They had a blast on the trampoline too. At least Babylet did, made a change from jumping on the bed.

If the cake looked familiar, that's because Babylet had the same ice-cream cake for her birthday last year. In fact, Boylet had the same cake 3 years ago, in blue . We love this cake because (1) Girlet is a dog lover (2) It's two treats in one, cake and ice cream, (3) It's cheaper than other 3D cakes (for mummy).

What else but a bento each as part of the kids' party pack? Each bento came with tuna, and cheese sandwiches cut with various cutters, jelly moulded in the shapes of stars, Hello Kitty and bears, quail eggs dyed yellow with curry, and moulded, mandarin and Korean strawberries. And a pick each too. Kept the bentos simple as I had to pack 22 of them.


I used various bento boxes from the 100 yen shop.
I didn't have enough time to take pics. I cropped the photo above for a close up look of the bento.

Girlet's 1st day of Standard 1 & Bento # 95 -

Another milestone - Girlet's first day at primary school. My baby's all grown up in her new uniform. She didn't need me to go with her to school, but I went anyway.... who's the one who can't let go?
I stayed until recess, to make sure she knows where to sit etc. Signed her up for the catered food (although I'd and will be preparing bento for her) as that will ensure her a numbered sitting place at the cafeteria. Kiasu? Wasteful? Read this story first :
During orientation last week, the kids had a go at queueing up to buy food. There were parents queueing up too, and everyone kept cutting into Girlet's queue, even parents! So I told her (loudly for the adults' ears) to say 'excuse me, I was queueing first' and tears started rolling down her face. She didn't dare to cry out loudly though.
After that, I don't think I want to risk her jostling with older kids for a place to sit. And the catered food is only RM40 a month. And I'll have a backup on days I can't (too lazy) to prepare bento, which doesn't entail her queueing up (Break time is only 15 mins. By the time she finish queueing, break would be over). Good enough reasons? *_*

I'm sure she's happy with the decision. Managed to reserve a seat next to a familiar name from kindy. Turned out that on her other side is a friend from kindy too. Too bad they're both not in the same class as her this year. The first meal the cafeteria served was a bun with choc filling and soyabean. But she chose to eat the bento instead. *grin*

For such a momentous occassion, I'd prepared a school-themed bento for her. Brainstormed earlier and came up with 'Books, calculator/abacus, pencil, schoolhouse, alphabet'. Grand plans..... only at 6 am this morning, all that seemed like too much work. *not morning person lah* So quickly thought of Plan B. Failsafe weiners, easy sandwich dressed with 'I love School' and Girlet's face (must make the eyes extra big lah, just because they're not) and fillers - brocolli, brocolli flower, mini mandarin & grapes. Even that took me 45 mins to make. Hope to improve my rhythm soon.

Girlet, Congrats on your first day at school. You're growing way too fast. My wish is for you blossom into a beautiful person. Study hard and play hard. I don't expect perfect scores, but good learning attitude of always striving for improvement. Enjoy your school years. This is the Best Time of your life.

Hair-y Tales and More Pasta

Girlet is due to start Standard One in Chinese school next week, and the school regulation forbid long hair. Despite a letter from her Ballet School for exemption (as she would need to bun up her hair), I took her for a haircut today as her hair is way too long, almost to her waist. We went to a hairdresser at the nearby Hartamas Shopping Complex. I was concerned that she'll be upset, so bribed her with a hairwash. She really enjoyed that, while Babylet was busybody watching everything the hairdresser was doing. I had left Boylet to play with sand at home, and was able to spend the half an hour relaxing and reading a gossipy magazine.... *_*

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Girlet was really pleased with her haircut. Her hair looked so glossy. After Girlet's haircut, we went down to the supermarket, Mercato, to pick up some basic groceries. I promise I was not looking for any more pasta, but I found these .....

Vegetable Pasta (Rice & Corn) in Farm Animal shapes. Sorry for the flash. I took this in a hurry cos first time taking pix in supermarket, don't know whether get scolded or not. LOL! Flash on the pricetag too ....... think it's about RM 13-14.

Also found Spiderman pasta, alongside Scooby Doo and Spongebob @ RM6.30 a pack. Sometime ago, I got d'hubby to go through all the trouble to buy Spiderman pasta in US. So it looks like I'm in for a scolding.

Scoop - I bought the last pack of Pokemon pasta. Boylet should be happy with this.

We had lunch at home. After which, I left the older kids to play with Playdoh and went upstairs with Babylet for her nap. The maid was washing up in the kitchen, when there was a loud cry from Boylet. He managed to get playdoh stuck in his hair. It's not the regular playdoh, and was really sticky. OMG!! Got anyone sillier than him or not?

He got very upset when I told him I have to cut his hair, and he'll have a bald patch like Friar Tuck. So I took pity on him and tried to loosen the playdoh with oil (baby massage, not cooking). Fortunately, it worked, after a painstakingly 15 minutes with the sacrifice of only a few strands of hair. Oh boy! Am I glad the school's reopening soon. I will tell you about how the same silly boy got stuck at some rustic fly trap just three days ago next time.

This concludes 2008. Happy New Year, everyone.

Girlet's Kindergarten Graduation

This is a backdated post going back to two Saturdays ago. It was a most busy day. First Girlet had her graduation at 8 am, followed by Boylet's school concert at 10 am, then Girlet's Mandarin tuition right after lunch at 1 pm-2.30 pm and a friend's birthday party at 3 pm and then dinner with in-laws. Phew! Got tired just typing that.

Girlet's Graduation was a big event, with about 250 kids graduating from K2. I didn't get many pictures of her, since there were so many parents and kids around and so many restricted areas to control the crowd. So I was too far away to get clear photos of her receiving her 'diploma' and her trophy. Yup! She went to the stage twice, the second to receive a trophy for good attendance. Good thing as she wouldn't have gotten it for academic excellence. The top students probably scored 100% for all subjects.

The kindergarten is part of an Chinese education group celebrating its Centennial (100 years) anniversary. The kindy itself is 93 years old. Hence, the graduation ceremony was filled with speeches and patriotic songs. There were many secondary school girls helping out at the event, and it was clear the they and the teachers are very proud of the school. A 6 year old girl gave a long and eloquent speech, which impressed many parents as she is better than an adult. Girlet enjoyed the graduation so much that she asked if she's having another one next year. But she didn't seem to understand any of the speeches, just sense the overall excitement in the atmosphere. Well, she has the next 6 years to learn the language.

Edit : Finally got around to figuring out how to upload videos. This is Girlet's Graduation Ceremony.


Also uploaded a more interesting video on Girlet's Piano mini-concert here.

Girlet's K2 Tests Results

Girlet's Test Results are back........ with some surprises. She did well in those subjects that I was worried about, namely Mandarin, Moral and Science. Was concerned as those papers were in mandarin and she might not know how to read the questions. In fact, I took a look at the papers and could barely read a quarter of them. She has really exceeded my expectations.


On the other hand, I thought she would have aced Maths. But with some genuine ignorance (didn't know about coins as had never handled before and I didn't revise with her) and some carelessness (adding instead of subtrating), it turned out to be the lowest scoring subject. Hopefully she would be more careful next time.

English : 100 %

Malay : 100 %

Mandarin : 97 %

Moral : 96 %

Science : 98 %

Maths : 84 %

Kids Talk # 2

Have I instilled too much fear in girlet? Read this story narrated by SIL, and let me know.


Girlet is a big fan of 'My Little Pony', as the ponies have long coloured hair and are super duper cute! So anyways, Girlet went out with SIL and brought her 'flock' of My Little Ponies out. While holding her hand as they walked to the restaurant, SIL pried into her paperbag and went:

SIL: Wowwwwwwww.... so many ponies hor... you brought the whole family out ah??
Girlet: Ya, but I left one at home.
SIL: How come? Why did you leave her behind?
Girlet: It's a HIM! 'Cos he has to guard the castle.....
SIL: Icic... But what or who is he guarding the castle from??
Girlet: You mean u dunno ah? Nowadays got a lot of thieves breaking into houses u know?! *Tightens her grip on her paperbag of 'assets' & adds...* Have to be careful when walking also 'cos got a lot of snatch thieves around... *looks behind her shoulder*

Haha...... Is Girlet getting very 'auntie' too?

Btw, school hols for a week, so no bentos. We've been away too.... back hometown in Johor.... but actually the mommy's excuse to go Singapore for bento shoppping. Haha...

Girlet's Piano Mini-Concert

Girlet had been busy practising her piano the past 2 weeks in preparation of today's mini-concert at her music school.

The concert started at 7.30, so we had dinner first at a Japanese restaurant near the premise. Girlet was a little nervous so she didn't eat much, even though we ordered her favourite dishes.

After a few other performances, it was Girlet's turn. She started with a duet with her teacher playing 'Firefly'. Being her first performance, her teacher thought that would calm her somewhat. Which it did. Then she played three solo pieces, The Juggler, Kite in the Sky, and Lightly Row, all with only a couple of mistakes. She didn't pause but just continued playing. Look at her very serious expression. When I asked her later why she was so serious, she said she was concentrating very hard, and forgot to smile. With some of the other performers.

Anyway, she was very motivated to see the older kids playing so well, that after her concert she continued practising the piano pieces. Let's hope she maintains the momentum.

Edit : Finally found out how to download the video to the blog. Actually, downloading was easy, it was the getting around to find out that took a long time.

Tap and Modern dancing class

Girlet had her ballet concert in May, during which she was very impressed with the tap dancing sequences. She had been bugging me to let her learn ever since. She's so busy with so many classes, still want to take more.
Another mom told me, "If she's interested, you shouldn't hold her back. Let her experience more things, then she'll know what she likes." Yeah, the problem is I would have to buy the whole paraphernalia that comes with it and tap shoes are not exactly cheap. After letting her wait for a few months, to ensure that she's still interested, rallied the other ballet moms and asked the dance school to start a tap class right after her ballet class. That is the only time she's free and also can reduce my commute time. As it is the other two siblings' schedules have to revolve around girlet's since she's the busiest.

Sidetrack a bit here : Is that considered unfair or biased? As she's the eldest, she gets to tryout and choose different activities and schools. And for convenience, the other two not only follow her schedule, but eventually her choices of schools and activities as well. It is hard to be totally fair to each kid.Anyway, back to the topic. Just look at this happy face with her new tap shoes on. She's now tapping everywhere the house, despite me telling her not to scratch the marble and parquet floors. She declared that dancing classes are her favourite activities. For a start, the school is combining tap and modern dance and next year, the kids can decide which they want to branch into or both. She will have to choose one as I'm putting my foot down on three dance classes *faint*.

Kids Talk # 1

I've been telling girlet that we have to be more careful when spending money because I'm no longer working and bringing home an income. "Are we very poor?" " No. We just can't simply buy toys everytime we go out." She nodded, and thinking that she understood, I left it at that. But apparently, she was worried as evidenced by the following anecdote by SIL.

Girlet & Boylet followed SIL home after the dinner.... and they started fighting on her bed again. In order to moderate the session, she decided to ask each of them to tell me one of their secrets. Boylet told me he still likes this friend of his called Winston (apparently this is some boy who bit him) and girlet told me that she knows one of SIL's secrets.

SIL: What? What is it?
Girlet: I know you're getting married to korkor LK.
SIL: How you know? Who told you?
Girlet: Ah ma (grandma)
SIL: Why ah ma so busybody?
Girlet: Ya, she always tells me secrets.. hahahahaha
GIL: So you gonna be the flower girl?
Girlet: Ya
SIL: So you have to ask mummy to get you a dress then
Girlet: Ya... but... I wan to ask you... what is the pay??
SIL: *_*

Aiyoh. It's her one and only chance to be a flower girl, somemore have the cheek to ask to be paid.