Happy Birthday, Boylet!

We celebrated Boylet's 5th Birthday two weeks ago. The party was held at Jungle Gym in Bangsar Shopping Complex. We like the place as there is a variety of things for the kids to play with. Babylet loves the trampoline, Boylet loves the ballpit and slide, while Girlet loves the roller blading rink (have to pay separately but at a discounted price). The service is pretty good too.

Unfortunately, there weren't many photos as d'hubby didn't use the right batteries for his fancy new camera. Duh!!

Boylet had to have his Ben 10 cake. In fact I learned from other moms during the party that he told all his friends to give him Ben 10 toys. So embarassing, he's not shy at all.

I didn't bake the cake, obviously. Bought it from Pretty Frosting.

After Boylet cut the cake, each kid grabbed an alien cupcake. So convenient!

The kids worked up a good appetite after an hour playing. I was too lazy to make bento this time.

Babylet enjoying the slide.

The Magic Show was amazing and kept the kids well entertained.

We held Girlet's birthday party at the same place in Feb. Now Babylet is under the misconception that she's having her birthday party there as well in August. She has decided on the cake - Mickey Mouse. And she'll dress in Cinderella costume because in her own words "I'm a princess, you know". We don't have this particular costume by the way, which means she's expecting a new dress. Whenever Boylet irritates her, she threatens not to invite him to her party.

Well, I'm really tired of organizing parties now. But don't want Babylet to feel deprived especially as Girlet has had a party annually. Hmm, what should I do?

Lastly, this video clip shows just how much Babylet loves the trampoline.

Boylet with some of his presents. Happy Birthday!

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.

Boylet's School Concert

D'hubby brought Boylet to his kindy for his Year End Concert while I was in Girlet kindy for her graduation ceremony. Fortunately, Girlet's event ended on time, so we were able to rush to Boylet's concert to catch his performance.

Boylet was supposed to wear sunglasses but due to a miscommunication (his teacher and I thought he left his sunnies in the school so he won't forget to bring, but he actually tucked them into a side pocket of his bag which he left at home). And d'hubby didn't have the presence of mind to take out the spare sunnies from his car for boylet to wear. Haiyah... how like a man.

Anyway, after seeing his concert, it's clear Boylet can never be a dancer. He's as stiff as...uhm... wood?... haha...

Puppet Shows @ BSC

There are two puppet shows showing @ The Actors Studio in Bangsar Shopping Centre these two months. So parents with kids, don't miss them!

Currently showing is A-tishoo! : Advertised as a Visual Fantasy for children, the performers are from UK, and the write up sounds really good. For children between age 3 - 6.

Date : Nov 12 - Nov 23, 2008
Weekdays at 10 am / Weekends at 4 pm

Ticket Price : RM35/- for child (up to age 12) RM50/- for adult + RM2/- AXCESS fee

Family Special RM35/- off every 4 tickets to same show - must be 2 adults and 2 children

For more info, check this link : http://www.act3international.com/currentprod.htm

We've been to two shows this year brought in by Act3 International, 'Circo Koriak' and 'Stories to Grow'and enjoyed both tremendously.

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The second show is Aesop's Fables 2 : Already booked the tickets to this show for early December. Last year's show Aesop's Fables 1 was a sold out show, and the expectation is high this year.

Date : Nov 28 - Dec 14, 2008
Weekdays at 10 am / Weekends at 11am + 2pm

Ticket Price : RM42, RM53, RM64 + ticketing fees.
Schools and Groups can get reduced rates. And have online specials too.

Link : http://www.gardnerandwife.com/08_jimwest.asp

We've been to only one show brought in by Gardner&Wife, being 'The Selfish Crocodile'. We had the tickets for 'The Man Who Planted Trees', but didn't go - story here. Kicking myself again. Must, must not forget this time around.

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To book the tickets for both shows,
By Phone: Call The Actors Studio @ BSC at 03 2094 0400 / 1400
By Email: tickets@theactorsstudio.com.my
At the Venue: The Actors Studio @ Level 3, Bangsar Shopping Complex

While you're at BSC, try out the new roller skating rink. It's very fun!

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 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.

Bento Party on Sep 6

Finally, the long awaited Bento Party has come and gone. It was hosted by Bentopet and Emily. Venue: Onsen, a Japanese restaurant near Palm Spring Apartments in Kota Damansara. It was a small party of 25 ladies. Each received a fabulous goodie bag. Thanks, Sue from Cooking Momster, who contributed some of the items. There are a selection of cookbooks, Hershey's cake mix, popcorn, cookie cutter, sausage shaper, mints, a bento box (not shown here) and even beauty products. (By the way, the pink mini onigiri mould is from Emily. She gave one to my sis, biblo, and I very thicked skin asked her for one too. So cute- mini onigiri is just the perfect size for kiddos. Thanks Emily!) .Bentopet started the party with a very professional talk on bento, with powerpoint slide and everything. Emily followed with an advocation to go green through bento. Good speech, ladies! After that was an ice-breaker, introduction by each participant. It was good to finally put a face to the blogs that I've been following. As expected, there were many fans of bentopet and allthingspurple there. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to chat to Christene as she had to leave early.

Lunch was a buffet spread of Japanese food, with chicken karaage, mixed tempura, mixed maki, crabstick salad and cupcakes, the later provided by SuYin. See bentopet's update on the party for pics of the wonderful cupcakes.
Both the above photos were copied from Yatie's blog.
But before we were allowed to eat, we were put to work first. Hehehe.... we had to pack the food into our provided bento box and the best presentation will get a prize. There are two categories - with accessories (which you were supposed to bring along) and non-accessories. Such an interesting concept, huh? This was my first attempt, a grown up bento. I brought along the lettuce as dividers.

After my sis took hers to be photographed, I realised that the cupcake was part of the presentation. I had taken a cute teddy bear to bring back for the kiddos, which did not match my bento at all. So out came the cute bento dividers, picks and Hello Kitty sauce bottle. Between my sis and I, also brought along some 'more' grownup silicon cups, dividers and sauce bottle, but the sis ended up going for the 'non-accessories' category. My final presentation was a very kiddy one. Well, I am blogging about kids bentos.

After lunch, we get to purchase bento supplies by the 100 yen shop..... all at RM4.90 each. My sis and I bought a big bagful each. Nothing compared to Emily with 3 big bags and 1 box. It was a good thing she had her daughters and sister on hand to help her carry her stuff. Maybe that's why she brought them along? hehe.....Here's another pic from Yatie....

On hind sight, I didn't buy a lot. Here's a pink set - two-tiered box, one-tiered click box, dividers, square sandwich box (bigger pic below), matching belt and bag. Bought extra belts as light pink gets unbelievably dirty by 6-yr olds.

The sandwich box turned out to be collapsible..... cool huh? This was one item that was completely sold out at the party.
Also bought a black bento box and matching dark brown belts for d'hubby, if and when I pack breakfast/snack for him. Also bought the blue and maroon because I already bought the bags (at the bottom) earlier on without the boxes.
This beige two-tier bento box was part of the goodie bag. I bought a beige striped belt and bag to match it. That'll be my bento box if and when I pack bento for myself.

And finally, blue and pink clickety boxed, for presents, and a dumpling mould, if I ever get around to making dumplings.... hehe..... There were also other things that Bentopet sourced, some from Daiso such as silicon cups, sauce bottles etc and some cutesy bento boxes eg. Doraemon and Hello Kitty. I had wanted to buy the Hello Kitty box, but thought not be kiasu and wait until after lunch. Of course, what I wanted were all booked and sold out by then.

The good news was that I got the prize for best presentation with accessories. Thank you. This was what I got!
Wasn't that a fabulous bag? And the contents were egg moulds and the cutest animal dividers. Thanks again.

Sorry, I didn't get the name of the person who won the non-accessories category, who incidentally also won the lucky draw. How lucky was that? And Kelly, from Kel's place, also received her prize from Bentopet's 100th bento competition.

Thank you very much, Bentopet and Emily, for the very enjoyable and well organized Bento Party. Looking forward to the next meet up.

Edit : For more photos, check Hijack Queen's blog.