Possessive E

I was in E’s class, interacting with his friends. I know I am pretty good with kids but I just didn’t know I was that popular :) When E spotted me, he was absolutely taken aback for he did not expect me to be in his classroom, talking to his friends.

E exclaimed “ Hey, mummy! What are you doing here?”
Friend 1 “ Hi, mummy!”
Friend 2 “ Mummy, this is for you”

E “ Hey, this is MY MUMMY, not YOURS! Go and find your own mummy!”

Mini Concert

E had a mini concert at his school. A class of ten N1 kids were performing a song and dance. Some were crying, much overwhelmed by the audience, some were distracted by the props and started wondering around, leaving E and one other classmate to dominate the show. E was hopping about and shaking his buttock so vigorously that he almost lost his balance. Half way through the performance, he came running to me (seated at the first row) and announced very loudly “ Mummy, I want to pass urine! Hurry up!” That brought laughter and friendly stares from the audience :)

Green Belt

Nic received her green belt last week and she is so very motivated to keep going. She loves the collection of coloured belts in her wardrobe. The beneficiary of her old belts is none other than E who has been pretending he is one good taekwondo warrior. E is full of mischief and funny ideas and he would “urghs” and “ ahs” along with N during lessons. Parents sitting around the practice hall would watch and comment how adorable and cute he is. Indeed, he is one lovely and smiley boy!

Practical use of Taekwondo?

E was getting on to N’s nerves. Both were fighting over the little red rocking chair. Without hesitation, N raised her leg and aimed at E’s shoulder. The kick pushed E back by a few steps and it certainly brought big tear drops to E. Instantly, N knew she did something very wrong which would warrant the use of the cane. She quickly went over to E and rubbed his shoulder while apologizing to him. Meanwhile, E was thundering away. L

I had no choice but to bring the cane out to discipline N. It hurt me more than what the cane did to N. It left a red mark on her thigh but thank god, it went away the next day. And of course, my poor little boy! Now, I am hesitating if E should pick up Taekwondo too, as a self defence skill or a convenient fighting aid??

Home cooking

I must confess, I was not much of a kitchen person until recently.

Lunch
There was tremendous satisfaction when the family enjoyed the pasta meal I whipped up for them for lunch. Simple prawn spaghetti tossed in extra virgin olive oil and home made tomato sauce flavoured with fresh parsley and oregano. My next challenge is to roll out the fresh pasta dough in the comfort of my own home :)

Dinner
Frankly, I totally freaked out after reading about the Happy Meal article, true or otherwise. This prompted me to get my hands dirty with some whole wheat flour, olive oil, egg and honey to roll out some fresh and fluffy hamburger buns. The burgers were accompanied by some freshly homemade beef patties, garnished with lettuce, tomatoes and onions. We were all starving by 730pm (our usual dinner time is about 630pm) as it took longer than anticipated for the amateur baker to complete the task. All were gone in 10 minutes. I didn’t even have time to snap some photos. Lots of work but it was all worth it seeing that only good stuff went into their stomachs, chemicals and preservatives free :)

A good evening out with friends

In celebration of Gek San's birthday, we opened a bottle of red vintage 1992. It was fabulous to couple it with a feast of Italian specialties. It was such a relaxing evening to unwind and chill out without the kids. What a luxury!

Cat & Dog

A beautiful pair!

A matter of choice

E and N were trying their luck at the pinata at Ansel's birthday party. It was interesting to see N picking up only the seaweed while E was generously helping himself to the sweets!

This shows that N knows the house rules pretty well while E obviously does not or he simply chooses to ignore. She knows that such sweet goodies are not meant for home consumption and she figured it would be wiser to just pick the seaweed :)

Good girl, sweetheart!

Limited Edition....

Though this has absolutely nothing to do with my blog of domestic affairs, I feel strongly about it and decided to upload this post.

L went for a business trip in Swizterland and he came back with this to add to his collection! I saw this picture when I was downloading the photos from my camera. I personally feel that it is such an overpriced object given that it is only a piece of stainless steel. It is equivalent to one of my solid gold watches which came at a good discount due to long term business relationship with the retailer. The excuse given was " this is a limited edition, unlike other Rolexes! I was lucky to get it!"

Mid Autumn Celebration

The competition was fierce. Nic came in third in the yearly condo mid autumn lantern making competition. For her effort, she received a $10 popular bookstore voucher.

She wasn't exactly very excited about it because she was hopeful that she would be the champion. Well, I was pleased with her achievement as she did everything on her own and she was the youngest in the category of 6 to 12!

Chicky again

The theme is being repeated. Nic has painted this before but now, I can confidently claim that it is 99% her own work.

Donation

I was busy in the kitchen and I saw E ransacking his school bag when I peeped through the kitchen door. It didnt bother me much and I went back to my baking tray.

The next morning, Rose handed me an envelope. The envelope has Ethan's name on it but it was sealed. It was a donation envelope from the Children's society and was channeled through E's pre-school. I tried to unseal the envelope so that I could pop in the donation cheque. Guess what I found inside? and guess who sealed the envelope?

I found a sweet! and the kind soul was none other than Ethan himself ! He was ransacking his bag the day before in search for the envelope so that he could share his sweet with the less privileged children.

How sweet of my little boy!

Pure honesty

I started baking a couple of weeks ago and I have not stopped since. I knew nothing about baking prior to that. I have tried various recipes, from cakes to breads to Chinese steamed cakes.

Last night, I baked a marble cake. In my own assessment, it was a pretty good one and it would have been perfect if not for that wee bit more of vanilla essence in it. I was so pleased with the output and I was hoping N would appreciate it too. But, no, she was hesitant to pack it for school.

Me “ Nicole, you don’t like the marble cake? I thought this is what you wanted. Sweet but not too sweet and it has the beautiful chocolate swirls in it”

N “ Ya. I like it. It is nice but I don’t feel like bringing it to school tomorrow. Can I just eat it at home?”

Me “ Why? I can sense that you don’t like it. Can you tell me why?”

N “ Err….actually, we will be having a children’s day celebration tomorrow and there are better things to eat”

I was speechless :(