Happy in school

Today, the younger girl celebrated her 3rd birthday in her pre-school with her classmates. Her birthday is actually tomorrow. But I have to work tomorrow so I have to celebrate her birthday one day earlier. She was extremely happy to see me with a cake at her school! Her smile was absolutely a joy to see!

Her elder sister joined Juliane in her b'day celebration.

Juliane cutting her own cake without assistance.

Sick, sick, sick

I brought the girls to see the doctor on 27 Feb. The older girl did not recover from her last bout of flu and has got abit of wheezing in her lungs. The younger girl has got a cold. I hope they will recover soon.

It's confirmed that I have gotten something from one of the girls: I am coughing away and the throat hurt. Thank goodness, I have got some medication left over from my last visit to the doctor. I know I shouldn't self-medicate but I am too lazy to see the doctor again.

Virus, virus go away!

Going to bring the girls to see the doctor again. The girls were down with flu just two weeks before the Chinese New Year. In fact, the whole family were taking turns falling prey to the flu bug. At its worst, the four of us were all coughing and sneezing away the weekend before Chinese New Year. We were one sick family then. Hahaha, no pun intended :P

It seemed this flu bug is still haunting or hunting us. The girls have finished their medication but they are still coughing and sneezing. I myself am starting to feel the beginning of a sore throat again. Sigh...

Dear family and friends, take good care of yourselves.

Parents are back.

Yeah! My parents are back from UK. They came back last night. They were in UK for 2 months, spending some quality time with my brother and his family. They really enjoyed themselves in UK as my nephews are now old enough to interact with them.

I am definitely glad to have my parents back, so are my girls as Ah Ma and Ah Gong are fantastic cooks. Well, not just us. I have had phone calls from family friends, relatives and my friends, yes, even MY FRIENDS are asking when my parents would be back. They are all looking forward to being able to come over to our place again for lunches or dinners. Hmm... maybe it is time I start picking up some culinary skills from them.

So, family and friends, better book yourself quickly for a lunch or dinner session at our place before they fly off again. =) Hahaha.

Smile! You are on camera.

Ok. As requested. Here are some of the recent photos we took. We are sometimes so lazy about taking photos. Those of you with kids would understand. Have to be really fast in your trigger finger to catch them while they are in the mood to take photos, sometimes the lighting is not right and you have to retake, etc... But we did manage to take some during Decemeber 2006 and January 2007.

The girls in their flower girl dresses (Theresa & Lawrence's wedding 9 Dec 2006)

Posing with the girls at the wedding dinner

(Theresa & Lawrence's wedding 9 Dec 2006)

New Year's Eve dinner at Holiday Inn Parkview Hotel

Marieann's 5th b'day celebration (2 Jan 2007)

Ok. And some from the December 2005 trip to Brisbane. It was the first overseas trip with the two girls. Afterthat, their father surrendered and said he wouldn't go overseas with them again until they are much OLDER. Hahaha.

Photo with the koala at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. But the girls weren't too thrilled, only the parents! Hahaha

The girls at the Surfers Paradise beach, almost. Too hot to get out in the sun!

Sheraton Mirage Hotel, Gold Coast. As usual, only the parents were looking at the camera.

That's it for now. Hope you are happy. We will try to upload the photos when we take more, IF we get round to taking the photos. Hahaha.

Chinese New Year

CNY Eve
Since my parents were still in UK, I was left with the responsibility of preparing the CNY reunion dinner. I wished I had paid more attention while they were preparing it in the past. But not to worry, I took the easy way out. No, we didn't eat out. It would not have been right, for us, that is. I ordered seafood steamboat platter from a supermarket. It really cut down the work but I still had to make several trips to the market during the week before CNY to get the vegetables and so on. My friends laughed at me for going to the market so often. Hahaha.

CNY 1st and 2nd Day
The 1st and 2nd Days of CNY were a breeze. My parents weren't around so no one came visiting. We only had to go visiting on the 1st Day and we lazed around and watched TV. One of the most relaxing CNY ever... until ...

CNY 3rd Day
The 3rd day, I invited my friends over for a dinner gathering. I was asking for it. Well, having seen my mother entertained friends and family all the time at our place, I happily assumed that I was able to do it too. I am my mother's daughter after all. SO I can't be that far off, right?! Hahaha.

For dinner, we had pork chops simmered in orange juice, chicken in mushroom suace, tumeric rice, stir-fried string bean with minced pork, potato salad, steamed garlic prawns and winter melon soup. For dessert, we had lemon cheesecake, honey dew melon, ice cream (various flavours) and jellies. I have never cooked so much and for so many people. I hoped my friends had enough to eat and at least had a good time over at my place (even if I was really too out of it to have decent conversations with any of them).

It was nice to just be with good friends: eating, talking and laughing away. No need to to put on pretenses and masks, just be ourselves. Yar, I had a good time despite being tired from the cooking and the unnecessary stress I put on myself to have a successful gathering. My friends, you have been a wonderful lot, telling me it has been a good party and the food was good too. Phew!

Thank you, my friends for being you: Theresa and Lawrence, Dennis and Joyce, Yee Zher and Su Zhen, Clara and Stanley, and Bai Rui.

PS: Someone said if I have gatherings more often, I will get used to them and not be so stressed out. Hmm...so MY FRIENDS, are you ready for another gathering at my place?! =) Hahaha.

Keep in touch

A friend introduced me to this. I was against the idea at first. But on second thoughts, it isn't such a bad idea after all. Thanks, YZ.

This will allow my family and friends, both in Singapore and overseas, to know what's going on in our lives here. Bear with me, family and friends. I will get this blog up and coming real soon. Remember, I am new to this. SO be nice. Hahaha.