Morning exercise

It had been quite some time we did not bring the kids to the park for some exercises. Last Sunday, we had the mood and decided to bring them to the park to cycle. After both finishes their milk, we proceeded to the park. The weather that day was extremely good. Cloudy and windy. 

Both cycled a big round at the park while we walked together with them. A good exercise for us too ! 

Poor XJ's hands-me-down tricycle. Both ears were broken ! 

After cycling, they played around this mini 'tunnel'. 

and played at the playground.
Obviously, YX was TIRED ! 

Both were so happy and excited ! So are we ! :D 

Will be going to the park again this coming Sunday (if no changed of plan)........ and will be bringing popo and gong gong together since they will be coming up again this coming weekends. Can't wait to see them !

Toilet Rolls Happy Family

I've collected some empty toilet paper rolls for the intention to do some arts and crafts work with YX when we have the mood. But the other day when he finishes his homework, he took 1 empty toilet paper roll and started to draw a face on it ! I thought they looked cute and asked him to draw more.

YX concentrating drawing 

YX proudly posing with his Happy Family 

L -R : gong gong (with some moustache), popo (no lipstick because she has short hair), YX, mama, papa (looked kind of FIERCE), XJ, Ah Ma & Yeh Yeh 

Names and date behind each rolls. 

I get him to write down the names and date. Something amusing for him to remember when he grew up later ! 

Shopping with both kids.......

At the shopping center, both of them will rush to grab the trolley as they wanted to SIT inside the trolley. Sound so obedient ya ! That's only for a short 5 minutes. Before I could even grab the things I wanted to buy, both wanted to get down from the trolley. 

SO... ...

It they refused to stay inside the trolley.................

I will find something for them to do ! 

Each will have a basket to carry and I will tell them what I wanted to buy. They will then help me to put the items into the basket. And I have to make sure each have an item to put in their basket, else the fight will start.  All the times, YX will give in (thanks god) when XJ raised her high pitch volume when she did not get the things she wanted. 

Just like this mini trolley. If we are lucky, we will get one and XJ will be the ONLY person who pushes it. YX will never have a chance to even touch the trolley. Glad that he doesn't mind at all since he knows how demanding his little sister was.  

My little demanding assistance

* All the above photos were taken about 2 months ago * 

'Love' bites

Loving brother and sister

Looking at them hugging each other, being so loving was such a wonderful thing. Most of the time, YX was the one who showed he cares for XJ. He will protect his little sister in any occasions.

No matter how loving, YX will still fight with XJ occasionally over toys, stationaries, remote control or even food ! Just the other day, both of them were fighting for something which I couldn't remember. We were at work and by the time we got back home, YX ran and told us that mei mei bit him !

The bitten marked somewhere around the shoulder area

We reprimanded XJ and remind her not to do that again. At the same time, we were glad that YX did not 'attack' his sister back. MIL said he just cried and shout in pain but did not fight back. My sweet XJ turned into a tigress that day. She is one fierce chatty box ! 

Luxury 'Hotel' (2D/1N Ipoh - Taiping)

Thanks to my friend, Mummy - J for recommending us a very luxury place to stay in Ipoh. It was a doubled storey bungalow. Reservations can only be made upon recommendation from people known to the owner.

We booked 2 rooms and each room cost us only RM65 nett, even on a Public Holidays! This bungalow were being renovated for rental and every room are fully equipped with air-con, water heater and a 42" LCD tv completed with Astro services. It was very comfortable and most importantly, CLEAN !

The owner hired foreign workers to clean up the house. Just like a hotel's concept, check in time is at 2 pm and check out time at 12 noon.

2 happy kids in the room
Love the pleasant floral bed cover .

XJ was watching her cartoon in the room. The tv was hung on the wall, hence XJ got to 'look up' 

Clean and well maintained bathroom.
Shower cream & shampoo, toilet papers all provided 

Because of this bungalow, hubby doesn't mind to plan for another trip to Ipoh. Since accommodation are cheap, we can spend more on FOOD. haha......

Note : Did not post the picture of the whole house because I did not managed to get the permission from the owner. 

Food we had in Ipoh (2D/1N Ipoh - Taiping trip)

After the visit to Taiping Zoo and lunch at Taiping, we proceeded to Ipoh for a good rest in the 'hotel'. Will blog about the place we stayed in the next post.

In the evening, we headed down to the town for dinner. What else, but the famous 'bean sprout chicken rice' @ Lou Wong. With the help from GPS again, we managed to find the place without much of a problem. But when we walked towards the Lou Wong Restaurant.........

Over crowded but worth waiting ! 

.......we were all surprised by the CROWD!!!! It was drizzling and some people even willing to hold the umbrella while waiting for a table !!!!! And that was only at around 6 pm when we arrived! If you looked at the picture closely, you can see how crowded inside the shop was.

Nevertheless, that did not deter us (5 adults + 2 kids) from waiting. Since we drove all the way up to Ipoh, we must eat it no matter how crowded it was, unless it was sold out. Despite that super crowd, the food were being served in a jiffy.

Big fat taugeh. 

It was really delicious. The taugeh were very crunchy and goes very well with the sauce and a dash of pepper.

Kuey teow soup 

We ordered some chicken rice (no photo) and kuey teow soup to share out. In this restaurant, they do not give out extra empty bowls / plates for easy billing. They will only charged you based on the number of bowls / plates on the table.

To me, both rice and kuey teow soup are nothing special, but if you eat them together with ...................

Steamed chicken with their special soy sauce. Once you took 1 piece, you will asked for more ! 

...... this steamed chicken, it was super delicious ! The sauces were so addictive. The chicken were very tender and we regretted that we only ordered 1/2 bird instead of 1 whole bird.

Mixed balls 

We also ordered some side dishes to accompanied the rice and kuey teow soup. This bowl of mixed balls were delicious too.

Braised chicken feet 

However, the braised chicken feet were not as good as what we had eaten before in other places. We rated this plate of chicken feet as above average.

Having dinner in such a famous restaurant has it's flaws too, especially to slow eater, like me. We need to eat quickly because there will be many people standing behind you, waiting for a table. Once you stood up, the restaurant's staff will get other customers to sit down immediately to 'chop' a place. Overall, we paid around RM50 ++ for the above dishes + 3 glasses of herbal tea.    

If only I was given more time to eat, will sure dip every mouthful with the steamed chicken soy sauce.

Salted chicken  @ RM17 per bird

After dinner, we had this salted chicken for supper. We wanted to try the famous Aung Kheng Lim salted chicken but the shop was closed (sold out). We were being told that if we did not make any prior reservations, we won't be able to buy it.

Alternatively, we tried this shop which is just right opposite of Lou Wong. At first, the shop owner does not want to sell the chicken to us because we did not make any prior reservation. We were a bit disappointed. But mum persuaded them, telling them that we came from afar and only want to buy 1 bird to try. Bingo ! The man finally agreed !

Glad that mum tried her luck. The salted chicken was super super delicious ! Everyone loves it. Even both my kids (each have a drumstick) loves it very much ! The skin were just-right salty while the chicken have very strong herbs fragrance. I'm now drooling over this chicken while typing this post.

Taiping Zoo (2D/1N Ipoh - Taiping trip)

During the Labour day PH on 1st May, we went to Ipoh for a short 2D/1N trip. Part of it was to bring the kids to Taiping Zoo and another reason was for makan - makan. We had planned this Ipoh - Taiping trip way back in March and glad that we made it happened ! 

Wish to try out the Night Safari one of the day.

My first time seeing a real full bodied hippo in a zoo. All these while, only managed to see the head above the water.

Just minutes, the hippo turned and went into the water again. 

Face to face with a mini kangaroo.
 Saw the Doreamon behind XJ's back ? That's the mosquitoes repellent. Because XJ like to peel stickers, we sticked it on her back. without her knowledge. 

Both imitating how a flamingo standing with 1 leg. 

Lovely flamingos. Now only I know under their wings are black in color.  

Black panther. My first time having such a close encounter with this wild animal in the zoo. 

Overall, I can say Taiping Zoo is worth visiting and all the animals are very lively. We did not walk much as we took a train ride around the zoo.  The train is FOC but we queue up for quite a while due to the zoo was crowded that day. The driver even explained to us what we will see on our right and left side along the whole journey. Both YX and XJ were so excited when they saw those animals. 

Price 

RM12 / adult

RM10 / senior citizen (55 yrs and above) 

RM8 / child (4 yrs and above) 

After the Taiping Zoo, we proceeded to Casual Market (selling hawker food) for our lunch. With the help of GPS, we managed to find the place within minutes. The weather that day was terribly HOT and while eating inside the market place, both kids went cranky! Partly, they were tired after the zoo trip and wanted to sleep. I did not managed to take any photos of the food because I was not in a good mood seeing my kids like that. What we had that day were fried kuey teow, kuey teow soup, chicken rice, or chien (fried oyster) & hei chien (fried prawn omelet) and some drinks.

On the way back to Ipoh, both kids slept in the car. PEACE !

Cinema outings with kids

On one of the Sunday last month, hubby and I decided to bring the kids to watch RIO. I've read a few blogs praising RIO as a good movie and how entertaining it was.

Indeed, it was a good show. I love it so much. Hubby doesn't like cartoon as he prefers action movie more so his job that day was to look after the kids. haha

YX was very cooperative. He sat quietly throughout the movie, with his eyes glued onto the big screen. Only towards the end, he started to ask me 3 - 4 times "Is the movie going to end soon?" Not sure if he was afraid the movie will end soon (he is gonna missed it) or he is getting impatience and wish to get out of the cinema as soon as possible. Anyway, after the movie I asked if he likes the show and glad to receive positive comments from him.

As for XJ, oh dear! She created some scene to attract others to look over. At the start of the movie, she was quite cooperative. Mainly because of the pop corns that kept her in place. Once the pop corns were finished, she started to feel restless. Then, she began to get down from my lap (she was sitting with me) and wanted to walk towards hubby. Then, she requested to drink water and spoke in a LOUD tone. We went "Shhhhhh !"

Once she drank her water, she asked again in a LOUD tone when she did not see any birds on the screen "Where are the BIRD BIRD?" We went another round of "Shhhhh" and asked her to concentrate. Bird Bird coming soon......

Then, she accidentally dropped my mineral water cap and she insisted to search for it in the dark even I already told her nevermind. She raised her voice and started to be cranky. Hubby quickly got up from his seat and carried her out of the cinema for a 5 minutes break.

This was actually XJ's 2nd time into the cinema. The 1st time was during the CNY break and we went during her nap time. She slept in the cinema comfortably. This time, we brought her for a 5 pm show where she just got up from her nap. Wrong timing !

Bride & dancing

My very happy little bride.
Please ignored the dirty patch on the bathroom wall. This is the office's bathroom, not at home. 

After attending numerous wedding ceremonies over the past 2 years XJ was always fascinated with the beautiful bride. She loves to look at them and admiring their beautiful gown.

One day, she told me she wanted to become a bride. Happily, after her bath I put a towel over her. She was so pleased and gave me the sweetest smile, ever.

She was also into dancing. She just loves to move her legs and hands. Swing here and there following the music. Once, she saw some ballerina performing via the tv. Without hesitation, she quickly put her hands up, tipped her toes and turn and turn and turn just like a ballerina.

I've got the intention to sent her for dancing class when she turns 4 next year, and if she is still interested by then.

Compensations

Last week, I went to the Post Office and happen to chance upon a stall manned by an uncle and a youngster selling different species of mangoes. I'm not a fruit lover but sweet and juicy mangoes won my heart. I stopped and asked what are the differences of these mangoes. The youngster recommended the yellow skin type and said they are VERY SWEET and FLESHY. Unlike the others, this yellow skin type does not have any roughage.

Since he praised sky high, I decided to grab some. He was selling at RM10 for 2 kg while the others are selling at RM10 for 3 kg. He weighed, 2 kg = 8 mangoes. I even asked him to pick those ripe mangoes so I can eat them either today or tomorrow. I was very happy with my purchased and trusted this guy. In the car, I was even drooling over these sweet mangoes.

But to my great disappointment, these mangoes were VERY SOUR ! It was indeed very fleshy but they were way too sour to be swallow. I've tried 4 of them and all turned out to be SOUR. Maybe I should try out Pete's recipe with the remaining 4 of them. I bet they are sour too.

I've been thinking should I go back to seek for some compensations but was afraid I got a good scolding instead. haha......

Have you ever seek any compensations for the things you had purchased ?