Summer 2013

This weekend found us trying out a new spot (for us) in town, for a spot of swimming, of course.
Clear blue skies, soaring temperatures, they all conspired to bring us to this quiet spot....

... where Kecil can practice some swimming (or piggy-backing on Daddy's back!) ...

... some levitation exercises ...

... or even the run-of-the-mill underwater photograph with Mama (who just got herself a new set of swimming suit, yes).

Oh yeah, on this side of the ocean, summer has indeed arrived. Happy summer!

Easter Princess

For Easter this year, Mama actually blew a few eggs and we decorated the egg shells. Some were painted by Kecil, using a combination of markers and water colors, the rest were dyed after some treatment with crayons. The result was quite cool, and Kecil was very impressed. Haha...

On Easter Sunday itself, we went egg hunting at the housing office. Kecil and Mama came home with some impressive looking 'tattoo' (temporary, of course, painted using face painting material).

We met Kecil's classmate at the egg hunt, and we watched some acrobat and magic show. Oh, and did I forget the balloon flower? Not to mention the photobooth. We had some fun pretending to be Minnie there.

But the biggest surprise came from a visit from the Easter Princess herself, right here at home.

Ha! Actually, Kecil won a set of 'Princess jewellery set' from the egg hunt. So... not surprisingly, she wanted to put the all on once we got home, with the resulting "Princess Beauty".

Oh my. She looked good enough to stand for a pageant or something, not that this Mama intended to do that, of course. I am pretty sure we can find other, better things to do. But for that Easter morning (and afternoon, and also the day after, and a few others), my little Princess surely can dress up all Princessy and nice. After all, she IS Mama & Daddy's little Princess, no?

Hair updates

Just in case you haven't noticed, Kecil is a girly girly girl. Quite an extreme case, in fact, with all her pink obsession and what nots. This Mama has  no idea where the Little Girl got it from.
Anyway, the point is that, obviously, she wants to have long hair. Not short. So... no cutting.
She's not even fazed by the fact that her hair grows ever so slowly. Mostly, Mama just trimmed Kecil's hair, mostly in front, and yet... already about a year of growing it out, the hair is still like that. Just messier.

So, in an effort to keep the mess in check, Mama started coaxing the Little Girl to use some hair ornament. It's unfortunate that Kecil does seem to prefer her hair free, loose, with no embellishment whatsoever. She does, however, seem to be quite taken with a few PINK hairbands that Mama bought.

The only thing is, she just loved to wear it further down in front, right in front of her bangs, leaving still unruly mess of hair at the back.
What Mama love is this:

But those ties never stay too long on her head. 3 hours tops, then off they go. Then Mama tried different combination:

Still on the bangs, but her hair is up, and it actually stayed longer!

Bonus point that it looked so cute on her!
Lately, however, she's been watching lots of Mickey Mouse clubhouse and Minnie Bow Toons. So, when we spotted Minnie ears while doing the grocery run, this Mama got pestered just so Kecil can acquire extra cute ears on her own.

Tadah! Oh dear.
She loved her extra ears, all right. She wore it everywhere!

 For walkies, for play times outside, for cycling, even for Skool! And it so does not help that her classmate had a pair as well, making for a Double Minnie sighting, right in Skool.

Well... for what it's worth, she looks cute in those ears. We shall just see how long this 'fad' will last. Haha... cheers!

Happy Easter 2013

Easter weekend was a good, relaxed weekend spent just around the house and nearby vicinity.
We would like to wish you all a good, meaningful Easter, hopefully spent with family and loved ones. Cheers!

Baseball Girl

Being a large breed, the Dog needs daily exercise. Nowadays, juggling between summer heat, Daddy pick up schedule, not to mention the Little Girl's ever expanding social network, it can get a bit hard to schedule a proper work out aka walkies for the Dog. It so does not help that on days when Mama was motivated enough to go for morning walks, the Dog simply refused to budge from her spot at the bed, sleeping soundly. Grrrrr.....

So... what to do when the heat is too much and Mama gets lazy? Why... we drove to the baseball field!

The field was used earlier in the year for ... well... baseball practice. Not that people really play baseball here, but given the country's location, it proved to be a convenient spot for South Korean teams to have their 'winter camp'. Winter, because seriously, January in South Korea is definitely in the depth of winter.
Now that they've gone back to South Korea, the field stays empty, perfect for Doggie's running around.
Not to mention a spot of baseball for Kecil as well. Eh?

Indeed, why not? We found a set of plastic bat and ball while we were out browsing the other day. Just perfect for the Little Girl. It was a bit hard at first, but with Daddy patiently coaching (and even using stray wild grass as prop), she managed to hit the ball eventually, and so proud of the fact!

Not lacking in style department either, I'd say. All pink??????

And of course, there's the Dog once she's expended her excess energy running and chasing the birds around the field.
Ah.. the things we do during lazy weekends around here. Haha.... Cheers!

A Jolly Birthday

It was already a couple of weeks back when Kecil was invited to a Jollibee party.

Little "Princess" Jasmine was turning 4! and Kecil was so glad to wish her good friend a happy birthday, in her own handwriting!

The party was held during Skool holiday, so unfortunately not many students came by. Boy, Kecil was happy that at least there was a familiar face there.

There were, as usual, some games, during which Kecil won a few small prizes. She was sooo happy.
Then soon enough, it was time to blow the birthday candles...

And time for a special guest appearance...

Haha... Me thinks Kecil was still a wee bit ... worried... about that large mascot of a bee. Can you see that distance between her and the next kid?

Slightly better. Haha.... Oh well... I guess her Mama was also not a big fan of such mascots. Lucky for Mama, she was able to run away from the said mascot. Indeed, back in Mama's day, mascots were not 'special guests' at birthday parties, thank goodness. Down here, there is at least one mascot for every birthday or special school occasion.
Yah... all in all, I think Kecil still had fun. Happy belated birthday again, Jasmine!

Backyard Ruckus

This Mama had to investigate the other day, the source of all the ruckus coming out of the backyard, somewhere behind the greeneries. And what did we find?

Kids running around, with pompoms, a decapitated tripod, and just plain big smiles all around. I'd say!

Seems that somebody got the idea of using the tripod as a 'camera'. General hilarity ensued as little models wannabe practiced their art of posing.

And of course, this Mama should introduce you to the international cast. There was Kecil (Indonesia), Ami (Japan), JR (Philippines) and David (South Korea). They all lived in the neighbourhood, and somehow got together thanks to Kecil.

You see, Kecil played with Ami a lot. Then Ami got busier, so Kecil roamed around to look for things to do. One day, David noticed her, and they started playing together, despite their different age. I think he is older than Ami, who is already 1 year plus older than Kecil. JR moved into the house right across. At first he mainly played alone, then he started following whenever Kecil and Ami played together outside.

Then Bang! Suddenly they just all played together.

There are definitely difficulties sometimes. Conflicting schedules, language/cultural barrier (JR does not speak English at all!), not to mention difference in ages. Well... whatever said, I think these kids are essentially good kids at heart, and I have no doubt they will get through whatever difficulty that would prevent them from having fun together.

Here's for ever widening circles of friends! Cheers!