2 wheels ...

The Halloween post (s) took a while to finish, in the mean time, life goes one and Kecil's stories just piled up for Mama to share.... like the one on Kecil already RIDING ON 2 WHEELS BICYCLE!!!!

Ahem.... hehe... sorry. This (very proud.. ahem...) Mama is excited.

It actually happened before Halloween. It was a public holiday, and there were just Ami and Kecil around that day. Then Kecil suddenly asked me to take off her stabilisers (those extra 2 wheels on the bike). We tried taking them off before, but I noticed that she simply did not practice, letting Jessica & Ami (who were able to ride 2 wheels before Kecil) borrow the bike instead. So I put them back. Until that day.

Ami coached and encouraged Kecil for a while. She even let Kecil use her (smaller) bike to practice for a bit, then she had to go for her music lesson, and Mama went inside as well. Apparently Kecil kept on practicing, and pretty soon she got the hang of it.

By the time Ami finished her music lesson, Kecil was already 'proficient'. Why, that top picture was actually taken not long after, when we went swimming.
During the days that followed, Kecil practice EVERY day, even before going to school, while waiting for the rest of the car pool team to arrive.

It's kind of amazing, especially since this Mama still remember a time when those girls still had to be pulled using dog leash:

Imagine that! Now that all the girls are on two wheels, of course we had to take mini bike trips around the complex:

Why, the other they she even managed to bug Mama into cycling with her!

Ohohohoho.... now if only this Mama can peel the little girl away from her beloved fellow midgets friends for more cycling trips, I think I am going to be one happy (and healthier) Mama. 

Cheers to you, Little Girl!

Halloween 2013: School parade & Trick or Treat

So, the million dollar question around Halloween? What did the kids dress up as? A witch, a zombie princess and the devil himself, apparently. Unlike last year where Kecil wore some custom-made fairy dress, this year Kecil wanted something off the rack (translation: instant gratification!) and Disney Princessy. So that was what she got. Mama did a bit of work to make the dress fit better, but yeah... it was basically an 'off the rack' Princess Aurora dress.

Anyway, first up was the Halloween parade in school. It was held on the last day of the quarter, a week before the real Halloween, since the week that followed was term break. Now the majority of the school kids are from the older age bracket, so we expected more of the 'traditional, scary ghostly/witchy/draculish' costumes. Luckily, Kecil's class still embrace the cuter, childish trend of simply dressing up as some character of note (mostly from some cartoons those kids watch).

Peter Pan, Princesses, Fairies, cowboy, Superman, Captain America, Jack from Neverland, even a girl version of Superman, and a Barbie version too!
Ain't they a cute bunch? Love the way they were all prepared to get sooo much candies.
This Mama would like to have you know too, that she did prep Kecil with her own pink bag for candies. This Mama, however, is not entirely clear as to why Kecil decided to take up the (bigger) plastic bag that (presumably) was prepared by her teacher for kids who did not bring their own 'pumpkin'.

The parade basically just involved walking around the parking lot to receive candies from the bigger kids (grades 6-10) who were not 'dressed up'. Joining the ranks of the loot givers were also some of the teachers and parents who happened to have some candies with them. Let's just say the kids all got  bagfulls of candies.
The kids was soon dismissed after the parade, and school went for recess for a week.

The following Thursday, on the eve of Halloween, we went with Kecil's friends to the festivities at the Housing office. There was some treats and games, but most importantly, sights to see! Did you see that SuperDog? And the scary ghost and the cemetery ground with the Dracula inside the glass coffin? Apparently the housing crew did get some work done on the grounds between our walkies there and the celebration itself.

There was also a cupcake decorating session. The 3 girls went for it like ducks to water. Jess attacked her cupcake right after. Me thinks she was hungry. Haha....

It was soon dark, and we continued with trick or treating around the neighbourhood. It was surprisingly VERY crowded, with many cars going around and PEOPLE, small and big alike. Kind of make this Mama glad that Halloween happens only once a year.
So the kids got more candies. Guess how much candies we have in the house now....

Anyway, when Kecil started trying to get Mama to carry her loot bag, this Mama figured out it was time to go home. We still had to brave the traffic in order to pick up Daddy who was still stuck at the office that day. At least the kids had fun, and candies.

Going back to school the week that followed, Kecil was obviously still in Halloween mood, giving Mama the zombie pose while still wearing her Minnie ears for school :

In pink, of course. After all, what's Kecil if not pink, no? Cheers!

Halloween 2013: Prep

In the days that preceded Halloween, we had encountered quite a few apparition going around. It kind of made getting out of the house a bit of an adventure, since you'll never know what you will encounter: kids pretending to be scary, or just a happy ghost sliding on a pink bike:

Just like the case the previous year, the housing office put up some decoration for Halloween, and so that day, this Mama took Kecil (flanked by her enthusiastic friends) to take a look at the stuff ....

.... who, upon finding the decoration, started to pose and pose and pose....
The posed outside, right next to the witch (with the almost gone face!)....

Then they posed INSIDE the office, where, like last year, we found some mummies and more scary witches.

And of course, don't forget the scariest thing in the room ....... MAMA!!!!!

Wahahahhaa......
Anyway, Ami was not with us that day, but upon hearing the stories from her friends, she obviously wanted to see all those as well. Which was how Mama & Kecil found themselves back at the office the following day, and encountering more 'decorations'.

A coffin-like box amidst the white crosses, and a pumpkin coach filled with skulls! Why, these people ARE serious about celebrating Halloween! All these so helped to build up all kinds of excitement towards the Halloween celebration. It's cool to see Kecil no longer (too) afraid of all the Halloween stuff. We'll continue with the rest of the Halloween stuff in the following posts.

Now this is very late, I know, but here's hoping that you had a good Halloween. Around here, we still have enough candies and what-nots to last us till next year! Cheers!

Ocean Adventure

Most weekends would see us lazing around at home, enjoying takeaway food and the peace and quiet in general. After all, isn't that the beauty of living in a tourist destination? But there are times when we do feel 'obligated' to visit one of those touristy trap spots just so we do not miss out that much. We've been to the zoo before, we've been to the mall MANY times, even if we mostly do not record those trips here. This time round, it was visiting the beach, or to be precise, the Ocean Adventure.

Set up right next to the sea, the 'park' offers a couple of shows through the day: one focused on the wild animals of the forest surrounding the area and the people of the forest, another on this acrobatic group from Kenya, and the two main ones on the gentler creatures of the sea: the sea lion and the dolphins.

The shows were good and engaging. They were, however, not enough to get this Mama clicking the camera. Until we got to the dolphins, that was.
Of course, this was not our first time seeing a dolphin show. We saw one when we went to the zoo in Indonesia as well (no dolphin picture in the post, you've got to take my word for it). However, this one was different. Not only the dolphins were at sea, the handlers actually went into the water to 'play' as well!

And of course, there was the other factor of us waiting for quite a bit before the show started as well. The dolphins were really the star of the park, you see, so the seats for their show filled up fast. We got front seats, only because it was not under the shade and nobody wanted to get tanned. Bahahhaha.... Still... the view was gorgeous. And the show? Simply awesome. I think Kecil redoubled her resolve to really learn to swim well just so she can swim with the dolphins next time.

There were the obligatory photo boards, which Kecil was glad to use, dragging Daddy along. All in all, it was a good weekend, a deal sweetened by the fact that as residents of the area, we were entitled to 50% discount off the entrance fee. Hehe... Discount or not, it was fun, and we were glad that we left our hermitage of a house for the weekend to check out the spot. We'll see what else we can do next weekend in this part of the globe we call home. Cheers!

Walkies duo

After all the excitement of walking with 3, 4 and even 5(!) kids, it was kind of nice for this Mama to find herself walking just with the Dog and 2 kids. Two very well behaved little girls, to boot. Oh, and the Dog, of course.

The girls, of course, in their cute hats and walking outfits.

It was a very relaxing walk (compared to the ones with more participants. Duh!), and we went back to an old favourite: the playground across the minimart, where Kecil & Ami quickly got busy climbing around ...

... and posing, of course, for the snap-happy Mama. Even the Dog got her turn while she was chilling on top of the slide station:

I think the Dog got a bit confused with all the picture taking.

It was a good walk for all parties involved, especially Mama. Haha.... Here's to more relaxed walkies with manageable crowds. Cheers!