Carnival!

Although these structures had occupied the same space for well over 3 years, they are only open to public around this time of the year, approaching Christmas time.
I think we mentioned going here last year, but as it turned out, this Mama never really write that post.
The photos had been languishing in Mama's computer through the year, until the carnival opened again sometime back.

So... although we have been going to (and taking picture at) the carnival 'faithfully' for the past 2 years (this year being the 3rd), it's only this year that Mama finally post it here.
But then again, I guess this year is kind of different.

As exciting as they were, the past years' trips had always been just us: Mama, Daddy and Kecil. It was kind of fun, then Mama had to stop taking picture after the nth escort duty on some rides.
This year, on the other hand.... well.... you still remember some of our more recent walkies (like this or this)? Basically, the difference with this year's carnival trip can be summed up with the phrase: neighbourhood gang.

Basically, we went together with the kids as a group, an evil idea concocted by the Mamas to get out of escort duty on the rides, you know?

So the kids can go and take their rides while the Mamas tagged along, watching (and taking pictures) from the sidelines. Kids had fun while the Mamas catch up, it was a win win solution.

It was especially possible, because they are basically a bunch of good kids, whose wild idea for being given a free reign at the carnival was.... err... matching the dragons they ride with the color of their clothes? Haha...

But of course, since Kecil had grown up quite a bit since our last visit, it was time to try something new this year: throwing and shooting targets!
Kecil and her friends enjoyed throwing those .... ice-picks-dressed-with-feathers-thingy... at the balloons, especially once they started hitting one or two balloons. They also got pretty excited at getting 'rewards' for hitting the target, even if the reward came in the form of various cheap snacks.

The kids had some initial problem with shooting because cocking those guns proved to be a challenge. Then we found the booth with the automatic/self-cocking guns.... where they couldn't get enough of shooting.

We had a great time at the carnival. Last year, especially , Mama got some nice shots of the carnival. This year, the focus was more on the kids. Haha.... still... good fun. We'll see if we are coming back again before they close up operation for the year.

Cheers!

Lovely Outings

We've been on so many outings of late (you may picture this Mama staring balefully at the stack of pictures that needed uploading.....).
Sometimes with friends, sometimes just with Mama and Daddy....

I guess it's a case of life happening.
All those while planning for the next big outing sometime in the future....

Oh well... just don't tell me this Mama did not warn you should you encounter us 'missing' again from this space while we go adventuring, followed with a flurry of 'outdated' updates. Haha...

Cheers everyone, hopefully your holiday seasons are also full of happening adventures.

Duo @ the mall

It so happen that one week Mama found a hole on Kecil's school shoes. That must had been the work of the mouse we had in the house that week (a loooong story, but not to worry, no more mouse now, thanks to the Dog. She's my hero, I tell you).
Well... Kecil can't possibly be jumping around in a holey sneakers now, can't she? And so we went out during the weekend to get her a new pair.
With her friend in tow.

The girls followed me crossing the bridge to town, going up the escalator. Why, they even posed for Mama at the mall. And they were generally quite well-behaved although there were a few times when they got fixated on a shoe or toy or two. Still... this Mama stuck to the objective, and we managed to come out the mall only with our objective and nothing else.
Except that we did not head straight home.

Since they were generally well-behaved, this Mama thought the girls deserved a treat. Ahem... there might, of course, another factor involved, such as Mama feeling lazy to cook for lunch...ahem. Still, Mama was not the only one operating under more than one objective then.

You see those two things in front of Kecil's food?
Yeah.... I think the girls were not as hungry for food as they were 'hungry' for the toys.

Can you believe that we even had to check into another branch of the chain just because the first branch did not have stock of the toys? Yeah, unbelievable!
Still, things worked out for the best, since Mama still had to feed Daddy (who stayed at home that weekend). *see above on the note about Mama feeling lazy to cook.

We picked up some food for Daddy next door, with the girls, apparently too tired to walk, riding in the shopping cart.

The outing was not quite the last outing of the duo together, however.

Last weekend, we already bought tickets for the movie "Frozen" when we went home to wait for the later show to start (the earlier one was already full!). Then Jessica dropped by, and the evil tired Daddy suggested that Jessica used his ticket to watch the movie. She can't refuse, obviously, and so I had two excited little girls to accompany me watching the latest Disney cartoon.

Pssttt.... don't tell the girls, but I think they grow each one antler for this picture!

Going out with 2 girls is definitely different with just 1, but it's kind of fun in its own way. We'll see if  we'll have more repeat episodes. In the mean time, here's a superhero cheers from the girls:

The girls and Mama love "Frozen". The graphics are breathtaking and the music beautiful. Even adults can enjoy the humour. If you haven't watched them, you should really check them out. It's good with or even without kiddos in tow.

Outings she loves ...

... judging from Mama's camera roll, are the ones that involved food. Mostly fast food, at that. Yarrr.......

From weekend breakfast at McDonalds... (that evil spot, just right smack on our way whenever we go to town.....)

Followed with a spot of showing off her new (magnetic) 'earring', one of the things she found in her Halloween loot bag.

 Then there was that donuts joint at the next town....

Checking out the Christmas tree while waiting for the big swimming pool to open that day

Even the local Starbucks!

Perhaps she eats out a lot, at the same time, this Mama would like to point out that Kecil usually make a good subject while she eats. Who can resist taking picture? Haha....

Anyway.... there's another roll from the camera cleared. Until next time!

Back to the big pool

With the ever increasing regularity of clear blue skies and the accompanying soaring temperatures, the other weekend found us back at this big pool, where Mama & Daddy can cool down while still maintaining the appearance of 'doing some exercise'.

Kecil? She may not look too happy to be swimming, but once Mama took out the red camera, she immediately got busy modelling.

We do seem to love our underwater camera very much, don't we? Well... there is that. But we also love the fact that Kecil seem to enjoy swimming. Why, this Mama is happy to report that, on our last trip to the big pool yesterday, Kecil managed to do a total of 2 (TWO!) laps! Plus one more assisted with the board.  Two complete laps in what looks like an almost olympic sized pool, I am one proud Mama, all right.
And to think that this Mama was still close to being dragged to get into the deep water pool (first day of swimming lesson then) when she was 7 years old? Shame on Mama. Haha....

This water baby, in comparison, was already jumping into the pool without any dragging involved at all. Haha...  Why, some other time, she even asked to be thrown around.

In a way it was good to repeat our activities, since we usually learn from experience. Like the fact that the water is pretty cold despite the sunny weather. Kecil couldn't last that long swimming because her body temperature dropped after a while. So.. yesterday we actually brought a thermos of hot chocolate along. She loved it.

And of course, there was the sun-block, something which we did not bring a long on our first trip. Look at the completely slathered little girl:

Kudos for your great efforts, Little One! We do look forward to having your doing laps with Mama and Daddy (and maybe even Eyangs!) the next time. Cheers!