Kecil's new 'Pet'

I think Mama mentioned before that Kecil might need a new bag soon. Not quite a surprise, considering how small Kecil was when she got THAT bag.

Ha... still sporting the usual drool-drenched outfit... That bag had been around for a while, indeed.

So it was really time for a new one, and this Mama had been looking around. Instead of the usual iconic kids bags, we went for this beauty of a bag/luggage for kids from Samsonite. Ain't it cool?

We love the fact that it was soo full of character (Why, Daddy went as far as declaring that had Kecil been his classmate when he was her age, he would be soooo envious of her bag!)
We love that it was not PINK
We love that it is a Samsonite, which for us usually mean good quality (Indeed, the bag came with a two-year warranty)
And the best part, we love that it cost us as much as any other iconic (although unbranded) trolley bag with similar volume. Seriously.

For an added 'cute factor' Mama even put the turtle-shaped hand sanitiser on the bag. Hihihi...

We do hope that this bag will last for a while. Being a proper 'cabin bag' (albeit for kids), Kecil can also bring the bag for her trips. This Mama is quite excited about that.

Elsa, the crocodile (yes, the bag even got a name already!) was not Kecil's first Sammies. She got another set of Sammies when she was still a wee toddler from her Tante, in the shape of a lady bug. It was cute, but we never did quite find a practical purpose for them. Rest assured that we try to make good use of Elsa.

And it was time for school.....

It's really kind of cool to see Elsa lined up with the rest of the bags. Kekekekeke.... Daddy said Elsa could have easily eaten any of the rest. I'd say.

Well... another day, another bag. Here's to Kecil and Elsa. May you both have many adventures together and loads of fun along the way. Cheers!

Ballet & family friend

You still remember Kecil's first ballet lesson? The one where she wore her own house clothes rather than so called 'ballet costume'? Well, the clothes were good enough then, when we were still 'trying out' to see if Kecil would really like to do ballet. But since she liked it (and was going to continue taking lessons), it was time for Mama to get her some proper get up.

Finding a proper ballet costume in our back of the woods, short of ordering from the net (and risking the ridiculous custom charges!), was not easy. We did, however, looked it up on the net, and found out that the Philippines Ballet do sell practice stuff at a very reasonable price. Whoa... excited! The only thing was to travel all the way to Manila to their studio to buy those stuff.

As it turned out, around the same time, Daddy had to go for an overnight trip via Manila. In a string of good luck, we found out that a friend had moved back to Manila, and offered us overnight accommodation. Not one to turn down good intentions, we took it up, which brought us to a reunion between two little girls (plus an introduction to a new little girl in the mix). Wooo hooo!!!!

You might remember Nata, Kecil's friend from her smaller, younger days. Her family moved to Cebu shortly after her younger sister was born. We were kind of devastated with the loss of a close friend, both for Kecil and her parents (ha!), so we totally welcome their return (and their offer for the weekend) with joy and enthusiasm.

Babies Nata & Kecil, followed with the current Nata. Don't kids grow up so fast?

Now Daddy's flight that day was an early morning one. So... by the time we arrive at Nata's place (after some round and roundabout driving. Haha... Mama and maps are not best friends), there was still time for the kids to play before we set off ballet-a-hunting.

Later that day, after a swim, and a simple dinner at home, there was also time to show off Kecil's new stuff. Look at the two ballerinas catching up: (Nata's sister was already asleep then)

The following morning, with no plans in mind except for picking Daddy up from the airport later at night, it was a free and easy morning, and the kids stayed in pyjamas well into lunchtime.

.... well... close enough, anyway.

Was that a cool pyjama party, or what?

Well... but soon it was time for a shower and change, because it was lunchtime, and afterwards, we needed to escort Nata to her summer school.

It was nice and bright outside, the perfect weather to walk in-town with cute, little umbrellas.

It was lovely to see the girls playing together (with the added bonus of some mom to mom catching up. ha!) Soon enough, however, it was time to pack up and get ready to pick up Daddy from the airport.  Still.... we are very happy to have our friends 'relatively' closer to us again. I am sure we are going to catch up again soon. (And we did!)

In the mean time, we are also happy to report a 'mission accomplished' via the following pic:

Kecil in her new costume in the ballet studio

Until next time!

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!

Pageant Ready

Thanks to Kecil's Skool's recent move to a new building, the Skool decided to combine 2 celebrations in one for this year: United Nations celebration and the Christmas party.
You might remember last year's United Nations celebration (where Kecil represented China) and Christmas party (and the rehearsal, too!).
Well, this year, as you can see, Kecil got to represent Cambodia.

This Mama does not know much about Cambodia beyond the country being the seat of Angkor Wat, the world famous temple, but a quick search on the Google Image quickly brought in results such as these:

Images from here and here

It would appear that traditional Cambodian clothing (for girls) is centred around a woven cloth known as sampot. Sampot is worn in different ways, an elaborate style usually being worn by dancers. But since this Mama's aim is more on the 'casual while still being distinctly Cambodian', Kecil is so not wearing any dance costume. So, the pics above seems to be a good place to start.
Then the sight of the top right sampot started to seem familiar...

It would also seem that there are many similarities between the weaving technique practiced in the neighbouring countries of South East Asia, because the weave is certainly look quite similar some clothing this Mama got from Thailand, as well as Indonesia itself. A quick trip to the deep recesses of Mama's wardrobe resulted in a long scarf (Mama's) with a similar pattern.
So... yeah... that 'skirt' of Kecil above? ... was actually Mama's scarf.

Given the nature of the costume, Mama decided not to have this year's costume custom made at the dressmaker. The scarf was simply folded in half (it was by far too long for Kecil's tiny waist!), given a few pleats at the back (to further shorten the length), and secured by 2 safety pins, a tie and a belt. Ha! The smaller scarf was also found in the house, I think it was used for wrapping some gift basket the previous Christmas. Mama needed only buy Kecil the plain white T-shirt (she did not have one! Not one PLAIN T-shirt!). I'd say the result is not half bad.

Kecil seemed happy enough with the whole get up. The 'skirt' was wide enough (plus it had a slit in front!) for her to be her usual running, jumping, active self. She wore her shorts underneath, because this Mama 'knew' that Kecil wouldn't last long in the skirt once the party/ceremony is over. (Plus, just in case the safety pins fail, who knows?)
And so... once we arrived safely in Skool, followed closely by the arrival of her current buddies, we just had to take pics:

Not to forget the slightly-uncooperative elder brother:

Hahaha.... Well the party was starting, which we'll cover in the next post. Until then, let me leave you with this gem:

Cheers!

Preview, this year

Given that this is quite a repeat from last year, you might already guess what this one is all about.
Still, this Mama is very happy with the dry run, and hence, just had to share a peek.
Let's just say, Kecil and Mama are both looking forward to this coming Wednesday, yes?
Until then!

The Fairy Dress

Since Halloween is over, you think the Fairy dress would be packed away? Why of course, not! As stated before, Mama's Halloween brief includes the provision that the dress be worn for more than just one occasion. So it did. Got worn more than once, that is.
In fact, right after the Skool's Halloween celebration, Kecil was not taking it off. And so she got to wear it the whole day, right till bedtime when she took a shower.
In the meantime, the dress got to stand the rigours of Kecil's normal day, which include:

Taking the Dog out for walkie ...

Cycling with the Dog...

Climbing at the playground ... 

Climbing the WALL at the playground .... ahem...

She even got her friends to climb along on the wall. That's my girl, the ring leader, all right.

Shovelling sand at the playground ...

Playing slides ....

Suffice to say, by the time she took shower, the dress was in dire need of a wash as well. But Kecil loves the dress. That's what matters to this Mama.  Here's looking forward to more uses for the Fairy Dress.