So the eldest turned 12 and wanted a Paris-themed tea party.
As part of the decor, decided to make Eiffel tower standees for the table. Have never tried something like this before, and it was surprisingly not too difficult.
Thought I'd share the process here, in case anyone else would like to give it a go.
Step 1: Googled an image of the tower and recoloured it according to theme. I needed 2 towers for each standee.
Step 2: Got the image printed on A3 sticker paper and stuck on foam board.
Since we didn't have any big holiday activity planned, we decided to make a day trip down south.
It was a relatively economical, yet activity-packed, much-needed break.
Sand, Sun & Surf
The kiddos wanted some beach time, so we left early in the morning to Port Dickson.
It's been a long while since we've been to a Port Dickson beach. In fact, I don't think the kiddos have ever been.
Based on a friend's recommendation, we packed some buns/pastries and made our way to a stretch of public beach at Tanjung Kemang.
It was a public beach, but we were pleasantly surprised at how clean it was.
We bought some (overpriced) beach toys from the nearby stalls as our own had become too brittle as they were left out in our sandpit.
We got to make use of yet another new picnic mat Mummy bought (Mummy loves picnic mats!), and it was so comfy to lie down and chill as the kiddos played in the sand and sea.
Proud of boy who overcame nerves and language challenges to finish top 10 in his Chinese storytelling competition :-) Think mummy was more nervous, actually ... video ended up all over the place.
For the past year or so, the 2 older kids have earned some pocket money for themselves through voice-over jobs.
It all started with some Facebook casting calls. Didn't think much about it, but thought of trying the kiddos out for fun.
So Girl and Boy went for castings with two different recording studios.
Girl had her first job in February 2015 for some Disney Princess TV ad. It was an exciting experience. She managed to get parts in 5 different scripts. The director was very patient in guiding her line by line, with the proper inflections and diction.
We only managed to catch one of the 5 ads she did, though. And that entailed sitting in front of the TV for a while, with camera ready to shoot.
"If I were a Princess ..."
Boy had two V/O jobs in end-2015 and early-2106. One was a TV ad for a Baby toiletry brand, which we managed to find a recording for many months later.
Another was a CNY radio ad ... we were sitting in a dentist waiting room when we heard it come on the speakers. Mummy acted like a sua-ku dungu when I dropped everything and raised my phone up to the ceiling to try to record the ad.
Where all the discussions and directing go on
Second job was with a female partner and required more coordinating
Then the two of them had a recording for an educational programme — reading words and phrases to teach kids English.
So the recording experiences have been quite varied.
And there have been jobs that they have tried for but didn't get.
And while they won't get rich through it, they've been enjoying the ride.
Hopefully there will be more such opportunities to come.
Boy #2 has a minor underbite issue — his lower jaw protrudes out a bit more than normal, and his lower row of teeth would be in front of his top row.
It wasn't particularly noticeable, but we thought we would get it looked at. Our orthodontist, Dr Bernard Low, said conventional treatment is usually for older kids, but he was willing to take the chance and experiment with this 6-year-old.
This was one attraction that we almost didn't go to, but am so glad we did!
It was lots of fun for the whole family. There are four towers at each corner of the maze, and part of the fun was trying to find your way to each of the four towers through the maze. There are secret doors and water guns for some extra squirting fun.
We divided our troop into three teams to compete against each other, and we had to take group selfies at each of the towers.
The free outdoor area is just as fun, with smaller puzzles to solve and logs to climb.
During the March holidays, we decided to venture out of Malaysian borders to go Down Under, spending about a week at Perth and Margaret River with our extended family — all 18 of us!!
We had oodles of fun exploring part of Western Australia. If you are planning a trip there with kids, hopefully our experience may give you some helpful ideas. :-)
We did so much and took so many photos ... so we will be updating this blog as Mummy gets down to editing the photos etc. Do check back again soon for latest updates.
Pit Stop: Busselton
We took a 3-hour drive down from Perth, stopping at Busselton for a lovely picnic lunch under a shady tree by the coast. There were some cafes by the beach, and we ordered take-out from them.
Mummy had ordered a gigantic picnic mat from an Australian online store earlier, so we could fit the entire clan on it. The sun was hot, and there were lots of seagulls trying to get to our food. But the kiddos enjoyed chasing them in the heat.
