Beautiful wedding in Penang

We attended a good friend's wedding in Penang about two weeks before Chinese New Year. The wedding was held at the newly refurbished Lone Pine Hotel, which is also the sister hotel of E&O.

This is the view of the wedding venue from our hotel room. Each room has a seaside view. We took this picture on the morning of the wedding day.

The wedding ceremony. And guess what? We were the latest.....shame on us. We only arrived towards the end of the ceremony. We thought the ceremony would start at 5pm. Thus, I went for my massage at 3:30pm and left the hubs and cheeky sleeping in the room. The hubs woke up at 4:30pm and walked to the window to draw the curtains. He was shocked when he saw the crowd gathered downstairs. Rushed to the spa to inform me and all 3 of us got ready as fast as we could. It was my fastest record! Got ready in less than 15 minutes for a wedding!!!!!

A picture taken with the handsome groom and his beautiful bride. Congratulations our dear friends. May God watch over you and bless you as you start your marriage life together =)

During the tea ceremony, cheeky roamed the beach on his own! Took off his shoes and walked barefooted. Beautiful sunset in the background.

After the tea ceremony, the guests headed to their respective tables for dinner. Look at our first dish - the Hot & Cold combination. Served in a tiffin carrier! Unique huh? The rest of the food was good too. Only downside was that the weather was hot. I didn't feel it that much as I was wearing a halter dress but the hubs was sweating and he wasn't even wearing a suit. Actually the seaside is quite breezy but the side flaps of the canopy blocked the wind from coming through.

We had a good time catching up with all our friends. We haven't seen some of them in ages, since graduation maybe. Weddings are always a good time for reunions huh?

The next day, cheeky woke up bright and early (before 8am) despite sleeping past 10pm the night before. We took the opportunity to go for a swim after breakfast before heading to the airport for our flight back to Singapore. It was a lil vacation for the cheeky who enjoyed himself thoroughly. As for the hubs, it was a good weekend getaway from his hectic work-life.

Cheeky at the kiddie table =) Stuffing himself silly with all the sugary cereal.

Swimming

The cheeky loves playing with water, no doubt about that. However, he gets annoyed when I shower his head with water during his hair wash. And when we are at the pool, he can react in two different ways; depending on which friend is at the pool with him. If he is playing with his old time friends like Oscar and Rion, he seems apprehensive and hardly goes down the slide. He'd just goof around with them. He wouldn't even follow Oscar down the slide.

BUT, if his new friend Gaspar is at the pool, I see a different Joshie. Gaspar is his classmate and he is 6 months older than Joshie. In his company, Joshie tries to behave like a big boy and he likes to imitate everything Gaspar does. He would go down the slide together (pictured below) and wouldn't even cry or run to me if Gaspar bullies him.

Funny huh?

Anyway, here's his new Minnie Mouse hooded towel which daddy bought from Hong Kong. No more Mickey so he had to make do with Minnie instead. Joshie loves his towel a lot.

Week 4 of Term 1

This is really backdated, lazy mummy.

An excerpt from the email by the teacher: This week, the children explored another aspect of the theme 'All About Me'. They were introduced to the different types of feelings and played this game where they had to display different facial expressions to depict different types of feelings. The children were also taught the colours, pink and brown and they had an exciting time making chocolate milkshake in class (to teach the colour brown). The children were also introduced to the letter 'Cc' and its sound and played the game 'Smashing Cans' to reinforce that C is for Cans.

Woohoo.......Joshie managed to smash all the cans!!!

Getting his footprint.

I don't know what they were doing here, presumably playing a game.

Craft time.

Oh, this was probably my son's favourite lesson time. Making chocolate milkshake, in line with learning the colour brown!!

Delicious lunch at Overseas Restaurant

When I read from the newspapers that Overseas Restaurant had opened a branch in Singapore, I knew we had to visit that restaurant very soon. It's my PILs favourite dining place in KL and both the hubs and I love the food there too. My hubby especially loves their siew yoke and char siew.

Without further ado, I called up to book a table for the coming weekend. It's located at Shaw Towers, which is quite deserted during the weekends. Here's what we had:

Siew yoke. The first dish to arrive and we gobbled it up really quickly. Even Joshie enjoyed it. He put a whole piece into his mouth, savouring every bite.

Some beancurd dish. Actually, this was ordered for Joshie as I thought he wouldn't eat the meat. This is quite a normal dish, but very tasty too. The fish paste had a nice, springy texture.

Char siew =) So so so delicious. Hubby complained that the meat was not fatty enough but I prefer it this way.

Braised eggplant in claypot.

Their signature prawn dish. Joshie also loved this a lot. Somehow, I think the sauce in KL is slightly thicker and darker but this was nevertheless delicious.

We will definitely go back again!!! Real yummy food.

His antics

Joshie is really talkative now, and sometimes it's quite amusing to listen to him.

Scenario 1:

Early one morning, he lined up the soft toys in a row. Took a torch light from the drawer and started shining it on the first toy, saying "Joshie check pig, open mouth....ahhhh". That's the standard routine that is performed on him before he enters school. There'll be an admin staff checking their temperature and throat for any signs of HFMD.

Scenario 2:

Recently, he likes to take our helper's pocket bible and pretend to read from it. It's even funnier when he stands on a stool to read, it's like a makeshift stage for him. This is the conversation that went on between Joshie and our helper.

Helper: Josh, you like to read the bible so much, you want to be a pastor?

Joshua : Joshie wanna eat pasta............cheeky smile

Joshua at 2 years 4 months

He's already a big boy and with his height, people often think that he is 3 plus. In our eyes, he's still our cute little boy whom we adore so much....hehe =)

He started speaking in full sentences after attending school. He's also able to link certain scenarios. For eg, when hubby told him that he'd be going on an aeroplane the next day, he answered that he'd need to take the cab first.

I'm really glad and thankful that he's settling down very well in school. Although he is 5 months younger than his next youngest friend, he's coping well and is able to follow the lessons. Again, I am grateful for the 3.5hour break that I have thrice weekly =) There was no more crying from week 4 onwards and I pray that he'd continue to enjoy school.

At times, this cheeky boy can really melt our hearts with his thoughtfulness. For instance, he'd offer daddy his food when he realises daddy isn't eating. Sometimes, he would come up to me when I cry out "ouch" and asks "mummy, are you ok?" I can also expect him to say "mummy, be careful" when I am standing on the chair, reaching for something on the highest shelf of my wardrobe.

In terms of crankiness and tantrums, he is quite controllable most of the time. We can just threaten him with the naughty corner and it wouldn't be that difficult for him to obey us. However, when we are in the company of the grandparents, a lot more patience and stress is involved.

ELC button board

Good way to introduce kids to colours and also try to test if they are colour blind (in my case, cause my hubby and dad are colour blind).

I introduced this activity board to Joshie when he was just 2 years old. Not keen at that time. However, recently he's quite enthusiastic and would try to match the buttons to the correct colour.

I find that ELC has a good range of toys for kids. The quality's good too. BUT the price is also really good!

Happy CNY!

We are back in Singapore again today. Was in KL+Ipoh+Penang for a stretch of two whole weeks. Good holiday although we had some sleepless nights due to the fireworks. The fireworks at our place were really loud this year, and Joshie was rudely jolted up from his sleep. Of course he screamed and we had to take turns rushing to his bed to console him.

That aside, we had a real good time pigging out. It was mostly SLEEP+EAT! When we were in Penang, I never felt hungry at all. Gorged on the wide buffet spread at E&O Hotel for breakfast and thereafter to the hawkers centre for lunch + tea before having a proper chinese dinner.

There were lots of visitings and our schedule for the 1st day of CNY was really packed. Church in the morning followed by house visitings. By the time we reached home, it was over 6pm. The following days were better though. Joshie met a lot of relatives and friends and it took him quite a while to warm up. But after that, he'd play happily and refuse to go back.

Anyway, enough of my ramblings. I am sure all of you had a good CNY celebration as well. Would like to wish all my readers a happy CNY and may the year of the rabbit bring you health, wealth and happiness!