Craft Work with Elyssa - No. 5

Ok, ok, I admit - it's been ages since I did craftwork with Elyssa.  So, after much persuading on her part, I finally moved my butt this weekend.

 

Did some googling and then decided on a simple craft : Paper Plate Rainbow.

 

 

Painting the first colour

 

Smile for the camera!

 

Almost done!

  

Wash up time

  

When the paint dried, I tied it up with pc of ribbon so she could play with it. 

 

 

Happy with her rainbow

 "Mummy, see my rainbow bag! Can I take it out kai-kai later please???"

Ha ha...... wonder what others will say about her "bag" ;)

Bali Holiday - Pool Time!

We had PLENTY of pool time during our stay in Kamandalu.

 

(1) Jumped into our private pool many, many times!

But no photos of us in it. It was pretty deep for the kids, so hubby and I had to attend to them all the time.

 

 

 

(2) Walkway to the pool (about 1 feet of water) became their play area too

We nicknamed this the "Ow Ow" place cos that's what I kept saying when I walked here. Ha ha. 

Girls liked playing with water and stones here.

 

 

(3) Bath tub /Sunken bath

Hubby and I liked this since we don't really need to watch them in the tub ;-)

 

Big place for them to play. A couple of times, I joined in too.

 

 

(4) We also went to the main hotel pool a couple of times

Hubs with his beer.  Forgot to take pics of girls in the kids pool.

 

 

(5) Deck chair area next to the main pool

About 1/2 feet water here. I LOVED the set-up since it was fun but safe.

Hubby swam, I relaxed on the deck chair with my book and the girls happily played ball :-)

 

 

(6) Another Hotel Pool

So green and serene.  

 

 

Really a lot of pool time. Needless to say, our swimsuits never got a chance to get dry :-)

 

Bali Holiday - Day 4 (Part 2)

With My 2 Girls

Hubs took this photo while we were waiting to check in to our villa @ Kamandalu Resort & Spa.

 

Walking to our Room

I loved the "feel" of this place. After Ayana, this place felt more warm and err....Balinese. (Ayana was a tad too modern)

 

 

View of our villa when we opened the front entrance

O-M-G. I was thinking to myself - am I seeing what I'm seeing???

 

 

Private Pool

 WHOOO HOOOO!!!!!  My eyes were not deceiving me after all.

Our own private pool. Yippeeeee!!

(photo taken later that afternooon, hence the messy towel on the deck chair)

 

 

It was definitely a pleasant surprise! Actually, when hubby did the bookings, he asked me whether I wanted the pool villa. I was super tempted but then decided not to since it was too pricey. So we booked the garden villa. But while checking in, hubby managed to convince the hotel personnel to give us a free upgrade. Yay!  He didn't say anything to me until we reached our villa  :-)

 

Huge 4 poster bed in the room

 

 

Elyssa playing with rose petals

 

 

Baby Cot for Erin

Which was never used. All 4 of us slept on the bed.

 

Bathroom with sunken bathtub

The girls LOVED this!

 

 

Outdoor Shower Area

 

 

 Entrance and Side of Villa

Photo taken from deck chair area

 

With acomodation like that for the next 3D,2N, we mainly just stayed in and enjoyed the facilities :)

 

On that day itself, after lunch, nap and then ages and ages in the private pool, hotel main pool and bath tub, we took the hotel shuttle to Ubud town. Shopped for a while but didn't end up with anything. For dinner, we went to a Balinese restaurant with absolutely lovely garden settings. Very romantic with tea lights on each table. BUT with 2 restless girls (tired from pool play) and dark surroundings (romantic atmosphere quickly turned to "Arrgh...I can't see what I'm eating") we quickly finished our dinner then headed back to the hotel.

 

That night, after both girls were fast asleep, hubby and I happily jumped into the pool for our private night swim. Yay!  

Bali Holiday - Day 4

 --continuation of Bali holiday --

Started Day 4 with some "ME" time...... at the SPA. .  Yayyyy!!!! 
After a quick breakfast, I kissed the 3 Chongs goodbye and then had to practically stop myself from skipping and singing as I took the shuttle van to the spa :-)

At the Spa Reception

 

I booked a session at the Aquotonic Pool. Heard good reviews about it and it's the cheapest item on the spa menu anyway ;-)  Even then, it's USD55 excluding tax for a 2 hour session.

At the Aquotonic Pool

Normally no photos allowed. But since it was still early with no other customers, they allowed me to take a few photos.

Another View

Looks like just a normal swimming pool but it's not. Basically, I was guided through a circuit around the pool by a spa personnel. It started with swimming against current for a short distance, then stepping on reflexology stones then going through a series of about 60+  jet stream "stations" for each part of the body.  Super Syiok!! 

Changing Room at the Spa

 

 

After the spa session, we had a quick pre-lunch in the hotel room. And then it was time to check out of Ayana Resort &Spa.

 

My overall verdict on Ayana : It is of course a beautiful place (fully expected for the price) BUT:

(i) it s a HUGE resort. so it doesn't quite have the "personalised feel" like other villas in Bali.

(ii) everything is available, but just for a price. I wasn't too pleased then even wi-fi was chargeable. We didn't even get newspapers in the room. Saw the room next to ours had it, but maybe that was an extra chargeable item too! 

 

Having said that, the Rock Bar and Infinity Pool was absolutely amazing.

 

Our next destination was Kamandalu Resort & Spa in Ubud. And that definitely didn't dissapoint at all !!! 

 

Our late lunch at Kalamandu

We had Balinesed Mixed Rice, Pizza (not in pic) and Satay.

 

Will continue about Kalamandu in my next post.

Elyssa's Fifth Birthday Celebration (School)

After the birthday celebration at home, Elyssa had round #2 with her friends in kindy.

 

Still reeling from my almost-disaster cake of the previous day, I asked Elyssa what cake she wanted for kindy. In my head, I was already planning to bake a normal square cake and then decorate with a simple store-bought printable icing.

 

But her response was :  "Mummy, I want the same castle cake please! The same pink. The same flags. The same smarties. The same ice-cream cone. Everything the same ok? I love my cake. Can mummy??"

 

How to say no to that? I loved it that she didn't look of the negatives (the uneven icing, the lopsided cake etc etc ) but only the positives. Whoo hooo...... a great way to look at life!

 

Cake # 1 for home celebration

 

 

 Cake #2 for kindy celebration

Still long way to go but at least got improvement!

I added her plastic tiara since I couldn't find the "Happy Birthday" sign.  

 

 

Loaded party packs in car. All ready for the celebration.

 

 

Blowing her FIVE candles after the birthday song

 

 

Took some group photos with all her classmates but not going to post them here ;-)

 

Distributing cakes to her classmates

 

 

Photo with mummy

 

 Teacher suggested - let her wear her tiara!

So, birthday girl became birthday princess :)

(side note :  photo angle very important hor? I look much slimmer in the 1st photo. he he)  

 

 

It was just a short celebration in kindy, but yup, she was very, very happy.

Happy girl = happy mummy.

 

Oh yeah, before the celebration at kindy and at home, we also brought her out for dinner on her actual birthday. (she had a kindy field trip on that day, so I had to defer her kindy celebration. But I contacted the teacher beforehand and her classmates sang a birthday song for her)

 

With her birthday cake in Italiannies 

 

 

 Blow!

 

"Elyssa, oh Elyssa..... you are five years old already!! You still wail in exactly the same way like when you were 2 years old. (chin up, eyes closed,mouth open for a few seconds without any sound). You still show your angry face even when we tell you it's not nice. You still pester us with "why?  "where are we going", what did you say?" questions when we are in the midst of something. You still have problems sharing toys with your little sister. 

But you know what? You are sometimes the sweetest little angel. You warm our hearts and you make us laugh. You amaze us with new things now and then. And when you give us hugs and kisses, our world still stops for just that moment. We love you very, very much.

Happy Birthday Princess Elyssa. You will always be mummy and daddy's princess. "

Elyssa's Fifth Birthday Celebration

Elyssa is now FIVE!

 

We had a birthday celebration for her last night with close family members.

 

Some photos :

 

Birthday Banner and Balloons 

 

More Balloons

Note to self : buy a balloon pump!  

 

Food

Since I'm still limping with my fractured toe, I just did 3 items - her birthday cake, chicken nuggets and vegetables. We mainly ordered from a nearby Chinese restaruant - salted egg yolk prawns, kung pao chicken, "chee keok chow", sweet sour pork, claypot taufu and fried  bee hoon. BIL & SIL brought (and cooked!) the BBQ items - chicken wings, pork slices, prawns, pork ribs and beef steak.

 

 BIL at the BBQ

He did a fantastic job. I think we're gonna name him our official BBQ chef. :-)

 

 

Throughout dinner, Elyssa kept pestering me "Is it time to cut the cake yet?"  "Is it time to cut the cake yet?".  She "helped" (notice the inverterd commas!)  make and decorate the cake, so she was really excited.

 

Talking about the cake, it was another near disaster. Some miscalculation, some wrong steps and I ended up with low AND uneven cakes. Nearly ran out to the nearby bakery to buy a replacement. Thankfully, my 3 packs of Smarties and other deco helped to make it presentable enough to be brought out that night. And Elyssa clapped in happiness and said she loved her cake after I put in the finishing touches. 

Main client happy = me happy.  :-)

 

Daddy lighting candles of her Pink Castle Cake

Birthday Song Time

The 4 of us

Inside View of Cake

 

 

Happy 5th Birthday, my dear Elyssa!