Shoes and Socks for Mei Mei

Took these photos a few weeks back.  Definitely one of those "awww" moments for me!

 

Elyssa helping Erin to wear socks

 

 

 

 

Then Shoes....

 

I was surprised that Erin sat down patiently and even lifted up her foot for her jie jie to wear the socks and shoes for her. Elyssa tried and tried pretty long cos she wasn't used to the angle. I ended up helping her (especially for the shoes cos at the end, she was trying to stuff Erin's foot into the shoe!) but was still happy that she was being a good jie jie  :)

 

Good job Elyssa! 

Australia Holiday - Day 9 & 10

Day 9
We stayed in Greenfield Farm, Albany for 2 nights. Love, love the place!  It's run by a friendly elderly couple, Dave & Jeannete. They live upstairs while the guests area is downstairs.

Interior Photos

So cosy! Felt like being in a friend's home. There was even a jar of homemade cookies and various types of homemade jam in the fridge.  Plus an area filled with toys at the bottom of the staircase. The toys kept Elyssa really busy :)

Price : AUD 120. (AUD 50 per adult + AUD 20 for Elyssa)

One point to note is the common area is shared between 2 bedrooms. Luckily, we were the only guests that time.  

Photo of Exterior. Plus check out the vintage cars in their garage!

Jaguar cars. Pheuu Phitttt ;)

On the second morning there, Elyssa woke up in a better mood and wanted to bottle feed the lamb.

 

Drink up your milk, little lamb

She patted the calf as well. Top right is a photo of me with Dave & Jeannete. Bottom right : Elyssa with daddy on a swing just outside the living room.

We checked out shortly after breakfast. Oh, but not before buying 4 bottles of yummy homemade jam. (2 for us, 2 for my parents - but Erin broke one of theirs recently. Aaargh!).

The main plan for Day 9 was basically the 5 hour plus journey back to Perth city. But of course not without a last stop at a winery.

Plantaginet Winery

View of Yellow Flowers by the Roadside

So beautiful!!! 

We also squeezed in a visit to the Araluen Botanic Park, which was pretty near Perth city already. Check out the tulips there!

Tulips, tulips everywhere

More tulips!

Absolutely gorgeous eh?

 

 

So does that mean that a visit to Keukenhof in Holland is no longer necessary??  Not quite lar..... actually, the area planted with tulips was not that big. No where near the "fields and fields of tulips that can be seen from the plane" like in Keukenhof.  But good enough for photo taking :)

 

There were also other types of flowers at Araluen Botanic Park

Train Ride

We saw the train going around when we arrived, but that turned out to be the last round.  Elyssa was sooo dissapointed! But when we were about to leave, we saw the train parked on the car park. So we managed to take some photos  :)

 

 

After Araluen, our last destination for the day was Harbour Town Shopping Centre,  a branded factory outlet mall. Hubby and I bought 4 pairs of Levis jeans for AUD 40-45 each. Not bad.  

 

Enjoying Gelato at Harbour Town

And that ended Day 9 as well as our Australia trip. All good things must come to an end. *sigh*. 

Our flight  was 6+am on Day 10 which meant we have to leave for the airport around 4+am.  We checked into Confort Inn Hostel near the airport on the night of Day 9. In hindsight, I suppose we could have saved the AUD 110 hostel stay and just loitered around Perth city for that few hours.  

Day 10

On the morning of Day 10, we drove to the airport (luckily got GPS) and dropped off the car at the designated bay (so convenient!).

 

Bye Bye Australia !!!  We had such a good time!! 



Making Ah Mah's Birthday Cake

Elyssa couldn't wait to get started when I asked her whether she wanted to help me bake Ah Mah's birthday cake.  

Helping to Dry Cake Tins with Paper Towels

 

 

Whisking Egg Yolk with Sugar

Isn't the mini apron super cute?? RM4.90 from the 100 yen shop :-)

 

Sifting Flour into Egg Yolk Mixture

 

 

Whisking Flour into Egg Yolk Mixture

 

That was the end of the "disturbing",  oops, I meant "helping" part.  :)

 

I continued the rest of the cake making process myself after that.  

 

Ta Daaa....... The Final Cake  

Best looking cake from my kitchen so far. Yay!!! 

Recipe source : http://nasilemaklover.blogspot.com/2012/10/jelly-layer-cake.html. Love it!

 

 The icing turned out pretty expensive though, as I destroyed not one but TWO boxes of whipping cream. (about RM7.00 each). I watched in dismay when I didn't get the fluffy whipped cream texture I was expecting, but a curdled mess from the first packet. Googled and one of the advice given was the start whisking at low speed first.  Didn't work either. Second packet produced the same curdled mess.  :(

 

I had to wait for the shops to open to buy a third packet. This time, I placed the entire whisking bowl and whisk into the freezer and used Anchor brand. (the same I used for Erin's cake last time). Phew, I did a little dance of joy when it worked!  So happy that I didn't have to resort to Plan B, which was to buy a cake from Secret Recipe to bring to my mum's birthday lunch.

 

The birthday lunch was at Dynasty Dragon. Pretty good!  We gave tick marks it terms of food quality, service, price, environment, restaurant location and ease of parking.

 

Pinched this photo from my sis's blog -



 

At the Birthday lunch

Mama & Papa with Grandkids # 1, #2, #3, #4, #5 and #6. 

Ke ke.....none of the grandkids smiling for the camera.

#6 wants to sleep. #5 wants to get down. #4 looking a bit blur. #3 and #2 not looking at camera. #1 looking at camera but not smiling.

With six small kids, we've give up hope of the perfect shot. he he.

 

 

Inside View of Cake

3 layers of Sponge Cake sandwiched with 2 layers of Longan & Strawberry Jelly  

 

Looks messy here cos I didn't hold the cake properly during the car journey to the restaurant. When I peeped into the cake box halfway there, I was sad to see the cake plastered to the side of the cake box! *sob*

 

 

 Close up view 

I normally prefer rich butter cakes, but this combination of light sponge with jelly was just nice for a cake to be eaten after a full meal.

 

 

 Happy Birthday Mama!!

Disastrous Photo Shoot!

When Elyssa turned one, we brought her for a professional photo shoot.  Loved the photos!

 

We wanted to do the same for Erin. Though when we finally brought her, she was already one year and 2 months old. (We were busy. Poor Erin......second child syndrome). 

 

The photo session failed!  She happily played with the props but the moment she saw the photographer, she clung to me. When I tried to free myself, she CRIED.  :(

 

Anyway, photographer kindly said that it happens with small kids. So we rescheduled a second appointment. (err....3 weeks later, cos we went to Aussie during that time.)  This time, I made sure I did all the "right things"  - she had her porridge, she had her long nap and when we went to the shop, we let her play happily with the props before the photographer came to the room.

 

BUT, we still got this -

 

Wahhhhh!!!!!! I  NO  LIKE !!!

 

 

*sigh*.

 

Why can't we get happy photos like this?

 

 

Elyssa's FIRST Concert

 I cringed when Elyssa told me that her concert costume was "Green".  Followed by the words "Bright Green" and "Shiny,Shiny one!!". And she said her teacher was going to give them green long socks.   Yikes!!!  What were the organizers thinking?

With that in mind, the costume was still somehow better than expected  :-)

Anyway, I knew they were practising for the concert for weeks and weeks! Most of the time, she won't tell me the steps but there was one day when she relented. I smiled to myself when she showed me the steps, complete with the count, and who stands where and who says what.  Oh yeah, I heard her mutter once in during her afternoon nap too : "1,2,3,4"  "5,6,7,8".  So, she practised in her sleep too!!

The BIG day finally arrived......

Elyssa in her "green, shiny-shiny costume"

And with make-up! I put on light make up for her, but as expected, the teachers "painted" more.

Woo hoo.......good job Elyssa!  She didn't smile at all but she remembered all the steps.

Photo taken after the concert

She refused to let me hold her sausage bun!

Note : Sometimes, I think she likes school activities bcos they alwiz get sausage buns after that. She went on her second school trip recently, and when I asked about the trip, one of the things she said was "we got sausage bun!".  LOL.

Craft Work with Elyssa - No. 4

Here's the Cardboard Butterfly we did this morning!

Craft No. 4 - Toilet Roll & Cardboard Butterfly

She wanted photos with her previous craft work too.

He he...at this rate, photo taking will take longer and longer each time :-)

 

 

 

The downside??  This afternoon, she played and played with the butterfly (letting it "fly" around the whole house). The moment she put it down, Erin wanted to play too.........and then both girls started fighting over it. Adoi.

Gangnam Style!

I gotta admit that I was never a big fan of the "Gangnam Style" craze.

But I'm now a convert!  The last item on the agenda of the neighbourhood lantern festival event was a "Gangnam Style" dance. My mum was part of the group. (dunno why...but the thought of my mum practising the steps was enough to make me giggle. he he). On that night, the crowd was invited to join in.

I asked Elyssa whether she wanted to join and she said yes. I told her to look for Ah Mah amongst those standing at the centre area. She couldn't find Ah Mah but found herself a spot next to other kids.

Dancing Away!

Once it ended, the dancers were so hyped up that when the MC asked for another round, they happily obliged with a SECOND round. Once that ended, the MC asked for a THIRD round. The adults said Nooooo! but the kids said Yessss!!!!   So, there was Round 3.

Elyssa during Round 3

Can see Ah Mah? (blue shirt next to Elyssa, showing her the steps)

Pity my camera ran out of memory space that time. I wish I could have taken a video to capure the dance moves, the loud music, the cheers and the energy! Photos a bit blur cos they were moving so much.

It was such a thrill to see a big group of people from small kids to senior citizens dancing together like that.  Especially with my mum and my girl in that group.  Way to go Ma Ma, Way to go Elyssa!!!  :-)