Weekend Camp at Radiant Retreats - Part 2

--continued from Part 1--

One of the main highlights of the weekend retreat was spend the night in an actual tent. Girls were mighty excited!

After brushing our teeth at the bungalow, we headed for the tent that hubby set up that morning.

Playing with torchlight and shadows in the tent

They loved it!

After playing and singing for a while, then came the tricky part - getting the girls to actually SLEEP. I was actually kinda worried before the trip.  What if Erin can't sleep? What if she fusses/cries/screams at night and wakes up everyone else in the campsite? Luckily, nothing dramatic of that sort happened. Though it was far from a good nights sleep. (my own bed at home felt sooooo good the next night!). After all, it was still a tent!  Enough said  ;-)

Next morning, girls woke up bright and early-

Enjoying view from the tent

They were pretty keen to get out to explore but we asked them to sit and enjoy the view for a while first. Trying to get few more minutes of sleep. hehe.

 

Walking around Campsite

Walking to the bungalow to wash up

 

After washing up, we headed down for breakfast - 

 

Nasi Lemak spread for breakfast

After breakfast, we were informed there was going be round 2 of the "Create with Nature" art activity as the ones made the day before were too wet. Ah well..... it was a pity we didn't take a photo of the art we created (hand print for Erin and smiley face for Elyssa).  But kids were more than happy to do it again.

Morning Nature Walk

Kids collected pretty flowers and ferns for their art activity. The camp director also explained about the various plants.

Elyssa hard at work with her art

And of course Erin didn't want to be left out  ;-)

Their art

--- to be continued --

(time to sleep now!)

Weekend camp at Radiant Retreats - Day 1

2 weekends ago, we went for a 2D/1N nature camp trip at Radiant Retreats, Janda Baik.

 

Yup, a REAL camping trip where we sleep in an actual TENT. Hehe... first time experience for us! I read some very good reviews on the net and I thought it would be a good experience for the girls.
 

Will let the following pics do the talking:

Introduction Session

There were 11 families in total.

Setting up our tent

I was pretty impressed with hubby's skills!

Almost ready

Yay......daddy did it!

After setting up the tent, we had a quick lunch and then it was time for some river fun.

Happy girls

It took Elyssa a while to get used to the surroundings but Erin was very happy right from the beginning.

Erin trying to catch some fish

Lovely site

 

 

After the water fun, we missed the next activity (music & sound movement) cos we had to make an unexpected trip out. Why??  Cos we forgot to bring the girls bag!!!!  Aiyoyoyoyo!!!  Couldn't believe we made such a silly mistake.  I spent hours carefully packing clothes for them and then we left the entire bag at home. Silly, silly, silly  :( 

I normally make a quick check before leaving the house, but this time I didn't.  Cos while we were loading the bags into the car that morning, both girls were so excited about the trip that they happily sat IN the car while waiting. So were quickly loaded out stuff and went off without that bag. *sigh*.
Note to self : always, always do a final check!

The unexpected trip to Bentong town costs us over 2 hours cos we stopped at quite a few places looking for clothes.  In hindsight, it would have been easier if we had headed home instead! Anyway, we managed to get 2 sets of clothes for each of them in the end. On the plus side, both girls napped in the car.

When we got back to the camp, we caught the tail end of the next session which was the "Create with Nature" activity. We quickly dived into the activity so I forgot to take photo  ;-)  Basically, we made an "art base" from flour, salt and water, and then decorated with little pebbles/ferns/flowers taken from the river activity earlier.  Took this photo from the camp's FB page:

Outcome from "Create with Nature" activity

These were from round #2 done the following morning

After that, it was time to take our showers before dinner time.   Keke...this wasn't done proper camping style though. There's actually a nice bungalow next to our campsite.  So we had nice hot showers and the kids watched cartoons for a while  :-)   Hey, can't shock us city slickers too much!!!  Haha.

Roasting marshmallows after dinner

It rained rather heavily so all activities were moved indoors

Gooey marshmallows with chocolate and cream crackers  :-)

Yes, there was even a projector tv that night  :-)

Look at Erin! Had to keep prying her away from the big screen!

 

After everyone was done with dinner, it was time for games

 

                                    I think this was the Duck, Duck, Duck, Goose Game  :-)

Erin didn't understand the game at all but that didn't stop her from having fun. The selected "goose" had to chase the "duck" round the circle. Every time Elyssa became the "duck", Erin also ran around.  It was absolutely hilarious!

Blur photo, but I just love the way Elyssa took care of Erin during the games :)

After games, we washed up at the bungalow then it was time to sleep in the tents. Will continue in next post...

Wheatgrass Planting Project

I started my Wheatgrass Planting Project last weekend -

Step 1 - Buy Wheat Berries

Got mine from BMS Organics for RM 11.90

Step 2 - Soak Wheat Berries overnight. 
Err.... forgot to take photo.


Step 3 - Sprout Wheat Berries
After soaking overnight, I rinsed the wheat berries and wrapped them in a moist towel.  Rinsed again that evening and twice more the following day. Nothing happened after the first 3 rinses, but when I opened the towel after the 4th rinse, I was thrilled when I saw the berries have sprouted. Yay!

Step 4 - Sowing
I got a bag of black soil from Ace Hardware for RM 2.50. Then sowed and watered my sprouts. Covered with newspaper for the next 2 days.

1 day after sowing - Green shoots.  Yay!!!!!

2 days later (no need to cover with newspaper already)

Need to water twice daily.  Elyssa was more than happy to help.
--actually, when I picked her up from my parent's place one day, she told me that she was looking forward to go home to check on the wheatgrass progress. Haha.

Today's pic -  4 or izzit 5 days after sowing. Lost track a bit. hehe.
So nice and green!

Erin with the water spray. (the watering process is a source of entertainment for them!)

Little Miss Poser  :-)

Probably need another 4 days before I can harvest them for my wheatgrass juice. But super happy with the project already. Every morning, we happily go downstairs to check on the progress. (with Elyssa exclaming : "Mummy, it has grown TALLER"). First thing when we come home is to again check on the progress (yes, with Elyssa saying : "Mummy, look...it has grown even TALLER")

I don't think I've ever planted anything by myself before, so I am thrilled!!  Good nature lesson for the girls too. Gonna plant choy sam next :-)

Elyssa's 2nd Kindy Concert

Elyssa just had her 2nd Kindy Concert last weekend. Just like last year, she didn't want me to show her dance steps before the concert.  Kept on telling me....."Mummy, you see on the actual day!"  Suspense only!! 

She brought home her concert costume on the Friday before the concert. I absolutely loved it!  Much, much better than the green shiny bling-bling costume last year. (which is still hanging untouched in the cupboard) 

Chinese or Korean Costume?

Looks Korean to me! She insisted it was a "Mandarin Costume"

Back View

 Actual Performance

She was right - it was a Chinese dance afterall.  See... there's even a "Chinese Emperor" (she later said that's her swimming teacher) 

I couldn't help grinning throughout the whole performance. She did so well! She remembered all her dance steps but unlike last year, she looked like she was enjoying it  :-)

Looking so demure with the orange scarf

When the performance ended, my SIL and I shouted "ELYSSA!!!" on top of our lungs.  Hee hee.... so super proud of her!  :)

4 of us

Sisters

I love they way they are holding hands in this photo :-)

With Ku Jie

Elyssa's fan club!

Imagine this - NINE people in FOUR cars came to see this little princess perform. What a lucky girl indeed!

Ah Kong, Ah Mah, Daddy, Mummy, Ku Jie (who took this photo), Erin, Cousin Justin, Cousin Jensen and kakak (not in photo)

Compared to last year, I felt the overall concert performance for the kindy was not as good. There were some unnecessary draggy narrations this year.
But in terms of Elyssa's class performance, I liked this year's wayyy better - loved the costume, theme, music score and choreography. I'm a happy mummy!

Can't wait for the official photos and video  :-)

Bukit Bendera in Penang

We went for short holiday in Penang recently. Or more like few weekends ago. Just don't have the time to sit down to blog these days! Erin is taking much longer to sleep nowadays. Instead of being fast asleep around 10pm, this girl now wants to go downstairs to play with her toys and then bring up her toys one-by-one, sometimes up to almost 12am.  Sometimes, I doze off while waiting for her to come back upstairs. And then wake up to find assorted things like a beach ball, some naked Barbie dolls, a plastic hair dryer etc etc next to me.  Haiyoh.....

Anyway, back to our Penang trip. Got plenty of photos in my phone, but here are the ones for Bukit Bendera :

All ready to go kai-kai - Sunglasses?  Checked!  Caps ?  Checked!

At the foothill

New Train to go up

Gotta be careful though! While we were asking the guard whether we could still enter the carriage (only standing space available), Elyssa suddenly screamed cos her right leg fell in between the gap of the train and stairs. We quickly pulled her up - luckily no injuries but she was in shock for a while. 3 girls who were sitting on the bench practically jumped up and offered to let us sit. (caring Malaysians still exist. Yay!) By the time we reached the top of the hill, Elyssa was back to her normal self already.

Posing with some owls



Nothing much to see at the top of the hill. We decided to have a leisurely lunch at David Brown's Restaurant.  Ended up spending almost 2 hours there.

Love the garden!

 

 

Girls enjoyed the garden while we waited for our food. Weather was nice.

 

Lunch is served!
Edible but nothing great. Definitely overpriced.



Luckily the nice surroundings made up for the food quality. 

 

Some pretty flowers from the garden

 

After the leisurely lunch, we walked around a bit then took the train down.

 

 

We got first row seats on the first carriage. Nice!

 

Happy on daddy's lap