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!!!  :-)

Craft Work with Elyssa (2)

Here's the craft we did this morning...

Handprint Sun

Made it double sided - the other side was a sleeping sun

Elyssa insisted on a photo with her caterpillar and octopuses as well

I decided to attach a piece of string (from a paper bag) to let her play with it

Erin wanted to play too!   

 Now gotta think of next weekend's craft  :-)

Craft Work with Elyssa

After procrastinating for a long time, I finally started doing craft work with Elyssa recently. Our first attempt was an Egg Carton Caterpillar.

 Ta Daa.....

 Proud of her efforts

 
The following weekend, we did the toilet roll octopus.

This weekend's plan is a fingerprint sun.

Pretty fun! Should have started earlier but hey, better late than never :-)

Australia Holiday - Day 7

 Day 7

Just look at what greeted us on the morning of Day 7. Such beautiful scenery! If only I have this type of view from my home kitchen window, then I won't mind doing the dishes  :-) 
Oh yeah, we had a morning visitor as well.  Good morning Mr Kangaroo!

Photos of Pemberton Farm Chalet

The wooden chalet itself was quite basic but it was very well equipped - microwave oven, fridge, electric hobs, bbq set (our fav!!), pots, pans, kettle, plates, cups, spoon, fork etc.

Cost: AUD 120 per night for us + AUD 20 for Elyssa. 

 Interior

 There were 2 bedrooms - one with a queen sized bed and another with 2 double decker beds. Just for the fun of it, Elyssa and I took the lower bunks. (her first experience on a double decker bed!).  Hubs had the queen bed all to himself.

Our breakfast

 Hubby happily setting up the BBQ that morning.  I don't know whether it's a guy thing or not......he normally refuses to go near the cooking stove but when it comes to BBQ, he automatically takes charge!

After breakfast, we had another round of animal feeding. Yay!  And Elyssa picked up 6 warm eggs from the hen house.  (photo coming up)

After that, we set off exploring Pemberton town. It was a bit drizzly at first. Luckily, Mike from the chalet loaned us jackets and boots. I liked Elyssa's blue ski suit and blue boots. I called her "my little penguin" and she loved that nickname. he he.

Lovely Stream Area

There were many walking trails but since we had Elyssa with us, we skipped those. We just walked around on the bigger pathways while eating our chips and Tim Tam chocolate biscuits  :) 

Then we went back to the chalet for our lunch. Hubby fired up the BBQ again and just look at the eggs! I read somewhere last time that egg yolks stay firm when they are fresh. Well, now I know that's true.  
(side note:  looks like I can now blame it on unfresh eggs when I have trouble separating egg yolk and egg white for my chiffon cakes. There were times when the egg yolk just separated the moment I broke the shell. But of course that could be due to my lousy skills too. he he)

 A couple more photos before we checked out of the chalet

Jumping on the trampoline was pretty fun. Tried a few times but then decided to get down just in case it was not meant for adults. Err...don't wanna risk breaking it! 

There was a small swimming pool but it was of course wayyyy to cold to swim. Bottom right photo is Farmer Mike on his tractor. (btw, he was the only one running the place and we were the only guests on that 2 days)

Bye bye Pemberton Farm Chalet.  We had such a good time!

Next stop was the Valley of the Giants Tree Top Walk.  It's in Denmark, en-route to our next destination - Albany.

This gave the experience of being almost at the top of the giant trees. (minus the effort of climbing 150+ spikes like what I did with the Gloucester tree)

The walkway goes up to 40 metres. Hubby who's afraid of heights nearly freaked out halfway.  Elyssa was oblivious to the height though. Both of us went on the walkway twice. 

After the tree top walk, we proceeded to the nearby "Ancient Empires Walk".
Plenty of huge tingle trees there. For the first time, I can truly say that I was standing UNDER a tree trunk. 

We left just before the park closed!

Then we headed towards our accommodation for the next 2 nights - Greenfield Farm in Albany.Turned out to be another good choice. Will post more photos in my next post.

Sneak Peak of the Cosy living area

There were even plenty of toys for Elyssa to play with.

We cooked a simple dinner and then ZZzzzz....

---End of Day 7---