Pre-school Open House

We went to the Girl's school's open house last week. Here is a picture of the outside play area.


Here is the other side of the outside play area. You can see in this picture that the play area is basically the back yard of the house the school is in. It still seems crazy to me that everything is cramped into tiny spaces in the city. This school has 1 HUGE classroom (shared by 3 classes) and 2 small classrooms (used by 2 other classes). That translates to the basement of a church. They also use the basement of the house right next to the church as their office space.


Here is a shot of the Girl's classroom which is one of the small rooms. Her classroom consists of this room in the picture and a much smaller room off to the side of this room that is used as a imaginative play area. They go into the small room to play dress up or acting type activities. Circle time, small group crafts, meals are all done in this big room.


You see those pictures hung along the ceiling of the classroom? Those are self portraits done by the kids. This is the Girl's.


I have never seen her draw like this. I don't know how much/what kind of help she got to complete this master piece. Here is another project of hers - playdough pizza.


The Girl is really enjoying school. I am quite relieved. I knew she'd like it but I never expected her to adapt so quickly and embrace it so completely. She knows the Boy and I do other things while she is in school and she accepts that she needs to be in school and that the Boy is allowed to have his time with mommy. I guess it also helps that one afternoon a week, she gets a girl's afternoon out. We either go out and do some something fun together (Two weeks ago, we went to David's Bridal and tried on puffy gowns. She was more excited than any of the brides in the store.) or we stay home and work on sewing projects. So I guess that means we are all enjoying her school. Yeah!

Cakewalk

My friend Michelle had a booth at a craft fair this past weekend selling her delicious cupcakes.


Do you think my kids liked the cupcakes?


Yum!


Michelle's cakes are very flavorful, moist and decadent. If you are looking to order a birthday/wedding/party/cup cake, check out her website. You won't be disappointed.

唱歌仔終結篇

唔好出貓，聽完先好睇答案呀！今次應該聽到啦。Oh... and please ignore the ghost eye behind her.










華美學校真快樂，玩玩遊戲唱唱歌，吃吃點心精神好，樣樣學來有進步。

Found Love At The Playground

Check out these flowers that grow along the edge of a playground.


Did you see the love flower? Look closely. Did you see this one? Isn't it sweet?


While I was busy admiring the lovely flowers, the boy was up to something.


Weeeeeee!






He went down the scary spirally slide without so much as calling out for me to help/watch/document the moment. My boy is growing up fast!

Learn On My Lap

One of my favorite stories/anecdotes I've heard from my father-in-law is how he used to put 3 year old Hubby (my hubby, of course) on his lap and taught him how to program. I just love the image of a sweet little 3 year old sitting on daddy's lap in front of a computer, tapping the keyboard with his tiny little fingers.

I've been bugging Hubby to start the Girl's training. I believe a lot of the people who do things really well grew up with those things. You know, musicians who grew up with parents who played and taught them when they were little. Those skills are embedded in their every fiber just like the nutrients they absorb from the food they eat. It becomes second nature to them. Maybe I am not making sense...



Anyway, I thought I should do my part to give the Girl something to grow up with. So, I am putting her on my lap and teaching her how to sew. Little by little, I think she is picking it up.



Have a good weekend.

唱歌仔 Round 2

妹仔的中文上學之後進步了一點。 唱歌仔第二回合開始，謎底下星期揭曉！

He Snores

I think I have put up a similar video for the girl before. Man, my kids snore! It's hilarious now but I won't want to say in a hotel room with them when we are on vacation in a few years.

Notice how quickly I backed away when I thought I had awakened the beast.

Trip To The Zoo

The boy and I ventured out to the zoo on a girl-free morning.

"Look at the raaaaff, mommy! Raaaaff eats grass."


"Wake up Mommy Lion. No nap time. Baby want to play."


"大笨象!"


"Peek-a-boo! I will share my train with you. Choo-choo!"


Note: I did not make up these quotes. These really were the things that the boy said at the zoo. Yep, he talks, A LOT!

New Toy

Guess what we got this time? Hint: IT'S FOR THE BOY!


Let's see...


Later in the day...


Later that night...


4 days later...


Hehe... I know I am making it look like the boy is not getting to use his new bed at all. Actually, he is using it sometimes.

During the day, the kids play in it. In the afternoons, the boy naps in his crib in the office while the girl sometimes naps in his bed in their shared bedroom. The boy ALWAYS sleeps in his new fancy bed at night. In fact, his first words in the morning are often, "I sleep in a truck!" A stranger who hears this may call Children's Services on us.

Mommy does shamelessly sleep in the bed when the boy is in daycare and I know for a fact that Daddy really wants to sleep in it too. I caught him pretend driving in it while the kids were in the shower the other night.

唱歌仔

跟大家玩個遊戲。自上學兩星期，妹仔經常唱一首歌。到目前為止，我只聽懂得一半。大家試試聽到多少。提示是妹仔唱的是校歌。

我準備隔一些時間再叫妹仔唱過，睇吓到時大家又聽到幾多。

Aurora

One of the girl's favorite thing to do when playing with her girl friend is to dress up as princesses. It was so fun to watch that we got the girl her first dress up costume.

Meet Sleeping Beauty - Aurora.


"Whoa! What's this stuff??"
"Sparkles and glitter, that's what little princesses are made of."



Little brother learning how to properly photograph a princess.

Play Properly

"Thought we would lay everything out and play with them properly. After all, how many cars do you know like to be tucked in by your big sister everyday?!"


Here is the entire fleet.


Commander in Chief of the fleet.


"You have been chosen for a special operation."


"Are you sure you can handle the job?"


"Now charge!"

While She Dances

We went to the first dance class of the semester last week and everyone loved it. It was supposed to be a drop off class for the girl but the boy sneaked in for the first 10 minutes or so. There were only 2 kids in class that day so the teacher let him. I am surprised at how well he did.



He was in there without me for a while. Then, he saw me through the door and didn't want to go back anymore. He stayed outside with me, waiting for the girl. This is how he entertained himself.


Meanwhile, the girl "danced" inside. She dances plenty at home. Why won't she bust a move in class?

Socializing The Boy

Now that the girl is MIA in the mornings, I can turn my focus to the boy. It's been so wonderful being able to spend some alone time with him.

He is older now and can do so much. He is communicating very well and is quite clear on what he wants and what he doesn't like. For instance, he is currently very anti-people. The girl at this age had some problem with other children but she always enjoyed attention from adults. The boy is just anti-social all around. He doesn't like adults but can almost tolerate them.

However, when it comes to other kids, he is quite clear when saying over and over "no playing with kids". I have been trying to go to playgroups with him so he can have friends of his own but he is just not into it at all. I used to think that he didn't like playgroups because the older kids didn't let him play. On this fine morning, we went to a baby playgroup and he was the oldest. Before we went, he said, "No playing! No kids coming! No go to kids house!" during the entire trip over. I thought it's going to be painful for me. In the end, he did okay.

One perk for him is that other boys have real boys' toys. We have trucks and cars and things like that too, but they are usually hidden under a pile of dolls or placed under blankets while being put to bed. It's just not the same.


As you can see here, the boys are playing next to each other, not with each other. Now that I think about it, the girl's playgroup was like that for a long time before the kids started interacting with each other. I guess we just have to keep going and teaching him how to be around others.



Note: I did not refer to the kid in blue as "baby" once in this post. Is it possible that I am accepting the fact that he is now a boy?

Mr Brown Can Moo, Can You? by Dr Seuss

Let The Male Bonding Begin

Daddy is so tall!

Simple Pleasures

Hubby is a genius for offering bubbles in the bath as a reward for the kids. I don't let them play with bubbles in the house because I don't want soap everywhere. When Hubby blows them a few bubbles in the tub, they feel like it's a big treat! What simple pleasures.

Made by Rae Jackpack Backpack GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

OMG!!!! Go check it out!

Made by Rae Jackpack Backpack GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

How Sweet!

Long Rambling Post

The post really should have come before the Preschool post. The day before the girl started school I got all emotional thinking it's the end of an era! We spent pretty much every minute of the past three years together. We did whatever we felt like with no schedules to keep. It's sad for me that I will no longer be the center of her world. So I decided to do something super fun on this last day.

I had heard from ONE person that FLOAM is the best thing ever. FLOAM is a sculpting medium that resembles Styrofoam beads suspended in Slime. The idea was so appealing to me that I went out and bought a pack. I read some reviews after I came home with the stuff and was shocked to see horrible horrible reviews across the board. It seems that everyone hated it. The reviews included, "it's the messiest thing on earth" "it's useless" "it sticks to everything" "false advertisement" "stay away at all costs".


Em... I already had this stuff in my house and had already promised the girl some fun Floam time by the time I read the reviews. So I had to come up with a back up plan. I was ready to deal with the mess but I was not ready to deal with the disappointment. So I went and made some cornstarch playdough and thought I may be able to build a volcano with her.



"Fortunately", when we opened our batch of Floam, it was horrible not because it was sticky and messy but because it was dry and there wasn't much you can do with it. So we used the Floam to decorate our volcano.


We named our volcano K Mountain. Then the girl decided it's not fair to the boy and we named the other side Mount H.


So, the volcano is complete and it was time for the magic.


We did this over and over for a long time until the volcano was one soggy mess. Remembering that one Floam reviewer warned that when flushed down the sink, this stuff will dry 3 months later and destroy your pipes, I decided to add our creation to the landfill. Sorry Earth. I promise to never buy this junk again. As you can see in the video, we've made quite a mess by this time but the kids were still not done with it. They were temporarily distracted by the bucket of water I left out to clean the Floam in case it was sticky.

After "washing their hands" about 20 times in the little bucket, the little ones asked for more. I am a real softy for happy kids. I just couldn't break up the party. So I decided to do a little more volcano magic. I took out a bowl and gave the little people the "potion" and the "dust" and had them throw the ingredients in the bowl together. You would not believe the ooohs and aaaahhs I got. Then, they both decided they wanted the dust and so I just left a bowl full of potion on the table and gave the each a small container of dust.



This went on for another 20 minutes. 3 cups of potion and 8 little tubs of dust later, the kids were wet, powdery, so incredibly proud of themselves and very satisfied with our little experiments. This was the cleanest messy thing I have ever done with them. All I had to do for clean up was to wipe the table. The potion and dust mix cleaned their table so exceptionally that I considered cleaning the whole kitchen. (Who was I kidding? Me? Clean the kitchen? Nah!)

I threw the little magicians in the bath tub and let them play in the water for a while. Since they were magicians, they were way too fast for me to catch and cloth them. Therefore, they ran around the house naked for about an hour and collapsed on the floor while I fed them dinner. They talked and talked and talked about the magic and how fast they were running. What a fun Pre Preschool bash!

PS Thanks for bearing with me while I rambled on and on and on and on...

Preschool

The girl is officially a preschooler!


She did really well on her first day. It took me about 10 min to drop her off... not even for her. I was just confused and didn't know where we were supposed to go or whom I should have left her with. Anyways, she was very happy when I picked her up and her teacher said she danced, crafted, ate (ALL her food!) and went potty. Here she is seen having an animated conversation with her teacher.


One of her new friends. Her teacher took this picture. I am not sure who this is and what they were doing.


The boy enjoyed a morning of mommy time and he got to drive mommy around the city.

Professionals

I think I have a wedding planner and a mechanic/car salesman on my hands.

Slide Solo

Thank goodness for this little play structure at the airport. The kids had so much fun playing on it that we almost missed our flight. The clock next to the structure was broken and we were a little ways away from our gate. By the time we made it to the gate, everyone else was already on the plane. Ooops.

Baby finally learned how to go up and down the slide on his own - boy style.


We enjoyed baby's last free ride on the plane. We even got a free empty seat for him. There was a dude seated next to us but as soon as I got on, I spotted an empty seat next to a young chick not very far from us and said to him, "Would you mind moving over there? You are wearing white pants and I won't be able to stop my boy from kicking you."

Twins

My twins.






I love these pictures but I also hate them because the kids look like they are ready to run off together without me. They each have their travel bags and the travel clothes and they look like they don't need me anymore. So I have to clamp my claws around them and take a more "grounded" picture. Here is a picture of me and my peeps.