Chipped Dishes

Hubby and I have been training our kids to wash dishes...and while they are rather helpful, my poor dishes have been accidentally dropped, cracked and some even broken in the process.

Plates and bowls are not cheap nowadays, and since Jusco is having some special discounts for Jusco Cardholders from 24th till 28th June we took the opportunity to replace about 8 of our dinner plates.

Hopefully my kids' skills have improved and we won't need to replace these plates anytime soon...

Made With Love

Celebrated Father's Day in church yesterday. The youths from the Youth Fellowship put up a special presentation on stage for the dads and the children from the Sunday School each made a card.

Card made by PreTeen for dad

Every year my kids would present hubby and I with handmade gifts for Father's Day and Mother's Day respectively, that was until CoolTeen turned 13 and graduated from Sunday School. Then he would send very nice SMSes to us instead.


I have kept all their handicrafts and this morning I decided to look for them from all over the house and take photos of them (in case I misplace them, being the messy person that I am!)...something for hubby and I to look back at when our kids grow up and go off to college/ university.



Mother's Day gift - butterfly made by CoolTeen when he was 10

Pop up cards by CoolTeen & PreTeen

Flower made from crepe paper, by CoolTeen

It says "Happy Father's Day. My love for you goes on and on and on"

A drawing by CoolTeen when he was little...and that's me!

I Made These Myself!

Went for a baking class last Friday to learn how to decorate cupcakes with fondant. I have always admired the pretty fondant figurines on cakes and cupcakes but somehow did not have much success in making them. Here is what happened the last time I tried using fondant.

The other day I was at Speed Bake in Bandar Mahkota Cheras, a shop selling baking ingredients and utensils, when I found out that there was going to be some baking classes during the school holidays. I have never attended a baking class before but there's always a first time for everything... so I signed up, paid the RM180 and bought a whole bunch of fondant tools and eagerly attended class.

The lady conducting the class introduced herself as Chef Lai, and she had prepared nine cupcakes for each student to decorate. There were 7 of us students, mainly housewives.







Firstly, she showed us how to make the cupcakes and the icing. Then she went on to show us step by step how to do the 2D and 3D decorations using fondant in a whole variety of colours, all prepared beforehand and neatly stored in a plastic container for each one of us.



The smell of cupcakes baking in the oven filled the room and everyone had a lot of fun...it was a lot like playing with playdough. Of course there was a ready-made sample of 9 pretty cupcake designs that we had to follow but some ladies were so creative that they even came up with their own designs!

After 2 hours of making tiny little shoes, a duck, a rose, a teddy bear, a panda, a handbag and other items I was feeling rather tired and was only too eager to finish up and go home. No wonder fondant cakes and cupcakes are so expensive...there is so much work and concentration involved in creating the lovely edible masterpieces!

The end result....in the words of PreTeen when I brought them home: "They're too cute to eat!"

Flexing Some Brain Muscles

I was shopping with Miss PreTeen when we came across some interesting-looking metal puzzles. They seemed quite easy to solve so I got a box for PreTeen. After all, these puzzles are supposed to be good exercise for the brain. Besides, this is a kid's toy so how difficult would it be?

Well...much more difficult than I thought!

As usual, the intructions were of not much help at all. So we had to try and solve them on our own. All 4 of us tried...without much success at first, then I managed to solve the easiest one.
So after a few days of frustration...I decided to look for the solution on the internet. Found a few video clips on YouTube for this one...

And finally...after many, many tries...hubby solved one more and tonight I solved the last one...voila!

At least I'm relieved that our gray matter has not deteriorated too much with age...phew!
(btw, the kids are still struggling with the puzzles...!)

Family Day Out

Today being a public holiday, we decided to do what many other urban families would do...go shopping! CoolTeen wasn't at all keen to come along with us but his rubber flip-flops was totally worn out and finally the strap gave way this morning when hubby took the kids out for breakfast.

CoolTeen is a person who is most comfortable with order and routine. He could have the same food every day without getting tired of it. He could listen to the same songs over and over for hours...and he likes to get a certain kind of slippers at a certain shop...

So off we went to MidValley Megamall, knowing that there was an outlet there where he could get his slippers. Hubby and the kids were still quite full because they had a late breakfast, so we decided to just have doughnuts for a simple lunch instead. Went to Big Apple Donuts and Coffee, and look what they had on promotion....

Doughnuts that look like sushi!

They were so cute and a pack of 18 donashi, that's what they are called (a blend of the words 'donut' and 'sushi') costs RM20. There were so many varieties and PreTeen wanted one of each. CoolTeen was happy with just the basic sugar-coated doughnut...not even very cute-looking doughnuts could make him try something different. Hubby, PreTeen and I shared the box of donashi but we couldn't finish them all in one sitting, so we were glad they came in a very nice plastic box...which I could re-use to display real sushi if I had to bring something for a potluck party :)

After lunch we went over to the other side of town - The Curve at Mutiara Damansara. I needed to collect a bracelet that I had sent for repairs because the clasp came off and hubby had fixed it wrongly. We tried to drop in at Houz Depot before that but parking space was severely limited and we gave up after driving a few rounds in the basement carpark.

At the Ikano Power Centre concourse there was a school holiday promotion for the KL Bird Park, with some very pretty birds on display (which I didn't manage to get very good photos of).








Must be age catching up with me...I used to be able to shop the whole day but nowadays my feet and back would start to ache after only a few hours of walking around (even when I am wearing my very comfy sandals). Had an early dinner at Uncle Lim's (a pretty popular place judging from the number of customers) and headed for home...much to CoolTeen's relief!

For once CoolTeen told us he knew the exact route back to the car and led the way...because when we came from the carpark earlier, we had to pass a few shops/places that sold certain apparels that would make any teenage boy's eyes open a little wider...if you know what I mean (wink!)