Candid shots

I let Bryan play with the compact camera unattended last weekend,….and these are what I found when I downloaded the photos later

Actually he took A LOT of photos, but most are quite blur. Need to teach him how to keep his hands steady.

I think if I let him play with the camera more often, I may find more amusing photos…

Happy Birthday Dylan

Happy Birthday Dylan!!!!

Yeah..today is the actual date. Official date! Last weekend was an early party for him.

He is too small to really enjoy the party. But I am sure he enjoyed being the center of attention, and so many people to keep him entertained. As most of my guests are family, he knows most of them and are familiar with them. So he is pretty comfortable with everyone.

Dylan with Ah Chor (greatgrandma)

In fact, he had so much attention, that I realized later that he hardly walked the entire evening. There is always someone to carry him and play with him. Unlike regular days where he would be toddling around the house finding stuff to play by himself.

Actually Bryan had more fun than him. Bryan was excited to see so many balloons around the house. We even had a Barney streamer (from Bryan’s 2nd birthday party).

Btw, Bryan took this photo. I had forgotten to take a photo of the decorations myself.

Even the items in the party pack was packed with Bryan in mind…Bubbles!!!

And since Dylan can’t blow the candles, Bryan did the honor….happily!

Happy Birthday my dearest baby boy! May you grow up healthily and happily. Mummy, daddy, ger-ger, and everyone loves you!

Dylan’s 1st Birthday Party – Pt 2 (Many firsts)

Yup, I made cupcakes! Lots of cuppies. I was on leave on Friday and I spent the whole afternoon baking & decorating cupcakes. It was my first time baking cakes with my new oven. The oven is huge, but since it was my first time, I dare not bake all my cupcakes at one go.

So I baked 18 mini ones first. When these turned out well, I baked my 2nd batch of minis. Then my final batch of regular size cupcakes.

Then while waiting for the cakes to cool, I whipped up the buttercream frosting, another first time attempt.

To be honest, I was very disappointed with my buttercream frosting. It’s tooooo sweet. If I cut down on the sugar, it is too soft to be piped into flowers. So how ah??? If you have a good buttercream recipe that creamy, not sweet and good for piping, pls share with me.

And oh ya, it’s my first time decorating cakes too. First time in piping icing…but not bad oso right.

If only the cakes taste as good as it looks. Actually, the cake taste not bad. It is just the icing is too sweet. But then, I think most cupcakes deco are not meant to be eaten. They are always quite sweet.

Hubb asked why I wanted to waste so much time to bake & clean. It is so much easier (& tastier) to just buy a birthday cake.

Ya, ya… but I WANT to bake my son’s birthday cake personally mah! I think there is so much more love in a homemade cake than a store bought one. Don’t u think…

Dylan’s 1st Birthday Party – Pt 1

I had debated for the longest time, to have or not to have a party.

Initially I didn’t want to have one. I’m lazy and tired. I didn’t want to worry about the cleaning up to do – before and after the party. I wanted to just go out for a nice dinner with the immediate family.

Then MIL hinted a couple of times for a party. I didn’t have one at home for Bryan’s 3rd birthday and she was a little disappointed.

Also hub mentioned that if we go out for dinner, only we would have fun. But if we have a party at home, Dylan can just be himself and have fun even if he can’t eat the goodies.

So let’s have a party.

I wish I could keep it a small one…but it is kinda difficult. I am pretty close to my mom’s sisters (my aunts). So if I have a party, I need to invite all of them, and of course my cousins. Hubb’s gang is just his parents, siblings and their kids. No cousins to worry about. He is not close to any of them. So just family members alone, it numbered close to 30.

My exclassmate came back from US for a holiday. So I invited her and another ex-classmate for a mini gathering. But I was so busy on that day that we are planning another lunch this week to really catch up before she goes back.

Bryan has been excited about Dylan’s party for a long time. I told him that Dylan’s birthday is coming and there will be a party late this month. So he has been talking and talking about it. And he wants to invite his best friend to the party. So he gets to invite 1 friend as well.

Hubb has been hanging out with one exclassmate regularly lately and I asked him if he wanted to invite that 1 friend and his family over. Yeah, just 1 friend allowed. I don’t want bigger crowds. But he said “no.” He doubt he will have time to entertain his friend anyway.

I hate to worry about leftover food after the party. I hate throwing things away. So I kept the menu simple. After all it is just mostly close family.

I ordered 3 types of pizzas from Dominos.
MIL cooked fried bee hoon & fried rice.
My grandma made some kick-ass sambal belacan that went perfectly with the rice & beehoon.
Mom made 2 types of jelly & the hard boiled red egg.
Dad cut some watermelon.
Me, I cooked honey baked chicken wings, mushroom & cheese sausages and these…

Fire Drill

Bryan’s school had a fire drill yesterday. Bryan told me,

Bryan: The bell ring ring ring. Then i runnnnn downstairs. I din’t wear shoes.
Me: Did you have fun? “Hau pu hau wan”
Bryan: Yes. Hau wan!

Hahaha.. I received the “complaint” from his teacher that he had too much fun from the fire drill. He does not realize the “danger” from fire. She related their conversation with him to me.

Teacher: When you hear the bell rings loudly. It means that there is a fire. Do you know what is fire?
Bryan: Yes.
Teacher: What can fire do to you?
Bryan: Fire can burn.
Teacher: What do you do when u see fire?
Bryan: Blow *show blow action with his mouth*

Kakakakaka….he thinks fire as in the candle fire..kakakaka.

Bryan oh Bryan…

P/s: I wonder if the teachers showed the kids pictures/ videos of buildings on fire. Otherwise, how can the small kids imagine how serious/ dangerous fire can be to the school? Hmm..i will ask the teachers later.

Taiping zoo with a friend

I was off for 1.5 weeks during Christmas last year. It would have been a perfect time to take the family for a vacation IF Dylan was bigger, and IF the economy wasn’t going downhill and we need to be prudent in our spending.

So we didn’t go anywhere for holiday. This is the first year since I got married that I did not go anywhere for holiday – not even a local trip. Even after Bryan is born, we still go for at least a few local trips (Camerons, KL, etc) each year.

Dylan is still a little small to enjoy holidays at that time, but not Bryan. So we decided to take him to the Taiping Zoo. And I was so happy to learn that my friend is able to bring her daughter WX as well. Yeah! Bryan is going to be so overjoyed to see WX there.

We drove separate cars and decided to meet at the zoo. And true enough, both the kids were so happy to see each other at the zoo. I think they were happier to see each other than the animals.

Yeah, there are plenty of “NO FEEDING THE ANIMALS” signs in the zoo. But I can’t read when my kids can have fun.

So I let the kids feed the fishes in the pond with some white bread. (no photos, too busy pinching pieces of bread for the kids to throw into the pond).

The kids also fed some leaves to the deers.

Then they saw the bears and decided to imitate how the bears looked like.

We adults had a lot of fun too just watching those 2 jokers having fun and goofing around.

Pointing to the Paw prints on the floor almost the entire time in the zoo.

The weather was quite cloudy that day, so it is a good day to be at the zoo. It is not so hot and so the animals are more active instead of hiding in the shades.

We did not bring Dylan along. He will get tired real soon at the zoo and we thought the weather will be too hot for him. He’ll get cranky and will not enjoy himself.

So Bryan gets to be the baby and get all our attention.

The stroller is really getting too small for him

On the way back from zoo, we decided to stop by Tambun for seafood. We already had lunch at a  coffeeshop near the Taiping lakes, but we still want seafood, since we will be passing by Tambun.

We wanted to make sure that the kids get some rest in the car before we stopped for food. So JM’s husband purposely took the old trunk road from Taiping to Tambun. But Bryan was too excited  (kept asking “where is WX leh”) to get any sleep. Luckily his friend WX napped for a while in her parents car. Otherwise, his extra effort (and petrol) would have been wasted.

We arrived at Tambun with 2 active kids – who prefer to clown around instead of eating.  So we adults focused on our food and let the kids play by themselves. Food was disappointing – so no pics.

After a long day of activities, Bryan fell asleep in the car as soon as we left Tambun.

But he was a very happy kid that day, and he kept asking for Zoo again and again for WEEKS after that.

Sure, dear, we can go there again. And this time, we’ll bring Dylan and WN (WX’s baby sis) along.