Recycling project: Milk carton purse

Our visit to Ostrich Wonderland Semenyih

A visit to Ostrich Wonderland Semenyih @ home of Cheekaboo

We took a ‘long’ drive down for this Farm Fresh2u open house, which is located at Ostrich Wonderland Semenyih. It’s kinda located at a rural area with village houses and cemeteries around the area. We paid an entry of rm15 per adult and rm10 for kid. Nothing much about the open house – just selling fresh fruits and vegetables (also limited choice). We only bought longan, and they gave us duck eggs and some bananas for free. 😁😁

The key takeaway was the brief on ostrich eggs hatching, the touch and feel on ostrich egg (you can even eat it – if you pay for them to cook it). Only 1/3 of the eggs laid by ostriches are fertile – the rest can be eaten (so, it won’t get instinct, no worries).

Besides ostriches, there are many emu, chickens, goats, turkeys, ponies and ducks. Only two monkeys and few rabbits which are caged. Norrah enjoyed the farm house the most – she was so excited watching them! <video>

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We bought some longan from the Ostrich Wonderland. The operator then gave us 5 duck eggs and some bananas. I decided to make salted duck eggs since it has been some time I made. I taught them the process of it! 😁😁

Video <here>

First sports day in primary school

Our undying support for our Noelle jeh jeh! 😁😁😁

For the matter of fact, Noelle does NOT like green; but she’s in green house! So, to motivate her spirit FOR green, everyone of us wore green! 😂😂

Sports is one of her favourite ‘subject’ – because she is an ‘active’ girl (and no need ‘study’ maaaa🙄🙄🤣🤣). There are only two girls in her green team (in her class) and she represented her team to make a repeat run. She flopped on her first round (as her leg got stuck in the bean bag) – she even told us ‘I thought we almost lose!’ But she made a comeback on the last lap!

She received her first gold in her first sports day in primary school. <video>

We couldn’t be more proud – I was the ‘crazy’ mum shouting my daughter’s name! They can’t stop laughing watching back the video I recorded because of my voice!🙄🤣 Probably some other parents were also laughing at me! 🤭🙄🤣

Playing puzzles to boost focus

Video <here>

20m7d first try on fitting the puzzles in <here>

Orange ogura cake

Ingredients:

5 egg yolks + one whole egg

80ml pure orange juice

2tsp orange zest

45ml oil

Pinch of salt

75g superfine flour

Meringue (5 egg whites and 75g caster sugar)

Recess box for the eldest include the cake

Teacher who builds good character

She was one of the FIRST who came out after school! Excitedly showed me – her Moral teacher gave her a present.

FOR? The way she described to me a,b,c….z; ok to shorten the explanation- for ‘good behaviour’! 🤣 Only she and another classmate received a present; that’s why she loves Moral studies to the extent of finishing her moral work and shorten her recess time – and lead to not finishing up her food🤭🙄🤣 (cos to be able to receive this present, they accumulate stickers. She and the other classmate who received the presents had the same amount of stickers).

This is definitely the teacher’s own initiative – I don’t think they are given a budget to do this! 😁😁😁

It is a small gift of stationeries, but a real motivator for Noelle. 😘 Good Job baby!

>> pardon the messy and tired look 😆

A book that captivated her heart (and my heart) – Two sisters, one sarong

Short synopsis (which is a spoiler 🤭🤣)

The first child (a girl) was born and gifted a sarung by the grandma. The sarung, which was a hammock and also used to kangaroo her by the mum, was a precious piece to this firstborn. Then came the second born (a girl) who also treated the same sarung as favourite. Both played with it and shared the sarung as their blanket. As they grow bigger, they have to go into separate rooms. They fought for the same sarung and it was eventually torn into two pieces. Each of them had half of the sarung, slept separately and never really spoken to each other again.

One year later, they were introduced to their youngest sister. While the first and second borns were ‘friends’, the closeness was never there.

Some years later, both the three sisters went picnic at the river banks. The eldest and second sisters had used half of their sarungs respectively as picnic mats. The youngest was sitting at the riverbank playing alone. Unexpectedly, the youngest fell into the river. Both the elder sisters tried helping the youngest up, but their halves sarung couldn’t reach the youngest sister. Finally they decided to join the halves sarung – which became longer – and it reached the youngest, so they manage to pull her out! From then on, three of them became close to one another (again).

>>> It is a great story for three of them BECAUSE of the similarities- THREE SISTERS (that was how the owner of Sang Kancil Online Bookstore sold to us too 🤭🤣) and how Noelle and Nikki always fight for the same scarf/blanket! Plus the ending is sweet and has a good moral.

>>> Once purchased at the booth stall, Noelle can’t wait to show and tell papa about the book. She was literally holding the book everywhere she went! The book has very good picture illustrations too! 😁😁

We learned many life lessons by watching our big sister!

I read ‘Children who take on adult roles may appear mature and controlled, but they feel helpless and frightened. Their competence is achieved at the cost of youthful curiosity and exploration.’ So, sometimes when I see how independent Noelle is (when away from us) and at times how ‘baby’ she turns to be (when with us) – I do wonder if she is ‘suffering’ from anxiety. Or am I thinking too much?

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To Noelle:

We just can hope that you are enjoying more ‘pleasure’ than ‘pressure’ from growing up! 😘 We hope to always guide you manage your problems and deal with it, but it is not up to us that you will open up and also manage your own emotions. Lastly, we don’t want you to have self doubt and anxious expectations that others (even us) will disapprove you. Catch hold of the shadow voices telling you that you don’t measure up.

I am brave because I am a mum!

This morning we went for our usual grocery shopping. The hyper market was having air conditioning problem and they were trying to fix it. In the midst of shopping, there were several power trips. 🙄😓 I continued to grab what we needed and then faster queue to pay. Our queue was longggg because the family in front was buying bulks of things and then wanted to pay via touch n go. Looking at other people who completed shopping later than I and going faster than me in other cashiers 😒😒 of course I felt annoyed. Never mind, take it easy – still got time. Then our turn came. In the midst of scanning our groceries, the power trip happened again. 😓 Fortunately, the cashier that I queue was generator operator – so we didn’t have to wait for the item to be re-scanned (plus wait for the cashier machine to load). At this point, I felt ‘relief’ 🤭😂 that I went on this long queue. 🤣 (cos the few other cashier machines weren’t generator operated)

With the power trips, the travelator wasn’t operating. We were told to take the lift. It was just our trolley – me, Nikki and Norrah (for our turn). Although it was just one floor down, never could I imagine that power tripped while we were in the lift! 😱😱😱😨😨😨😰😰😰 Aiyo, I have this phobia of being trapped in lift since college days (because I was trapped in one before). I have to admit that my leg went shaky with the total darkness. I was baby wearing Norrah while Nikki was in the trolley. I couldn’t see Nikki at all!! Imagine the darkness. While in the shivery mode, I told Nikki ‘mama is here! Don’t worry!’ 🤭🤭🤣🤣 wow I actually said that. Darkness was about one minute – I took out my phone to see if I could press the help bell, but since no power – it wasn’t working!😓😓

Then the power came. But we need to wait for the lift to ‘restart’. I tried pressing the bell, not working on the left side. I stood there and continued to calm Nikki – though Nikki was doing fine (she did not cry throughout the ordeal). Then I went to the right side of the lift; the bell was working but seems like nobody bothers. So, we still waited for the lift to restart – finally the arrow up and down appeared. Quickly, I pressed G and waited for it to open the door, praying that there will not be another power trip in between! 🙄🙄

Right after the lift door opened, cabut lari lor…

And Nikki told me: Mama, I don’t want go shopping anymore!

😂😂😂😂

People can say what they want, but we can choose how we feel

When I picked her up, she looked moody and sad 😔- not like usual. Of course, I was concerned – but I cannot force her to tell me what happened when she wasn’t ready. Later when we got to car, she opened up and said one of her bffs said to her ‘She says I don’t have friends!😔’

😒😒😒😒

Obviously, Noelle was hurt by the statement. Well, she got to learn that we can’t control what other people say – and sometimes people could be JUST mean! I told Noelle that she doesn’t have to care what her friend says – moreover, this friend has been a ‘bully’ and not truthful! 😒 If she thinks what her friend says is not right, don’t bother. If she thinks what her friend says is right, move on – figure out something about it. Then I gave her further examples – who’s her friends during Mandarin class and even Zumba, who sat next to her in class or during Moral class. Who are the other friends who ate with her during recess? In fact, at home, Nikki and Norrah – aren’t her ‘friends’? 🙄🙄

After that, she lightened up. Happier when they played in the bathroom (during bath time) while I prepared lunch. So, after lunch, we made this jam drop that she has been wanting to do. She is back to herself now! 😁😁

To my dear Noelle,

I can’t shield you from how people tend to hurt you; but I can only tell you ‘all will be fine! I am the shoulder for you to lean on!’ 😘😘

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Today is Noelle’s turn to make jam drops. She can do A to Z of the process -it is THAT easy!

Video <here>