Tadpole Hunting

While Myron was having a late nap, the two older boys wanted to go to the park.

Their intention was to go do some digging at the sandy area (normally used to play football by the others) but I opted one mess for another.
I suggested we go tadpole hunting instead.

It was already cloudy and the wind was rolling more clouds in, so we made as quick a trip as we could.
We walked as quickly as we could, Mommy, at least.
Of course the boys ran rather than walked quickly, and so Mommy ended up doing a speed-walk and some hollering at the same time: "Keep to the path", "Don't pick that up, it's dirty", "Look out for ants", "Look where you're going. Don't walk backwards", etc.


We surveyed some fish ponds, but it had no tadpoles.
It was also rather dangerous as the boys kept leaning over the edge. The water's murky and I hear it is quite deep.


So we headed to an abandoned fountain area (Not exactly abandoned, but rather they fountains are "out of order" or never turned on as far as we know). Here the tadpoles were an "easy pick".




So here's our "catch of the day".

Many Firsts on This Holiday Outing

The first Saturday of the holiday we went down to KLCC's park.

It was Myron's first time to the park.


It was also the first day of the Fasting month, so we practically had the whole park to ourselves. Apart from a handful of tourists, we were about the only locals outdoor.


Then we had a little snackie at the picnic area. We packed pancakes for Micah and fishballs for Max. This is the first time I had seen so much space and so little human traffic.


It was basically our picnic day. Nice to have no worries about crowd.

Excursion: Fire Station

Last Friday, The Play group from Bangsar Gospel Center, the boys' school and another school called Mandarin Kids, had a joined-outing to visit the fire station.

We were all asked to dress in red, just so we look like the fire engines.

They were thrilled that we got to climb up and get a really close look at the different parts of the fire engines,


... ride on the fire engine,



... and also to play with the fireman's hoses.

Sure was a fun day at "school."

Have a good week, everyone.

Transformers

We finally got to watch Transformers 2 in the cinema with the 2 big boys.


They behaved quite well.

Micah sat through the whole show, of which, 2/3 of the show he sat on Gadget-daddy's lap. I suppose it was a bit cold, but it was also for comfort and to have his questions whispered and answered.

Max sat on my lap, but also did a bit of a walking up and down the stairs by the side (we sat next to the aisle).

All in all, we enjoyed the show.

After the show, Gadget-daddy sent me back and took them to the toy shop. These are the "spoilts" they came back with:



But that did not deter Micah from constructions of other kind. In fact, Max was the one more interested in the cars, and Micah spent the whole night building a plane.



It was a great day which ended with a visit from Ah Ma, Ee-ee and Ah Ku.

Taiping In 24 Hours

The last trip we went up to see my grandma, to see her for the last time, was evenful enough of a holiday for my boys.

The first thing we did when we arrived at Taiping was to grab lunch before heading to see my grandma. By the time we were done sitting and chatting with her and other relatives, plus getting the boys showered, it was dinner time.

We stayed at my aunt's place, which rendered me little sleep as I suddenly got myself in a spot of a tiny sleeping spot with my 3 boys on a double bed. It was also a sleepless night for me as the boys took turn waking and asking for more space to get comfortable in. The next morning, the two older ones woke up at 7am and played in my aunt's garden while I slept in with Myron till 9am. After breakfast, we went around town.

We were driving around the lake gardens when we I thought, the boys should finally, after so many trips to Taiping, join me and a whole of of other people, from many generations before, to take a ride on their slide in the playground. THE slide have been there for more than 40 years, my aunt recalls, as she went around town with us while her kids were in school.



They have changed all the other parts of the playground, upgraded every few years, but these wonderful enormous slides have been here ever since the days my father courted my mom on his Vespa scooters.

We also stopped by a stone dinosaur to take some shots (this is at another part of the lake gardens). One of my brothers has a photo on the back of this rock dino too, when he was about Micah's age.


It was also here that we spotted some monkeys on the trees. We did not wait for them to come down to see if we have food on us. They are known to be pretty fierce when it come to getting food out of people, and have often "robbed" picnickers.


And finally, as we rounded back towards town, we made an unplanned stop at the museum. All because of this plane on display outside that caught our attention.

L->R: Ee-poh (my aunt), Ah Ma, Micah, Max, Myron, Grandma.

Unfortunately the inside was under repair and only one section of natural history was opened. Still, that was good enough for my boys to look at stuffed wild animals and also some crocs and snake skeletons.

The thing about Taiping is that time almost stands still in this small town. All the sights above, we did them in 2 hours on the morning before heading back to KL. After all that we had a western set-lunch (only RM8.60 each, complete with soup and a scoop of ice-cream for dessert and tea/coffee) at a cozy restaurant.

On the way back, we made a couple of toilet breaks. On one, at the Tg. Malim stop, the boys asked to go have a look at a police motorcycle parked at the side and got a treat!!


Their "boss" (a very high ranking office out with all his stars and colours on display) was very friendly* and actually carried my boys onto the bike and told me to take a photo.


Despite the grave intention of our visit to Taiping this round, it was still good fun for the boys.
In a day, so much can happen.


*This confirmed what Mommy had been saying all the time, that you need not fear the police if you do not break the laws. Micah so excited that the policemen were so "friendly" that he wanted to "visit" the army trucks next. (The police were actually escorting a fleet of army truck, which looked like they were transporting some weapons and explosives. There were parked along the emergency lanes of the highway just beside the rest stop.)
Mommy had to say no to his request.

Lotus Bonus Day

The boys had two specials today.

On the way to school, we picked up Ee-ee and Ah Ma. We had an errand to run.

As in habit, Max always asks for a surprise after school. But he insisted today that he did not want food, he wanted a toy*.

After we dropped the boys at school, and Gadget-daddy at Midvalley, we ran the errand and then headed for a special breakfast at Lotus Restaurant, at Jalan Gasing.

Ah Ma declared it was the best Indian breakfast she had had in ages.

Special Tea, Bathura (in the basket) and Rava Thosai

After that we picked the boys up and then Gadget-daddy from Midvalley on the way back.

Gadget-daddy informed us of some cars at display, but we decicded we better head home first as Myron would be waiting for Mommy.

Later in the evening we made a special trip just for the boys to have a look at the cars at display:
4 Lotus in a row!!

Just look at the thrill the boys had!




Despite the jam we had coming out of the parking, I'd say the trip was worth it.
:)

* This is the day I congratulated myslef for buying the boys something else other than a car, and I did not even step into atoy shop. Instead I found these wonderful floor puzzles at MPH.


The boys really love them.

Breath In... Breath Out...

The reason why I have not blogged is because it is completely exhausting having to run around with 4 kids, and sometimes including a little latch-on pumpkin.

The last week we were completely swarmed with my sister's visit.

We went out everyday, sometimes half a day, sometimes a full day.
Sometimes she ends up in my place the whole day, and sometimes we end up being in Ah MA's house the whole day.

Most of the time I was just too busy to even think of taking photos,
but here's one of the days we went out, to our favourite hang-out place, The National Science Center.

They had a special exhibit of "Animal Mechanicals"

mechanical platypus

mechanical giraffe and mechanical grasshopper

We also had other amusements,
like turtle racing


and fun with camouflage cloaks.


This was just a fraction of what we did.

We also visited the special "Survival" exhibit at the Science Center. It was more of computer generated stuff, very high tech, not much of a sensory encounter. The kids enjoyed the computer games, but we had a lot of explaining to do about the environment.

The we did the usual of playing in the ball-pool room and then continually telling the kids it's time to go.

It took us half an hour to finally get to the car.

It's always exciting and draining at the same time handing the dynamics of four pre-schoolers in a group.

*Phew*

Valentine's Day

So how was your Valentine's day?

We went out to Midvalley because Gadget-daddy wanted to get some lights from Ace Hardware.

Well, I had thought it was some light for our house (a few busted tubes and bulbs), but it turned out it's this:


It's for his new hobby - making is own short films.

Anyway, we had a pretty good time browsing around.
And then we went to a new restaurant for lunch:



After lunch, we headed for a quick swim at a friend's, but Max fell asleep on the way. So while Gadget-daddy and Micah swam, I managed a good time of catching up with my friend.

Later, Gadget-daddy and I went for a movie - The Strange Case of Benjamin Button.

Very interesting and heart warming.

Max had come along, but he fell asleep half way.

It was a pretty eventful Valentine's for us and our kids.

Like A Desperado

Date: Federal Day, 1 February, 2009.



Gadget-daddy wanted to take the boys to a waterfall.
I asked him to ask his brother to go along to help watch the boys.
He said he could handle them.

I then decided I would go too... at least, maybe, Max and I will just sit and play in the stream at the foot of the fall.

Wonderfully, an answer to my prayers, Gadget-daddy's bro wanted to come along too, so we all made the trip to Gabai Waterfalls, Ulu Langat.


And since the uncle was good in going along with the boys, running up the steps, Gadget-daddy and I took a leisurely climb up the fall.

Noticed a unique snail along the way up.

Also noted the many different foliage above our heads.

The trail up to the falls now is good and proper steps compared to the days when we went up a few times in our teens. It was then a jungle trail. More exciting, but less accessible to the public. I definitely would not have made it if it was as then, as I recall a section of the trail required you to climb over a huge fallen tree and then under another.

Anyway, we all made it up and down. We counted - 367 steps in all!!


Quite an achievement for a then 34 week preggy Mommy!!
(Does this sound like I'm trying to achieve something before the arrival of the 3rd boy and having to be home-bound for a month? *grin*)

Micah enjoyed the water, but complained it was too cold.
Max had refused to get in altogether and cried when Gadget-daddy took him one round down the natural slide.



For them the real thrill was discovering and handling a giant millipede and their snackie of sausages and crabsticks.



On our way back, we stopped at this place called "the Look Out Point" and had lunch there.
The food was nothing to shout about, but it was still part of our outing. It was just different to be a place where we could see our city's skyline quite clearly.

There's actually a look out tower, but I did not manage to get to the top fast enough as the four boys raced up. But I figure the view is probably pretty much the same.

All in all ,it was a pretty good and tiring trip.
Both the boys slept on the way home.