Daycare fun day

Ali's daycare hosted a family fun day for the kids and their parents to join and mingle with each other.  Fortunately for us, the park is really close to where we live, so it didn't take too long for us to commute at all.

As usual, it took Ali a little bit of time to warm up before she got into the games.

Look at the little pouty face.  She was curious, but didn't want to join in the fun just yet.

Fueling up her morning with a quick snack.

Ali had a lot of fun playing with water and sponges.  You can't go wrong with water in this heat!

Then moving on to the fishing game.

And the classic bean bag toss game.  It's more like a bean bag drop game.  She didn't quite understand the tossing  part just yet.

At the arts and crafts table.  Ali trying hard to decorate her crown.

Playing with chalk is always fun!

Drawing with one of her teachers.

Maddy's first birthday

The second birthday party was for Baby Madeline and she's turning 1!  

What's up, pouty birthday girl!  What's on your mind??

Ali LOVES animals, but she is usually too much of a chicken to get close to them.  This is as close as it gets!  She still talks about doggie Jake a week after we went to Maddy's birthday party.

Maddy has a swing set in her backyard.  I guess because of that, Ali kept on calling her backyard a "park".  She usually doesn't like swings too much, but she was having a blast that day.  Sorry that the video is oriented the wrong way.

Ali gave the birthday girl a big kiss on her cheek!  Happy birthday Maddy!!!

Everyone gathered around the little one after dinner.  Maddy was not particularly thrilled about this part, although all the adults were drooling over the desserts.  Wanna know why?

Because Aunt Jackie made all these wonderful cakes!!!  She even made the chocolate one in front!  Isn't that gorgeous!!!  It looks like a wedding cake!  Maddy is such a lucky girl!

Allison turning 2!

It is always fun to go to little ones' birthday party.  On one weekend, we were invited to two birthday parties in one day.  In the morning, we went to Ali's bff - Allison's birthday party.

Maybe it is a phase.  Usually it takes about half an hour for Ali to warm up to her surroundings these days.  She layground and being a little antisocial.

Aunt Anita and Uncle Anthony have prepared a nice picnic for everyone.  After lunch, the little ones went wild.  Look at the two playing slides together, so cute!

And then it's balloon time!

Cake time!!  I can't believe yan yan is turning two already!!!

Of course one can't do without a family picture with the birthday cake!  Too bad baby Adrian is sleeping!

Group picture with all the kids!  

It was a fun picnic!  Thanks again for inviting Ali, A^4!!

Aunt Karyn's wedding

We are lucky that we are invited to so many weddings this summer.  This time is Aunt Karyn's turn!  

Ali getting ready for this big event, with a purse (from kai mama) and new shoes (from Aunt Brenda).  

Daddy and Ali getting excited for the bride and groom!

Here comes the beautiful bride and her dad:

Look at the two lovebirds!

While all those smooches are going on, Ali took daddy out for a walk, enjoying the nice rose garden.

Mommy got really excited too and played with the little monster for a bit.

The lovely bride and groom and the sisters:

Before the banquet started, we quickly took a picture with the newly weds:

Since the restaurant is in the mall, we took Ali for a quick stroll.  She loves going to Chapters!

"Mommy, is it time to eat yet??"

Congrats, Karyn and Warren!!!  Thanks again for including us on your special day!

Going to a farm

It is so much more fun when the kids are older.  We took our little monster to a farm to check out different animals.  Ali had such a great time!

Checking out the ducks by the entrance.  Ali was a little scared at first, but very excited and kept on making "quack, quack" sounds.  So cute!

The donkeys are pretty cute.  I think they are miniature donkeys.

Free range chicken.  Literally.  They let these weird looking chicken roamed freely in the farm.  

Ali had a thing for sheep.  She was so so excited to see the sheep!  

A jumpy mountain goat.  They seemed to like to climb a lot.

This peacock was a little shy.  He tend to hide behind the garbage bin most of the time.

Two beautiful majestic horses.  They are so handsome and gorgeous!

Baa baa sheep taking a little break from grazing.

Ali, her wonderful goo-ma and a cute rabbit.

These moo-moos were just too sweet.  One was kissing the other.  So adorable!

After we went once around the farm (it was quite small), Ali wanted to head back to see the rabbits again.  Look at the dad and the girl.  They were so excited to go back to check out the rabbitat!

A short clip of Ali trying to feed the rabbits.  She was pretty scared to go near them, but she really liked watching them and didn't want to leave.

After our short visit to the farm, we went to Lonsdale Quay to have lunch.

It just so happened that there was a farmer's market there that weekend.  Look at those gorgeous cherry tomatoes!!!  So beautiful and yummy!!!  I wanted to take ALL of them home!!!

When Ali is at daycare...

I have so much free time that I don't know what to do.  Actually, that's not true.  There is a list of things that I want to accomplish this month and I am quite behind still.  And I really have one and a half weeks left!!!  Oh no, what to do!  Gotta power up the engine a bit and start being more productive!!!

One of the things that I really wanted to do is to learn how to make cakes.  I tried making a cake for hubby (boyfriend, back then) and it was a complete failure.  Ever since I learned that one of my students' mother has a talent in making cakes, I asked if I could be her apprentice for a day, just to learn a couple of things.  She is SUPER NICE and is really helpful in guiding me in this cake hobby of mine.  First, she showed me her moon cakes.  Gosh, it looks just like the big shops!! 

The cake I learned about is mousse cake.  Mrs. Gu is so nice that she made a cake early in advance so I can learn how to make the mousse when I was there and she showed me how to make the actual cake too on the spot!

My "sifu" working hard in the kitchen:

The mousse needs to be set for a day before we can do the decorations.  Mrs. Gu gave me a lot of tips and my first "demo" cake turned out pretty well!

A cross-section of the mango mousse cake:

Mrs. Gu insisted that I brought home both cakes.  So I practiced making my own blueberry mousse and it didn't turn out as well as I hope.  But for a cake dummy like me, it turned out better than I anticipated.  At least it tasted okay.  Oh well, now that I know what to do, I am sure the next one will be a lot better!

The only problem with me learning to make cakes is that my husband and I don't really like desserts.  Trying to get rid of the cake is a major problem.  Gotta take a little break from this before I make another one!  Too much cake!