Isaac & Isabel

New bed at last...

2012-01-14T23:00:00.002+11:00

Today is my 13th anniversary of arriving in Australia.

Also today our latest big purchase was delivered. We got a grand ultra plush king size mattress and ensemble! It's the most expensive bed at Myer and we got it 50% off, a good deal. It's so soft and comfortable! After more than 11 years of putting up with the old bed, we can finally enjoy a gorgeous bed. We are super excited!

We love Fiji!

2011-12-30T23:11:00.000+11:00

We are back from Fiji two days ago, but still in holiday mode - meaning we don't feel like cooking and have been going to food court in Westfield to solve our meal problems; and we are still drinking lots of yummy drinks at night just like we did in Fiji; and we are feeling tired perhaps our body clock is still in Fiji time? ......

Fiji was so good. We are already talking about going back, definitely. Mark and I agreed next time we will not bring Nan and Opa, haha. And we will be enjoying a lot more cocktails!

We stayed at Sheraton Denarau Villas for 10 nights. Our room was a 2-bedroom lagoon villa. It was so spacious and so clean. The amenities of the hotel were excellent and the service was second to none. Fijian people are super friendly and relaxed. We felt very safe, very welcome and very relaxed - exactly what it should be for a holiday.

Isabel loved it so much that she didn't want to come back to Sydney. She was in the pool so much that she got such a tan! For Isaac, the best part was watching the cartoons on TV as much as he liked. Mark's highlight was "doing nothing, just relax!". As for me, the best thing was no cooking, no dishes, no stress...

Photos are uploaded here

View from our room

Master bedroom

Living room (with fully equipped kitchen)

Second bedroom (with bathroom as well)

Our 2011 Christmas will be spent in ...

2011-12-15T23:32:00.000+11:00

In two days time, we will be flying to Fiji and celebrate Christmas there. At the moment Mark and I are thinking of surviving the 10 days without internet... so our iPad and iPhone will be for the games only. It might be a good opportunity for me to finally read a real book! I'm also thinking about catching up with beauty sleep and learning how to swim (kids can be my teachers now).

The special thing about this holiday is: Nan and Opa are joining us!! So it's a fairdinkum family holiday!

Mark and I have one thing in common in regards to "holiday": our ultimate holiday is to laze around and do nothing!! With Nan and Opa coming along to entertain the kids, it seems Mark and I can finally enjoy a perfect holiday! :) I shall report back on this one.

2011 end of year school presentation

2011-12-15T23:10:00.001+11:00

Tomorrow is the last day of school. Isabel will be in Year 1 and Isaac will be in Year 2 when the school starts next year. Time has gone so fast!

Last week we attended the end of year school presentation. Children went on the stage to receive their awards and the proud parents were cheering for them. We also watched kids perform some songs - they look really cute!

In this video, Isabel is the one right in the middle in the front row. She certainly knew what she was supposed to do. Actually she told me today "Mommy when I grow up, I'm going to be someone famous!" I said "a famous doctor?" She said "No! A famous singer!" ......

Both Isaac and Isabel received good reports for the year (although I would have loved to see Isaac's "effort level" higher). Now they are really looking forward to the school holidays.

Piano recital 2011

2011-11-26T18:10:00.005+11:00

This afternoon we attended the piano recital. Isaac and Isabel both did a good job. However a little accident happened to Isaac and he got distracted for a while. Never mind we do know from his daily practice that he is an excellent performer. On the other hand Isabel was not so perfect at practice time, however she did really well at today's performance. Some people always got good luck...

P.S. When Isabel was performing the first song, her best friend Annabel was humming next to me which can be heard on the video. And when Isaac's book fell down, the only person in the audience who laughed was the daddy Mark (he thought it was really funny) and it was also recorded...

And here are some practice videos:

Overall we are very proud of our children's progress. It's great to see them learn, improve, and enjoy.

Just Dance at home

2011-11-13T23:33:00.001+11:00

We were not allowed to take photos or videos at Isabel's annual dance concert. But at home, I was free to film the kids while they were having fun dancing away...

Just realised that Isaac is pretty good at dancing. Perhaps we should send him to the dancing class as well next year? :)

Isabel's 2nd dance concert

2011-11-13T23:16:00.001+11:00

Yesterday and today, Isabel had her annual dance concert. It's been a very busy weekend, but we all enjoyed it. I think Isabel's favourite part might be having all sorts of make up putting on her face. :)

Attending Lucas' 7th birthday party

2011-10-29T22:12:00.000+11:00

Two weeks ago Isaac and Isabel went to best friend Lucas' birthday party. It's a Star Wars themed party because Lucas is having a Star Wars phase at the moment (and therefore Isaac is crazy about it as well).

Hyewon made the birthday cake herself. She is a genius!

Another school holidays are over

2011-10-08T10:47:00.001+11:00

Another school holidays are over. This two-week holiday will be remembered as "wet, cold, and we did nothing". Not that I'm complaining, I actually secretly enjoyed the miserable weather because I had no pressure to take the kids for outings, and I got to have a good rest.

We have done a little bit. We saw two movies: Spy Kids 4 and Smurfs (below average in my opinion). We went to the city last Monday (public holiday) and enjoyed delicious dumplings at Chinatown. And for the past three days, Isaac and Isabel went to the Kids Holiday Club at a local church and they enjoyed it very much.

Isaac and Isabel really loved the school holidays. The school days are hard work for kids and they deserved a little break. Hope they are totally refreshed and charged up now for another 10 weeks of school.

High tea - first time ever!

2011-09-18T23:09:00.001+10:00

This afternoon we were walking to Donut King for coffee and donuts. On the way there, we walked past T2, a place that we walk past all the time but never looked twice. Somehow today I suggested "Let's have high tea here!" I was surprised that Mark said yes quickly. So, we had our first time ever high tea together! What a spontaneous move.

We didn't have a camera, so the above photo was borrowed from googling.

We were quite hungry and were delighted to see our goodies come on a three-tier cake stand. There were scones with cream and jam; cupcake, vanilla slice, macaroons, Turkish delight, finger sandwiches and mini quiches. Mark had a pot of Chai and I had Oolong. Isabel also had a treat: T2 Tiny - cold tea (mixture of strawberry and apple juice, etc) and a cupcake.

The food was amazingly delicious. We especially loved the sandwiches and the vanilla slice. The tea was fabulous too. Mark said it's the highlight of the day and we should go again for brunch next time. Good idea. I think I could get addicted to this. :)

In fact in the last several months I have been thinking of having high tea. However I never planned having it at T2 Hornsby! In my mind it's more like QVB Tea Room or Sheraton on the Park... And I planned to have with my girlfriends or colleagues (all ladies)... Mark was never interested anyway, but now it could be a different story. Well well considering the cost: $32 for two vs. minimum $100 for two. I think I'm very happy with my first high tea experience - and it's a memorable, spontaneous one.

First sleep-over at friends'

2011-09-18T22:24:00.000+10:00

This past weekend, Isaac and Isabel had their first sleep-over at best friends' house.

As Lucas went camping with Nick last Friday night, Hyewon invited Isabel to sleep-over with Annabel. It's weird that Isabel actually changed her mind 50 times in 10 minutes. One second she wanted to go, next second she didn't want to. Annabel was sad when Isabel kept saying no... So we decided we should all go over after dinner to hang out a bit. Then she might feel comfortable and wish to stay. Our plan worked - Isabel did want to stay. So we said good night and I left with Isaac. As soon as we walked out of their door, Isaac cried his eyes out! He was so upset that he was not invited.

So, to make it up to Isaac, Hyewon invited him to sleep-over last night. Everyone was happy! No need for us to cook dinner as Isabel didn't mind eating with us. And we got to enjoy all the peace in the house! It's amazing how two kids could make so much noise when they are together but they become super quiet when the other is not around. This morning Hyewon rang and said Isaac refused to eat breakfast and all he was thinking about was the new playstation game that I bought him and he wanted to come home to play.

Well that's our children's first sleep-over at friends' (Isaac did have a few times and Isabel had once sleep-over at Nan and Opa), something I had never done when I was a child. I believe almost everyone enjoyed it - Hyewon might be a bit sleep-deprived because apparently kids woke up too early.

2011 Soccer presentation

2011-09-18T22:00:00.001+10:00

This morning we went to the Asquith Bowling Club for the soccer presentation. It was wonderful for the team players to get together again. Moms and dads had a great time too taking photos and cheering for the kids. We also enjoyed sausage sizzles afterwards.

P.S. Today is 28C. We have gone from winter straight to summer.

Father's Day 2011

2011-09-07T21:39:00.000+10:00

Last Sunday was the Father's Day in Australia. It was a gorgeous spring day. We skipped church and went to Bobbin Head for picnic lunch. It's a simple way to celebrate Father's Day. We enjoyed the relaxing time very much.

Isabel's 5th birthday

2011-09-06T23:18:00.002+10:00

Isabel turned five last Saturday. She is 117cm tall and weighs 21kg.

She has been so excited about her birthday. Thanks to many parties she has been to this year, she just assumed that she would have a party and started writing the guess list two months ago. We didn't want to disappoint her, but we had no idea (nor energy) how to organise a party, so we decided on the lazy solution - McDonald's party. It was pretty basic in my opinion, but kids had a great time. Isabel certainly enjoyed herself and the company of her friends. She loved being the centre of attention.

Since the party, whenever Isabel had time, she was at the table writing, "Dear diary, on Saturday it was my birthday and I was so excited. I was turning 5 and was so happy and good. And all my friends came to my party but one girl was not from my school. Her name was Annabel and she is my best best friend forever...". It was very cute. She just loves writing and I'm always amazed at the stuff that she wrote.

This is the first time ever Isabel had a birthday party. Now I'm worried that she will ask for one every year.

Dear Diary tomorrow it is my birthday. I am turning 5 and I am so excited and I want anything pretty.

Cupcakes for Isabel's class - the day before her birthday

One of many presents - fairy doll from best friend at school Liam

2011 Soccer Gala Day

2011-09-01T09:47:00.000+10:00

Last Saturday (27 August) was the soccer gala day. Isaac's team was scheduled for three matches. They won all the games and therefore had to have the 4th and final match. They won again. Yeah!

Soccer season has ended. Now we need to think of something for Isaac to do during summer.

Working from home

2011-08-01T12:51:00.001+10:00

Not that I planned to work from home. I had no choice!

This is what I saw at 7am when I was ready to leave the house......

Some people are just soooo rude! Unbelievable!

Police was called and finally arrived after 1.5 hours. Not totally useless though. They managed to speak to the owner and we all had a good look at the idiot when he came running to his car. I definitely overestimated the power of the police - they have no power to move the car (so if it's stuck outside my house for two weeks, there is nothing police could do!), they can only issue a ticket. Well, it's better than nothing I guess.

I have been working very hard (no kidding). Now it's time for lunch...

Warm winter afternoon in Brooklyn

2011-07-30T21:02:00.000+10:00

Finally we had a sunny gorgeous Saturday. It's so warm that it didn't feel like we were in the middle of the winter.

Daddy suggested we should go out and do something. So we decided to go to Brooklyn. It was beautiful down there. Parking was difficult but we were very lucky to find a spot right outside the restaurant and very close to the playground. We had the yummy lunch first, then had a walk along the water before we enjoyed some quiet time inside the play area playing Uno.

Having fun at school vacation care

2011-07-11T22:22:00.004+10:00

I'm only able to take two Fridays off work this school holiday, so Isaac and Isabel went to the school vacation care last Monday and Tuesday. They spent whole day in the city on Monday and watched Cars 2 in the cinema, and spent the following day in the local park near the school.

Today they went to school again and had crazy hair day! I could hardly recognise them when I picked them up. They looked super cute and funny!

Tomorrow they are going to go fishing in Brooklyn. I'm sure they will enjoy another fun day.

Isabel loves writing stories

2011-07-10T17:23:00.007+10:00

We are enjoying another two-week school holidays. It's relaxing for us not to worry about homework at night. There is no swimming, no soccer, no piano or dancing lessons... Everyone is loving the break.

Isabel was doing well in school especially in reading and writing. She loved writing stories and often got sent to the principal's office to "show the good work". Below are a few stories that she wrote. (However I better "translate" them.)

This one is about the school disco night right before the school holidays: "On Friday, I went to the disco in the hall and I danced. I wore my special dress, and my dress was a sparkly dress. When I went inside the hall, I put my glow stick on my wrist. And the lights were hurting my eyes. I felt tired and happy. " The school principal wrote "Wonderful!" and signed.

This one is a fiction: "My name is Tory. I live on a farm. I have a horse. Her name is Glory. I forgot to close the gate and Glory got out."

"On the weekend I went to my friend's house and I played with her. I felt good."

Another fiction: "My guinea pig: My name is Isable and I live at Asquith. I have a guinea pig. She plays in her cage. One rainy day my guinea pig was wet and then we took her home and then we dried her. And I gave her some food to eat."

"The wind: When the wind blows, the trees are swaying. The leaves fall down and I feel cold."

Isabel is good at maths as well.

Isabel was happy after a birthday party today

This is the last post about Isaac's teeth, I promise...

2011-07-01T21:14:00.003+10:00

Isaac has lost another tooth, naturally this time. So far he has lost four altogether, top and bottom central incisors. He looks cute and funny. We had pizza tonight and I couldn't help giggling looking at him biting the pizza. :)

Isabel goes to work with mommy

2011-06-20T21:50:00.003+10:00

I don't like winter. Germs everywhere and sick people everywhere. Half of my office was sick last week and I was one of them. Today I'm still recovering, but had to go to work. Just when I got all ready this morning, I saw Isabel's very red cheeks and I was shocked. She got very bad fever... I asked her whether she wanted to go to work with me and she said yes straight away. So I dropped Isaac off at school and took Isabel to work. She was fast asleep in the car. Looking at her beautiful face in the revision mirror and hearing her cute snore, I felt really warm in my heart. It was great to have some company in my one-hour drive to work.

Isabel was so well behaved in my office. She did a lot of drawing, story writing, maths and spelling without me asking or helping out. She also had a good time playing different games on the "Get Smart" website. I was worried she would get bored or noisy, but she was a very quiet, happy angel the whole day. By the time we left work at 4:20pm, her fever had gone and she seemed normal.

I'm truly amazed by Isabel's ability to stay in a grown-up's office for eight hours without causing the slightest trouble for anyone - especially considering she was ill. She was happy to entertain herself and she was very mature, calm and understanding. Not being biased, but I really see a lot of star qualities in her.

Isaac got more adult teeth

2011-06-17T10:06:00.005+10:00

Isaac has lost the third tooth. This time it didn't happen naturally, it was removed by the dentist.

Four days ago Isaac discovered that a new tooth has already come out behind a baby tooth (lower central incisor). However that baby tooth (it's actually his very first tooth) wasn't wobbly at all. The new tooth looked crooked because there wasn't enough room. I took him to the dentist yesterday afternoon and had the baby tooth extracted.

I was really proud of Isaac because he was so brave - he stayed still in the chair the whole time and didn't make any noise. A few hours later when the anaesthetic wore off, he was in pain. I gave him some panadol and he was fine again.

Isaac's wobbly tooth is gone

2011-05-22T20:48:00.004+10:00

Isaac rushed into my bedroom early this morning and announced "Guess what mommy! My wobbly tooth has fallen out!!"

He has been super excited all day about it and was very happy this morning to have his photos taken. Look how proud he is on the photos. This is actually his second tooth that fell out. But the first one (happened about 8 months ago) was on the bottom, so it didn't look as "official" as this one.

I can imagine Isaac's excitement tomorrow when he shows it to his class.

On another note, Isaac wasn't well in the last week and was absent from school for two days. He has been on the antibiotics (first time ever!) and is finally okay. I hope we will survive this cold winter without too many dramas.

Mother's Day - by Isabel

2011-05-09T21:09:00.003+10:00

Isabel has been doing really well in the journal writing. Everyday she brought home some nice stories and pictures which she did at school. Today she brought back the lovely writing.

Isaac went to the sick bay today due to sore tummy. This is his second visit to the sick bay since he started school last year, not too bad I guess. Luckily Nana and Opa were available to pick him up at mid-day. We are very fortunate to have the grandparents nearby. :)

Mother's Day 2011

2011-05-08T22:07:00.004+10:00

Isaac and Isabel painted the flower pots at school for me. They also made cards and wrote sweet things about me. With my assistance, they also picked some presents for me: a pair of nice warm slippers for the cold winter nights and a pair of beautiful earrings.

This morning I had the mandatory Mother's Day photos with kids - it's a great tradition and I'm so glad that we got the photo record of each Mother's Day.

After church, we went to Nana and Opa's house for lunch. Nana was very happy to get her presents from us. After a glass of wine and a beer, I crashed to the couch and enjoyed a rare nap.

Week 1 of Easter school holidays

2011-04-16T19:27:00.002+10:00

The first week of school holidays has gone. We had something on everyday and so far enjoyed the break very much.

Here is what we did in the last week:

Monday: Isaac spent the day playing with Lucas. Mark, Isabel and I went to the music shop and bought a digital piano. It's great and everyone is loving it.

Tuesday: We had lunch date at Maccas with YC (& Allen) and Hyewon (& Lucas, Annabel), then we went to the racing car place and kids enjoyed the 30 minutes racing car game.

Wednesday: We went to Auburn Reading Cinema with Hyewon and Lucas and (thanks to Freddy) we enjoyed two movies Rio and Hop.

Thursday: We took train to city and then Ferry to Manly and had a good time in Manly Ocean World. For dinner, we enjoyed the delicious dumplings in Chinatown.

Friday: Isabel's class play date. We met at a local park and enjoyed beautiful sunshine and playing time.

Today: Rain rain rain... We just stayed in and enjoyed a bit of leisure time in the shops and library.

Photos below were taken on Thursday on our Manly outing.

Isaac's progress

2011-04-06T10:31:00.005+10:00

Last Thursday at the Grandparents Day morning tea in the school, I had the opportunity to catch up with Isaac's teacher. She told me Isaac had been doing really well (in following the rules, which was his weakest point) and she was very impressed by his improvement. I was so pleased to hear all the positive feedback. Reading the parenting books and changing our strategies have paid off.

Yesterday Isaac brought home another award for "Excellent School Work" and "Improvement". I totally didn't expect it and I was overjoyed! It's been four weeks since we started this "bring Isaac back on track" project and it's work very well. He is no longer a regular visitor to the Principle's office - that's definitely an outstanding progress!

This week is the last week this term. I will be off work for the whole school holidays. I'm planning to just relax and spend time with kids and do some fun things as well.

Isabel the little scholar

2011-03-20T21:41:00.005+11:00

Girls are very different from boys. While I was cooking dinner everyday after school, all Isaac wanted to do was playing with toys or nothing; Isabel on the other hand, loved writing words and sentences on her big notepad. Whenever she can't spell a word, she would ask me, "Mommy how to spell xxx?" Her book is full of her stories and drawings. At school, she seemed to be doing a good job too at drawing, colouring in and writing sentences. Every time when I picked them up from After School Care, she was always sitting at the table writing or drawing. She is definitely a little scholar.

(Isaac loves dragon and he loves building chatterbox)

(Isaac has a shark and he is playing with it. Isabel loves playing with her toys and she loves ??)

(Dear mum and dad, I am having a great time at after school care. Me and Talia and my new friend Jessica. She is very very nice.) - Isabel wrote this at After School Care last Friday

Just returned from a birthday party (one of her classmates has turned 6, 18m older)

Isaac made mommy's day

2011-03-18T21:57:00.001+11:00

I was extremely happy when I saw Isaac's latest award. It means so much more than the three awards he got last year. To be honest I didn't expect him to get any award this term. Not being negative, but I have found him to be distracted easily, get upset quickly and not very keen at learning. His teacher also informed us that he had been having problems at school (not following the school rules, fighting with other boys...). The teacher said he was a very smart cookie, but just needed to build his social skills. As a result, we have set up some new house rules to help modify kids' behaviour. Mark and I are also reading some parenting books in order to change our own behaviour. Now I regret not taking any child psychology class before. :)

Isabel is loving school

2011-03-07T21:04:00.002+11:00

Isabel received her first class award on Opa's birthday (25 Feb.) for wonderful reading. She certainly deserves it - she started at level 10 books and is now reading level 11 while all her classmates are reading level 1.

This week is the teacher-parents interview week at school. This morning I had the interview with Isabel's teacher Mrs Gilliland. I was very pleased to hear that the teacher was very happy with Isabel - she is doing very well in everything. Last week we also got the Best Start report and settling in report for Isabel. It was an excellent report. We couldn't ask for anything better and we are very proud of her.

If we were a bit worried two months ago about Isabel starting school too early, our concerns are totally gone. It's wonderful to hear her say "I love my school best!" And when we asked her "What's in school that you love most?" She always said "Mrs Gilliland!" It's also great to hear her say "Mommy I want to go to after school care everyday because I love it!".

Isaac's 6th birthday

2011-02-26T21:43:00.004+11:00

Isaac turned six a few days ago. He weighs 25.4kg (after putting on 3kg during the Christmas school holiday) and is 124cm tall.

On his actual birthday (Wednesday), I took some photos for him and Isabel before going to school. In the afternoon after school, we were busying doing his homework and then had to rush to the piano lesson. After the lesson, we went to the Korean BBQ restaurant in Carlingford for dinner with Nan and Opa.

Today (Saturday) we spent more than two hours at Mt Colah Maccas celebrating Isaac's birthday with his best friends. Kids had a wonderful time and the big people were stuffed with burgers, chips and icecreams as well.

Mommy is alone...

2011-02-10T10:05:00.002+11:00

I just have to record this historic moment...

Yesterday was the first time in almost six years that I was alone... no kids, no husband. Both kids were in school and Mark was at work. I almost got champagne to celebrate, haha. In the end I just did what I normally do but in peace. I did laundry, vaccum, and had two trips to the shopping centre, made some wontons and pork ribs soup... then it was time to pick kids up from school. School hours are just too short. Overall I enjoyed my alone time, although it did feel too quiet at times.

Today again is my alone time. I just got back from the shopping centre (only groceries, nothing fancy). Now I'm going to make some coffee, have some morning tea, then I will make lots of choc chip banana muffins (yes that's the task from Mark, another "why don't you make yourself useful" task, but we do have to get rid of the four overly ripe bananas).

It's nice. I could certainly get used to the alone time.

Isabel's first day at school

2011-01-31T18:55:00.000+11:00

This day has finally come! Isabel started school today!

She has been very excited about it. As soon as we walked into the school grounds, she started walking fast and kept saying "Hurry up! The bell is going to ring!" I had to stop her to get a few photos of her on the pathway to her classroom. She picked up her name tag from the teacher, found her buddy Milly, and happily walked away hand in hand with Milly. Oh she did say a quick "Bye mommy!" to me and only turned around once to look at me (with a big smile on the face) before she disappeared.

Isaac did a good job taking photos for me and Isabel, though he could have held the camera a bit straighter. :)

New Year's first outing

2011-01-03T22:29:00.010+11:00

Happy New Year!

Yesterday we skipped church (naughty!) and we were out all day and came home at after 9pm. It's a big day for the kids, and they were behaving very well.

We were planning to take the ferry to Manly to visit Ocean World. But when we got to the Quay Wharf... we couldn't believe how crowded it was! The queue for the Manly ferry was a mile long (no kidding!) and we can't even see the end of it. It reminded us of the long queue for the ferry ride to the Statue of Liberty! So we changed our mind and took the less crowded ferry to Darling Harbour (haha, what a ride, still a good 35 minutes because of the stops which was enough to satisfy the kids).

We had a lot of fun on the Merry Go Round. Isaac and Isabel enjoyed Maccas lunch first and then shared delicious Yum Cha with us.

The big part of the day was to go up to the observation deck of Sydney Tower. Again, we were shocked to see how long the queue was! After 40 minutes wait, we finally got in the lift and went up to the top. It's funny how it reminded us of our trip to the top of the Washington Monument, Top of the Rock and the Skylon Tower in Niagara Falls except... unfortunately the Sydney Tower was pretty underwhelming. The view and the deck itself were so average that even if we wanted to stay longer to wait for the sunset, we couldn't do it because it's just boring. So we waited again for a long time to get the lift down. The Oztrek movie/ride afterwards was amazingly fun though. Kids and I loved it but Mark was totally sick due to the motion and 3D.

The outing was a good end to our Christmas break. Today the weather was wet and chilly again and we were stuck home all day. We will be back to our routine again tomorrow when Mark goes back to work and kids start their holiday intensive swimming lessons.

The only photo taken on the top of Sydney Tower (well we need a new wide angle lens ASAP)

Enjoying Christmas break...

2010-12-31T21:47:00.001+11:00

Just some nice photos to finish off year 2010...

Everyone has been enjoying the Christmas break. Loving it!

My tradition - Boxing Day sale

2010-12-27T21:09:00.006+11:00

Today we got Nana and Opa to mind the kids so Mark and I could go for our usual post-Christmas sale shopping trip to the city. For the first time ever, we came back empty-handed. But we did have very full tummy (after a huge meal in Chinatown) and very sore back (for me) and sore knee (for Mark) after walking around for quite a bit.

The sale was very disappointing. Even the new Westfield in the CBD was very underwhelming. I think it's mainly because of our recent US holidays... First of all we bought quite a bit in US and there is nothing we really want at the moment. Secondly after shopping in US, everything here seems to be so expensive and for some clothes that I was willing to buy even at full price, there wasn't my size at all. Well, I guess I can look forward to my next big shopping trip when we hit Hawaii (Jane, if you are reading this, I hope you are keeping an eye on the holiday deals!).

To compensate my hard work today, I decided to shop online instead when we came home and managed to buy a few things that I "need". Now I'm happy.

P.S. Added on 31 Dec. 2010: My local shopping centre has proven again to be the better choice for Boxing Day sale - in the last few days I bought three new dresses (two were 50% off and the other was 66% off) and Mark got himself a very nice Oroton soft leather brief case for work (at 50% off). Very happy!

Merry Christmas 2010

2010-12-25T22:12:00.004+11:00

Can't believe another Christmas is gone again...

Last night Hyewon's family and YC's family came over and we enjoyed the delicious feast and friends' company. Six kids were super happy and excited over the presents and lolly mugs. By the time the guests left, it was almost midnight. Isaac and Isabel still requested bed time story. However before daddy even started reading, Isabel was already snoring... :)

We were hoping kids would sleep in this morning... Yeah in my dream... They were up the usual time and kept running into my bedroom and asking, "mommy can we just open one present, please?" I finally gave up and struggled to get out of bed.

Isaac and Isabel were very happy with their presents. They got everything they wanted, and more. Isaac was especially happy about the gold fish that Nana and Opa gave him and the Super Mario Galaxy II game from mommy daddy, while Isabel was extremely satisfied with her pink fluffy poodle and spotty puppy that can bark and wag the tail.

We had another big feast in Nana and Opa's house today. Now I'm really exhausted and feeling fat... I can see myself start another round of diet soon.

Isaac had fun at tennis camp

2010-12-23T21:34:00.003+11:00

Isaac joined a tennis camp and enjoyed four days of fun. It was great for me as well as I got some free time to do the gift shopping and grocery shopping for the holidays. Today all the kids had the special treat - McDonald's lunch.

Isaac said he loved it. So we might send him again in mid January.

Santa photo 2010

2010-12-11T23:54:00.005+11:00

This time it's super easy to get Isaac and Isabel to do the Santa photo - they actually asked for it before I suggested. For the first time they were not scared of Santa at all and they enjoyed talking to Santa. The photographer must be so happy and relieved to have them too because it only took less than a minute for the whole thing, as opposed to some families in front of us who took more than half an hour to get the photos done and they totally ignored the big queue of people lining behind them!

Our little tradition of Santa photo started from 2005. Don't know how long it will last...

Church Christmas dinner 2010

2010-12-11T23:36:00.002+11:00

Tonight our church had its annual Christmas dinner. We had a good time enjoying delicious food, wonderful music and friends' company.

Isaac's art work in Term 4, 2010

2010-12-10T22:17:00.002+11:00

It's almost school holidays for Isaac. I was packing away his art bag today and while looking through his art work this term, I just realised what a fantastic job he has done. I especially love the first Chinese style painting he did yesterday at art class (the black smudged patch on the top right corner is actually his name).

Christmas tree

Fish tank

Reflection

Rainbow

Four seasons

Robot

Plant

Isabel's day care Christmas party

2010-12-09T15:45:00.008+11:00

Last Friday Isabel's day care had Christmas party and sausage sizzle. We still clearly remember what happened at last year's party: Isabel was standing there looking sad and miserable and she refused to sing or dance or participate. Therefore we didn't expect much this time. To our surprise, Isabel was the star performer at this year's party. She was singing loudly with all the actions and poses. She didn't care about the dozens of cameras and video cameras in front of them, she was really enjoying herself and having a good time. We are glad that she has such outgoing, adventurous and happy personality.

Isaac's sad story...

2010-12-07T19:56:00.003+11:00

Today is the presentation day for Isaac's kindy year. Unfortunately we had to work and couldn't be there to watch him. He wrote the story above which made me sad... But he told me he was a strong boy and didn't cry. I gave him a big hug and told him I loved him very much and I was thinking of him all day.

Days like this, I wish I could be a full time mom...

Isabel is going to school soon

2010-12-04T15:15:00.004+11:00

Isabel is going to start school in late January next year. Her birthday is in September and therefore missed the July cut off. So she is supposed to start school in 2012. However we felt she was ready for school. So I contacted the school and she had an interview with the assistant principle. She did well in the interview: read a level 7 book, wrote her full name, completed all questions of numbers... The school was happy to let her enrol for next year.

Although we have heard a lot of horror stories about early starters, we are very confident that Isabel would cope well. She is very tall for her age and she is extremely social and friendly. Her happy and positive personality is her biggest strength. Academically she has the benefit of being the second child and learned (unconsciously) a lot from her big brother. She is a super quick learner and is quite advanced in numeracy and literacy already. We hope she will enjoy school like she enjoyed day care and make lots of friends like she did in day care (she just told us she had seven best friends in day care).

Isabel's first dancing concert

2010-12-03T20:44:00.001+11:00

Isabel had her first dancing concert on 14 Nov. 2010. She and her fellow little dancers performed the teddy bear dance.

Isabel looked so different with her fringe up. I could hardly recognise her! She is my daughter after all because she has inherited my big forehead! haha...

Isabel has been taking dancing lessons for more than one year. She loves it a lot. She actually learned how to skip in the dancing lesson and since then, she has been skipping everywhere and we hardly saw her walk! She looks really cute when skipping - we love to watch her while walking behind her.

No more homework for a while...

2010-12-02T22:00:00.000+11:00

This book marks the end of Isaac’s ‘Home Reader’ program in his kindy year. When Isaac started school early this year, he could recognise a few words and that’s it. This last book that he read, has 63 pages and every page is full of paragraphs and words and only a small picture (it’s a shame that I forgot to take a photo of the inside of the book). It did take us over two nights to read, but he did a good job at both reading and comprehension.

it’s truly amazing to see the progress Isaac has made over the last 10 months. They started with Jolly Phonics program which is absolutely wonderful, then they started reading the books from level 2 (big pictures and only two sentences each page) through to level 20 (pictures got much smaller and more and more words instead), then to the chapter books (all over 50 pages each book). Four books every week, that's how he has improved so much. I just can’t believe this is the same boy who could only read words like “car, bus…” early this year.

Less than two weeks to go and Isaac will finish his kindy year. He deserves a break from all the homework and Mark and I will be very happy as well to relax a bit after dinner.

Isaac's 1st piano performance

2010-11-27T18:55:00.003+11:00

Isaac started taking piano lessons in September. Practicing everyday wasn't easy in the beginning. He was often frustrated and so were we. As he got better, he is more confident and he started to really like it. So it has become easier and more enjoyable for all of us.

This afternoon we went to the end of year concert of his piano studio. It was great to see Isaac perform well. Considering he has only taken about ten lessons so far, we are really proud of him.

Holiday in America - brief summary

2010-11-26T22:27:00.013+11:00

We have been back from 3-week US holiday for nearly a month now, but I'm still suffering from the "after holiday syndrome". We always say "we need a holiday to recover from the holiday". And I'm definitely still on that second holiday, trying to get back to reality again.

The trip was good. But it was extremely weird without the kids. Life was totally different without having to keep an eye on them or yell at them all the time. I felt so awkward that I didn't know what to do sometimes. I'm sure Mark felt the same way. It was hard to have a conversation that didn't involve kids. Ten years ago we had endless to talk, but now we can't seem to enjoy our time alone and we struggled to find topics. Every time we always ended up talking about Isaac and Isabel... We missed them terribly. So there will be no more kids-free holidays in the future.

Anyway, here is the super summary of the trip.

The absolute highlight of the trip: the Grand Canyon. It was spectacular and breathtaking! We were very lucky to experience both misty morning and glorious sunny afternoon. The scenery at sunset was totally gorgeous.

Another highlight: Niagara Falls. We went to the Canadian side and enjoyed the beautiful falls. But it certainly can't compare with the Grand Canyon.

Another highlight: Yosemite. It was pretty spectacular, but again it can't compete with Grand Canyon.

Mark's favourite city: New York city, or Manhattan to be precise. My favourite city: San Francisco (perhaps it's because we were very lucky to have perfect warm sunny days there?). But I do love all the places we have been.

Mark's least favourite city: he can't decide Los Angeles or Las Vegas, haha. (Ok, he just informed me after reading this, it's definitely Los Angeles, without a doubt!)

My personal highlight: shopping!! American people are so lucky to have such wonderful bargains and deals everywhere! I'm truly jealous. I did restrain myself though and didn't go crazy. I loved Sephora, MAC, Victoria's Secret, and the beauty section of the department stores. I had fun walking around at Rodeo Drive in LA, although the only shop we walked into was Louis Vuitton and Mark insisted buying me a bag (pictured). Well a nice souvenir to remember our time in LA. It's now my everyday summer bag.

What stressed me out most: Mark's driving. We hired a nice car and drove about 1000 miles in total: SF -- Yosemite -- Las Vegas -- Grand Canyon -- Los Angeles. I was so relieved when we returned the car.

We picked up my 10-year anniversary present while in NYC. The custom made 5-stone eternity ring is beautiful (picture below). It's now on my right ring finger. So sparkly and I still keep staring at it all the time.

Friendship

2010-10-02T23:00:00.000+10:00

Isaac and Isabel love their best friends Lucas and Annabel. We had a great day out together today. We visited Sydney Aquarium and Wild Life World and enjoyed a delicious lunch in Chinatown.

Isabel's 4th birthday

2010-09-05T21:48:00.011+10:00

Despite the very popular trend of kids' birthday parties, we resisted the peer pressure and decided to have a little family getaway for Isabel's 4th birthday.

On 2nd Sep. (the day before Isabel's birthday), Isabel spent half a day with her best friend Annabel and Annabel's mom Hyewon. Hyewon gave Isabel a pretty fairy dress and a huge canvas painting. Hyewon also made yummy cupcakes and they three sang the birthday song and blew the candles. Annabel wrote the birthday card for Isabel which is so cute. Nan and Opa also came over and Isabel opened all the presents that afternoon. She scored a pink DSi game which she has been asking for.

That day Isabel had 4-year-old check up. She is about 108cm tall and weighs about 17.5kg. According to the growth chart, she is tall and slim. :)

On Isabel's birthday morning (3rd Sep.), we drove to Jenolan Caves (3hr drive). Isaac and Isabel were super excited about going into the caves and looking for dinosaur skeletons. They quickly realised it's not possible to find any bones, but they were still very happy. We had the guided tour of Lucas Cave. Isaac and Isabel were extremely well behaved - about 1000 (mostly steep) stairs over one kilometer in length inside the cave, both kids followed the guide happily and didn't complain once. Isaac was even carrying a backpack for me the whole way.

After the cave, we drove to Blue Mountains and checked in our pre-booked family room in 3 Sisters Motel. It turned out to be a fabulous motel and we loved our dinner and breakfast in the cozy little restaurant. We sang the birthday song and had a blueberry cake that evening.

Yesterday morning (4th Sep.), we went to the Echo Point look out to see the famous Three Sisters. It might be spring in Sydney, but it was winter again for us in Blue Mountains. Nevertheless we enjoyed the view very much because it's different from what we normally see in the glorious sunny days. It was drizzling and very misty, the clouds looked beautiful.

It was nice to get back to the warm car. We then went to the Blue Mountains Chocolate Company. There were too many choices, so we bought one of each chocolate (I was shocked hearing how much they cost, hehe). They were yummy but very rich and even the most chocoholic person was sick after a few pieces. :) We ordered the very famous "real" hot chocolate and it was sooooo good (see picture below the chocolate fundue set: put the chocolate in the milk and the candle melts the chocolate, then drink from the steel straw).

While we were having dinner at the motel, Isaac drew a birthday card for Isabel. He is such a sweet big brother!

This morning (Father's Day in Australia), we went to church and Isabel got to wear her new birthday dress and new sandles. She was happy to hear the birthday song and blow the candles again.

Tonight Mark and I made the cup cakes and Isabel will bring them to day care tomorrow to share with her friends there. She has also requested to wear the new fairy dress tomorrow to day care.

Well I'm glad this birthday thingo is over for a while. Now I have got loads of photos to edit and organise, and I have put on more weight during our mini getaway which means strictly no dinner for a week! Oh I so wish I could share my BMI with Isabel!

Wii ...

2010-09-04T16:48:00.001+10:00

We bought a Wii almost one month ago (never ever thought we would buy such a thing!). Amazingly everyone has enjoyed it a lot since then. Daddy's favourite is playing tennis, mommy is addicted to muscle work out and yoga and has been practicing every night! Isaac and Isabel just love everything. It's great that we don't just sit on the laptops all night - we actually get our bums off the chairs and do something fun.

Spring is here

2010-09-01T20:32:00.000+10:00

Looks like the long and cold winter has gone and it's time to get my camera out again. Last Sunday we went to Bobbin Head after church to have picnic with Nan and Opa. Isaac and Isabel had a great time.

10 Years...

2010-07-22T23:22:00.008+10:00

10th wedding anniversary today! Can't believe it happened so quickly.

No present today as I am going to take my shopping list to US in October for a little splurge. Mark suggested to eat out in the city, but it's too hard with cold weather and it's weekday and everyone has to go to work/school tomorrow. So I decided to try out a Japanese/Korean restaurant in our area. What a wise choice!! The restaurant is such a hidden gem! The food was fabulous, the service was great, and it was very reasonable price! For the same price as we spent in Din Tai Fung last week, we were soooo full and very very satisfied (we had more food than the photos shown). We will definitely become their regulars from now on.

The best thing happened in the last 10 years? Please refer to the first two photos above. :)

Fairy princess

2010-07-21T23:12:00.001+10:00

Isabel is really into all the girly stuff now. This is what she wore to a friend's birth party last Sunday. She loves princess dress, hair bands and pins, and her princess slippers. She asked me to buy a little pink handbag for her and she has been carrying it everywhere with her. Looking at her walking around in the shopping centre - nice dress, tights, knee-high black boots, and with her handbag on the shoulder - soooo cute and I just wanted to laugh. Well how can I blame her for loving all the pretty things? She is only following mommy's footstep.

Trip to Australian Museum

2010-07-15T20:05:00.008+10:00

Have a photo with St Mary's Cathedral

Yummy, but poor value for $$

Busy making buns and dumplings

I guess I'm addicted to "doing something with kids" at the moment. So I took them to the city again yesterday to visit the Australian museum. They loved seeing the (dead) animals. Isaac behaved extremely well again. Isabel was good until 4pm and I had to put up with her non-stop whinging.

After the museum, we even had a long look around in David Jones. Not much caught my eyes though which is good. We also killed sometime in Pitt St mall while waiting for Mark to finish work.

We met up at the famous pork bun restaurant Din Tai Fung at World Square for dinner. It's so famous that we had been there a few times but never got in because of the long queue. This time we were lucky because it's weekday and still early and it's such a cold windy evening. The buns and dumplings were super cute and delicate (tiny!), and very yummy too. BUT I was shocked to see the bill even though I was well prepared for the worst. Everything was sooooo expensive! AND, Mark and I were still a bit hungry and we had some boiled eggs when we got home. Hilarious! Well that's the first time we went to that restaurant, and it will be the last time. I kept thinking about our favourite dumpling place in Chinatown (where Mark and I have been going for 11 years)... I only realised how wonderful it is after comparing to this world-famous pork bun place. I think we will stick with Chinatown in the future.

Trip to Powerhouse Museum

2010-07-09T20:40:00.007+10:00

Waiting for the train

Poor Isaac, got a cold sore...

Discovering engine...

Exploring some stuff...

Climbing on the steam train (we later discovered "No climbing allowed", oops!)

Sydney Habour Bridge made of match sticks!

The builders!

What's Isabel doing?

She is controlling the big crane!

Quiet drawing time

Posing for mommy

Where are they? Behind that screen!

Lunch time at the cafe, Isaac did some math on the lunch table

I am so proud of myself because I had done something fun with Isaac and Isabel on my days off work this week. The day before yesterday, I took them to the movies to see Toy Story 3. We all loved it! Yesterday I took them to the Powerhouse Museum in the city by myself without a stroller, and we had a great time.

Yesterday it was raining and I had the option of just staying home and killing our time in the shopping centre. However I was sick of the idea myself - just because I am lazy, Isaac and Isabel have to suffer and get bored during school holiday?! Not fair! So, I decided to do something and headed for the Powerhouse Museum. There were many school holiday activities and it was packed with children. We watched three shows and enjoying playing in the different areas.

Amazingly kids were very good especially Isaac, he was helping me look after Isabel and was so well behaved all day. There was a little episode though - Isabel was missing for a little while. She was a bit tired and cranky and got upset with me and went hiding behind a column. I was not worried much because I knew how she was like. Luckily some nice ladies tipped me off and I found her - She was busying peeking to see what I was up to. I gave her little smack and explained to her the danger of walking away from mommy. Hope she won't be so silly again.

When Mark rang me and I told him about our dinner plan in Chinatown, he got excited and wanted to come and meet us for dinner. So we met at our little favourite dumpling place and enjoyed yummy food together. Thanks to Isaac for his "I want dumplings for dinner" idea!

We left home at 9:40am and got back at after 7pm. It was a big day for kids. I am so glad that they had fun and they had been so good for me. We shall do something fun again soon, perhaps next week. I'm already looking forward to it!

Why it's called wisdom tooth is just beyond me...

2010-06-15T20:30:00.003+10:00

Oops, can't believe I haven't blogged for this long. Not much happened lately. It's winter now but it's sunny and warm during the day. Isaac still enjoys school, soccer and art class while Isabel loves going to day care and her dancing and swimming lessons. Mark has been busy at work and doing not so good with his diet (it is winter and no-carb is almost impossible). As for me, I have thrown my shopping ban out of the window and bought more stuff... Mark bought me a new laptop and my old one now belongs to the kids.

The reason I suddenly remembered my blog is I need to record the following event.

Today I had a dental surgery in the specialist's office to remove my last wisdom tooth and the big cyst associated with it. The tooth was horizontal and totally buried in the gum. So it took a good half an hour of drilling and whatever to get it out. Now I'm $1000 poorer and got a hideous face! It's so swollen that Mark can't help laughing every time he looked at me. He said "If I were you, I wouldn't leave the house to scare people." Yeah I wish. I am in pain (at one stage it reminded me of the labour pain) and I can barely open my mouth. I'm hungry but I can hardly chew any food... The only positive thing is that is it, I will no longer suffer from the stupid wisdom teeth any more!

Trip booked!

2010-05-22T22:03:00.003+10:00

I finally took the plunge, decided to ditch the travel agents and booked our October flights and part of the accommodation online - thanks to the fast falling Aussie dollar and I couldn't take the risk of waiting too long.

Our itinerary will be: Sydney - New York - Washington D C - San Francisco - Yosemite - Las Vegas - Grand Canyon - Los Angeles - Sydney.

Something to look forward to!

Confession of a Shopaholic...

2010-05-22T21:55:00.007+10:00

Since my last post of "Shopping ban", I have bought: one knit dress and a (beautiful) leather belt to go with the dress, five OPI nail polishes, another knit dress, and a pair of suede knee-high/over the knee flat boots (paid full price which must be my record, but I loved them so much and I have a good excuse: foot problem due to too much high heels and I NEED a pair of flat comfortable boots)...

I have nothing to say because I feel really bad now... But my lovely husband said "it's okay, I'm getting a pay rise next month..." Oooh, I'm so grateful for having him. :)

Hope I will do better from now on since I'm quite well equipped for winter now.

Shopping ban

2010-05-10T23:02:00.002+10:00

In exactly five months time Mark and I will (hopefully) go for a holiday. In order to enjoy the shopping while holidaying, I have decided to put myself on a shopping ban from today on - meaning: I'm not going to buy anything that I don't NEED.

I am writing this down to tell myself that I am serious about it. To me, shopping is a pasttime/hobby/addiction/relaxation/de-stresser... So it will be hard for me. I will do my best.

Mother's Day 2010 - Photos

2010-05-10T22:42:00.005+10:00

So yesterday was the time for my twice-a-year compulsory photos with Isaac and Isabel (birthdays and Mother's Days). We were busy for a little while on the veranda. Lucky for me, both kids are posers. Isaac is always the handsome prince charming; Isabel is super photogenic and adorable as usual, and she has to check every photo on the little screen straight after it's taken. As for mommy, not a poser at all and she is happy not to have another photo until March next year!

Mother's Day 2010

2010-05-10T22:23:00.007+10:00

So I got up yesterday morning and got the little presents from Isaac. He picked them from the school Mother's Day stall last Tuesday. There was also a tiny cute elephant which I forgot to take a photo. It was so lovely to receive presents from my sweet son!

Mark made bacon and egg for breakfast - I enjoyed it at the table, not in bed!

Then we got dressed and took some photos on the veranda before heading to church. After the service we got the surprise we were waiting for. A video was recorded the previous Sunday when Isaac and Isabel performed a song "Jesus Loves Me" in the children's room. They showed the video on the big screen and everyone enjoyed it and had a good laugh because apparently Isaac sang like a rock star.

When the presentation finished, Isaac and Isabel gave me more Mother's Day cards: Isaac's card had a handbag on it - and I was told Isaac picked that picture himself because "mommy loves handbags"! Isabel picked a picture of Forbidden City in Beijing (she recognised the Chinese writing) and it was on the back of the card.

Then on my request, Isaac and Isabel got on the stage and sang "Jesus Loves Me" again for me. They were so adorable! I really feel that for the first time Isaac and Isabel have got the idea of "Mother's Day" and they were super sweet and well behaved for me.

For dinner, I went to Nancy's house and enjoyed the delicious hot pot with ten other friends from church while Mark stayed home minding the kids.

All day I didn't need to cook or do dishes. It was great!

Almost Mother's Day

2010-05-08T22:26:00.003+10:00

It's not even Mother's Day yet, I already got several little sweet things from Isaac and Isabel - thanks to the day care and school!

I was hinted that there would be something happening in church tomorrow and we must not skip... Okay we will go and see what happens!

Isaac joined Art Class

2010-05-08T22:16:00.003+10:00

Isaac started the Art Class since the first week of Term 2. It's on every Thursday afternoon for one and a half hour in school (straight after school finishes). It's been three weeks and he really loved it.

The first class, he painted the lady bugs. The second time he painted the leaves (it's autumn here and the leaves are very beautiful). Last Thursday he painted mommy for Mother's Day.

When I picked him up after the first class, I was pleasantly shocked to see his painting. I didn't expect he could do so well. And every time I picked him up, it's always a nice surprise. It's great to see him enjoy drawing and painting so much.

Isaac's first soccer match

2010-04-19T19:28:00.002+10:00

Isaac had his first soccer match on 17 April. They were playing with Berowra. Isaac's team played very well and won the match easily with the score of 9 to 1. It was so interesting to watch all the little ones running after the soccer ball like little bees. They all look super cute! I don't think the kids had much idea about the game, but they all had fun which is great.

First camping trip

2010-04-10T21:33:00.006+10:00

We had our first camping trip last week. Mark's parents gave us a tent and portable kitchen last Christmas (they claimed that I gave them a hint for that!) and since everyone said "every kid loves camping!", we thought we should do some Aussie things with kids. So we took the plunge.

It took us more than four hours to drive to the camp site at Pretty Beach in the South Coast. Mark booked for five nights and I thought it would be lucky for me to last two nights in a tent! Amazingly we stayed on and had a very relaxing time!

We didn't do much camping activities though. As it got hot in the tent during the day, we went out at about 9:30am everyday to the towns nearby and spent most of the day wandering around in the shops, drinking coffee and enjoying yummy lunches. Isaac and Isabel were very happy too as they got to visit McDonald's everyday. Among the towns we visited: Batemans Bay, Ulladulla and Milton, we liked Ulladulla most and spent most of the time there. It's not a bad place to enjoy our retirement.

We normally got back to the tent at around 4pm. The dinners were easy because we had too many coffee breaks and big late lunch and never felt hungry. Kids just wanted some yogurt and lollies. Then we played Eye Spy every evening (yeah that's another achievement this trip: kids learned this game and absolutely loved it!) till we were tired. It's great to go to bed at 7:30pm together. The unfortunately thing was, our next door neighbour was very noisy and seemed to enjoy their drinks, music and chat too much. They kept us awake for a long time most of the nights. I managed to have one great long sleep in the five nights there.

There were only a few steps from our tent to Pretty Beach. However we only went to the beach once. Mark tested the water and said it's freezing cold. So we had the good excuse not to let the kids go into the water. There were many old children surfing and swimming. So we thought Isaac and Isabel would enjoy camping more in a few years time when they are able to do those sort of fun things.

It's worth mentioning that there were so many kangaroos around the camp site. At night when I went to the toilet, there were many kangaroos outside our tent and on the way to the toilet building. I was actually scared of them and felt nervous walking passed them. Luckily they only stared at me - maybe there were scared of me too.

There was a drama worth recording. On the way there on Easter Monday, the brake of the car stopped working after we drove down a big mountain (was stuck behind a slow car, so Mark had to use the brake the whole time!). We pulled over at South Nowra and had to ring up NRMA. We waited for two hours for the tow truck to come and we planned to find a motel for the night. We got lucky in the end: the tow truck driver was a qualified mechanic and he checked the car and declared it's all okay - apparently the brake had cooled down and started working again. Hallelujah!

When we got back home last Saturday, we suddenly realised that Mark didn't have to take any headache tablets while camping. That's amazing for someone who lives on the headache tablets! I think Mark is already planning the next camping trip for next Easter. Sleeping in tent wasn't bad at all and I don't mind this new family tradition since it's much cheaper than a five-star beach resort holiday.

Good Friday 2010

2010-04-03T20:20:00.001+11:00

Good Friday was a challenge for us as all the shops were closed. Finally we didn't have any excuse not to go to the park with kids. So we drove to Crosslands - it's been at least one year since the last time we were there and we discovered it has become a camping site with tents everywhere. How ridiculous. Then I suggested we should try some new parks. We ended up going to the park next to Isaac's soccer training oval. It's a beautiful park and very quiet. We had a good time.

Ferry ride to Manly

2010-03-28T22:30:00.002+11:00

Somehow we felt like being naughty today. So we skipped church and took a train ride and then ferry ride to the Manly beach. There is this great deal of $2.50 ticket only available for Sundays and for families travelling with young kids. The ticket is valid for unlimited train, bus and ferry rides for the day. We never took advantage of this deal until today because we never had chance to go out on Sundays. For $7.50 in total (Isabel doesn't require a ticket), we travelled all day and we felt it's such a great bargain!

The weather was gorgeous, so was the beautiful harbour. We had a relaxing time and we might just get naughty more often in the future...

Soccer time!

2010-03-17T21:15:00.006+11:00

We enrolled Isaac in the soccer club and yesterday was the first training session. We didn't have any expectations at all - I guess we did ... we expected that he wouldn't like it and would probably just stand on the side and watch other kids play. However we thought we would offer him an opportunity anyway.

I was truly shocked to see Isaac actually participated happily and he ran so fast and kicked the ball really well. I was very surprised and very pleased. I guess it helped a lot that many of his teammates are from his class and he is already quite familiar with them.

Putty Beach

2010-03-02T21:58:00.005+11:00

So we went to the beach again last Saturday. This time our favourite beach - we thought it was Killcare beach but apparently it's called Putty beach. It could be the last time we took Popo out before she returns to China, so I took many photos of Popo with kids. We are going to buy her a nice digital photo frame too as a bye bye present, so she can start enjoying all the photos even before she boards the airplane in less than two weeks time.

The weather has changed to autumn all of a sudden yesterday. No complaints here. I think I'm almost over this hot and humid summer and I'm ready for the wool tops and boots.

It has been crazily busy at work lately and I have been doing full time since last week. I am exhausted but quite happy.

A KFC birthday

2010-02-23T21:48:00.002+11:00

We did one special thing for Isaac's birthday - we went to KFC for dinner!! Kids loved it and so did I because I didn't have to worry about cooking at least two dinners (one for Mark and one for kids). Yeah!

Isaac is 116cm tall and 21.5kg. He certainly looks thinner since he started school. It is hard work going to school. :)

Isaac's 5th birthday with friends

2010-02-21T20:43:00.001+11:00

This morning before going to church, I got some photos taken with kids (my reward for what I did five years ago?). Late afternoon (because it's sooo hot today!), we met Hyewon and family in Willow Park. Kids enjoyed spending time together (since the boys started school, they hardly saw each other) and loads of junk food.

Umina Beach for Isaac's 5th birthday

2010-02-20T23:18:00.004+11:00

Isaac is very easy to please. He wanted to go to the beach for his birthday (so easy, yeah!!). So we went to Umina beach today. We had the roast chicken and salads and chips for lunch when we got there. It was interesting sitting around the table on the footpath and watching a lot of people in bikinis walking around.

Kids had a great time playing in the big waves. We went to the beach for Isaac's 2nd and 4th birthdays as well. Compared to the previous years, they are totally confident in the ocean now. It's wonderful to see them enjoying the beach and waves.

Isaac's first Class Award

2010-02-20T21:54:00.005+11:00

I put "first" in the title because I'm expecting to see Isaac getting more awards at school. I finally realised how much expectations parents could have!

I only saw Isaac's teacher less than a handful of times so far and each time I managed to have very brief conversation with her (she was busying dispatching the kids to their parents every time, so I didn't want to take too much of her time). Each time Mrs G said Isaac was doing very well and trying very hard, all was good. Considering it's Australia and teachers tend not to say anything negative about school kids, I really don't know whether to believe Mrs G. But seeing Isaac taking home a Class Award yesterday, I felt really proud and happy.

Isaac has been doing Jolly Phonics at school - each week they learn four new sounds. We also started practicing the sounds at home a few days ago. There is also a Premier's reading challenge program at school and Isaac has borrowed his first book from school library last Tuesday and we have been reading together. It's all going well. Isaac is very good with letters and sounds they make. He is now able to read the simple words in his night story books. It's great to see him making progress everyday.

"Add Petrol" Daddy!!

2010-02-19T10:00:00.002+11:00

Congratulations to Daddy for shedding more than 10kg in seven weeks! Well done!

Still a long way to go to reach his goal though. So keep up the good work and we are all here to support you!

Chinese New Year

2010-02-15T22:12:00.001+11:00

We had celebration lunch at church. We also had a day out in the city and enjoyed a super delicious Sichuan lunch (spicy!!). While we were in the city, I got this yummy bag as well - a present Mark claimed to be my upcoming birthday present instead of Chinese New Year or Valentine's Day present (both fell on the same day this year). Oh well I don't care as long as it's a present.

Lunch for Isaac's 5th birthday

2010-02-13T22:19:00.001+11:00

Opa and Nan are going on holidays in a few days time, so we got together today to celebrate Isaac's 5th birthday in advance.

We had yummy Korean BBQ and enjoyed a big cake.

Isaac starts school!

2010-02-06T20:54:00.006+11:00

Isaac started school on Thursday 28 Jan. 2010.

We have been telling him about going to school in the last few months, so he was quite ready and prepared. He didn't cry or whinge at all. Everyday he was happy to be dropped off by me or Popo and in the afternoon when I picked him up from after school care, he was always happily playing with other boys. He often told me, "mommy I love school!"

It's a small school with less than 300 students. Isaac is in Kindy and there are two Kindy classes, each has about 20 students. At the orientation late last year, we met with the two Kindy teachers and we preferred the older lady Mrs G. She seemed to be very experienced, well spoken, cheerful and firm. So we were secretly hoping Isaac would be allocated to Mrs G's class. After a few days at school, the class lists were finalised and we were delighted to find out Isaac was in Mrs G's class, yeah!

The school hours are 8:55am to 2:55pm. We have worked out the routine: Popo and Isaac take school bus in the morning to school, Isaac gets picked up by school care lady at 2:55pm and stays in school care until about 5pm when mommy arrives. In the first two days Isaac was a bit upset when he didn't see mommy pick him up at 2:55pm. He told me "I cried just a little bit because you didn't pick me up." That made me a bit sad... But I think he has got over it and he kept telling me he enjoyed school care - he calls it "play school". Popo insisted she would pick Isaac up on time, but Mark and I don't think it's a good idea. What can Isaac do at home? All he wants to do is to play playstation games and he doesn't listen to Popo which means Popo can't stop him playing game non-stop for maybe two hours until I get home. So it's best that he stays in school and play with other kids.

I only had Wednesday off work this past week and got to be the "normal" mom - dropped Isaac to school at 8:50am and picked him up at 2:55pm. I also got to chit chat with other moms and had a brief talk with Isaac's teacher Mrs G. BUT, to be honest, I thought staying at home was such a waste of time... School hours are so short and I literally didn't have much time for myself anyway. I really admire other stay at home moms. I don't think I can ever do it.

P.S. Red marks on Isaac's face was due to Isabel's usual bullying behaviour - she scratched her big brother really hard...

Australia Day 2010

2010-01-26T20:37:00.001+11:00

Isabel is daddy's little koala

First time ever, Hornsby Council has done something good for the rate payers. To celebrate Australia Day, each household got four free tickets to the Koala Park.

It's a hot and humid day, but that didn't stop the people taking advantage of the free tickets. We got there at 9:30am and couldn't even find parking spot! Had to park in the next block and walked over to the park.

Isaac and Isabel were super scared of koala. They refused to pat the cute koala - very disappointing for mommy (the photographer). Then after much encouragement, Isaac was brave enough to pat the kangaroo. But Isabel was sobbing and shaking and wouldn't let go of Popo's hand the whole time when we were in the kangaroos area. It's funny to see the usually brave, loud, careless girl got so scared for a change.

It's a small park and didn't take long to wander around. We then went to Nan and Opa's house and enjoyed yummy barbecue lunch. Isaac and Isabel had more than two hours swim in the pool while mommy and daddy taking a nap. It's a wonderful and relaxing day for all of us!

At Rebecca's 5th birthday party

2010-01-19T22:04:00.001+11:00

Rebecca is pretty as always. Her mommy Julia said "Isaac can date Rebecca if he becomes a doctor or lawyer." Haha... Joke aside, I'm sure she really meant it! :)

Isaac's art work

2010-01-06T15:22:00.003+11:00

Isaac loves drawing. Nowadays he is obsessed with "Sid" from Ice Age movies. I was actually very amazed to see he could draw Sid so well.

When Hyewon asked Isaac if he wanted to become an artist, he said yes. Then I said "Remember what you told mommy? What do you want to do when you grow up?" Isaac quickly said, "I want to be a doctor, to fix people!" That's my boy! :)

Good start to the new year

2010-01-01T18:12:00.004+11:00

Happy New Year!

I'm so glad today that Mark and I have finally made the effort and tidied up our dressing room. It was really bad and barely had room for us to walk in. Now we threw out all the boxes and junks, bought new shoe racks and organised our shoes (proud to know that I don't have that many shoes after all), bought bag organiser to put my bags away neatly (again, not many bags at all)... The dressing room is looking very nice indeed! Hope we won't mess it up too soon.

What a good start to the new year. I'm hoping to see more good things happening this year. :)

Crankymonkeys come to Oz

2009-12-30T14:58:00.002+11:00

So the Buckinghams came all the way from London to spend Christmas in sunny Australia. It's been almost four years since we last saw each other. James and Liina hardly changed at all (London life style must be really healthy), Oskar is a big boy now and Oliver is a very good, super cute baby.