2nd Handmade With Love Skirt For Krissa - 08/11/2009

May I present to you my second handmade skirt!!! This skirt is way simpler to make than the first but in terms of workmanship, I should think this is better :) Don't know if I can make a top next, we shall see (^;^)

Krissa's Tee Shirt Art - 07/11/2009

K proudly wore the tee shirt art she created

I'm so happy with the curriculum in Krissa's art school - Art Loft. The teachers really put in alot of effort in planning the activities for the children. Not only do they try to expose the children to different mediums where they can create art on, many a time, the children will learn precious and useful knowledge along the way too. This time kids learnt that they can create art on cloth using special fabric markers and scraps which can be recycled. In this way, not only do they learn about recycling (of course K is kind of too young to understand but there's no harm in starting them young!), they get to wear the tee shirt they've created too! Hahahha....this tee shirt is meant to be an art apron i.e. to wear on the outside to protect their clothes. Any additional stains in future only serves to make the tee look more interesting!

I Like Company!! - 06/11/2009

Krissa having loads of fun with Dylon gor gor & Racquel jie jie

After K had finished decorating her shakers, our neighbours came to play. It was K's first time playing with them and boy did she enjoy their company! When they left, K lingered at the door for a long time and asked: "Gor gor where? Jie jie where?" Hmmm.....maybe its high time K has a sibling of her own to play with. I think it would do her good too...hmmm.......

Shakers Fun! - 06/11/2009

K having a great time with her creations!

Our materials to decorate the containers.

The green beans and paper clips will each go into a container.

A butterfly glued onto the cover of one of the containers.

K first decorated the yellow wrapper with dot markers,
then glued the surface with sequinns.


K puts the paper clips into the first shaker

The beginning of the second shaker

Yes, darling?

Glueing of the poms poms

Filling the second shaker with green beans

Shaker fun!

The finished products!

We were told to make at least one shaker and bring it for lesson at Mandeville on Saturday. I managed to dig up two containers at home, so we made two! Both K and me had great fun doing it and apart from decorating the containers, her fine motor skills were reinforced by having to transfer the green beans from the plate into one of the containers and to pincer grip the small sequinns to glue them onto the container. She was able to call out aloud the crayon colours which she wanted on her containers and correctly took them from the crayon tray. We are still on butterfly, so I glued a butterfly onto the cover of one of the containers. It proved to be a hit with K! Finally, when we were done, K had a fun time playing with her new creations!!!

Pretty Girl + Pretty Dress - 01/11/2009

I just have to take this picture and show it to the world! Hahahaha.....I love, love, love the colours on this dress! Erm..actually it is a tunic top but K will wear it as a dress first and when it becomes too short, she can wear this as a top! Another piece of fabulous handmade. Please support handmade!!!Pictures were taken on our way to Caden's 1st month celebration.

Our 2nd Caterpillar Kit - 28/10/2009

Our newly hatched butterfly takes to the skies.

May it stay safe from all her predators.

Life cycle of a butterfly

Having learnt our lesson, we dashed for home after we had bought the kit and immersed the plant in clean water immediately. We had better luck this time :) K liked the caterpillars and would request us to show her the caterpillars every so often. She would say hi and goodbye to them. This real kit was very useful for she was able to associate the caterpillars and chrysalis with the real illustrations in the Busy, Busy Butterfly book. It was a real pity that K did not see the butterfly. Hmmm.....a 3rd kit, maybe?

Leroy's 1st Performance - 29/10/2009

29th October 2009 was a big day for my nephew Leroy for it marked his first time performing on stage! It was not difficult to tell that Leroy was shaken and overwhelmed at the sight of the crowd, so he didn't exactly did what he was taught during the rehearsals and towards the end of the performance, his tears welled up in his eyes and he looked as if he would burst out crying anytime. To sum it up, Leroy had stage fright but it was an experience for him and he will definitely do better in future.

Mommy & Daughter Slippers - 27/10/2009

Tell me these aren't sweet??!!! My happiness was short lived. In fact, it didn't last for 24hrs even! I wore this pair of slippers to my friend's place and it got stolen! All the footwear placed outside the house were stolen and I had to go home barefooted!!!

To the person(s) who had stolen the slippers:

Beware of karma! What goes around, comes around!

Spa Drink - 25/10/2009

Using the mint leaves bought from Oh's Farm and some oranges, I made a jug of this drink which I drank in Remede Spa. Very sweet smelling and refreshing, something different from the usual lemons.

Happy Birthday, Grandpa! - 25/10/2009

My grandpa and grandma.
My grandpa surrounded by his great-grand children!
The kids were delighted! Look at the sweet smile on K!!

A very, very happy 79th birthday to my grandpa & K's great grandpa. I wish you longevity and the best of health. You are a VERY VERY IMPORTANT person in my life (I know you knew it too) and I love you as much as you love me (I know you dote on me the most!) and thank you for showering K with your love too!

I LOVE YOU, GRANDPA!! IT IS MY BLESSING AND GOOD FORTUNE TO HAVE YOU AS MY GRANDPA!!!

Visit to the Butterfly Lodge & Hydroponic Farm - 25/10/2009

Very good books on the life cyle of a butterfly for very young children.

I especially loved the Busy, Busy Butterfly as it is filled with real and big

illustrations accompanied with concise description of

the insect in its various stages.

A list of the species we may spot in the lodge, courtesy of Joycelyn!

Daddy had the honour of holding one of the newly hatched butterflies
and released it into the lodge.

If you look close enough or zoom into the 1st picture at the top left hand corner,
you will spot the butterfly eggs (tiny, white colour spots) on the leaves.
The 2nd picture right next to it shows a hairy caterpillar and the picture with
a few butterflies under them shows the male butterflies engaging in
an activity named "puddling"; we were told that the male butterflies are
absorbing the salt content from the ground which is damp and this will
aid them in increasing their sperm count! Hence, only male butterflies
engaged in this activity. The other 3 pictures show some of the
varieties of butterflies found inside the lodge.

K watches the puddling of the male butterflies.

Daddy showing K a tiny caterpillar,
K & Trishelle in the lodge,
Where are you looking at, darling?

Our 1st kit: sadly both caterpillars died.

In front of one of the many hydroponic vegetation plots before it rained.

Today is a busy day for us because we have arranged to visit Oh's Farm with Joycelyn and family in the late morning and to attend my maternal grandfather's 79th birthday celebration in the late noon.

I wanted to kickstart the series of "Bubba Bear" lessons with butterfly as Krissa is familiar with this insect. I borrowed and read her books from the library and after trawling the web for more information, I learnt that Oh's Farm has a butterfly lodge where the butterflies are kept in an enclosed area, making the study and observation of these beautiful insects much easier. We were very lucky to have met a member from the Butterfly Circle who acted as a guide during our stay in the lodge. We were also very fortunate to be in time to catch the staff releasing some butterflies just hatched from their chrysalis into the lodge. Really, without the explanation from the member (I cannot remember his name, very sorry!), it would have been just a see-see-look-look kind of field trip. Oh, and Joycelyn was very nice to photocopy the species of butterflies which we may see in the lodge (thanks babe!) for us. We had fun in trying to identify as many species as we can find. Each of us bought a caterpillar kit containing 2 caterpillars in the hope that our girls can learn and witness for themselves the magic of mother nature. Included in the kit was also leaves for us to feed the caterpillars with. Alas, my caterpillar died on the 2nd day because the leaves which we were supposed to feed them with had browned. Caterpillars, being fussy eaters (different breed of caterpillars eat different kinds of leaves), would rather starve to death if the leaves are not fresh which sadly happened in my case as we were late in immersing the roots of the leaves in water. I bought a 2nd kit and managed to successfully have one of the caterpillars hatched into a butterly. I had decided to release the butterfly although Krissa was not home yet as I was afraid the butterfly may die if it was kept inside the container for too long a time. Luckily, with the help of my neighbour, I managed to video the whole freeing process to show Krissa. The butterfly was beautiful, a far cry from the ugly hairy caterpillar it once was. The other caterpillar sadly didn't make it. I guess it must have tried too hard to free itself from its chrysalis that the chrysalis snapped and detached itself from the top of the container where it hung. Yes, once the chrysalis drops, you can pronounced the caterpillar dead.

Alright, coming back to Oh's Farm: this farm specialises in hydroponic vegetation and supplies to local supermarkets. We ran out of good luck when we wanted to tour its hydroponic plots for it started to rain. However, before we left the farm, I bought some hydroponic vegetables from its store. The store is opened to members of the public. Imagine a big packet of butterhead lettuce at only $2.00 while the rest of the many varieties of vegetables and herbs go on sale for only $1.00 per packet!

**Credit must be given to my dearest hubs for clearing all the caterpillars' poo and feeding them with fresh leaves everyday till they turned chrysalis :)

Back Log - Final Instalment For Allie Alligator

I don't know why I have failed to blog this entry....my memory is indeed failing me. I have to ask my mother-in-law to make me more gingko barley with beancurd skin dessert to boost my memory...hahahha!!!