OK, so everyone has gone all quiet on me. FINE. You’ll just have to hear my banter.

I am Chinese, and my parents have brought me up to learn that education is the number 1 thing that will drive your success in life. How many As you get will prove how many Zero’s that follow on in your future income…( 7 As…7 Zeros – 10000000) How well you do depicts how you will do in life. Whether this is true or not, I wasn’t given much room to have an opinion. Anyway…

My parents migrated here so that I would have a better education. IT IS THE PRIMARY reason why we migrated, and I would assume so for many asian migrants. So I can understand when many asian parents expect the school to be EDUCATORs. That is, we are there to learn our ABCs, and 123s. But seriously, tell me that as a kid, all you learnt in school was your ABCs and 123s.

You learn more than your ABCs and 123s at school…heck I know I did anyway… like the birds and the bees…how to socialise (can’t learn that from parents! lol)… how to lead, how to be lead, how to deal with conflict… boys.. girls……etc… etc… and mainly, also How to be me…you. AND I think what newly migrated parents lack in understanding this… Or atleast, they have forgotten, or lost perspective. (Heck, don’t get me wrong on this. Not all ASIANs are like this. I think some Aussie parents think this too but more so a high degree of asian parents think this…Anyway, I speak for myself here so don’t bash me).

Anyway…I remember when Missy A was in Montesorri, and one of the parents kicked up a fuss when asked to be involved in the working bee and to help cut fruit. Her response was “What!? Isn’t that what we pay them for?”. I swear I wanted to bitch-slap her. (note: SHE WASN’T Asian! She was Aussie… just to prove my point above….) LALALA… anyway… Ok, maybe not a good comparison, but this is how I see it.

You send your kids to school and in that 12 hours that your kids are awake, 6 hours of that is at school….which kinda works as 1/2 of your kids life. Is it really SO hard to be involved for some part of it… or are you really more than happy for someone else to be responsible for 1/2 of your kids life???

ANYWAY, I think I digress from THE DISCUSSION. What am I talking about again? I don’t remember!

GAaaH! MY CONCLUSION… I understand why some parents only think that a school is where they are taught their ABCs and 123s, and I understand why they don’t get involved with the school….BUT I just think that IT is a fantastic idea that the school is teaching MY kids the IB PYP Learner Profiles because afterall, the school grounds is an environment in which my kids are going to grow and learn to be who they are and would be in the future AND yes their ABCs and 123s as well.

SO… IF parents think that it is the schools responsibility to teach our kids everything without requiring our involvement because that is the service that they are providing as educators…they need to THINK AGAIN.

Get involved with your schooling community because afterall, it is what’s shaping who your child will be.

NOW, darn it… I think I might have just shot myself in the foot because now MY RESOLUTION to this is that I have to get involved my school’s community.

And here’s some pics for those who have just skipped all my banter just to look at pictures of my life and don’t really care what I think.

Kids are greedy little buggers. They take stuff from you. They throw stuff at you. They puke on you. They poop on you and they eat from you.

Ok, so its not enough that…

• I now have to share Daddy with you
• that my bed has now converted itself into a bunk bed for 4
• that I have to share ME time with YOU making it a YOU time
• that my photo albums are al stocked up with all pictures of YOU
• that my handbag space is divided 94% You, 2% me and 4% food scraps
• that when I shop for clothes, I have to think of what’s practical for you
• that when I shop for shoes, I have to think of what’s practical for you
• that when I’m decorating the house I have to bear in mind what’s good for you
• that the space on the couch between me and Dad is reserved for you…

YOU HAVE TO EAT MY FOOD!!??

The kids just keep eating my food! No, they refuse to eat their own. They have to eat whats on my plate. Its the same stuff!! I thought maybe because they like the ADULT plate that it is on, so I swapped plates/bowls with them. NOPE. They just want to eat off my plate. ERGh.

Mind you. I do love my kids…….

Just like my lunch orders, I will soon run out of things to do. SIGH. Well, can’t say that I’m not trying right? Darn kids… why do they have to get bored to quickly!

Today we spent half the day moping around the house… and then had a light bulb moment! It’s 6 degrees outside…. LETS GO SWIMMING!

YES. I booked Missy C in for Creche for the first time and Missy A and I went swimming.

It was a really great opportunity for me to spend one on one time with each other, and it was great because OFCOARSE always after a swim… everyone is HUNGRY. So lunch went down without a fuss. We dropped by to pick up a DVD and set for home.

We’ve started a bit of a vegie patch and herb garden so we also had planned to set up our mushroom box. AND speaking of our herb garden, I swear that there was one night that I thought our neighbours were stealing our herbs!…. or worse…ALIENS!

I went out to pick some parsley one night and discovered this!

ALL OF THEM WERE PICKED! Just their leaves!

I panicked! Called Dave and was totally freaked. I mean, one of or neighbours, not sure who and which one is kind enough to bring in our bin sometimes when I forget while rushing the kids off to school. So I thought, well, thats ok I guess that maybe then they thought that they could help themselves to the herbs as their reward/thank you. I don’t know… but it sure seems alittle invasive. Thats when I got scared. OMG, someone has the guts to go through out gates, walk into our garden and hep themselves. I ran into the house, locked up the doors….

Ok so maybe Dave is a little calmer with this and told me that neighbours wouldn’t do such thing and it COULD be something else. So I googled it. “MISSING PARSLEY” and found a few people with missing parsley due to a…. POSSUM!

Ok, not so scarey anymore. But still very angry.

ANYWAY… we borrowed Bandslam and…BANDSLAM IS AWESOME!! Hahaha… I love kids flicks, and I was a little hesitant because Vanessa from High School Musical is in it…( i find her annoyingly chirpy), but not so much in this movie, and I loved it. Oh and so did the girls . Highly recommend this flick.

Random. I know.

So I am the last minuter. Monday comes and I was searching the internet for things to do. In the end, with the weather crashing down on us… it was all about TIME AT HOME.

Scarey for some parents, but I sure prefer it. OK, we were not at home the whole time but for most of it… and it was fun. So far… so good.

1st Activity: Bunnings Warehouse, FREE Kids activity – Paint your own canvas.
2nd Activity: Grocery shopping for Gingerbread cookies!
3rd Activity: Bake Gingerbread cookies
4th Activity: Decorate cookies!

All smiles from here!

Missy C keeping herself occupied by going through my bag… sigh… She always seems to know how to whip out my credit card… hmmm the force is strong in this one…

Gingerbread man in budgie smuglers!

OOoh we were going to have Roti Canai for dinner and its quite ‘heaty’… so I made Chrysenthemum tea! HAHAHA MY grandmama would be so proud of me! I even added some gei ji (??) and some dates too…

OK so it doesn’t look appetising but IT WAS YUMMY! And Oh I’m so proud of myself for making it! lol…

Every morning, I wake up chuckling. I have my beautiful 5 year old sneak into the room and whisper in my ear…” Can I watch TV?”. SERIOUSLY… How sweet. Everytime now that she wants to watch TV, she actually asks ever since I told her …
“that TV was a privilege, a privilege to earn”…. and its just amazing how well she respects that rule. WEIRD.. and VERY cool. I wonder how long this will last.

ALSO, as I peer in to Missy C’s cot, not only does her smile make me H..H..HAPPY but this…

SERIOUSLY… I LOVE IT!

Sponsored by Nuffnang

Its always really nice to have an outing all planned out for you and have all the planning stress taken out. It helps too when you have a bunch of like-minded people going along. It’s also a bonus when the outing is culture enhancing type activities. It’s super awesome when your whole family can enjoy.

KAPOW! You’ve just been hit with the BEST possible outing idea ever!! Hahaha. OK, I exaggerate alittle. The kids seemed bored at times but heck, they wouldn’t be kids otherwise… AND… I have come to realise that I’m not very cultured especially when it comes to art. OK, fine… I’m not too cultured either when it comes to music but I KNOW who ABBA is… but that’s thank so the movie Mamamia.

First we got to take the kids to an ART MUSEUM. How exciting (I thought)! Since my time in Australia I have to admit that I have never stepped into an art gallery so I was really excited about this. Missy A was excited because we were heading into the city which is always an adventure, and Missy C was excited because I gave her half a packet of Tiny Teddies to eat in the car ride up. WHEE!

We didn’t do the guided tour, which I would recommend if you want to learn more about Rupert himself and his paintings by hearing someone’s interpretation of his life. We were too early so we had to go do all the readings ourselves…which only lasted say… the first paintings. I TRIED. I really did. I tried to look at the paintings, and appreciate it but in the first room, I felt really somber and quiet and just felt like if I oooh and ahhhed, I’d get shhhhed. AGAIN… another uncomfortable “proper” moment that I just couldn’t sit still at.

Being an example to Missy A, I tried so so HARDto engage her into the paintings.It started with… Asking her how she felt, what she thought, and why, and the colours, the story behind the painting… and the rest was bla bla bla to me her. So they we went on a shallower path. OK, which one do you like? Which one is your favourite and why. Then it got worse Um, do you like what she’s wearing. and worse oooh look at the frame, would that look nice in our house with a mirror in it?

So yes, I tried.

Luckily as we stepped out there was an arts and crafts table where the kids could make their own postcards. I made mine and posted my thank yous to Nuffnang.

I received a Get well soon postcard form Missy A.

After a bite of lunch… it was off to ABBAWORLD!

YOU HAVE GOT TO GO SEE THIS. But before… I suggest that you first make a BET. Make a bet with whoever you go with that at the end of the interactive rollercoaster, the person with the most score buys dinner or whatever to your liking. BECAUSE… there was lots of cools things to do like

Karaoke…

Disco balls…dancing…

Quizes and even a stage show… Of yourself. Hehehe.. I got a video of this… and perhaps I might show it… if I was drunk… or someone highjacks my Mac and they upload it as an evil plot to embarrass me.

Then if you hadn’t had enough of ABBA, check out their costumes …

UP CLOSE!

Hmm.. I am now so super duperly inspired to Bedazzle up my polyester shower curtain and turn it into an ABBA outfit! Seriously… all that bling is from all the lycra and polyester that they were so super popular for. AWESOME! Hmm though such white see-through pants would be scary without any sheen for the bright lights to reflect off come to think about it. Wouldn’t quite have the same awesome Xfactor without them…

From the early early beginnings… you get that one bit closer to really knowing ABBA intimately.

What did I learn? A Eurovision WIN was the pinnacle point in ABBA’s career! See… so there’s nothing wrong with watching Eurovision! It ROCKS!

Dear Missy C,

When you came into this world, you were a complete surprise!

You surprised me with your poop. You surprised me with your vomitting. You surprised me with your smiles in your sleep.

You surprised me with your stubbornness.

You surprised me with your giant burps even at 1 week. You surprised me with your curiosity.

You have been such a blessing into all our lives and I love you dearly.

You are an incredible little girl…even though most of the world thought you were a boy.

You make the best faces! … and I love you for that.

Even in your sleep, you never fail to put a smile on my face and my heart sings.

You are a determined little baby… where many times you have won the fight to get that biscuit from inside the container.

And of coarse you always seem to win the fight to get your milk at 3:30 am in the morning… (yes even til NOW)

Missy C, you have brought such joy, love, and friendship into our family, and we thank God for every 525,600 minute He has so far given us with you.

I love you so so much, and you will definitely grow up to be an amazing little person. Just like me! hehehe. Ok Love LOVE and Happy beautiful birthday sweetheart!

Hypothetically speaking…

Once upon a time… there was a married couple called Harry and Sally. They had two kids called Alice and Candy. On one of their most recent weekends, the house sat quite. Nana Christine called up early in the morning, and decided to spend a day out with one of the girls…. Alice to watch a movie. And as Candy had been up all night, Candy was K.O, and sleeping soundly in her baby cot. It was all so quiet…. when Harry and Sally had a light bulb moment! “So… what do MARRIED couples get up to when all is quiet and with no kids running around?” …They both grinned…

Um, lets just say that plans didn’t quite turn out as Nana Christine decided to bring Alice home early, and though they did not have the house keys, and was not sure WHY mum and dad were NOT picking up their phones… Alice decided to show Nana Christine the special door in which Mummy Sally FORGOT to lock!

Hearing the door slam. Harry and Sally jumped up! Harry hopped into the cupboard, and Sally scrummaged for covering. Realising that they were both going to be… BUSTED, they just had to play it cool. Nana Christine, oblivious to the situation, decided to hang about and have a cup of tea. ARGH!!! Sally, going commando under her dressings, politely conversed about difficult it was to “fix the lamp in the spare room” until Nana finished her tea and left.

Harry, out of hiding, and Sally’s face returning to normal colour, could only laugh.

Alice “What are you laughing at Mum and Dad?”

…Nothing…. absolutely nothing…

Hypothetical story ofcoarse….

Monday to Friday, Dave is at work for most part of the day. He leaves before we wake and on some nights, he comes home when the girls are in bed. So the weekends are very precious to us. It is OUR family days…

GAAAh… why is my head looking so much bigger than everyone elses??

Look somewhere over there Missy!

Note to self: Don’t give baby chocolate teddies on the long drive home…

HAPPY BABY!!

VERY HAPPY BABY!

Missy A showing us the way…

She’s not too young to b indulging in alittle cheese right?

An evening at the zoo…

Everything mixed into one. Food, clothes, cooking, and whatever pics I found interesting that captures my past couple of days… hehehe

Our hearty dinner meal. Chicken, bacon and mushroom pot pie with baby chat potatoes

Making breakfast interesting. Sprinkles on oats!

I harvested our corn to make way for our new landscaped garden. YAY! We are going to have grass!!

I gots myself a new hair do…

Happy April from the Livingfootprints family!