Sharing a book together

A heartwarming moment. I was doing some packing in my room while the kids were in the living room playing. After a while, I heard an unusual silence. I walked out of the room and saw the both of them sitting on the sofa with a book across their laps. Justin was softly reading to Jonathan, while Jonathan was listening and looking at the pictures. (*Smiles*)

Happy Birthday, Justin! (080808)

Today is Justin's birthday, and a special day because it happens to be 8th August 2008 (080808). I would definitely have bought 4D if I was back in Singapore. But then again, maybe the number will be so popular that it is closed for bets.

Morning was chill out time for me. I went to watch Red Cliff with Huili. Great show! Especially for the die hard fans of Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Though it has been said that the movie characters were inaccurately depicted, I enjoyed the heroism, funny in between lines, great battle scenes (yes, the unbelievable BaGua formation) and the cast. A good line-up of casts which include Tony Leung (portraying Zhou Yu), Takeshi Kaneshiro (Zhuge Liang), the flawlessly beautiful Lin Zhiling (Zhou Yu's wife) and tomboyish Vicki Zhao (Sun ShangXiang). I will definitely watch the next sequel on the battle of Chi Bi.

Trip to BabyBoss City

Papa brought Justin back from school after lunch and we headed to BabyBoss City (clickable) at the Living Mall. An edutainment centre where kids get to try out different occupations and earn BabyBoss bucks.

A Day as a Fireman

Dressed and ready to go

Ready, extinguish!

Heading back to the Fire Station

A Day at the Pizza Parlour

Adding the tomato paste

Next the cheese and corn

My own made pizza

Wooh! Cheesy!

A Day at the Shipping Dock

Moving goods from ship to dock

Releasing ropes from the crates

Giving instructions on moving the crates

A Day at the Dairy Farm

Mr Dairyman

A video of Justin milking the cow:

Changing into lab coats before
entering disinfection room

Learning the process of pasteurising milk

Last but not least, Justin ended the day blowing his birthday candles and eating his self-chosen mango mousse cake.

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Thomas & Friends Live! Musical

We brought the kids to the "Thomas & Friends Live!" Musical Show the week before. They swayed to the tunes of "Good Morning!", "Really Useful Engine", "Surprises", clapped, waved their torches and "peeped" their horns.

Typhoon Fung-Wong

Just a week after Typhoon Kalmaegi left Taiwan, another typhoon was expected to hit Taiwan again. There was more emphasis in the news for this typhoon, partly because the previous typhoon was underplayed and there were more casualties and floodings then expected.

This time, I started stocking up mineral water, biscuits, bread and food to last for the weekend and Monday. Prices of vegetables had doubled after Typhoon Kalmaegi, as the crops were destroyed by the strong wind and rain. Who knows what would happen after the second typhoon.

Except for being grounded at home, the good news about typhoon is - no work and school on Monday. The boys busied themselves with their trains and a new theme - At the Restaurant.

Please meet the two very important people at work, Chef de Cuisine Justin and Sous Chef Jonathan.

We let our creative juices run wild. Story books became menus. Ikea bowls, plates, spoons and coasters were taken out from mummy's kitchen cabinet. Toy boxes became the stoves. Each section of the restaurant was properly laid out by Chef de Cuisine Justin. We also coloured and cut up the drawings of beef, chicken, fish, vegetables, sushi, squids and potatoes (kinda looked more like frog's eggs to me). Home-made chef hat complete with drawn pleats, Jonathan's was three quarters the size of Justin's.

Jon preparing Hainanese Chicken Rice

PS: Another theme which I love very much - At the Library. One of the quietest time with them at home because they need to observe silence in the library. They read their books, quietly whispering to one another. All for the precious fifteen minutes before they start getting fidgety and moving on to their next play.

Chocoholic

It was a wet week after Typhoon Kalmaegi hit Taiwan. Many areas like Tainan, Hualien, Taizhong and Kaoshiung were hit by strong winds and torrential rain. In Taipei city, school and work still continued as the rains were not too strong.

After Typhoon Kalmaegi left Taiwan on Friday night, we went to Chocoholic at 永康街 for dessert. A nice and cosy place selling anything with chocolate in it.

Outside Chocoholic

We tried the Chocolate Fondue - thick dark melted chocolate with seasonal fruits and marshmallows to dip. Two scoops of ice cream, biscuits, cheese crackers and not forgetting Papa's favourite warm and freshly baked bread.

Chocolate Fondue


Jon dipping his biscuit into hot chocolate sauce

Jonathan was kind of sneaky that night. Unbeknownst to Papa who was busy talking to Justin, Jon stole a sip of Papa's ice chocolate in a flash of a second. With no one to stop him, he continued to sip for a few more seconds until he got brain freeze from the ice cold chocolate.

Mmmmm ...... nice!!

Happy & satisfied