Happy 6th Birthday!

Since Q3 last year, Lynn has been asking me when is her birthday. Besides her birthday, she also asks about the birthday of other family members. She will remember the birthday by month. For example, her uncle's (my brother) birthday in February, then her papa's birthday at March, her 'gong gong' Grandpa birthday at March too etc. And then she will ask or tell whose birthday next. And finally, her long awaited her own birthday finally is here. :)

Beginning of the year, she told me "Mommy, when my birthday I don't want you to make the cake for me. I want to go buy nice nice one." Is she hinting the cake that I make is no good? Feel a little hurt. LOL! But I thought she's just a kid and I did not really mad at her or question her about it. Hehe. Then in February, I made a carrot cake for my brother's birthday. In March, I made peanut butter torte for my dad's birthday. And orange cake for hb's birthday. During my dad's birthday, Lynn was not feeling well and eventually she did not eat the cake at all. And few days after that, she saw the carrot cake picture from the cookbook, and told me "Mommy, can you make this cake for me for my birthday?" "Oh, you want carrot cake for your birthday?" I want to confirm with her.  "Yes, I want carrot cake for my birthday this year. Then when I'm 7 years old, I want the peanut butter torte for my birthday." Wah this year birthday is not here yet, she started booking for her birthday cake next year. LOL! And talk about early of the year she told me not to bake birthday cake for her.

That was somewhere end of March. And then somewhere in April, one day Lynn told me "Mommy, I want the peanut butter torte for my 6 years old birthday this year." Hmm, changing mind? "I thought you said you want the carrot cake?" "No, I don't want carrot cake already. I want the peanut butter torte." Then few more times during the month, she kept on telling me to make her the peanut butter torte for her birthday this year. Reason being she did not get to eat it during my dad's birthday, so she wanted to eat it on her birthday.

Alright, that's the story of her birthday cake. :) On top of that, she also has been pestering me to have her birthday celebration with her friends at school. I did it once for her when she was 3 years old, at the infant and toddler child care. Since this year is her final year at kindy, even if she did not ask me I have actually also planned to let her celebrate with her friends at school. She also made me promise her to be there at the kindy on her birthday. "Mommy, you must come for my birthday also. All my friends' papa mama are there during their birthday." Wah, getting demanding. Well, since I'm freelancing now, I can be there. And from time to time since beginning of the year, she has been reminding me that I must be there on her birthday. Luckily her birthday is in May, I can't imagine if her birthday is in December......as I can't stand people keep on telling me same thing again and again.....

Last week, after picking up the kids I went to the bakery supplies shop to get the necessary ingredients for her cake. Besides cakes, I also plan to make something for her party packs for her friends. Previously to save time, I just bought the junk foods and snacks to make up the part packs. But even I myself don't like my kids eating too much on the junk food, this time I decided if I can make something. After searching through my recipe books, I set my eyes on the coconut candy. I remember we used to get it from supermarket when I was young. Not sure now still selling or not.

 Made this Rum and raisin ice cream with brownie as her birthday cake celebrating with my parents and my brother family. Not sure if I put too much rum (read that rum will soften the ice cream), the ice cream was melting super fast. And I chose a very rich brownie recipe, after keeping in the freezer the brownie became very hard. The rum and raisin ice cream taste very good though. A very good lesson learn. Next time I will make this rum and raisin ice cream cake in different way.

Coconut candy for Lynn's classmates. Even though the coconut candy does not require baking, but need to chill in the freezer. So a week before the birthday celebration, I started making a pan of coconut candy a day. Btw I'm using strawberry flavor chocolate for the pink color.

I was told there are about 40 children. Worry if the cake alone won't be enough to share by all children, I made some chocolate fondant too. Also in case some children don't eat cheese or peanut butter. Since the birthday party is in the afternoon, I spent the morning and noon making the chocolate fondant. Lazy and greedy me. Instead of making 2 batches, I doubled the recipe. It was a mistake. My arms were so tired folding the batter. And the chocolate fondant also turned out did not look as nice as it should be. Some chocolate fondant the middle part was sinking. Not sure where went wrong. Also as I have forgotten to take out the butter from the fridge to keep it at room temperature, also lack of time, I did not frost it with butter cream. Just put something colorful on top of it to make it looks more presentable. :)

Since I keep the coconut candy in the fridge, so the packing also has to be last minute! Pack them right before I leave the house. :)

As for the chocolate peanut butter torte that the birthday girl has requested, I made it the night before. It has the best crust that I have made so far. Hehe.

Instead of sprinkle with chopped peanuts on top, I used the ladybird and make the number "6", and sprinkled with some chopped peanuts and sugar flakes. Lynn chose the candle herself.

She set her eyes on the cake only......

I'm quite happy with the outcome of the cake. This is my 2nd attempt and I would say presentation wise looks better than the first attempt. :) Taste wise if you like peanut butter then you will like it. Can't taste the cream cheese taste much though.

Some children only attended the kindy session and did not stay for full day child care. So there were less than 40 children there. Each children still can have a share of the chocolate peanut butter torte and the chocolate fondant too.

Alright, finally done all the baking for her birthday! Phew! 

Happy birthday my girl! Mommy always feels glad that you are a good sister to Hao, always taking care of him. But Mommy does have one wish - please don't make mommy telling you same thing again and again!

Pan-Asian Buffet Dinner at Atrium Cafe, Pyramid Tower Hotel

 It was my dad's birthday last week. I make this Peanut Butter Torte for him. Wanted to add some strawberry as toppings but my mom said no need. The peanut crush is good enough. :)

The rich and creamy filling is made from peanut butter, cream cheese, beaten heavy cream (to lighten the texture to become like mousse), with chopped peanut and chocolate chips. The crust is made from Oreo biscuit crumbs. With simple Chocolate Ganache as toppings sprinkle with chopped peanut. Just the ingredients itself costs more than RM50. But more important, everyone enjoy eating it very much. It's simply delicious. :)

Besides getting a birthday cake for the birthday boy/girl, our usual way of celebrating the birthday is to go out and have a family meal together. Both me and my brother were running out of idea where to eat. So happen I saw this promotion from Facebook, and after checking with my brother we decided to go there to celebrate my dad's birthday. Besides the promotional price for the adults, the children get to eat for free for each paying adults. It's a very good deal for altogether 10 of us (6 adults and 4 children).

The two little one.... I like to see Lynn's hair in ponytail bunches. :) 

I like to environment of the restaurant. Very spacious. Not sure is it due to the promotion, most of the tables were reserved and later the restaurant was quite full when the crowd started to fill up the tables. So if you intend to go there before the promotion end, better make prior reservation before you go there.

Various selections for the salads and appetizers.They are very delicious!

 Breads and soup...

"Lok lok" steam boat!

Serving Malay, Chinese, Indian and Western style food

Various food stalls were setup on the other side of the hall. Penang style fried keow teow; Japanese sushi and shashimi, Chinese roast chicken/ roast duck rice; Satay; Thai salads etc. 

 

 Deserts and local kuih muih. 

Fruits, ice kacang and ice cream. 

The food is actually not that bad. Fresh prawn and fish. We quite enjoy the food. The services given by the waiters were excellent! They came to collect the empty plate promptly; refill our water without being asked; and even after we have finished reading, they will come ask if we would like to have our coffee and tea refilled. I think it worth to try out the food during the promotional period. But if it's the normal price RM90 per person for a buffet dinner, I think we have lots of other choices available. I probably will go for fine dining. :)

Overall, it's an enjoyable dining experience for us at Atrium Cafe, Pyramid Tower Hotel. If I was asked to give a rating, I would rate it 7 out of 10.

NOTE: This is not a paid post. This is solely my personal experience dining in this restaurant and it may not represent the truth.

An Unforgettable Birthday

Last Thursday it was hb's birthday. Usually it's just another normal day for us, as we very much stick to our routine. Nonetheless, I intended to bake a cake for hb as surprise. (Later I found out that hb actually knew I was going to bake a cake for him, as he saw the eggs and butter that I put out on the table.) As I did not really have the chance to bake something fancy for him. So I just baked an orange cake and simply decorated with some Kiss me chocolate than any toppings. In the morning, I get the kids to carry the cake to him and we sang the Happy birthday song while he was still getting ready to work. :D

In the evening, after picking up the kids, I called hb to check if it's possible for him to have dinner together with us. I was so happy hb said he would leave the office earlier so that we could eat together. I even suggested to go the new Korean restaurant opened not too long ago near the shops in our neighborhood. So I was driving home with the kids as usual. I even told them papa was going to have dinner with us together.

Just few km before reaching the home, while I was approaching the traffic light, I saw it was turning yellow from far and obviously I started to slow down the car preparing for the car to stop for the red light. I was still some distant away and by the time I reach the there it would turn red. And I was right, the traffic light turn to red before I stopped my car totally. And naturally I watched to the car behind from the mirror. I saw it was coming to me quite fast and thus I released the brake to go before the white line, to give more space for it to stop. But unfortunately, it could not stop in time. I heard a loud "bang" along with some broken glass sound. The damage to my car? I let the pictures do the talking....

And what happened to the car that hit me?

The lady driver is around 40 I think. She told me she was on the way to pick up her children from tuition. She claimed that the brake of her car was not working accordingly and thus the car hit into my car. I actually did not quite believe her. There are 3 traffic lights within about 500m of that stretch of the road. And the road is going downhill, where the traffic light that my car get hit was at the bottom of the slope. How could she manage to stop at the other 2 traffic lights but not the last one? My guess was she was not paying attention, whether talking on the phone or whatever. Or she thought I was going to drive through the red light? Though we were already within the housing areas, but that road is a very busy road. Roads from the neighborhood are connected to this road. 

Anyway, whatever happened is already happen. I'm just glad that all of us are not hurt. Kids are not shocked too. The car has done a good job on absorbing all the impact. In fact, my car was jerked to few meters away but luckily not far enough to hit the car from the opposite direction that was turning into the other road. All of us had our safety belt fasten even though the kids were sitting at the back. Yup we enforce the kids to always fasten the seat belt all the time. Without the seat belt, it could be possible that the kids might hit the back of the driver and passenger's seats when my car got hit. And I'm also glad that I was not driving some small car like Kancil or Kelisa. With such bad damage, I could not imagine what will happen to the kids who were sitting at the back of a Kancil or Kelisa when this happen. Will blog about the part on making police report on a separate post.

Btw after the accident, we had no mood to go eat something nice to celebrate hb's birthday already. But we still manage to have dinner together.

My Happy Boy is turning 3!

I always telling myself and telling people that Hao is a gift from God to me. He came earlier than we have expected. He came when I was not expecting a baby during that time. He is the one who made me believe things happen for a reason. He accompanies me going through the worst time in my life. He made me strong. He made me grow. However he himself does not have an "easy" life when he's still inside my stomach and at the infant stage which I'm not proud of it at all.

Hao at birth.

I was having depression when I was pregnant with Hao. I was worried if that will leave some side effects on him. Instead, Hao was a happy baby. He always made me smile; he gave me strength to come out from the depression. Despite I have experienced breastfeeding Lynn that does not make my breastfeeding journey with Hao much easier. I still remember I had to nurse him every hourly and sometimes every half hourly during second month and it drained all my energy. Even my mental state was at the weakness too as I was very much stressed up and depressed during that time. I almost gave up breastfeeding him. The thoughts came into my mind several times but as I feared I may regret later, I did not give up at the end. And I'm glad I did not give up.

Guess probably this is the only photo I was breastfeeing Hao..... Hao was 7 months old.

I have the most un-forgetful confinement month with Hao, a month full of pain. Before giving birth, baby was pressing at my perineum, causing much pain, even when I was not walking. After giving birth, the pain did not go away immediately. The pain remained with me for another one week, causing me difficult to go up and down the bed, not to mention walking and climbing up stairs. Before I was discharged from the hospital, I was tested super low on iron and the fastest way to boost up the iron in my body was to take the venofer. In total, I had to travel to the hospital 5 times for the dripping. I'm not a person who is scare of needle and injection, but let me tell you to let them poke the back of your hand with a 2 inches long needle into the blood vein is not fun at all. In fact, it was very painful. Especially if the dripping did not flow into the blood vein and the nurse had to poke and poke again to get it right. Each time after the dripping, the back of my hand would be swollen. So after 5 dripping sessions, both the back of my hand were swollen for many days. Each dripping session was about 1 hour, plus the traveling so I would be away from home for at least 2 hours. Since I was fully breastfeeding Hao, I had no choice but to take him along to the hospital if I was expected to nurse him soon. I feel blessed that I received no complain from the confinement lady. She accompanied me to the hospital, helped to take care the boy when I was not required to nurse him.

Hao @ 1 year old.

But I guess whatever pain that I had gone through, cannot compare to his pain when he was merely 2 months old. He scared the hell of all of us when we found out his femur bone was fractured. I would not forget the 4 days spent in the hospital with him. The interrogations from the doctors and nurses; numeral tests that Hao had to go through; and the sleepless night in the super cold hospital ward was like a nightmare to me. I could not imagine the pain he had to go through and he was just a baby. Regardless what's the cause (it's not caused by us or the babysitter), I feel grateful that Hao is healthy and normal now. It did not seem to have left any side effects to him. Although he started walking late, but he can run and jump as other normal children.

Hao @ 2 years old.

Unlike Lynn, Hao did not have a very good babysitter (not in my eye). Hao was not a very friendly baby at the beginning. He would cry when I brought him back to my parents' house. His social skills get improved after I sent him to child care after having enough dissatisfaction with his babysitter during that time. Now Hao is extremely friendly with any adult, to the stage that I got very worry and we have to constantly remind him not to talk to any adults that are not papa and mama's friends. On the contrary, he's friendly to selective children only. He is quite protective when any children get near him.

Hao @ 3 years old.

He likes to smile, but recently he also likes to cry for small little thing. *roll eyes* When come to doing things, like wearing socks by himself, he always lack of confident and require us to give him lots of encouragement and pushing. He's still mostly converse in English but can understand Mandarin and Cantonese very well. He can eat quite a lot if he's in good mood. He loves to jump, always jumping around. He loves to read book, and will repeat the words after me. Of course there will be times he has his moments and will make me start pulling my hair. Anyhow, I just wish he will remain healthy and happy!

Early Father's Day Celebration at Han Lim Seafood Restaurant

This Sunday is Father's Day. However since my parents have to attend a wedding dinner on this Sunday, we decided to have the celebration last Sunday. My SIL brought us to this seafood restaurant in Cheras.

We reached there about 7.30pm. And I was surprised to see the restaurant already full house, with some people waiting for the table too. We waited half an hour for a table for 10 of us (6 adults and 4 children).

There are various type of fish, prawn, squids, crabs available. Choose what you want to eat from here. Put your selection into the basket available. Can you see how big is that garoupa fish?

After that get your selection to be weighted. And tell them how you would like it to be cooked.

We waited one hour for our food to arrive. These are what my parents and my SIL had ordered.

Steam crabs. My parents are not eating crabs, so they ordered 3 crabs only. 600g here and cost us RM27.

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Curry fish head, with long beans and brinjals. The Garoupa fish head weighted 2.5kg and it cost RM113. It tasted very good and not very spicy. The kids had been asking for it non-stop.

Steam ikan bawal (dou dai chong). It was a little over cooked. Rm35 for 500g.

Squid stir fry with salt and pepper. The taste was not bad but a little tough for the kids. RM18 for 500g.

Steam tiger prawns. The prawns were Very fresh prawn and not over cooked. Too bad only 4 tiger prawn left if not we would get more. I like this dish most. RM81 for 900g. Expensive?

Steam garoupa (the belly part) with bean sauce. RM28 for 500g. The sauce is a little too salty for me.

Fish ball soup. My mom wanted the la la soup but no more la la. So she just ordered this for the kids. I think Hao drank the most of it. Hahaha. RM12 for the soup, which can serve about 10 small bowls.

Stir fry choy sum. I like it very much. All young leaves. RM10 for this one.

We were very hungry after waiting for long. Plus the food was tasted good. We eventually finished all the food above, including that big pot of curry fish head. Hao had a very good appetite that night and kept on asking fish from me. Lynn was not picky on the food too and she ate quite a lot. Despite long wait, we were satisfied with the food. Everyone went home with tummy full and a smile on their face. :)


Han Lim Seafood Restaurant
No. 12, Jalan Midah 12,
Taman Midah, Cheras,
56000 Kuala Lumpur.

Happy Father's Day!

"I'm five!"

May is a busy month for me. First we have Mother's Day celebration, with mother from both side of the family. Then we have Lynn's birthday, our wedding anniversary and my niece's birthday too.

For the past 4 years, we celebrated Lynn's birthday with family members from both side. For her 1 year old birthday, we held a party at our house inviting families and friends coming over. For her 2 years old birthday, we had birthday celebrations separately - one day with family members from my side, and the next day with family members from hb side. Lynn was so happy she got to blow the candle and cut the cake twice! For her 3 years old birthday, we held a small party at Pizza Hut, inviting only close family members from both side, about 11 of us excluding the children. Last year, we celebrated her birthday at a restaurant serving western food nearby our house. This year, initially we wanted to have separate celebration with our family members, during our regular weekly meet up. However last minute I got a SMS from my MIL canceling the weekly meeting. So I took the chance to have a day out for only 4 of us. And I'm glad that hb did not reject the idea as he just got back from a business trip at 2am that morning.

First we went to BookXcess. Because this kiasu mommy here could not resist the RM3.90 coloring and sticker books that were being offered during that time. Hehehe.

These are my loot! Hehehe. The paper quality is slightly thin but I can't resist the nice pictures. 16 pages per book and 2 full pages of stickers. The stickers are of same picture with the coloring pages. So if they want the kids can follow the color of the sticker to do their coloring. I get Lynn to give one coloring book to my niece.

Lynn requested me to get this princess book for her, so I bought it for her birthday present. :) It is hardcover with very good paper quality, big fonts and colorful pages. There are stickers at the end of the book too. She loves this book very much. Since then I have been reading the princess stories for her every night.

After we left BookXcess, we went to Critterland. We had fun 2 hours inside.

And the kids just love to bury themselves inside the pool of balls! LOL! We had so much fun that day!

On Sunday, my mom asked us go over for dinner. I thought just a normal family dinner cooked by my mom. I did not expect she went to order so many food to celebrate Lynn's birthday. Thank you mom!

Mee hoon cooked in Thai style. My mom was craving for this. This much costs RM20. It is very tasty and appetizing!

Yam cake and Pumpkin cake. RM1 for each piece. There were 10 each so total RM20. I found the yam cake a bit salty but the pumpkin cake taste good. And fried meehoon for the kids. My mom ordered for RM5 only but she gave us this much!

Fried chicken and stir fry vegetables by my mom. The fried chicken was the kids' favorite! Yum yum! ^_^

Ang Ku in green and red. RM0.80 each. A litle pricey for such a small size.

Chinese dumpling. RM0.80 each.

Lynn chose this cake herself - heart shape chocolate ice cream cake. I forgot to take the picture after cutting it. There was a thick layer of ice cream inside, just a thin layer of cake as the base.

 My favorite pic of Lynn for the day! :D

So now Lynn is officially five years old now. She can be very sweet like an angel, but she also can be very evil too. Lynn is a rebellious child since she was a baby. So it is a challenge for me to deal with her on the behavior modification strategies. Nonetheless, I feel blessed that she did help me a lot when come to taking care of Hao. Lynn is a happy child. I wish she stays happy and healthy always!