Sending Rowena Back

Have posted countless times on how michievous Rowena is. She really keeps everyone on their toes and loves it. If you scold her, she just sticks out her tougue at you or show you an angry face. Sometimes, she tries a different tactic by smiling sweetly at you after doing somthing wrong - and normally, I would smile back but if she has annoyed me, I just glare at her.

Just yesterday, I said, maybe we took the wrong baby home at the hospital as she looks really different now from when she was born. Plus, she does not look like either of us. Many people have commented that Rowena looks Malay. So we just carried on talking infront of her, and said maybe we should return her to her real parents. Her real parents must be having our daughter who is probably very well behaved. And Rowena's face just turned so sad, that tears started rolling down.

I asked her why she was crying and she said 'because you want to send me back'. Then I said, but you always scold us and never listen to mummy. Then she sweetly says 'i love daddy, mummy, and harvynna'. Poor thing. Deep down, she is still a sensitive lil girl, although she seems to show that nothing can affect her.

Bali Vacation - 6th - 9th July

Backdated.

We finally had a long overdue family vacation in July. I booked this trip a long time ago through one of Air Asia's promotion. Its quite difficult booking in advance as you just dont know what might crop up later.

Anyway, we had our Bali trip flights booked. But being such a last minute person, we did not book the hotel till the day before the trip!! We called so many hotels in Bali, and all of them were fully booked. Luckily, after several searches, we found this really, really nice hotel - the Ramayana Resort and Spa which was right smack in Kuta. It had a really nice Balinese landscape, and was surrounded by trees, which made it very cosy and relaxing. They had 2 pools - so we hung out with the one nearest to our room. The good thing about the hotel is its location at Jln Bakung sari, which was in the middle of everything - a convenient store next door, shopping stalls all around, Matahari Square on the right, all the spas and salons on the left and a short walk to Hard Rock, where we spent the day.

The girls really had a good time and spend a good deal of time swimming and having bubble baths. They found it very tiring to walk due to the hot sun. On the 3rd day, we walked all over Kuta and Legian street but took a taxi back to the hotel as their legs could not take it. Then at night, they got their hair braided (something they were looking forward to) while I had a cream bath for my hair! We all had manicures and pedicures done which made the girls really thrilled.

We did not do any sight seeing as we thought this would be just a break for the girls get away from their normal routine. Plus, it would be too tiring for them.

Now, they are looking forward to their next holiday!

Harvynna's Parent Teachers Meet

Harvynna's school has really been keeping me on my toes the last few weeks. 2 weekends ago, it was her Sports day, then last Saturday was their Open Day and they had some activities for the 5 year olds (only to find out that me and another parent were the only ones that went!!) and today was the Parent-Teacher meet.

I went in early, so I did not have to take too much time off work. Her Principal had also arranged for 3 parents to be interviewed by NST and as they wanted one from each race, so Harvynna and me were selected!! The topic was on sending kids for extra classes at a young age!

Anyway, Harvynna had good reviews from all her teachers. But then again, I dont think any kindergarten teacher would actually put down any child. Children at this age tend to develop at different paces and all they need is encouragement and support.

However, I did see Harvynna's work and I know that she is a very responsible and diligent student. Her school is not one of those extreme academic ones with exams and stuff - they follow the format of those international preschools which gears children for the International Primary Curriculum. Her teacher gives her extra work as she finishes her work very fast, hence she has an extra exercise book where she does Primary One work.

Her reading in all 3 languages is good, even Mandarin! I checked with the Mandarin teacher and she says that Harvynna has grasped the language well and even corrects her when she makes mistakes! I then heard Harvynna having a short conversation in Mandarin with her teacher. The teacher had always thought that Harvynna's dad was Chinese!! However, she does not have anyone to practise speaking Mandarin to, so she might probably forget it once she goes to Primary school. What a waste!

As for Bahasa Malaysia, she also needs to practise speaking. All the kids in her class come from English Speaking homes, and hardly speak any Malay. I must say that the school's Bahasa teacher is very good as Harvynna went in with Zero BM and has now improved tremendously.

Then I spoke to the music teacher that teaches the 'Off Schulwerk' programme in her school. Harvynna is quite musically inclined but she likes things that are fast moving as she is more boisterous in nature. As such, she wont really like activities like piano lessons or ballet as she will find it too regimented. Something like modern dance will be better for her and she will love it.

Overall, I am happy with Harvynna's school as I like the way they teach and manage the children. I did have my reservations as they are not academically inclined and it may be a problem when she goes to Primary school. But I think that with some guidance, she will be able to cope well as she has the basic knowledge. It is also very important for the parents to play a role in helping their children and not totally depend on the school. I do a lot of activities with her at home to spark her interest. Think I should start sparking Rowena's interest now!

Harvynna and her favourite baby!

Harvynna's school sports

Harvynna's kindergarten had their school sports last Saturday. It was a joint event between all 4 branches. The theme of the sports day was 'Modus Magus'

As the Bangsar branch was chosen to lead the red house fairy parade (march past), Harvynna and another 3 year old was selected to be the house mascots. Each school had to prepare the march past of different houses and there was a competition. Thanks to Barbara who introduced me to this shop in Kuchai Lama that sold fairy stuff at such a steal. I got Harvynna a set of wings, a wand and a matching hairband for RM6.90. I found the exact same pair in Bangsar Village for RM25 and something similar at toys r us for RM30!! They even had fairy dresses . As I had bought another pair for Rowena, the school borrowed that as well for the other girl.

All the schools had put in a lot of effort. The green team were the nature fairies and all of them had skirts on (made by plastic bags - very creative). I think they were from the Gasing branch.

Harvynna was very excited to be selected as the mascot. I took Rowena downstairs to see Harvynna and also to take some pictures. Rowena being herself, took the opportunity to pull out the flowers that were attached to Harvynna's skirt. Luckily, Harvynna's teacher was able to fix it in time.

It was a long, long day as the kids had to be there by 8.30 and it ended about 12.30pm. As it was a combined event, the whole event kind of dragged on. Each child only takes part in one game as there are 4 schools to consider. So we had to watch match by match and Harvynna's item was towards the end. Luckily her fairy parade was at the beginning of the event. Medals were only given out to those that came in 1st, so the others did not win anything. Unfortunately, the red house did not do very well in the telematch and did not win any prizes. They came out second in the fairy parade. They lost to the yellow house (sun fairies) that did a cheerleading routine!

As expected, Harvynna was very disappointed that she did not win a medal. She said that most of her friends received the 'gold chain' and she also wanted one. So now, I have to find a medal for her as I promised her one.

Rowena's BIG 3

Late again for this one. My baby Rowena turned 3 on the 25th of April. No longer a baby I guess, but she still acts like one and I am not complaining. She wanted a teddy bear cake as she claims that she is a teddy bear, so we got her one and it was was really nice.

Rowena is very different from Harvynna in most aspects, although she does copy everything Harvynna says and does. Now, she has started picking books and pretending to read them. She also wants to do activity books, but all she does is scribble on them. I dont mind as it makes her feel all grown up. She is not into princesses and stuff - she does not mind wearing anything as long as it looks presentable. She knows her colours now, but is not into learning alphabets and numbers, although she can count from 1-11. She would probably pick this up in school. Like Harvynna, she does not like to watch tv. She somehow knows how to occupy herself.

There is just something about Rowena that has a very soothing effect on me. She is extremely naughty, but the moment I look at her, everything seems ok. Cant pin point on what exactly, but it is just there. I think Harvynna has noticed that too, and feels hurt. There have been numerous occasions, when she says, 'Nobody cares about me' or 'You dont care about me'

My inlaws came down from KK to celebrate Rowena's birthday and lavished them with more gifts. We celebrated and cut the cake at Chillis. Rowena was very happy, as she got to cut her cake and everyone sang for her. So easy to please a 3 year old.

The photos I took came out really bad, need to steal some from my SIL camera.

Harvynna's Big 5

-very belated post-

Harvynna turned 5 on April 9th. She looks like she is 8, has the height of an 8 year old and wears shoes for a 9 year old!! Academically, I am very happy with her progress as she is doing really well at school. She is also picking up languages really fast. I cant believe that she is 5 and getting all independant. She spends a lot of time in her room reading or doing her work. What is she into now? Princesses, of course.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PRINCESS! - She is truly our talented, precious princess

Some pictures of her birthday celebration.

Note: The girl next to Harvynna is her best friend, Imani (a really lovely girl) and the boy next to Imani is her boyfriend. Caught her holding his hand and walking many times!!

On her actual birthday, we went out for lunch, took them for a pedicure at Chic Spa, Bangsar Village, then went to Marmalade Cafe to cake. Her main celebration was in her school, where she cut her cake with her friends. I was quite dissapointed with the outcome of the cake, but I had no choice as I had ordered it at the last minute and not many people could do it, being Easter weekend as well. It tasted good, though. Luckily, I managed to order Rowena's cake from the usual person and as usual, it was great - taste and design!

Crazy April

I looked at my last post and it was almost a month ago. April has been such a busy month with work and birthdays and I am glad it is almost over. Let's see what happenned in April...

April 9 - my hubby's bday

April 9 - David Archuleta's visit to my school

April 11 - My school sports day

April 11 - Small dinner in the house for hubby's birthday

April 12 -Harvynna's birthday

April 13 - Harvynna's birthday party at school

April 18 - My school's Open Day

So there, I have been so busy with all these happening at the same time. And now that it is over, I have finally fallen sick and Rowena's birthday is this saturday.

Since it was such a busy time, I did not do anything for the girls birthday. Since Harvynna's actual birthday was on a Sunday, we went out for lunch and I took the girls for a manicure at Bangsar Village. It was called 'Little Princess'. The girls loved it but of course, it didnt last for more than half a day!!

Then the next day, we cut Harvynna's cake in her kindergarten. Just got a cake organised and some party packs and it was done. She had been looking forward to this all year long.

Dont know what we will do for Rowena's birthday. This year I dont have the energy to organise a party. Will keep that for next year.

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My school had David Archuleta over as we had won the Hitz FM's 'Bring David Archuleta' to the school contest. We had to lobby real hard for it as well, as we were not shortlisted from the initial list. So, with one whole week of planning - we convinced the organisers to come to our school as we know we had the facilities to impress them and we had a school wide campaign to bring in the votes. So, we did win the contest in the end, but we were not given the official letter, and we running around to get things organised, without confirmation and we had to keep it a secret as it was supposed to be a suprise visit. At the end, the students put 2 and 2 together and knew he was coming. How could we hide it with Digi coming to set up their booths in the school, and the event management company came in with all the gigantic speakers.

On the actual day, the Hitz Fm crew came in did a GOTCHA on our students. They told them that we had done really well, but came in 2nd, and they had set up the equipment at the other school as well. The winning school got David Archuleta, and we got the morning crew instead. This was received with a lot of booing. haha. Then they finally did a GOTCHA and David came up stage.

I missed this part in the hall as we were in the function room for the photography and autograph session. I must admit he has a really good voice and looks better in person. Our students really went wild. I have never been a big fan, but he kind of grows on you. Now Harvynna and Rowena are hooked on him. They tell me' I know who is david archuleta - he is the american idol runner up', but he is very naughty - gave mummy a lot of work.