New Year's Eve 2012

I think we will be seeing the New Year in for 2013 by default!  The noise from the nearby shopping complex is rather loud!  The last couple of hours all we've heard (over top of the music and dj) are those horrible horrible Vuvuzela horns!  Who on earth invented them? (I'd like to ram one down their throat!!)

You can see the lights on top of the mountain in the distance ... that's Genting Highlands.  The lights are really clear tonight.

Tonight Lyndon and I spent the evening with some friends while Grandad and Nana looked after the kids.  One of our dear friends here passed away on Saturday morning - his funeral is tomorrow.  So our New Year's Day will be spent attending that and sharing good memories with friends.

Grandad and Nana head back to New Zealand tomorrow too :-(  We will miss them.  Maddison told me the other day that she wanted Nana and Grandad to stay for 100 days!  hehee  (100 days for her is like forever!)  ;-)

Looking forward to the fireworks at midnight.  

Happy New Year to everyone.  Hope 2013 is a great one for you all.

Thanks for visiting.

Keeping busy ...

Over the last few days we've been quite busy :-)  Enjoying our time with Nana and Grandad before they head back to NZ.

The kids have been bike riding.  Maddison and Aaron are sharing his push bike at the moment as she's outgrown her little one.

Aaron of course had to ride through the muddy patch!

And turn around and check the tire tracks hehee

Maddison and Samuel spent ages sliding down the skateboard ramp.  It was SO hot and sweaty that morning.  Phew!

Love this pic of them both :-)

Yesterday we went to Melaka/Malacca (however you prefer to spell it!) for the day.  It was overcast all day, but 34 degs C and so humid!  Made us very hot walking around, but was interesting to see the sights again.  We visited here 4 years ago and there were a few new things (or things we didn't see or notice last time).  One of them was this lookout with several cannons.

Samuel has absolutely no fear and kept climbing along the length of them!

Looking down the river out to the sea. 

 Near the information centre and where there's heaps of little tourist shops and trishaw's.

 We went back and had a look around the boat at the Maritime Museum again.

Back outside waiting for Nana and Grandad.

Then we had an ice-cream to try and cool down!

Had a quick look at the Melaka Water Wheel (it's a replica) and then jumped back in the car and drove around to "A Fomasa".

Lyndon stayed in the car with the kids as it was just so hot.  Nana, Grandad and I climbed up the hill to have a look around.

Was much as the same as last time, except they had done some renovations and painted the supporting framework around the arches bright red!  It looked awful and didn't blend in with the building at all!

You can see one of the red arches in this pic just below the centre.

Today we went and had lunch with friends.  They have a little dog which the kids loved (especially Samuel and Maddison!)

The dog got so excited it was barking so Samuel was telling her to "shush" heheee

We went for a walk to the park to feed some ducks ... you can imagine there were several stops just to pet the dog!

It was a beautiful place and would have been even more beautiful if the water wasn't such a filthy colour!  (I was just waiting for one of the kids to fall in! heheheee ... they didn't though!  Pity really as I had the camera right ready just in case!  lol)

Then we found a playground for the kids to play in.

 Samuel's touching the dog's ear and saying "ear" non stop!

Thanks for visiting.

Best wishes for the New Year if I am not back on here before then!

Christmas 2012

A pile of pics of what's been happening the last couple of days.

Christmas Eve (around 11.40pm) Lyndon, his parents and I were chatting in the lounge and all of a sudden there was this almighty bang and a loud swish of water.  The front glass pane on Tom's tank had given way and exploded out onto the deck.  I saw Tom riding the flood of water before hitting the deck several metres from the tank, he quickly scurried over to the wall and stayed there while we cleaned up.

We put him in our portable tank and he was very shaken up.  He sat for about 20 minutes on the rock and hardly moved at all.

Then he went under the rock and tried to hide.  Poor little thing.  He seems much better now though and doesn't seem to have broken anything.

Christmas Eve the presents were wrapped, the stockings were filled and all under the tree.

The kids woke early on Christmas Day!  5.30am Maddison came in, and it wasn't long after that Aaron got up!  Here they are reading the note I left ...

"Do not touch.  Please go and ask Mummy first!"  hehehee  It worked!

Jingle had left a special breakfast for us, waffles, syrups, whipped cream and loads of fresh fruit.  Delicious!

6.30am ... having breakfast!

After the kids had finished breakfast, dressed and hair done they opened their stockings (note it's still dark outside!!)

 So exciting ... Lego from the Shell petrol station which he didn't have.

They all got a harmonica each!  (I might regret that hahaa)

Samuel opening his stocking.

Aaron with his present from Maddison and Samuel.  (Story behind why that lego set is in a plastic bag!  I bought it for Maddison to give to a friend whose party she was going to and Aaron saw it and decided he would open the box!  He did such a terrible job at opening it that I couldn't mend it to give away, so decided he could have it for Christmas!!)

Maddison very upset (tears and all) with her present from Aaron and Samuel!  It wasn't the lego set she asked Santa for!  haha

Samuel was thrilled with the Cars set he got from Aaron & Maddison.

Opening presents from Santa.

Ahhh all happy now we've opened the one we asked Santa for!

More Cars!  Nearly too much excitement :-)

You can tell I wasn't taking the pictures as Aaron was doing the  peace sign for every picture he had taken of himself and lego!  (I don't let him do that for photos!)

 Samuel just loves his Car sets :-)

 Building ...

 And all finished by that afternoon!

Santa gave Lyndon some reversible ties so when he dribbles food on them he can just turn it over  and carry on!  :-)

I gave him a gong :-)  The kids had great fun with it.  

Samuel was funny ... he would watch his hand go back and forward hitting the gong.  haha

Santa bought me this awesome word art.  Love it.  Has some very good words on it for me (and the kids!! e.g. 3rd line from the top!!)

Lyndon got me a power pack for my new Vagabond (long story, but to give you the quick version, I am now on Vagabond #3 as the first two just stopped working.  This one is direct from Sizzix in the States and is a lower power voltage.  Will be interesting to see how this one lasts.)

I bought myself Project Life to do for 2013.  :-)  Looking forward to that.

Grandad and Nana gave me a cool kitchen rules sign :-)  I was very spoilt.

Christmas lunch was an easy light meal with a couple of friends.  We had bacon and egg pie, vege quiche, banana and leek salad, lettuce salad, fresh bread and BBQ meat.  For dessert (which I didn't take a pic of) we had meringues, whipped cream, fresh fruit (strawberries, pineapple, cherries, mango, banana) and ice cream. Delicious!

Yesterday Lyndon went off and bought a new tank for Tom.  Unfortunately they didn't have the same size in stock, so this one is a little bit shorter.  But it's much better than his portable one.

Maddison did some painting on the desk holder she got in her stocking.

So that's been us.  Today has been quiet too.  The kids have been bike riding this morning and now Lyndon, Maddison and the grandparents are off to visit the Islamic Arts Museum.  Tonight we are going out for dinner with friends.

Thanks for visiting.