Apron Strings Blog Hop Winner

And the WINNER is .....

Do email me your address, Linda, and keep a lookout for that RAK coming in your mail soon !!! Thanks for playing along gals ! Please come by again soon !

Museums and a tea party !

Took the girls down memory lane this week, and they visited this air-craft carrier - the USS Midway which had previously served as a flagship in the fleet in Desert Storm stationed at Kuwait.

Now decommissioned and used as a museum, the girls got to see how sailors actually lived aboard the air-craft carriers, and got to climb into the cockpits of several aircrafts on the flight deck. At full capacity, this air-craft carrier could carry up to 60 aircraft on its deck !

We also did the Museum of Man this week - more like an anthropology museum so now the girls have an inkling what their ancestors looked like (ie. apes) and how ancient civilisations lived.

Here C stands in front of a stone shaft, what is called a Stela, in which the ancient Mayans carved their beliefs on.

The girls were fascinated by what they saw and were busy scribbling in their note books. C had me spelling out all the exhibits for her so she could jot them down. She might not remember what they are already, but the process was good nonetheless....
R's favourite - the ancient Egyptians and mummy exhibits.

Here she is - sitting on a pharoah's throne :)

And the kids went to Tea today !!!

A fanciful one at that, organised by our local library. It's called the Mother and Daughter tea, so i got to go too. Many mothers and daughters actually dressed up in similar outfits and matching hats as well, so it was a real sight to see. We of cos' just went in our usual.


But it was such fun ! The girls got to use pretty glassware and walk up to get their tea poured out of elegant silverware, and snack on colourful cookies and muffins. So wonderful that the library stuff and the volunteers put so much effort into it, and all for free too ! It's really heartening the spirit of volunteerism here.

Then off to watch Hannah Montana - the Movie. It was great. As usual, i cried buckets. Not that it was all THAT soppy - it was just me. We really enjoyed it, better than High School Musical, in our opinion.

So all in all, another fantastic week. Hope you all had a great one too especially if the exam season is over :)

Hurray ! the new Apron Strings Blog and a blog HOP !!

If you are here from Amy's blog, WELCOME !!
If not, you gotta start right with the juiciest at the Apron Strings Blog and follow your way here on this fabulous Blog Hop !!!

I'm just over the moon with the AS Blog, cos' it's promising to be a place with loads of inspiration, fun and goodies to droool over :) And what a way to kick-start the celebrations !

Hope you gals got your pen and paper ready for the continuation of our word hunt, cos' here's my piece of the phrase you're collecting "happy wallets". Collect all the phrases from the DT blogs you visit and you stand a chance to win a scrappy Treat ! Easy !! Want more chances for candy ? Just leave a comment on this post and you'll also stand to win a gorgeous RAK from me!!

But seriously, the AS kits are really such a value-laden kit which doesn't stinge on the bellies and which gives you so much variety in the kind of pages you'd like to create as well. I loved the flexibility it gave, like in these from the Mar kit ....


So come on now, get on the bandwagon and hop on over to Vicky Kelly's for more scrappy goodness - she's one talented lady, i tell ya !! Oh yes, and don't forget to check up the AS blog through the weekend for lots of chances to win some more blog candy with all the challenges in store. I've one on for Saturday morning so be sure to drop by !!

Lotsa Fun ..

Managed to squeeze in just a teeny bit of me-time today for some scrappin !
Here it is - using Let's Scrap (sketch#106) ...

(All goodies from GCD studios + 7G stickers)

Thanks for dropping by !!

A noisy weekend ...

It was the Red Bull Air Race - a tantalizing display of aerial aerobatics in nifty colourful planes - happening right above us (literally) and out at the bay. It was 4 days (2 days of training and 2 of competition) of non-stop zooming above us, a couple of hours a day.

The men were of course all excited, and i togged my trusty lens down to the promenade to catch some shots... heh, won't bore you with them- just a few here. This plane in orange eventually won the race...

People literally camped out on the promenade fully prepared with beach umbrellas and even mobile BBQ pits ,


but these were my girls' reactions ....

But this wasn't the reaction during their performance first thing sunday morning -


their Mother's Day concert for just ME (they even co-opted papa to star in it) had been in rehearsals for weeks, with flashcards reading 'i love mommy' and self-composed songs ... i was very touched... ahhh... my girls :) AND the papa actually made pancakes for me that morning (er.. using pancake mix just add water kind - but still....). Can't ask for more :)

a sojourn to Hollywood ...

.... well almost ...
all i managed to catch was this from the confines of my car on the freeway ...

and nope... did not get to drool at any celebrities, just these that we met at Universal studios....



C was sooooo excited to see Dora, she couldn't take her eyes off her ! Even after this photo op, she kept lurking around, and didn't want to leave ! Well, who can blame her when this adoring fan has got Dora shoes, dora underwear, and now a Dora backpack (yea - the purple one which Dora carries) that the doting Papa had to get her while we were there...

A terribly scorching day with cool winds, i am now 'blessed' with a throbing headache and a stuffy nose... sigh...

but check out what's happening (click the vid) literally at our doorstep today !! The man is already getting excited and planning a camp-out this afternoon ... Will post pix if i actually manage to catch some shots of those death defying stunts !!

got to go get lunch ready now.... some shots of C playing hand games in the car with jie jie during our long drive out to Hollywood yesterday ....


and to all you fabulous mums ....HAVE A WONDERFUL MOTHERS' DAY !!

National Scrapbooking Day

It was national Scrapbooking Day just over the weekend, and my did i celebrate it in style !!

What better way than just being surrounded by pretty things, cutting and pasting :)

It was great spending a whole day at the Scrapbook Expo attending classes and shopping ! Not to mention the hole in my pocket left by the end of the day !!

I did a Basic Grey class using the Marrakech line and they were just so generous with their kit.

Sorry about the pix here... used my 'mickey mouse' camera which could fit into my handbag, given ALL the scrap stuff + shopping i was already lugging ... so yea....

Here were my instructors Kelly Goree and Becky Fleck .... ahhhh... my moment of scrap celebrity encounter :P

And then went on to do one hosted by GCD studios and an acrylic album class by SEI . This was the only product that i finished enough to be able to show u a picture off ...

AND i actually was all prepared to go home empty handed when during the LAST class, and the LAST prize to be given away - my NAME was called !!! AND i got THIS !!!!!

thank you thank you SEI !!!! muack !!!

It would have been SOO SOOO SOO much more fun if my scrap "kakis" were here with me .. sigh... i miss you gals dearly :( hope you are keeping well ...

Be true ...

Was just itching to play with the new Websters Pages that i had acquired and the 'out of this world' bellies that came with Apr's Bad Girls kit... so did this...

Everyday i discover a little more about my girls and their world and i'm so thankful for this privilege. In this layout, i wanted to capture Rachel as she is today - with all her insecurities, drive in her belly, generosity of spirit, and such tremendous love for her family, that i am truly touched and humbled. This layout is a reminder that in all she pushes herself to do and achieve i just want her to be true to herself...

thanks for stopping by !