LIFE IS ....

It is.

With zoo visits, some scrappy time, retail therapy (thanks to sales at Banana Republic & Children's Place) and happy kids... how to ask for more ??? Plus, C is reading!! Yeah ! Finally !!!

AND i finished this humongous ABC album for fathers' day !!

Nearly killed me, but am sooo happy with the result ! Can you imagine - 26 pages !! I used mostly SFTIO 's Jan 09 kit (Patience) which blended blues, browns, beiges and oranges perfectly !

(cover)


gosh ... don't think i'll undetake something of this scale for a long long time...

here are some highlights..

*M*

*T*

*V*

AND completed this LO of C too - surely one of my faves..

AND we are celebrating our 13th anniversary tomorrow too ! My am i getting old ! LOL !!!

Have a great week ahead everyone !

Apron Strings Jun DT reveal

The Apron Strings Jun kit was such fun to play with !

The Small breadbox kit conveniently themes 3 different mini-kits together with matching cutie bellies to play with. It was just tooo easy to put together ! Featured papers are Doodlebug, Jenni Bowlin and Fancy Pants this month. Plus, Lori puts together a wonderful newsletter to go with the kits each month that lays out just what you need to do and gives so many inspirational ideas to put those pages together.

AND I achieved some 7 layouts and 2 cards with the kit and also had fun mixing the different lines around !! ah, the Jenni Bowlin line with its blues, blacks and reds ... my favourite...

"Grow Baby Grow"

- a tribute to my pint-sized Faye who is still all of 14 kg... Sigh... what does it take to fatten this girl ??!!! AND to add to my woes, i can't seem to find full cream milk in the supermarkets in the US, cos' parents here seem to have the opposite problem to mine !

I just love this close-up.... Faye just gets sooo broody at times. I suspect she might have a split personality !! LOL !! What a complex 4 year old !!

"The many sides of you"

"Free 2 Play"

Away from the stresses of a school-going kid in Singapore, this girl just PLAYs and PLAYs all afternoon ! I love that R now has the time for a more carefree childhood, and we're not rushing from class to class all the time. So glad we made the decision to just pack up and move..

"Reach for the Stars"
A reminder to R that she can have fun, and reach for the Stars at the same time !
Some other fun LOs capturing the day to days of what we get up to !

"SO close"

"Enroute"

"Yum"

Simple quick cards i made with leftovers...

This is now hanging on my kitchen cabinet above my stove..

Thanks for dropping by !!

Bad...

i know...

ME that is, for being so slack in updating my blog :)
Sorry, friends ... guess you can call it a blog rut i was in, and events accumulated to such an extent that it was too tough to put it all down !

So here's the greatly condensed version to explain my lapse.....

San Francisco - here we come !!

While everyone back home was busy preparing for the mid-year exams, the girls here were living it up - on a road trip - driving many miles to San Francisco and San Jose and visiting R's Godma in Sacramento.

Finally some of their own kind (kids) that is to play with !! The girls have been soo deprived - socially that is - and missing all their friends back home. They've hardly any playmates here except each other. And me, YIPPPEE !! Some decent ADULT female company, as i caught up with my 2 friends living here. Plus really great homecooked Chinese food too ! BLISS !!

En-route the scenary up the California coast was breathtaking as we travelled up the Pacific Highway, hugging the vertical cliffs amid foggy clouds like these snaps show ...

R is now quite a dare-devil and will climb over boulders and rocks just to get to the top of a mount to gaze into the Pacific blues...

C was quite happy with other means of entertaining herself....

But their favourite - yea ... shell picking ... STILL

On the way, we said hello to some squirrels, deer and sea lions...

Back to the grind

Now back home, they're hitting the books while their peers are on holiday !! R's lao shi sent her a sample of a Chinese composition that is expected at P2 and i flipped !!! GOSH !! how AM I EVER going to help her to write to such a standard, when i can't even put a decent sentence in Mandarin together any more ! Panic....

Well guess i just gotta focus on what i CAN do... I try to do a core academic subject a day (be it Eng, Math or Mandarin) and a more general knowledge based one - be it geography, history, or literature. Yesterday, we covered the topic of pyramids and MUMMIES - one of my all time favourite subjects ... haahhaha...

here's a glimpse of our homeschool session ...
(that was C's spelling for the day on the top left side of board)

This was R's version of what she got out of it...

And this is C's (very proud of herself) version ...

AND I've been busy with lots of scrapping too for Apron Strings ! Check back for the DT reveal this 15th !!