taiwan trip part 2- everywhere except taipei and kao shiung

because we tagged along, i could hardly remember the places that we went...
we went to zhang hua, miao li, tai chung, yi lian...
good trip, eat, hop onto the van, sight seeing, eat, hop onto the van :-)

staying at this eco minsu was one of the highlights of the trip,

with a night walk in the dark with lots of fire flies flying around us

 and an early morning walk on marshy soil that sinks with every step 

the incredible hulk with the plastic see through boots

one of the old dams that were built before ww 2

 the cosy cabin that we slept in

our taiwan trip

our spring trip with pauline, jon and their parents. pauline did all the planning and we tagged along :-)

 leanne doing her packing of the things that she need for the trip. and of course, the tiny little minnie mouse suitcase is not enough.....

enjoying a cold ice-cream up on the cold mountains...

 and one of the many roadside eats...

one of the old train depots...

 the lalu at sun moon lake by kerry hill

 happy with the apply that the concierge gave

the travelling party

leanne plans for her pocket money

we were at ion the other day and leanne saw h&m. she asked if we could go in and i asked why. she said she wanted to try the kock kock shoes (they have children shoes with heels). after agreeing that she was to look only and we were not to buy any, we went into the shop. she read the kids sign and directed us towards the kids section.

there, she tried on a pair after another, without failing to ask "nice or not". after a while, she said matter of factly that she could wear the kock kock shoes when she is seven. curious, i asked why. she said she would have pocket money then. i recalled that i brought her to the primary school canteen and showed her the food stalls and told her about the pocket money that we would give her to buy food from the stalls herself during recess.

so i told her, the pocket money was for her to buy food during her recess breaks. her immediate answer was that she would save some of the money for the shoes!

leanne and her ring of toys

leanne woke up one morning and decided she was going to be the teacher to her toys and started arranging them in a circle. she hardly plays with them though and her favourite is the tiny piglet. this is the one that she brings to bed every night. something that she asked yee por to buy during one of their trips to the supermarket.

the three cousins

it always pleases me to see the three cousins play together. i hope they would grow up with the close family ties that we have.

morning out at gardens by the bay

hari raya puasa  july 2014

brillant idea

i was having one of my weekend afternoon naps when leanne came to wake me up and told me excitedly that she had a brilliant idea and asked me to join her. this is what she did:

remembering biao yee ma

Our last group photo with biao yee ma at our home.

Prepping Leanne for biao yee ma's departure one night, I told her that biao yee ma was very sick and would soon die. She go to heaven first and we would meet her in heaven again one day.

 

Leanne’s response to me was “ you’ll see her first because you are older and will die before me”.

We have been to biao yee ma’s twice since her departure.

The first time there, Leanne noticed that biao yee ma’s denture was no longer in the glass in the bathroom and said that biao yee ma was not here anymore.

The second time we visited, while using the bathroom again, Leanne asked ‘ why did biao yee ma have to die so soon?"

Auntie Paula gave us a few tea cups that were greatly treasured by biao yee ma and the generations before. When I gave instructions to auntie sherly to carefully pack and put them away in the cabinet, Leanne chirped in and said “these are very precious. When we look at them, we remember biao yee ma”.

I think biao yee ma would be chuckling if she heard these.

our dancing princess

leanne's fifth birthday

After much consideration we decided to change Leanne to a new school. The school uniform helped in convincing her to the changeJ

She soon made friends and two of her good friends are sophie bella and gwen.

 

We celebrated her 5^th birthday in school. We thought Leanne wanted a princess cake but her liking for chocolate and ice cream overcame her aesthetic preference and she chose a chocolate ice cream mud pie instead.

 great fun preparing the goodie bag

 heart shaped candles that Leanne chose personally

 gwen

 miss serene

  hmmnn... what shall I wish???

 nevermind, be systematic about blowing the candles first....

 happy birthday darling!

 

After the celebration, we went to vivocity to catch a movie and it happened Frozen was screening there. Leanne got to choose her own birthday present and she headed straight into smiggdens and selected one of those huge padded pencil case and started packing in stationaries following the display pack.

Frozen has become her all time favourite movie and Leanne is able to sing almost every single song from that movie and first song that she started to learn was “ Let it go” and part of the lyrics goes like this:

Don't let them in,
don't let them see
Be the good girl you always have to be
Conceal, don't feel,
don't let them know
Well now they know

Let it go, let it go
Can't hold it back anymore

leanne's best friends

 sophie bella

 

who is very much head strong like Leanne. the teachers told us that they could be the best of friends one minute and refused to play the next.

 

and gwen.

the three of them: Leanne, sophie and gwen have been forbidden to sit next to one another in class because they talk too much...

the completed tree

 no theme. just lots of fun picking up the different decorations that we like from the shops

 Leanne chose these stars

and this little wooden angel was bought from heals in London years ago in anticipation of the tree...

our very own christmas tree

we finally got our very own Christmas tree !!! for Christmas 2013 at hillview.

 the cheeky smile of Leanne

and a different smile from Leanne that we hardly see...

concert preparations

Leanne was all excited the night before and was ready to go to bed though it took her a while to fall asleep.

some still shots of her sing and dance routine.

 so pleased with the make-up on her face.

 

some still shots of her sing and dance routine.