Playdates

Playdates here are common.

The first play date that Eunice went to was to one of her good friend's house in the morning before she attended the kinder at 11am. The kid's dad offered to fetch Eunice to his home to play with his daughter, and to drop both children back in kinder at 11am - so EG can work a little on Tuesday morning - very thoughtful of him.

Second play date that Eunice went was to another girl's home (Malaysian parents here since high school) during school holiday, together with the first girl - just for the kids to catch up, the mum said.

Eunice and her friends

Water play

Recently, one of the mums just gave birth to her 3rd kid and now in confinement. I offered to pick up her daughter from school so they can come and pick her up when they are coming out to fetch the son from primary school nearby around 3.30pm+, instead of coming out 2 times to fetch both kids. And invited the first kid together.

I took a few pictures of them playing. I was only the coordinator. Eunice was happily showing them around the house, her toys, her coloring stuff, etc. I didn't need to do much, though I did prepare some muffins and jelly for them.

It was really cute to see all the little girls playing together.

Drawing at the easel

My favorite pic of the day. All cramped into the small mushroom house.

Dancing when the radio played their favorite Frozen "Let It Go" song

Now to Eunice's bed, showing off her (or Nat's) singing Elmo

Enjoying a packet of Nachos with cartoon

Kids these days really know how to enjoy themselves :)

Swing time before going home!

They are all going to the same primary school next year. They are all good girls, And I sure hope they will stay close to keep each other company in the new place next year. :)

Fun in Playgrounds

When we first moved to Melbourne, EG and I both said that we'll bring kids to playground few times a week. It's a hard promise to keep, though it seems easy.

There's at least a playground in every suburb (just like library, schools, kinder, and other facilities). When we stayed with my aunt in Glen Waverley, there's a playground in walking distance. We arrived in late summer, and the days were longer than nights. And EG and I haven't started working yet - Life was surely more relaxing and stress-free. We often went for a walk, or brought kids to the playground before/after dinner as the days only get dark after 7.30pm during spring/summer. 

Then comes winter, when night comes as early as 6pm. It's not nice to go playground in the freezing weather, so we stopped going for a while. And, later we found jobs, started working, moved house, and all the daily errands and chores kicked in - make us feel even more tired or lazy to bring kids to playground, especially when it's time to leave to go home, the two girls would usually throw a big drama and it can be quite chaotic.

Now that things are in proper routine, I try to keep up to my promise. There's a playground just 2 streets away from our place, and last weekend, I brought the girls myself and just let them use up their energy. And now I have a tactic to make them go home - works well for Eunice but not for Natalie, at least it's 50% better. :)

Some pics that we took in some of the playgrounds. No wonder EG always says, children in Melbourne really have a very "playful" childhood.

Took us a while to realize we used the swing the wrong way :P

Looking at her hairstyle, you'd know this is taken when we first came.
How fast she grows and how different she looks now.

Nat was too young to play the big slide then

Not sure what so fun about this but somehow kids love it :)

:)

Now we got it right :D

Me and my small girl on the swing

I took a video of my hyper active 19mo (then) climbing up the slide and slide down by herself.

More updated pictures taken last few weekends:

Last weekend - the park near our home. Love the sun light :)

Big slide for big girl, small slide for small girl

One-Two-Three- GO!

Look at that happy face :)

Got the big sister to swing the small one so mummy can take a break :P

My fearless baby trying to go up the huddle. She did very well!

Big sister at the other end giving a helping hand

Looking at the pics, I really have to say how fast they grow. They look so different after six months. That also reminds me that I should bring them to playground more often before they grow too big to go.

Sparkles the Bear

When I picked Eunice up from her kinder one day, she was pulling a huge furry red trolley bag and shouting at me excited, "Mummy! I have Sparkles today! Ava chose me! I am SO HAPPY..!"

And all I can say is, "Wow, nice..."
And she kept repeating, "I am so happy! I am so excited..!"
And I just kept smiling and said, "Oh nice..." and turned to the teacher, "What is this all about?"

:P

So, Sparkles is a Bear that follows a child home everyday. The children will rotate among themselves to see who's bringing Sparkles home, and there's a journal for the child to take picture, write and draw what he/she did with Sparkles. Just something simple like - had dinner together, cycle together, went shopping, slept, played, etc.

I don't know what so exciting about Sparkles but I'll just join in the fun with my girl. This is the first time we actually had a "homework" from the kinder so far. Of course it's a homework for mummy. And Eunice chose another girl to bring Sparkles home the next day and the excitement goes on.

Sparkles Travelling Journal :D

Introduction

My excited little girl and Sparkles and his travelling bag!

Mummy had to join in the fun too

Introduction to all the soft toys!

Swing time!

Cycling time!

The homework

I got Eunice to tell me what she wanna write and I write for her :)
Quite a good experience with Sparkles!

Hope Sparkles continues to have fun with other kids! :)