6th Wedding Anniversary Dinner @ Morton's

A really good excuse for us to get out and have a nice dinner. Clem is into good steak so we thought we'd try Morton's the Steakhouse.

My thoughts kept hinging around our kids and whether there was enough milk to feed Verity back home. Guilt overcame me as I sipped the almond liquer and lychee martini. Come on, Clem goaded, just relax and enjoy our time together. Yeah, he was right, it was our time alone together.

Great to just spend the time chatting and wowing every now and then, like some suaku when the waitress did a menu presentation or brought us our food. Felt like our dating days again.

These days, even when we had our time alone together, it was usually spent speed-shopping, meal-gobbling, grocery-grabbing as we stole 1 or 2 hours away from our kids, cos I would need to go back and breastfeed.

Tonight, just let go. I've stored enough milk for the day.

Our personalised menu (our wedding date is not 23 Nov, but it was indicated as such cos we dined on that day)

Yummy onion and egg loaf. Enough to eat on its own.

Lobster bisque that tasted a bit bitter, probably bcos of the wine

Sauteed wild mushrooms which ended up looking like black fried carrot cake in the photo.

This was actually half a portion of the prime rib. Imagine how big the actual one was. We each took a half. It was cooked so nicely that I even gobbled up the fat which had a nice chewy texture.

Complimentary Morton chocolate cake with Haagen Daz ice cream and card with our photo

Our private corner

Happy 6th year of being married!

Sun Days (almost)

The weather had been so bad for the past weeks. Didn't know what got over us, but my colleagues and I set out to go suntanning on Sat.

I called to check weather forecast the night before and it forecasted showers with thunder in the late morning. I lost heart too when we saw dark clouds in the morning but Clem told me that he and Cavan prayed for great weather, so have faith!

Thank God the weather was SUNNY!

Prepared my fav picnic food- cold somen salad

All ready for the sun!

No tan, no return!

Baking in the sun **************

We weren't very great fans of nature and we wouldn't have thought of going to the Botanic Gardens. Cavan's PG had organised an outing to the Jacobs Ballas Children's Garden but unwilling to part with $12 (yes, we cheapo parents), we thought we'd go there on our own instead. Incidentally, there was a children's carnival so we joined in the crowd.

Needless to say, children need experiential activities so there were plenty to engage them.

Learning about food making process

Storytelling

Walking across the suspension bridge
Matching the parts of the fruit
Pumping water

Little gardener


No! Daddy's shoes are not plants!

Unfortunately, the good weather did not last long. Thank God we made our escape before the heavy downpour. We decided to go to Mad Jack for lunch since we'd pass by the place. It was surprisingly a nice, quiet place for a lazy afternoon. Kid-friendly too, with storybooks for kids. Staff were froendly too.

Clem had a rib-eye steak ($11.90) that was not too bad. I ordered grilled fish with cream sauce ($7.90) and the generous and juicy portions came with a huge cup of yummy mash potatoes. Cavan and Nancy (our maid) had fish and chicken baked rice ($6.90).

When our coffee came, it looked unimpressively thin but we were surprised by its good taste. I'm usually quite picky about coffee and this passed the test. However, we were quite disappointed with the banana cake and walnut cake. They were a tad too dry. We would prefer something more moist. And the banana cake had a sticky substance (maybe bananas?).

Think we'll try other desserts the next time. I'm curious about its Banana Craze and Wild Boy (Freshly made banana crumble topped w/ ice cream & caramel sauce). Hmmm... why am I going bananas over bananas?

Reading while waiting for our food

Drinking daddy's coffee using the milk tin

The food was good!

Reconsidering school

Despite 4 wonderful months of PG at Gracehouse, we considered putting Cavan elsewhere for nursery next year and subsequently, kindergarten. We wanted to put him for the morning session which unavailable at Gracehouse. Moreover, it was more convenient to go to Glory Kindergarten. So we registered him at Glory and paid the fees.

Somehow, something in me kept telling me that perhaps that was not the best decision. To be frank, Cavan has made many friends in school and he was taught well. Though I was not the one schooling there, I had this sense of attachment to the school. Perhaps it was due to the updates that Cavan provided everyday.

Through him, I know that Elyssa initially refused lunch and only ate biscuits. Through him, I know that Nathaniel and Leston played alot with him and Leston's grandfather picks him up. I know that Yi Enn is a little boy who always says "Mum mum". Ethan and Genna were new friends who joined the class recently. I also learnt that the kids learnt math by singing "Green bottles hanging on the wall" that there were Elyssa-bottle, Nathaniel-bottle, etc. and Cavan-bottle was the last one standing before he fell and there were no bottles left.

Through him, I know that Miss Jenny was the one who always asked the children to "Drink water! Drink water!" And Miss Pandian always poured biscuits for the children. I never knew his lao-shi's name till recently cos he kept telling me her name was "yu tou" (fish head).

Through him, I discovered that I had been mispronouncing the word "biscuit". I've been saying "bis-kate" but Cavan corrected me that it should be "bis-curt" instead.

Cavan was already so familiar with the place and the people. I heard that Cavan would say hi to every teacher during assembly as he entered. He would help to drive the car and cycle the bikes back to the position after dismissal.

At the Meet-the-Parents session last week, I couldn't help but feel a sense of pity that we were to say good bye. It was made more difficult when Miss Pandian looked dismayed when we broke the news to her and Xiao Yi lao shi commented that she was going to lose her best student before hugging Cavan and smooching him. Later we heard that Cavan might get into the morning session afterall.

If that was true, we might reverse our decision to transfer Cavan. At most, we'd forgo the deposit and hopefully get back the fees that we've paid at Glory. Although Cavan adapts easily, we didn't want to assume that changes don't affect him. He's been through enough changes in his life for the past 3 months.

With Miss Pandian

With Xiao Yi lao shi With Miss Jenny

Fav play area

"I'm so happy to be here!"

Bumping into best friend Jedi outside classroom