Off to Penang - Day 1 (2 June 2014)

Finally, it's school holidays! After a rough start to Deborah's Primary One journey and Year 2014... I am really thankful to my dear hubby for this much-needed vacation.

It was only planned about 3 weeks before we headed off for this trip, so I did not really do much research on what I should do in Penang. I have to admit, I literally took it from another parent's blog since Penang is not a difficult place to bum around.

We were bound for Penang on SilkAir. All the budget airlines would cost us about $700-$800 for 2A2C, but daddy decided that we could get on SilkAir at $1,200 for 2A2C.

Of course, the kiddos were most happy to get on the plane.

And they are always looking for opportunity to pull their luggage.

When our plane was delayed for 30 minutes, David asked me umpteen times when we could get on the plane. Every minute must have been like a day to him... haha!!

When we are so excited about this holiday, how can we do without a selfie?...hee hee.

However, the kiddos were so disappointed that there was no inflight entertainment on board SilkAir. Haha... so they are now pestering us that we must travel on SIA every time we travel.


Since the flight was only about an hour...the kids didn't have much time for a nap. So the next best time to steal a nap was in the taxi on the way to the hotel. Our hotel is located at Batu Ferringhi, 45 minutes from Penang International Airport. The taxi ride cost RM75.

There is a taxi counter the moment we entered the public arrival hall at the Penang International Airport. It is very convenient as they have taxis of all sizes available - 4-seater to mini-vans.

 

We arrived at Golden Sands Resort by Shangri-La, and checked-in smoothly into our hotel room. While waiting for daddy to make the check-in arrangements, the children's eyes were already glued to the resort's swimming pool. 

 

Before arriving, the cheekie kids were already discussing about jumping on to the hotel's bouncy beds. Yes, and that's what they did!

And exploring the room... we realised the toilet in our room come with two see-through windows.

After unpacking, the next thing we did was to purchase some bottles of drinking water. We walked across the road from our hotel's entrance to a local minimart. Instead of plastic bag carriers, we were given this newspaper packaging to carry back to our hotel room. Kuddos to their recycling efforts!

Looks how else it can be used in the hands of daddy Tan...

 

 

Then we got a taxi from our hotel lobby and headed to Fishing Village for a seafood dinner.

 

 

 

David taking a picture with the giant-sized lobsters.

 

We could not order much seafood since Daddy and Deborah were both down with cough and mommy was recovering from a sore throat. Aside from some vegetables and tofu, we order some chicken wings and a Teochew-style steam red garoupa.

 

Then we had a short stroll along the beach. The scenery was so soothing and calm.

 

We headed back to the hotel by getting the seafood restaurant to call a cab, since the restaurant was not located along the main road. Then we took a walk at the night market just outside our hotel. 

And we found something that amused the kids all night... watch the video below to find out.

 

Mommy's bento-making (Part III)

My biggest challenge in bento-making is I have to look for food that I can prepare within 30 minutes or so. Any thing that needs longer time to cook, such as rice, will mean either I have lesser snooze time, or I'll be late. Hence, my bentos are usually limited to sandwiches and pasta, or off-the-shelf snacks.

 

April - May 2014

 

 

 Here I made tuna mayo using animal pasta the kiddos received from bro Jonathan Teo. Just cook the pasta in boiling water for about 8-10 minutes, add salt. Drain the pasta and then add tuna mayonnaise.. and wah lah!

I have to admit I have never watched any "Anpanman" cartoon. I happened to see an "Anpanman" bento made by another mother and then googled on it. It is a very popular Japanese cartoon series that has been around for 20 years. I suppose it shares similar level of popularity in Japan as that of Barney in Singapore. Hmh....What was I doing in my childhood that I never heard of Anpanman till now?

 

 



Made this cutie teddy bear bento for Deborah on 11 Apr 2014. I can remember the date clearly because it was the Friday when we celebrated David's 5th birthday in school. Hence, I was given his "permission" that I do not need to prepare a bento for him that day.

 

Love the colours of this bento. I got compliments on this cute teddy, and it certainly made my day!

 

Decided to make a pair of chicks - male and female since David complained that the hello kitty bento I made recently was for girls.

This is a bigger version of the dog bento I made.

The earlier one was using just one slice of bread rolled up like a swiss roll.

An elephant bento which delighted David to the max, because it is his favourite land animal.

I made this bento after a long break from bento-making, and wasn't doing much homework. Shortly after I started preparing the necessities for bento-making, to my horror (minus the screams, since it was 5am in the morning), I saw a lizard staring at me from the sink. I lost concentration and quickly simplified my bento to just this face that probably reflected what I look that morning.

 

 

Frog bento - used cucumber slices, cheese and nori for the eyes, crabmeat for the cheeks, cheese slice for the crescent-shaped mouth. Also added blackberries and red seedless grapes.

Hello Kitty bento. I finally made it! I couldn't find a hello kitty sandwich cutter that could fit the size of Gardenia bread. The cutters are usually bigger than the bread slices. I improvised and came up with this simpler version. And I specially bought those hello kitty cookies for this.

A mickey mouse cutter that I found it too small. And then, this way of making it came to mind and it turned out well too.

 

Remember this popular computer game in the 80s - Pacman. It was one of my favourite games when I was young.

 

Snail bento, with octopus sausage. The "shell" is actually strawberry swiss rolls bought from Polar.

 

Thanks to Jason and Sherlyn, I received several new animal sandwich cutters last week. This squirrel is one of those. Of course, I couldn't wait to use them to create more interesting bentos.

 

 

 

Mommy's Bento-making (Part II)

Here are the bentos I made in the month of February 2014.

 

 

Soon after, I started purchasing sandwich cutters that could help make bento-making more interesting and fun. And this car bento was one which David went "wow" when he saw it for the first time.

 

 

I fried a pancake to make this Doraemon's face. It turned out uneven and patchy because I was using those frying pan. Maybe I should invest in a pancake maker soon....

 

In this bento, I had the three round donuts and decided to put a message for Deborah. It was quite cool to make a 3D-heart using a red strawberry.  I also added the colourful biscuits I used to have them when I was at David's age.

 

This is a sheep bento come with animal-shaped biscuits with names on it.

I used a flower-shaped sandwich cutter for the sheep's face, cheddar cheese slice for the ears, ham for the nose and nori for the eyes.

 

I bought those animal biscuits from Fairprice. There are a lot of cute biscuits in supermarkets nowsadays. In fact, I would be looking out for cute biscuits available in the supermarket while doing grocery shopping these days. 

This snoopy bento was made on a Sunday morning for the bigger kiddos (Jason and my hubby) who were envious of the bentos I made for Deborah and David during the week.

 

Well, who say adults don't deserve bentos.  

I used "President" cheddar slice cheese for the Tiger's face. Cos I haven't invested in those professional cutters for face-making, so it took a while to cut out the eyes, nose, mouth and stripes. But still, I get this great sense of achievement to be able to come up with this, since I am just an amateur.

 

Anyway, now you know what to get for my birthday this year? (*hint, hint*)

March 2014

 

I begun doing a lot of research on bento-making on the internet and I found so many other mothers who are much, much better skilled and creative, and it was really mind blasting to see their bento creations.

 

By March, I have a long list of animal bentos I wanted to make. Here are what I had managed to produce, with my limited and humble skills.

 

 

Butterfly sandwich bento made with heart-shaped cutters. The patterns on the wings are made with frosty loops cereals.

This chick bento is really so cute, I simply love looking and re-looking at it. I used black sesame seeds for the eyes, carrot for nose. And added Milo ball cereals and baby asparagus as sides.

 

 

This is the second cow bento I attempted. The first one which I made in January was much simpler.

 

I know this Elmo bento looks somewhat awkward, but this was the best I could do without a cutter for the face.

 

This fish bento is also one of my favourite. I also prepared star-shaped peach jelly for this bento... if you could see it. Haha...

This silly-face bento is some thing original I came up with. I woke up in the morning not knowing what to make. So I let my fingers do the talking, and came up with this cute, silly face.

 

Ladybird bento with papaya, blueberries and strawberries.

 

Leopard bento. The spots were made using a chopstick dipped with nutella. And the effect turned out really good.

Monkey bento. Regretfully, this is one bento I am most dissatisfied with. Kids couldn't make out what it was when I showed them the picture.  I will do my research and make another better-looking monkey-face for my cheekie monkies soon.

Mushroom bento made with long buns and sausage. The polka-dots are made with cheese.

Owl bento. I used almond chips for the feathery effect on the body.

 

Penguin bento, with edamame, peaches and strawberries.

My second Pig bento.

 

This is a simple tree sandwich. I was too tired that morning so I did not add details on the trees.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mommy's Bento-making (Part I)

Since Deborah started Primary One this year, I have found a new interest -- bento-making.  Preparing cute-looking bentos for Deborah and David has become part of my morning schedules.  It has given me a lot of satisfaction, especially when the end result can sometimes surprise (even) myself.

Bento-making has helped me realised that there is so much I can do when I am willing to give it a try and just do it.

Here are the photos of the cute bentos I have attempted in January this year.

January 2014

 Fruit salad with shaped sandwiches

 

 Apple slices, egg, broccoli, edamame and cherry tomatoes

 

Swiss rolls, strawberries, oranges and cheese (cut alphabets)

sandwiches with strawberries, grapes and blueberries and orange slice.

Pig-faced sandwich, octopus sausage, pig fish cakes, and assorted fruits.

 

 

Horse-faced sandwich with assorted fruits.

Everything about rings and circles.

 

Girl & Boy sandwich with fruit salad.

 

Panda-faced sandwich with assorted fruits

 

 Piano sandwich with assorted fruits

 

 



 Flower-shaped sandwich with assorted fruits

 

Roll-up sandwich, frosty loops cereal and assorted fruits

Heart-shaped sandwich, love-shaped sausages, mushroom sausages and blueberries

 

 Cow bento, with animal biscuits, Gerber stars and apple slices