Happy Birthday To Rachel

Rachel celebrated her 9th birthday on 29/9/11 just 2 days short of independence day!

Pinkie Bug cake...well some of the kids thinks it looks more like a rat!

Rachel with her gang

Classmates of Grace Resource 2.

Birthday morning with traditional red eggs for luck and a moon cake!

Muffins

Recipe for muffins if anybody is interested. They are very simple recipes nothing fancy to it. Just some delicious wholesome home baked muffins. It is easy to do , you don't even need a mixer  just a whisk and a pair of strong arms!

Black and white chocolate chip muffin.

Wet Ingredients:

113 gms melted butter - I tend to use salted, if you are using unsalted justadd a  pinch of salt to the dry ingredients.

2 Large eggs

240ml milk (better to use buttermilk)

2 teaspoon of vanilla

Dry ingredients:

230gm of self raisng flour

1 teasspoon of bicabonate soda

70 gms of cocoa powder

200 gms of sugar (note: I have lessen the sugar here because I do not want it to be too sweet. The original requires 250gm of sugar)

170 gm of choc chips - semi sweet. (I like to add white choc chips. If you are mixing then the portion should be half and half)



Banana Muffin

Wet ingredients:

3 large riped banana - meshed (If you are using smaller ones like pisang emas, then you will need about 6)

115 gms of melted butter

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

Dry ingredients:

225 gms of self raising flour

100 gms of brown sugar (Again the sugar has been reduced for me. Original requires 150gms of sugar)

1 teaspoon of  bicarbonate og soda

These are two of Rachel's favourite. She just loves muffins, cakes and cookies. Hopefully I will be able to share more recipes as I go along. Happy baking!

Happy Birthday

June 25th - Happy Birthday to me!!

I forgot the name of this cake, but it is 3 layers consist of chocolate & vanilla mouse and the bottom layer is Banana with chpped pineapple from Fichelle!

Steamboat buffet  & BBQ with the family .

Sungai Kanching Waterfall

A quick getaway to Sungai Kanching waterfall recently. Just 1hrs drive from KL heading towards Templers Park. It's a very big waterfall, great for a weekend R&R and family picnics. There are 7 levels altogether, but we only manage to go up to level 4. There are steps leading all the way to the higher levels if you'd like to explore further.

All the good picnic spots were taken but I guess a good sturdy rock will do for us!

Rachel enjoying the cool cool water.

Giant Fern...it was huge!

A great spot for BBQ!

Nature's very own shower!

Outing At FRIM

This is our secong trip to FRIM - Forest Reserve in Kepong. I remember our last trip there it rained. The weather was kinder this time around. It was cool , just right for a picnic. This time we manage to go to the waterfall.It was a pretty easy hike up to the Air Keroh fall.

The stairway leadingto the waterfall

Cool dip !

Did somebody leave this behind?

I found this very interesting fern while hiking up the waterfall. It's a blue fern. The colour is literally blue.

Our Picnic menu - Salad, Nasi lemak and KFC!

Rachel's 8th Birthday Party

Rachel celebrated her 8th birthday on 29/8/2010 at pizza hut. We had about 35 guests, who are mainly

friends and relatives. The kids of course were a noisy lot , laughing and screaming on top of their lungs! This is just coming from a group of 5 girls, all of course her friends from school. Well, I did not expect any less from a kid's party. I had prepared lots of games for the kids to play but unfortunately, there wasn't enough time. We only manage to play passing the flag and treasure hunt. Before you know it, it was time to cut the birthday cake. For this year, I suprised Rachel with a "pony" cake. She did tell me that she didin't want any more cartoon cakes like the previous years ( a sign that little girl is growing up), so I decided something less kiddish and went with the carnival pony which turned out really nice and delicious.

Happy Birthday To you....Happpy Birthday To Rachel, Happy Birthday to YOU!

Holiday - Bukit Gambang Water Park.

It's the school holidays and we recently went to Bukit Gambang Water Park. Gambang is a small town situated 28km from Kuantan. It's less than 3 hours drive from Kuala Lumpur. On the way to Kuantan, we decided to drop by Batu Caves. Rachel is studying about rock formation in her Geograpgy lesson so I thought it would be nice for her to visit Batu Caves and take a look at some limestone formations. Besides, the last time I went to Batu Caves was nearly 30 years ago. The place is still the same except that now they have  errected a beautiful  golden statue of Lord Muruga which stands 130 feet tall. The climb to the top of the hill is no easy feat. It took me almost 20 minutes to reach the top with plenty of stops along the way. You can see other people and tourist all strugling to catch their breath. In the end I made it. Yes! all 272 steps!

For somebody with a bad knee I am quite proud of my self. Coming down the steps was a diffrent story all together, it was very scary. I had to hold on to the railings for fear of falling and tried not to look all the way down. I would not recommend it for those who are afraid of heights. By the time I came down to the last step I felt as though I have completed a 5km marathon. Drench in sweat! Just goes to show how unfit my body is.

After our adventures climb at Batu Caves, we proceeded to Gambang. Arrived at 3pm in the afternoon.

Our home in Gambang for the next 4 days would be The Carribean Bay resorts.  It is a cluster of apartment style accomodations. Just five minutes away is the Gambang Water Park. The acomodations are very basic, no fancy decor and simple  furniture. However, the beds are comfy and clean and so are the toilets!

                                           It's nice to know who the owns the building!!

Besides the water park which is situated just 5 minutes away, there are alot of activities for the kids within the resort. There is a game's room where the kids can enjoy video games & karaoke singing. Just across the block is a mini amusement park. In the evenings you can catch the magic show and animal show. Almost every night after dinner, we would be at the amusement park going for rides and doing fun activities such as sand art and batik painting.

Rachel doing batik painting.

The food however at the resort is lousy, so most of the time we either drove to Gambang town or Kuantan for food and headed for Teluk Cempedak, for some R & R by the sea.

Highlight of our holiday, Gambang water park!! Splish, splash and slosh!! The water park itself is not very big. Slighly smaller than Sunway lagoon, but there's plenty of activities for the kids and even for the adults.  Wave pool, pengiun Island is the favourite with the kids. But the all time screamer would be the family raft slide! VERY FUN. A must for everybody to try if you are there.

Simon and Rachel at the wave pool.

The Penguin Island.

                                                                                 

Downside of our holiday - getting a summon for parking!! Worse thing that can happen when you're on holiday! We didin't know that you have to purchase parking tickets for parking (you know the "scratch tickets") So the hefty fine ....only RM5.00!!